___________________________________________________________________
- A few hours after the eruption, Tonga’s internet and phone lines were disrupted as the main undersea cable, linking Tonga and Fiji with the rest of the world, seems to have been cut which make 105 000 Tonga residents almost unreachable. It could take up to two weeks to get it repaired. The nearest cable-laying vessel is in Port Moresby,” the Southern Cross Cable Network’s networks director Dean Veverka said.
- The Earth’s molten interior is cooling faster than expected. The study, published in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters journal, examined how well bridgmanite – the primary mineral found at the boundary between the planet’s core and mantle layers – conducts heat from the hot, molten core to the surface. This heat exchange from the planet’s core helps generate the Earth’s magnetic field, which is understood to be protecting the planet’s atmosphere from solar radiation and allowing life to thrive.
- Serial pedophiles will spend the rest of their days behind bars in Russia’s prisons for repeatedly abusing minors, under recent amendments to the criminal code which have been approved by legislators. Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said that the introduction of new circumstances is also being discussed – including, if the violence is committed by a person living with the child, as well as someone who is responsible for the upbringing, education, and protection of the minor, and perpetrators working in the spheres of education and the upbringing of children.
- Indonesia’s parliament has passed legislation paving the way for the nation’s capital relocation from Jakarta to a forested patch of land on one of its biggest islands – Borneo. Indonesia is on the way to getting a new capital. Called ‘Nusantara’, the new city is to be built from scratch in the East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo that Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei. Problems faced by the current capital were cited as the reason for the sudden move. Jakarta’s agglomeration, home to more than 30 million people, has long been plagued by various infrastructure problems and congestion.
- Miles and Cathy Alexander were employed by Epstein between 1999 to 2007. According to the Daily Mail, in 2016, they were contacted by Epstein’s lawyer Darren Indyke, who wanted them to sign, under oath, a paper stating they never saw Bill Clinton on Little St. James island while they were managing the financier’s Caribbean property. The British newspaper linked the move to the then-ongoing presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, claiming Epstein went to “remarkable lengths” to “whitewash” her ex-president husband’s links to him.
- NATO released its official Overarching Space Policy on Monday, declaring space to be “increasingly important” for the security and prosperity of its members. NATO also expressed concern that others could use space to project power and track alliance activities, or interfere with space assets of alliance members in time of conflict to “complicate” its response or “deny or degrade” its abilities. These threats range from jamming and cyberattacks to “high-end kinetic capabilities that produce irreversible effects and which may result in significant and adverse long-term impacts to the space environment,” such as space debris.
- Some of the US’ largest commercial and cargo airlines have sounded the alarm about the potentially “devastating” effects of 5G service around airports, saying the technology could effectively grind travel and shipping to a halt. Airlines for America – a lobbying group that represents JetBlue, American Airlines, Southwest, United, Delta, UPS, and FedEx, among others – issued a letter on Monday warning that the new 5G C-Band service could have a massive impact on aircraft operations around the country and create a “completely avoidable economic calamity.” “Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” it said, adding that up to 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers could experience delays and cancelations per day.
- Hong Kong has warned pet owners not to kiss their animals after 11 hamsters returned positive Covid-19 tests. An outbreak in the Chinese-ruled territory has been traced to a pet shop. On Tuesday, the Chinese-ruled island of Hong Kong ordered the culling of 2,000 hamsters after a widespread testing of the rodents revealed 11 positive tests. Health Secretary Sophia Chan told a news conference that authorities were acting out of caution, as there is no evidence that domestic animals can infect humans. The measures echo the zero-tolerance approach adopted on the mainland.
- A lineup of 38 medical experts and sports insiders have signed a statement criticizing the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) new framework on transgender athletes, issuing a warning over fairness as part of the debate. After pledging to revise the guidelines amid fierce controversy over the issue at the Olympic Games in 2021, the governing body concluded that trans women would not be required to lower their testosterone to compete against rivals born as women – one of the cornerstones of the row for those who argue that transitioned athletes have an advantage over their opponents. Testosterone level regulations have come in for further questioning because of the rise of Lia Thomas, a former male competitor who has broken records at college level as a female swimmer in the US in recent months.
- The head of America’s Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and representatives of Kiev’s intelligence services last week, CNN reported on Monday. According to the American outlet, Burns’ secret trip had been planned long in advance and was not an emergency meeting based on the current tensions between Ukraine and Russia, which some analysts believe may lead to war.
- Microsoft has moved to acquire Activision Blizzard, the prominent video gaming publisher responsible for titles such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Diablo, among others. Activision Blizzard has been valued at $68.7 billion, with The Verge noting that this figure vastly exceeds the $26 billion Microsoft purchased LinkedIn for in 2016, and marks the company’s “biggest push into gaming” as it is poised to become the “third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.”
- Following the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano this weekend, the government of Tonga has released the first aerial images of the destruction wrought by the ensuing tsunami. While Nomuku, one of the islands closest to the volcano, suffered “extensive damage,” Mango Island, where an active signal from a distress beacon was detected earlier, witnessed “catastrophic” destruction, Newshub notes. The media outlet also mentions that homes and the wharf at Ha’apai were destroyed, while owners of the waterfront Ha’atafu Beach Resort said it has been “completely wiped out.”
- The Facebook page of the Russian delegation to Vienna talks on military security and arms control was mistakenly disabled by automated tools, and now has been restored, a Meta spokesperson said. “This page was disabled in error by our automated tools and has been restored. We apologize to users for any inconvenience caused by this action,” the spokesperson said. Last week the page, affiliated with the Russian Foreign Ministry, was blocked for allegedly publishing illegal content. Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor said Meta’s move breaks fundamental rules of free access to information and sent a request to remove the restrictions.
- The French Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that Mali has requested that France review bilateral defence agreements. At the same time, the ministry did not reveal what exactly Mali wants to review. Mali has experienced two military coups over the past two years. The first coup, which took place in August 2020, resulted in the ousting of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and the appointment of Ba N’daw as interim president.
- The Beijing Winter Olympics app, dubbed My2022, and mandated for use by all Games attendees, has security flaws that may result in data breaches, Canadian cybersecurity group Citizen Lab warned on Tuesday. “MY2022 … has a simple but devastating flaw where encryption protecting users’ voice audio and file transfers can be trivially sidestepped. Health customs forms which transmit passport details, demographic information, and medical and travel history are also vulnerable. Server responses can also be spoofed, allowing an attacker to display fake instructions to users,” the group said in its press release. “The app also includes a censorship keyword list, which, while presently inactive, targets a variety of political topics including domestic issues such as Xinjiang and Tibet as well as references to Chinese government agencies,” the group concluded.
- With COVID restrictions in place, a couple in the Indian state of West Bengal is gearing up to host 450 guests by live-streaming their wedding function. Sandipan Sarkar and Aditi Das are set to get married on 24 January, but instead of rocking up in person, their guests will use Google Meet to “attend” the wedding ceremony. And, as part of the special occasion, they will be treated to delicious food at their homes using the Zomato online food delivery service. The couple has even hired a technical expert to ensure that the online wedding goes smoothly.
- A convoy of 111 vehicles, including 60 trucks loaded with military equipment and dozens of tankers carrying stolen oil, have left Syria and crossed into Iraq, the Syrian Arab News Agency has reported, citing local sources in the Al-Hasakah countryside. Sources told the outlet that the convoy included a six-vehicle armoured vehicle escort, and that it left Syria for Iraq through the Al Waleed border crossing – which Damascus considers an illegal border point because it remains outside the Syrian government’s control. The convoy’s journey is at least the second since the new year. On 3rd January, 128 vehicles, among them 60 refrigerated trucks and oil tankers and 60 carrying military equipment, were spotted leaving Syria on route to the Al Waleed crossing flanked by eight escorts.
- Newly elected President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, a Maltese member of the European Parliament from the centre-right European People’s Party, was elected to succeed Sassoli on 18 January, becoming the third woman to occupy the high-ranking position. Metsola has also drawn criticism from some of her colleagues for her anti-abortion views, prevalent in Malta, the last EU country where abortion is still illegal. However, since taking office, the newly elected president vowed that her personal views would not contradict the position of the bloc’s parliament.
News Burst 19 January 2022