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| How the Netherlands is turning its back on natural gas |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 08:00 PM - Forum: Environment Protection News
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Natural gas has provided the Netherlands with cheap heat for generations. As the country's largest gas field slowly closes down, a wealth of clean alternatives are opening up to keep homes warm.
Gerrit Biert's feet have never been so warm. Leaning out of his doorway to point out new gas-free construction in his village, he keeps them planted inside. "It's wonderful," he says of his low-carbon underfloor heating, a recent addition in his rented house. "And completely off-grid."
A housing company tore down then rebuilt his home last year as part of a larger project on several streets in the village of Loppersum in Groningen, a northern province in the Netherlands. Biert is especially proud that the rebuild has allowed him to come off the natural gas network. "I have nothing to do with gas anymore," he says.
The effort to disconnect from fossil fuels in Loppersum is noteworthy, given its location. The village sits atop the largest deposit of methane, or natural gas, in Europe. The giant reservoir stretches under almost the entire province of Groningen and has fed the country's gas boilers, electricity plants and heavy industries since the 1960s. But eventually the extraction caused the ground beneath the province to sink. As a result, earthquakes have increased in force and frequency across the north in the last few decades, damaging many of the homes.
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| Health risk from eating Malaysian biscuits, crackers is low: health DG |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 06:40 PM - Forum: Health News
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KUALA LUMPUR – The health risk from consumption of all three popular biscuit and cracker brands in the country is low, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today.
In a statement today, Dr Noor Hisham said the call was based on the risk assessment conducted by the Health Ministry on the content of acrylamide and glycidol in the said products from Hup Seng, Jacobs, and Julie’s, which are manufactured in the country.
“The monitoring conducted by the ministry through its Food Safety and Quality Division since 2015 found that the average level of acrylamide was 246 μg/kg (microgramme per kilogramme) which was below the benchmark level set by the European Union Commission regulations, which was 350 μg/kg.
“The division also conducted a risk assessment on the acrylamide and glycidol in the products and the health risk from both substances through the consumption of biscuits is low,” he added.
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| French Open: Shuttlers Peng Soon-Liu Ying advance to second round |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 06:35 PM - Forum: Badminton
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KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Malaysian independent mixed doubles pair, Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying managed to avoid a repeat of their Denmark Open first-round heartbreak to advance to the second round of the French Open today.
The 2016 Rio Olympic silver medallists edged Dhruv Kapila-N.Reddy Sikki of India 21-19, 21-19 in the opening round at the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium, Paris.
The fifth-seeded pair, who faced a shock elimination in the hands of Chang Tak Ching-Ng Wing Yung at Odense last week, however, missed the chance for a revenge match against the Hong Kong shuttlers Tak Ching-Wing Yung who lost 21-15, 17-21, 18-21 to Japan’s Yuki Kaneko-Misaki Matsutomo in another match.
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| Now, Sanusi wants RM100mil a year for ‘lease’ of Penang |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 03:57 PM - Forum: Politics
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ALOR SETAR: Kedah menteri besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, known for his run-ins with the Penang state government, has done it again – he is now demanding RM100 million a year as “lease payment” for Penang island and Seberang Perai.
Sanusi said he wanted the honorarium the federal government has been paying on Penang’s behalf to be raised by RM90 million.
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| China releases action plan to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 03:32 PM - Forum: Environment Protection News
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The State Council, China's cabinet, has released an action plan to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030.
The plan puts forward China's main objectives for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), including increasing the share of non-fossil energy consumption, improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
By 2030, the share of non-fossil energy consumption will be around 25 percent, and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will drop by more than 65 percent compared with the level registered in 2005, according to the plan.
As the world's largest developing country, China is still in the industrialization and urbanization stage and faces the heavy task of developing its economy and improving its people's livelihoods, so energy consumption will continue to grow, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission said in response to media queries.
China's carbon peak and neutrality goals are fully in line with the goals and requirements of the Paris Agreement and demonstrate the country's ambition, the official said.
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| Commentary: Washington should stop politicizing market economy rules |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 03:28 PM - Forum: Business, Economy and Investment
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BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Common sense teaches that a market economy always features openness, fairness and the principle of non-discrimination. However, in recent years, those rules have been largely abused by the United States as a political tool to rake in self-interests in global competition.
The United States always proclaims itself as a champion of market rules. Yet when Washington feels its economic and technological supremacy is under threat, it will invariably choose to bully foreign companies under the pretext of "national security."
Such politicized practice has already become its regular tactics. Late last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a 1.9 billion-dollar program to reimburse mostly rural U.S. telecom carriers for removing network equipment produced by Chinese companies including Huawei and ZTE Corp, citing the platitude of "national security threats."
The move is yet another episode of Washington's smear campaign against Chinese tech companies as there is no solid evidence to support its accusations. The so-called "national security" is no more than a clumsy political cover for its economic bully and protectionist impulses.
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| Hamburg welcomes 1st China-Europe freight train from Shanghai amid logistics tension |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 03:19 PM - Forum: Business, Economy and Investment
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The first "Shanghai Express," carrying 50 containers loaded with apparel, auto parts and solar panels, traveled more than 10,000 km before arriving in northern Germany.
HAMBURG, Germany, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The first fully loaded China-Europe freight train arrived from Shanghai, China's economic hub, in the northern German city of Hamburg on Tuesday, further expanding the rail services between Europe and Asia amid the global logistics disruption.
The first "Shanghai Express," carrying 50 containers loaded with apparel, auto parts and solar panels, traveled more than 10,000 km before arriving in northern Germany late on Monday.
Initially, one train per week will operate, but the service is planned to be extended in the future.
The China-Europe freight trains traveling along 73 routes have reached more than 170 cities in 23 European countries, since it was launched in 2011.
China-Europe freight train trips have gained robust growth momentum since the start of 2021, with the total number surging 32 percent year-on-year to reach 10,030 by the end of August, two months earlier than last year, data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed.
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| Chinese amputee takes the limelight at Shanghai Fashion Week |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 03:14 PM - Forum: Inspiring Stories
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Niu Yu, 24, stole the limelight at the Shanghai Fashion Week for her confidence while striding down the runway with a prosthetic right leg.
Niu completed her first walk down the catwalk recently and the video clip of her catwalk appearance quickly became one of the hottest topics on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like social media platform, on Oct. 20.
She received many compliments for her courage. “She is so cool and so pretty,” commented a Weibo user. “The most beautiful woman is one who lives with confidence in herself,” another Weibo user praised.
"I didn’t know how to walk down the catwalk. I didn’t even know how to move my hands on the stage. But I felt that I was pretty cool when I took the stage,” Niu replied in a short video posted after the fashion week ended.
Niu noted that she was not alone on the stage, recalling an encouraging message she received from a 19-year-old girl with a disability last year. The girl, who also had a limb removed, said she has always dreamed of walking down the runway just like all the other famous models overseas who also face similar situations of physical impairment. “Although we are not perfect, we are still beautiful,” the girl said, wishing her day would come sooner.
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| Violence on minorities and Bangladesh’s onerous return to secularism – Nayanima Basu |
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Posted by: superadmin - 10-27-2021, 03:04 PM - Forum: Stop Racism and Religious Bigotry
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THE latest episode of communal violence against Hindus in Bangladesh has led to calls that the Muslim-majority country return to the 1972 constitution that envisaged the nation as secular.
However, the Sheikh Hasina government believes it will be an “onerous task” to amend the constitution and remove Islam as state religion, sources in the Bangladesh government told ThePrint.
This is despite the fact that Dhaka knows it is important to uphold secular values as Bangladesh stares at unprecedented economic growth.
The move to amend the constitution on such a sensitive topic, the sources said, will give rise to more violence and disrupt the government’s plans to steer the country to growth and development.
Islam was made the state religion of Bangladesh in 1988, when the country was under the rule of the erstwhile military dictator Hussein Muhammad Ershad. His predecessor Ziaur Rahman, another military ruler, is believed to have set in motion the process of Bangladesh’s Islamisation.
However, secularism remains one of the four basic pillars of their constitution as laid out in the preamble, along with nationalism, socialism, and democracy.
There have been several reports of violence against the nation’s Hindu minority in Bangladesh.
The latest came amid Durga Puja celebrations, with the violence starting on October 13 and continuing in the days afterwards.
Several puja pavilions were vandalised, villages torched, and temples desecrated by religious fundamentalists in a country where over 90% of the population is Muslim.
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