Life

Has blockchain found a use beyond crypto trading?

by Joseph Boyle  Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The bitcoin boom spawned new billionaires and videos of beach parties and Lamborghinis. The crypto crash brought devastation for small investors and bankruptcy for many companies. Blockchain technology underpins crypto and has been hailed as a world-changing innovation, but does it have any use beyond creating speculative financial instruments? AFP asked crypto critic Stephen Diehl, author of recently published “Popping the Crypto Bubble”, to run the […]

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Southern hemisphere to get first mRNA vaccine facility

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna announced Monday that it will open an mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in the Australian city of Melbourne, a first for the southern hemisphere. The project will be based at one of Australia’s largest universities, Monash, and will produce 100 million vaccine doses a year for Covid-19, influenza and other diseases. Moderna’s Spikevax was one of a new class of inoculations developed during the coronavirus pandemic that uses […]

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Over 150 endangered vultures poisoned to death in southern Africa

  JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — At least 150 critically-endangered vultures were poisoned to death in separate incidents in Botswana and South Africa, conservationists said Friday, warning the killings pushed the birds closer to extinction. Vulture poisoning is not uncommon in wildlife-rich southern Africa, where they are targeted by poachers because they draw unwanted attention to their illegal activities. Their heads are also used in traditional medicine, according to wildlife groups. In the latest incidents, […]

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Drought officially declared in several parts of England

London, United Kingdom | AFP | The UK government on Friday officially declared a drought in several parts of England, following months of record low rainfall and unprecedented temperatures in recent weeks. At a meeting of the National Drought Group, the government’s Environment Agency said the “drought trigger threshold had been met” in parts of southwestern, southern, central and eastern England. Drought was last officially declared in England in 2018. The Environment Agency on Friday […]

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Iran seeks 3 more Khayyam satellites

TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) – Iran plans to commission three more versions of a satellite launched this week by Russia, Tehran’s government spokesman said Friday. The Khayyam blasted into orbit on Tuesday, prompting US accusations that it is intended for spying. Iran dismissed Washington’s claim as “childish.” “The construction of three other Khayyam satellites with the participation of Iranian scientists is on the government’s agenda,” its spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi said on Twitter. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket sent […]

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Arctic warming four times faster than rest of Earth: study

Eurasian sector of Arctic Ocean has also warmed as much as 1.25C per decade — seven times faster than the rest of the world, says study   PARIS, France (AFP) — The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet over the last 40 years, according to research published Thursday that suggests climate models are underestimating the rate of polar heating. The United Nations’ climate science panel said in a […]

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Tens of thousands trek rugged trail to glimpse Iceland volcano

Iceland (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people have braved a steep, rugged trail in Iceland to catch a rare glimpse of an active volcano after it erupted last week, spewing red-hot lava into the sky. Tourism officials said Thursday that almost 23,000 people had made the difficult, hours-long trek to spot the volcano in the Meradalir valley, just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the capital. “We’ve been here for three, four hours and we […]

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Drought tightens its grip on Morocco

by Kaouthar Oudrhiri Agence France-Presse OULED ESSI MASSEOUD, Morocco (AFP) — Mohamed gave up farming because of successive droughts that have hit his previously fertile but isolated village in Morocco and because he just couldn’t bear it any longer. “To see villagers rush to public fountains in the morning or to a neighbor to get water makes you want to cry,” the man in his 60s said. “The water shortage is making us suffer,” he […]

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France’s ‘Little Nicolas’ illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe dies aged 89

by Fiachra GIBBONS Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Jean-Jacques Sempe, who illustrated the beloved “Little Nicolas” series of French children’s books, has died aged 89, his wife Martine Gossieaux Sempe told AFP on Thursday. As well as his work on “Le Petit Nicolas”, an idealized vision of childhood in 1950s France that became an international best-seller, Sempe also illustrated more New Yorker magazine covers than any other artist. “The cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempe died peacefully […]

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Swiss mountain pass set to lose all ice within weeks

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said Thursday. Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate. The pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron has been iced over since at least the Roman era. But as […]

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Ukraine assault sparks talk of Russian ‘cultural revolution’

by Marina LAPENKOVA Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Actor Sergei Bezrukov says the world has had enough of “liberal values” and hopes Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine and foreign sanctions can help Russian culture chart its own path. Bezrukov is among artistic figures who say Moscow should leverage the country’s growing isolation to purify Russian culture of Western influence and promote conservative values including patriotism and the Orthodox faith. “We must take advantage of the […]

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Whites-only town booms in ‘Rainbow Nation’ South Africa

by Susan NJANJI Agence France-Presse ORANIA, South Africa (AFP) — From a distance, Orania looks like any other small town in rural South Africa. But once inside, the visitor is struck by an obvious difference. Everyone here is white. And in a country where menial work in wealthy areas is typically done by blacks, whites here mop supermarket floors, wield leaf blowers and harvest the nuts on pecan farms. Orania is a whites-only town in […]

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