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February
Thousands told to flee homes in Australia amid heat spike, bushfire threat
Written by nuke
Smoke from bushfires rises north of Beaufort, near Ballarat in Victoria, Australia on Feb 24, 2024. (File Photo: AAP Image via Reuters/David Crosling) -
Voinews, Sydney - Hundreds of thousands of residents in Australia's southeast were told to evacuate on Wednesday (Feb 28) due to an intense heatwave that authorities said could further spread a massive bushfire in Victoria state, which faces its worst conditions in four years.
Extreme fire ratings have been issued for large parts of Victoria with the Wimmera region in the west given a catastrophic ranking, the top warning level. Mildura, a rural city of about 56,000, could touch 45 degrees Celsius, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
A potential fire impact zone that covers several rural towns has been identified as officials urged around 30,000 residents there to leave their homes by Wednesday morning.
"Today will be a very challenging day for firefighters," Jason Heffernan, Chief Officer at Victoria fire department told ABC television. "Today is one of those days when communities may need to take immediate action at very short notice."
Hundreds of firefighters were still battling a massive blaze near the city of Ballarat, 95 km west of Melbourne. The fire, burning since last Thursday, has already destroyed six homes, killed livestock and burnt more than 20,000 hectares (200 square kilometres).
A heat wave is set to sweep in from Australia's outback interior, moving across Victoria before likely shifting east to the state of New South Wales on Thursday. Total fire bans are in place across several cities, including Melbourne.
Dry lightning could spark new fires while strong winds forecast from Wednesday afternoon could spread the existing one near Ballarat, Heffernan said.
Heffernan urged people to reconsider any decision to stay back to protect their homes.
"Unless your property is immaculately prepared and you have firefighting resources available and you are fit and you are mentally capable to sustain a long duration firefight ... my strong advice to the community is to leave early," he said//CNA-VOI
February
TikTok shakes up senior roles including in trust and safety unit, Information reports
Written by nuke
Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of TikTok logo in this illustration taken, February 19, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration -
Voinews, Jakarta - ByteDance-owned short video app TikTok is replacing several senior executives including the person running its trust and safety unit which handles content moderation, the Information reported on Tuesday, citing people at the company and a memo sent to staff.
Adam Presser, operations head of the app who reports to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, will now oversee trust and safety, according to the Information.
Last month, Chew testified before Congress alongside Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and other tech and media heads in a hearing where lawmakers accused the companies of failing to protect children from escalating threats of sexual predation on their platforms.
Replying to questions from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, TikTok's CEO had said that the company would spend more than $2 billion on trust and safety efforts. Cormac Keenan, who had led global trust and safety, will now take on a strategic advisory role in the senior leadership team, a spokesperson at TikTok confirmed//CNA-VOI
February
World’s largest ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant to be built in Singapore
Written by nuke
An artist's rendering of an ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant. (Photo: Equatic) -
Voinews, Singapore - Over the next 18 months, the world’s largest ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant will be built in Singapore, following a successful pilot of the technology, project backers announced on Tuesday (Feb 27).
The US$20 million (S$26.9 million) full-scale demonstration plant, dubbed the Equatic-1, is a collaboration between Singapore’s national water agency PUB, UCLA and Equatic, a startup founded by UCLA scientists.
Equatic-1, to be co-funded by PUB, the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore, and UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management (ICM), is the result of the successful launch and operation of two pilots in Los Angeles and Singapore in 2023.
When fully completed at PUB’s research and development facility in Tuas, Equatic-1 will be equipped to remove 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide per day from seawater and the atmosphere.
This is more than 100 times the 100kg of carbon dioxide removal per day at Equatic’s existing plant in Singapore.
"The pilot plant commissioned in Singapore in 2023 provided critical performance data to substantiate our carbon dioxide-removal efficiencies, hydrogen-production rates and energy requirements for the process," said Equatic co-founder Dante Simonetti.
"The findings helped define the pathway for the design and engineering of Equatic-1 based on scaling performance confirmed by the pilot system."
The Equatic process, formerly known as Project SeaChange, expands upon the ocean’s natural ability to store carbon dioxide by removing dissolved CO2 and enhancing its capacity to absorb more of the greenhouse gas.
Utilising electrolysis, an electrical current is passed through seawater brought in from the adjacent PUB desalination plants to break down water into its carbon-negative hydrogen and oxygen constituents.
The process allows atmospheric carbon dioxide, as well as CO2 dissolved in seawater, to be trapped in the form of solid calcium and magnesium-based materials for at least 10,000 years. These carbon byproducts could potentially be used in the construction industry for land restoration, cement, or concrete.
"We are pleased to further our collaboration with UCLA and Equatic, to develop a solution that has potential synergies with PUB’s desalination plants," said PUB chief engineering and technology officer Pang Chee Meng.
For PUB, which has set a target to achieve net zero emissions by 2045, the collaboration with UCLA and Equatic is part of Singapore’s broader efforts to source for novel technologies, such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), which could contribute to mitigating the impacts of climate change.
"At PUB, we firmly believe that technological advancements, delivered in partnership with academia and the private sector, hold the key to addressing the complex challenges posed by climate change," said Dr Pang.
If Equatic-1 is successful, the technology would allow for the greenhouse gas to be removed and durably stored, while simultaneously producing nearly 300kg of carbon-negative hydrogen daily.
According to the World Bank, the average global annual carbon emissions per capita in 2020 was about 4.3 metric tons.
At full scale, Equatic-1 can remove as much carbon dioxide as what almost 850 people produce annually.
If the plant hits its goals, Equatic plans to commercialise the technology to launch commercial plants that can remove nearly 110,000 metric tones of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to the amount produced by 25,000 people.
"We are very grateful for the catalytic support of PUB and NRF, which have helped us create a world-class partnership in our joint efforts to mitigate climate change," said Equatic co-founder and ICM director Gaurav N Sant.
"Scaling carbon dioxide removal solutions requires technology, bold and committed partners, and a focus on timely and measurable success. We have been very fortunate to create this shared vision with our partners in Singapore to pilot and scale Equatic’s solutions."
Equatic-1 also utilises newly developed selective anodes from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to produce oxygen while also eliminating the unwanted byproduct of chlorine during seawater electrolysis.
This achieves circularity because it creates hydrogen, a clean source of energy, while simultaneously removing carbon dioxide emissions.
Carbon credits from Equatic-1 are allocated to the project’s partners, and Equatic has entered into agreements with companies such as Boeing for the purchase of carbon credits from future commercial plants//CNA-VOI
February
EU 2030 wind target within reach thanks to investment, improved permitting, industry body says
Written by nuke
Power-generating windmill turbines are seen during sunset at a wind park in Cantaing-sur-Escaut, France, on Nov 9, 2023. (File Photo: Reuters/Pascal Rossignol) -
Voinews, London - The European Union's wind power target for 2030 is within reach due to a rebound in investment and improved permitting procedures, an industry association report showed on Tuesday (Feb 27).
In an outlook on the sector to 2030, WindEurope forecasts that the EU will install an average of 29 gigawatts (GW) in wind capacity each year, increasing installed capacity to 393 GW. To meet the EU's climate targets, 33 GW a year needs to be installed.
Two-thirds of the installations will be onshore but offshore installations are expected to pick up rapidly towards the end of the decade. Last year, the EU installed a record 16.2 GW of wind energy capacity, 79 per cent of which was onshore.
Permitting procedures for new projects is improving due to new EU rules aimed at streamlining and speeding up the process. Germany and Spain permitted 70 per cent more onshore wind last year than in 2022, while France, Greece, Belgium and Britain also saw higher permitting volumes.
Investments in new capacity also increased last year due to the easing of inflation and other factors such as the European Commission's wind power package in October which set out actions to strengthen and support the industry.
New investment in offshore wind totalled 30 billion euros (US$32.52 billion) last year, up from 0.4 billion euros in 2022, the report said.
"Permitting has improved thanks to new EU rules. Investments are up. Record volumes are being auctioned and built. And governments have committed with the Wind Power Package and Charter to strengthen Europe’s wind energy industry," said WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson.
"Europe’s wind supply chain is returning to profit and building the new factories needed to deliver the EU’s targets. We’re now confident that we can get close to the EU goal that wind is 35 per cent of electricity by 2030, up from 19 per cent today - provided Europe accelerates the build-out of grids to connect all the new wind farms," he added.
The main risk to meeting the 2030 target is delays in connecting wind farms to electricity grids and governments need to focus on accelerating the development of grids, the report said//CNA-VOI
February
Tuvalu Names New Prime Minister a Month After Election
Written by Rama Shidqi P.
VOInews.id: Former Tuvaluan attorney-general, Feleti Teo was named the Pacific Islands country's new prime minister in a ceremony on Monday, a month after an election in January.
February
Australia PM pledges 'whatever support' needed as wildfires destroy homes
Written by nuke
Smoke from bushfires rises north of Beaufort, near Ballarat in Victoria, Australia, Feb 24, 2024. (Photo: AAP Image/David Crosling/Pool/via REUTERS) -
Voinews, Sydney - Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged on Sunday (Feb 25) to provide whatever support was needed to assist Victoria state in a days-long wildfire emergency that has razed homes after authorities warned extreme heat could fan the blazes this week.
"We will provide whatever support is requested from Victoria," Albanese told reporters in the city of Frankston, Victoria, according to a transcript.
"It's a reminder of the need for us to be vigilant for us to continue to work and act on the threat that is climate change."
The emergency has killed livestock, destroyed six homes and forced more than 2,000 people to leave western towns and head to the city of Ballarat, 95km west of the state capital, Melbourne.
Australia is in the grips of an El Nino weather pattern, which is typically associated with extreme phenomena such as wildfires, cyclones and droughts.
More than 15 bushfires were burning in Victoria on Sunday, with the most serious blaze, ranked at the second highest danger rating, near several remote towns, according to the state's emergency authority.
State authorities have said there are concerns about the weather this week particularly Wednesday into Thursday when extreme heat is forecast that could further fan the fires.
Around 1,000 firefighters supported by more than 50 aircraft have battled the fires since they started.
The last two bushfire seasons in Australia have been subdued compared with the 2019-2020 "Black Summer", when bushfires destroyed an area the size of Turkey, killing 33 people and 3 billion animals//CNA-VOI
February
United Airlines to Resume Flights to Israel Next Month
Written by ranov
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JANUARY 23: Passengers check in for United Airlines flights at O'Hare International Airport on January 23, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. United Airlines said Monday it expects to face a loss in its first quarter due to the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 jets due to safety concerns. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
VOInews, Jakarta: United Airlines announced Wednesday it will resume flights to Israel next month, becoming the first US carrier to bring back flights since last fall's suspensions with the outbreak of war in Gaza.
United plans initial flights to Tel Aviv from its New York-area hub in Newark, New Jersey on March 2 and 4, with a goal of having daily non-stop service restored from March 6.
"United conducted a detailed safety analysis in making this decision, including close work with security experts and government officials in the United States and Israel," the US carrier said in a news release.
"United will continue to monitor the situation in Tel Aviv and adjust the schedule as warranted," the company said.
The company hopes to bring back a second flight from Newark as soon as May, United said, adding that it would evaluate bringing back flights from San Francisco, Washington and Chicago as early as the fall.
United and US rivals Delta Air Lines and American Airlines suspended service to Israel after the October 7 attack by Hamas, which has been followed by an ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip by Israel.
A Delta spokesperson referred AFP to the company's January 19 statement canceling flights to Tel Aviv through April 30 that said the company is "continuously monitoring the security situation" in the region.
American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other companies that have resumed service to Israel include British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France and RyanAir.
Source: jmb/dw/AFP
February
Brazil Condemns 'Paralysis' on Gaza, Ukraine at Tense G20 Meeting
Written by ranov
General view of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taken on February 21, 2024. Foreign ministers of the G20 group of nations open a two-day meeting Wednesday in Brazil, with a bleak outlook for progress on a thorny agenda of conflicts and crises, from the Gaza and Ukraine wars to growing polarization. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)
VOInews, Jakarta- Brazil criticized the "paralysis" of the UN Security Council on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as it opened a G20 meeting Wednesday where the international community's deep divisions were on display.
The outlook is bleak for progress on the thorny agenda of conflicts and crises gripping the planet as foreign ministers from the world's biggest economies gather in Rio de Janeiro for the Group of 20's first high-level meeting of the year.
Opening the two-day meeting, which featured US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Brazil's top diplomat, Mauro Vieira, said the explosion of global conflicts shows international institutions like the United Nations are not working.
"Multilateral institutions are not properly equipped to deal with the current challenges, as has been demonstrated by the Security Council's unacceptable paralysis on the ongoing conflicts" in Gaza and Ukraine, Vieira said, adding the situation was costing "innocent lives."
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell for his part warned multilateralism "is in crisis."
The Security Council has failed to act on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, held in check by Russian veto power, and has struggled to find a response to the war in Gaza, with Israel's ally the United States using its veto to block calls for a ceasefire, most recently Tuesday.
Brazil, which took over the rotating G20 presidency from India in December, has voiced hopes the group could be a forum to make progress on such questions.
But that likely took a hit when Lula ignited a diplomatic firestorm Sunday by accusing Israel of "genocide," comparing its military campaign in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust.
The comments drew outrage in Israel, which declared him persona non grata, and could overshadow any bid to de-escalate the conflict via the G20.
Blinken, who met Lula Wednesday in Brasilia before heading to the G20, "made clear we disagree with (his) comments," a senior State Department official told journalists.
The secretary of state and Brazilian leader had a "frank exchange" in their more than 90-minute meeting at the presidential palace, the official said.
Source : AFP
February
FILE PHOTO: A woman stands in front of a Google logo during the inauguration of a new hub in France dedicated to the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, at the Google France headquarters in Paris, France, February 15, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo -
Voinews, San Francisco - Google on Wednesday (Feb 21) released new artificial intelligence (AI) models that outside developers potentially can fashion as their own, following a similar move by Meta Platforms and others.
The Alphabet subsidiary said individuals and businesses can build AI software based on its new family of "open models" called Gemma, for free. The company is making key technical data such as what is called model weights publicly available, it said.
The move may attract software engineers to build on Google's technology and encourage usage of its newly profitable cloud division. The models are "optimised" for Google Cloud, where first-time cloud customers using them get US$300 in credits, the company said.
Google stopped short of making Gemma fully "open source," meaning the company still may have a hand in setting terms of use and ownership.
Some experts have said open-source AI was ripe for abuse, while others have championed the approach for widening the set of people who can contribute to and benefit from the technology.
With the announcement, Google did not make its bigger, premier models known as Gemini open, unlike Gemma. It said the Gemma models are sized at two billion or seven billion parameters - or the number of different values that an algorithm takes into account to generate output.
Meta's Llama 2 models range from seven to 70 billion parameters in size. Google has not disclosed the size of its largest Gemini models. For comparison, OpenAI's GPT-3 model announced in 2020 had 175 billion parameters.
Chipmaker Nvidia on Wednesday said it has worked with Google to ensure Gemma models run smoothly on its chips. Nvidia also said it will soon make chatbot software, which it is developing to run AI models on Windows PCs, work with Gemma//CNA-VOI
February
Closure of Special Account in line with CPF's purpose and intent: Lawrence Wong
Written by nuke
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong speaking with panellists on CNA's Ask the Finance Minister programme on Feb 21, 2024. (Photo: CNA/Jeremy Long) -
Voinews, Singapore - Measures announced at Budget 2024 affecting Central Provident Fund (CPF) members are “very much in line with the purpose and intent of the CPF”, said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday night (Feb 21).
Mr Wong, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, was addressing the move to close the CPF Special Account and the reactions it drew online.
Those aged 55 and above will no longer have a Special Account from 2025 onwards, but they will be able to put more money into their Retirement Accounts.
The Ordinary Account holds funds that can be withdrawn for housing and earns short-term interest rates, while the Special Account is for long-term purposes and so has a higher interest rate.
“That’s the principle,” explained Mr Wong on CNA’s Ask the Finance Minister show, a post-Budget panel discussion that saw him field questions from four panellists.
“Of course, at age 55, you also have a Retirement Account. So instead of now having Special Account and Retirement Account, we are streamlining it into just one, which is the Retirement Account, which is for the long-term, for your retirement needs.”
Under the move, CPF members who have excess funds in their Special Account can transfer it to the Retirement Account – “all the way up to the revised Enhanced Retirement Sum and still earn the same interest rate as the Special Account”, said Mr Wong.
“The vast majority of Singaporeans will be able to do so. And if they do so, they will get more in their Retirement Account. And eventually when they retire, they will get higher CPF payouts for life.”
The Enhanced Retirement Sum is the maximum amount that CPF members can put into their Retirement Accounts to receive payouts. It is currently set at three times the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS), but will be increased to four times the BRS next year.
Those who have remaining Special Account savings after hitting the Enhanced Retirement Sum cap will have these savings transferred to their Ordinary Account.
Mr Wong on Wednesday also touched on how employers should help their mid-career employees, particularly those aged 40 and above, reboot their skills.
Even though employers who embrace this new mindset may experience higher-costs in the short-term as they have to invest in their workers’ training, Mr Wong believes they will emerge “much better” as a company//CNA-VOI