Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 22, 2022 Hong Konger Kitty Chan pivoted to takeout to help her restaurant survive the pandemic, but she has since opened a second shop as demand for cheap mealboxes surges in a city enduring economic woes. Small shops selling inexpensive two-dish mealboxes have mushroomed across one of the world’s least affordable cities, cropping up in working-class and white-collar areas alike as … Continue reading Cheap mealboxes a taste of Hong Kong’s economic woes

Herndon VA (SPX) Sep 21, 2022 BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) has received a combined total of $13.8 million of orders to date within the first year of a five-year National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) contract to monitor global economic activity. “These awards underscore the growing demand for commercial real-time, AI-driven monitoring services that reveal economic activity at manufacturing hubs, major mhttp://dlvr.it/SYpZsP Continue reading BlackSky gets $14M in new orders to monitor critical global economic activity

Leipzig, Germany (SPX) Sep 22, 2022 During fieldwork aimed at documenting the stone tool use of a group of wild chimpanzees in the Tai Forest in Cote d’Ivoire in early 2022, the researchers identified and 3D scanned a variety of stone tools used to crack different nut species. It has long been shown that various chimpanzee groups possess different tool use cultures involving wooden and … Continue reading Chimpanzee stone tool diversity

Madrid (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 Spain granted personhood status Wednesday to a large saltwater lagoon to give its threatened ecosystem better protection, the first time such a measure has been taken in Europe. The initiative to grant the status to the Mar Menor – one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons – was debated in parliament after campaigners collected over 500,000 signatures backing it. It now … Continue reading Spain grants personhood status to threatened lagoon

Riverside CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2022 Researchers have identified a new reason to protect mangrove forests: they’ve been quietly keeping carbon out of Earth’s atmosphere for the past 5,000 years. Mangroves thrive in conditions most plants cannot tolerate, like salty coastal waters. Some species have air-conducting, vertical roots that act like snorkels when tides are high, giving the appearance of trees floating on stilts.http://dlvr.it/SYpZrV Continue reading Mexican mangroves have been capturing carbon for 5,000 years

New York (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 Pacific atoll nations on Wednesday launched a new global partnership to preserve their sovereignty and heritage as their countries disappear under rising seas triggered by climate change. The Rising Nations Initiative was announced at an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly by Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano and President David Kabua of the Marshall Islands, with … Continue reading Pacific atoll nations launch global plan to preserve heritage

Paris (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 With a sunny smile to the camera Alaina Wood delivers a burst of “good climate news” to her young TikTok audience, trying to reassure them that it is not too late for action on global warming. This cheerfulness is not because Wood has somehow failed to notice the litany of storms, floods and heatwaves battering the world and the dire … Continue reading Looking for reasons to be cheerful about climate action

Sydney (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 A pod of 230 pilot whales was found stranded on the rugged west coast of Tasmania Wednesday, with Australian officials saying only half appeared to be alive. Aerial images showed a devastating scene of dozens of black glossy mammals strewn across a long beach, stuck on the waterline where the frigid southern ocean meets the sand. Locals covered survivors with … Continue reading 230 pilot whales stranded in Australia, ‘about half’ feared dead

San Juan (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 Hurricane Fiona continued its slow and devastating march northward after slamming the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday and leaving a trail of destruction in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Wednesday morning that the storm had grown stronger, registering maximum wind speeds of 130 miles per hour (210 kilometers per hour) … Continue reading Strengthening Hurricane Fiona heads north toward Bermuda

Beirut (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 Egyptian authorities “have continued to stifle freedoms” in the year since launching a national human rights strategy, Amnesty International said Wednesday, six weeks before Egypt hosts the COP27 climate summit. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi launched the rights strategy in September 2021, while accusing international rights groups of being unaware of the full spectrum of “challenges facinghttp://dlvr.it/SYl5rw Continue reading Amnesty slams Egypt rights strategy as ‘propaganda’ ahead of COP27