A truck that became trapped following a landslide after Storm Gabrielle passed near Wairoa on the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand February 14, 2023. HANDOUT / AFP

The casualties of Storm Gabrielle, which hit New Zealand on Monday February 13 and Tuesday February 14, total three dead, authorities said on Wednesday.

A body was found where a firefighter was reported missing when a house collapsed in bad weather in west Auckland and two others in the Hawke’s Bay area of ​​the North Island, Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty said. Although the worst is over, authorities warned on Wednesday that the danger is not yet over.

Cyclone Gabrielle, which crossed the South Pacific, was downgraded to storm status as it approached New Zealand on Sunday. Fierce winds and torrential rains hit the North Island, home to more than three-quarters of the country’s 5 million people, Monday night into Tuesday, causing flooding and landslides. This storm caused gusts of up to 140 km/h, a cumulative rainfall of up to 200 mm in 24 hours and waves of 11 metres.

“The most important weather event of the century”

Authorities are beginning to measure the extent of damage in remote towns where floodwaters have washed away roads and cut communications. Around 10,500 people have been displaced, Kieran McAnulty said. And 140,000 people are without power, although power is gradually being restored.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins called Gabrielle “New Zealand’s most significant weather event of this century” and a national emergency was declared for a week.

Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers In New Zealand, Chris Hipkins is preparing to replace Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister

“The damage is significant across the country,” Mr Hipkins lamented at a news conference in Auckland on Tuesday. “Many families have been displaced, many houses are without electricity,” he added. Homes were damaged by falling trees or invaded by mud and rubbish. Some residents were therefore completely isolated as roads were cut after landslides or floods. According to local media, people had to swim out of their homes to get to safety.

The world with AFP

It is known that Stimulus Check in California is one of the major economic supports provided by the United States government. USA since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s true that California is one of the most populous states USEDTherefore, it was the city where this social service was most welcomed and where it is still provided.

This DEPOR note tells you how to calculate anywhere from $200 to $1,050, which for many citizens is a pretty sizable sum to cover basic expenses.

Requirements for applying for the Stimulus Check

The MCTR website notes that eligible payers include taxpayers who:

• submitted the 2020 tax return before October 15, 2021
• Those who meet the California Adjusted Gross Income (CA AGI) limits
• Who have not been selected to be claimed as a dependent for the 2020 tax year
• Must be a California resident for at least six months of the 2020 tax year
• Who is a California resident at the time of payment

When will my 2023 Stimulus Check payment arrive?

The California Franchise Tax Board announced that it had set a new deadline for paying the stimulus checks, which were scheduled to end at the end of January. However, this was delayed due to a thorough examination in individual cases and thus delayed the agreed deadlines.

Because of this, the next scheduled date for the debit card mailing round is February 14, meaning the beneficiary would receive their check two weeks later. With one exception for direct deposits, which arrive at the end of January. There is also one group who have changed their personal details so that their checks are mailed out by the end of February or March 1st.

Who Receives the Stimulus Check Payment in California?

California will send out a new series of relief checks ranging from $200 to $1,050 that will benefit millions of residents.

The one-off payments under the Middle Class Tax Rebate (MCTR) have been issued since October and will continue through January this year, subject to previous stimulus payments.

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The union extends its warning strikes – seven airports are affected. Passengers should be prepared for flight delays and cancellations.

The Verdi union is extending the collective bargaining dispute in the public sector in Germany to several airports. On Friday, airports in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen will be grounded all day, as the union announced on Wednesday night. Passengers should be prepared for flight delays and cancellations.

With warning strikes now continuing, employees want to emphasize their demands in the ongoing pay dispute in the civil service of the German federal government and local authorities. Further warning strikes were announced in Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia, among others, ahead of the second round of collective bargaining on 22 and 23 February.

In the ongoing collective bargaining, Verdi and the civil servants association dbb are demanding 10.5 percent more revenue, but at least 500 euros more for the roughly 2.5 million public sector employees. The term of the new collective agreement is twelve months. So far, employers have rejected the claims.

Air traffic subject to strikes

In January, Verdi had already reached the airports of Berlin and Düsseldorf in two other collective disputes. In the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was about a new contract with Aviapartner, in Berlin, the operator’s employees, groundhandling services and aviation safety inspectors went on strike. An agreement was reached in Berlin following the strike notice.

Air traffic is extremely strike-prone because of fragmented service providers because many small, security-relevant groups are powerful enough to bring operations to a standstill. Basically, the strike by the airport fire department is enough to bring the entire operation to a halt.

In the past, for example, passenger control forces, pilots, technicians, flight attendants, yard controllers or ground personnel have gone on strike. They are partially represented by divisional unions. Among other things, Verdi has access to the flight infrastructure through the collective public service agreement at issue here, under which many employees of airport companies are paid.

The last major warning with similar consequences occurred several years ago: in April 2018, hundreds of flights across Germany had to be canceled because collective bargaining for municipal and federal employees was not making progress. In eight federal states, tens of thousands of employees walked out of work during a warning strike. In addition to airports, urban transport, kindergartens, clinics, administrations and indoor swimming pools were also affected in several places.

(APA/dpa)

If that Chinese spy balloon US military and intelligence agencies crossed American airspace late last month US They’ve been tracking it for almost a week now, watching it take off from its base near the south coast China. A Information shows that Washington was aware of the object earlier than previously.

US observers watched the balloon settle into a trajectory that appeared to have flown over the US territory of Guam. But somewhere along that eastern route, the object took an unexpected turn north, according to several US officials, who said analysts are studying the possibility that China had no intention of invading the American heartland with its aerial surveillance equipment.

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The balloon hovered over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, thousands of miles from Guam, and then flew over Canada, where it encountered strong winds that appear to have pushed the balloon south toward the U.S. mainland, officials said, speaking on the condition of the Anonymity to describe sensitive information. One On February 4, a US fighter jet shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolinaa week after crossing Alaska.

This new account suggests that the ensuing international crisis, which heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing, may have been the result, at least in part, of a mistake.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has previously sent spy balloons over Guam as well as over Hawaii to monitor US military installations, officials said. But the dayslong flyby over the mainland United States was news and caused confusion within the Chinese government as diplomats scramble to publish a story that the balloon had gone off course while collecting harmless weather data, US officials said.

The excitement hit Beijing in the hind leg. First, he expressed “regret” over what he insisted was a wayward weather balloon. He then criticized Washington for what he felt was an overreaction, and this week he blamed the United States Send 10 spy balloons over China.

The White House vehemently denied the claim as false. “We don’t fly surveillance balloons over China. I’m not aware of any other vehicle we’re overflying in Chinese airspace,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s strategic communications coordinator, said Monday.

political anger

US intelligence and military authorities tracked the balloon as it took off from Hainan Island. Intelligence analysts aren’t sure if the apparent distraction was intentional or accidental, but are confident it was intended for surveillance, likely at US military installations in the Pacific.

In any case, the intrusion into US airspace was a major misstep by the Chinese military, sparking political and diplomatic excitement and closer scrutiny of Beijing’s aerial espionage capabilities by the US and its allies.

Its passage into U.S. airspace was a violation of sovereignty, and its hovering over sensitive Montana nuclear facilities was no accident, officials said, citing the possibility that Beijing appeared to have decided to seize the opportunity, even if the balloon accidentally blown up over the US mainland to try to gather information.

The incident was just the latest indication of how China is deliberately expanding its surveillance capabilities from advanced satellite technology to balloons, officials said.

The balloon fleet is part of a much broader aerial surveillance effort that includes sophisticated satellite systems and into which analysts say the Chinese government has invested billions of dollars over the years.

“This was a lowkey program part of a larger series of programs aimed at gaining more clarity about military installations in the US and several other countries,” a senior US official said. It seems aimed at “scaling up satellite systems”.

Meanwhile, the authorities say Three more items have been dropped in the past week They appeared to be very different in size and capacity from the spy balloon and they still have no clue as to who launched them or if they were Chinese.

The balloon was launched from the ground, part of a program carried out in part by the PLA Air Force, and may have been distracted by strong highaltitude winds, officials said. The balloon was partly piloted by air currents and partly remotely controlled, they said. It can be maneuvered with propellers and rudders.

cold front

After the balloon was launched, computer modeling performed by the Washington Post shows that directional currents propelled it east across the Pacific Ocean, likely passing between the Philippines and Taiwan.

Around January 24, when the balloon was about 1,000 miles south of Japan, model simulations show it gaining momentum and rapidly turning north. This likely happened in response to a strong cold front that released exceptionally cold air over northern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan.

Normally, atmospheric control movements would have kept the balloon on a much more westerly course, historical weather data shows. However, the intense cold front forced the jet stream and highaltitude directional currents to dive south and may have pushed the balloon north.

The airship entered U.S. airspace via Alaska on Jan. 28, crossed Canada, and reentered the U.S. via Idaho on Jan. 31, a day before it was spotted by civilians in Montana, causing a standstill at Billings Airport led when US officials considered overthrowing it.

Realizing they couldn’t mitigate the risk to the people on the bottom, they decided to wait until they could throw it over the water.

Analysts are still awaiting recovery of the balloon’s payload, which official estimates are the size of three school buses, but “does not appear to be dramatic new capacity,” a second US official said. “It feels more like a collection everyone always wants more.”

Kirby said Monday: “These balloons offered limited additional capabilities to the other intelligence platforms [República Popular da China] used in the US. But if the PRC continues to push this technology in the future, it could certainly become more valuable for them.”

US officials stressed that they had taken steps to thwart any efforts by China to collect classified information from military installations. Any information or communication is encrypted, Kirby said.