Sunday, April 18, 2021

According to multiple reports, India recorded its 14 millionth case of COVID-19 and new infections of over 200 thousand on Thursday, causing multiple hospitals running on full capacity.

The 200739 new infections is twice what was seen during its last peak in September, rising after the superspreading events such as political rallies in local and state elections and religious events, official complacency and highly infectious new variants of the virus. According to Reuters, the government blamed wilful disregard of social distancing measures and face mask mandates. A Railway Protection Force officer told The Telegraph (Kolkata) “[t]he number of unmasked passengers was much more last month. The renewed surge in Covid numbers has triggered some caution but many are still without masks.”

According to CNBC, India overtook Brazil as the second-most infected country on April 12, though still behind the United States. The new strain has forced hospitals into drastic measures, including two or three patients sharing a bed at Lok Nayak Hospital and converting over a dozen hotels and banquet halls in New Delhi into COVID-19 treatment centres. The states Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat among others have reported a shortage of oxygen; India Today reported on the Ahmedabad Medical Association pleading the state government for oxygen, writing to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani “[i]f such conditions persist, the death toll will rise, violence against doctors will increase and doctors will be forced to shut down their hospitals due to lack of oxygen supply”.

Nationally, the government has shifted its focus from vaccine exporting to domestic production, entering 114 million jabs in peoples’ arms — the third-most, behind the US and China — and three million on Wednesday after recently approving for emergency use its third vaccine: Russia-developed Sputnik V. The government maintains there is not an oxygen shortage and that the primary issue with distributing inoculations to states is over-planning, not a supply shortage.

New Delhi announced stay-at-home orders and shuttered restaurants, malls, gyms and spas, with an exception for movie theatres at limited times and at limited capacity. Mumbai went further Wednesday, closing most industries, businesses and public places and restricting movement of people amidst a surge of labourers to the city. In addition to many cities and towns, the epicentral city of Maharashtra imposed a curfew, with only essential services open between 8pm and 7am. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 exams have been cancelled, and Class 12 exams postponed.

There has also been 1038 new deaths, adding to the total death count of over 173 thousand and putting a strain on local cremation centres and burial grounds. It remains fourth in its death count after the US, Brazil and Mexico.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Ottawa. This marks the first time Canadian, U.S., and Mexican leaders have met since 2014, as 2015’s summit was not arranged in the harsh political relations at the time.

Among the topics discussed were trade and the countries’ economies, and current world events such as the U.S. presidential candidates and the United Kingdom’s recent vote to leave the European Union.

North America has a combined economy representing over 25% of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product) with a little over 7% of the world’s population. The countries’ combined GDP has risen since 1993 from US$8 trillion to about US$20 trillion in 2016.

The “Three Amigos” have shown an agenda geared towards green energy: pledging to generate 50% clean power across North America by the year 2025, implement a joint study about the addition of renewable energy sources in North America, and implement ten energy-efficiency standards and tests on equipment being traded throughout the continent.

Trade was also a big topic of discussion, with the leaders affirming support not only for NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) — something controversial in the U.S. political campaign — but also the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), with Mexican President Peña Nieto stating: “We are fully convinced that by working together […] we can be the most competitive region in the world”. Justin Trudeau also said by December 1 of this year Mexicans will no longer require visas in order to come to Canada.

The leaders held a trilateral press conference with the media after the summit. During the conference, President Obama scorned presidential candidate Donald Trump, calling his rhetoric “nativism or xenophobia”.

President Barack Obama also addressed a joint session of the Canadian Senate and House of Commons. Obama was the seventh president to do so — his other six predecessors being Harry Truman in 1947, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 and 1958, John F. Kennedy in 1961, Richard Nixon in 1972, Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1987, and Bill Clinton in 1995.

Obama spoke about the relationship between Canada and the United States, saying the border was the “longest border of peace on Earth”. He also said the United States “could not ask for a better friend or ally than Canada.”

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

A freighter hit a fishing boat around midnight on Sunday morning in the Gulf of Suez in the Red Sea. Of the 40 Egyptian fisherman on board, thirteen are dead and thirteen more missing.

Survivor Al Sayyed Mohamed Arafat told local media he jumped from the fishing boat, named Badr al-Islam, as the container ship approached. He says he hung onto a wooden crate for four hours before rescue. Local authorities have promised compensation to each survivor.

A vessel, flagged in Panama, suspected to be involved in the collision has been detained by the military. The army said yesterday one victim raised the alarm by phone and the military sent four boats and a helicopter to commence search and rescue off the Gabal al-Zayt coastline.

A plane has since joined the search. The military say the fishing boat lacked safety equipment for emergency communications.

The detained ship was found south of the Gulf, near the port of Safaga. It was carrying 220 tonnes of cargo according to the General Authority for the Red Sea Ports.

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Pictou Island had 2,000 to 3,000 seals on it when struck by a “severe” storm that buried the tiny Canadian island in snow and created rough ocean effects Wednesday and Thursday.

Jane MacDonald, an island resident, said that she woke up Thursday morning to see “wall to wall seals” and their puppies “decimated” by the storm.

MacDonald commented, “The seal puppies were literally swept away into the water because their mothers couldn’t get them to higher ground. A wave would hit and the pup went under. The mother pushed it up with her nose, and then another wave would hit.”

“After the sixth or seventh wave, the pup didn’t come up,” MacDonald said. “The more you watched, the worse it got. The mothers struggled so hard to save their babies and it just couldn’t be done, I’d never seen anything like that.”

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Cardiff, Wales —The British Broadcasting Corporation‘s (BBC) entire analogue, DTT and Satellite service was taken swiftly off air today for over 7 hours following a massive power failure at Broadcasting House in Llandaff, Cardiff. The outage hit at 10:30UTC this morning, and was further compounded by the fact that the building’s back up generators failed to start, bringing the whole service to a total standstill.

BBC1 and BBC2’s regional opt-outs for Wales were very quickly fed into another service, relaying BBC Northern Ireland for most of the day, while BBC Radio Wales fell silent. The Welsh language broadcasting service, BBC Radio Cymru had to switch to taking a feed from BBC Radio 4’s long wave service until 17:05UTC, when service was restored, and BBC News and Sport interactive for the Principality went offline, with no updates throughout the day.

During this time, the BBC’s main switchboard in London became jammed with callers, and BBC Information and BBC Reception Advice services had queue times up to 20 minutes to speak to advisors.