It has been reported that people were left frustrated and stranded for hours inside the Channel Tunnel after a train moving from Calais to Folkestone broke down mid way. Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passengers were evacuated through an emergency service tunnel and were afterwards transferred to another train which took them to their destination, report says.
Meanwhile a Eurotunnel spokesman said services were now back to normal.
The incident began when the train’s alarms went off and an immediate investigation was required, the Le Shuttle said.
Inspections commenced immediately the Shuttle was brought to a stop; as precautionary measure, for their safety and comfort, we transferred the passengers on-board to another shuttle, via the service tunnel, which is intended to such purposes, the spokesman said.
The passengers were brought to the ‘passenger terminal building’, where food and drinks were available; after which their vehicles were returned to them in folkestone.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras took his Twitter to express
his surprise over this incidence, he said:
“Deeply concerning incident at Africa’s largest airline
– Ethiopians Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still at cruising
altitude of 37,000ft by the time it reached destination
Addis Ababa
Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were
asleep.”
Though Pilot exhuastion is nothing new. and this continues to
pose as one of the most significant threats to air safety —
internationally, “he tweeted.
Two pilots slept off and this caused their “landing missing”
during a flight from Sudan to Ethiopia on Monday, according
to a report by commercial aviation news site ‘Aviation Herald’
This occurence happened on board an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing
737-800 en route from Khartoum to Addis Ababa, the report claimed,
“when the pilots fell asleep” and “the aircraft continued past the
top of descent”
Info from the website indicates that the aircraft was cruising at
37,000 feet on autopilot when it failed to descend at Addis Ababa
Bole International Airport, its scheduled destination, on August 15.
Report had it that an alarm was triggered when the plane overshot the
runway and continued along the route; this was after Air traffic control
were unable to gey through the crew despite making multiple attempts.
The Plane began to descend, landing safely around 25 minutes later.
Though the concerned crew have been removed from operation pending
further investigation.
“Appropriate corrective action will be taken based on the outcome of
the investigation. Safety has always been and will continue to be our
first priority,” the statement said.
Reporting reaching us says the British Airways will
terminate over 9800 flights to and from Heathrow Airport
between late October and March.
This action is geared towards cutting down the disruption
over the winter, though some long-haul flights will also
be affected by this move, the airline said.
Due to staff shortages, the airline has capped passenger
numbers flying from Heathrow, her main hub.
The United Kingdom has approved a COVID vaccine hitting at both
the Omicron variant and original virus. According to reports,
The United Kingdom is the first to approve such in the entire world.
The UK medicines regulator has confirmed that the Moderna developed jab
meets her safety, quality and efficacy standards.
The vaccine is likely to be rolled out next month, in a bid to tackle
the winter flu season.
Meanwhile, Moderna confirms that Canada, Australia and the EU has shown
interest for the same vaccine.
The Met Office has recently issued a warning stating that the flood is
“danger” to human lives.
All across the internet, videos sighting Victoria and King’s Cross station
being flooded could be seen, caused by heavy downpours.
People should expect more flooding and disruption due to the fact that
an amber thunderstorm warning covering most of the southeast of England,
including parts of London, is in place until 10 pm on Wednesday.
The warning states that “Fast flowing or deep floodwater is likely, causing
danger to life”.
In just an hour, 30mm to 50mm of rain could fall, so homes and businesses are
like to be affected in a rush! The Met Office said.
Train and bus movement cancellations, difficulty in driving, and power cuts could
occur as a result, forecasters warned.
Areas such as Suffolk, Kent, Surrey, and West Sussex according to the warning could
experience more lighting, hail, and very strong winds.
According to the Environment Agency, people are advised not to drive through flood
water, urging that it is “often deeper than it looks and just 30cm of flowing
water is enough to suspend a car.
The Fist Lady (Jill Biden) has been on vacation with Mr President since 10 August, and
on Monday began to express symptoms of COVID. This is coming after her husband recently
had the infection but has fully recovered.
Spokesperson Elizabeth Alexander said that, the first lady has had two vaccinations and two booster jabs against the disease.
She is experiencing mild symptoms and has been prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
Mr and Mrs Biden are on vacation in South Carolina. She will isolate there for at least five days, the White House said, and will return home
after two consecutive negative tests.
Mr Biden tested negative on Tuesday, the White House said, but will wear a face mask indoors for 10 days, in line with guidance from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The US fast-food giant closed its restaurants in Ukraine when Russia invaded the country almost six months ago. McDonald’s also “de-arched” in Russia and sold its outlets to a franchise owner.
Following Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February, McDonald’s closed its restaurants in Ukraine, but has continued to pay more than 10,000 staff employed in the country, while it closed and sold branches in Russia.
It said on Thursday that it will slowly start to reopen some of its branches in the capital Kyiv and western Ukraine. Other major Western companies have also reopened their businesses in Ukraine recently, including Nike, KFC and Mango. “We’ve spoken extensively to our employees who have expressed a strong desire to return to work and see our restaurants in Ukraine reopen,” Paul Pomroy, corporate senior vice president of international operated markets, said in a message to employees. Advertisement “In recent months, the belief that this would support a small, but important sense of normalcy has grown stronger.” Ukraine’s economy has been severely impacted by the war, with the International Monetary Fund expecting its economy to shrink by 35% in 2022, in part due to businesses halting operations because of the war.
McDonald’s has 109 restaurants in Ukraine, but Mr Pomroy didn’t say how many would reopen, when it would happen or the locations.
The company said it would start working with vendors to get supplies into branches, prepare stores, bring employees back and launch safety procedures due to ongoing fighting in the east.
McDonald’s opened its first Russian location in Moscow three decades ago. Selling its Russian business was the first time the fast-food giant has “de-arched” or left a major market.
McDonald’s closed hundreds of locations throughout Russia in March, costing the company $55m (£45m) a month.
At least 10 tonnes of dead fish have been pulled out of the River Oder which flows along part of Poland’s border with Germany – as officials warn people not to enter the water due to possible contamination.
Anglers and volunteers removed the dead fish from the 200km (124 mile) stretch of the river north of Olawa in southwest Poland, the head of the agency which manages the country’s national waters has said.
Przemyslaw Daca, head of State Water Holding, also called the situation a gigantic ecological catastrophe.
Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has vowed to punish those responsible after environmental authorities said they notified prosecutors about potential contamination of the country’s second longest river.
Ewa Drewniak, a biologist working with opposition political group Civic Coalition, has accused the government of not responding quickly enough. Advertisement “Dead fish have been flowing in the Oder for the past two weeks and people have not been informed about it, I’ve seen scores of people bathing in the river a week and a half ago, they were not aware of the danger, this is scandalous,” she said. Regional environmental protection authorities in the Polish city of Wroclaw said Oder water samples taken on 28 July showed an 80% probability that they contained mesitylene, a toxic substance, although this was not present in samples taken after 1 August.
Low river levels due to the drought in Europe might have aggravated possible contamination, Mr Daca said on Wednesday.
He added they suspected a strong oxidizing agent might have gotten into the water causing oxygen levels to spike, which can harm fish.
Mr Daca also said there was no reason for panic and the situation was improving.
Several German districts bordering Poland warned locals to avoid the river water and not to eat fish from the Oder as long as the cause of the fish deaths was unclear.
“The reports from the Oder are simply terrible,” Michael Kellner, a senior politician of Germany’s The Greens party, said on Twitter.
Around 6,800 hectares (26 square miles) in the Gironde region and neighbouring Landes have been burnt by the blaze, which began on Tuesday.
At least 16 houses have also been destroyed, and emergency services have forced around 10,000 people to evacuate the area.
Photographs released by firefighters showed flames raging through pine forests, sending clouds of smoke in the air and illuminating the sky with intense orange light.
It comes after the region was ravaged by flames last month and as France tackles its fourth heatwave following its worst drought ever.
“The conditions are particularly difficult: the vegetation and the soil are particularly dry after more than a month without rain,” local officials said in a statement.
“The scorching temperatures are expected to continue until Saturday and combine with very dry air to create very severe fire risk conditions.”
On Thursday, temperatures were due to reach 40C (104F) across the region.
Four firefighting planes, based in Sweden and Greece, have been sent to the country by the European Commission to help put out the blaze.
Nine other aircraft and two helicopters have also been mobilised.
Commission spokesperson Miriam Garcia Ferrer also said firefighting teams from Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania were on their way to help French crews.
“The EU continues to monitor the situation across Europe and stands ready to help the affected countries,” she added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and interior minister Gerald Darmanin are due to visit the evacuated small town of Hostens to meet crews, rescuers, local officials and volunteers.
Nearly one third of households in the United Kingdom will face poverty this winter after paying energy bills that are set to soar again in January, campaigners say.
About 10.5 million households will be in fuel poverty for the first three months of next year, according to estimates from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition(EFPC)published on Tuesday — meaning that their income after paying for energy will fall below the poverty line.
The UK government defines poverty as household income of less than 60% of the UK median, which stood at £31,000 ($37,500) in 2021, according to official statistics.
The predictions are based on new estimates from research firm Cornwall Insight, also published Tuesday, which show that the average household energy bill is expected to hit £3,582 ($4,335) a year from October, and £4,266 ($5,163) from January — equating to about £355 ($430) a month.
January’s forecast represents a 116% increase in energy bills from current levels. As fuel prices surge, estimates are having trouble keeping pace. Just last week, Cornwall Insight predicted January’s prices would rise by 83% from current levels.
The research firm said it had revised its figures because of a jump in wholesale prices and a change in the way the UK regulator calculates its price cap. But there could be relief on the horizon: Cornwall Insight expects bills to start falling in the second half of 2023.
Fuel bills started rising last year as a global natural gas supply crunch pushed wholesale prices up to record levels. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February has only exacerbated the situation.
The averageUKhousehold bill has already risen 54% this year, exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis that has forced many Britons to choose between “heating and eating.”
In May, the government announced a £15 billion ($18 billion) package of support — including a £400 ($484) payment to 29 million households from October — to ease the burden of energy bills.
But Simon Francis, coordinator for the EFPC, said the latest price estimates meant the current level of government support amounted to a “drop in the ocean.”
Craig Lowrey, a principal consultant at Cornwall Insight, said in a Tuesday press release that if “£400 was not enough to make a dent in the impact of [the company’s] previous forecast, it most certainly is not enough now.”
Liz Truss, the UK’s foreign minister and current frontrunner to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister next month, has proposed cutting taxes to help people struggling with their bills, rather than direct help. Her rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, has said more support will be needed.
Meanwhile, the CBI — the country’s top business organization — has urged Johnson to bring the leadership candidates together to agree on a way to support households and businesses with their energy bills so that measures can be announced as soon as the October price cap is set on August 26. The new prime minister is not expected to be elected until September 5.
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