India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution

India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution
New Delhi’s authorities have poured in anti-foaming agents to disperse froth from the sewage-filled Yamuna river, and used nets to sweep the scum away – but it has done nothing to clean the fetid water itself. (AFP)
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Updated 07 November 2024
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India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution

India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution
  • Thousands celebrated the festival of Chhath Puja for the Hindu sun god Surya, entering the stinking Yamuna waters to pray
  • A parliamentary report in February called the Yamuna ‘more of a toxic waterway than a river’

NEW DELHI: Sweeping aside thick toxic scum, thousands of Hindu devotees ignored court warnings Thursday against bathing in the sacred but sewage-filled Yamuna river, a grim display of environmental degradation in India’s capital.
Thousands celebrated the festival of Chhath Puja for the Hindu sun god Surya, entering the stinking waters to pray as the evening rays set in the sky.
A parliamentary report in February called the Yamuna “more of a toxic waterway than a river,” saying the foam clouds were formed from a potent chemical soup including laundry detergent and phosphates from fertilizers.
“Please understand you will fall sick,” a high court order said Wednesday, Indian media reported, restricting ritual bathing on health grounds. “We can’t allow you to go into the water.”
But housewife Krishnawati Devi, 45, said she was not worried.
“I believe the waters of the river are pure and blessed by the sun god himself,” she said. “Nothing will happen to me — god will take care of everything.”
Hindu faithful ignored the order, with women wrapped in fine saris and heavy jewelry wading into the grey waters.
White foam swirled around their feet. In places, it was so thick it looked like the river had frozen.
“Chhath is a festival of unflinching faith,” said Avinash Kumar, 58, a government office worker. “We can also offer prayers at home but it doesn’t feel the same as praying in the river.”
Others thumped drums and sang.
New Delhi’s authorities have poured in anti-foaming agents to disperse the froth, and used nets to sweep the scum away — but it has done nothing to clean the fetid water itself.
“It stinks, but it’s ok,” said 14-year-old schoolgirl Deepa Kumari. “What is important is that we get to celebrate in the river with our people.”
Rituals in the days-long festival culminate at dawn on Friday.
“I don’t bother about the pollution,” said Pooja Prasad, 20, a student. “The mother goddess will take care of all our troubles,” she added.
The sprawling megacity of some 30 million people is also smothered in poisonous smog — fueled by burning crop fields and vehicle exhaust fumes.
Levels of fine particulate matter — dangerous microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — have this week surged beyond 50 times the World Health Organization recommended daily maximum.
“Toxi-city,” broadcasters dubbed the capital.
City authorities have declared repeated efforts to clean the river.
From an icy source of a Himalayan glacier, the Yamuna feeds into the mighty Ganges, flowing more than 3,100 kilometers (1,925 miles) to the sea in the Bay of Bengal.
But barely 400 kilometers into that journey, the water passing New Delhi is already effectively dead.
The parliamentary report warned of an “excessive presence of heavy metals” and cancer-causing pollutants ranging from arsenic to zinc, from everything from batteries to pesticides.
“Contamination... transform it into a carrier of untreated industrial waste, garbage, agricultural run-off and municipal waste,” the report read.
“This has a profound effect on the well-being of the people.”
Government statistics say 80 percent of the pollution load is raw sewage, far exceeding permissible levels for bathing.
Some of the faithful have traditionally drunk the water.
Levels fluctuate, but in one spot in 2021 in south Delhi, fecal bacteria levels exceeded maximum health regulations by 8,800 times.
But many say they are frustrated at the situation.
“The river is sacred to us, but all the filth from the industrial belt nearby is being pumped into it,” added Kumar.
“Every year they say they are going to clean it, but nothing ever happens.”


White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say

White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say
Updated 15 sec ago
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White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say

White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s top aides are discussing whether preemptive pardons to current and former public officials who may be targeted by the incoming Trump administration should be considered, but Biden has not yet made a decision on the topic, sources said.
White House officials are debating whether the president should dole out such pardons to people who have not committed crimes and about the message that would send, the sources said.
Biden is aware of the discussions but has not participated in the wider conversation, one senior White House official said. Any decision would ultimately be Biden’s to make.
The conversations have picked up steam after Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, on Sunday, after previously saying he would not issue such a pardon. Trump’s pick for FBI Director, Kash Patel, who has vowed retribution against critics of the president-elect, has also alarmed senior White House and administration officials.
Among those being considered are former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of Trump; Anthony Fauci, who helped coordinate Biden’s COVID-19 response; California’s Senator-elect Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment effort against Trump; and retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the source said.
Top White House officials leading the process are White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and White House counsel Ed Siskel, the sources said.
A White House spokesperson declined comment.
“The question right now is whether people being considered for these pardons want them,” said one of the sources.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier this week to expect more pardons from Biden before the end of his term.
The US Constitution gives a president broad pardon powers but preemptive pardons for offenses that have not yet been charged are largely untested.
Politico was first to report the story. 


Russia’s Lavrov signals readiness to use any means in Ukraine conflict

Russia’s Lavrov signals readiness to use any means in Ukraine conflict
Updated 11 min 56 sec ago
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Russia’s Lavrov signals readiness to use any means in Ukraine conflict

Russia’s Lavrov signals readiness to use any means in Ukraine conflict

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview broadcast on Thursday, said the use of a hypersonic missile in the Ukraine war sought to make the West understand that Moscow was ready to use any means to ensure no “strategic defeat” would be inflicted on Moscow.
“The message is that you, I mean the US and the allies of the US, who also provide these long-range weapons to the Kyiv regime — they must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call a strategic defeat of Russia,” Lavrov told US journalist Tucker Carlson.
Lavrov also said it was a “very serious mistake” for anyone in the West to presume that Russia had no red lines or that they were “being moved again and again.”


US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report

US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report
Updated 6 min 48 sec ago
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US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report

US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report

WASHINGTON: The House shut down Democrats’ efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty.
The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set.
While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare.
Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Illinois, who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims.
Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It’s unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers only have a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins.
It’s the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee’s five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers.
The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump’s announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Mississippi, the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump’s choice to head the Justice Department.
“I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said.
The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press.
Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges.
His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.


White House’s Sullivan, Zelensky aide discuss improving Ukraine’s war position

White House’s Sullivan, Zelensky aide discuss improving Ukraine’s war position
Updated 06 December 2024
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White House’s Sullivan, Zelensky aide discuss improving Ukraine’s war position

White House’s Sullivan, Zelensky aide discuss improving Ukraine’s war position

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, discussed on Thursday improving Kyiv’s position in its war with Russia and ensuring it enters any future negotiations from a position of strength, a White House spokesperson said.

 


7.0 earthquake off Northern California prompts brief tsunami warning

7.0 earthquake off Northern California prompts brief tsunami warning
Updated 29 min 35 sec ago
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7.0 earthquake off Northern California prompts brief tsunami warning

7.0 earthquake off Northern California prompts brief tsunami warning

SAN FRANCISCO: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook a large area of Northern California on Thursday, knocking items off grocery store shelves, sending children scrambling under desks and prompting a brief tsunami warning for 5.3 million people along the US West Coast.
The quake struck at 10:44 a.m. west of Ferndale, a small city in coastal Humboldt County, about 130 miles (209 km) from the Oregon border, the US Geological Survey said.
It was felt as far south as San Francisco, some 270 miles (435 km) away, where residents felt a rolling motion for several seconds. It was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks.
There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury.
The tsunami warning was in effect for roughly an hour. It was issued shortly after the temblor struck and covered nearly 500 miles (805 km) of coastline, from the edge of California’s Monterey Bay north into Oregon.
“It was a strong quake, our building shook, we’re fine but I have a mess to clean up right now,” said Julie Kreitzer, owner of Golden Gait Mercantile, a store packed with food, wares and souvenirs that is a main attraction in Ferndale.
“We lost a lot of stuff. It’s probably worse than two years ago. I have to go, I have to try and salvage something for the holidays because it’s going to be a tough year,” Kreitzer said before hanging up.
The region — known for its redwood forests, scenic mountains and the three-county Emerald Triangle’s legendary marijuana crop — was struck by a 6.4 magnitude quake in 2022 that left thousands of people without power and water. The northwest corner of California is the most seismically active part of the state since it’s where three tectonic plates meet, seismologist Lucy Jones said on the social media platform BlueSky.
Shortly after the quake, phones in Northern California buzzed with the tsunami warning from the National Weather Service that said: “A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you. You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters. Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return.”
Numerous cities urged people to evacuate to higher ground as a precaution, including Eureka.
In Santa Cruz, authorities cleared the main beach, taping off entrances with police tape. Aerial footage showed cars bumper-to-bumper heading to higher ground Thursday morning on California highways 1 and 92 in the Half Moon Bay area south of San Francisco.
“I thought my axles had fallen apart,” said Valerie Starkey, a Del Norte County supervisor representing Crescent City, a town of fewer than 6,000 near the Oregon border. “That’s what I was feeling ... ‘My axles are broken now.’ I did not realize it was an earthquake.”
Cindy Vosburg, the executive director for the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce, said she heard alarms sound just before shaking began and the city’s cultural center downtown started to creak.
“The earthquake seemed to go on for quite a few seconds. It was a rolling earthquake,” Vosburg said. “Just as it would start to subside, the building would roll again.”
Vosburg, a former resident of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley, said it was the strongest earthquake she felt since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake struck Northern California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he has signed off on a state of emergency declaration to quickly move state resources to impacted areas along the coast. State officials were concerned about damages in the northern part of the state, Newsom said.
White House Spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said President Joe Biden was briefed on the earthquake and that FEMA officials are in touch with their state and local counterparts in California and Oregon.
Crews in Eureka, the biggest city in the region, were assessing if there was any major damage from the quake, Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel said. Bergel, who works as a resource aid at a middle school, said lights were swaying and everyone got under desks.
“The kids were so great and terrified. It seemed to go back and forth for quite a long time,” she said. Some children asked, “Can I call my mom?“
The students were later sent home.
In nearby Arcata, students and faculty were urged to shelter in place at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. The campus in was not in the tsunami hazard zone and after inspections, “all utilities and building systems are normal and operational,” the university said in a statement.
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said residents experienced some cracks in their homes’ foundations, as well as broken glass and windows, but nothing severe. There also have been no major infrastructure problems, building collapses or roadway issues, and no major injuries or deaths have been reported, he said.
Honsal said he was in his office in the 75-year-old courthouse in downtown Eureka when he felt the quake.
“We’re used to it. It is known as ‘earthquake country’ up here,” he said. “It wasn’t a sharp jolt. It was a slow roller, but significant.”
Michael Luna, owner of a Grocery Outlet in Eureka, said that besides a few items falling off shelves, the store on Commercial Street was unscathed by the earthquake.
“We didn’t have any issues but a couple of deodorants fall off.... I think the way the earthquake rumbled this time, it was a good thing for our store because the last earthquake was a huge mess,” he said.
They evacuated customers and closed their doors temporarily until officials lifted the tsunami warning, he said, rushing off the phone to attend to a growing line of customers at check-out.
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, known as BART, stopped traffic in all directions through the underwater tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland, and the San Francisco Zoo’s visitors were evacuated.
Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator for the Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska, said the computer models indicated that this was the type of earthquake that was unlikely to cause a tsunami and gauges that monitor waves then confirmed it, so forecasters canceled the warning.
This quake was a strike-slip type of temblor that shifts more horizontally and is less prone to cause tsunamis, unlike the more vertical types, said National Weather Service tsunami program manager Corina Allen in Washington state.
The California Geological Survey says the state’s shores have been struck by more than 150 tsunamis since 1800, and while most were minor, some have been destructive and deadly.
On March 28, 1964, a tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake in Alaska smashed into Crescent City hours later. Much of the business district was leveled and a dozen people were killed. More recently, a tsunami from a 2011 earthquake in Japan caused about $100 million in damages along the California coast, much of it in Crescent City.