The ‘world’s largest floating wind farm’ off Norwegian coast produces its first power, company says

Camille Fine, USA TODAY
Mon, November 14, 2022

A turbine at Hywind Tampen, a facility described as the world's largest floating wind farm, produced its first power over the weekend, Norwegian energy firm Equinor announced in a statement Monday.

While the alternative energy source is more emissions-friendly than others, it's currently being used to power the production of more traditional, higher-emission energy sources: oil and gas.

The “unique” wind farm – installed on floating concrete structures with a joint mooring system about86 miles off the coast of Norway – is the first of its kind to power oil and gas installations, Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president for projects, drilling and procurement, said.

The first power from Hywind Tampen’s wind turbine was sent to the Gullfaks oil and gas field and is expected to help power around 35% of the Gullfaks and Snorre fields’ electricity demands in the North Sea. In 2023, Equinor says it will have 11 turbines up and running with a system capacity of 88 megawatts to help power the production of fossil fuels.

Fully assembled wind turbines undergoing tests and adjustments before being towed out to the site of the Hywind Tampen wind farm, about 85 miles off the Norwegian coast.

Norway's government has previously said it wants to cut emissions while growing the nation's oil and gas industry.

"The Norwegian petroleum industry will be developed, not dismantled," a coalition of the country's Labour Party and Centre Party said in a joint policy document in 2021, per Reuters.

The company says its power will help with Norway’s energy transition and the energy security of Europe. The oil and gas sector is the country's largest one based on "value added, revenues, investments and export value," according to a report from the International Energy Agency.

“This will cut CO2 emissions from the fields by about 220,462 tons per year,” the company added.

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Since Equinor began operations at “the world’s first floating wind farm” in 2017, other nations are sprinting ahead with the technology, and a number of similar major projects are underway in the United Kingdom, Korea and China. Last year China installed 17 gigawatts of new offshore wind power, 80% of the global total, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

A wind turbine tower being assembled at Gulen, Norway, for the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm. When completed, the tower will be just over 325 feet high, and extend a full 300 feet underwater.

Countries like Japan, Australia, Scotland and the United States are eyeing projects as the technology has become more widely understood as a critical part of the global renewable energy mix.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced earlier this year that it was targeting 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by the year 2035 to bring floating offshore wind technology "off the coasts of California and Oregon, in the Gulf of Maine, and beyond" and provide "enough clean energy to power over five million American homes."

Contributing: Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

E-bike batteries have caused 200 fires in New York: ‘Everyone’s scared’


Delivery workers grapple with danger after dozens injured in blazes that can spread quickly and suddenly

A delivery worker rides his e-bike in March 2020.

 Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

Wilfred Chan in New York

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 15 Nov 2022 06.00 GMT

New York City delivery workers have to deal with an array of threats: speeding cars, volatile weather, armed robbers and app algorithms that can “deactivate” them if they don’t rush to customers quickly enough. Lately, workers have added another to the list – their electric bikes bursting into flames.

The powerful lithium ion batteries used in small electric vehicles are responsible for a growing epidemic of fires. This year, there have been about 200 fires and six deaths, according to the New York City fire department. This month, an e-bike fire inside a Manhattan high-rise apartment became an inferno that injured nearly 40 people and forced firefighters to evacuate residents using ropes.


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These fires can spread quickly and suddenly: “We have a fully formed fire within a matter of seconds,” the chief fire marshal said at a news conference.

That’s become a daily concern for delivery workers such as Delores Solomon, a 64-year-old Brooklyn resident who has been working for Uber Eats for about two years to supplement her social security benefits. Solomon said she “lives in fear” that her vehicle might catch fire while it’s charging or even while she’s riding it. Last year, while delivering food on her mobility scooter, Solomon hit a pothole, causing the battery to fly out and hit the pavement, where it burst into flames. “It was like a big popping sound,” she told the Guardian. “It scared me – like, ‘Damn, if that would’ve happened on the bike, I would’ve been blown up.’”

Damage inside a residential building that caught fire in the Manhattan borough of New York. Photograph: Fire Department of New York/AFP/Getty Images

As the densest city in America, New York is a micro-mobility haven. Here, small electric vehicles aren’t toys for weekend jaunts but vital tools for the estimated 65,000 delivery workers trying to scrape a living through low-paying apps.

There are thousands of choices today if you want an e-bike, e-scooter or e-moped. Some of the high-end, name-brand machines are sold in beautiful downtown showrooms for well over $5,000. But many of the vehicles used by New York City’s workers come from unknown manufacturers and are sold online or through small shops for between $1,000 and $2,000.

Nearly all of these vehicles are powered by lithium ion battery packs, which contain tightly bundled cells that store energy as flammable chemicals. Typically, the cells are kept in sync by a piece of electronic circuitry called a battery management system, or BMS, which makes sure that the cells don’t overcharge or release too much energy at once. But that careful balance can get disrupted due to damage, wear or faulty manufacturing, sometimes with dangerous results.

In August, a lithium ion battery fire that erupted after 2am killed a child and her mother in their Harlem apartment. A big reason the fires keep happening is that workers have few options to charge their vehicles. Many charge their batteries in their own apartments and hope for the best. Others rent a spot from one of Manhattan’s e-bike stores, where shops charge dozens of batteries next to each other on makeshift racks. Some people strike up deals with their neighborhood bodegas.

Solomon, who lives on the third floor of a brownstone, is afraid to charge her battery indoors. So she uses two extension cords plugged into one another, dangling nearly 50ft to her bike parked in the building’s front yard – which she knows is still a risk. “Sometimes you might fall asleep and then it’s the next day, and thank God the battery didn’t explode or anything.”

Gustavo Ajche, the founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, a prominent delivery worker labor group, told the Guardian he uses a parking space inside a private garage that the garage has set up as a charging station. Ajche splits the space with about 20 other workers and has to pay $150 a month for his share. “We try to do our best to keep our batteries in good shape because everybody is scared,” he said.

Gustavo Ajche with his bike. Photograph: Courtesy Gustavo Ajche

Lawmakers are worried too. The authority that manages New York’s public housing proposed an e-bike ban on its property this year but backed down after an outcry from low-income residents. On Monday, the city council held a hearing where legislators touted bills to combat the battery fires, including a proposal to outlaw the sale of secondhand electric vehicle batteries, and another to ban all batteries that haven’t been approved by a nationally recognized testing lab.

If passed, that measure would force riders to use batteries such as those certified by the Illinois-based Underwriters Laboratory (UL), which subjects e-bikes and their batteries to rigorous testing on issues ranging from their performance under extreme temperatures to how easily fire spreads between cells. Manufacturers have to pay a “nominal” cost to undergo testing, said Robert Slone, UL’s chief scientist, but “we see a lot of manufacturers showing interest in certifying the batteries”. UL sent a statement to the city council supporting the proposed measures, though it said a total ban on used batteries could be overkill: “When done correctly, batteries can be safely repurposed.”

Some of the most highly regarded e-bike batteries are the UL-certified batteries and motors made by Bosch, which a spokesperson said “are designed for daily use” and “will meet the daily demands of delivery workers”. But Bosch batteries are only found in higher-end bike brands that are out of reach for many delivery workers.

That’s why workers say what’s needed from the city isn’t just new restrictions but more assistance.

For more than a year, Los Deliveristas Unidos has been pushing for the creation of new bike-charging hubs in New York’s high-traffic areas. The workers scored a major victory in October, when Senator Chuck Schumer pledged $1m in federal infrastructure funding to launch the project in New York City, starting with the conversion of an unused downtown newsstand. The Deliveristas have also proposed creating compact solar-powered charging stations in parking spaces outside popular restaurants. But Ajche said the organization doesn’t expect to see the first hub up and running until next summer. “Working with the city’s not easy,” he said. “Everything takes a lot of time.”

Mayor Eric Adams joins members of Los Deliveristas Unidos to celebrate new protections in the food delivery industry, in April. 

Photograph: John Nacion/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Solomon, the delivery worker, has joined an informal group called Safer Charging, which advocates creating a “battery swap” network modeled after similar systems in countries such as Taiwan. That would allow workers to put their spent battery packs into shared outdoor charging cabinets and grab new ones, leaving the maintenance of the batteries to a professional team.

Something else that would make a big difference for workers is better intel. “Each fire happened, they say it’s an e-bike, but we don’t know which one it is,” Ajche said. “There’s a lot of missing information.” What would be more useful, he said, would be if the fire department committed resources to testing and sharing details about which batteries were safe to use, so that workers could make more informed decisions.

Ajche added that the city should pass laws requiring that gig companies pay delivery workers a “living wage”. According to Los Deliveristas, that would be $30 an hour, an amount that would help offset delivery workers’ substantial equipment and maintenance costs, especially if they’re required to upgrade their batteries down the line. “You already have to invest almost $4,000 to be a delivery worker,” he said. “And if they’re regulating the types of batteries, the price of everything is gonna get so high.”

Uber and Doordash did not respond to questions about whether they would increase payments to workers hoping to buy certified e-bike batteries. But an Uber spokesperson provided a statement that it sent to the city council in support of the new proposals. “Nobody one should have to choose between their safety and their livelihood,” the statement said.

Cuba welcomes 7th powership to its fleet in struggle to keep lights on

HAVANA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Cuba welcomed on Tuesday a seventh floating power plant to its growing fleet of shipboard generators as the communist-run country seeks to bolster its grid and bring relief to citizens who for months have suffered daily, hours-long blackouts.

The so-called powership, leased from Turkey-based Karadeniz Holding, is expected to feed an additional 110 megawatts of electricity into Cuba´s grid by month's end, officials said, or about one-tenth the average daily generation shortfall.

The seven floating powerplants, which will generate a total of 400 megawatts, represent one part of an unorthodox and improvised strategy announced earlier this year to stem a growing energy crisis.

The cash-strapped government has said it also aims to purchase small diesel-fired, land-based generators to supplement the grid, and has announced plans to service its larger, though obsolete, Soviet-era fuel-fired power plants.

Cuba's energy woes is perhaps the most painful symptom of a deeper financial crisis caused by external factors such as U.S. sanctions, the COVID-19 pandemic and poor economic management.

The modern powerships provide quick relief. They carry their own generators fueled by oil or gas, anchor close to land and connect with dedicated transmission lines to the local electricity grid. They are typically leased by a host country.

Cuban oil-fired power plants are, by comparison, decrepit and inefficient, averaging 35 years of age, with a backup system of hundreds of smaller generators at least 15 years old.

Just 5% of Cuba's power currently comes from alternative energy sources. (Reporting by Dave Sherwood Editing by Bill Berkrot)

BEIN VUE - ABOLISH WORK
French have got even lazier, study shows

Henry Samuel
Mon, November 14, 2022 

The French have lost the will to work, according to a new study - Marc Piasecki/Getty Images Europe

Famed for their marathon holidays, extended lunches and 35-hour working week, the French have long basked in the enviable image of enjoying life’s pleasures while, somehow, getting the job done.

But the Covid pandemic has taken the French view of a proper work-life balance to new extremes, with a new study claiming that France has succumbed to a “laziness epidemic” in which swathes of the country say they "can't be bothered" to work hard, go out or even socialise.

Many people in France are quite happy to work fewer hours even if that means earning less money, according to findings by Ifop and the Jean-Jaurès foundation.

In 1990, some 60 per cent of French people said work was “very important” in their life, compared to 31 per cent for leisure. Today, those who view work as a high priority has plummeted to 24 per cent while 41 per cent view leisure as very important.

Since the Covid pandemic subsided, 37 per cent of French say they are less motivated to work. The figures vary widely according to political persuasion, with supporters of Leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon being more than twice as likely to say they have lost their will to work than supporters of Emmanuel Macron - 61 per cent to 28 per cent respectively.

Overall, two-thirds are happy to work less to earn less today. By comparison, in 2008 two-thirds of French said they were happy to “work more to earn more”, the presidential campaign slogan of conservative then French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Many workers questioned the meaning of their professional lives when 11 million people were furloughed during the pandemic and benefited from one of the world’s most generous state Covid compensation schemes.

Home working

Home working exacerbated the problem, the study found, because it has entitled an “exhaustion and laziness epidemic when a part of the French want to slow down”.

This unwillingness to work at all costs has seen a huge shortage of labour in various sectors from hospitality to haulage but also teaching and nursing.

The report’s findings suggest many compatriots agree with recent controversial claims by Green MP Sandrine Rousseau that the French deserve a special “right to idleness”.

In September, the radical eco-feminist sparked a furore for claiming that working hard was “essentially a Right-wing value” and that taking breaks and being less productive was a far healthier objective for the Left.

'Right to idleness'

“We have the right to idleness. We have the right to change professions, we also have the right to take breaks in our life and, above all, we need to regain time, a sense of sharing and a four-day week,” she said.

That put her at loggerheads with France’s Communist Party leader, Fabien Roussel, who declared: “The Left must defend work and not be the Left of handouts and social welfare.”

Another recent Ifop study found that four out of ten people who voted Green or for Mr Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party define themselves as “rarely or not hard-working”, compared to a quarter of French of other political persuasions.

Dominique Seux, an economic commentator on France Inter radio, on Monday said that mass French lethargy posed a small “problem" as it risked cutting productivity at a time when the French “are unhappy with their purchasing power and the state of public services”.

He also pointed to one “massive paradox”, namely that “according to all the OECD’s indisputable data, France is the country that works the least, all ages combined”.

SEE THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY BY PAUL LAFARGUE

‘It’s not against Islam’: Pakistani trans actor tells of deep sadness over film ban

Exclusive: Alina Khan, star of award-winning Joyland, speaks out as the movie’s licence for domestic release is revoked, putting its Oscar contention in doubt

Alina Khan, who plays a trans dancer in the Urdu film Joyland.

 Photograph: Courtesy of Alina Khan

Zofeen T Ebrahim

in Karachi

Tue 15 Nov 2022

The transgender star of an award-winning Pakistan film that depicts a love affair between a man and a trans women has said she is very sad at the government’s decision to ban the movie and hopes it will be reversed.

Alina Khan, who stars in Joyland, the first major Pakistani motion picture to feature a trans actor in a lead role, said: “I’ve been very sad. There’s nothing against Islam and I don’t understand how Islam can get endangered by mere films.”

The 24-year-old added: “The Pakistani trans community was also very upset.”

Joyland, which is Pakistan’s contender at the Oscars, was to go on national release on Friday, but was banned over the weekend following pressure from hardline Islamic groups who called the film “repugnant”.

Set in Lahore, the film tells the story of Haider, a married man who joins a dance troupe and falls in love with the lead transgender dancer, Biba, played by Khan.

Khan told the Guardian she adores Biba.

A poster for Joyland, designed by the Pakistani artist Salman Toor. 

Photograph: Courtesy of Alina Khan

“She’s a badass, strong-willed, fiercely independent, dominating, outspoken woman, everything that I am not; I loved the role I played,” said Khan. When she was offered the role, she was relieved not to play an “oppressed” character “which is the life for most transgenders in Pakistan”.

Khan said she was rejected by her family when she came out as trans. “My family did not accept me, but neither did society.” She was told she embarrassed relatives, and her mother was constantly angry with her. “She would tell me not to make exaggerated hand gestures like a woman while talking, to sit like a boy and not be in the company of girls,” said Khan. Her siblings called her khusra – a derogatory term, which was originally used to refer to eunuchs but is also a slur against trans people. But as Khan said: “I had never met a transgender [person] in my life so did not know what they were like.”

Joyland has been hailed on the festival circuit. It was the first Pakistani film to be selected as an official entry at Cannes in May, winning two festival awards and receiving a standing ovation in a packed Salle Debussy theatre.

“Tears were trickling down my face while I continued smiling. I don’t know whether the tears were of joy, were for all the hard work that I put in, or for my struggles since I was a child and that continue,” said Khan, who made her screen debut in the short film Darling in 2019. “For the first time in my life, I felt my talent preceded my gender, I was given so much respect.”

After such international success, her family welcomed her with open arms. “They accepted me finally. They realised that I was not earning by begging or doing sex work,” she said.

In August Joyland won best film from the subcontinent at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, last month it received the top award at Zagreb’s film festival and it is Pakistan’s entry for best international feature film at next year’s Oscars, which has received the backing of the Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who joined the film as executive producer.

However, the film had caused controversy at home. Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, a senator in the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, called Joyland “cultural terrorism” and criticised the government for the “shameless” act of allowing its release. “I condemn it and will use every legal step to stop Joyland’s release,” he said. “Glamourising transgenders in Pakistan, as well as their love affairs, is a direct attack on our beliefs.”

Alina Khan, left, with Joyland’s director Saim Sadiq at the Cannes film festival in May 2022. 

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

He is spearheading a campaign to repeal the 2018 law that enshrined transgender rights in Pakistan law.

Cancelling the film’s licence, which puts its Oscars’ contention in doubt, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, said: “Written complaints were received that the film contains highly objectionable material which do not conform with the social values and moral standards of our society and is clearly repugnant to the norms of ‘decency and morality’ as laid down in Section 9 of the Motion Picture Ordinance, 1979”.

Shahzadi Rai, a Karachi rights activist, was not surprised by the ban. “Of course this was expected. We’re going towards religious extremism. I think soon Pakistan will become another Afghanistan. The trans community is extremely disappointed in the government for caving in to the pressure of the clerics.”

She added that Alina Khan had “put us up in the mainstream in a good way”.


Kenya bans LGBTQ+ documentary for ‘promoting same-sex marriage’

Lucky Khan, a trans singer, said seeing such a film win awards was awesome. “I’d only seen our community begging on streets, performing dances or in commercial sex work.”

Merub Moiz Awan, a trans woman, tweeted: “Had a cisgender woman or man instead of Alina Khan played the role of a khwajasira dancer, they’d have had no issues with it. But because it’s an actual khwajasira doing so, they have issues. They want khwajasira people to be just begging in the streets.”

The international success of Joyland has brought Alina Khan other film offers. “I would like us to be more visible in showbiz as we are very much part of society, like men, women and children are,” she says, adding: “This film deserves an Oscar … it deserves all the awards out there.

“I hope I have opened doors for others in our community, to pursue their dreams.”

Pakistan film 'Joyland' releases in some cinemas after government overturns ban
Story by Tara Subramaniam • Thursday

Award-winning movie “Joyland” opens in cinemas in parts of Pakistan Friday, after authorities in the South Asian nation overturned a ban imposed following complaints the homegrown film was unsuitable for viewing.

Directed by Saim Sadiq, “Joyland” tells the love story between the youngest son of “a happily patriarchal joint family” and a transgender starlet he meets after secretly joining an erotic dance theater, according to a synopsis on the Cannes Film Festival website.

The storyline appeared too sensitive for the Pakistani government, which last week revoked the movie’s certification after receiving written complaints that it included “highly objectionable material.”

However, government adviser Salman Sufi tweeted Wednesday that the censor board review committee had subsequently cleared the film, with requested edits, adding: “Freedom of speech is fundamental right & should be nourished within ambits of the law.”

The movie was listed for viewing in some theaters across Pakistan on Friday, except in the province of Punjab, where the Informational and Culture Department said it could not be exhibited “in the wake of persistent complaints received from different quarters.”

Related video: Pakistan bans 'Joyland' from domestic release after Islamic groups protest against it  Duration 5:04  View on Watch

As of Thursday evening, the filmmakers had not issued an official statement on the nationwide ban being overturned or the new ban in Punjab.

“Joyland” is the first Pakistani movie to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and the unofficial Queer Palm in May. It was then submitted to the Oscars as Pakistan’s official entry for the international feature film award. According to the official Academy rules, it needs to play in theaters for at least seven days before November 30 to qualify for inclusion.

The reversal of the nationwide ban came after public outcry from human rights organizations and prominent Pakistanis including Malala Yousafzai, who is also an executive producer on the film.

In an Instagram post, the movie’s director, Sadiq, urged authorities to reconsider the ban, and one of its stars, Rasti Farooq, said in a post: “I stand by my film, and everything that it says, with every fibre of my being.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan released a statement Sunday, condemning the government’s withdrawal of certification for “Joyland” as “rabidly transphobic” and a violation of the movie producers’ right to freedom of expression.

“Pakistan’s audiences have the right to decide what they will watch,” the statement said.

  

Opinion: Demonizing of immigrants doesn't follow Bible teachings

Henry Zorn
Mon, November 14, 2022 

A bunch of "mostly white and older" Christians gathered in Liberty Township to hear about the dangers that immigrants bring to our country ("Scary immigrant tales often false," Nov. 2). I am also an old, white, Christian guy but that may be where the similarities end. Once again, I am reminded that there is a chasm between various expressions of Christianity.

The Center for Christian Virtue and the Heritage Foundation caricature and stereotype immigrants as a danger because they smuggle fentanyl across the border. Where have we heard that language before? Our former president repeated the lie about immigrants incessantly during his campaign in 2016, "They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

The sponsors of this event have not only demonized immigrants, but they have also misinterpreted the Bible and co-opted Jesus Christ. From beginning to end, the Bible proclaims a clear mandate to provide care for widows, orphans, aliens and sojourners. The Evangelical Immigration Table identifies 40 Bible passages that relate to immigrant care. Jesus taught that we are to see him in the stranger and welcome him. In the biblical Nativity stories, the infant Jesus is twice refugeed. In the first instance, there was no room for the Holy Family in Bethlehem, and in the second instance, they were refugeed in Egypt as they fled King Herod.

The old white guys at this gathering would benefit from getting out of their echo chamber and meeting some immigrants in person. In five congregational trips to Guatemala, I have found the people to be industrious, generous, kind and deeply faithful. Our church began an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program in 2017. We have hosted immigrants from over 35 countries in our classes. Each of them wants to learn our language, assimilate into our culture, find work opportunities and contribute to the community in positive ways.

While it is not our intention to proselytize, one of the women, a Syrian, has befriended some of our members and has started worshiping with us while wearing her hijab. She is drawn to the kindness and welcome of our church and interested in the gospel of Jesus. We are drawn to her humility, kindness and generosity, especially her Syrian delicacies.

In my journey from being a middle-aged white guy to an old white guy, I have discovered that God gives us diversity as a gift. My life has been enriched by my immigrant friends. Relationships change everything. In February 2017, the New York Times reported on an undocumented Mexican in a small town in southern Illinois. He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The man had lived in the United States since the 1990s. He managed a Mexican restaurant and was a role model of civic involvement. His wife and three children were all American citizens. All of the leaders of the town worked to have the man released. The shocking surprise was that 70% of the town had voted for President Trump. More important than their vote was their relationship with the immigrant.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio

U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson was quoted in the story warning of "a more woke version of Christianity, or heresy" as he refers to it. I would like to invite Mr. Davidson to join me outside of his fear-filled silo of isolation. We could drink a beer, smoke a cigar, and complain about the Bengals because that is what all old white guys in Cincinnati do. Then I would like to bring him to one of our ESOL classes. Perhaps it would serve as a wake-up call from those who are woke. He’ll discover that immigrants are children of God and bear God’s Spirit, just like us.

Relationships change everything. Through the transforming power of God’s Spirit, there is even hope for old white guys.

Rev. Henry Zorn is pastor of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Anderson Township.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Demonizing of immigrants doesn't follow Bible teachings

2 'dark ships' were spotted near the Nord Stream pipeline leaks days before the explosions were detected, satellite data analysis firm says

Matthew Loh

INSIDER
Mon, November 14, 2022 

A gas leak causes bubbles on the surface of the water at Sea in Sweden on September 29, 2022.Swedish Coast Guard / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Two "dark ships" were spotted near the Nord Stream leaks, a satellite data analysis firm says.

It detected 25 ships near the leak sites, two of which had turned off their trackers, Wired's Matt Burgess reported.

A ship turning off its AIS tracker is largely seen as a red flag on international waters.

Two ships with their trackers turned off sailed near the leak sites of the Nord Stream 2 pipelines just days before the pipelines were ripped open by subsea explosions, a satellite data analysis firm says.

The vessels were both between 311 feet and 426 feet long, and had their automatic identification systems, or AIS trackers, switched off, said Jerry Javornicky, the cofounder of SpaceKnow, Wired's Matt Burgess reported.

"They had their beacons off, meaning that there was no information about their movement, and they were trying to keep their location information and general information hidden from the world," Javornicky told the outlet.

Javornicky said SpaceKnow found 25 ships passing through an area with a several-mile radius around the leak sites, Wired reported. Two of those vessels did not have their AIS data turned on, Javornicky said, per Wired.

The International Maritime Organization mandates that ships with cargo of 330 tons or more, as well as passenger ships of any size, have to turn on their AIS trackers on international voyages.

A ship switching off a transponder is often seen as a red flag, and such a practice is common for vessels engaged in illicit activities such as illegal fishing, human trafficking, and dodging sanctions. US authorities call it a deceptive shipping practice, and advise ports to be wary of ships that manipulate their trackers.

Otto Tabuns, the director of the NGO Baltic Security Foundation, told Wired that it's rare for a ship to turn off its AIS transmitter in the Baltic Sea unless the vessel had "clandestine objectives."

Javornicky's claims come as Western European nations continue to investigate the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, which make up the largest network supplying natural gas from Russia to Europe.

Several underwater explosions in late September ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, but it's still unclear what — or who — is responsible for the damage. Russia, Ukraine, the US, and the UK have all been accused of sabotage, though all have denied such allegations.

German officials said shortly after the leaks that they suspected the gas pipelines were sabotaged by Russia, while Denmark and Sweden said in a letter to the UN that they believed "several hundred kilos" of explosives were used to damage the pipes.

All three nations have kept their findings under wraps.

California tries to harness megastorm floods to ease crippling droughts



California farmers aim to recharge aquifers by diverting floodwaters to fallowed land

Tue, November 15, 2022 
By Sharon Bernstein

HURON, Calif. (Reuters) - The land along the Arroyo Pasajero Creek, halfway between Sacramento and Los Angeles, is too dry to farm some years and dangerously flooded in others.

Amid the cycles of wet and dry — both phenomena exacerbated by climate change — a coalition of local farmers and the nearby city of Huron are trying to turn former hemp and tomato fields into massive receptacles that can hold water as it percolates into the ground during wet years.

This project and others like it across California's Central Valley breadbasket aim to capture floodwaters that would otherwise rush out to the sea, or damage towns, cities and crops.


Traditional water storage in the form of damming rivers to create reservoirs damages the environment.

With parts of California suffering a historic drought, water was so scarce in the Central Valley this year that Huron was allocated only a quarter of the water it was contracted to receive from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The city, one of California's poorest, had to buy water on the open market, raising residents' bills, said engineering consultant Alfonso Manrique.

The new project, known as a recharge system, turns unused fields into large ponds to hold water so that it can percolate into the porous rock and earth below, creating or restoring an aquifer rather than rushing to the sea.The city is building a new well to be fed from the aquifer, Manrique said.

Capturing runoff will also help protect the city of less than 7,000 people from catastrophic floods.

The project near Huron is one of about 340 recharge systems that have been proposed by water agencies in California - enough to store 2.2 million acre-feet by 2030 if they all are built, the state Department of Water Resources said. That's enough for 4.4 million households for a year.

"I'm hoping we can make water more affordable for our residents," said Huron Mayor Rey Leon.

Outside the United States, countries including India are also beginning to increase the use of recharge ponds to store water in natural or human-made aquifers. Water use and resilience is among the topics being discussed by world leaders at the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt this month.

While the idea of storing water underground is not new, a recent California law regulating groundwater use has spurred a spate of projects that the state is helping to fund.

In the small community of Okieville about 40 miles (65 km) east of Huron, the Tulare Irrigation District is building a new recharge pond on land purchased from a local farmer, said Aaron Fukuda, who is the district's general manager.

A number of Okieville residents ran out of potable water during the state's last big drought, which lasted from 2012 through 2016. The new pond, on about 20 acres of former farmland , will help to guide water underground to store it for residents as well as agriculture.

The project costs about $2 million, including about $1.8 million in state grants.

In addition to the comparatively small projects being built by rural water districts and farmers, the massive Metropolitan Water District, a regional water wholesaler that serves Southern and parts of Central California, is building a 1,500-acre recharge pond in the high desert near Palmdale, in partnership with local water authorities.

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

California's complex networks of reservoirs, rivers and aqueducts were viewed as engineering marvels when the state and federal government built them in the mid-20th century.

But the system relied on damming and diverting rivers, and flooding canyons, damaging their ecosystems. The last big dam was built in 1980. Since then the state's population has nearly doubled to 40 million residents.

California's agricultural economy, one of the largest in the world, relies largely on irrigation to water its crops, further taxing the system.

Now, new reservoirs are hard to approve and expensive to build. The underground storage projects, according to Ann Hayden, water expert at the Environmental Defense Fund, "are going to be easier to finance, they're going to be easier to permit and they're going to get more public support."

ROOM UNDERGROUND

These human-made aquifers and underground water banks will not solve all of California's water problems, but they can make a significant dent, said Sarah Woolf, a water consultant whose family owns some of the farmland being used for the Huron project.

There's room below the agricultural land that will be served by the Huron project to store 1 million acre-feet of water, or about 326 billion gallons - enough to serve 2 million households for a year.

"These are needed all over the place," Woolf said.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Donna Bryson and Lisa Shumaker)

UK

Sexual health services at ‘breaking point’ as demand among over 65s soars
Joanna Whitehead
Tue, November 15, 2022 

The LGA are calling on the Chancellor to commit to support the rise in demand for sexual health care in the forthcoming fiscal statement (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Sexual health services have reached “breaking point” council leaders have warned, as organisations face funding cuts and an increased demand for services, including among pensioners.

A new report published by the Local Government Association (LGA) warns that without more funding, the UK could witness a rise in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Titled Breaking point: Securing the future of sexual health services, the report states that there were more than four million sexual health services appointments in 2021 - a rise of 36 per cent since 2013.

More than 300,000 new STIs were detected in 2021, while the number of over 65s contracting STIs increased by 20 per cent between 2017 and 2019.

And in 2021, there were almost two million diagnostic tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and HIV delivered by sexual health services, an increase of 19 per cent compared to 2020.

It adds that an increasing number of women are using sexual health services for long-acting reversable contraceptives including implants and the coil.

The LGA, which represents councils in England and Wales, says that the increased demand for services comes after the public health grant to local authorities used to fund sexual health services was slashed by over £1bn between 2015/16 and 2020/21.

Now, the group is calling on the Chancellor to commit to support the rise in demand for sexual health care in the fiscal statement on Thursday.

David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA's Community Wellbeing Board said: “Councils are facing a perfect storm of increased demand for services whilst at the same time continued cuts to their funding.

“This is unsustainable and risks a reversal in the encouraging fall in some STIs and potential increases in unwanted pregnancies.”

Funding cuts to sexual health services could ‘jeopardise people’s sexual 

and reproductive health’ (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

He added that cuts to sexual health spending, as with other areas of public health expenditure, represented a “false economy”.

He said: “Looking forward to the autumn statement, the government must ensure sexual and reproductive health funding is increased to levels which do not jeopardise people's sexual and reproductive health. Inadequate prevention and early intervention increase overall costs to the health service.

“There can be no sustainable long-term solution to NHS pressures unless we have an equally sustainable solution for public health.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have provided more than £3.4 billion this year to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual and reproductive health.

“Local authorities are responsible for providing open-access sexual and reproductive health services, including free and confidential HIV and STI testing, condoms, provision of the HIV prevention drug PrEP, vaccination and contraception advice.”

The news comes as numbers of a little-known STI called mycoplasma genitalium (MG) have soared by more than 60 times in seven years, according to official figures.

The infection, whose symptoms can mirror chlamydia, was becoming resistant to antibiotics, according to sexual health professionals, and could lead to infertility if not treated.

WE LIVE IN A CHEMICAL SOUP

Humans could face reproductive crisis as sperm count declines, study finds

Global figures suggest sperm concentration has halved in 40 years – and the rate of decline is accelerating

A human sperm cell. Photograph: Burazin/Getty Images

Nicola Davis Science correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 15 Nov 2022 

Humans could face a reproductive crisis if action is not taken to tackle a drop in sperm count, researchers have warned after finding the rate of decline is accelerating.

A study published in the journal Human Reproduction Update, based on 153 estimates from men who were probably unaware of their fertility, suggests that the average sperm concentration fell from an estimated 101.2m per ml to 49.0m per ml between 1973 and 2018 – a drop of 51.6%. Total sperm counts fell by 62.3% during the same period.

Research by the same team, reported in 2017, found that sperm concentration had more than halved in the last 40 years. However, at the time a lack of data for other parts of the world meant the findings were focused on a region encompassing Europe, North America and Australia. The latest study includes more recent data from 53 countries.

Declines in sperm concentration were seen not only in the region previously studied, but in Central and South America, Africa and Asia.

Moreover, the rate of decline appears to be increasing: looking at data collected in all continents since 1972, the researchers found sperm concentrations declined by 1.16% per year. However, when they looked only at data collected since the year 2000, the decline was 2.64% per year.

“I think this is another signal that something is wrong with the globe and that we need to do something about it. So yes, I think it’s a crisis, that we [had] better tackle now, before it may reach a tipping point which may not be reversible,” said Prof Hagai Levine, first author of the research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


Cocktail of chemical pollutants linked to falling sperm quality in research

Previous studies have suggested that fertility is compromised if sperm concentration falls below about 40m per ml. While the latest estimate is above this threshold, Levine noted that this is a mean figure, suggesting the percentage of men below this threshold will have increased.

“Such a decline clearly represents a decline in the capacity of the population to reproduce,” he said.

While the study accounted for factors including age and how long men had gone without ejaculation, and excluded men known to suffer from infertility, it has limitations, including that it did not look at other markers of sperm quality.

Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, who was not involved in the work, praised the analysis, but said he remained on the fence over whether there is a decline.

“Counting sperm, even with the gold standard technique of [the laboratory process] haemocytometry, is really difficult,” he said. “I believe that over time we have simply got better at it because of the development of training and quality control programmes around the world. I still think this is much of what we are seeing in the data.”

However, Levine dismissed such concerns, adding that, in any case, the decline has been more pronounced in more recent years.

While it is unclear what might be behind the apparent trend, one hypothesis is that endocrine-disrupting chemicals or other environmental factors may play a role, acting on the foetus in the womb. Experts say factors such as smoking, drinking, obesity and poor diet might also play a role, and that a healthy lifestyle may help to boost sperm counts.

Tina Kold Jensen of the University of Southern Denmark said the new study recapitulated a concerning trend. “You keep on finding the same trend, no matter how many studies you include – that is a bit scary to me,” she said.

Prof Richard Sharpe, an expert in male reproductive health at the University of Edinburgh, said the new data showed that the trend appeared to be a worldwide phenomenon.


Male ‘biological clock’ can affect chances of birth more than was thought, study finds

Sharpe said the decline could mean it takes longer for couples to conceive and, for many, time is not on their side as they are delaying trying to conceive until the woman is in her 30s or 40s, when her fertility is already reduced.

“The key point that needs to be made is that this is desperately bad news for couple fertility,” he said.

But, said Sharpe, “These issues are not just a problem for couples trying to have kids. They are also a huge problem for society in the next 50-odd years as less and less young people will be around to work and support the increasing bulge of elderly folk.”

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