Environment

02 Aug 2020; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates has begun start-up operations in the initial unit of its first nuclear power plant, Reuters reported the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) as saying on Saturday.

PARIS, Aug 1 (NNN-XINHUA) – French weather agency, Meteo France, yesterday put 29 regions, including Ile-de-France — the great Paris region, under orange alert on heatwave till this morning.

“A very intense heat peak is currently affecting the country…Temperatures broke records yesterday notably in the south-west with up to 41.9 degrees Celsius in Socoa,” the national meteorological service said.

“Today, temperatures have cooled significantly on the Atlantic coast, but will reach very high values over most of the country,” it added.

New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) The Supreme Court Wednesday allowed filing of a fresh plea challenging the June 17 environmental clearance (EC) granted to the ambitious Central Vista project, covering 3-km stretch from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate in Lutyens' Delhi, for constructing a new Parliament House and other government buildings.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheswari and Sanjiv Khanna allowed senior advocate Shyam Divan to file within a week a fresh plea challenging the EC by the Central Vista Committee' to the project.

Washington, Jul 30 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has alleged that India, China and Russia do not take care of their air, while America does, noting that he withdrew from the one-sided, energy-destroying Paris climate accord which would have made it a non-competitive nation .

Dibrugarh, Jul 29 (PTI) Oil India Limited (OIL) is planning dummy run of the final capping operation and subsequent killing operation at its Baghjan oilfield in Assam where a well is spewing gas for over two months.

Considering the critical nature of the operations, a dummy run is being planned to be carried out with heavy machinery before the final capping, a release issued by the energy major said.

Brasilia, Jul 27 (AP/PTI) The number of fires in Brazil's Pantanal, the world's biggest tropical wetlands, more than doubled in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to data released by a state institute.

Officials said it was the largest number of fires in a six-month period in the last two decades.

Beijing, Jul 21 (AP/PTI) Engorged with more heavy rains, China's mighty Yangtze River is cresting again, bringing fears of further destruction as seasonal floods that already have left more than 140 people dead or missing have grown in force since last month.

The rains are putting renewed pressure on the massive Three Gorges Dam that straddles the river upstream of the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.

17 July 2020; MEMO: The Fatwa Committee of the Al-Azhar Islamic Research Centre in Egypt yesterday said that countries whose share of Nile waters will be negatively affected by the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam can do whatever it takes to preserve their rights “as long as they deem these actions appropriate”.

Canberra, Jul 17 (AP/PTI) A strong earthquake has struck near coastal Papua New Guinea.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a hazardous tsunami was possible within 300 kilometers (186 miles) of the epicenter, which would include eastern coastal areas of the country.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 7.0 magnitude quake struck Friday north-northwest of Popondetta, Papua New Guinea, and was 80 kilometers (53 miles) deep. The tsunami warning center said the magnitude was a stronger 7.3.

15 July 2020; MEMO: The closing session of the technical and legal committees of the Renaissance Dam negotiations ended without agreement.

According to Al Jazeera, Egyptian Foreign Minister said that his country regretted the failure to reach an agreement.

 “Egypt has provided a tremendous level of flexibility and understanding. However, the negotiations ended again without reaching an agreement.”