Chinese gold medalist Gong Lijiao makes historic win, faces sexist comments from reporters



Gong Lijiao
Chinese shot putter

Grace Kim
Fri, August 6, 2021

Social media users are outraged as Gong Lijiao, an Olympic gold medalist who made a historic win on Sunday, was called a “manly woman” and asked of her plans for a “woman’s life.”

The win: The four-time Olympian won the women’s shot put event with a career-best of 20.58 meters (67.52 feet), bringing home China's first gold medal in an Olympic field event. The feat was also the first gold medal for any Asian athlete in shot put.

The interview: A sports correspondent for CCTV, a state-run broadcaster, said to viewers that the gold medalist appeared to be a “manly woman,” before the segment cut to the interview.

“I may look like a manly woman on the outside, but inside I'm still more of a girl,” Gong said, according to BBC.

Gong was said to be surprised after the interviewer then asked about her plans for a “woman’s life.”

“Since you used to be a manly woman for shot put, do you feel you can be yourself from now on?” a female reporter asked.

“Um... maybe I'll look at my plans,” Gong responded. “If I don't train then perhaps I will lose weight, get married and have children. Yes, it's the path one must take in life.”

She was questioned further about her relationship status, the type of man she’s looking for and if she would arm-wrestle her boyfriend.

The outrage: Social media users were quick to rally behind Gong, criticizing the questions she was asked.

A hashtag related to “Are women only limited to talk about marriage” has received more than 350 million views and 161,000 comments, according to The Guardian.

The incident sparked further discussion on challenging the outdated views of gender roles and beauty standards of women.

One commenter wrote: “Some only care about Gong’s figure and uterus whilst she is on the track of achieving her dream.”

“It’s not that she can’t get married, but that few men in this session are worthy of her,” read another popular post. “She is too good to marry any of them. Women are entitled to talk much more than just marriage, like our dream and success.”

Gong replied to the post, “This expresses how I feel, thank you!”

The incident is nothing new to women athletes all over the world. South Korean archer An San also recently faced a string of sexist comments about her appearance despite winning two gold medals in the Games, NextShark previously reported.

Chinese gold medalist faced with absurd line of questioning, described as 'manly woman'

Kellen Forrest
·Writer
Fri., August 6, 2021

Gong Lijiao of China celebrates during the women's shot put final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. (Photo by Wang Lili/Xinhua via Getty Images)

After you win an Olympic gold medal, the first thing you would expect to be asked about is the winning performance. Something along the lines of how it feels to officially be the best in the world at your given sport.

Unfortunately for China’s Gong Lijiao, after winning the gold medal in women’s shot put, the post-event interview focused solely on her relationship status, rather than her triumph. She was also absurdly described as a “manly woman” during the segment.

The interview was conducted by the Chinese state media channel CCTV, which asked Gong a number of highly personal questions, including both when she would marry and if she had plans for children.

Nothing on one of the most dominating shot put performances ever seen, but instead if she had “plans for a woman’s life?”

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The asinine line of questioning caused many Chinese citizens to come to the defence of their new Olympic champion on the popular social media platform Weibo.

One of the trending hashtags was “Is marriage the only thing that can be talked about women?”

Clearly, the female reporter from CCTV thought so.

Gong is a better person than most, however, as no one would’ve blamed her if she decided not to give the interviewer the time of day. Instead, the 32-year-old decided to take the high road.

“I may look like a manly woman on the outside, but inside I’m still more of a girl,” she said in response to the inappropriate label.

She was also asked: “Since you used to be a manly woman for shot put, do you feel you can be yourself from now on?”

Gong responded, “Um… maybe I’ll look at my plans. If I don’t train then perhaps I will lose weight, get married and have children. Yes, it’s the path one must take in life.”

One good thing to come out of all this is that Gong now has hundreds of new fans in her corner. One popular post on Weibo claimed that “It’s not that she can’t get married, it’s that no man is her match.”

That truly might be the case as Gong’s performance was so dominant, all five of her throws would’ve been good enough for the gold medal.

Not too shabby if you ask us.

UN IPCC

Climate change: New report will highlight 'stark reality' of warming

By Matt McGrath

BBC
Environment correspondent
Published21 hours ago


UK climate change protests

UN researchers are set to publish their strongest statement yet on the science of climate change.


The report will likely detail significant changes to the world's oceans, ice caps and land in the coming decades.


Due out on Monday, the report has been compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).


It will be their first global assessment on the science of global heating since 2013.


It is expected the forthcoming Summary for Policymakers will be a key document for global leaders when they meet in November.


The politicians are due to gather for a climate summit, known as COP26, in Glasgow.


World at risk of hitting temperature limit soon

Research shows millions more at risk of flooding


After two weeks of virtual negotiations between scientists and representatives of 195 governments, the IPCC will launch the first part of a three-pronged assessment of the causes, impacts and solutions to climate change.


It is the presence of these government officials that makes the IPCC different from other science bodies. After the report has been approved in agreement with governments, they effectively take ownership of it.


On Monday, a short, 40-page Summary for Policymakers will be released dealing with the physical science.

The IPCC will also look at the state of the Arctic as the climate warms


It may be brief, but the new report is expected to pack a punch.


"We've seen over a couple of months, and years actually, how climate change is unfolding; it's really staring us in the face," said Dr Heleen de Coninck, from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, who is a coordinating lead author for the IPCC Working Group III.


"It's really showing what the impacts will be, and this is just the start. So I think what this report will add is a big update of the state of the science, what temperature increase are we looking at - and what are the physical impacts of that?"




So what can we expect from the upcoming report?


According to many observers, there have been significant improvements in the science in the last few years.


"Our models have gotten better, we have a better understanding of the physics and the chemistry and the biology, and so they're able to simulate and project future temperature changes and precipitation changes much better than they were," said Dr Stephen Cornelius from WWF, an observer at IPCC meetings.


"Another change has been that attribution sciences have increased vastly in the last few years. We can make greater links between climate change and extreme weather events."


As well as updates on temperature projections, there will likely be a strong focus on the question of humanity's role in creating the climate crisis.


In the last report in 2013, the IPCC said that humans were the "dominant cause" of global warming since the 1950s.

Cars wrecked in a flood in Germany


It's expected that this time the IPCC will also outline just how much of an influence humans are having on the oceans, the atmosphere and other aspects of our planetary systems.

One of the most important questions concerns sea-level rise. This has long been a controversial issue for the IPCC, with their previous projections scorned by some scientists as far too conservative.

"In the past they have been so reluctant to give a plausible upper limit on sea-level rise, and we hope that they finally come around this time," said Prof Arthur Petersen, from UCL in London.

As the world has experienced a series of devastating fires and floods in recent months that have been linked to climate change, the report will also include a new chapter linking extreme weather events to rising temperatures.



What is the IPCC?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a UN body set up in 1988 to assess the science around climate change.

The IPCC provides governments with scientific information they can use to develop policies on global heating.

The first of its comprehensive Assessment Reports on climate change was released in 1992. The sixth in this series will be split into four volumes, the first of which - covering the physical science behind climate change - will be published on Monday.



Many have welcomed this development.

"I remain hopeful that the scientific evidence will show the stark reality of a world already altered by our rapidly changing climate and will motivate all nations to deliver urgent emission reductions and the necessary amount of climate finance at COP26," said Mohammed Adjei Sowah, who is the mayor of Accra in Ghana and vice chair of the C40 group of cities.

"We only need to look out of our windows to see that the climate crisis is already here. Cities such as Accra and nations such as Ghana, which have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions, will experience many of the greatest impacts."

One of the things that gives the report additional muscle is the fact that it is not just one particular research paper on one topic - the reviewers consider all the research carried out on each area of focus.

In Japan, misting sprays are used to keep people cool


"Sometimes the IPCC gets criticised for being focused on consensus, and it's suggested that this can weaken statements," said Dr Emily Shuckburgh, from the University of Cambridge.

"But the fact that it is a summary across multiple lines of evidence is incredibly powerful and incredibly useful."

One key question in the new summary will be about the 1.5C temperature target. The climate summit held in the French capital, Paris, in 2015, committed nations to try to limit the rise in global temperature from pre-industrial times to no more than 1.5 degrees.

And in 2018, the IPCC released a special report on keeping to this target.


What do world leaders need to agree to stop climate change?




"That report showed very clearly was that there are clear, clear benefits to limiting warming to 1.5C and those benefits have only become clearer over the past three years," said Dr de Coninck, who was one of the key authors of that study.


"If this report says something about that temperature limit in relation to emissions and how they are developing, it will have a political influence on COP26 I think."


With just a few months to go until world leaders meet in Glasgow for the climate conference that is seen as the most important since the Paris agreement came into being in 2015, this new report will be required reading for all attendees.


"I think it's going to be a wake-up call, there's no doubt about that," said Richard Black, an honorary research fellow at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.


"But then again, so are some of the real world events that we're seeing around us at the moment."


Follow Matt on Twitter.

Photographer Takes Dramatic Self-Portraits with Iceland’s Erupting Volcano

AUG 05, 2021
JARON SCHNEIDER

Photographer Anna Isabella Christensen has been working on a series of self-portraits over the last four years but has spent the last several months working specifically in Iceland, capturing dramatic images near the erupting volcano there.

The diverse Icelandic landscape has been a huge boon of inspiration for Christensena, and contrasting the volcanic lava with a dramatic flowing dress has created a set of images that manage to make unique images out of an area that has been photographed extensively since the volcano started erupting earlier this year.

Christensen says that she arrived in Iceland for the first time near the end of January 2021 and not long after she got there, a large number of earthquakes started to take place on the Reykjanes peninsula not far from the capital Reykjavik. The volcano finally started to erupt in March and Christensen says she stayed in the area of the volcano on three separate occasions and ended up hiking to the volcano 25 times to create this series.







“It all started with one crater, then some new fissures opened up and there were several active craters at the same time, and it ended with one big crater and huge explosions every few minutes,” Christensen says. “This eruption is the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me and no words can describe how it felt to be there and witness all this power and beauty. I’m very grateful for this experience and feel very privileged to have spent so much time there.”


Christensen says that the conditions at the volcano were extreme, making it a particular challenge to use as the backdrop for her series.

“A lot of the time and it was very, very cold,” she says. “I experienced all kinds of weather there: snowstorms, hail, rain, extreme wind, I even got caught up in a small dust devil once — there were a lot of those. One time there was ashfall coming down. Despite these conditions, the eruption site was open to the public almost all the time, with the exception of a few days.”







That said, Christensen says that as far as safety is concerned, the eruption site is officially open to the public and therefore deemed as safe by the Icelandic authorities. All the photos were taken from a safe distance and all the necessary precautions were taken during the photoshoots including measuring gas levels and considering the direction of the wind.

Due to the extreme conditions and cold, Christensen says she was only able to do one photoshoot per time she visited the eruption site at most, and several times she was not able to shoot at all.


“Some of the times I hiked all the way to the volcano only to find that the weather was too extreme at the viewpoint for my type of photos — mostly because of the strong, freezing wind — and I would just go back to the hotel,” she explains.

The repeated, often blind, hikes were necessary as planning was difficult.

“The eruption was changing every day and it was hard for me to do much planning. I was fascinated by seeing the volcano at sunrise and sunset, blue hour, and in the dark, as the lava was glowing during those times. I ended up hiking there at night and staying until sunrise because there were huge crowds of people there at any other time,” she explains.





“I really prefer to be alone during my photoshoots and also I wouldn’t be able to find a place there without other people in my frame. It was also an incredible feeling to witness the volcano when there were only a few other people there and it was so quiet. Since I was only able to do one photoshoot per visit, I would sometimes get ideas for the next day and then try to implement them, which worked out for a few of my shoots. Most of the shoots were just ideas that I got after arriving at the eruption site depending on how it looked that night.”

All of the photos in the series are self-portraits, and Christensen says they are original and not manipulated. She shot the photos by setting up her camera on a tripod and firing it remotely with her phone, except in one case she used her camera’s built-in intervalometer.


“My idea was to capture the connection between a human being and an erupting volcano and show my fascination and admiration. I thought that my red dress would be a good fit for the fire energy of the volcano,” she says.





More from Anna Isabella Christensen can be found on her website and Instagram.

Image credits: Photos by Anna Isabella Christensen and used with permission.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
The mass manufacture of huge tidal turbines could be one step closer after firm seals funding

PUBLISHED THU, AUG 5 2021

Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

The project will also study how turbine performance can be improved and focus on logistics linked to mass manufacturing.

Thursday’s news comes just over a week after another company, Orbital Marine Power, said its O2 turbine had started grid-connected power generation.



Nova Innovation

Tidal energy business Nova Innovation has said it is able to move forward with a project centered around scaling up the production of tidal turbines after receiving funding from the Scottish government.

The £2 million ($2.78 million) funding boost, announced Thursday, will be used to support the company’s Volume Manufacturing and Logistics for Tidal Energy project, also known as VOLT.

VOLT will “develop the first European assembly line to mass manufacture tidal turbines,” according to Nova, and also “trial innovative techniques and tools to ship, deploy and monitor turbines around the world.”


The project will also study how turbine performance can be improved and focus on logistics linked to mass manufacturing, among other things.

The scale of the technologies and systems being deployed can be significant. Nova Innovation, for instance, has installed a number of turbines in waters off Shetland, an archipelago north of mainland Scotland. When the tip of their blades is vertical, the height from their base comes in at a little under 14 meters.

Thursday’s news comes just over a week after another company, Orbital Marine Power, said its O2 turbine had started grid-connected power generation at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, another archipelago north of the Scottish mainland.

The 2-megawatt O2 has been dubbed “the world’s most powerful tidal turbine”, weighs 680 metric tons and is 74 meters long.

Michael Matheson, the Scottish government’s cabinet secretary for net zero, energy and transport, said the VOLT project marked “an important milestone in commercialising the sector.”

“With our abundant natural resources and expertise, Scotland is ideally-placed to harness the enormous global market for marine energy whilst helping deliver a net-zero economy both here and across the world,” he said in a statement Thursday. The funding will be delivered via Scottish Enterprise, the country’s economic development agency.
Marine energy’s potential

With miles of coastline, the U.K. as a whole is home to a number of projects related to marine energy.

In April, it was announced that a year-long research project focusing on the potential of tidal, wave and floating wind technology had secured support from Marine-i, a program centered around innovation in areas such as marine energy.

The project will be based on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago located off the southwest coast of England, and led by Isles of Scilly Community Venture, Planet A Energy and Waves4Power.

There’s also potential when it comes to rivers. Back in March, the Port of London Authority gave the go ahead for trials of tidal energy technology on a section of the River Thames, a move which could eventually help to decarbonize operations connected to the river.

While interest in the marine energy sector appears to be growing, its current footprint remains small.

Figures from Ocean Energy Europe show that only 260 kilowatts of tidal stream capacity was added in Europe last year, while just 200 kW of wave energy was installed.

By contrast, 2020 saw 14.7 gigawatts of wind energy capacity installed in Europe, according to industry body WindEurope.

 

  

Claire Malone: The missing 96 percent of the universe 

TED TALKS Aug 6, 2021

We've misplaced the building blocks of the cosmos -- and particle physicists like Claire Malone are on a mission to find them. Despite scientists hitting a "major snag" in uncovering what exactly makes up dark matter and dark energy, she explains how questioning our fundamental understanding of nature itself invites a different, more meaningful perspective universally.

Dezeen Magazine

Amanda Levete designs world's first magnetised fusion power station for the UK

Lizzie Crook | 2 August 2021 

A prototype power plant designed by architect Amanda Levete's firm AL_A with a nuclear fusion reactor is set to be built in Oxfordshire, England.

Located on the UK Atomic Energy Authority's (UKAEA) campus in Culham, the Fusion Demonstration Plant will be used to prove the viability of Canadian energy company General Fusion's nuclear fusion technology as a carbon-free energy source.

AL_A is set to build the pioneering Fusion Demonstration Plant in Oxfordshire

A_LA said it will be the world's first nuclear power plant of its kind upon completion in 2025.

"We have really enjoyed working with General Fusion and their team of scientists on the design of the Fusion Demonstration Plant, and are particularly excited that the first of its kind will be built in the UK," the studio told Dezeen.

"This is a real statement of confidence in science and technology and its role in building our future. We look forward to continuing our work with General Fusion and UKAEA."

Nuclear fusion mimics how stars creates energy

In new visuals released by A_LA, the Fusion Demonstration Plant is shown as a circular building with a reactor wrapped by a viewing gallery at its centre.

Alongside it will be meeting rooms and educational spaces to cater to visits from scientists, politicians, investors and the public.

The plant will feature a panoramic viewing platform

The fusion technology in its reactor will be used to combine atoms to generate heat, mimicking the way that the sun and stars create energy. This is different to traditional nuclear power stations in which atoms are split in two – a process called fission.

General Fusion specifically uses magnetised target fusion (MTF). This involves the injection of hydrogen plasma into a sphere of molten lead-lithium surrounded by pistons. The pistons compress the hydrogen until its atoms slam together and fuse to form helium.


Related story
China plans solar power station in space


This process creates a huge amount of heat that is transferred by the liquid metal to boil water, make steam and spin a turbine to generate electricity.

However, as the plant will be 70 per cent of the size needed for a commercial power plant, it will not actually be used to generate power.

MTF could help decarbonise power grids

As MTF only requires hydrogen as a fuel and its main waste product is helium, the Fusion Demonstration Plant demonstrates a carbon-free way to create electricity.

This means that if it proves to be viable, it could help play a key role in decarbonising the UK's power grid, which remains heavily reliant on burning fossil fuels.

Another benefit of using nuclear fusion to create electricity is that it creates very little radioactive waste when compared to traditional nuclear power plants that rely on fission.

A nuclear fusion reactor will be positioned at its heart

"Fusion energy is inherently safe, with zero possibility of a meltdown scenario," explained General Fusion when the Fusion Demonstration Plant proposal was first revealed in 2020.

Fusion is a "limitless, low-carbon energy" source

The UK government has been investing in fusion technology over the past decade in the hope it could play a part in making the UK net-zero by 2050.

"This new plant by General Fusion is a huge boost for our plans to develop a fusion industry in the UK, and I'm thrilled that Culham will be home to such a cutting-edge and potentially transformative project," said science minister Amanda Solloway.

"Fusion energy has great potential as a source of limitless, low-carbon energy, and today's announcement is a clear vote of confidence in the region and the UK's status as a global science superpower."

However, the International Energy Agency recently said achieving net-zero by 2050 will be the "greatest challenge humankind has ever faced" and that many government pledges "fall well short" of what is required.


Related story
Net-zero emissions by 2050 is "greatest challenge humankind has ever faced"

Another groundbreaking power plant proposal that was recently in the spotlight is the world's first solar power station in space, which China is developing to provide "inexhaustible clean energy".

Elsewhere, BIG recently completed the "cleanest waste-to-energy power plant in the world", which is topped by an artificial ski slope. It is capable of converting 440,000 tons of waste into clean energy annually.

The visuals are by AL_A.

 

First LNG-Fueled Exploration Cruise Ship with Battery System Delivered

The strcuture of the Commandant Charcot arriving in Norway in April 2021 for outfitting (Ponant)

PUBLISHED AUG 2, 2021 5:18 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

French cruise line Ponant and Norwegian shipbuilder VARD confirmed the completion and delivery of the first hybrid exploration cruise ship. The luxury vessel, which was handed over on July 29, is the first exploration cruise ship capable of operating on liquified natural gas.

According to VARD, the 30,000 gross ton Le Commandant Charcot, is the first hybrid-powered polar exploration vessel propelled with LNG and one of the small but growing group of passenger ships using LNG as their fuel. Developed by Ponant, Stirling Design International, Aker Arctic, and VARD, the vessel is an electric hybrid cruise vessel with ice-breaking technology and dual fuel propulsion, featuring high-capacity batteries and LNG storage onboard. 

Ponant noted that the delivery culminates six years of work to bring about the unique design. The vessel is classified as Polar Class 2, designed to sail in some of the most demand areas of the globe, including the geographic North Pole (90 degrees North Latitude), the Weddell Sea, the Ross Sea, Northeast Greenland National Park, a circumnavigation of the Svalbard archipelago, the Bellingshausen Sea, and the Larsen Ice Shelf. Because of the environmentally sensitive nature of its destinations, the vessel also is equipped to handle all waste onboard.

“Delivery of Le Commandant Charcot is both a culmination and the beginning of a new kind of odyssey for the company,” said Chief executive of Ponant Hervé Gastinel. “The construction of this prototype ship demanded extremely high standards in terms of quality. I am proud of the work that our teams have accomplished.”

The construction of the hull and superstructure of the vessel was done in Romania and then in the spring of 2021, with the steelwork completed, the hull was towed to VARD’s yard in Norway for technical work and outfitting. Le Commandant Charcot is due to enter service at the end of October, sailing from Puerto Mott, Chile to Antarctica.  

The vessel measures 492 feet in length and can accommodate 245 passengers along with a crew of 235. Outfitted as an exploration cruise ship, the company promotes her as “a platform for observation, research, and analysis to study water, air, ice and biodiversity in extreme polar regions.” Passengers will have the opportunity to participate in scientific programs and lectures, while activities will include kayaking, hovercraft rides, hiking, and ice fishing.

The 13th ship in Ponant’s fleet, she also offers luxury accommodations for the passengers. In addition to the 135 staterooms, passenger facilities include an indoor swimming pool, conservatory, panoramic restaurant, outdoor restaurant, main lounge, and an observation lounge.

 

Meyer Werft and Unions Agree to 10 Percent Workforce Cuts

Meyer Werft recently floated out its newest cruise ship being built for AIDA (Meyer Werft)

PUBLISHED JUL 29, 2021 5:10 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Shipbuilder Meyer Werft hard hit by the downturn in the global cruise industry reached an agreement with its union for a better than 10 percent reduction in the workforce. The move is the first of several potential efforts by the company to reduce costs and improve productivity. The depth of the cuts would have been more severe except for new orders, including a newly announced win to build the Ocean Residences condominium cruise ship.

The latest agreement covers the shipyard at Papenburg, Germany, and follows similar efforts at the company’s Neptune Shipyard in Rostock, Germany, and a shipyard at Turku, Finland. Before the pandemic, Meyer’s operations were focused on the cruise ship industry with the Papenburg yard organized to produce two large cruise ships annually with additional capabilities for a smaller cruise ship. Turku was expanding its capabilities to build two large cruise ships and the Neptune yard was building river cruise ships and modules including the engine room blocks for the ships being assembled in Papenburg.  

Meyer has a strong order book with ships under construction for P&O, AIDA, and Costa, in the Carnival group, as well as Disney Cruise Line, and the Royal Caribbean Group. Meyer was successful in rescheduling deliveries while scaling back operations to one large ship annually from both Papenburg and Turku.

"Now we are fully focused on the transformation of the group, further digitalization, and on developing climate-neutral solutions for our ships and maritime applications as quickly as possible," says Jan Meyer, Managing Director.

Negotiations with the IG Metall Kuste and the shipyard’s works council began months ago with reports suggesting that Meyer was seeking to reduce the workforce of 3,00 at Papenburg by as many as 1,000 people. Later the figure was scaled back to 660 positions.

Union officials announced last evening that 62 percent of the yard’s employees are in favor of the agreement. Under the terms reached between the yard and its unions, the company is targeted 350 voluntary reductions at the shipyard and an additional 100 positions as its EMS Maritime Services group. It is a three-stage program starting with the voluntary program and a transfer company, a common approach in Germany that helps employees retrain and find new positions. The aim is to avoid or minimize compulsory layoffs and reduce as many jobs as possible by mutual agreement. 

German media reports suggest that Meyer is targeting a financial saving of $1.4 billion and the unions have also agreed to steps to seek a consistent improvement in productivity. As part of the agreement, each worker will contribute 100 hours annually to the yard either by working uncompensated overtime or waving special payments. Employees at the service company will contribute 25 hours each year. In addition, Meyer and the unions are still negotiating the details of a change to a two-shift model.

Meyer cited competitive and pricing pressures in the shipbuilding industry saying that these factors have increased significantly in the past year. Further, the revised delivery schedules have slowed contract installment payments to the yard and in 2020 the cruise companies delayed deliveries of completed cruise ships.

"The current agreement with the works council and IG Metall is an important step towards securing the Papenburg shipyard site, even though the staff reductions are very painful,” says Managing Director Bernard Meyer. “The adopted socially responsible package for the future only works on the basis of further orders for the years 2024 and 2025. We are continuing on the path of developing new business areas. It's a good chance for a fresh start for cooperation with the works council and the union."

The shipyard said it is currently in danger of having its utilization rates falling below 40 percent in the coming years. Helping to alleviate the future pressure, Meyer won the only new contract for a cruise shipyard awarded in the past year. The company will build a mid-size cruise ship for Japan’s NYK Group. In addition, in its first significant assignment outside the cruise industry, Meyer Neptune is participating in a German navy project to build two tankers.

Meyer also announced that it has reached an agreement with the Ocean Residences apartment cruise ship concept. The project will be with the DIV Group of Croatia, according to the reports in the German NDR news outlet. The project is for a 950-foot cruise ship which will consist of 130 apartment residences. The contract, which is subject to financing, calls for the ship to be delivered in 2025. 

 

Japan’s K Line Invests in Canadian Tidal Energy Project

The three turbines would be fixed to the sea bed (DP Energy)

PUBLISHED AUG 4, 2021 6:03 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

In a first-of-its-kind project for Japanese companies, shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (”K” LINE) and Chubu Electric Power Co. are investing in a renewable energy project planned for Nova Scotia, Canada. It will mark the first time a Japanese company has participated in an overseas tidal energy project, and it is seen as an opportunity for the companies to diversify, building their operations in the renewable energy segment.

Known as Uisce Tapa (Gaelic for “fast water”), the tidal energy project is under development by DP Energy, a renewable energy company headquartered in Ireland. Study work has been ongoing and this summer a monitoring platform will be deployed. Subject to regulatory approval and a final investment decision, the first of the turbines is scheduled to be installed and commissioned in 2023. The second and third turbines would be installed in 2026.

 

 

The location for the project is in the northeastern area of the Bay of Fundy. The bay is home to some of the highest tides in the world, with tidal currents capable of exceeding 10 knots (5 m/s) at peak surface speed. The project design calls for the installation of three turbines fixed to the seabed. Each turbine has an 18.4-meter diameter rotor and rated power of 1.5 MW. The turbine is a horizontal axis, three-bladed tidal turbine, similar to turbines the company installed at a site developed in Scotland. The design represents the next generation in seabed mounted tidal turbine development, incorporating a number of new features to customize elements of the device for operation in the Bay of Fundy. According to DP energy, the turbines will deliver predictable renewable power with an operational design life of 25 years.

“Through this project, “K” LINE aims to contribute to the business that supports the decarbonization of society while utilizing our experiences accumulated in the field of international marine transportation together with partner companies,” said Satoshi Kanamori, Executive Officer, in charge of LNG, Carbon-Neutral Promotion at “K” LINE.

The current agreement is for the development cost of the project. After the completion of the current studies, a final investment decision is expected from the companies. 

The project at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) site is already well advanced and testing is underway for the project’s environmental monitoring platform

 

Protesters Call for Justice on Anniversary of Port of Beirut Blast

Image courtesy UNIFL

PUBLISHED AUG 4, 2021 7:34 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

On the first anniversary of the massive blast that rocked the Port of Beirut last year, thousands of citizens marched to the waterfront to demand accountability for the senior officials who are widely believed to bear responsibility for the explosion. 

The cxplosion of a poorly-stored cargo of ammonium nitrate killed more than 200 people and injured more than 7,000, leaving tens of thousands more without housing or work. Documents and testimony collected by Human Rights Watch suggest that "port, customs, and army officials ignored steps they could have taken to secure or destroy the material," many years before the blast. According to HRW, Ministry of Public Works and Transport officials were negligent in handling the cargo, and "knowingly stored the ammonium nitrate in Beirut’s port alongside flammable or explosive materials for nearly six years in a poorly secured and ventilated hangar in the middle of a densely populated commercial and residential area." 

Further, Lebanon's security apparatus - including Military Intelligence, which was responsible for the security of munitions at the port - was allegedly aware of the cargo's danger but took little action, despite repeated warnings. Even after members of Lebanon's Higher Defense Council were appraised - including the interior minister, the director of general security, the prime minister and the president - little timely intervention occurred. Prime Minister Hassan Diab was allegedly informed of the risk as early as June 3, 2020, but he canceled a personal inspection of the port after an advisor told him that the cargo wasn't that dangerous, according to HRW. In an interview, Diab told Human Rights Watch, "I then forgot about it, and nobody followed up. There are disasters every day."

In a lucky twist of fate, theft and diversion may have reduced the impact of the massive blast. The cargo was stored unguarded in a hangar with a broken door, adjacent to the port's grain silo. Photos obtained by HRW and Lebanese investigators appear to show that some of the one-tonne bags of ammonium nitrate in the hangar were partially empty, and others were spilled, indicating the possibility of pilferage. 

A recently-revealed FBI assessment of the blast estimated that 550 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - not 2,750 tonnes, the amount delivered and stored - had exploded on August 4, 2020. The FBI assessed that "it is not logical that all of [the one-tonne cargo bags] were present at the time of the explosion," suggesting that some of the cargo had gone missing and could not contribute to the strength of the explosion. 

The investigation into the cause of the blast has slowed, and investigating judge Tarek Bitar's efforts to question high-level officials and politicians have run into resistance from the political establishment. The previous judge on the case, Fadi Sawan, faced accusations of political bias for attempting to question high-ranking officials, and he was ultimately removed from the case by two of the politicians he was investigating. 

Bitar is finding traction in some parts of his investigation: on Friday, for the first time, Lebanese President Michel Aoun informed Lebanon's public prosecutor that he would be willing to give a statement to investigators about the circumstances behind the explosion.