A German company will next month switch on a floating solar power plant it has built on a quarry lake, a rapidly-installed, renewable technology it says could help wean the country off Russian fossil fuels.
BayWa r.e. said on Monday the photovoltaic (PV) plant at the family-owned Quartzwerke in the western German town of Haltern am See will be able to provide 3 megawatts (MW) of power, equivalent to a typical onshore wind turbine.
The plant, with 5,800 modules on 360 floating elements, will go into service on May 24.
It comes as Germany scrambles to find alternative sources of energy and phase out its reliance on Russian oil and gas in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Toni Weigl, head of floating-PV product management at BayWa r.e., said Germany could house around 20 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy on water.
The floating panels will use space that would otherwise lie idle at Quartzwerke, a foundry sands maker in a densely populated region.
They will save 1,100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year compared with the same amount of power produced from fossil fuels.
BayWa r.e. plans to bring 1 GW of renewable capacity online this year, it said on Feb. 24 as it published 2021 financial data. The firm focuses on onshore and offshore wind, and also arranges green power purchasing deals for multinational companies.
Parent company BayWa BYWGnx.DE last month said its earnings before interest and tax jumped 26% in 2021 to 267 million euros ($290 million), with 135 million from BayWa r.e.
Swiss infrastructure investor Energy Infrastructure Partners (EIP) owns 49% of BayWa r.e.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced a new rule to rein in ghost guns and ban the manufacturing of such firearms on Monday (April 11) as the administration faces growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths and violent crime in the United States.
Ghost guns are privately made firearms that are not marked with a serial number and are difficult for law enforcement to trace when used to commit a crime.
Biden and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the final rule from the Department of Justice at an event at the White House on Monday. The final rule has been making its way through the federal regulation process for nearly a year and is likely to draw opposition and litigation from gun advocates in the coming weeks.
Biden also nominated Steve Dettelbach, a former U.S. attorney from Ohio, to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, a senior administration official told reporters.
The announcement is part of a series of measures announced by Biden and the Justice Department in April last year to tackle growing gun violence in the United States and curb mass shootings.
In 2021, there were about 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations – a tenfold increase from 2016, according to statistics shared by the White House.
The Justice Department rule bans unserialized “buy build shoot” kits that individuals can buy online or at a store without a background check and can readily assemble into a working firearm in as little as 30 minutes with the equipment they have at home. It also turns some ghost guns already in circulation into serialized firearms.
Gun deaths increased in 2021 over 2020, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
In 2021 there were 20,726 gun deaths in the United States, not counting suicides by gun, the nonprofit reported. This included 693 mass shootings, defined by four or more people being shot, and claimed 702 lives and injured more than 2,800 people, the group reported.
Sri Lankan demonstrators intensified their protests on Sunday (April 10), calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down, amid a deepening economic crisis afflicting their country.
Protesters swarmed the area near the old parliament building, close to Colombo’s central business district where they chanted anti-government slogans.
“We want the Rajapaksas to go, we don’t want them to rule our nation like this. We are angry, we are hurt, and we just want them to leave us. And we want a new cabinet to do what is right for the generations to come,” said Dina Rizvi, a housewife who came with her family and friends to participate in the protests.
Anti-government protests have raged across the island for days, with at least one turning violent in the commercial capital of Colombo, a threat to the country’s lucrative tourism industry.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is running his administration with only a handful of ministers after his entire cabinet resigned this week, while the opposition and some coalition partners rejected calls for a unity government to deal with the country’s worst crisis in decades.
At least 41 lawmakers have quit the ruling coalition to become independents, though the government says it still has a majority in parliament.
The heavily indebted country has little money left to pay for imports, leading to crippling shortages of fuel, power, food and, increasingly, medicine. Street protests have been held nearly non-stop for more than a month, despite a five-day state of emergency and a two-day curfew.
Two of the world’s richest people are pitching in ideas to tackle the issue of homelessness, suggesting that Twitter convert its headquarters to a shelter home.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Sunday (April 10) backed an idea put forth by Elon Musk, who recently became Twitter’s largest shareholder, to convert the social networking firm’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter as few people are working there during the pandemic.
Bezos tweeted an article by technology-focused blog GeekWire from May 2020 about Amazon’s eight-floor family homeless shelter attached to its Seattle headquarters, saying the initiative worked out great and makes it easy for employees who wish to volunteer.
Bezos also suggested converting at least a portion of Twitter’s headquarters, if not all of it, into a homeless shelter. Musk agreed in another tweet, calling it a “Great idea.”
Musk, who has more than 81 million followers on Twitter, started a poll on Saturday, asking users to vote if the building should be converted. The poll gained over a million votes in less than a day, with more than 90% saying yes.
The chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla, who frequently tweets about his company and other topics, has been known to leave people confused as to whether he is joking. However, Musk clarified this time he was not joking. “I’m serious about this one btw,” he tweeted, following up on the topic on Sunday.
A separate poll by Musk on Sunday asked if “w” should be deleted from Twitter’s name, leaving two voting options, “yes” and “of course.”
Musk had suggested a raft of changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service on Saturday, including reducing its price, banning advertising and giving an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
North Korea unveiled a new portrait of state leader Kim Jong Un at a national meeting on Sunday (April 10) to commemorate 10 years of Kim’s rule, as part of events expected to be held within the week to showcase the regime’s power.
In a speech during the meeting, Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and one of the most senior officials under Kim, said the North Korean leader “has finally achieved a historic goal of completing the state’s nuclear power programme.”
Kim assumed power after his father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011. Monday (April 11) marked 10 years since the younger Kim was elected as the top party and state leader. In practice, only one candidate appears on each ballot in North Korean elections and the Kim family has ruled the country for its entire history.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006, four of which during Kim Jong Un’s rule. Tensions in the Korean peninsula have sharply escalated after North Korea tested two ballistic missiles on Feb. 26 and March 4 that involved a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system that the country is developing, and as it conducted a full ICBM test – the first since 2017 – on March 24.
France’s centrist leader Emmanuel Macron will take his hunt for extra votes on Monday to the industrial heartlands of northern France, a blue-collar stronghold of his far-right rival Marine Le Pen who he will face in an April 24 presidential runoff vote.
Macron and Le Pen came out on top in Sunday’s first-round vote, setting up a repeat of the 2017 runoff between the pro-European economic liberal and euro-skeptic nationalist
Left-wing voters will be crucial to determining the outcome of the election. Third-placed challenger, hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon, told supporters not one single vote should go to the far right but stopped short of endorsing Macron.
An interior ministry count showed that with 97% of votes counted, Macron had won 27.60% of voters’ support. Le Pen secured 23.41% and Melenchon 21.95%.
Polls predict a close-fought second round with one survey projecting Macron will win with just 51% of the vote and 49% for Le Pen. The gap is so tight that victory either way is within the margin of error.
Voting started in France on Sunday (April 10) in the first round of a presidential election, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen posing an unexpected threat to President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election hopes.
In Paris’ 18th arrondissement, voters were seen casting their ballots when polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT). Voting ends at 1800 GMT when the first exit polls will be published. Such polls are usually very reliable in France.
Until just weeks ago, opinion polls pointed to an easy win for the pro-European Union, centrist Macron, who was boosted by his active diplomacy over Ukraine, strong economic recovery and the weakness of a fragmented opposition.
But his late entry into the campaign, with only one major rally, that even his supporters found underwhelming, and his focus on an unpopular plan to increase the retirement age, have dented the president’s ratings, along with a steep rise in inflation.
Opinion polls still see Macron leading the first round and winning a runoff against Le Pen on April 24, but several surveys now say this is within the margin of error.
Going door to door, the advocacy group ‘A Vote’, is trying to inform and encourage young people to vote.
Pollster Ipsos last month forecast a record number of voters would abstain in this month’s election, which if confirmed would raise the likelihood of a surprise, analysts said.
While young voters often engaged in issues such as climate change, analysts said abstainers eschew party politics due to lack of interest or because politicians were seen as failing to improve their lives.
Capucine Blond should vote on Sunday in her first presidential election but the disconnect the French teenager feels with the ruling elite is so great that she has decided there is no point. Blond, 18, who earns 500 euros per month working on a short-term contract at her town hall, said she doubted any of the candidates would improve her job prospects to the point where she could afford to move out of her mother’s house.
“For me, politics, politicians, all of that, it’s always debates that aren’t constructive because no one is listening to one another and it never leads to anything,” said Blond, who lives in the northern city of Arras.
Turnout rates in French elections have been on a downwards trend since the 1980s. In 2017, more than a fifth of French voters sat out at least one round, Interior Ministry data shows. A disproportionate number of them were youngsters, according to the official INSEE statistics office.
Ipsos forecast that nearly a third of voters may sit out this month’s election. That would be a record for a presidential vote in France and exceed the number voting for any candidate.
Drama graduate Louis Labarthette, 25, voted for Macron in 2017 to keep Le Pen out of power but said he felt let down by the former investment banker’s results over his five-year term.
“(Macron) was disappointing during his mandate. So, the spark of hope we had five years ago has disappeared,” he said, speaking to Reuters in his home in the wealthy suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt.
Bucking the trend, Alioune Kebe, 25, while speaking to ‘A Vote’ volunteers checking that he is registered to vote, said he never felt the inclination to cast his ballot but said he felt motivated to go to the polls this time around.
“The best solution (to our problems) is to vote and not to abstain too much, because otherwise, we could never change the situation,” adding that he is voting for far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.
The presidential race appears set to be a re-run of the 2017 duel between incumbent President Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
Twelve candidates are running for president. Among them are two far-right candidates, a communist, a hard-left veteran and contenders from the beleaguered mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties.
Donors including the Canadian government and the European Commission on Saturday (April 9) pledged a combined 9.1 billion euros in donations, loans and grants to support refugees fleeing the war following Russia’s invasion.
The fundraising event in Warsaw, Poland, yielded 1.8 billion euros to support internally displaced people inside Ukraine and 7.3 billion euros for refugees who have fled the country to neighbouring states.
Governments, companies and individuals together pledged 4.1 billion euros in donations, which will be distributed largely via the Ukrainian authorities or the United Nations.
The remaining 5 billion euros were loans and grants from European Union (EU) financial institutions – including a 4 billion euro program to help provide housing, education and healthcare for refugees arriving in EU countries.
“I can only announce today for the European Commission that we want to pledge one billion euros, 600 million of those will go to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian authorities and partially to the United Nation … and 400 million euros will go to the frontline states that are doing such an outstanding job and helping the refugees that are coming,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who visited Kyiv on Friday and co-hosted the event with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“As the humanitarian crisis deepens and needs to continue to grow, our collective response must keep pace,” Trudeau said via video link.
More than 4 million people have now fled Ukraine to seek shelter in EU countries, while 6.5 million people have fled their homes but remain inside Ukraine, the European Commission said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday (April 9) in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, “in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Johnson’s visit had begun with a one-on-one meeting with Zelenskiy, Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of the Ukraine president’s office, said on Facebook.
Johnson’s visit to the Ukrainian capital was not announced in advance and comes as Russia is amassing troops in the east of the country.
“The UK will send more defensive weapons to Ukraine and will work with G7 partners to target every pillar of the Russian economy to ensure Putin fails,” Johnson tweeted earlier on Saturday.
The British leader used the visit to set out a new financial and military aid package for Ukraine.
Earlier, his Downing Street office said Britain would provide the country with 120 armoured vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems.
Johnson is the latest foreign leader to visit Kyiv after Russian forces pulled back from the outskirts of the capital last week. The move caps weeks of lobbying by the British prime minister to meet Zelenskiy to underline their close ties.
In a joint news conference with Zelenskiy Johnson, pledged tighter sanctions on Russia
At a meeting shrouded in secrecy until Johnson appeared in the Ukrainian capital, the two leaders cemented the close ties they have nurtured since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. 24.
“We have to exert even more pressure on the Russian Federation, to exert pressure through supporting Ukraine. In defending itself, we have to exert pressure in the form of sanctions, and I’m grateful to the United Kingdom that continuing and intensifying the sanctions and also providing significant support to Ukraine by reinforcing our defence capacities. The other democratic Western countries should follow the example of the United Kingdom,” Zelenskiy said.
Johnson replied: “Together with our partners, we are going to ratchet up the economic pressure and we will continue to intensify, week by week, the sanctions on Russia.”
He added that the measures would include moving away from the use of Russian hydrocarbons.
The Ukrainian leader said that his country was grateful for the decisive support from Britain, and said it was “time to impose a complete embargo on Russian energy resources.”
The support aims to ensure that “Ukraine can never be bullied again, never will be blackmailed again, never will be threatened in the same way again,” Johnson said.
During the visit, Johnson walked with Zelenskiy in the city’s streets.
“You have a remarkable president, Mr Zelenskiy, who has done an outstanding job and we simply wish to keep supporting the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes,” said Johnson to a man who thanked him as he walked around Kyiv.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan lost a confidence vote in parliament on Sunday (April 10). The lower house speaker said, following desertions from coalition partners who blame him for a deteriorating economy and failure to deliver on his campaign promises.
The announcement of the vote’s result came just before 0100 (2000 GMT) after multiple adjournments in the lower house caused by members of Khan’s party, who said there was a foreign conspiracy to oust the cricket star-turned-politician.
Opposition parties were able to secure 174 votes in the 342-member House in support of the no-confidence motion, presiding Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said, making it a majority vote. Just a few legislators of Khan’s ruling party were present for the vote.
Two sources said the voting came after the country’s powerful army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa met Khan, as criticism mounted over the delay in the parliamentary process.
Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif is the front-runner to lead the nuclear-armed nation of 220 million, where the military has ruled for half its history.
Shehbaz, 70, the younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has a reputation as an effective administrator.
Khan, 69, surged to power in 2018 with the military’s support, but recently lost his parliamentary majority when allies quit his coalition government. There were also signs he had lost the support of the military, analysts said.
Opposition parties say he has failed to revive an economy battered by COVID-19 or fulfil promises to make Pakistan a corruption-free, prosperous nation respected on the world stage.
His ouster extends Pakistan’s unwanted record for political instability: No prime minister has completed their full term since independence in 1947, although Khan is the first to be removed through a no-confidence vote.
A handful of women suppers of Khan protested outside parliament while supporters of opposition parties celebrated victory.
People on the streets of Karachi and Lahore had divided opinions.
Parliament will meet on Monday (April 11) to elect a new prime minister.
Opposition leader Sharif said Khan’s ouster was the chance for a new beginning.
“A new dawn has started. A new day is coming. Allah has answered the prayers of millions of Pakistani mothers, sisters, daughters, elders and youth”, Sharif, 70, said in parliament.
Elections are not due until August 2023. However, the opposition has said it wants early elections, but only after it delivered a political defeat to Khan and passes legislation it says is required to ensure the next polls are free and fair.
Khan earlier accused the United States of backing moves to oust him because he had visited Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin just after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Washington rejected the charge.
Sharif, who is affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League, has been in ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s shadow during their three decades in politics, forging a reputation as a workaholic administrator obsessed with infrastructure mega-projects in the vast Punjab province, the family’s powerbase that is home to more than half of Pakistan’s 190 million people.
His hands-on style as chief minister of Punjab — peppering officials with WhatsApp messages in the dead of night — has won him, admirers, in the provincial capital Lahore, a Mughul-era city spruced up with slick highways and manicured boulevards.
Sharif’s governing style is in sharp contrast to Nawaz’s hands-off approach, but the two brothers espouse a similar pro-business ideology. Their biggest difference may be in their relations with the military, which plays an outsized role in Pakistani politics and currently controls key areas of policy such as relations with India and the United States.
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