All posts tagged: lifeline

Watch Duty, a Wildfire-Tracking App, Provides a Lifeline in Los Angeles

Watch Duty, a Wildfire-Tracking App, Provides a Lifeline in Los Angeles

Published by skeptic

Paulette Lifton woke up on her 67th birthday on Tuesday morning in a panic to smoke pluming in the distance of her home in the Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. The first person she called was her sister Annette. “What’s going on?” Ms. Lifton asked. “You have to download the Watch Duty app,” her sister responded. Ms. Lifton did just that, tracking the spread of the fire through the app’s map and updates as she packed her car with her most prized possessions — her favorite sequin jacket; her dogs, King Charles spaniels, Elle and Sansa; and the two Emmys she won as a television and movie sound editor. For Ms. Lifton and thousands of other Los Angeles residents, Watch Duty has become a lifeline in tracking the multiple wildfires blazing around the city. In a county of nearly 10 million people, the news of the app has spread by word of mouth and in online community groups. The app has sometimes provided faster and more reliable updates than the city’s buggy mobile notification …

Israeli closure of Rafah crossing cuts off Gaza’s most vital aid lifeline

Israeli closure of Rafah crossing cuts off Gaza’s most vital aid lifeline

Published by skeptic

CAIRO — Food, fuel and basic supplies are running dangerously low in Gaza after Israel seized and shut down the Rafah border crossing Tuesday, aid agencies said, threatening to worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation. Israeli forces took control early Tuesday of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt in what appeared to be the start of its promised ground operation in the southern border city — opposed by even its staunchest allies, including Washington. The Israel Defense Forces also intensified its bombardment of Rafah and issued evacuation orders for about 100,000 people in the city’s east. Israel’s seizure of the crossing plunged the aid community into crisis, cutting its key supply lines and stranding international personnel on both sides of the Gaza-Egypt border. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, said Wednesday that the agency only had three days’ worth of fuel left to keep health services running in the south. Israeli authorities announced Wednesday that they would reopen Kerem Shalom, the other major crossing for aid trucks, which has been closed …

The Affordable Connectivity Program Has a Lifeline in the Senate

The Affordable Connectivity Program Has a Lifeline in the Senate

Published by skeptic

There’s a new plan to revive the Affordable Connectivity Program, a pandemic-era initiative that provides low-income households in the US with discounts on high-speed internet access. At the end of April, funding for the program was set to run out, affecting millions. But a bipartisan group of senators, led by Ben Ray Luján of California, have proposed using a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization measure as a vehicle for funding the ACP and other telecom programs for a combined $6 billion. Luján’s coalition includes senators J.D. Vance, Peter Welch, Jacky Rosen, Steve Daines, and Roger Wicker. “Right now, there are over 23 million households participating in this program, that’s more than 55 million people. But it’s not only benefiting these individual families—it’s benefiting their local communities as well,” Luján tells WIRED. “It gives families access to better-paying jobs, to training and education to create economic mobility, to better deals on groceries and household goods. The time is now to save this program.” The measure also includes a provision for the Federal Communication Commission’s “rip and replace …

DEA’s big marijuana shift could be a lifeline for California’s troubled pot industry

DEA’s big marijuana shift could be a lifeline for California’s troubled pot industry

Published by skeptic

If the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reclassified marijuana as a less dangerous drug, it wouldn’t eliminate the conflicts between the feds and states such as California that have legalized many uses of the substance. But it would bring one significant shift that could give California’s licensed pot companies a badly needed boost: a lighter tax burden. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Drug Enforcement Administration will propose moving marijuana from the list of Schedule I drugs, which includes heroin and cocaine, to Schedule III drugs, which include ketamine and anabolic steroids. The proposal would still have to be reviewed and endorsed by the White House as well as be made available for public comment. Industry insiders say the move, if approved, could become a lifeline to California’s struggling cannabis industry. “We’ve been anticipating this,” said Meital Manzuri, an attorney whose firm specializes in the cannabis industry. “This is big for the industry.” Lawful in California but illegal under federal law, the state’s cannabis industry has operated in a difficult legal limbo. Stores and farms …

How Capitalists in Communist Cuba Are an Economic Lifeline

How Capitalists in Communist Cuba Are an Economic Lifeline

Published by Sam

A modern grocery store whose shelves are packed with everything from pasta to wine fills a spot in central Havana once occupied by a drab state-owned flower shop, its ceilings and walls repaired and repainted. A former state glass company in a Havana suburb now houses a showroom for a private business selling Cuban-made furniture. And at the Cuban capital’s port, forklifts carefully unload American eggs from a refrigerated container. The eggs are bound for an online private supermarket that, much like Amazon Fresh, provides home delivery. These ventures are part of an explosion of thousands of private businesses that have opened in recent years across Cuba, a remarkable shift in a country where such enterprises have not been permitted and where Fidel Castro rose to power leading a communist revolution determined to eliminate capitalist notions like private ownership. But today Cuba is confronting its worst financial crisis in decades, driven by government inefficiency and mismanagement and a decades-long U.S. economic embargo that has led to a collapse in domestic production, rising inflation, constant power …

Cancelled Glasgow book festival Aye Write receives lifeline donation | Books

Cancelled Glasgow book festival Aye Write receives lifeline donation | Books

Published by skeptic

Aye Write, the Glasgow literary festival that was cancelled last month after its funding application was turned down by Creative Scotland has announced that it will present a slimmed programme after an “unexpected, but very welcome” £65,000 donation. The donation, from a foundation set up by the late lottery winner Colin Weir, will help fund a series of pop-up events throughout 2024, featuring authors including David Nicholls, Val McDermid and Lionel Shriver. The full multiday festival – which last year saw 175 authors appearing in more than 120 events across 10 days – will still not go ahead. However, Wee Write, a festival for children and young people, will now go ahead in autumn on a smaller scale. When the festival’s cancellation was announced, Aye Write said that it would be planning pop-up events. The donation “means there will be an increased number of these”. Val McDermid, Douglas Stuart and Andrew O’Hagan were among the authors who criticised the cancellation of the festival after its application for £77,500 of funding was rejected. McDermid said it …

Thames Water at risk of being nationalised as £500m lifeline withheld

Thames Water at risk of being nationalised as £500m lifeline withheld

Published by skeptic

Thanks for joining me. Thames Water has been told it will not be given a £500m lifeline by the end of the month, putting the supplier a step closer towards nationalisation. Without the extra money from investors, who include Canadian pension fund Omers and the Universities Superannuation Scheme, Thames would be at risk of relying on a taxpayer-backed bailout. The business needs billions of pounds to survive. Thames announced last year that investors were willing to inject £3.25bn into the business, with £750m expected in 2024. 5 things to start your day  1) National Living Wage should start at 18 instead of 21, says pay-setting group | Business chiefs warn change would be unaffordable 2) Crunch meeting at Thames Water amid scramble for £750m | Directors race to finalise lifeline from shareholders and avoid special administration 3) BT to convert 2,000 old payphones into advertising screens | Telecoms giant plans to triple its number of digital screens despite local backlash 4) Morrisons’ losses mount amid debt finance pressures | Higher interest rates hammer supermarket as it attempts ambitious …

Budget deal slashes U.S. funding for Palestinians’ U.N. lifeline

Budget deal slashes U.S. funding for Palestinians’ U.N. lifeline

Published by Sam

Congress voted early Saturday to strip hundreds of millions of dollars from the United Nations agency that distributes most of the food, medicine and basic services to Palestinians in Gaza and across the Middle East, marking what critics say is a devastating blow to a region in crisis. The United States, along with several other countries, suspended funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in January after Israel alleged that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 Gaza employees participated in Hamas’s cross-border attack on Oct. 7. These new restrictions, advanced by Republicans as part of an $1.2 trillion government spending package, extends the funding moratorium for at least a year. UNRWA has become “a de facto subsidiary of Hamas,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said in a speech from the House floor Friday, echoing claims by the Israeli government, which has long criticized the agency. “The passage of this bill means not one additional dollar from American taxpayers will go fund this deeply flawed organization.” U.N. officials vehemently deny such assertions, and Israel has not …

France-based Begum TV channel offers a lifeline to Afghan women

France-based Begum TV channel offers a lifeline to Afghan women

Published by Sam

In a tiny television studio in the French capital, two unveiled Afghan women face the camera on a mission to provide a lifeline to their fellow countrywomen back home.  Issued on: 20/03/2024 – 07:25Modified: 20/03/2024 – 07:53 4 min “Tonight we’ll be discussing the different forms of violence against women in Afghanistan,” says 25-year-old Diba Akbari, speaking in front of a green screen. A new France-based satellite television channel called Begum TV is beaming educational programmes and a little light relief to women stuck at home in Afghanistan. “They wed a woman and put her in a corner. She’s reduced to household chores and her only aim in life is to breed children,” says Akbari. “But preventing her from continuing her studies and training, that’s violence.” Taliban authorities have tightly restricted women’s access to education since they seized power in 2021, imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law that means all women must be veiled and largely excluding women from public life. Teenage girls and women are barred from schools and universities, and thousands of …

refineries in Russia burn as Ukrainians go after Kremlin’s lifeline

refineries in Russia burn as Ukrainians go after Kremlin’s lifeline

Published by Sam

Ukrainian drones have attacked several oil refineries in Russia, hundreds of kilometres from the frontline in regions including Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Leningrad. The continuing attacks are part of a strategy to hurt Russia’s economy. The Ryazan oil refinery, Rosneft’s biggest refinery, was set ablaze, a regional governor said on Wednesday. It shut down two damaged primary oil refining units. Rosneft did not comment. The plant handles about 5.8% of Russia’s total refined crude, according to industry sources. A fire broke out at Norsi, Russia’s fourth-largest refinery, after a Ukrainian drone attack, Russian officials said on Tuesday. Its main crude distillation unit was damaged, which means that at least half of the refinery’s production is halted, according to industry sources. Norsi handles nearly 6% of Russia’s total refined crude. Before the latest drone attack, one of its two catalytic crackers had already been put out of action. The governor of the Leningrad region, Alexander Drozdenko, said a Ukrainian drone targeted the Kirishi refinery. It is one of the top two refineries in Russia, handling 6.4% …