Tag: All Regions

Starting in the mid-20th century, companies began distorting and manipulating science to favor specific commercial interests. Big tobacco is both the developer and the poster child of this strategy. When strong evidence that smoking caused lung cancer emerged in the 1950s, the tobacco industry began a campaign to obscure this fact. The Unmaking of Science The tobacco industry scientific disinformation campaign sought to disrupt and delay further studies, as well as to cast scientific doubt on the link between cigarette…

Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was 1.48 degrees Celsius (2.66 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.That’s barely below the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit that the world hoped to stay within in…

A mid-air blowout aboard a Boeing 737-9 MAX passenger plane has led to dozens of aircraft worldwide being grounded while engineers try to establish what went wrong. Six people aboard Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland to California were injured after a window and chunk of fuselage blew out of the plane in mid-air shortly after takeoff on 5 January. Questions around the safety of the jets are swirling and various airlines have come out with statements saying what actions…

Bottled water has been found to contain hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic particles, the vast majority of which are nanoplastics (<1μm in length), according to new research. Nanoplastics are thought to be more toxic to humans because their small size means they can pass more easily from the gut into the body than microplastics (1μm to 5mm in length). However, there is a gap in understanding the effects of these tiny particles on organisms due to the challenges associated…

NEW DELHI: Alaska Airlines flight 1282 made an emergency landing as a part of the plane flew off mid-flight going from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California on January 5, causing panic and worldwide concerns on flight safety. Following the incident, aviation authorities and airline companies are conducting checks on their own planes to prevent any more potential disasters.An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the incident. Here’s what we know so far about the investigation: Alaska Airlines…

Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine on Monday formally complained to the U.N. aviation council in their bid to hold Iran accountable for the downing of a Ukrainian passenger airliner in January 2020 that killed 176 people, they said on Monday. Most of the dead were citizens from the four nations, which created a coordination group that seeks to hold Iran to account. “Today we have jointly initiated dispute-settlement proceedings before the International Civil Aviation Organization against the Islamic Republic of…

Not for the first time, Boeing is again the subject of unwanted attention from regulators and customers over safety issues. The shocking scenes on Friday night, in which a Boeing 737 MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines suffered a mid-air blow-out, has again raised questions over the safety of the jet. Boeing shares fell by 8% in pre-market trading today while shares of Spirit AeroSystems, which made and installed the fuselage part on the jet, were down by as much…

A Marine veteran held hostage in Iran for more than four years has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Justice after FBI allegations reversed a decision that had awarded him $20 million from a fund for victims of state-sponsored terrorism. Attorneys for Amir Hekmati filed the federal civil lawsuit on Dec. 19. They claimed that Hekmati has been denied his due process rights to counter claims made by the FBI and they challenged the decision of the special…

Court documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are expected to be released soon with many names that were previously redacted, and prominent figures on the right are holding up the impending disclosures as evidence of wrongdoing by Democrats despite a lack of concrete information about what they will show. Most of the names being made public – currently cited as John Does – have previously been identified in other court documents or in news reports as having been associated…

Adult media giant Aylo has blocked access to many of its websites, including PornHub, to visitors from Montana and North Caroline as new age verifications laws go into effect. This move also impacts other adult sites owned by the company, including Tube8, RedTube, and Brazzers. As of January 1st, new age verification laws went into effect in Montana and North Carolina that require adult websites to verify the age of visitors from those states.  Under these new laws, failure to…

The United Kingdom (“UK”) introduced new sanctions against Russia on December 14, 2023 with the European Union (“EU”) also adopting its 12th package of sanctions against Russia on December 18, 2023. The latest UK restrictions include: Import and related restrictions on further categories of iron and steel goods, as well a wide range of additional metals such as aluminium. New import and related restrictions on Russian diamonds or diamond jewellery. Clarification and expansion of payment processing restrictions for parties targeted…

Attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission apologized to a judge on Thursday for misrepresenting facts used to secure a restraining order and asset freeze against a crypto firm. In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court of Utah, in response to the judge’s order to show cause for its misstep, the SEC attorneys wrote that the commission “deeply regrets these orders” and promised to conduct mandatory training for staff members involved in the investigation. “I fully appreciate the…

In a significant development for US military space operations, the secretive X-37B robot spaceplane was launched from Florida on Thursday night. This marks its seventh mission and the first to be launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, potentially reaching higher orbits than ever before. Driving the news The Falcon Heavy, the most powerful operational rocket in the world, lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a dazzling display of fire and smoke. The launch was delayed…

Five years since the legalization of cannabis in Canada, the industry finds itself grappling with significant challenges. Despite making economic contributions on par with the dairy sector and marking its presence on the global stage, primarily in the medical cannabis export market, this promising industry is hindered by financial strains, murky advocacy, and unyielding regulations. Excise Tax: A Thorn in the Side A primary issue, raised during a recent industry gathering in Toronto, is the hefty excise tax, which critics…

Record-Breaking Cash Withdrawals in the UK Reflect Enduring Relevance of Physical Currency December 22, 2023, saw a record-breaking spree in the United Kingdom when more than £62 million was withdrawn from Post Offices, surpassing the previous year’s high of £51.5 million. This surge was attributed to last-minute Christmas shopping and preparation for cash gifts. The magnified reliance on cash during the festive season underscores the continued significance of physical currency in daily transactions and budgeting amid the prevalent cost of…

The new year will likely prove to be one of significant force structure changes for the Army, according to its senior leaders. Although the service has maintained for years that embracing multidomain operations will require it to “transform” its force structure into one leaders believe is suited to tomorrow’s battlefield, back-to-back recruiting shortfalls led top officials to admit by mid-to-late 2023 that some pending cuts are influenced by a deepening numbers shortfall. The Army finished fiscal year 2023 with only…