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Overnight News Digest July 24, 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-07-24

The Guardian (I’m impressed with Milley)

Chinese military has become more aggressive and dangerous, says US chief of staff

The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the United States’ top military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop in Indonesia. Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Sunday that the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with US and other partner forces had increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions. “The message is the Chinese military, in the air and at sea, have become significantly more and noticeably more aggressive in this particular region,” said Milley, who recently asked his staff to compile details about interactions between China and the US and others in the region. US military officials have also raised alarms about the possibility that China could invade Taiwan – possibly by 2027. China has stepped up its military provocations against the self-ruled island as it looks to intimidate it into unifying with the communist mainland.

The Guardian

DRC to auction oil and gas permits in endangered gorilla habitat

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has announced it will auction oil and gas permits in critically endangered gorilla habitat and the world’s largest tropical peatlands next week. The sale raises concerns about the credibility of a forest protection deal signed with the country by Boris Johnson at Cop26. On Monday, hydrocarbons minister Didier Budimbu said the DRC was expanding an auction of oil exploration blocks to include two sites that overlap with Virunga national park, a Unesco world heritage site home to Earth’s last remaining mountain gorillas. The planned sale already included permits in the Cuvette Centrale tropical peatlands in the north-west of the country, which store the equivalent to three years’ global emissions from fossil fuels. The Congo basin is the only major rainforest that sucks in more carbon than it emits and experts have described it as the worst place in the world to explore for fossil fuels.

NPR

You can find the tech behind the Webb telescope down here on Earth

NASA's James Webb telescope has been wowing astronomers lately with stunning photos of some of the first stars in the universe — photos that capture light from more than 13 billion years ago. But while the JWST flies through space, it's done more for us here on Earth than show images of distant galaxies. The technology developed to build the JWST has also helped improve the vision of millions of eye surgery patients. It's one of the latest examples in a long history of NASA inventions making an impact on everyday life. "Every time NASA gets asked to do a new mission, we have to come up with new technologies and new inventions in order to get it done," Lockney said. "And it's my job to make sure that those inventions come back down to Earth in the form of practical terrestrial benefits." While building the JWST, NASA contractors developed a tool to measure the "microscopic imperfections" on its mirrors, Lockney said. That same technology has allowed eye surgeons to take precise measurements of patients' eyes before they undergo LASIK surgery.

NPR

Flash floods have killed at least 21 people in southern Iran

TEHRAN, Iran — Flash floods in Iran's drought-stricken southern Fars province have killed at least 21 people, state television said Saturday. Heavy rains swelled the Roudbal river by the city of Estahban, according to the city's governor Yousef Karegar. Karegar said rescue teams had saved 55 people who were trapped by the flash flooding, but at least six people were still missing. Flooding hit more than 10 villages in the province, he added. Iran's interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, shared his condolences with the families of the flood victims, state television later reported. Iran's meteorology department had warned about possibly heavy seasonal rainfall across the country that is facing a decades-long drought blamed on climate change. The dangers of flash flooding have also been exacerbated by the widespread construction of buildings and roads near riverbeds.

Reuters

Europe's heatwave spreads east

ATHENS, July 24 (Reuters) - Greek firefighters battled wildfires on the island of Lesbos for a second day on Sunday as well as new fires in the western Peloponnese and in northern Greece, evacuating nearby settlements as a heatwave set in. A wildfire that started in mountainous forests on Lesbos in the Aegean Sea near Turkey on Saturday, burning properties at the beach resort of Vatera, was still raging, forcing the evacuation of two more villages - Vrisa and Stavros. Temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in parts of Greece on Sunday as a heatwave that has hit other parts of Europe spread east and was expected to last for most of the coming week, according to meteorologists.

Reuters

China coronavirus

SHANGHAI, July 25 (Reuters) - Mainland China reported 800 new coronavirus cases for July 24, of which 150 were symptomatic and 650 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday. That compared with 982 new cases a day earlier - 129 symptomatic and 853 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately. There were zero new deaths, keeping the nation's fatalities at 5,226. As of Sunday, mainland China had confirmed 228,798 cases with symptoms.

Deutsche Welle

Italy: Over 1,000 migrants saved in the Mediterranean

Five migrants are dead and more than a thousand migrants have been rescued from the Mediterranean Sea since Saturday, European charities and the Italian Coast Guard said. Most of those rescued by the coast guard, 674 migrants, were on board a fishing boat 190 kilometers (124 miles) off the coast of Italy's Calabria region, but some had to be pulled from the water. All of those rescued were brought to ports in Calabria and Sicily. Italian authorities also recovered five bodies of migrants on a boat that drifted about 200 kilometers off the Calabrian coast. Separately, the Ocean Viking rescued 195 people, including many women and children, that were spotted in overcrowded rubber boats in the international waters off the coast of Libya. The charity SOS Mediterranee that operates Ocean Viking said none of the people had life jackets. On Saturday rescuers from the German NGO search and rescue ship Sea-Watch picked up 444 people from overcrowded smugglers' boats. The Sea-Watch 3 vessel said it carried out the five operations over 24 hours, and said the rescued included a pregnant woman and a man who had suffered severe burns.

Al Jazeera

Eid holidays in Bangladesh saw record road accident deaths

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Nearly 400 people were killed and almost twice that number injured in more than 300 road accidents in the fortnight around the Eid al-Adha holidays in Bangladesh this month. It is the highest number of road accident deaths during the Muslim festival since the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association (BPWA) began compiling such data in 2016. The South Asian nation of 165 million people has one of the highest road accident and casualty rates in the world. The incidents rise sharply during the Eid holidays when millions of people return to their homes in the countryside from capital Dhaka and other cities. According to the BPWA, at least 398 people were killed and 774 injured in 319 road accidents between July 3 and July 17. Eid al-Adha was celebrated on July 10 in the Muslim-majority country.

New York Times

After Recent Turmoil, the Race for Texas Governor Is Tightening

SUGAR LAND, Texas — One of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The revival of a 1920s ban on abortion. The country’s worst episode of migrant death in recent memory. And an electrical grid, which failed during bitter cold, now straining under soaring heat. The unrelenting succession of death and difficulty facing Texans over the last two months has soured them on the direction of the state, hurting Gov. Greg Abbott and making the race for governor perhaps the most competitive since Democrats last held that office in the 1990s. Polls have shown a tightening, single-digit contest between Mr. Abbott, the two-term incumbent, and his ubiquitous Democratic challenger, the former congressman Beto O’Rourke. Mr. O’Rourke is now raising more campaign cash than Mr. Abbott — $27.6 million to $24.9 million in the last filing — in a race that is likely to be among the most expensive of 2022.

Washington Post

Monkeypox is the latest global health emergency. Here's what to know.

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