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Disasters - SERIES 67 {10 articles}

California approves measure to pass on wildfire costs

9/1/2018, 7:34:34 PM
The measure is part of a wide-ranging plan to reduce the threat of wildfires. ✔ This is about protecting ratepayers, not helping utilities, said Sen ✔ It would make it easier, in some circumstances, to do prescribed burns, clear dead trees and brush, log trees and build fire breaks ✔ It also extends the life of biomass plants, which use trees to generate energy



AN Wilson: ‘Writing novels, I still feel the terror’

9/1/2018, 5:22:38 PM
The novelist talks to Rachel Cooke about his love story set in post-earthquake New Zealand, trolls and why Don Quixote is overrated ✔ That young man had a serious desire to be as good a novelist as Balzac or Dickens ✔ I’m going to choose Falstaff [Shakespeare’s boastful outsized knight] ✔ And the picaresque tradition that follows Cervantes ✔ Matthew Sturgis’s new biography of Oscar Wilde, which comes out next month



Mexican tribunal quashes fine against president-elect's party

9/1/2018, 3:32:47 PM
Mexico's electoral tribunal has revoked a $10 million fine imposed on the party of leftist President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who had condemned the sanction as an "act of vengeance" against him for his July 1 election victory. ✔ The INE said MORENA had broken campaign finance rules and been opaque about how money came in and out of the fund ✔ The party vehemently rejected that finding and challenged the fine ✔ ($1 = 19.0700 Mexican pesos) Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles



UK weather forecast: Will hot temperatures last until NOVEMBER?

9/1/2018, 5:20:39 PM
UK weather forecasters say September could see a return to sizzling temperatures with the heat possibly lasting as long as November. The latest forecast predicts a return to higher temperatures pushing towards a heatwave. ✔ July’s steaming temperatures put Britain on the verge of a drought in one of the UK’s most intense heatwaves ✔ While the hotter temperatures continue during the day, the clear skies open up the chance for slightly more bearable nights ✔ Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes said: September's Indian Summer is hugely welcome after August's washout, and although it's early days, the forecast is looking bright



Incredible moment group of worker bees team up to clean friend

9/1/2018, 5:00:19 PM
This unbee-lievable footage shows the moment a group of bees come together to help a friend. The stunning moment was captured on camera by beekeeper Peter Walkosz in the US. ✔ 'I rescued her and put her by the hive entry, knowing that her sisters would help her.' The kindly bees came out their hive and spent the next thirty minutes cleaning up their messy comrade, who then flew away ✔ Greenpeace has suggested the following solutions to the problem: The preservation of wild habitats in order to protect pollinator health The restoration of ecological agriculture The elimination of the world's most dangerous pesticides



The Argentine peso has lost half its value this year. Now the country is racing to prevent it from plunging further

9/1/2018, 5:47:08 PM
Argentina, scrambling to avoid yet another financial crisis, is desperately trying to prop up the national currency after the peso lost 20% of its value in just one week. ✔ An ally of Venezuela’s late socialist President Hugo Chavez, Fernandez nationalized the private pension system in 2008 to help pay the bills, but it was a brief salve ✔ Argentina has been in default on some of its public debt since 2012, said Bour, the FIEL economist ✔ Political turmoil led to five presidents in less than two weeks



Trump Says ‘Canada Will be Out’ Without ‘Fair Deal’ on Nafta

9/1/2018, 3:54:00 PM
President Trump said Canada would be left out of a new North American Free Trade Agreement if a “fair deal for the U.S.” isn’t reached—and warned Congress he would terminate the deal entirely if the lawmakers interfere in the negotiations. ✔ The president does have the power to terminate the pact, with six months notice, but it isn’t clear if such a decision could withstand legal challenges, of which there would likely be many ✔ Mr. Trump issued the threat to Congress on Twitter while many congressional leaders were attending services at the National Cathedral for the late Republican Arizona Senator John McCain, a frequent adversary of the president



£1 polystyrene pumpkins branded 'total madness'

9/1/2018, 4:44:19 PM
Amid creeping cross-festival gimmicks from Christmas eggs to Easter trees, the humble Halloween pumpkin has remained untouched by the marketing men. ✔ Amid creeping cross-festival gimmicks from Christmas eggs to Easter trees, the humble Halloween pumpkin has remained untouched by the marketing men ✔ Craft supply chain Hobbycraft, with 85 stores across the UK, is selling polystyrene pumpkins for £1 ✔ They should be embarrassed with themselves to think this is a good contribution to the environment



Opinion | Barbuda's Hurricane Irma Story Is About Devastation And Resilience

9/1/2018, 1:52:28 PM
The year since the storm has brought the best and worst out of our small island nation. ✔ Jose Jimenez / Getty ImagesCodrington on the island of Barbuda on Sept ✔ It was necessary, according to the PM, to attract investment and the funds needed to rebuild the island, but to opponents it seemed more that the government opportunistically was pushing its own agenda on vulnerable Barbuda



Firefighters blast colleague who wrote book on his Grenfell 'heroics'

9/1/2018, 2:04:21 PM
Edric Kennedy-Macfoy, 35, claimed the building was 'fully on fire' when he risked his life during the West London inferno. But colleagues say the blaze had burned itself out five hours before he arrived. ✔ Edric Kennedy-Macfoy, 35, claimed the West London building was 'fully on fire' when he arrived Firefighters who battled the blaze at Grenfell Tower have slammed a colleague's book about his 'heroics' - saying the fire was already out when he arrived ✔ 'I am even more proud as a brother that my siblings did not leave my parents behind, even though they might have had the chance to escape.' Mr Hakim's parents, who were born in Bangladesh, had mobility issues



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