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newstfionline · 1 month ago

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Saturday, October 19, 2024

Global water crisis leaves half of world food production at risk in next 25 years (Guardian) More than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years as a rapidly accelerating water crisis grips the planet, unless urgent action is taken to conserve water resources and end the destruction of the ecosystems on which our fresh water depends, experts have warned in a landmark review. Half the world’s population already faces water scarcity, and that number is set to rise as the climate crisis worsens, according to a report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water published on Thursday. Demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40% by the end of the decade, because the world’s water systems are being put under “unprecedented stress”, the report found.

Israel complicates election’s final stretch, an issue Democrats hoped would fade (Washington Post) President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hoped the ongoing violence in the Middle East might simmer below the surface in the final weeks of the presidential race, but fresh Israeli military offensives are making that virtually impossible. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set the Gaza Strip ablaze with a renewed bombing campaign and launched a ground invasion into Lebanon alongside aerial strikes in Beirut aimed at annihilating the militant group Hezbollah. He is expected to order an imminent attack on Iran’s military facilities in response to its missile strike on Israel this month. The rapid escalation has tied the Biden administration in knots, resulting in the United States first calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon only to reverse that policy nine days later and openly endorse Israel’s ground offensive. The whiplash has caused confusion and consternation among Washington’s European and Arab allies who are pushing for the United States to restrain its closest ally in the Middle East. But administration officials remain loath to pick a public fight at such a tenuous moment politically. “They clearly want to avoid any public confrontation with Netanyahu over Lebanon or Gaza that could result in blowback from Israel’s supporters before the election,” said Frank Lowenstein, a Biden ally and former Middle East negotiator in the Obama administration. “At the same time, they are sensitive to losing critical Arab American votes in key swing states if their rhetoric leans too far in Israel’s direction,” he added.

Both Parties Are Getting Men Wrong (Politico) With the election just a few weeks away, the contest for the votes of men is heating up. Young women’s support is effectively locked up for the Democrats, but young men still seem up for grabs. There is a real political opportunity right now for a party to craft an agenda that speaks to men—and addresses their real problems. Contrary to progressive belief, young men are not turning into a generation of misogynists. Support for gender equality continues to rise, including among men under 30. The problem seems more to be that many men simply don’t see much recognition of their issues, or even of their identity, on the political left. If the Democrats are the “women’s party,” as one party strategist claimed, it might not be surprising that men are looking in another direction. The official party platform lists the groups it is proud to serve; women are listed but men are not. There is a new Gender Policy Council in the White House, but it has not addressed a single issue facing boys or men. When problems are neglected, they metastasize into grievances. And grievances can be weaponized in service of reactionary goals. The solution, then, is almost comically simple: Don’t neglect the problems. The mistake being made on both sides is to see gender equality as a zero-sum game; that to do more for boys and men means doing less on behalf of girls and women. But working on behalf of women doesn’t require politicians to turn their backs on men.

U.S. Charges Indian Official in New York Assassination Plot (NYT) Federal prosecutors have charged a man they identified as an Indian intelligence officer with trying to orchestrate from abroad an assassination on U.S. soil—part of an escalating response from the United States and Canada to what those governments see as brazenly illegal conduct by a longtime partner. An indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Thursday said that the man, Vikash Yadav, “directed the assassination plot from India” that targeted a New York-based critic of the Indian government, a Sikh lawyer and political activist who has urged the Punjab region of India to secede. Authorities say Mr. Yadav recruited an associate to find a U.S.-based criminal to arrange the murder of the Sikh activist. Last year, U.S. prosecutors charged the man accused of being Mr. Yadav’s henchman, Nikhil Gupta, and said Mr. Gupta had acted under instructions from an unidentified employee of the Indian government. Now, prosecutors have charged Mr. Yadav with orchestrating the plot.

Former Mexican official sentenced to 38 years in U.S. prison for taking bribes (Washington Post) A former top public security official in Mexico on Wednesday was sentenced to more than 38 years in U.S. federal prison for accepting millions of dollars in bribes to allow Sinaloa cartel narcotics traffickers to operate with impunity under his watch. Genaro García Luna, 56, was convicted on Feb. 21, 2023, of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and other related counts after a five week trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. In addition to being sentenced to prison, he was fined $2 million. García Luna’s case has riveted Mexico, which has suffered about a half-million homicides since President Felipe Calderón declared a “war on drugs” in 2006, unleashing bloody fighting between security forces and crime groups. García Luna served as minister of public security in 2006 to 2012 under Calderón and was responsible for creating a new federal police force. He was a key U.S. partner on a multibillion-dollar plan known as the Merida Initiative, aimed at dismantling the cartels.

Power Outage Plunges All of Cuba Into Darkness (NYT) Cuba’s power grid failed and the entire nation plunged into darkness Friday, less than a day after the government stressed the need to paralyze the economy to save electricity in the face of major gasoline shortages and large-scale, regular outages. The electricity went out nationwide Friday morning after a failure at a thermoelectric power plant in Matanzas, east of Havana, Cuba’s Energy Ministry said on X. The announcement came less than a day after the prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, held a late-night television address with state officials to discuss the ongoing electricity crisis, which experts said was the worst the nation—long accustomed to food and electricity shortages—had ever experienced. For weeks, the country has lacked the fuel to run the power grid, which has left large parts of the nation without electricity for up to 12 hours at a time. To ease the strain on the electrical network, officials announced on Thursday night that all schools would be closed until Monday and cultural and nonessential activities such as nightclubs would shutter.

Russia flaunts its nuclear weapons to keep the West from ramping up support for Ukraine (AP) This year has seen President Vladimir Putin repeatedly brandish the nuclear sword, reminding everyone that Russia has the world’s largest atomic arsenal to try to deter the West from ramping up support for Ukraine. He ordered his military to hold drills involving battlefield nuclear weapons with ally Belarus. He announced Russia will start producing ground-based intermediate range missiles that were outlawed by a now-defunct U.S.-Soviet treaty in 1987. And last month, he lowered the threshold for unleashing his arsenal by revising the country’s nuclear doctrine. Putin is relying on those thousands of warheads and hundreds of missiles as an enormous doomsday machine to offset NATO’s massive edge in conventional weapons to discourage what he sees as threats to Russia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Japan tourism boom (Nikkei Asia) Spending by foreign visitors has already reached 5.86 trillion yen ($39.1 billion) in Japan in the first nine months of the year as the country experiences a massive tourism boom. That’s already smashing the record of 5.31 trillion yen spent in all of 2023, with still three months to go. The average spend per visitor in the July-to-September period came in at 223,000 yen, which was up 40 percent year over year. The number of visitors in the first nine months came in at 26.88 million, also beating the 2023 full-year tally handily. The government projects that this year they might finish at 35 million visitors.

For Charles’s first visit as king, Australians are royally unimpressed (Washington Post) When King Charles III arrives in Australia on Friday, he’ll receive rock star treatment—just not in the way he might have hoped. Instead of drawing the massive crowds that often awaited his mother, Charles’s first trip here as monarch is likely to be a mellower affair. The king will meet with Australia’s prime minister, review its naval fleet and greet supporters outside the Opera House. But many state leaders are staying home. And perhaps the liveliest reception will be from members of Australia’s republican movement, who are selling sarcastic “Monarchy: The Farewell Oz Tour” T-shirts, as if the royals were an aging band on the brink of retirement.

The war trudges on (Foreign Policy) Hamas confirmed the killing of leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces in a televised eulogy on Friday and vowed to continue its war against Israel. Sinwar’s death “will only increase the strength and resolve of Hamas and our resistance,” said Sinwar’s longtime deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, who has been living in exile in Qatar. Hayya reiterated that Hamas will not end its war against Israel until both sides agree to a truce deal in Gaza that includes a complete Israeli withdrawal from the enclave and the release of Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu also vowed to continue the war effort. Sinwar’s killing is a “great opportunity to stop the axis of evil,” he said, referring to Iran and its proxies, which include Hamas in Gaza as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli military announced on Friday that it would add an additional brigade of reservists to fight along the Israel-Lebanon border, and it said that its forces had killed Muhammad Hassin Ramal, Hezbollah’s commander of the Tayibe area in southern Lebanon. “We had hoped, really throughout this, that getting rid of Sinwar would be the turning point where the wars would end,” a senior diplomat working in Lebanon told Reuters. “It appears we were once again mistaken.”

More than 40% of people in Gaza to face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger (NBC News) Some 41% of people in Gaza will face “catastrophic” levels of hunger in the coming months, a global authority on food security warned Thursday. The report emerged as Israel came under increasing pressure, including from its most important ally, the United States, to allow in more essential humanitarian aid. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which sets a scale used by the United Nations and governments to assess hunger, said that there will be a persistent risk of famine in Gaza this winter unless more humanitarian aid reaches the Palestinian enclave. The release also said that nine in 10 Gazans—roughly two million people—face “acute food insecurity” in the months ahead. and came as Reuters reported that the Israeli government has stopped processing requests from traders to import food to Gaza.

US long-range B-2 stealth bombers target underground bunkers of Yemen’s Houthi rebels (AP) The U.S. military unleashed B-2 stealth bombers to target underground bunkers used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels early Thursday, a major escalation in the American response to the rebels’ attacks on Mideast shipping lanes that appeared to be a warning to Iran as well. While it wasn’t immediately clear how much damage the strikes caused, the attack appeared to be the first use of the B-2 in combat in years and the first time the flying wing targeted sites in Yemen. In announcing the strikes against the Houthis, who have been attacking ships for months in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a point to offer a warning likely heard in Tehran as well. “This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened or fortified,” Austin said.

#headlines #news

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swldx · 2 months ago

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BBC 0411 4 Oct 2024

12095Khz 0358 4 OCT 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55445. English, dead carrier s/on @0358z then ID@0359z pips and Newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by Chris Berrow. § Israeli bombing caused large explosions just outside Beirut's international airport during a further night of air strikes targeting Hezbollah in the city. The target was unclear but the airport borders Dahieh, Hezbollah's stronghold in the capital. Plumes of smoke could be seen over the city as dawn broke on Friday. § Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set to lead Friday prayers and deliver a public sermon that could shed light on the Islamic republic's plans after a massive missile attack on enemy Israel. Khamenei's rare Friday sermon, the first in almost five years, comes three days before the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, triggered by the Iran-backed Palestinian group's October 7 attack. § The union representing tens of thousands of dockworkers across the US has agreed to suspend its strike while negotiations continue. Members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) walked out on Tuesday at 14 major ports along the east and Gulf coasts, halting container traffic from Maine to Texas. The union says it has reached a tentative agreement on wages and will go back to work on Friday until 15 January, when they will return to the bargaining table to negotiate "all other outstanding issues". § Three former police officers have been found guilty of witness tampering in the death of a 29-year-old man who was beaten during a traffic stop last year in Memphis, Tennessee. Bean, Haley and Smith were all found guilty of one count of obstructing justice by witness tampering, but all three were cleared of the most serious counts of civil rights violations that could have resulted in life in prison. All officers fired and charged in the case are black, as was Mr Nichols. § At least 20 people including children have been killed after an armed gang attacked a small town in Haiti. Another 50 were wounded as Gran Grif gang members rampaged through Pont-Sondé in the central Artibonite region about 71km (44 miles) north-west of the capital Port-au-Prince. § The World Health Organization authorized Abbott Laboratories' mpox diagnostic test for emergency use on Thursday, the first such approval in the agency's effort to bolster testing capabilities in countries facing outbreaks of the disease. § The government has pledged nearly £22bn for projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production. It said the funding for two "carbon capture clusters" on Merseyside and Teesside, promised over the next 25 years, would create thousands of jobs, attract private investment and help the UK meet climate goals. But some green campaigners have said the investment would "extend the life of planet-heating oil and gas production". § Prosecutors in Los Angeles are reviewing new evidence in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez to determine whether they should be serving life sentences for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago, the city’s district attorney said Thursday. The new evidence presented in a petition includes a letter written by Erik Menendez that his attorneys say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father. @0406z "Newsday" begins. Backyard gutter antenna w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), JRC NRD-535D, 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2258.

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sciencespies · 2 years ago

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Space and Astronomy in February: What to Expect

https://sciencespies.com/news/space-and-astronomy-in-february-what-to-expect/

Space and Astronomy in February: What to Expect

February’s space events start with a somber memorial.

The first of the month is the 20th anniversary of the Columbia disaster, when seven astronauts died as their space shuttle broke up during a return flight to Earth after 17 days in space. The cause of the accident was insulating foam that fell off the shuttle’s external fuel tank during its ascent to space. The foam struck the shuttle’s left wing and damaged its heat shielding, which then failed 16 days later during atmospheric re-entry.

The final flight of Columbia was a scientific mission, prioritizing experiments conducted aboard the space shuttle in orbit at a time when the primary mission of many space shuttle missions involved construction and resupply of the International Space Station.

Six American crew members and one Israeli astronaut died in the Columbia descent. Read about them here: Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool and Ilan Ramon.

Journalists for The New York Times also captured the moments when the astronauts’ mission became imperiled and wrote about problems at NASA that contributed to the accident.

Green Light for a Comet

The comet C/2022 E3 (Z.T.F.) has been steadily approaching Earth for the first time in some 50,000 years. On Thursday, Feb. 2, the comet will make its closest approach to our planet, and its green-hued ice ball and tail will be visible from the Earth’s surface.

Even if weather foils opportunities to see the comet that day, there will be more chances to spot it, including on Feb. 10, when its proximity to Mars in the night sky may make it easy to find.

The International Space Station will have a busy month, receiving an empty Russian Soyuz capsule and a SpaceX spacecraft with a fresh crew of four astronauts.Roscosmos State Space Corporation, via Associated Press

Traffic at the Space Station

Late in the month, two spacecraft could pull up to the International Space Station, each with important missions.

The first, as early as Feb. 20, will be an empty Russian Soyuz capsule. The spacecraft’s mission is to provide a trip home for a trio of Russian and American astronauts whose original ride was damaged during what was probably a micrometeoroid strike in December. That crew of astronauts had been expected to return to Earth in March, but may stay in orbit several more months.

The progress of that flight could affect the timing of Crew-6, a launch of four astronauts to the I.S.S. aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vessel that is to replace the four astronauts of Crew-5. Flying aboard Crew-6 are Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg of NASA, Andrey Fedyaev of Russia and Sultan Alneyadi, who will be the second astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to visit the station.

New Rocket Progress

The first flights of new rockets (or first flights of existing rockets from new places) will be highlights of 2023.

January had a mixed start on this front. The company Rocket Lab had its first flight from a launchpad on Wallops Island in Virginia after earlier trips from its New Zealand home base. But an attempt by Virgin Orbit to launch the first orbital rocket from England failed. The company ABL Space Systems also experienced an “energetic explosion” during its first launch.

There are other rockets to keep an eye on in February. At the end of January, SpaceX completed a fueling test of Starship, its next generation orbital rocket prototype. The rocket is central to SpaceX’s ambitions of getting to Mars and NASA’s plans to get astronauts back on the moon. The company may next conduct a “static fire” this month — where the 33 engines on the rocket’s booster stage fire while the ship itself is held in place. If that succeeds, it could set up the rocket’s first flight to orbit in March.

Other launchers are also making progress. United Launch Alliance is preparing for the first flight of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket, which could fly during the first quarter of the year from Florida. Another company, Relativity Space, has also been on the launchpad in Florida with its Terran 1 rocket, and its first flight is expected soon.

#News

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psykonee · 3 years ago

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A decade on a tropical island

My skin burns easily. I dislike feeling sweaty. I like the freshness of cold weather. I generally dislike crowded places.

I never thought I would spend a decade in one of the planet’s smallest, hottest and densest tropical islands.

Singapore.

Mistaken preconceptions

English as a main language does not mean a culture that is very similar to that of other mainly English speaking nations.

Having chewing gum is OK, even though nowhere sells it.

One of the richest countries in the world has some extremely poor people – for example elderly people working as cleaners and collecting cardboard.

Behind the ultra modern façade there tends be a more traditional and conservative mindset.

Surprises

Male Singaporeans having to do national service for 2 years, which at least some resent having to do.

The first group (late 1960s) to do national service had Israeli instructors.

The reason the police on the metro system look like teenagers is that they are.

The legality of prostitution.

Sometimes it is older Singaporeans that are most likely to be openly breaking the rules – for example during the Covid lock-down last year, it was common to see groups of older Singaporeans together in a way that was in breach of the restrictions.

At least at the level of individual seats elections can be genuinely competitive.

The normalcy of families having live in maids.

Very little built after independence (1965) has been considered worthy of protection from redevelopment.

Around 80% of Singaporeans live in homes that have 99 year lease holds from what is effectively the state.

How many Singaporeans live with their parents until well into their 30s.

The degree of language fluidity – for example, being with an Indian Singaporean who ordered drinks in Mandarin.

Singlish – an officially frowned upon blend of Chinese dialects with Malay, Tamil and English which is an organic part of the Singaporean identity, as opposed to many other things which have been driven from the top down.

Pre-covid the largest event in favour of making progressive changes each year has been Pink Dot.

The amount of green space, particularly in the core part of the island. It is not uncommon to see monkeys, otters, monitor lizards and other wildlife.

Understanding

The location on the map at the junction of the main sea routes between East Asia and India, the Middle East and Europe makes a port here logical.

The colonial legacy is complex. The influence of the early, segregated city plan is still clearly visible in terms of street names and the nature of the oldest buildings.

WW2, defeat and occupation are critical to making sense of the structures created and the decisions made by the post-independence leaders.

Without Lee Kuan Yew (the first Prime Minister) things would have been very different. He effectively got to play Sim City for real.

The country became independent from Malaysia and not directly from the UK.

Singapore was not a backwater at independence (the grand colonial buildings in the core of the city attest to that), but it did have serious issues (amongst other things few natural resources, housing problems) at independence.

To become what it is now has required a huge effort by many over the decades, but it has come at a high cost.

Not all laws are enforced equally. There are some that are very strongly enforced (e.g. the ban on recreational drugs) and others which exist more on paper than in practice (e.g. the colonial legacy anti gay laws).

Singapore may have a populace that is majority Chinese by background, but it is very different from China and cannot be assumed to side with China (or any other country) on anything.

The degree of direct and indirect state involvement in the economy is far more than a crude look at economic freedom indices would suggest. In some cases the largest companies in local sectors have significant (in some cases, controlling) shareholdings by the country’s sovereign wealth funds.

This is not a police state, but it is one of the safest countries. In general there is quite a lot of latitude in what can be said or done by people. People are largely free to be supportive or critical of the government or anything else here. At the same time there some things which would be possible elsewhere which are barely tolerated here (e.g. protests are legal in just one place, a legal strike is almost unheard of).

Relative to many countries in the same region Singapore is in many respects liberal, open and tolerant.

People

Anyone can be Singaporean.

Kiasu – a fear of missing out, which makes behaviour around limited events pretty predictable.

Kiasi – a fear of death, which in practice means an avoidance of taking risks.

Conformity tends to be valued over individuality.

Stability is highly valued.

I have found that it is generally guess correctly from a conversation with a Singaporean if they have spent a significant part of their lives outside the country or not.

It is a village on a larger scale, which can be both a source of community and suffocation.

There is an emphasis on self and family reliance, which at its best makes people strive to be as successful as they can be, but at its worst can lead to an indifference in the well being of others.

Given the mix of people and cultures there tends to be a live and let live mentally for the most part in public spaces.

There can be a tenancy by some to resort to official means (e.g. reporting something to the police) instead of trying to resolve disputes without the involvement of the authorities.

Related to this there can be a tendency towards passive aggressiveness over directly confronting problems.

There can be a very hierarchical view of organisations, which can lead to a rigidity and inflexibility.

People will help you if you ask, but it is much less common to get unsolicited assistance.

Ideals and the reality

To be a clean city, but it is maintained more by an army of low paid workers, than a deeply ingrained culture of care of civic spaces. The amount of waste in piles at the beaches can be depressing.

Racism is officially not tolerated in any circumstances. In practice it is easy to find examples of racism e.g. coming across rental listings that make it clear Indian applicants are not welcome.

To have gender equality, but in practice a patriarchal and defined gender roles remain strongly ingrained.

Education is highly valued, but with a strong emphasis on scoring high marks on structured exams it can lead (along with other factors) to a square box mindset and a lack of creativity.

Officially there are four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil). In practice many things are only in English, often in English and Mandarin and rarely only in the other two outside of some limited contexts.

Speculation on further evolution

Same sex marriage is more likely to be legalised in the medium term than recreational drug use.

Singapore is continuing to slowly liberalise at its own pace – for example many films that were banned in the previous century are now available on streaming services.

Can you forge a national identity with what appears to be a largely top down approach? It will be interesting how this evolves over the coming decades.

The same party has been in power since before independence. It is likely that other parties will win more seats (currently they hold 11% of them) in future elections. If and when it happens a successful and peaceful transfer of power would be a momentous event.

Fragmentation of experience by linguistic and other factors in a small, young country which is open to the influences from louder places.

How Singapore has changed me

I can eat with chopsticks.

I effectively ceased to cook after realising eating out was cheaper, arguably tastier and easier.

I have eaten far more varied food here than anywhere else, tried so many new things.

Eating out alone feels normal.

I see more value in a collectivist approach than an individualistic one than I used to.

Paying $20 for a single drink no longer feels as outrageous as it used to.

My body has adjusted to the heat and humidity. 30C now feels normal and 20C can feel cold.

I walk slower to remain cooler.

Travelling 10km within the country feels like a long way.

I can understand and use some Singlish.

I tryto talk slower and clearer because it makes it easier for others to understand what I am saying.

Those who I am friends with and work with is far more diverse than before.

I have toned down some of how I tend to be naturally (swearing a lot, directness) in order to be more accommodating of others.

I have become quite used to standing out in many places due to my appearance.

Singapore has felt like home for some time.

Miscellany

The number of Singaporeans who have thought I am Australian.

The airport is the world’s best in terms of ease of use and facilities.

The one time my beer glass was freely refilled was while eating dinner I found myself amongst supporters of one of the opposition parties who were ecstatic the night they won a seat in a by-election from the ruling party.

The government information adverts (e.g. visit your relatives more than once a year) shown in some cinemas would not be taken with a straight face in many other countries.

The unexpected can lead to things grinding to a halt as orders are awaited.

The ubiquity of high speed internet access has made controlling what people can see, read or experience effectively impossible. A great firewall is not a viable option here.

#singapore

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