The United Nations Environment Programme says talks will resume in August this year to put together a draft for the first-ever international treaty aimed at reducing plastic pollution.

The meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution will be held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Global plastic waste more than doubled in the 20 years leading up to 2019. The UN adopted a resolution to develop an international legally binding instrument on pollution caused by plastic by the end of 2024.

Delegates to the intergovernmental committee met in November last year in Busan, South Korea. But they deferred an agreement as they failed to narrow gaps in opinion.

In the meeting, the European Union and other parties argued that plastic production must be restricted, while oil-producing countries opposed such regulations.

The talks in August are expected to resume based on a draft presented by the committee chair at the previous meeting. Ministerial-level discussions are also planned. 

Source: NHK World

SEVERE flooding hit most areas in Jakarta and its satellite cities on Tuesday after heavy rain poured over the regions since Monday evening, leaving thousands of houses submerged and hundreds of residents affected.
Videos taken by residents showed severe flooding with water levels reaching rooftops and submerging entire cars. The floods also caused significant traffic congestion across the cities.
Local media reported that a joint team from the regional disaster management agency, fire department, and search and rescue team was deployed to the affected areas to assist with evacuations and emergency responses.
Head of Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency, Dwikorita Karnawati, said the floods had been predicted in several regions across the Southeast Asian country.
“The heavy rain was caused by the detection of atmospheric waves such as the Equatorial Rossby wave and the Kelvin wave, followed by the formation of a low-pressure area and the convergence of several wind patterns from various directions,” said Karnawati. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

THE World Health Organization acknowledged Tuesday that the US freeze on foreign aid funding has hit vital global health programmes but vowed to find a way to keep delivering to those in need.
The United Nations health agency said it was still too early to determine the full impact of the freeze on foreign aid spending by the United States -- traditionally the world’s largest aid donor.
But WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris admitted that some programmes had clearly been affected, including the global measles surveillance network, which had been 100-per-cent funded by the United States.
On measles, “there is a big shortfall”, she told reporters in Geneva.
“We’re not going to let it collapse,” she insisted, adding though that “finding a way to keep it going is of course challenging”.
Janet Diaz, head of the Safe Scalable Care unit at WHO’s emergencies programme, said the response to an ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda had been hit by the US aid freeze.
“WHO has had to step up and cover areas it usually doesn’t support,” she said, pointing to “biological sample transport and logistics and the deployment of surveillance teams to points of entries”. — AFP

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar 

China has reportedly discovered a "limitless" energy source that could power the country for more than 60,000 years, according to geologists based in Beijing.

The Bayan Obo mining complex, located in Inner Mongolia, is believed to contain enough thorium to meet China's energy demands almost indefinitely, according to a recent study.

The slightly radioactive element can be used to generate power in a type of nuclear reactor known as a molten salt reactor.

Scientists estimate that the mining complex could provide as much as one million tons of thorium, The South China Morning Post reported, citing a newly declassified study.

The study argues that China’s thorium reserves, currently locked within mining waste, "remain totally untouched" and that, if properly extracted, they could be substantial enough to end the world's reliance on fossil fuels.

Source: Tagtik

THE number of births in South Korea rose last year for the first time in more than a decade on the back of a rise in marriages, officials said on Wednesday, bucking a trend for a country battling a demographic crisis.
South Korea has one of the world’s longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates — a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge.
Seoul has poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.
The crude birth rate — the number of babies born per 1,000 people — was 4.7, interrupting a continuous downward trend since 2014, according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea.
And the fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, was 0.75, “up 0.03 from 0.72 in 2023”, it said.
“The number of births in 2024 was 238,300, an increase of 8,300 (3.6 per cent) from the previous year,” the report added. Park Hyun-jeong, an official from Statistics Korea, attributed the rise to an increase in marriages as well as shifting demographics. — AFP

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

NEW DELHI February 22 

At least eight workers were trapped and many others injured Saturday after a portion of an under-construction tunnel collapsed in the southern Indian state of Telangana, officials said. 

The collapse took place in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel in Nagarkurnool District, about 207 km south of Hyderabad, the capital city of Telangana. 

According to the officials, the tunnel collapsed when some workers were repairing a leak inside. 

Reports said 50 workers were in the tunnel at the time of the accident. 

While some managed to escape, eight workers were feared trapped inside, an official said.

Rescue operations have been carried out. 

Xinhua

Source: Myawady Daily Newspaper

February 20, 2025

The iPhone 16e will be available to pre-order in Singapore from Feb. 21, and it will be available from Feb. 28.

While it will have features similar to those of the iPhone 16 range, such as the action button and a USB-C charging port, the iPhone 16e will only have one camera lens.

Apple boasts the redesigned 48MP Fusion camera, which has the same resolution as all other iPhone 16 models. The iPhone 16e will also be able to support Apple Intelligence when it launches in April 2025.

The new model will be available in a black or white matte finish with 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage. Prices start from S$949, which is S$350 cheaper than the starting price of an iPhone 16.

Source: mothership.com

VIETNAM’S National Assembly on Wednesday approved investment for the Lao CaiHanoi-Hai Phong railway project, Vietnam News Agency reported.
According to the proposal by the Vietnamese government, the main railway line will stretch approximately 390.9 km, with three branch lines totaling about 27.9 kilometres.
The railway will pass through seven provinces and two cities, namely Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, Hai Duong and Hai Phong.
It will be designed to have a speed of 80 kilometres to 160 kilometres per hour. The project aims to construct a modern, integrated rail line to meet both domestic and international transportation demands, particularly between Vietnam and China. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

WITH less than one year remaining to the opening of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, preparations are advancing at a brisk pace, as evidenced by record-breaking ticket sales and robust volunteer recruitment.
At a press conference held on Tuesday at the Foreign Press Association in Rome, Andrea Varnier, Chief Executive Officer of the Milano-Cortina Foundation, announced that nearly 300,000 tickets had been sold in just six days since the public ticketing programme was launched on 6 February.
Varnier revealed that the ticketing platform received over 350,000 requests from around the globe, with 70 per cent coming from abroad.

In parallel, the volunteer recruitment program has exceeded expectations. Initially, the organizers planned to recruit 18,000 volunteers. However, the response has been overwhelming, with 96,000 applications received to date, including a notable number of submissions from China which ranks fourth after Italy, the United States, and France. "This not only reflects the global influence of the Winter Olympics but also indicates that the preparations are progressing with unprecedented enthusiasm," Varnier
added. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

THE needs in Gaza, where the ceasefire is holding, are overwhelming, humanitarians said on Monday, adding that continuing Israeli operations in the West Bank are still producing casualties.
“As the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to deliver life-saving assistance across the Gaza Strip, the scale of needs remains overwhelming, requiring urgent and sustained support,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
OCHA said the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that oxygen supplies are critically needed to keep emergency, surgical and intensive care services running at hospitals throughout Gaza, including Al Shifa and Al Rantisi in Gaza City. Health partners are engaging with the authorities to bring in generators, spare parts and equipment required to produce oxygen locally.
The office said that shelter partners distributed tarpaulins to more than 11,000 families in northern Gaza over the weekend. In Khan Younis, some 450 families received sealing-off kits, kitchen sets and hygiene kits at a displacement site in Al Mawasi.
OCHA said education activities are expanding, with its partners reporting that more than 250,000 people are enrolled in a distance learning programme produced by the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees. Humanitarian partners reported that 95 percent of school buildings were damaged during the hostilities, forcing many students into makeshift tents and open spaces in winter temperatures. In the West Bank, OCHA said that since the Israeli military operations began on 21 January, the most extensive in two decades, 36 Palestinians reportedly were killed, 25 in Jenin and nearly a dozen in Tulkarm. The operation is causing high casualties and significant displacement, especially in refugee camps.
Critical infrastructure has also been severely damaged, driving humanitarian needs even higher. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar