TANZANIA
Helium gas field found
A newly discovered helium gas field was on Tuesday hailed as a “game changer” by scientists and the company hoping to exploit it. Helium is a rare gas used in medical scanners, scientific research, spaceships, weather balloons and telescopes — as well as party balloons and for squeaky-voiced comic effect — and it is thought world consumption is far outstripping production, raising concerns of a global shortage. The discovery of as much as 1.53 billion cubic meters of the gas in southern Tanzania could satisfy total world demand for almost seven years at current rates. “We sampled helium gas, and nitrogen, just bubbling out of the ground,” said Chris Ballentine, a professor at the University of Oxford who was involved in testing the gases, adding the find was “enough to fill over 1.2 million medical MRI scanners. This is a game changer for the future security of society’s helium needs and similar finds in the future may not be far away.” It is thought that volcanic activity in Tanzania’s section of the Rift Valley created the high temperatures necessary to release the gas from ancient rocks allowing it to rise up and become trapped closer to the surface making it ripe for exploitation. Norwegian mining company Helium One, which worked with the scientists on a new exploration technique credited with the find and has three prospecting licenses in Tanzania, claimed to have discovered “a globally significant helium-bearing province.”
UNITED STATES
California to vote on weed
Californians are set to decide whether to make recreational marijuana use legal, as other Western states have done, after the California Secretary of State’s office on Tuesday said the issue could be put to voters in the November ballot. The proposed so-called “Adult Use of Marijuana Act,” which is supported by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom among others, would allow people aged 21 and older to possess as much as 1 ounce (about 28g) of marijuana for private recreational use and permit personal cultivation of as many as six marijuana plants. “Today marks a fresh start for California, as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself,” initiative spokesman Jason Kinney said in a statement. The measure would also establish a system to license, regulate and tax sales of marijuana, while allowing city governments to exercise local control over or disallow commercial distribution within their borders.
SIERRA LEONE
Man planned arson
A man was charged with attempting to set fire to an Air France plane at Lungi International Airport after penetrating the secure zone without a passport or boarding card, court officials said on Tuesday. Airport officials promised security would be stepped up after Ibrahim Kanu attempted to board the flight armed with gasoline, matches and a cigarette lighter on June 4 at the airport, which is close to the capital, Freetown. The prosecution said at a Monday hearing that Kanu had entered the restricted area reserved for staff and took a bus connecting to the plane, believed to have been an Airbus A330-200 headed for Paris. Air France said that an individual had managed to penetrate a restricted area, but said he was stopped as he attempted to get on the bus heading for Flight AF770 and was handed over to police.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese