Philippine military and coastguard officials said the latest encounter took place near the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef where a handful of its troops live on a rusty World War II-era ship that was intentionally grounded in 1999.
The Chinese ship’s “dangerous manoeuvres” and its “excessive and offensive actions against Philippine vessels” prevented one of the two Philippine boats from completing its mission, the armed forces said.
Saturday’s incident was the first time since November 2021 that the Chinese coastguard had used water cannon against a Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal.
China accused of using water cannon on Philippine boat in South China Sea
Philippines Armed Forces condemns Chinese Coast Guard’s illegal, ‘excessive’ and ‘dangerous’ actions in disputed waters.
A ship uses a water cannon against Philippine Coast Guard vessels in the South China Sea in this handout photo released on August 6, 2023 [Handout: Philippine Coast Guard via Reuters]
Published On 6 Aug 20236 Aug 2023
The Philippines has accused China’s coastguard of using a water cannon to block a Philippine military supply boat in the South China Sea, condemning the actions as illegal, “excessive” and “dangerous”. The confrontation on Saturday was the latest flare-up in the long-running territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
China asserts sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, but a United Nations-backed tribunal concluded in 2016 that its expansive claim was groundless...
They said navy personnel on board two chartered supply boats were cruising toward the shoal, escorted by Philippine coastguard ships when a Chinese coastguard ship approached and used a powerful water cannon to block the vessels from delivering food, water and fuel to the troops guarding the reef.
The Chinese ship’s action was “in wanton disregard of the safety of the people on board” the Philippine navy-chartered boat and violated international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said in a statement.
Video Duration 02 minutes 30 seconds02:30
Philippines allows Barbie film with blurred South China Sea map
...After the incident, the United States said China’s “repeated threats to the status quo in the South China Sea [were] directly threatening regional peace and stability” and that Washington stands with its Philippine allies in the face of such “dangerous actions”.
“The United States reaffirms an armed attack on Philippine public vessels, aircraft, and armed forces – including those of its Coast Guard in the South China Sea – would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” it said in a statement.
While the US lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often lashed out at China’s aggressive actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says is in its national interest.
China has warned the US to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.
Additionally, Beijing has criticised a recent agreement by the Philippines and the US, which are longtime treaty allies, allowing American forces access to additional Philippine military camps under a 2014 defence agreement.
China fears the access will provide Washington with military staging grounds and surveillance outposts in the northern Philippines across the sea from Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, and in Philippine provinces facing the South China Sea.
2 hours ago — The Philippines on Sunday accused a Chinese coast guard of "excessive and offensive" use of water cannons to stop a Filipino supply boat ...
6 hours ago—The Philippines has accused China's coast guard of firing water cannon at its vessels in the disputed South China Sea, describingit as illegal ...
#Terminator7#ParamountPictures#endofwar
Terminator 7 is currently in the works, showing significant progress. However, there's an upcoming movie that seems to be the perfect successor to the worn-out franchise. The Terminator series has spanned decades, commencing with the iconic original release in 1984, followed by the widely praised sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which arrived seven years later. James Cameron was the mastermind behind the first two movies, which drastically transformed cinema with their groundbreaking visual effects. These films narrate a timeless tale, often imitated, wherein human-created technology surpasses human intelligence, leading to an all-out war.
Saturday, August 05, 2023
The use of coal, oil and gas is expected to be at the center of debates in the upcoming United Nations climate talks, dubbed COP28, scheduled to take place at the end of the year in Dubai.
World's oceans set new surface temperature record: EU monitor
by Delphine PAYSANT, Julien MIVIELLE
Marine heat waves, like that in Florida, can cause corals to bleach.
The world's oceans set a new temperature record this week, raising concerns about knock-on effects on the planet's climate, marine life and coastal communities.
The temperature of the oceans' surface rose to 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 30, according to European Union climate observatory data. The previous record was 20.95 C in March 2016, a spokeswoman for the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service told AFP on Friday. The samples tested excluded polar regions.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which uses a different database, has also recorded a similar trend in recent months. It said the average sea surface temperature record was reached on April 4 this year at 21.06 C, overtaking the previous high of 21.01 C in March 2016. On August 1, average temperatures were at 21.03 C, it said. Oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat produced by human activity since the dawn of the industrial age, according to scientists. This excess heat continues to accumulate as greenhouse gases—mainly from burning oil, gas and coal—build up in the Earth's atmosphere.
Globally, the average ocean temperature has been topping seasonal heat records on a regular basis since April.
'Immediate threat'
"The ocean heat wave is an immediate threat to some marine life," said Piers Forster of the International Center for Climate at Britain's University of Leeds. "We are already seeing coral bleaching in Florida as a direct result and I expect more impacts will surface."
The overheating of the oceans is predicted to have other effects on marine plant and animal life too, including on the migration of certain species and the spread of invasive species.
This could threaten fish stocks and thus undermine food security in certain parts of the globe.
Sea surface temperature reaches new high.
Warmer oceans are also less capable of absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), reinforcing the vicious cycle of global warming. And higher temperatures are likely to come, since the El Niño phenomenon, which tends to warm waters up, has only just begun. Scientists expect the worst effects of the current El Niño to be felt at the end of 2023 and continue into subsequent years.
Like bath water
"While there are certainly short-term factors, the main long-term cause is without a doubt the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activity, primarily by the burning of fossil fuels,"
--- Rowan Sutton, director of climate research at the University of Reading.
The latest figures follow a string of record highs around the world.
Last month, temperatures of 38.3 C—as hot as a jacuzzi—were recorded off the Florida coast, which could be a world-record high for a point measurement if the figure is confirmed.
The surface waters of the North Atlantic rose to a record-high average temperature of 24.9 C last week, according to provisional data from the NOAA.
The North Atlantic usually only reaches its peak temperature in September.
Since March, the month when the North Atlantic begins to warm up after winter, temperatures have been higher than in previous years and the gap with past records has continued to widen in recent weeks.
The region has become a key point for observing the heating of the world's oceans.
In July, the Mediterranean Sea broke its daily heat record, with a median temperature of 28.71 C, according to Spain's leading maritime research center.
Marine heat waves have become twice as frequent since 1982, according to a 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
By 2100, they could be 10 times more intense than they were at the beginning of the 20th century if pollutant emissions are not reduced.
Mass Effect 4 may be one of the most anticipated video game sequels of all time, but Starfield might beat it to the punch in some pretty big ways.
HIGHLIGHTS
Starfield has the potential to set a new standard for Sci-Fi RPGs, posing a challenge for Mass Effect 4 to overcome.
While Mass Effect excels in storytelling and companions, Starfield may outdo it in terms of immersive exploration and world-building.
Starfield's vast galaxy and customizable spaceship mechanics will likely raise the bar for sci-fi games, something BioWare has to keep in mind when making Mass Effect 4.
As far as Sci-Fi gaming franchises go, Mass Effect is definitely up there as one of the greatest of all time. While the series' last entry was an immense disappointment, the original Mass Effect trilogy is still considered to be a masterpiece, with some great combat mechanics, excellent writing, and top-tier world-building, something that BioWare excels in. And though Mass Effect 4 is confirmed to be in the works, it isn't the Sci-Fi game on people's radar right now, Starfield is.
Bethesda's next major open-world RPG, Starfield, is set to be the developer's most ambitious project yet, and tensions are high. With this being the first game since Fallout 76's disastrous launch, and first major Xbox Game Pass game since Redfall, there's a great deal riding on Starfield, and that pressure must be insurmountable for those actually working on the game. But if Bethesda can pull it off, Starfield could end up setting the new standard for Sci-Fi RPGs, and that's a high bar for Mass Effect 4 to leap over.
Starfield Could End Up Setting a High Bar for Mass Effect 4 to Beat
There are certain things that BioWare's Mass Effect 4 will probably end up doing better than Starfield, regardless of how good the latter ends up being. The story is one such element. Though Bethesda RPG stories are usually fine, they're never the strongest aspect of the game, but the same can't be said for the original Mass Effect trilogy. A similar argument can probably be made about Starfield's companions. Though there seems to be some great variation in possible crewmates, Starfield's companions probably won't reach the same heights as iconic gaming characters like Garrus, Wrex, and Tali. But aside from that, Starfield could end up raising the bar to unseen heights.
The Mass Effect series used to be renowned for its Sci-Fi exploration. Whether it was the bustling Citadel or desolate planets with no life on them, Mass Effect's Sci-Fi environments looked and felt great to explore, and did an excellent job of immersing players in the universe. But Starfield looks like it may outdo Mass Effect in this department, in quite a few ways.
Starfield will let players loose on an entire galaxy. And while only around 10% of its planets will be hand-crafted, that's still far more planets than Mass Effect has ever had, and though it hasn't been confirmed just how large these open-world areas are, it seems like a safe bet to assume that Starfield's populated planets have a lot more going on than Mass Effect's. Players will be able to talk to countless NPCs, get a slew of quests and errands, build bases, and otherwise just explore all of these planets at their own pace. Starfield has the potential to immerse players in a Sci-Fi world like never before.
This extreme level of Sci-Fi exploration is also enhanced by Starfield's ship features. During the course of Starfield, players will be able to pilot and customize their very own spaceship, swapping out parts and upgrading vital systems along the way to make it all their own. While Mass Effect let players upgrade the Normandy with new parts, it had real no bearing on the gameplay itself, only acting as a checklist to achieve the perfect ending in Mass Effect 2. In Starfield, the player's ship is a vital part of the experience, and it's all their own. Even if Starfield doesn't quite live up to expectations, the sheer number of systems and mechanics in the game is going to set a high bar for Mass Effect 4 to reach.
Starfield launches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
