AI-generated party video has Khan claiming victory in Pakistan election

AFP
February 10 2024 

An autorickshaw with a party poster for jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in Peshawar, a day after Pakistan's election (Abdul MAJEED)

An AI-generated video released Saturday by the party of jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has him claiming victory in the country's election.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) defied a months-long crackdown that crippled campaigning and forced candidates to run as independents in Thursday's vote, but their showing stunned observers.

A slow counting process showed independents had won at least 99 seats -- 88 of them loyal to Khan -- by Saturday morning.

The army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took 71 and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) snapped up 53 -- with minor parties taking the rest and 15 of the elected 266-seat National Assembly still to be announced.

"I congratulate you all on winning the 2024 elections. I strongly believed in you all, that you would go out to vote," Khan is credited as saying in the AI video shared early Saturday on his X profile -- the fourth his party has produced.

Khan's physical appearance is from a genuine video clip recorded last year, but his voice and speech are artificially generated.

Khan's party redefined election campaigning in Pakistan with its social media "rallies" and use of artificial intelligence technology.

TV channels are prohibited from mentioning Khan's name or showing video clips of him, and the party was barred from holding in-person rallies.

Instead, PTI media staff took the party's election campaign online, holding YouTube and TikTok "rallies" -- despite authorities regularly blocking internet access when they did so.

The strategy is widely credited with earning independent candidates loyal to PTI the youth vote, contributing significantly to their success.

bur-fox/sco

'Restaurant of Love' helps feed Tunis homeless


Aymen Jamli
Fri, 9 February 2024 

Leila and another Tunis homeless person share the Friday night dinner offered by the 'Restaurant of Love' (FETHI BELAID)

On a corner by the entrance to Tunis zoo, Leila waits for a hot meal from the Tunisian capital's "Restaurant of Love" in a cardboard shelter where she and her dogs sleep.

The 50-year-old says she has been living on the streets for more than 27 years.

"I don't want to go to the shelter centres," and feels safer in her makeshift abode, despite the dangers of robbery and violence on the street, she says as she fixes a plastic cover over her bed for the cold winter night.

Leila is always happy to see the volunteers from the NGOs Universelle and Samu Social when they bring her food and clothing every Friday night.

For the rest of the week, she often has to make do with no more than a tin of sardines.

The Friday night meal is from the kitchen of the "Restaurant of Love", a charitable initiative launched by Universelle three years ago to help feed the growing number of Tunis' homeless.

There are no official data on the exact number of people living on the streets in the capital, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds.

- 'First of its kind' -

The "Restaurant of Love" is the "first of its kind" in Tunisia, says Nizar Khadhari, the 39-year-old head of Universelle.

The idea is simple -- a regular eatery affordable for everyone, with a plate of pasta costing just 4.5 dinars or $1.40.

Homeless people can eat there for free -- accounting for around 30 percent of the 400-450 meals served there every day.

But paying customers can also make donations in a tin by the cash register to help cover the costs.

"All profits go to the homeless, and we also employ some of them... We try to motivate them to return and integrate into society," says Khadhari.

"The economic situation is hitting this vulnerable group of people particularly hard," says Khadhari, who predicts that the number of rough sleepers in the capital will continue to grow "due to rising prices and a lack of job opportunities".

According to World Bank data, growth of the North African country's highly indebted economy stood at just 1.2 percent in 2023, while inflation stood at 8.3 percent in 2022.

And with the economic woes exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and soaring food prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine, poverty rates are on the rise in the population of 12 million.

According to official statistics, the poverty rate in Tunisia stood at 16.6 percent nationwide in 2021 but was nearer 25 percent in rural areas.

Many Tunisians flee the poorer regions in the interior of the country to coastal cities in the hope of finding work.

But with no luck when they get there, they often find themselves with nowhere to live.

- 'No solution' -

Some are kicked out by their families or suffer from mental health problems and can often only find shelter in a metro or bus station.

Sabri, a man in his thirties who makes a living selling paper handkerchiefs on the street, says he has repeatedly tried to kill himself.

"I'm tired of being on the street for 20 years," he says, and sees "no solution" in sight.

Last year, Tunisia's ministry of social affairs said it helped 223 homeless people in the greater Tunis area. But in other areas of the country, such help is non-existent.

"The economic impact on vulnerable people cannot be ignored, and there are programmes to help them," said Rafik Bouktif, a ministry of social affairs official who heads a shelter centre in Tunis.

The centre is home to about 50 people and has a budget of 400,000 dinars ($128,000) to work with Universelle and Samu Social in the greater Tunis region.

"Combining state resources with those of NGOs is a sure way of reaching more people," says Bouktif.

Nevertheless, "while ambitions are great, the means remain limited".

The "Restaurant of Love" recently moved from the outskirts of the city to downtown Tunis. And the paying customers -- from all walks of life -- think it's a great idea.

"We eat while we feed others," says Asmaa, a government worker who eats there every day after finding out about it on social media.

ayj/bou/srk/spm

How Toyota accelerated past the electric car slowdown

Matt Oliver
Fri, 9 February 2024 

Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda believes electric cars will never account for more than a third of the market - Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Speaking to Toyota employees last month, Akio Toyoda sounded slightly bruised.

The chairman of the world’s biggest car maker described how he had been “beaten up” by critics for refusing to bet all his company’s chips on electric vehicles (EVs).

Instead, he has doggedly championed a so-called multi-pathway approach that spans EVs, hybrids and even hydrogen-powered cars.


The decision has infuriated climate activists who once praised Toyota for its eco-friendly Prius hatchback, while even industry insiders have wondered whether the company is making a strategic blunder.

“It’s really hard to fight alone,” Toyoda said to staff, according to a translation of his January remarks.

But now the industrialist’s rivals are looking on in envy, as a slowdown in EV sales has left his company in pole position to capitalise on a surge in demand for hybrids.

Toyota sold 10.3 million cars in 2023, an increase of 7.7pc compared to a year earlier.

The total included a combined 3.5 million hybrids and plug-in hybrids – a year-on-year increase of 32pc – but only 104,000 EVs.

For the year to the end of March, the Japanese giant is now forecasting profits of 4.5 trillion yen (£24bn), up from 2.5 trillion yen previously.

Yoichi Miyazaki, executive vice president at Toyota, said hybrids were even selling strongly in China – the world’s biggest market and producer of EVs.

“As a realistic solution, hybrids are still favoured by our customers,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, rival manufacturers that have driven further ahead with EVs are now pumping the brakes, with Ford, Volkswagen and General Motors among those scaling back production.

After successfully targeting early adopters, they are finding the mass market much tougher to crack – with many consumers still put off by high prices and worries about charging infrastructure.

“EVs have soaked up all of the early adopter and wealthy demand,” explains Andrew Bergbaum, an automotive expert at consultancy AlixPartners.

“But the costs still haven’t come down to the point where they’ve reached the mass market prices you see with internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.

“Hybrids are also considerably cheaper [than EVs], because the batteries in them are so much smaller.

“Once you couple that with range anxiety and concerns about EV resale values, it’s a fairly understandable market phenomenon.”

Alongside the cheaper upfront cost compared to EVs, automotive analysts say drivers also like the fact their hybrids get more out of each tank of petrol.

Toyota’s Prius, first launched in 1997, became one of the most popular hybrid cars, with the model notching up more than five million sales globally.

The company and other proponents have long argued hybrids are an ideal bridge between petrol-only cars and pure EVs, with Toyota’s chairman noting that the company serves many markets around the world that cannot progress as quickly with electrification as Japan and the West.

In his remarks to staff last month, Toyoda noted that one billion people around the world still live in areas without electricity. “So a single [EV] option cannot provide transportation for everyone,” he is said to have added.

His critics, including Greenpeace, charge that hybrids cannot deliver a fast enough drop in emissions globally to stop catastrophic climate change, however.

None the less, even in the West the biggest barriers to EV adoption remain high prices and unevenly distributed charging infrastructure.

While a new, petrol-fuelled version of the Vauxhall Corsa – one of the UK’s most popular cars – will set you back £19,000, the EV variant costs £34,000, according to MoneySavingExpert.

Meanwhile, governments are failing to hold up their end of the bargain by ensuring there is always somewhere to charge.

The UK vowed to roll out at least six high-power charging stations to every motorway service area in England by the end of last year but missed the target woefully – with only two in five service areas meeting this standard.

Meanwhile, early adopters of EVs have been hit with sky-high insurance premiums and rapid falls in value, with used prices expected to fall by as much as half over three years.

Against this backdrop, hybrids are proving hugely popular, with sales currently growing faster than those of EVs in some markets.

UK sales of hybrids and plug-in hybrids surged 31pc higher to a combined 380,253 cars last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). This grew their total market share from 17.9pc to 20pc.

By comparison, sales of EVs climbed 18pc to 314,687 – but their market share shrank from 16.6pc to 16.5pc.

Over the same period, sales of hybrids in the European Union surged 30pc higher to 2.7 million units as well, fuelled by demand in Germany, France and Spain.

And while the UK and the EU are both set to ban sales of hybrids from 2035, a much bigger market is set to remain open for longer: China.

In Western markets, hybrids often sell for a few thousand dollars more than petrol cars but in China this trend has been flipped – with some auto giants selling them for 20pc less than their combustion engine counterparts.

Last year, while the number of EVs bought in China surged 38pc to 6.68 million, the number of plug-in hybrids rocketed 85pc higher to 2.8 million.

“While pure battery-powered EVs are leading the transition… sales data suggest consumers are increasingly demanding various types of hybrid vehicles that burn fossil fuels as backup,” Ernan Cui, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, told The Nikkei in Japan.

What’s more, Toyota’s current hybrid advantage is not easily replicated. It takes between five and seven years to develop a new car, notes AlixPartner’s Bergbaum.

“So decisions made years ago really determine when you’re going to launch a car,” he explains. “You change that but really only by a year or so.”

Manufacturers can adjust their EV production lines, however.

“But if you don’t have a hybrid in development or production at the moment, you’re probably not going to create one – because the investment is so huge.”

Toyota’s strategy also includes continued investment in hydrogen cars, but has met far less success so far with the launch of its Mirai model. Hydrogen cars use a fuel cell instead of a battery, relying on a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen for propulsion.

Like petrol vehicles, they can in theory be refilled extremely quickly. “But if you’ve actually bought one in Europe, you will find it very difficult to fill up,” Bergbaum adds.

Still, he argues, critics are wrong to charge that Toyota has taken no interest in EVs. While climate activists accuse the company of foot-dragging, it is still investing $35bn in the technology up to 2030.

By then it is hoping to have around 30 electric car models available, or around one quarter of its current lineup. At the moment just one has gone on sale, the bZ4X SUV, with underwhelming results.

A Toyota spokesman says the company “sees carbon as the enemy, not a single power-train”, adding: “Multiple solutions are offered that deliver carbon reduction – a mix of battery-electric vehicles, [plug-in hybrids], [fuel cell cars] and [hybrids] so that customers can choose what best suits them considering availability of renewable energy, infrastructure, government policy and price point.”

The company says it aims to have 10 EV models on the market by 2026, when it expects sales to reach 1.5m a year.

The bZ4X SUV is Toyota's only electric car available so far - Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Last year Toyota claimed it had made a technological breakthrough that could cut the cost, size and weight of batteries in half – a potential game-changer.

Bosses say these solid-state batteries will deliver a 20pc improvement in so-called cruising range, for example motorway driving, and will be charged in 10 minutes or less. They are aiming to have the technology on the roads by 2027.

Should the hybrid gold rush dry up, Toyota will need this kind of innovation to distinguish itself in what is now becoming a very crowded field of EVs.

A particular threat to the company will come from China. “If you’re asking whether it was canny to have the multi-propulsion strategy and invest in solid state, it looks like it might have been,” says Bergbaum.

“But I don’t think this game has fully played out yet. Because the Chinese are now coming and selling cars that are quasi-commensurate in price to a standard ICE.

“So I think we’re soon going to see a very different dynamic in the European market.”

With emission rules also continuing to ramp up – the UK’s zero emission vehicle mandate began this year, tightening the screws on manufacturers – Toyota may also come under pressure from governments to move faster into EVs.

But that isn’t something that appeared to worry chairman Toyoda when he spoke to staff last month.

“I think this is something that customers and the market will decide,” he said. “Not regulatory values or political power.”

UK

Train companies set for bonuses after performance standards lowered


Gareth Corfield
Fri, 9 February 2024 

Passengers walk past a Thameslink train

Train companies are set to earn bonus payments from the Government after performance standards were lowered to make them easier to meet.

Transport ministers have eased targets for areas including hygiene, staff helpfulness and graffiti after some railway companies struggled to meet them.

The Department for Transport (DfT) sets performance benchmarks for rail companies that are then monitored by the Office for Rail and Road (ORR), the watchdog.


Meeting those standards is part of the criteria for receiving millions of pounds in bonus performance payments from the Government.

However, The Telegraph understands that officials have reduced the so-called “service quality regime” targets because operators are failing to meet them.

The targets were introduced 18 months ago in a DfT drive to make train companies pay more attention to the condition of stations and platforms.

ORR inspectors mark companies’ performance, as well as taking into account mystery shopper scores for customer service quality, and responses to questions asked on social media.

Thameslink failed to meet seven out of the nine targets in the first year, 2022-23. All seven – including customer service, station information and cleanliness – were then lowered the next year.
Benchmark system criticised

Thameslink’s owners can earn up to £22.9 million per year in bonus payments paid from taxpayer money if they meet the service quality benchmarks as well as train punctuality targets set by ministers.

A company spokesman said: “Our absolute focus is on providing improved services for our customers, as demonstrated by nine out of 10 trains arriving within five minutes of their scheduled time in the year to March 2023.”

The operator Southeastern also had some performance targets slashed after failing to meet the higher standard for the same year, with the expected standard for cleanliness and graffiti reduced from 86 per cent to 54 per cent.

The operator has so far failed to meet the lower standards but is not eligible for performance bonus payments because it is nationalised.

A Southeastern spokesman said: “We will continue to work with the Department for Transport to target further improvements and we expect our service quality regime assessments to improve throughout the year as we work to build a better, more reliable and sustainable railway.”

The service quality benchmark system itself has been criticised for industry figures who claim that ratings do not accurately reflect the state of Britain’s trains and railway stations.

A source from a major passenger rail operator described the Government’s service quality regime framework as “just bonkers”, saying: “They were brought in with the best of intentions … but for example the hygiene requirements don’t bear any resemblance to what a clean or well-kept station looks like.”
Labour commitment to renationalisation

The source said that a missing paper roll in a set of station lavatories can trigger a “fail” rating under the service quality rating system, even if the rest of the facilities are clean and serviceable.

Labour has committed to renationalising passenger train companies, with Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, saying last month: “I’ll be setting out our plans, actually in just two or three weeks’ time, which will demonstrate how we’ll save money and how that money will bring those operators into public ownership, all of them, within the first term of a Labour government.”

She told GB News: “There’s absolutely no compensation provided to the operators.”

Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, has rejected the idea of full state ownership as a fix for the railways’ problems, which include ongoing strikes by the Aslef trade union on pay rises for drivers.

The Government said that the union rejected a pay deal that would have seen these salaries rise from £60,000 to an average of £65,000.

Speaking to a Conservative conference a few weeks ago, Mr Harper said: “I think there is a role for the state in setting the overall regulatory structure for the rail network. But you also need to have it working in partnership with the private sector. And I think there’s a role for both.”

Last year the railways needed £12 billion in public subsidies to function, with £4.4 billion of that sum going to passenger train companies.

That sum has fallen from the £19.4 billion required to prevent the railways from collapsing in 2020-21, during the worst of the Covid pandemic, but remains higher than the £7.4 billion needed in 2019.

A DfT spokesman said: “Performance should be assessed through targets that are achievable and incentivise operators to deliver concrete improvements that benefit passengers.”

SPACE

Cosmic dust from ‘zombie’ galaxies could form planets and life


Sarah Knapton
Sat, 10 February 2024 

A spiral galaxy, located 30 million light-years away from Earth, is seen from the James Webb Space Telescope - NASA

Stars exploding in “zombie” galaxies produce cosmic dust that could form planets and even life, scientists have discovered.

Elliptical galaxies - known as “red and dead”, or “zombie” galaxies - consist of old stars that lack the energy to explode in the intense supernovae that create the building blocks of planets.

Yet observations by Cardiff University found that many “dead” galaxies were surprisingly dusty.


To find out what might be causing the unexpected cosmic dust, astronomers studied the aftermath of a low energy supernova in an elliptical galaxy more than 300 million light years away.

The original star had been part of a binary star system and the team found that when it exploded, the shock wave crashed into material cast off by itself and its sister star, causing dust to form.

The findings reveal a new source for the tiny particles of cosmic matter thought to be the building blocks of the small bodies of gas and dust known as planetesimals, and ultimately rocky planets and even life across the universe.

Prof Haley Gomez, Head of Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “One of the fundamental questions in astronomy is: what types of stars form dust? We thought we had a pretty good answer to this until ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory hinted at the existence of some puzzling elliptical galaxies around 10 years ago.

“Sometimes called red and dead or zombie galaxies, ellipticals are different to spirals like the Milky Way – they are made up of swarms of stars and they do not have core-collapse explosions – and yet Cardiff astronomers discovered a whole host that were extremely dusty.

‌“Our new study shows that only 1,041 days after the explosion, a huge amount of cosmic dust was formed, equivalent to 1 per cent of our Sun’s mass.

‌“This may offer an explanation for the abundance of dust we see in these strange elliptical galaxies.”

‌Cosmic dust, just like dust on Earth, is made from molecules that have condensed and stuck together to form a grain. Over time more and more can come together to form planets.

‌The team used space-based telescopes including Nasa’s Spitzer and Neowise missions, and ground-based facilities in China, South America, and Australia to observe the zombie supernova explosion over three years.

‌Data showed that the visible light from the supernova grew dimmer over time, suggesting the newly formed dust was starting to screen out its glow. Meanwhile the infrared glow of dust grew brighter.

‌Prof Gomez added: “Our study shows that the explosive material from the supernova needs to interact with a companion, in this case a younger, slightly more massive star in order to create a lot of dust.”

‌Until now researchers had focused their search for so-called dust factories on Type II supernovae – massive stars which explode at the end of their short lives through a process known as core collapse.

Prof Andy Howell from Las Cumbres Observatory and the University of California Santa Barbara‌ said: “The creation of dust is just gas getting cold enough to condense.”

‌“One day that dust will condense into planetesimals and, ultimately, planets. This is creation starting anew in the wake of stellar death. It is exciting to understand another link in the circle of life and death in the universe.”

‌The new research was published in Nature Astronomy.

Philippines landslide toll jumps to 54 dead

Manila (AFP) – The death toll from a massive Philippine landslide near a gold mine abruptly rose to 54 on Sunday, local officials said.

Issued on: 11/02/2024 -

The landslide buried a bus terminal for employees of a gold mining firm and 55 nearby houses 

© Renante Naparan / AFP

Nineteen bodies were recovered from beneath the rubble in the southern mountain village of Masara on Sunday, with 63 other miners and residents still missing, said the municipality of Maco, and provincial disaster official Randy Loy.

The previous death toll given stood at 35.

The landslide buried a bus terminal for employees of a gold mining firm and 55 nearby houses on Tuesday night, leaving 32 other people injured.

Rocks, mud and trees slid more than 700 metres (2,300 feet) down a steep mountainside near the Apex Mining Co. concession, burying an 8.9-hectare (22-acre) section of the Masara community.

A three-year-old girl was pulled alive from under the rubble on Friday, in what rescuers described as a "miracle".

The authorities have vowed to continue the search until everyone listed as missing is recovered.

Landslides are a frequent hazard across much of the archipelago nation due to the mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall and widespread deforestation from mining, slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging.

Rain has pounded parts of the southern region on and off for weeks, triggering dozens of landslides and floods that have forced tens of thousands of people into emergency shelters.

Massive earthquakes have also destabilised the region in recent months.

© 2024 AFP

‘A tornado of fire’: How El Niño sparked Chile’s worst firestorm


Harriet Barber
Sat, 10 February 2024 

Firefighters mobilise to tackle the firestorm that hit Viña del Mar in Valparaíso - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

The Valparaíso region of Chile is wealthy and densely populated, but last Friday there was little to warn residents living in the green hills and valleys that a firestorm packing the power of several hydrogen bombs was to hit.

Fabiola Camilla, a 31-year-old mother of two, watched her seven-year-old daughter playing at her birthday party. She recalled nothing out of the ordinary, other than the warm, dry weather the currents of El Niño had brought to an area known locally as the Jewel of the Pacific.

There was also a fierce wind, said Misael Vergara Tapia, a resident of the neighbouring village of Achupallas. “A hot wind … a wind we had never felt before.”


From this idyll erupted hell. Moments later, fire was leaping from house to house, setting entire neighbourhoods ablaze and threatening the lives of thousands. “It was like a tornado of fire,” said Misael, 67. “In five minutes, you couldn’t see more than half a metre in front of you. Everyone was shouting, calling for their family. People died on the streets, in their cars.”

The wildfire is the worst disaster to hit Chile for more than a decade. At least 131 people have died, with a further 370 still missing. The hillside neighbourhoods it ripped through, destroying more 15,000 homes, are now a scorched wasteland of broken cement and steel.

Flames leapt from house to house, setting entire neighbourhoods alight - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

Misael searched throughout the night of the fire for his brother. “I was turning over the bodies to see if I knew them. I saw children who had died hugging each other. Later, animals were eating the bodies,” he said. “We didn’t find my brother Patricio until the next day. The roof had collapsed and he had become trapped inside. We found him hugging his dog.”

Firestorms of this magnitude are a terrifying phenomenon, moving so fast and with such energy that they can kill people hundreds of metres away through radiant heat alone. But it is not unique.

Hawaii, California, France, Portugal, Canada, Greece and Australia have all been hit in recent years. In July 2022, when temperatures reached 40C for the first time in the UK, the residents of Wennington in east London witnessed nearly 20 houses burn down in a matter of minutes. The spark was a compost heap that had spontaneously combusted.

Experts are now asking: What’s causing these infernos? And is there anything that can be done to stop them?

Misael Vergara Tapia's brother perished in the fire. He was found trapped in their business holding his dog - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

Chile’s forest fire, like most, was preceded by unusually high temperatures, low humidity, and strong winds.

The blaze started at midday in forested mountainous areas, and by the afternoon had swept northwards into the city of Viña del Mar, home to 330,000 people, and the smaller urban areas of Quilpué, Limache, and Villa Alemana.

Locals say they received no official warnings or alerts, or that they came too late. Chile’s national disaster response service said alerts were sent but that they did not order people to evacuate. By 5.30pm, the fires were igniting people’s homes.

“The electricity went off and alarms started ringing,” recalled Fabiola. “We started to see smoke and ashes were falling everywhere. It happened in minutes.”

Viviana Mateluna, 44, lived next to a bus station. “All the buses began exploding and the electricity cables. We thought we were being bombed,” she said.

The former bus station neighbouring Viviana's home - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

At the botanical gardens, which are closer to the forested areas, four people died; employee Patricia, along with her 92-year-old mother and two grandchildren, aged one and nine - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

The hills are characterised by narrow roads and cul-de-sacs, and have few exits. As people jumped into their cars to escape, deadly traffic jams quickly formed. Firefighters couldn’t get in, while the valleys magnified the winds, fanning the storm.

“Our home is in a dip and we didn’t have time to leave. We were trapped in,” said Fabiola. “The flames were coming. It was all black, we were like blind people.”

Some did not want to leave, choosing to stay and protect their homes with buckets of water. Many were also elderly, unable to move quickly on foot.

“My fiancé’s grandfather Osmán didn’t want to leave, and my fiancé was trying to convince him,” said Nicolás Carrallo Gontález, aged 24. “But our five-month-old daughter was struggling to breathe, she lost consciousness … I picked her up, wrapped her in a blanket, and ran.”

Dozens of people were found incinerated in the streets, in their homes, and in their cars.

Nicolás returned to find his fiancé’s grandfather, Osmán, dead on the stairs outside his home. “We never saw the body of his wife, but the authorities said they found her trapped by some cars,” he said.

“There was a lot of death here. My neighbour lost two children, they were seven and five, and her father,” said Fabiola.

Fabiola said she did not receive any warning, until smoke and ashes began falling around her - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

The aftermath of the fires in Viña del Mar - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

Wildfires have become three times as common in Chile in recent years, according to a recent report in Nature.

Officials say some are started intentionally and that extreme weather conditions – “fire weather” – are responsible for their rapid spread.

“Fires are increasing due to the combination of El Niño and global warming,” said Dr Raúl Cordero, climate professor at the University of Groningen and the University of Santiago.

“The years where fires are more frequent are the years of El Niño. The effects of global warming on the weather cannot be ignored anymore.”

Dr Cordero says that the main anomaly on the day of last week’s inferno was the extreme temperatures. “In the epicentre, on Friday and Saturday, it was 36 degrees – a likely all-time record for this city,” he said.

Valparaíso’s mountainous terrain also drives the winds, with speeds last Friday exceeding 40 km per hour.

“These ravines accelerate the wind,” said Marcelo Ruiz, an urban planning expert who lives in the Valparaíso region. “They function as a chimney, reducing the space in which the wind can move.”

Residents attempt to douse flames on a house - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

Large forests – which are dominated by non-native and highly flammable trees – have also been planted nearby for logging and paper production, and quickly became engulfed.

Chile has invested heavily in its fire service in recent years but – as other countries have also found – it is not enough.

“It’s impossible to stop fires while the weather conditions are increasing,” Dr Cordero said. “California, where resources are not a problem, has been unable to stop the fires. Canada, where resources are not a problem, has been unable to stop the fires.”

What can be done, he said, is improving urban planning for the new age of fire weather and the emergency response.

Mr Ruiz agreed: “When people were trying to escape, all the exits were blocked with cars trying to escape. The neighbourhoods were traps.

“We need to build roads and fire departments in the borders of the neighbourhoods, we can’t expect private developments to do this.”

Firestorms of this magnituds can kill people hundreds of metres away through radiant heat alone - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

Little remains of Valparaíso’s scorched neighbourhoods.

Thousands are living in tents or under tarpaulin. Chilean flags mark former homes, and lists of names and ages of occupants hang on surviving gates. For those searching for relatives there are lists of the missing and the known dead.

Standing on the foundations of her former home, Ruth González Jara, 65, said she is astounded by the support of Chilean people.

Ruth’s home of 30 years has been decimated. All that remains of her dog, Toribio, is his teeth and a burnt paw, while the cages of her eight yellow canaries melted together.

“People from Santiago [the capital] come every day to help us. They are anonymous people, they are strangers. They don’t know us but they come every day to help,” she said.

Ruth González Jara, 65, whose house was destroyed - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

People from Santiago travel into the neighbourhoods delivering food and construction materials - Cristobal Basaure/The Telegraph

Chile is a high-income country, with the highest GDP per capita in Latin America.

Nonetheless, on Thursday president Gabriel Boric called for financial support and announced a national reconstruction fund. “Reconstruction won’t be easy. We are going to need a lot of economic help,” he said. “The state is going to put everything it has into it, but cooperation – from Chile or abroad – is welcome.”

But for now, and for many, the priority is to find and identify the dead.

Families wait desperately at the forensic medical service for news and to give their DNA. Every thirty minutes, someone comes to collect a body.

Rafael Gallard, from El Olivar, arrived on Thursday afternoon to collect his father’s remains.

“I ran to find my daughter and left my car at home. My father went to find me; we crossed paths,” he said, his voice cracking. “He saw my car, thought I was inside the house and went inside to get me. Then he couldn’t escape and burnt.

“He gave his life trying to save me.”

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UK

'Dangerous' turtle that can bite through bone found in Cumbria

Sky News
Updated Sat, 10 February 2024 


A "dangerous" turtle with a jaw strong enough to bite through bone has been found in Cumbria - and given an unexpected name by vets caring for it.

Alligator snapping turtles are native to rivers and swamps in Florida, and are recognisable thanks to their armour-like shells, which give them a pre-historic, dinosaur-like appearance.

After a number of sightings, the freshwater reptile was retrieved from beside Urswick Tarn by local parish councillor Denise Chamberlain - who put the animal in a shopping basket and took it to a vet.

Dr Dom Moule told Sky News that he was "really surprised" when Cllr Chamberlain brought the turtle in.

He thought the mysterious reptile would be a loggerhead turtle or a terrapin. "I did not expect in the slightest for it to be an alligator snapping turtle," he said.

It was probably dumped by an exotic pet owner who didn't realise how difficult it would be to look after, Dr Moule added.

Staff at the vets are currently unable to tell what gender the turtle is as it is relatively small, but that hasn't stopped them from naming it.

"We've colloquially named them Fluffy," Dr Moule said. "In a strange way it does look quite cute, so we decided to give it a cute name."

While there's been no shortage of people offering to take Fluffy in, it's been decided that the reptile will be moved to a specialist wildlife centre in Cornwall.

Ms Chamberlain urged any exotic pet owners who feel unable to care for their animals to contact agencies such as the RSPCA and hailed the staff at Wild Side Vets in Barrow as "heroes" for dealing with the turtle.

Alligator snapping turtles are an invasive species which can "easily" bite through bone and "have been known" to sever human fingers, according to the Britannica encyclopaedia.

The turtles are hunters who typically feed on fish, frogs, small mammals and even other turtles. They can grow to 100cm long and weigh up to 90kg.

A dangerous turtle capable of biting through bones has been found in a tarn in Cumbria.

Holly Evans

An alligator snapping turtle, which is usually found in swamps and freshwater rivers in Florida, Texas and other southern parts of the United States, are known to have extremely powerful jaws.

The creature was spotted by Great Urswick residents in the tarn – a small lake – on the edge of the village

After it was identified, parish councillor Denise Chamberlain took it to Wild Side Vets in Barrow.

The alligator snapping turtle was discovered in a small lake outside a Cumbrian village
(Wild Side Vets )

“It was starting to look quite sorry for itself. I rang various agencies who were unhelpful. Everyone thought it was a terrapin - it’s not,” she told the Westmorland Gazette.

They have a powerful bite and have been known to sever human fingers
(Wild Side Vets )

The turtle is now in the care of the local vets, who have been described as the “heroes” of the story.

The animals are known for their stocky armoured carapcae, which gives them a prehistoric appearance that often draws comparisons to dinosaurs.

Unlike other species of snapping turtles, their eyes are located on the sides of their head rather than their front, while their tails are long and thick.

They usually grow to some 80 to 100cm and weigh between 70 to 90kg, and live to around 45 years.

According to the Britannica website, they are capable of exterting a force of several hundred newtons, and can easily break bone and have been known to sever human fingers.

WW 3.0 DRONE WARS

Israel deploys new military AI in Gaza war

Mark Anderson
Sat, 10 February 2024 

An Israeli soldier launches a drone from southern Israel along the Gaza border 

(JACK GUEZ)

Israel's army has deployed some AI-enabled military technology in combat for the first time in Gaza, raising fears about the use of autonomous weapons in modern warfare.

The army has hinted at what the new tech is being used for, with spokesman Daniel Hagari saying last month that Israel's forces were operating "above and underground simultaneously".

A senior defence official told AFP the tech was destroying enemy drones and mapping Hamas's vast tunnel network in Gaza.

New defence technologies including artificial intelligence-powered gunsights and robotic drones form a bright spot in an otherwise dire period for Israel's tech industry.

The sector accounted for 18 percent of GDP in 2022, but the war in Gaza has wreaked havoc with an estimated eight percent of its workforce called up to fight.

"In general the war in Gaza presents threats, but also opportunities to test emerging technologies in the field," said Avi Hasson, chief executive of Startup Nation Central, an Israeli tech incubator.

"Both on the battlefield and in the hospitals there are technologies that have been used in this war that have not been used in the past."

But the rising civilian death toll shows that much greater oversight is needed over the use of new forms of defence tech, Mary Wareham, an arms expert at Human Rights Watch, told AFP.

"Now we're facing the worst possible situation of death and suffering that we're seeing today –- some of that is being brought about by the new tech," she said.

More than 150 countries in December backed a UN resolution identifying "serious challenges and concerns" in new military tech, including "artificial intelligence and autonomy in weapons systems."

- 'Angry Birds' -

Hamas on October 7 launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, resulting in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Hamas also seized around 250 hostages, and Israel says some 132 remain in Gaza including at least 29 believed to have been killed.

Israel's military response has killed nearly 28,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.

Like many other modern conflicts, the war has been shaped by a proliferation of inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, which have made attacks from the air easier and cheaper.

Hamas used them to drop explosives on October 7, while Israel has turned to new tech to shoot them down.

In a first, the army has used an AI-enabled optic sight, made by Israeli startup Smart Shooter, which is attached to weapons such as rifles and machine guns.

"It helps our soldiers to intercept drones because Hamas uses a lot of drones," said the senior defence official.

"It makes every regular soldier -- even a blind soldier -- a sniper."

Another system to neutralise drones involves deploying a friendly drone with a net that it can throw around the enemy craft to neutralise it.

"It's drone versus drone -- we call it Angry Birds," the official said.

- Hamas tunnels -

A pillar of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow to "destroy" Hamas is quickly mapping the underground tunnel network where Israel says the group's fighters are hiding and holding hostages.

The network is so vast that the army has dubbed it the "Gaza Metro" and a recent study by US military academy West Point said there were 1,300 tunnels stretching over 500 kilometres (310 miles).

To map the tunnels the army has turned to drones that use AI to learn to detect humans and can operate underground, including one made by Israel startup Robotican that encases a drone inside a robotic case.

It is being used in Gaza "to enter into tunnels and to see as far as the communication lets you," the senior Israeli defence official said.

Before the war the technology did not allow drones to operate underground because of issues sending images to the surface, the official added.

The conflict has raised human rights concerns but also cemented Israel's status as a world-leading manufacturer of cutting-edge defence systems.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the United States -- Israel's main international ally and provider of billions of dollars each year in military aid -- was training its own soldiers to shoot down drones using Smart Shooter's optic sights.

In late January, three US soldiers were killed in a drone attack on a base in Jordan.

mca/jd/phz/dcp/it

Teens seek Jewish-Muslim dialogue in strained New Jersey suburb

Teaneck (United States) (AFP) – They are only teenagers, but a pair of New Jersey high school students -- one Jewish and one Muslim -- are tackling an issue much bigger than themselves, bridging divides in their suburb shaken by the Israel-Hamas war.


Issued on: 11/02/2024

Rawda Elbatrawish (R) and Liora Pelavin speak during an interview at their school in Teaneck, New Jersey, a city with large Jewish and Muslim populations 

© KENA BETANCUR / AFP/File

The effort originated soon after the October 7 attacks by Hamas and Israel's invasion of Gaza, when Rawda Elbatrawish, 17, took to Instagram to pitch an educational event.

"I was originally going to do a protest, but I decided to do a dialogue instead," recalled Elbatrawish, who is Muslim.

Liora Pelavin, 15, a fellow student at Teaneck High School, and a Jew, quickly responded and helped to pull together an initial session for the end of October.

The unexpected success of that first meeting led to a second, larger one, and the girls since have enjoyed support -- but also faced some derision -- from their traditionally tolerant town.

Suddenly 'divided'

Elbatrawish had expected the initial meeting would draw perhaps 10 people, but soon realized "we were getting way more than we can hold," she said -- about 60 in all.

Rawda Elbatrawish, 17, originated the idea of holding an intercommunal dialogue to discuss the war in Gaza

 © KENA BETANCUR / AFP/File

Despite the strong turnout, the girls were not overly optimistic about the outcome of the meeting.

"We had a lot of people telling us that this was not going to do anything, and honestly we didn't think it would either," said Pelavin. "We wanted to try something out."

Located less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Manhattan, about 40 percent of Teaneck's population of around 40,000 is Jewish. It also has a sizable Muslim community.

Mutual respect between religions has long been the tradition in the area, said Noam Sokolow, who has run the local Noah's Ark delicatessen for 35 years.

In 2006, Teaneck elected an Orthodox Jew as mayor, and four years later, voted in a Muslim.

The city is known for having racially desegregated its schools in 1964, the first white-majority US community to do so voluntarily.

Yassine Elkaryani, a resident who moved to the United States from Morocco, feels a sense of welcome in the city.

Liora Pelavin quickly joined Elbatrawish in the effort to help both students and adults find areas of common understanding over the events in Gaza 

© KENA BETANCUR / AFP/File

"I love the community," Elkaryani said. "There is no inherent problem between Jews and Muslims in Teaneck."

But since Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7 and Israel's subsequent invasion of Gaza, "the whole community has changed and divided," said Sokolow, who said he has endured "harassing" phone calls.
Will keep going

In mid-October, the Teaneck City Council approved a resolution in support of Israel, enacting the measure as pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside.

And in November, classmates of Elbatrawish and Pelavin rallied in solidarity with Gaza in a demonstration authorized by Teaneck education officials.

Despite the divisions, the teens pressed on, enlisting police officers and medical staff to help ensure security at their first meeting.

A yard poster outside a house in Teaneck, New Jersey, which has one of the New York area's highest Jewish populations but also a sizable Muslim community 

© KENA BETANCUR / AFP/File

"I think we approached in a pretty safe manner that allowed everyone to feel comfortable," recalled Elbatrawish.

Participants, all 25 and under, were required to attest that they would not engage in personal attacks or shouting.

The two organizers split the attendees into smaller groups to discuss several questions, such as: What is your reaction to October 7? And what do you want to understand from the others participating in this group?

The smaller groups then reported back to the room.

"We had some people tell us that there was some stuff that their table was saying that made them feel very uncomfortable and made them feel that they strongly disagreed with it," said Elbatrawish.

"And we felt that that was really good to hear because they felt comfortable enough to bring that opinion in."

The event went well enough that the teens decided to keep going, opening a second session in November to adults. The girls distributed fliers at local synagogues and mosques; more than 70 people attended.

"I was actually really scared that day," Elbatrawish recalled, while adding that "it kind of went better than I expected."

While much of the feedback has been positive, Pelavin has gotten online blowback from some in the Jewish community, including from people who say "she doesn't represent us, stuff like that."

Pelavin, who embraces her Jewish identity, has learned to not read social media comments.

"There was a point where some of the people in the town were not really accepting of me," she said.

Elbatrawish, a senior who is in the midst of applying for college, said she was a "bit scared" of taking on the Israel-Hamas conflict, but views the initiative as "necessary."

Rawda Elbatrawish (L) and Liora Pelavin are seen in a corridor at Teaneck High School 

© KENA BETANCUR / AFP/File

Other communities throughout New Jersey have since reached out to Elbatrawish and Pelavin to ask for advice about hosting similar meetings.

Pelavin said the next step is to recruit peers to run the group's social media accounts and manage other tasks to be able to facilitate future meetings.

"We've been doing all the jobs," she said, adding, "I think we have to learn how to ask for help."

© 2024 AFP