Glaciers Are Melting Underwater

Glaciers Are Melting Underwater. It’s Worse Than Previously Thought (Source Time)

 Underwater ice melt from glaciers could be happening much faster than previously thought, according to new research published in the journal Science. That’s a dangerous finding as melting glaciers linked to climate change threaten to raise sea levels dramatically by the end of the century, The scientists who worked on the study developed new methods incorporating sonar, time-lapse photography and other tools to monitor how much ice is melting beneath the water surface. For three years, they used the methodology to survey the LeConte Glacier in Alaska. In some places, the researchers recorded the glacier melting 100 times faster than previous, theoretical models predicted.

“The existing theory is wildly inaccurate at one glacier,” says study author Rebecca Jackson, an oceanographer at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, in a press release. That “should lead us to be very skeptical of its current use in studying any tidewater glacier.” A 2014 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nation’s climate science body, found that between 2003 and 2009 glacier melt across the globe caused 0.7 millimeters per year of sea level rise.

Two dead, 768 ill amid Salmonella outbreak affecting 48 states

Two dead, 768 ill amid Salmonella outbreak affecting 48 states, CDC says (Source usatoday.com)

Two people are dead and 768 are ill due to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The CDC recently posted updates regarding two separate outbreaks – one linked to contact with poultry in backyard flocks and one linked to contact with pig ear dog treats. According to the latest CDC report, the outbreak now involves 48 states with 768 people affected — 122 of them hospitalized. Two deaths were reported, one in Texas and one in Ohio.

Since 2000, more than 75 outbreaks of Salmonella infections have been linked to contact with backyard poultry. In Tennessee, 55 people have become ill. The only other state to report more cases is Ohio, with 62 illnesses. The CDC says 24% of those interviewed who became ill are children under the age of 5. The CDC recommends the following as a safety precaution:

Always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water right after touching poultry or anything in their environment. Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not immediately available.

Do not let backyard poultry inside the house. Be especially careful to keep them out of areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored, such as kitchens and outdoor patios.

Fall-like air breaks record lows from early 1900s in parts of southern US

Fall-like air breaks record lows from early 1900s in parts of southern US(Source accuweather.com)

The storm system that triggered severe thunderstorms in parts of the Carolinas on Tuesday signaled the end to the prolonged stretch of stifling heat and humidity that has been baking the Southeast. An unusually strong cold front, by late July standards, pushed through much of the Southern states and triggered severe weather on Tuesday. North Carolina was hit the hardest by Tuesday’s storms, with nearly two dozen reports of wind damage across the state.

The passage of this front has brought lower temperature and humidity levels to much of the region which will linger through much of this week.

A recently installed weather station run by Virginia Tech Meteorology showed a low temperature of 38 F in Canaan Valley, West Virginia Wednesday morning. The station is situated at an elevation of 3,105 feet. 

EU Prepares New Centralized Internet Law

EU Prepares New Centralized Internet Law (Source thetrumpet.com)

The European Union is drafting a new law that would further regulate Internet content, reported German-language digital culture news website Netzpolitik on July 16. Called the Digital Services Act, it aims to replace the outdated commerce directive of 20 years ago with an updated and legally binding version. Financial Times said it would be the “first of its kind globally” to cover such a broad range of digital platforms, and it would “target all parts of the tech sector.” The new rules would allow unelected EU officials to censor illegal content on platforms like Google and Facebook, as well as cloud competing services, data storage services and Internet service providers.

Most striking is the way the Digital Services Act is organized. EU nations would lose control of the Internet laws their own governments have created, becoming subservient instead to a centralized EU committee. Large social media sites would be subjected to the EU’s mandatory “notice and take down” rules, forcing them to remove within an hour anything the EU dislikes. “Hate speech,” notorious for its broad definition, would be outlawed and punishable at a whim. Any advertising deemed to be “political” in nature would also be subject to EU rules. “We must put this issue in the context of Bible prophecy and history. The German-led EU is behaving the way the Holy Roman Empire has always behaved. Germany is once again seeking to impose its will on the world.” Even if you do not live in Europe and don’t expect to be affected, you need to understand where European regulation of the Internet is leading. Germany is leading Europe and will succeed in forcing its will on the Internet. But this is just a precursor to Germany forcing itself on the world in an even more direct way.

Europe’s desire to dominate the Internet points to biblical prophecies about a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. 

Russia and China’s first joint bomber patrol got a swift

Russia and China’s first joint bomber patrol got a swift response from Japan and South Korea, but the message was intended for the US (Source Business Insider) On Tuesday, Russian and Chinese nuclear-capable bombers provoked tensions between South Korea and Japan, the US’s most important allies in the Pacific. That Japan and South Korea both scrambled jets to respond to the intrusions was a bonus — what they really wanted was to send a message to the US. Earlier on Tuesday morning, two Russian Tupolev Tu-95MS bombers jets flew over the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea. They were joined by two Chinese H-6K long-range bombers for their first joint air patrol using long-range aircraft in the region, Russian state media reported. Russia flew a Beriev A-50 airborne-early-warning-and-control airplane over the Dokdo Islands in the Sea of Japan, which Japan calls the Takeshima Islands and claims as its own.

The joint patrol near the disputed island was likely a message to the US about the “durability” of its closest alliances in the region,

experts on Russian and Asian security and foreign policy, told INSIDER. The Dokdo Islands are symbolic of the long-simmering hostilities between South Korea and Japan, which overtook the Korean peninsula by force in 1910 and ruled brutally until the end of World War II. The A-50 did not respond to repeated radio warnings from South Korea, making it the first Russian military aircraft to intrude on South Korea’s airspace. The A-50 flew over the disputed territory twice, just after 9:00 a.m. local time, according to Reuters.

US warship sails through Taiwan Strait amid China tensions

US warship sails through Taiwan Strait amid China tensions(Source Associated Press) Taiwan said Thursday the U.S. Navy is free to sail through its strait after an American warship did so soon after Beijing warned against foreign interference in its relationship with the island. The USS Antietam sailed northward through the Taiwan Strait, said a statement from Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. Taiwan’s joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance task force said nothing “unusual” took place during its journey, the statement said. Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, said the Antietam conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Wednesday to Thursday “in accordance with international law.” The Antietam is a guided missile cruiser. The transit “demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Doss said. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.” China said it paid close attention to the passage and has expressed its concerns to the U.S. “The Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing Thursday. China urges the U.S. to “properly handle Taiwan-related issues with caution,” she said.

On Wednesday, China warned in a national defense white paper that it could use force against anyone who intervenes in its efforts to reunify Taiwan. The ruling Communist Party considers Taiwan part of China, though the democratically governed island split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949.

FIRST NYC, THEN DC..MORE POWER OUTAGES ARE LOOMING: COULD YOUR AREA BE NEXT?

FIRST NYC, THEN DC..MORE POWER OUTAGES ARE LOOMING: COULD YOUR AREA BE NEXT?(Source Zero Hedge) Last week, New York City suffered a blackout in the heat of summer. Con Edison said the blackout that plunged parts of Manhattan into darkness was due to a substation’s relay protection system that “did not operate as designed.”

The utility company said the faulty system was at its West 65th Street substation.

“That system detects electrical faults and directs circuit breakers to isolate and de-energize those faults. The relay protection system is designed with redundancies to provide high levels of reliability,” Con Edison said in a statement on Monday. “In this case, primary and backup relay systems did not isolate a faulted 13,000-volt distribution cable at West 64th Street and West End Avenue.” THOUSANDS WERE WITHOUT POWER IN WASHINGTON DC A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO.

PEPCO, DC’s electric company, is trying to determine the cause of a power outage in Northeastern DC that left thousands in the dark on Monday.

According to a company spokesperson, this outage, too, was an equipment failure. Chicago is also anticipating hot weather and potential electrical failure. Officials from ComEd in Chicago are also preparing for extreme temperatures – Friday is forecast to be the hottest, with a high of 96 degrees, according to the Weather Channel.

When you have extreme weather of any kind, it can put stress on any system and can cause outages,” said Terence Donnelly, the company’s president and chief operating officer. “We’re watching the pending hot weather moving into our system very closely, we have scheduled our emergency response center to open up and we have scheduled extra crews scheduled to work extra hours.” 

Trump Ignorant of China’s Resolve

Trump Ignorant of China’s Resolve(Source globalresearch.ca) Nearly three weeks after Trump and Chineses President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the late June G20 Osaka, Japan summit, agreeing to resume trade talks, all that took place were telephone communications between both sides. No date for a face-to-face meeting was scheduled in either country. Things are no closer to resolving major differences than earlier.

Both nations are world’s apart on major structural issues. The US side appears unwilling to soften its unacceptable demands, China not about to accept them. The last time bilateral talks were held in May, they broke down. Both sides remain firm. China insists that further talks take place “on a basis of equality and mutual respect” — what the US affords no other countries, notably not sovereign independent ones. For progress to be made in talks, China demands what the Trump regime won’t agree to — lifting unacceptable tariffs, removing Chinese enterprises from its blacklist, notably tech giant Huawei and its affiliates, along with calling off its dogs against the company’s chief financial officer, ordering Canada to release her from house arrest.

The US must also end its unacceptable one-sided demands, be willing to compromise on key issues, and respect China’s sovereign developmental rights.

There’s no sign whatever of the Trump regime’s willingness to negotiate on this basis, differences between both sides remaining at impasse.

Venezuela may switch from SWIFT to Russian payment system to skirt U.S. sanctions

Venezuela may switch from SWIFT to Russian payment system to skirt U.S. sanctions (Source RT)

Venezuela is considering using the Russian alternative to the traditional SWIFT international payment system, as the country braces for new US sanctions that could further weaken its financial sector, according to Bloomberg. Venezuela’s central bank has sent a request on the matter to the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) as the regulator’s approval is necessary if Caracas wants to use the payment platform, the report said. Russia developed its own money transfer mechanism –called the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS)– in 2014, amid concerns that SWIFT’s political neutrality could be shattered under US pressure.

The Russian alternative payment system already includes nearly 400 users, including the country’s major banks. Last month, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) said that foreign banks had shown interest in joining the platform and are already testing it.

Ebola outbreak in Congo declared a global health emergency

Ebola outbreak in Congo declared a global health emergency (Source Associated Press) The deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo is now an international health emergency, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday after a case was confirmed in a city of 2 million people. A WHO expert committee declined on three previous occasions to advise the United Nations health agency to make the declaration for this outbreak, even though other experts say it has long met the conditions.

More than 1,600 people have died since August in the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. The declaration comes days after a single case was confirmed in Goma, a major regional crossroads in northeastern Congo on the Rwandan border, with an international airport. Also, a sick Congolese fish trader traveled to Uganda and back while symptomatic — and later died of Ebola. While the risk of regional spread remains high, the risk outside the region remains low, WHO chief said after the announcement in Geneva.