News
US blizzard kills 18, leaves hundreds of thousands without power

At least 18 die from exposure and car crashes as fierce storm brings rain and snow across much of the US.
A fierce winter storm has knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the United States and left at least 18 people dead due to exposure and car crashes on icy roads.
The “bomb cyclone” storm, one of the most powerful in decades, also forced the cancellation of more than 3,000 US flights on Saturday, stranding thousands of travellers who were making last-minute dashes for Christmas.
The storm, now in its third straight day, was nearly unprecedented in its scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. The plummeting temperatures brought the coldest Christmas Eve on record to some parts of the country, including in Washington, DC.
Power systems across the US were under strain due to rising demand for heat and storm-related damage to transmission lines.
According to tracking site Poweroutage.us, at least 300,000 homes and businesses were without power as of Saturday evening, a sharp drop from 1.8 million customers who were without power earlier in the day.
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But many electric companies continued to ask people to conserve energy by not running large appliances and turning off unneeded lights.
Across the country, officials attributed at least 18 deaths to the effects of the storm, including two people who died in their homes outside the city of Buffalo in New York state when emergency crews could not reach them amid historic blizzard conditions.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said a third person had also died in Buffalo and that the blizzard may be “the worst storm in our community’s history”.
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It was taking ambulances over three hours to make one trip to hospital in areas where a vehicle could get through the snow, he said, adding that there were “hundreds of people still stuck in their vehicles”.
He added that the National Guard was being sent “right into the city of Buffalo for these life-threatening rescues”.

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News
Violent Typhoon Mawar sets sights on Philippines, Taiwan and Japan after blow to Guam

The powerhouse typhoon is the equivalent of a very strong Category 4 hurricane as it approaches the northernmost island of the Philippines before turning to the north, continuing its damaging path.

News
Japan says scrambled fighter jets after Russian planes spotted

The country’s defence ministry says Russian ‘intelligence-gathering’ aircraft spotted near its coasts along the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Japan.
Japan scrambled fighter jets after spotting Russian “intelligence-gathering” aircraft off its coasts along the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Japan on Thursday, the country’s defence ministry has said.
One Russian aircraft travelled from Japan’s north down along part of its west coast, while the other took a similar route along the opposite coast and returned the same way, the Joint Staff office run under the defence ministry said in a brief statement.
“In response, fighters of the Air Self-Defence Force’s Northern Air Force and other units were scrambled,” it added.
There was no further information on the incident, which comes days after Japan hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the summit of Group of Seven (G7) – a grouping of rich nations – in Hiroshima city.
Japan has joined Western allies in sanctioning Moscow over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and has warned of the threat posed by Russia.
Its latest security document, which once called for enhanced ties and cooperation with Russia, now warns that Moscow’s military posturing in Asia and cooperation with China are “a strong security concern”.
Last May, Chinese and Russian military jets carried out joint flights near Japan immediately after a meeting of the United States-led Quad grouping in Tokyo. India and Australia are other members of Quad.
And more recently, Moscow has carried out military exercises, including test-firing missiles, in the Sea of Japan.
Russia considers Japan to be a “hostile” country – a designation it shares with all European Union countries, the US and its allies, including the United Kingdom and Australia.
Tokyo had complex relations with Moscow before the invasion of Ukraine in February, and the two sides have yet to sign a post-World War II peace treaty.
Attempts to do so have been hampered by a long-running dispute over islands controlled by Russia, which calls them the Kurils.

News
France bans short-haul flights to cut carbon emissions

France has banned domestic short-haul flights where train alternatives exist, in a bid to cut carbon emissions.
The law came into force two years after lawmakers had voted to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.
The ban all but rules out air travel between Paris and cities including Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux, while connecting flights are unaffected.
Critics have described the latest measures as “symbolic bans”.
Laurent Donceel, interim head of industry group Airlines for Europe (A4E), told the AFP news agency that “banning these trips will only have minimal effects” on CO2 output.
He added that governments should instead support “real and significant solutions” to the issue.
Airlines around the world have been severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with website Flightradar24 reporting that the number of flights last year was down almost 42% from 2019.
The French government had faced calls to introduce even stricter rules.
France’s Citizens’ Convention on Climate, which was created by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019 and included 150 members of the public, had proposed scrapping plane journeys where train journeys of under four hours existed.
But this was reduced to two-and-a-half hours after objections from some regions, as well as the airline Air France-KLM.
French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir had earlier called on lawmakers to retain the four-hour limit.
“On average, the plane emits 77 times more CO2 per passenger than the train on these routes, even though the train is cheaper and the time lost is limited to 40 minutes,” it said.
It also called for “safeguards that [French national railway] SNCF will not seize the opportunity to artificially inflate its prices or degrade the quality of rail service”.


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