World news in brief
German meat factory resumes work after outbreak
A German abattoir at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak was permitted to resume meat packing and processing yesterday, after a new health and hygiene concept was approved, authorities said. The Tonnies abattoir was closed in mid-June after about 1,500 workers tested positive for Covid-19 but was permitted to resume slaughtering animals on Thursday. The virus outbreak in turn caused a lockdown for 600,000 people in the surrounding Guetersloh region, which is now lifted. The huge meatpacking and processing section of the Tonnies plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck in North Rhine-Westphalia was allowed resume processing and packing pigmeat in a test phase yesterday, the local government authority RhedaWiedenbrueck said. Some 2,714 personnel were permitted to resume work in the processing section of the plant, the authority said.
The new hygiene regime included changes to the plant’s ventilation system, separation of workstations
through curtains, compulsory wearing of masks, two coronavirus tests a week for all production personnel, and inspections of personnel accommodation if it is provided for them. The plant normally slaughters and processes around 14 per cent of Germany’s pigs. Reuters
Strong 7.0 magnitude earthquake hits Papua New Guinea
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck a remote part of Papua New Guinea yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. The epicentre of the 79.8km deep quake was close to Morobe Patrol Post and shaking was felt in the capital Port Moresby. Locals said they felt the tremor but that it was not severe, and images uploaded to social media show a wharf cracked in two. The depth of the earthquake might explain the low surface damage because shallower quakes typically cause more harm, according to the US Geological Survey. “But large intermediate-depth earthquakes may be felt at great distances from their epicentres,” the US government agency added. A tsunami warning was initially issued for coastal regions but the danger passed. Charley Masange, the Morobe Provincial Disaster Office director, said he did not expect to receive reports of damage until today. “The epicentre is in the mountains,” he said. “Not many people live there and it’s very remote so it takes a long time to get information. I’m not expecting major damage.”
Did Apple and Google remove Palestine from Maps?
Apple and Google have been accused of deleting Palestine from their online maps, despite it never being labelled in the first place. Searching for Palestine on Apple Maps and Google Maps shows an outline for the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories, but no labels for Palestine. The claim that it was removed appear to stem from a viral Instagram post by a user called “Astagfirvlah” on Wednesday, which accused the technology giants of “officially removing” Palestine from their maps. An update has since been added to the post, stating that it contains “false information”. However, news articles and posts on other social media platforms continued to spread the claims, with supporters of the Palestinian cause accusing the tech firm of supporting Israel’s occupation. Palestine is recognised by the UN and 136 of its members as an independent state, but not in the US where Apple and Google are headquartered.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest accusations but a section of its website dedicated to disputed boundaries states: “Disputed boundaries are displayed as a dashed grey line. The places involved don’t agree on a boundary.” It is not the first time Google has been accused of removing the name Palestine from its popular map service. In 2016, a Change.org petition claimed that all mention of Palestine “was removed at the insistence of the Israeli government”.
Bacteria that eats metal discovered by accident
Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered a kind of bacteria that eats metal. The bacteria have reportedly been suspected to exist for more than a century but has not been proved. The tiny microbes were discovered by accident, as scientists were performing unrelated experiments with manganese, a mineral usually found in combination with iron. Dr Jared Leadbetter, professor of environmental microbiology at Caltech, left a glass jar covered with the substance to soak in his office sink. He did not return to the office for several months while he was working off campus, but upon his return found the jar covered with a dark substance later found to be oxidised manganese. That compound was formed by the bacteria. Scientists had previously known that bacteria and fungi could oxidise manganese or strip it of electronics, but microbes that could use such actions to drive growth were yet to be discovered.
“These are the first bacteria found to use manganese as their source of fuel,” Dr Leadbetter said. “A wonderful aspect of microbes in nature is that they can metabolise seemingly unlikely materials, like metals, yielding energy useful to the cell. There is evidence that relatives of these creatures reside in groundwater, and a portion of Pasadena’s drinking water is pumped from local aquifers.” The findings were published in the journal Nature.
Pentagon to ban all Confederate flags on military bases
The Pentagon will prohibit the Confederate battle flag from US military installations despite Donald Trump’s insistence that flying the symbol is “freedom of speech” amid a national reckoning over racist icons and political battles to remove the flag across the US. Secretary of Defence Mark Esper’s memo says “the flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols”.
In recent weeks, the president has rejected calls to rename military bases named after Confederate generals and has defended the battle flag while threatening prison sentences for people who burn the American flag. During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on 9 July, Mr Esper said: “I want to make sure that we have an approach that is enduring and that could withstand legal challenge but that unites us and most importantly helps build cohesion and readiness.”