La Rochelle, France (AFP) Jan 18, 2024 The French government will temporarily ban almost all commercial fishing in the Bay of Biscay to protect dolphins, much to the dismay of the industry. The month-long ban off the country’s West coast – the first since the end of World War II – is set to begin Monday and applies to both French and foreign fishermen. It … Continue reading France orders rare Atlantic fishing ban to protect dolphins

Manila (AFP) Jan 18, 2024 At least seven people were killed when a landslide hit a house in the southern Philippines on Thursday, a disaster official said, with the death toll expected to rise. The incident happened in the morning in a mountainous gold mining region of Davao de Oro province on Mindanao island, where heavy rain has triggered flooding and landslides this week. A … Continue reading Seven killed in Philippine landslide

Jakarta (AFP) Jan 18, 2024 A nickel processing hub in eastern Indonesia backed by Chinese companies is stoking deforestation and harming the rights of locals, an NGO has found, as Beijing bets big on the metal used in electric vehicle batteries. With EVs surging in popularity, there has been a huge rush to world-leading nickel producer Indonesia in recent years by domestic and foreign companies … Continue reading China-funded nickel hub stoking deforestation on Indonesia island: report

Davos, Switzerland (AFP) Jan 17, 2024 Veteran US diplomat and politician John Kerry said Wednesday he planned to keep working to address climate change including by encouraging the private sector as he steps away from his envoy role. Kerry said he believed the time was right to move on after the COP28 summit last month in Dubai, where the world for the first time as … Continue reading Kerry says to work on climate after exiting envoy role

Berlin (AFP) Jan 17, 2024 Severe winter weather in northern Europe prompted the cancellation of hundreds of flights Wednesday at Frankfurt airport, Germany’s busiest, while heavy snow in Scandinavia shut down air travel in Oslo for several hours. A Frankfurt airport spokeswoman said 570 of 1,047 flights had been axed by late morning as Germany’s business capital prepared for dramatic weather conditions. By earlyhttp://dlvr.it/T1XYMq Continue reading Heavy snow, freezing rain hobble European travel

Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Jan 17, 2024 Medicine for hostages and fresh aid for civilians entered war-torn Gaza on Wednesday under a newly brokered deal, mediator Qatar said, as Israel intensified strikes on the Palestinian territory’s south. Fighting has ravaged the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel that resulted in the death of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to … Continue reading Medicine for hostages, fresh aid enter Gaza: Qatar

Tehran (AFP) Jan 17, 2024 At least four mountain climbers have died in Iran and four others are missing after heavy snowfall, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said on Wednesday. An avalanche had trapped five climbers Friday on Randola mountain near the northwestern city of Oshnavieh city, West Azerbaijan province, with the Red Crescent saying its teams later rescued two of them. The bodies of … Continue reading Four mountain climbers dead, four missing in Iran snow

Port Louis, Mauritius (AFP) Jan 16, 2024 Mauritius was on Tuesday assessing the damage wrought by tropical storm Belal as it rolled away from the Indian Ocean island nation, allowing international flights to resume. Belal has claimed the life of one person in the remote tourist paradise, left thousands without power, flooded buildings and caused traffic chaos, with cars washed away by a deluge of … Continue reading Mauritius mopping up after storm Belal wreaks havoc

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jan 17, 2024 The disaster near the small town of Brumadinho in southeastern Brazil occurred shortly after midday: on 25 January 2019, at a nearby iron ore mine, the tailings dam – a storage area for the sludgy, fine-grained residues from ore processing, or “tailings” – collapsed. A huge mudslide of around 10 million cubic metres of liquefied tailings flooded the site … Continue reading Brumadinho dam collapse: The danger emerged after the decommissioning

Reno NV (SPX) Jan 17, 2024 Sustainable water management is an increasing concern in arid regions around the world, and scientists and regulators are turning to remote sensing tools like OpenET to help track and manage water resources. OpenET uses publicly available data produced by NASA and USGS Landsat and other satellite systems to calculate evapotranspiration (ET), or the amount of water lost to the … Continue reading A new, rigorous assessment of OpenET accuracy for supporting satellite-based water management