Collapsing aquifers, flooding of low-lying lands to affect 1.6 billion people by 2040
As California’s economy skyrocketed during the 20th century, its land headed in the opposite direction. A booming agricultural industry in the state’s San Joaquin Valley, combined with punishing droughts led to the over-extraction of water from aquifers. Like huge, empty water bottles, the aquifers crumpled, a phenomenon geologists call subsidence....
Republicans: An angry mob will not get veto power over the rule of law in our nation
President Donald Trump helped provoke the swarms of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday. The damning remarks on the Senate floor came as the Kentucky Republican and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democratic-New York), worked to hash out details on Trump’s...
Bright side of Covid: Carbon emissions dipped in 2020 as energy use dropped
After rising steadily for decades, global carbon dioxide emissions fell by 6.4 per cent or 2.3 billion tonnes in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic squelched economic and social activities worldwide, according to new data on daily fossil fuel emissions. The decline is significant – roughly double Japan’s yearly emissions –...
Private sector invests in new ideas only after regimes make risky investments
The World Health Organisation appointed economist Mariana Mazzucato to head its Council on the Economics of Health for All in 2020. Ms Mazzucato is one of the architects of the biggest international research-funding scheme in the world, Horizon Europe, which launched this month. Her book Mission Economy is a timely...
How police, spies and hackers get around your smartphone’s encryption
Lawmakers and law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have increasingly called for backdoors in the encryption schemes that protect your data, arguing that national security is at stake. But new research indicates governments already have methods and tools that, for better or worse, let them...
Honey laundering is one of the mega food trades in the world today
In 2020, 13 honeys were subjected to another battery of tests. Nine of the products contained psicose, the rare sugar which would not typically be found in honey. Ten of the 13 honeys tested positive for the presence of enzymes indicating that they may be “adulterated with syrup”. All of...
Google’s new workers’ union is already addressing political and racism issues
The Alphabet Workers Union is not seeking better pay and benefits. It wants to influence the company’s policies on social and other issues. On January 4, a group of workers at Google parent company Alphabet said they had formed a union to influence the company’s approach to political and social...
Mauritius and Morocco are new members of ADB Bloomberg bond index
Mauritius and Morocco have joined the African Development Bank’s Bloomberg African Bond Indices, further expanding the bank’s portfolio on the continent. The addition of Mauritius and Morocco to the fold marked a steady progress in ADB’s efforts in deepening the continent’s local currency bond market. The African Development Bank administers...
A third of Covid patients discharged from hospital are readmitted in five months
A study has found that almost a third of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 are re-admitted to hospital within five months. The research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics also found that up to one in eight die of Covid-related complications. It found that out of...
‘Most of honey exported by China is blended with syrup’
Shortly before dawn most days, José Eduardo Moo Pat sets out from his home in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with a protective suit and his metal smoker for calming honey bees. He drives six miles through low-lying tropical jungle to tend to his 30 hives nestled in a clearing. His work...
