Turkish power plant evacuated as wildfire inferno bears down on facility — Damned Report
August 5, 2021
Thursday August 5, 2021
WILDFIRES
Turkish power plant EVACUATED as wildfire inferno bears down on facility
A massive wildfire raging in Turkey’s southern province of Mugla has encroached onto the site of a local power plant, threatening to burn the facility down. The plant has been evacuated, and the local electricity supply cut off.
By RT
Greece battles wildfires for third day, site of ancient Olympics saved
Greek authorities ordered more evacuations on an island near Athens on Thursday and battled a blaze near the site of the ancient Olympic Games in the western Peloponnese as wildfires raged for a third day.
By Angeliki Koutantou, Reuters
Thousands evacuate fast-moving California wildfire; homes burn
A rapidly spreading wildfire burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate in two heavily wooded counties northeast of Sacramento in Northern California on Wednesday, generating a towering plume of smoke visible from at least 70 miles (110 km) away.
By Fred Greaves, Reuters
A brush fire in Hawaii exceeds 40,000 acres and prompts evacuations.
A fast-moving brush fire that has burned more than 40,000 acres on the Big Island of Hawaii prompted mandatory evacuations over the weekend, the authorities said. Although residents were allowed to return home on Sunday, they could be required to evacuate again if weather conditions worsen.
By Derrick Bryson Taylor, The New York Times
Rains help firefighters limit damage from lightning-caused wildfires
Hundreds of lightning strikes Tuesday evening throughout North Central Washington started several wildfires that in many cases crews were quickly able to extinguish with help from heavy rains that accompanied the thunderstorm.
By NCWLIFE
Bend sees worst air quality in state from wildfire smoke
Bend recorded the worst air quality in the state Wednesday morning as smoke from Western Oregon wildfires settled over the region.
By Kyle Spurr, The Bulletin
Vast wildfires in Russia's Yakutia set emissions record - monitor
Summer wildfires have already produced a record amount of carbon emissions in Russia's Siberian region of Yakutia, with still more weeks of the fire season to come, according to the European Union's Copernicus satellite monitoring unit.
By Tom Balmforth, Reuters
Wildfire smoke in Minnesota brings dystopian skies to the Midwest
‘Unprecedented’ haze from wildfires blanketed the Twin Cities last week. More smoke is coming.
By Alexandria Herr, Grist
Damage estimate for fire razed town of Lytton, B.C., reaches $78 million
The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates the damage caused by the wildfire that wiped out most of village of Lytton, B.C., is $78 million.
By Canadian Press
Satellite Images Shows What U.S., Canada Wildfires Look Like From Space
Satellite footage has shown how huge swathes of sky over North America are covered in smoke from ongoing forest fires across Canada and the western U.S.
By Ed Browne, Newsweek
Canadian wildfires have affected Wisconsin air quality for a month. So what can Wisconsinites do?
When she received word of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' statewide advisory on air quality, Chelsea Chandler canceled her plans of taking her two young children to Governor Dodge State Park.
By Natalie Eilbert, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Why Italy is struggling to contain wildfires
Amid the current heatwave, Italy is struggling to contain the wildfires that are raging around the country. In addition to the scorching heat, there is a variety of reasons why wildfires have become such a problem.
By DW
91 wildfires are now burning across the US, with Oregon's Bootleg Fire growing to over 400,000 acres
Seven new large fires were reported Sunday, bringing the total number of wildfires raging in the United States to 91, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 1.8 million acres have burned since these fires began, the NIFC said. More than 22,300 wildland firefighters and incident management teams are involved in battling the blazes.
By Amir Vera and Deanna Hackney, CNN
ISRAEL-LEBANON
Israeli warplanes pound southern Lebanon, as IDF vows to ‘continue & intensify’ retaliation to rocket fire
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of airstrikes on Lebanese territory, calling them retaliation for cross-border rocket attacks after earlier firing scores of artillery rounds in response.
By RT
Tear gas & rubber bullets used against Lebanese protesters demanding justice for victims of Beirut blast
Lebanese police have fired rubber bullets and tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators in Beirut, who are angry that no one has been punished for last year’s massive explosion that killed hundreds and devastated the city.
By RT
Israel Conducts First Lebanon Strikes in Seven Years: Military
The Israeli air force carried out its first air strikes on neighboring Lebanon in seven years following a second day of rocket fire across the border.
By AFP
PROMO
The Propaganda Report: Daily News Blast
Biden Promises To Pay Those Who Use Aggressive Efforts To Vax The Unvaxxed, The Strange Tale of The First Two Transgender Olympians, & The Consulting Firm That Runs Democrats As Republicans
By Monica Perez and Brad Binkley
CVD-19
WHO pushes for global moratorium on Covid-19 booster shots, calls on influencers to spread the word
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on nations to not administer Covid booster shots until at least the end of September, in an effort to first ensure a base level of vaccine coverage across the globe.
By RT
Israel reimposes tighter pandemic restrictions
The government said late Tuesday that the Cabinet had approved tighter measures, including allowing only vaccinated people at indoor gatherings of 100 or more persons and requiring the wearing of masks at outdoor gatherings of 100 or more people.
By The Canadian Press
China reimposes restrictions on overseas travel amid crackdown to control jump in Covid cases
Chinese officials have announced new restrictions on overseas travel, restricting the issuing of passports and other documents except in “non-essential” circumstances, as the state tries to curb rising Covid cases.
By RT
EU seals deal with Novavax for up to 200 million COVID-19 vaccines
The European Commission has approved a supply contract with U.S. firm Novavax to buy up to 200 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, the Commission said on Wednesday.
By Francesco Guarascio, Reuters
Japan to expand Covid emergency restrictions to 8 more regions, as Tokyo tallies record daily surge
Japanese officials have agreed to tighten Covid-19 measures in eight more prefectures, with six already under full states of emergency, including this year’s Olympic host, Tokyo, which posted a record number of daily infections.
By RT
COVID disruptions add $13.5 million to the cost of GPS ground control system
Raytheon’s contract for the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, is increasing by $13.5 million due to pandemic-related costs.
By Sandra Erwin, Space News
AI
NSF Adds 11 New AI Research Institutes to Its Nationwide Network
Top thinkers across multiple sectors are set to jointly engage with the evolving technology.
By Brandi Vincent, Next Gov
BEHAVIOR CHANGE
Text Messages Get Young People to Avoid Sunburn
The researchers set out to establish the optimal text messaging intervention to achieve behavior change in young adults at risk of skin cancer.
By University of Queensland, Futurity
BOTS
State Wants Better Bots and Processes For Its Help Desk
The Consolidated Customer Support office already manages eight bots, but an ongoing project requires more user-centric automation.
By Aaron Boyd, Next Gov
CLIMATE CRISIS
This hurricane season will be even more active than previously predicted, NOAA says
An already-active hurricane season shows "no sign of slowing."
By Mindy Weisberger, Live Science
5G
Kent Chamberlin, PHD Presents on 5G Health and Environmental Effects and the findings of the New Hampshire Commission on 5G
On November 1, 2020, the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Environmental and Health Effects of Evolving 5G Technology has released its final report to New Hampshire Governor Christopher T. Sununu, Speaker of the House Stephen J. Shurtleff, President of the Senate Donna Soucy summarizing its findings that safety assurances for 5G have “come into question because of the thousands of peer-reviewed studies documenting deleterious health effects associated with cellphone radiation exposure.”
By Environmental Health Trust
SPACE
New details of Russian “movie in space” emerge as producers seek funding
New information has emerged about the Russian movie “The Challenge” planned to be filmed partly on the International Space Station in October.
By Tony Quine, Space News
Startups map out strategies to augment or backup GPS
Companies investing billions of dollars in autonomous cars, delivery drones and urban air taxis are counting on precise and reliable location data being available when they need it.
By Debra Werner, Space News
SpaceX surges Starship work despite FAA environmental review uncertainty
The unstoppable force of SpaceX’s recent surge in development of its Starship vehicle for its first orbital flight is in danger of colliding with an immovable object: an ongoing environment review that has no clear end date.
By Jeff Foust, Space News
Japanese lunar lander company ispace raises $46 million
Japanese lunar lander developer ispace raised $46 million in a new funding round Aug. 4 to support future missions to the moon.
By Jeff Foust, Space News