Sunday, August 18, 2024

Japan’s seafood experiment clears the air on safety of water discharge from Fukushima nuclear plant

A look inside the marine organisms rearing test facility at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on June 28, 2024. 
ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY

Audrey Tan and Walter Sim
Updated
Aug 19, 2024


FUKUSHIMA – Tanks full of seafood are not what one usually expects to find at a nuclear power station.

Yet, The Straits Times discovered quite a spread at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station during a visit there in June.

Flounder, abalone and seaweed – all delicacies of north-eastern Japan – were being reared on site, though they were not bound for the dinner table.


Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has far greater aspirations for them.

The cameras in the flounder tanks provide a clue to their existence: By live-streaming the activities of these fishes 24/7, Tepco wants to show the world that water being discharged after treatment from the nuclear plant – the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster – is safe and has no negative impact on life underwater.

Sources of contaminated water include seawater used to cool the remaining nuclear fuel, as well as groundwater and rainwater that seep into the damaged reactors.

Within the marine life breeding facility, tanks are colour-coded.

Seafood in yellow tanks is reared in water that has been processed through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) that removes radioactive material, and then diluted with seawater. This same mixture is what the plant discharges into the ocean.

Blue tanks contain fish reared in regular seawater.

Mr Kazuo Yamanaka, who oversees the marine organisms rearing test laboratory at Fukushima Daiichi, on June 28. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY


Mr Kazuo Yamanaka, who oversees the marine organisms rearing test laboratory at Fukushima Daiichi, told us during our visit: “When there were discussions over the release of the ALPS-treated water, we heard concerns from fishermen who were worried about the damage to their trades through harmful rumours.”


The fishing industry in Fukushima had expressed worries that consumers would be afraid of consuming seafood in the area.

“We spoke to locals and stakeholders in the fishing industry, who said they wanted to see flounder and abalone moving and growing healthily in seawater that has been mixed with ALPS-treated water,” Mr Yamanaka added.

At the marine organisms rearing test facility, flounders are raised in two environments: natural seawater and ALPS-treated water diluted with seawater. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY


Tepco started rearing the marine life in September 2022, about a year before the first discharge of ALPS-treated water into the Pacific Ocean began on Aug 24, 2023.

Japanese media reported that outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to visit the crippled nuclear plant on Aug 24, to mark the first anniversary of the first treated water discharge.

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Radioactivity concentrations in the tissues of marine organisms are also monitored regularly, with the results published on Tepco’s website.

Eight batches of treated water have been released so far, with the most recent starting on Aug 7 and expected to end on Aug 25.

With the completion of the discharge of the seventh batch on July 16, about 55,000 cubic metres of water – enough to fill about 22 Olympic-size pools – has been discharged into the ocean so far.

Japan plans to continue releasing the diluted ALPS-treated water from Fukushima Daiichi over the next decades in a series of batches.

Yellow tanks house fish reared in diluted ALPS-treated water, while blue tanks house fish reared in regular seawater. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said the release meets international safety standards and would have “negligible radiological impact on people and the environment”.

In Singapore, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) ensures food safety through a surveillance and monitoring regime, while the National Environment Agency (NEA) keeps watch over ambient radiation levels in Singapore via a network of 40 stations, and through regular sampling and laboratory analysis of Singapore’s waters.

In a joint response, the agencies said that no radioactive contaminants have been detected in food imports from Japan since 2013. Such contaminants had been detected in Japanese food imports in 2011 and 2012. Food imports from the East Asian country into Singapore have made up less than 1.5 per cent of total food imports over the past decade, with less than 0.01 per cent of food coming from Fukushima prefecture in 2022, they noted.

As for ambient radioactivity levels, these have remained within natural background levels, the agencies said


Making space

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station sits on a sprawling compound measuring 3.5 sq km, about 10 times the size of the Singapore Sports Hub.

More than a decade since the plant was hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that resulted in the 2011 nuclear disaster, the plant still bears visible reminders of the incident.

The four buildings that house the nuclear reactors are still on site, and highly radioactive fuel debris still remains in two of them. Seawater is continually needed to cool the molten fuel.

Any water that comes into contact with the radioactive material – including the seawater used for cooling, as well as groundwater and rainwater that seep into the damaged reactors – becomes contaminated.

At Fukushima Daiichi, this contaminated water is treated via ALPS to remove most of the radioactive elements before it is stored in tanks.

Looking over the compound from a meeting room where we were briefed on safety protocols, we could see that most of the campus was covered with huge vats of blue, white and grey, which are used for storing the treated water.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station sits on a sprawling compound measuring 3.5 sq km, about 10 times the size of the Singapore Sports Hub. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY


As at January, there were more than 1,000 tanks on site, storing about 1.37 million cubic metres of water – equivalent to 548 Olympic-size swimming pools.

But as works to decommission – or to safely close and dismantle – the plant progressed, space was needed to construct new facilities.

Mr Junichi Matsumoto, Tepco’s chief officer for ALPS-treated water management, said: “Storing this treated water on site was always a stopgap measure – there is space for only so many tanks. That is why the Japanese government, after thorough consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, made the decision to discharge it.”

Japan first announced plans to discharge the treated water into the Pacific Ocean in 2021.

The Japanese authorities requested technical assistance from the IAEA to monitor and review those plans.

In 2023, the IAEA’s safety review concluded that Japan’s plans to release treated water stored at Fukushima Daiichi into the sea were consistent with its safety standards.
The treatment process

ALPS removes most of the radioactive elements from contaminated water via a series of chemical reactions.

But tritium – a radioactive form of hydrogen (H) – cannot be removed since water (H2O) containing tritium has chemical features almost identical to water with ordinary hydrogen.

The Fukushima plant is not the only nuclear station to discharge tritiated water – or water that contains tritium.

“Most nuclear power plants around the world routinely and safely release treated water, containing low-level concentrations of tritium and other radionuclides, to the environment as part of normal operations,” the IAEA added.

To allay concerns, Tepco further dilutes the ALPS-treated water with seawater before discharging it into the ocean.

A sample bottle of ALPS-treated water. PHOTO: TEPCO


Tritium concentrations in the ALPS-treated water diluted with seawater are less than 1,500 becquerels per litre (Bq/L), a unit of measurement for radioactivity.

The World Health Organisation’s guideline for the limit of tritium in drinking water is 10,000 Bq/L.

Mr Matsumoto said each batch of treated water released into the ocean involves stringent testing.

Workers check the ALPS-treated water for radioactive materials before discharge.

They also collect seawater samples from monitoring points around the power station after the discharge begins.

“Each time, the results have corresponded closely with our pre-discharge simulations, with levels of radioactive materials remaining well within agreed-upon safety standards,” added Mr Matsumoto, who is also corporate officer and general manager of Tepco’s Project Management Office.

The IAEA also independently monitors the tritium concentrations in each batch of treated water discharged by the nuclear power station.

The SFA and NEA told The Straits Times that tritium has not been detected in seafood imports from Japan.

But tritium is not a concern in seafood imports because it emits weak radiation, the agencies said in a joint response.

“The Japanese government has set a concentration limit for tritium at 1,500 Bq/L for the discharge of its treated nuclear wastewater and the international safety limit set by the World Health Organisation and Codex for tritium in food is 10,000 Bq/kg,” said SFA and NEA.

Mr Kazuhiro Shiono, 39, an employee at Marufuto Chokubaiten – a store selling seafood products at the Onahama Port about an hour’s drive from the nuclear plant – told The Straits Times that he was not worried about the discharge of the ALPS-treated water.

The entrance of the revitalised Onahama fish market in Fukushima on June 29. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY

“(Tepco) is releasing properly treated water in the ocean, not contaminated water. It is only water that has been properly treated. That is what the government is saying, and I’m absolutely relieved about that,” said Mr Shiono.

“If there were problems with the data, I’d be dead by now... I’ve been eating a lot of fish and giving fish to my own children,” added the father of two.
What is radioactivity?

It is the emission of radiation, a form of energy. There are two types of radiation – ionising radiation and non-ionising radiation.

Non-ionising radiation has enough energy to move atoms in a molecule around or cause them to vibrate, but not enough to remove electrons from atoms. Examples of this kind of radiation are radio waves, visible light and microwaves.

Ionising radiation has enough energy to knock electrons out of atoms. In large doses, it poses a health risk in living things as it can damage tissue and DNA in genes.
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Ionising radiation in the form of alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays or neutrons is produced by unstable forms of elements, which are the fundamental building blocks of nature.

There are some elements with no stable form that are always radioactive, such as uranium.

Ionising radiation comes from X-ray machines, cosmic particles from outer space and radioactive elements.



Possible work stoppage at Canada’s two largest railroads could disrupt US supply chain next week


FILE - Canadian Pacific trains sit at the main CP Rail train yard in Toronto, March 21, 2022. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP, File)


BY TOM KRISHER
August 17, 2024


DETROIT (AP) — Canada’s two largest railroads are starting to shut down their shipping networks as a labor dispute with the Teamsters union threatens to cause lockouts or strikes that would disrupt cross-border trade with the U.S.

Both the Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National railroads, which haul millions of tons of freight across the border, have stopped taking certain shipments of hazardous materials and refrigerated products.

Both are threatening to lock out Teamsters Canada workers starting Thursday if deals are not reached.

On Tuesday, CPKC will stop all shipments that start in Canada and all shipments originating in the U.S. that are headed for Canada, the railroad said Saturday.

The Canadian Press reported that on Friday, Canadian National barred container imports from U.S. partner railroads.

Jeff Windau, industrials analyst for Edward Jones & Co., said his firm expects work stoppages to last only a few days, but if they go longer, there could be significant supply chain disruptions.

“If something would carry on more of a longer term in nature, then I think there are some significant potential issues just given the amount of goods that are handled each day,” Windau said. “By and large the rails touch pretty much all of the economy.”

The two railroads handle about 40,000 carloads of freight each day, worth about $1 billion, Windau said. Shipments of fully built automobiles and auto parts, chemicals, forestry products and agricultural goods would be hit hard, he said, especially with harvest season looming.

Both railroads have extensive networks in the U.S., and CPKC also serves Mexico. Those operations will keep running even if there is a work stoppage.

CPKC said it remains committed to avoiding a work stoppage that would damage Canada’s economy and international reputation. “However we must take responsible and prudent steps to prepare for a potential rail service interruption next week,” spokesman Patrick Waldron said in a statement.

Shutting down the network will allow the railroad to get dangerous goods off of its network before any stoppage, CPKC said.

Union spokesman Christopher Monette said in an email Saturday that negotiations continue, but the situation has shifted from a possible strike to “near certain lockout” by the railroads.

CPKC said bargaining is scheduled to continue on Sunday with the union, which represents nearly 10,000 workers at both railroads. The company said it continues to bargain in good faith.

Canadian National said in a statement Friday that there had been no meaningful progress in negotiations and it hoped the union “will engage meaningfully” during a meeting scheduled for Saturday.

“CN wants a resolution that allows the company to get back to what it does best as a team, moving customers’ goods and the economy,” the railroad said.

Negotiations have been going on since last November, and contracts expired at the end of 2023. They were extended as talks continued.

The union said company demands on crew scheduling, rail safety and worker fatigue are the main sticking points.

Concerns about the quality of life for rail workers dealing with demanding schedules and no paid sick time nearly led to a U.S. rail strike two years ago before Congress intervened and blocked a walkout. The major U.S. railroads have made progress since then in offering paid sick time to most rail workers and trying to improve schedules.

Windau said the trucking industry currently has a lot of excess capacity and might be able to make up some of the railroads’ shipping volumes, but, “You’re not going to be able to replace all of that with trucking.”

Why Canada is facing an unprecedented rail labor stoppage

August 18, 2024 
 A Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) locomotive backs into position at the company's Toronto Yard in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, March 20, 2022.

Ottawa —

For the first time, Canada's two main railway companies— Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) — are on the verge of a simultaneous labor stoppage that could inflict billions of dollars' worth of economic damage.

Why are both companies poised to stop?

Contract talks between the Teamsters union and the companies usually take place a year apart, but in 2022, after the federal government introduced new rules on fatigue, CN requested a year-long extension to its existing deal rather than negotiate a new one.

This meant both companies' labor agreements expired at the end of 2023 and talks have been ongoing since. As a result, for the first time, the failure of negotiations would halt most of the Canadian freight rail system.

The Teamsters represent around 10,000 members who work as locomotive engineers, conductors, train and yard workers and rail traffic controllers at the two companies in Canada.

What is likely to happen next?

The companies say they will start locking out workers in the early hours of Thursday if they cannot reach a deal, while the union says it is ready to call a strike for that day. CPKC has already given formal notice of a lockout.

CPKC, created in 2023 through a merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, has a U.S. and Mexican network which it says will operate normally. CN also says trains on its U.S. network will run.

That said, a strike will still lead to shipment disruptions south of the border. Both rail operators and some of their U.S. competitors have begun to refuse certain cross-border cargoes that would rely on the CN and CPKC networks.

CPKC has said it would halt new rail shipments originating in Canada, and new U.S. shipments destined for Canada starting Aug. 20, if talks with the Teamsters union in Canada fail to progress.

The railways move grain, autos, coal and potash, among other shipments.

What are the sides arguing about?

The union says CPKC wants "to gut the collective agreement of all safety-critical fatigue provisions," meaning crews will be forced to stay awake longer, boosting the risk of accidents.

CPKC says its offer maintains the status quo for all work rules, "fully complies with new regulatory requirements for rest and does not in any way compromise safety."

The Teamsters say CN wants to implement a forced relocation provision, which would see workers ordered to move across Canada for months at a time to fill labor shortages.

CN says it has made four offers this year on wages, rest, and labor availability while remaining fully compliant with government-mandated rules overseeing duty and rest periods.

What can the federal government do?

Under article 107 of the federal labor code, Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon has broad powers and can order the sides to enter binding arbitration. In 2023, his predecessor, Seamus O'Regan, issued such an order to end a dockworkers strike in British Columbia. In that case, unlike the current rail dispute, the sides had largely agreed on the outlines of a deal.

MacKinnon rejected a request last week by CN for binding arbitration, urging the sides instead to put in more effort at the negotiating table.

What happens if the union strikes?

If the Teamsters call a strike, the government can introduce back-to-work legislation forcing them to resume work. The previous federal Conservative government did that in 2012 to end a walkout by Canadian Pacific workers.

The current Liberal government though, has shown little interest in such a move in past disputes, preferring the sides to focus on negotiations. A complicating factor is that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is being kept in power by the left-leaning New Democrats, who have traditionally enjoyed strong union support.

KAMCHATKA


Volcano erupts after powerful earthquake in Russia's Far East and scientists warn of a stronger one

PETROPAVOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (AP) — One of Russia’s most active volcanoes has erupted, spewing plumes of ash 5 kilometers (3 miles) into the sky over the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula and briefly triggering a “code red” warning for aircraft.

In this photo taken from AP video, provided by by the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024, the eruption of the Shiveluch volcano is seen in Kamchatka Peninsula, about 500 km (310 miles) north to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia. (Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences video via AP)

PETROPAVOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (AP) — One of Russia’s most active volcanoes has erupted, spewing plumes of ash 5 kilometers (3 miles) into the sky over the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula and briefly triggering a “code red” warning for aircraft.

The Shiveluch volcano began sputtering shortly after a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off Kamchatka’s east coast early Sunday, according to volcanologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences. They warned that another, even more potent earthquake may be on the way.

The academy’s Institute of Volcanology and Seismology released a video showing the ash cloud over Shiveluch. It stretched over 490 kilometers (304 miles) east and southeast of the volcano.

The Ebeko volcano located on the Kuril Islands also spewed ash 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) high, the institute said. It did not explicitly say whether the earthquake touched off the eruptions.

A “code red” ash cloud warning briefly put all aircraft in the area on alert, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team reported. A separate report on Sunday carried by the official Tass news agency said that no commercial flights had been disrupted and there was no damage to aviation infrastructure.

The tremors in the area may be a prelude to an even stronger earthquake in southeastern Kamchatka, Russian scientists warned. The Institute of Volcanology said a potential second quake could come “within 24 hours” with a magnitude approaching 9.0.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from Sunday’s earthquake, which struck at a depth of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) under the sea bed with the epicenter 108 kilometers (67 miles) southeast of the nearest city, according to Russian emergency officials.

Russian news outlets cited residents of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a port city of more than 181,000 people that sits across a bay from an important Russian submarine base, reporting some of the strongest shaking “in a long time.”

On Nov. 4, 1952, a magnitude 9.0 quake in Kamchatka caused damage but no reported deaths despite setting off 9.1-meter (30-foot) waves in Hawaii.

The Associated Press


Russia's Shiveluch volcano erupts after 7.2 magnitude earthquake jolts Kamchatka region



Story by India Today


Russia's Shiveluch volcano erupts after 7.2 magnitude earthquake jolts Kamchatka region

After a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Russia's eastern Kamchatka region, the Shiveluch volcano erupted sending an ash column up to 8 kilometres high with a gush of lava, CNN reported, citing state-run media agency TASS.

According to media reports, no casualties or injuries were reported.

The 7.2-magnitude earthquake jolted the country's east coast at a depth of 51 km (32 miles), according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).

The US National Tsunami Warning Centre had reported a tsunami threat after the quake, however the emergency ministry of Russia's Kamchatka branch reported no tsunami threat.

Meanwhile, officials informed that the recorded aftershocks from the quake ranged in magnitude from 3.9 to 5.0.

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake struck 29 kilometres below the surface with its epicentre approximately 102 kilometres east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which is surrounded by volcanoes and located across a bay from a key Russian submarine base.

The Shiveluch volcano is a colossal, perpetually active volcano and is renowned as one of the world's largest and most volatile volcanoes.

Russian news agency reported that there was no “major damage” in the quake and “buildings are now being examined for potential damage, with special attention paid to social facilities”.

Powerful earthquake hits off far east coast of Russia as nearby volcano erupts | Watch (msn.com)

Unesco.org

The Committee inscribed the Volcanoes of Kamchatka as one of the most outstanding examples of the volcanic regions in the world on the basis of natural criteria ...



Quake of magnitude 7.2 hits off coast of 


Russia's Kamchatka region


By Reuters
August 17, 2024


Aug 17 (Reuters) - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off the east coast of Russia's Kamchatka region at a depth of 51 km (32 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said on Saturday.
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center said there was a tsunami threat from the quake.

But the Kamchatka branch of Russia's emergency ministry reported that there was no threat of tsunami and that the recorded aftershocks from the quake ranged in their magnitude from 3.9 to 5.0.

"Most of the aftershocks are imperceptible," the regional emergency authority said on Telegram.

Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Cynthia Osterman


Netanyahu wants to 'sabotage mediators' efforts and prolong war': Hamas

Hamas says it is calling on the mediators "to fulfill their responsibilities and compel the occupation (Israel) to implement what has been agreed upon".



Following the recent round of negotiations in Doha, Hamas confirmed "once again that Netanyahu is still putting obstacles in the way of reaching an agreement". / Photo: AA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prevented the completion of the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner-hostage swap proposal by setting new conditions during the negotiations on Thursday and Friday in Doha, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said.

"The new proposal meets Netanyahu's conditions and aligns with them, particularly his refusal of a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and his insistence on continuing the occupation of the Netzarim Junction (which separates the north and south of the Gaza Strip), the Rafah crossing, and the Philadelphi Corridor (in the south)," Hamas said in a statement.


"He also set new conditions in the hostage swap file and retracted from other terms, which obstructs the completion of the deal."


Following the recent round of negotiations in Doha, Hamas confirmed "once again that Netanyahu is still putting obstacles in the way of reaching an agreement, setting new conditions and demands to sabotage the mediators' efforts and prolong the war."


The movement emphasised its commitment to what it agreed upon on July 2, based on the proposal backed by US President Joe Biden and the UN Security Council resolution.


It called on the mediators "to fulfill their responsibilities and compel the occupation (Israeli) to implement what has been agreed upon".



Ceasefire talks in Doha concluded on Friday after presenting "a proposal that narrows the gaps" between Israel and Hamas that is consistent with the principles set out by Biden on May 31.

Biden said in May that Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a ceasefire, a prisoner-hostage exchange and the reconstruction of Gaza.


But the plan was thrown into disarray last month when Israel assassinated Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Tehran for the Iranian president's inauguration.

Biden said the apparent assassination had "not helped" ceasefire efforts, and the talks were driven into a deep freeze. That killing came just hours after Israel assassinated a top Hezbollah commander in a strike in Beirut.

Israeli PM Netanyahu has also been scuttling any efforts towards a ceasefire. Netanyahu's critics say he is dragging out the war for his own political survival.

His far-right coalition partners have time and again pledged to topple the government if he agrees to a ceasefire, which could trigger elections that might oust him from power.




Israeli forces kill 25 more Palestinians in Gaza

40,099 Palestinians killed, 92,609 injured in Israeli onslaught since Oct. 7, 2023, Health Ministry says

Ikram Kouachi |18.08.2024 - 
Israeli attacks on Gaza continue

ANKARA

The Israeli army killed 25 more Palestinians in attacks in the Gaza Strip, taking the overall death toll to 40,099 since last Oct. 7, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Sunday.

A ministry statement added that some 92,609 other people have been injured in the assault.

“Israeli forces killed 25 people and injured 72 others in two ‘massacres’ against families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.

“Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.


Besieged Gazans share shoes, wear same clothes for months

Finding shoes and clothing is increasingly difficult for the 2.4million people living in the Palestinian territory

AFP |

With two-thirds of Gaza's population living in poverty even before the war, many people were forced to sell their clothes once the conflict broke out... but there are no more shoes or clothes to sell. Photo: AFP

For months, Safaa Yassin has dressed her child in the same white bodysuit, an all-too-familiar tale in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by 10 months of war.

"When I was pregnant, I dreamed of dressing my daughter in beautiful clothes. Today, I have nothing to put on her," says Yassin, one of thousands of Palestinians displaced from Gaza City.


"I never thought that one day I wouldn't be able to dress my children," says the 38-year-old, now living in Al-Mawasi, a coastal area designated as a humanitarian zone by Israeli forces.

"But the few clothes I found before evacuating to the south were either the wrong size or not suitable for the season," she adds, as Gaza bakes in summertime temperatures of 30-plus degrees Celsius every day.

Finding clothing - any clothing - has become increasingly difficult for the 2.4 million people living in the territory besieged by Israel.

Gaza once had a thriving textiles industry but since the war began on October 7 with Palestinian militant group Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel, it has received just a trickle of goods.

Faten Juda also struggles to dress her 15-month-old son, Adam, who is squeezed into ill-fitting pyjamas, his bare arms and legs sticking out from the tight fabric.

"He's growing every day and his clothes don't fit him anymore, but I can't find any others," the 30-year-old tells AFP.

Displaced Palestinian Nazek Abu Shmala washes clothes inside a flat in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip where she's temporarily sheltering with her family. Photo: AFP


Same headscarf

Children are not the only ones suffering from the lack of clothing in the Gaza Strip, which counted 900 textile factories in the industry's heyday in the early 1990s.

The sector employed 35,000 people and sent four million items to Israel every month. But those numbers have plummeted since 2007, when Hamas took power and Israel blockaded Gaza.

In recent years, Gaza's workshops had dwindled to about 100, employing about 4,000 people and shipping about 30,000-40,000 items a month to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

By January, three months into the war, the World Bank estimated that 79 per cent of Gaza's private sector establishments had been partially or totally destroyed.

Even the factories that are still standing have ground to a halt, after months without electricity in Gaza. Any fuel that arrives for generators is mainly used for hospitals and United Nations facilities such as warehouses and aid-supply points.

In these conditions, finding new clothes is a rare event.

"Some women have been wearing the same headscarf for the past 10 months," Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, posted on X.

Wearing the same clothes all the time is not just unpleasant, it is a health hazard. With limited water to wash them, disease-spreading lice abound.

Ahmed al-Masri, 29, left his home in the north of Gaza at the start of the war.

Today in Khan Yunis, in the south, he says he does not have any spare shoes or clothes.

"My shoes are extremely damaged. I've had them repaired at least 30 times, each time paying 10 times more than before the war," he says, his gaunt face burnt by the sun.


Rami weighs the clothes for a customer at a laundromat he opened to help displaced Palestinian launder their clothes for a nominal fee in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees. Photo: AFP


Walking barefoot

With two-thirds of Gaza's population living in poverty even before the war, many people were forced to sell their clothes once the conflict broke out and tanked the economy further.

But "there are no more shoes or clothes to sell", says Omar Abu Hashem, 25, who was displaced from Rafah, on the Egyptian border, to Khan Yunis further north.

Abu Hashem left his home in such a rush that he was unable to take anything with him. He has been wearing the same pair of shoes for five months, but only every other day.

"I share my pair of shoes with my brother-in-law," he explains.

On the days when he goes barefoot, he fears the worst, tiptoeing around the waste and rubble that carry diseases and contamination of all kinds.

Ahmed al-Masri, meanwhile, just wants some soap to wash his only T-shirt and pair of trousers.

"I have been wearing the same clothes for nine months. I have nothing else. I quickly wash my T-shirt and then I wait for it to dry," he says.

"And all this, without soap or detergent."

Darwin legacy voyage passes halfway mark

Jack Silver
BBC News, South West
DARWIN200
The tall ship is recreating Darwin's famous voyage aboard the Beagle

A tall ship recreating Charles Darwin's famous journey aboard the HMS Beagle has reached the halfway point of its voyage.

The 107-year-old Oosterschelde left Plymouth, in Devon, in August last year on a two-year journey around the globe.

The voyage is being used to train 200 young conservationists from around the world onboard the ship, which has been dubbed the "world's most exciting classroom".

Stewart McPherson, founder and project leader of Darwin200, said: "We're training the world's most amazing young conservationists to create leaders to change the world of tomorrow."

He said the "really intense" programme covered "a rainbow of subjects" from "marine iguanas in the Galapagos to parrots in south America".

The team also live stream lessons to schools around the world each week, Mr McPherson said.
DARWIN200
The journey is being used to train 200 young conservationists from around the world

The voyage recreates Darwin's trip onboard the Beagle as the ship's naturalist and captain's companion, which inspired him to develop the theory of natural selection.

In May this year it reached the Galapagos Islands, which played a pivotal role in Darwin's thinking about evolution.

Darwin, who was 22 when the ship set off on its five-year journey in 1831, had originally planned to be a clergyman.

However, observing differences between species across the individual islands of Galapagos, as well as his discovery of several extinct species of giant mammals in South America, caused him to question the biblical account of creation and eventually publish On the Origin of Species, his masterwork.

The team on the ship have been working with young conservationists to make scientific discoveries of their own.

Mr McPherson said one team had "rediscovered a lost species of gecko, that was thought to be extinct, another documented completely new behaviour in a species of octopus off the coast of Brazil".

He said a "bug survey" across several locations including Easter Island had also discovered "10 new species of invertebrates" and that "kids across the world" would be asked to help name the species.

The ship is currently sailing around the islands of the South Pacific before heading on to New Zealand and Australia later this year.
UK
Labour to ditch ‘blame culture’ over benefits bill, work and pensions minister says


Big reforms will be needed to get more people back to work, minister Liz Kendall says

Holly Bancroft
Social Affairs Correspondent
08/18/24
THE INDEPENDENT

Labour will end “divise rhetoric” and blame culture towards people on benefits, the new work and pensions secretary has said.

Liz Kendall has said that an overhaul is needed to get people back to work, warning that the increasing number of people needing financial support from the state is unsustainable.

Britain’s welfare bill is set to increase by £60bn over the next four years, according to analysis from think tank the Resolution Foundation. This has been driven by the growing number of people claiming disability or incapacity benefits and by guarantees for pensioners.

In an interview with The Observer, Ms Kendall said: “I do not think it’s sustainable when you’re seeing those levels of increases, but we can do something about it.”

She criticised the Tory government for “divisive rhetoric that blames people and doesn’t support them”.

In May, ministers opened a consultation on the disability support system PIP with ideas including replacing cash benefits with a voucher scheme and one-off grants.

Liz Kendall will also chair a child poverty taskforce with education secretary Bridget Phillipson (PA)

Ms Kendall added: “We’ve never seen more people written off. The last parliament was the worst for economic inactivity on record. It is for us to put this right. But we will need big reforms and big changes.

“I know people worry about this, but I want to say, we are on your side. We are not going to write you off and blame you. We take our responsibilities seriously. We’re going to bust a gut to give you the support you need to build a better life.”

Ms Kendall added: “All of the talk about strivers versus scroungers or shirkers - I think the people who really shirk their responsibility were the people who last sat in this office because they wrote off millions of people who actually want to work”.

She suggested that the current system that aims to help people back to work “is broken”. Ms Kendall said that her department would look at serious reforms to jobcentres, and connecting them to the NHS.

She said that work coaches need to get back to helping people back into employment rather than focusing on policing benefits.

According to calculations by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, there are now 4.2 million working-age individuals who are claiming a health-related benefit.

They predict that that number could rise to 5.4 million by 2028-29.

Ms Kendall has committed to a review of universal credit, new local-led plans to tackle economic inactivity and more support for 18-21-year-olds to find training or work.
SPACE

China’s commercial space sector takes off amid tech innovation push

August 19, 2024


XINHUA – As China forges ahead with its high-quality development, new quality productive forces are taking the centre stage.

One of the key players, the commercial space sector, is experiencing rapid growth and making a mark on the global stage.

In December 2023, Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology, better known as iSPACE, conducted another successful test of its own reusable launcher, marking a step toward a fully functional, domestically manufactured reusable rocket for China’s commercial spaceflight industry.

This private Chinese aerospace company is looking to catch up with the world’s most advanced rocket technologies.

“There is still a long way ahead. But we’re catching up fast,” vice manager of iSPACE Anna Choi told Xinhua.

In 2019, the Chinese startup successfully launched its SQX-1 Y1 rocket, sending two satellites into a 300-km circular orbit. It was the first time a private Chinese company managed to put a satellite into orbit. Its test on December 10 last year verified the Hyperbola-2Y as a reusable liquid oxygen and methane carrier rocket – the first of its kind in the country. It is part of an iSPACE plan to launch a reusable medium-lift rocket into orbit in late 2025.

Since its inception in 2016, the company’s staff has expanded from less than 10 to more than 400 people.

Choi said both the company and the industry are growing at a fast pace, propelled by technological innovation and catalysed by the government’s supportive policies.


Chinese commercial reusable rocket SQX-2Y at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China. PHOTO: Xinhua

iSPACE is one of several Chinese enterprises active in the commercial aerospace industry in recent years. The country has experienced an explosion of commercial space companies since 2014, driven by the government’s opening up of the sector to private capital.

According to media reports, in 2023 alone, the country’s private commercial spaceflight companies managed more than 10 successful launches.

Like iSPACE, most of these enterprises are headquartered in Beijing, attracted by the capital’s rich talent pool and supportive policies.

Beijing in February 2024 announced plans to establish a dedicated ‘Rocket Street’ as a research and production hub for advancement of the commercial aerospace sector.

Construction started last month at the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), located in a southeastern suburb of Beijing.

“Through the ‘Rocket Street’ programme, we hope to leverage the cluster advantage to facilitate the development of the sector,” said a BDA official. The capital city’s endeavour to foster the commercial aerospace sector comes amid the country’s efforts to develop new quality productive forces to help advance the world’s second-largest economy up the global value chain.

Developing commercial spaceflight was listed among the key areas for development in China’s government work report this year. These priorities, which also include bio-manufacturing, the low-attitude economy, quantum technology and life sciences, form part of the country’s agenda to pursue sustainable growth through developing strategically important and future-oriented industries.

Reflecting the rising level of government support, Choi said the municipal government provided subsidies for the commercial aerospace industry to set up innovation centres focusing on developing reusable rockets.

The government is also striving to encourage more private capital investment in this sector.

 

Historic milestone for Polish Space science as they successfully launch Eagleeye satellite

Copyright EBU.
By Euronews with AP
Published on 

Poland's space industry marks historical day.

Polish space science and technology reached a historical moment with the successful launch of the EagleEye satellite into Earth's orbit. Facilitated by SpaceX, the mission took place from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The EagleEye project, which began in April 2020, represents a collaborative effort between a consortium of industrial and scientific organisations.

Creotech Instruments S.A. leads the consortium, with contributions from Scanway Sp. z o.o. and the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which serves as the scientific partner.

The satellite is set to deliver high-resolution images of the Earth, providing data for research and monitoring purposes.

The mission is expected to last at least one year, whist its control center for EagleEye is situated at Creotech Instruments' headquarters in Warsaw. The satellite is to orbit the Earth at a low altitude, gradually descending from an initial height of approximately 500 kilometers to around 350 kilometers.

Barciński emphasised that this success was not guaranteed and marked an important milestone in the mission's progress.

EagleEye was designed entirely in Poland from the ground up. While acknowledging that not all components could be made locally, for example Poland does not yet manufacture microprocessors, Dr. Barciński stressed that the satellite is equipped with high range technology.


Senegal marks milestone with launch of first satellite


Copyright © africanewsJohn Raoux/Copyright 2024
 The AP. All rights reserved
By Rédaction Africanews
08/18/24

Senegal has marked an historic milestone with the successful launch of its first satellite from California on Friday evening.

It has become one of just 12 African nations with their own surveillance and telecommunications satellites in space.

The country’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said the move marks a major step towards Senegal’s “technological sovereignty”.

"I would like to express my pride and gratitude to all those who made this project possible," he said in a post on X.

Maram Kaïré, director of Senegal's space agency, described the launch as “an important step and a historic day in our country's progress and determination to become a space-faring nation”.

GAINDESAT-1A was built by Senegalese engineers in collaboration with France’s Montpellier University Space Centre.

The nanosatellite was launched into orbit, together with 115 others, from the Vandenberg base in California using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

It will be used to collect data for various state agencies including those dealing with water resources, civil aviation, and meteorology.

Right on schedule: Physicists use modeling to forecast a black hole's feeding patterns with precision



The dramatic dimming of a light source ~ 860 million light-years away from Earth confirms the accuracy of a detailed model developed by a team of astrophysicists from Syracuse University, MIT and the Space Telescope Science Institute.



Syracuse University

Star shedding stellar debris as it orbits a supermassive black hole 

image: 

Digital illustration of a star shedding stellar debris as it orbits a supermassive black hole. This artist’s impression represents the center of a galaxy about 860 million light-years from Earth.

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Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss




Powerful telescopes like NASA’s Hubble, James Webb, and Chandra X-ray Observatory provide scientists a window into deep space to probe the physics of black holes. While one might wonder how you can “see” a black hole, which famously absorbs all light, this is made possible by tidal disruption events (TDEs) - where a star is destroyed by a supermassive black hole and can fuel a “luminous accretion flare.” With luminosities thousands of billions of times brighter than the Sun, accretion events enable astrophysicists to study supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at cosmological distances.

TDEs occur when a star is violently ripped apart by a black hole’s immense gravitational field. As the star is shredded, its remnants are transformed into a stream of debris that rains back down onto the black hole to form a very hot, very bright disk of material swirling around the black hole, called an accretion disc. Scientists can study these to make direct observations of TDEs, and compare those to theoretical models to relate observations to physical properties of disrupted stars and their disrupting black holes.

A team of physicists from Syracuse University, MIT and the Space Telescope Science Institute used detailed modeling to predict the brightening and dimming of AT2018fyk, which is a repeating partial TDE, meaning the high-density core of the star survived the gravitational interaction with the SMBH, allowing it to orbit the black hole and be shredded more than once. The model predicted that AT2018fyk would “dim” in August 2023, a forecast which was confirmed when the source went dark last summer, providing evidence that their model delivers a new way to probe the physics of black holes. Their results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.  

A High Energy Source

Thanks to incredibly detailed extragalactic surveys, scientists are monitoring more coming and going light sources than ever before. Surveys pan entire hemispheres in search of sudden brightening or dimming of sources, which tells researchers that something has changed. Unlike the telescope in your living room that can only focus visible light, telescopes such as Chandra can detect light sources in what’s referred to as the X-ray spectrum emitted from material that is millions of degrees in temperature.

Visible light and X-rays are both forms of electromagnetic radiation, but X-rays have shorter wavelengths and more energy. Similar to the way in which your stove becomes “red hot” after you turn it on, the gas comprising a disc “glows” at different temperatures, with the hottest material closest to the black hole. However, instead of radiating its energy at optical wavelengths visible to the eye, the hottest gas in an accretion disc emits in the X-ray spectrum. These are the same X-rays used by doctors to image your bones and that can pass through soft tissue, and because of this relative transparency, the detectors used by NASA X-ray telescopes are specifically designed to detect this high-energy radiation.'

A Repeat Performance

In January 2023, a team of physicists, including Eric Coughlin, a professor at Syracuse University’s Department of Physics, Dheeraj R. “DJ” Pasham, a research scientist at MIT, and Thomas Wevers, a Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute, published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that proposed a detailed model for a repeating partial TDE. Their results were the first to map a star’s surprising return orbit about a supermassive black hole – revealing new information about one of the cosmos’ most extreme environments.

The team based their study on a TDE known as AT2018fyk (AT stands for “Astrophysical Transient”), where a star was proposed to be captured by a SMBH through an exchange process known as “Hills capture.” Originally part of a binary system (two stars that orbit one another under their mutual gravitational attraction), one of the stars was hypothesized to have been captured by the gravitational field of the black hole and the other (non-captured) star was ejected from the center of the galaxy at speeds comparable to ~ 1000 km/s.

Once bound to the SMBH, the star powering the emission from AT2018fyk has been repeatedly stripped of its outer envelope each time it passes through its point of closest approach with the black hole. The stripped outer layers of the star form the bright accretion disk, which researchers can study using X-Ray and Ultraviolet /Optical telescopes that observe light from distant galaxies.

While TDEs are usually “once-and-done” because the extreme gravitational field of the SMBH destroys the star, meaning that the SMBH fades back into darkness following the accretion flare, AT2018fyk offered the unique opportunity to probe a repeating partial TDE.

The research team has used a trio of telescopes to make the initial and follow-up detections: Swift and Chandra, both operated by NASA, and XMM-Newton, which is a European mission. First observed in 2018, AT2018fyk is ~ 870 million light years away, meaning that because of the time it takes light to travel, it happened in “real time” ~ 870 million years ago.

The team used detailed modeling to forecast that the light source would abruptly disappear around August 2023 and brighten again when the freshly stripped material accretes onto the black hole in 2025.

Model Validation

Confirming the accuracy of their model, the team reported an X-ray drop in flux over a span of two months, starting on August 14, 2023. This sudden change can be interpreted as the second emission shutoff.

“The observed emission shutoff shows that our model and assumptions are viable, and suggests that we are really seeing a star being slowly devoured by a distant and very massive black hole,” says Coughlin. “In our paper last year, we used constraints from the initial outburst, dimming and rebrightening to predict that AT2018fyk should display a sudden and rapid dimming in August of 2023, if the star survived the second encounter that fueled the second brightening.”

The fact that the system displayed this predicted shutoff therefore implies several distinctions about the star and the black hole:

  • the star survived its second encounter with the black hole;
  • the rate of return of stripped debris to the black hole is tightly coupled to the brightness of AT2018fyk;
  • and the orbital period of the star about the black hole is ~ 1300 days, or about 3.5 years.

The second cutoff implies that another rebrightening should happen between May and August of 2025, and if the star survived the second encounter, a third shutoff is predicted to occur between January and July of 2027.

As for whether we can count on seeing a rebrightening in 2025, Coughlin says the detection of a second cutoff implies that the star has had more mass freshly stripped, which should return to the black hole to produce a third brightening.

“The only uncertainty is in the peak of the emission,” he says. “The second re-brightened peak was considerably dimmer than the first, and it is, unfortunately, possible that the third outburst will be dimmer still. This is the only thing that would limit the detectability of this third outburst.”

Coughlin notes that this model signifies an exciting new way to study the incredibly rare occurrences of repeating partial TDEs, which are believed to take place once every million years in a given galaxy. To date, he says scientists have encountered only four to five systems that display this behavior.

“With the advent of improved detection technology uncovering more repeating partial TDEs, we anticipate that this model will be an essential tool for scientists in identifying these discoveries,” he says.

X-ray and optical image of AT2018fyk (IMAGE)

Syracuse University


Backyard stargazers find object moving 1 million mph


The Event Horizon Project on May 12, 2022, released the first image of at the Milky Way black hole Sagittarius A*. 
Photo by EHT Collaboration/Twitter

Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Backyard stargazers have discovered an object moving at more than a million mph through space, an interstellar phenomenon that typically takes the resources of high-tech observatories, the smartest scientists and high-dollar research to see, NASA announced Thursday.

Interstellar enthusiasts working on NASA's Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project helped discover an object moving so quickly that it will defy the Milky Way's gravity and jettison into intergalactic space.

"This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or less than that of a small star," NASA said in a release about the discovery.

"I can't describe the level of excitement," said Kabatnik, a citizen scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. "When I first saw how fast it was moving, I was convinced it must have been reported already."

Kabatnik was part of the Backyard Worlds team, which uses images from NASA's WISE, or Wide Field Infrared Explorer, mission, which mapped the sky in infrared light from 2009 to 2011.

It was in analyzing this data that Kabatnik and other enthusiasts, Thomas P. Bickle, and Dan Caselden, located the object, known cryptically as CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, streaking faintly across the sky.

CWISE also stands out for its low mass, NASA said, making it difficult to classify as a celestial body and may best be described as a brown dwarf. Backyard Worlds teams have discovered as many as 4,000 of those, but none traveling so fast that it will slip the bonds of gravity and shoot into intergalactic space.

There are a few hypotheses as to why CWISE J1249 is traveling so fast. One is that it is the remnant of a white dwarf that exploded, and another is that it came from a group of stars called a globular cluster, and a chance meeting with a pair of black holes sent it soaring away.

"When a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster," Kyle Kremer, incoming assistant professor in UC San Diego's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics said in the NASA release.

NASA and astronomers continue to seek backyard stargazers all over the world who want to volunteer to help in efforts to discover similar wonders in the future.

Scientists have also relied on backyard researchers to help battle the effects of climate change.