SOUTH AFRICA
Blackouts near 100 days
The nation is nearing 100 consecutive days of rolling blackouts, the longest stretch yet, with more to come as its electricity crisis deepens. Eskom Holdings SOC, the state-owned company that produces almost all the electricity in Africa’s most industrialized economy, has imposed blackouts daily since Oct. 31, making yesterday the 99th straight day of outages, according to Bloomberg calculations. Power rationing, known locally as loadshedding, is needed to protect the nation’s grid from collapse, when Eskom’s aging and poorly maintained and mostly coal-fed plants cannot meet demand, which happened on 200 days over last year. Outages have afflicted the country for about 15 years and are likely to continue for at least two more, as Eskom overhauls its electricity-generating fleet.
UNITED STATES
Accident a mechanical issue
A mechanical issue with a rail car axle caused the fiery derailment of dozens of freight cars in Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line on Friday night, federal investigators announced on Sunday. The smoldering tangle of cars, some carrying hazardous materials, kept an evacuation order in effect. National Transportation Safety Board member Michael Graham told a news conference that the three-member train crew received an alert about the mechanical defect “shortly before the derailment,” but said the board was still working to determine which rail car experienced the issue. About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine at about 9pm on Friday as a train was carrying a variety of products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said. No injuries to crew, residents or first responders have been reported.
ISRAEL
Sniffing bio-robot developed
A new sniffing robot equipped with a biological sensor that uses the antennas of locusts could help advance disease diagnosis and improve security checks, its Israeli developers said. Locusts have an acute sense of smell, which the researchers in Tel Aviv University have managed to harness to their bio-hybrid robot, making it far more sensitive than existing electronic sniffers, they said. Locusts smell with their antennas. On the four-wheeled robot, the researchers placed the insect’s antenna between two electrodes that send electrical signals as a response to a nearby odor. Each scent has a unique signature which, with machine learning, the robot’s electronic system can identify. “Ultimately, we are trying to create a robot with a sense of smell that will be able to distinguish between smells and to locate them in space,” Neta Shvil of the Sagol School of Neuroscience said.
CAMBODIA
Man builds ‘airplane house’
A Cambodian man, inspired by a lifelong dream of flying, has built a home that is modeled on a plane, complete with a fuselage-like structure standing 6m above the ground housing his two bedrooms and bathrooms. The concrete construction, which has mock engines, wings and a tailplane, was built by Chrach Pov, 43, and has created a stir in the district of Siem Reap province where he lives. “I am so excited that I can fulfil my dream now even though it is not yet 100 percent done,” said Pov, who has spent about US$20,000 so far after saving up for 30 years for the project. The construction worker plans to build a coffee shop next to his home for visitors and still hopes to be able to fly on a real plane one day.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
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