Day: August 26, 2022

Swirling floods inundated more districts and towns across Pakistan, killing another 34 people over the past 24 hours, officials and local media reported on Friday.

Swollen rivers, streams and dams burst their banks and swept through hundreds of houses, buildings and dozens of bridges, and roads in southwestern, northwestern and southern Pakistan, disconnecting several major cities, including a provincial capital, from the rest of the country.

The majority of the deaths were reported from southern Sindh, where 16 people lost their lives followed by southwestern Balochistan, where another 13 people died in the rain-related mishaps, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), a state-run agency that coordinates between different relief and rescue organizations, said on Friday.

The remaining fatalities were reported in northeastern Punjab and the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, which borders China.

The latest casualties bring the total number of casualties since June 14 to 937, with nearly 1,400 injured across Pakistan, mostly in Sindh and Balochistan.

Authorities fear an increase in the death toll as hundreds of people are still missing, mainly in the mountainous regions of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman told reporters in Islamabad that a staggering 30 million people out of the country’s 220 million people are without shelter, with thousands of them displaced and without food.

The rescue workers, however, put the number at “tens of thousands.”

Fresh destructions

At least 15 bridges and hundreds of houses have been washed away over the past 24 hours in the two provinces, according to the reports.

Fresh rains and floods have halted rail and road travel between dozens of districts in the two provinces, including the capital of Balochistan, Quetta, and the rest of the country.

The telecommunication system has also been badly affected in scores of districts and towns, with cellular and landline telephone services remaining out of order.

Balochistan Senator Samina Mumtaz told reporters that several districts in the floods-battered province are reeling from serious food shortages.

In Sindh, fresh floods caused by the latest torrential downpours inundated several major highways, including the main Indus Highway, hampering the relief efforts.

In several farther parts, army and air force planes are the only source of delivering food, water bottles, and medicines to the marooned people.

The northern and southern districts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, were added to the list after massive downpours along with flash floods swollen rivers, swept through houses, buildings and roads, and triggered landslides.

The scenic Swat valley and adjoining Dir, and Buner districts are the hardest hit as well as the southern district of Dera Ismail Khan.

Grim scenes

Several footages aired on local broadcasters showed grim scenes, depicting the actual magnitude of the catastrophe, which is seen as bigger than the 2010 floods that inundated a fifth of Pakistan and killed over 2,000 people.

Gushing floods flowing with bullet speed swept through houses, restaurants, and buildings perched on the river banks in Swat, as stunned pedestrians looked on from a distance.

Muddy rainwaters gushed through the streets of Quetta, washing away motorbikes, TV sets, refrigerators, and other household items, while citizens standing on rooftops watched helplessly.

In Balochistan, floodwaters washed away a 140-year-old historic railway bridge.

Hundreds of stranded people in Dadu, Badin, Sanghar, Ghotki, and other districts of Sindh were seen wading through waist-deep waters to safety. Many of the men were carrying belongings on their shoulders and heads, while women were cuddling their minor children and struggling to maintain their balance.

Rainwaters lapped against the roofs of houses in many low-lying areas, transforming the ground, streets, and even major highways into rivers.

Pakistan has already declared a national emergency and called in the army to assist the civil administration in relief and rescue operations.

Meanwhile, following the prime minister’s appeal for assistance, international organizations and financial institutions have announced an immediate aid package of more than $500 million for flood victims.

The World Bank has announced $350 million, World Food Program $110 million, Asian Development Bank $20 million, and UK Aid over $40 million for flood victims, according to the premier’s office.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A new route for merchant ships carrying Ukrainian grain came into effect on Friday, according to the UN Information Center.

The route, 320 nautical miles (368 miles) long, connects the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhny to the inspection areas in Turkish territorial waters, the center in Türkiye said in a press release on Thursday.

The maritime humanitarian corridor, which forms part of this route and extends to the southernmost point of Ukraine’s maritime boundaries, was adjusted after three weeks of use to shorten transit and ease planning for the shipping industry, it added citing the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

As merchant vessels participating in the initiative pass via the maritime humanitarian corridor, no military ship, aircraft, or unmanned aerial vehicle will be allowed to approach within 10 nautical miles, with “provocations or threats” to be reported immediately to the Joint Coordination Center.

The new route’s coordinates have been disseminated through the international navigation system NAVTEX.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul on July 22 to resume grain exports from the Ukrainian Black Sea ports of Yuzhny, Chornomorsk, and Odesa, which were halted due to the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its seventh month.

The Joint Coordination Center, with officials from the three countries and the UN, has been set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.

On Thursday, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that since the first ship left Ukraine under the deal on Aug. 1, a total of 39 ships with more than 850,000 tons of agricultural products have left ports.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Somalia, the most climate change-affected country in the Horn of Africa, is facing a catastrophic drought that has already claimed hundreds of lives.

Baidoa, the capital of Southwest State, hosts thousands of new arrivals from rural areas after the drought devastated their farms and livestock, some of them walking as much as 180 kilometers (112 miles) to reach major towns to receive humanitarian assistance.

Nuurto Abdi Hilowle, 35, a mother of four, arrived in Baidoa four months ago but hasn’t received any humanitarian assistance so far.

She told Anadolu Agency at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of the city that her four children and she hadn’t eaten for more than 48 hours. She said they had been eating leftovers to survive, but there are no more.

“After eating only leftovers for days and with my children starting to weaken from malnutrition, I had no choice but to steal and sometimes resort to begging, because a mother would do everything to feed her young,” she said.

She is not alone. Suuban Ali is one of those devastated by the drought. She is now at the Sumadle IDP camp in Baidoa, joining hundreds of displaced families. She told Anadolu Agency she fled from a small village on the outskirts of the town of Wajid in the Bakool region.

She and her children along with several other families walked more than 90 kilometers (56 miles) to get to Baidoa without having food or water.

She said that after walking for nearly two days, they couldn’t travel much further due to hunger and thirst.

“Although the distance was only 90 kilometers, it took us almost a week to come here. But after more than a week being here and getting nothing other than leftovers, I’m thinking of eating animal skin to survive.”

Abukar Abdi Adan also joined the IDP camp, arriving four days ago from Buur Eyle. He is a member of the marginalized Eyle community. He told Anadolu Agency that the drought has also affected wildlife.

“I was a hunter and gather, but there is nothing left to hunt because this drought killed everything. I decided to join the people who are dependent on humanitarian assistance here,” he said.

More than 20 new IDP camps have been set up in Baidoa as families fleeing from the drought are coming to the city in their thousands.

Authorities in Baidoa told Anadolu Agency the drought is not the only reason behind the surge in displacements. Insecurity and extortion by the al-Shabaab terrorist organization are also among the reasons for the influx of displaced people.

Appeal

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has appealed for $9.8 million to address the growing child protection needs in Somalia.

The UNHCR estimates that 2.3 million girls and boys are at imminent risk of violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect and death from severe acute malnutrition as a result of a food and nutrition crisis across the country.

“There is an urgent need to ensure that children’s specific needs are taken into account with both standalone actions and enhanced mainstreaming and integration efforts,” the UN said earlier this week.

The UN agency said it has prioritized the protection of 332,200 girls and boys across 37 districts through standalone actions and enhanced mainstreaming and integration efforts to respond to the drought and prevent famine-related child protection risks.

People in need of humanitarian assistance

According to the UN, over 7.7 million people — close to half the country’s population of nearly 17 million — had been affected by the severe drought as of last month.

An estimated 1 million people have been displaced from their homes due to drought, of whom 66% are children.

Authorities in Somalia’s Gedo region told media that drought-related illnesses have caused the deaths of more than 50 people there.

Ali Yussuf, spokesman for the Gedo regional administration, told Anadolu Agency that the deaths occurred in the border town of Beled Hawo and Baardheere area.

“We know that 50 people — mainly children, women and the elderly — have died due to malnutrition and drought-related illnesses recently. The Gedo region is facing an unprecedented drought that needs more attention. Otherwise, the situation might be catastrophic in the coming days, weeks or months if the humanitarian assistance is not scaled up,” he told Anadolu Agency.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently announced that 500 children had died from malnutrition in Somalia since January.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Audi will join Formula 1 in 2026 as a power unit manufacturer, the chairman of the German carmaker said on Friday.

In a statement, Markus Duesmann, the company’s chairman, said: “Motorsport is an integral part of Audi’s DNA.”

“Formula 1 is both a global stage for our brand and a highly challenging development laboratory. The combination of high performance and competition is always a driver of innovation and technology transfer in our industry. With the new rules, now is the right time for us to get involved. After all, Formula 1 and Audi both pursue clear sustainability goals,” Duesmann added.

A decision on which team Audi will be lining up with in 2026 will be announced by the end of this year.

F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali said he is “delighted to welcome Audi to Formula 1, an iconic automotive brand, pioneer and technological innovator.”

“This is a major moment for our sport that highlights the huge strength we have as a global platform that continues to grow,” he added.

Oliver Hoffmann, board member for Technical Development at Audi, said: “In view of the major technological leaps that the series is making towards sustainability in 2026, we can speak of a new Formula 1. Formula 1 is transforming, and Audi wants to actively support this journey. A close link between our Formula 1 project and AUDI AG’s Technical Development department will enable synergies.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

Most parts of the world will be in the grip of “extreme heat” by 2100, according to a latest research paper.

Estimates show the tropics and subtropics, including the Indian subcontinent, large parts of Arabian Peninsula and sub-Saharan Africa, will experience dangerously hot temperatures most days of the year by the end of this century, said the paper published in the Communications Earth and Environment journal on Thursday.

This is likely to happen even if we are somehow successful in limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the study warned.

It said mid-latitude regions around the world will, at the very least, experience intense heat waves each year.

In the US city of Chicago, for instance, researchers predict a 16-fold increase in dangerous heat waves by the end of the century.

“Extreme heat contributes to chronic illnesses and is associated with regular losses of outdoor labor time, and … has the potential to threaten the habitability of large swaths of Earth’s land surface if greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed,” read the paper.

Most vulnerable to the severe health problems caused by extreme heat are the elderly, poor, and outdoor workers, it added.

“Without adaptation measures, this would greatly increase the incidence of heat-related illnesses and reduce outdoor working capacity in many regions where subsistence farming is important,” the study said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Oil prices gained more than 5% during the week ending Aug. 26, over looming supply concerns as Saudi Arabia signaled possible output cuts due to extreme market volatility and with signs of rebounding oil demand in the US, the world’s largest oil consumer.

Brent crude was trading at $101.02 per barrel at 1115 GMT on Friday, posting a 5.28% rise from the Monday session that opened at $95.95 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) registered at $93.81 per barrel at the same time on Friday, increasing 4.64% relative to the opening price of $89.65 a barrel on Monday.

Oil prices started the week on Monday, clawing back some of the previous week’s gains over the double whammy of increasing demand woes and the rising dollar value, discouraging market investors trading in more expensive US dollar-indexed oil.

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman warned on Monday that OPEC+ could cut production to ensure market clarity if needed “as has been clearly and repeatedly demonstrated in 2020 and 2021”.

Prices increased on Tuesday over looming supply concerns as Saudi Arabia signaled possible output cuts if required amid extreme market volatility. Later in the day, Brent crude rose to over $100 a barrel, while WTI traded over $94 per barrel.

As the extremely volatile paper oil market entered a vicious circle, Salman said it could negatively impact the operation of oil markets, energy commodities and other commodities creating new types of risks and insecurities.

He relayed that OPEC+ is working on a new agreement beyond 2022 and on production cuts, as part of the current deal is scheduled to end in September 2022.

The upward price movement continued over the week and oil prices edged higher due to demand recovery in the US and as investors closely monitored reports on whether the de facto leader of the OPEC+ group, Saudi Arabia, will decrease output.

Meanwhile, experts await US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech for clues on rate hikes to combat inflation due later in the day.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Archeologists in central Türkiye unearthed traces of permanent settlement dating back at least 9,300 years, the head of the dig site told Anadolu Agency on Friday.

“We can say that this is the oldest settlement in the borders of Nigde province,” said archeologist Semra Balci, who leads the excavation team at the Sircalitepe Mound.

Balci, of Istanbul University, said her team had found bone and obsidian tools used in daily settled life, along with beads and other objects thought to be for ornamental purposes.

She added that two samples that they found had been radiocarbon dated, revealing that they were 9,600-9,300 years old.

Initial surface surveys conducted at the Sircalitepe Mound, located near sources of obsidian in the volcanic Cappadocia region, uncovered an obsidian working area, as well as the bone and stone tools.

With this year’s dig season over, Balci said she and her team would continue to analyze their findings in artifacts and new architectural field data in their workshops.

Noting that the dig had also yielded specimens of oval arrowheads, she said: “Another important point is that no other site has so far been excavated with an obsidian working area and settlement together.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

In a milestone discovery in the study of planets outside the Solar System, carbon dioxide was detected in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time ever, NASA announced on Friday.

The discovery, made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that was launched late last year, in the atmosphere of the hot gas giant WASP-39 b is the “first clear, detailed evidence for carbon dioxide ever detected in a planet outside the solar system,” NASA said in a statement.

Gas giants are planets larger in size that are composed mainly of gasses like hydrogen and helium, such as Jupiter and Saturn in our own Solar System.

“Detecting such a clear signal of carbon dioxide on WASP-39 b bodes well for the detection of atmospheres on smaller, terrestrial-sized planets,” the statement quoted astronomer Natalie Batalha, who leads the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science team, as saying.

Specially equipped to detect infrared light, this was how the JWST detected the contents of WASP-39 b’s atmosphere. “Access to this part of the spectrum is crucial for measuring abundances of gases like water and methane, as well as carbon dioxide, which are thought to exist in many different types of exoplanets,” said the statement

“As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me,” said Zafar Rustamkulov, a member of the team.

“It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences,” he added.

The statement underlined that understanding the composition of a planet’s atmosphere is important because it can show clues into the planet’s origin and how it changed over time.

“Carbon dioxide molecules are sensitive tracers of the story of planet formation,” said another team member, Mike Line

“By measuring this carbon dioxide feature, we can determine how much solid versus how much gaseous material was used to form this gas giant planet,” he explained, adding that in the next 10 years, the JWST would make similar measurements for a variety of planets, providing insight into “the details of how planets form and the uniqueness of our own solar system.”

With a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter and about the same as Saturn, WASP-39 b has a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter.

Unlike the cooler, more compact gas giants in our solar system, WASP-39 b orbits very close to its star and hence completes one circuit in just over four Earth days, said the NASA statement.

Source: Anadolu Agency