Boat capsizes in Zimbabwe – many feared dead

 

TT-AFP

 

Published 21.47

 

The dam wall at Lake Kariba. Archive photo. Photo: Themba Hadebe/AP/TT

A ferry with 95 passengers capsized in Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe on Tuesday, the country's police said.

Local media reported that the boat capsized in high waves on the route between the town of Kariba in northern Zimbabwe and a fishing camp.

There were 90 passengers and five crew members on board. Several people have been rescued. At the same time, it is feared that several have died in the accident, according to police.

Lake Kariba is the world's largest artificial lake in terms of water volume.

Garbage flood after rain chaos

 

Fanny Marhaug

 

Published 20.07

 

Tons of garbage clog the waterway. Photo: Aaron Favila /AP/TT

Tons of garbage have collected in a waterway outside Manila in the Philippines.

This after several days of heavy rain.

A contributing factor is Typhoon Dolphin, which also hit China.

On Tuesday, an extensive clean-up operation began in Baclaran in Parañaque City.

Officials are working to remove the large amounts of garbage and debris that cover parts of the waterway outside the capital.

In pictures from the scene, a person is seen standing in the garbage with garbage up to his neck. Personnel are also working from a boat, completely surrounded by garbage, while excavators are being used to clear the garbage.

The garbage is said to have washed in from Manila Bay in connection with the heavy rain that accompanied the strengthened southwest monsoon.

Tyfonen Dolphin orsakar kaos på flera platser

Typhoon Dolphin did not hit the Philippines directly, but helped to intensify monsoon rains across the country. The storm later moved into eastern China, bringing heavy rains, writes AP.

In Shanghai, 313 millimeters of rain fell in one day, which is the highest figure since measurements began 150 years ago.

At Shanghai's airports, nearly a thousand flights were canceled on Monday, and even more the day before, as a result of the storm. Subway lines and more than 100 trains were also canceled, according to the Chinese state

More than a million people have been evacuated. Chinese authorities have also warned of serious flooding and landslides.

The typhoon has also swept past Japan in recent days, causing power outages in more than 44,000 buildings. The islands of Okinawa and Amami in the southwestern part of the country are the most affected.

According to local authorities in the Philippines, the waste has been accumulating for several days of heavy rain. The situation was worsened when a so-called “trash trap” – a barrier that captures floating garbage – was removed, writes the Philippine newspaper Philstar.
 

The AI ​​race

China uses the stock market to win the AI ​​race

American technology companies have long benefited from capital inflows from the stock market – and now China is changing its approach to injecting its tech companies in the same way, reports Bloomberg. From helping tech companies with tax breaks and subsidies, the country has changed its approach to encouraging stock market listings.

The hope is to reach Chinese savings accounts, which together hold more than $26 trillion, the news agency writes.

Most recently, at the end of July, memory chip manufacturer CXMT was listed and sailed up to become the country's most valuable listed company on the same day.

Task: Nvidia and Wall Street giants in a billion-dollar investment

Chip giant Nvidia is in talks with several financiers to raise money for a massive expansion of AI infrastructure, reports the Financial Times, citing sources. The money is for expanding the electricity grid, more data centers and network connections.

According to the newspaper's sources, it is a financing package of $500 billion.

The fact that Nvidia, which manufactures chips, also has a hand in how other companies can expand to buy its chips has led to questions about the circular nature of the AI ​​boom. The fact that companies in the same sector buy and borrow from each other, and that they also invest to create their own demand, has been seen as a potential problem.

Food prices

Highest food prices in years – risk of new inflationary shock

Global food prices rose in July to the highest level in over three years, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO. Now the weather phenomenon El Niño risks pushing up prices further and increasing inflation in Sweden.

– There is a lot to suggest that we will have a powerful El Niño and that will affect Swedish inflation, says Danske Bank's chief economist Susanne Spector to Dagens Industri.

SEB's Jens Magnusson downplays the acute threat and points to good harvests and well-stocked grain stocks.

Olive oil price withstands extreme heat: "New era"

Despite the extreme heat of the summer, olive oil prices do not look like they will surge like during the crisis years of 2022–2024. Good spring rains in Spain have strengthened the outlook for the autumn harvest.

– We are seeing the beginning of a new era, says researcher and analyst Juan Vilar to TT.

Producers and Swedish importers describe the situation as stable, although it is still too early to assess how this year's harvest will be affected. Vilar believes that prices will continue to decline towards the end of the year.

This is El Niño

• El Niño has existed for 250 million years and occurs irregularly in the Pacific Ocean with an interval of two to seven years.
• In normal years, winds blow from South America towards Asia and push warm surface water in the Pacific Ocean towards Australia and Indonesia. The cold deep-sea water is in turn pushed towards South America.
• When El Niño strikes, the winds are affected and can change direction. This causes the warm water to move towards South America, resulting in heavy rains and floods.
• At the same time, it causes drought in Southeast Asia and Australia.
• El Niño is now manifesting itself in, among other things, extreme heat in the Pacific Ocean, which can intensify heat waves, droughts and floods in several parts of the world.
  
  

Källa: TT

Economy

Extreme weather in Europe
Massive influx of jellyfish shuts down French nuclear power plant

A “massive influx” of jellyfish has forced the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France to reduce capacity to a quarter of normal, the operator wrote, according to Reuters.

The jelly-like creatures can increase in number during periods of high temperatures, and if there are too many, they can disrupt the water intake for the reactors’ cooling systems.

The problems, which began on Monday, coincide with the country expecting temperatures of up to 40 degrees, which is straining the electricity systems. The power plant could be back at full capacity by the end of the week, writes Bloomberg. 

Solar eclipse
Hotel prices surge ahead of the solar eclipse

Hotel prices in Spain and Iceland are surging ahead of Wednesday’s total solar eclipse, reports the Financial Times. In Reykjavik, a room on the night of Thursday will cost an average of over $1,000 – 140 percent more than the same date last year.

“There has been enormous demand, and it has come from all sorts of directions,” says Helga Maria Albertsdóttir, CEO of the geothermal spa Sky Lagoon.

Northern Spain is also seeing a rush. In A Coruña, hotel prices have doubled, while Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela have recorded increases of 59 and 31 percent, respectively. 

The development of pharmaceuticals
Sources: Astra Zeneca pulls out of giant deal after share price crash

Swedish-British Astra Zeneca’s planned purchase of American Bristol Myers Squibb, worth around $400 billion, was canceled at the last minute, sources told the Financial Times.

According to reports, the board pressed the stop button after news of the deal caused Astra Zeneca’s shares to plummet and investors to protest loudly. 

World's richest
Google founder spends $1 billion to stop tax

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has now spent more than $100 million, equivalent to almost a billion kronor, to stop a wealth tax in California. Bloomberg reports.

His money goes to the organization Building a Better California, whose primary goal is to overturn the proposal for a tax on the wealthy, but which also wants to improve the business climate in general.

The deal would have created the world's largest pharmaceutical company in terms of revenue.

 

 

Jiang Xueqin: Breaking Point - Why the West Is Falling Apart

Glenn Diesen

 

 

US Oil Reserves Hit 40 Year Low. Europe Faces Ukraine Missile Dilemma. Trump's Food Truck Escape

Alex Christoforou