Sherman A1
Sherman A1's JournalBrazilian man's 84-year career breaks world record
A 100-year-old man from the southern Brazilian city of Brusque has entered the Guinness World Record book for working the longest in the same company - 84 years.
Despite his extraordinary accomplishment, Walter Orthmann's advice for those looking for a long and fulfilling professional life are surprisingly routine - do what you love and stay away from junk food.
"You have to like to work. I started to work with that willingness and fighting spirit," he said earlier this week.
"You can't just do any job to say that you are working. That doesn't work. You're not going to be able to stand it."
https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2022/0422/1293644-world-record-longest-time-at-company/
Finnish crime ring mailed drugs worth 700k
Police say Albanian marijuana made its way to Finland via Spain.
YLE NEWS
23.4. 08:06
•
Updated 24.4. 07:01
The Eastern Uusimaa police department on Saturday said it had wrapped up a preliminary investigation into a marijuana smuggling case by a gang known as Mantaqa.
Police said they suspect the group, mainly composed of Finnish individuals, of procuring marijuana in Albania and mailing it to Finland via Spain.
Mikko Minkkinen, detective chief inspector at the Eastern Uusimaa police department, said that between January and February the group mailed some 70 kilos of marijuana to Finland. The drugs had a street value estimated at around 700,000 euros.
Police have so far recovered some 13 kilos of the smuggled narcotics.
https://yle.fi/news/3-12415300
Veteran MP: "Finnish media in war psychosis"
SDP lawmaker Erkki Tuomioja told America's NPR that the Finnish Nato debate was "emotional."
YLE NEWS
24.4. 03:27
•
Updated 24.4. 07:00
Many people have taken to Finnish Twitter this weekend in reaction to MP Erkki Tuomioja's (SDP) Nato comments in a National Public Radio interview (siirryt toiseen palveluun). The veteran Finnish politician told the US broadcaster that there was a "huge degree of emotions involved" in the public's support of Nato, which has surged since Russia invaded Ukraine.
"Public opinion plays a big role in this, but there is also this ingrained fear, which is actually fueled also by our media, which is in a state of, I would say, war psychosis in a sense," said Tuomioja, who has served as foreign minister in several governments over the past two decades.
Tuomioja, who vice chairs Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, told NPR that he did not believe a Russian attack on Finland was realistic. He said Finnish Nato membership could create tensions with Russia, saying "we have had a very pragmatic relationship with Russia in terms of logistics, environment and regional cooperation."
Tuomioja has not revealed his personal position on Finnish membership in the military alliance. He told NPR, "I'm also concerned about the level of the public debate. Anybody who questions membership is being vilified as a Putin agent."
https://yle.fi/news/3-12415541
Jews in Finland face discrimination, EU antisemitism expert says
Finnish law does not recognise antisemitic discrimination, according to Katharina von Schnurbein.
YLE NEWS
24.4. 06:13
•
Updated 24.4. 06:26
The EU's antisemitism watchdog, Katharina von Schnurbein, told Yle that Finnish authorities need to do more to combat hate speech, including antisemitic narratives.
"Our surveys suggest that one in two Europeans sees antisemitism as a problem in their home country. Among Finns that figure is 17 percent," she said, adding that Finland's relatively small Jewish community may have impacted the results.
Some 1,500 people in Finland practice Judaism.
Schnurbein noted that antisemitic awareness was also relatively low in Finland.
https://yle.fi/news/3-12415607
Swiss block German request to deliver ammo to Ukraine
The SonntagsZeitung paper reports that authorities in Bern rejected – on the basis of neutrality – two recent requests by Germany to re-export Swiss-made ammunition to Kiev.
This content was published on April 24, 2022 - 12:02 April 24, 2022 - 12:02
“Both Germany’s inquiries were answered in the negative, with reference to Swiss neutrality and the binding rejection criteria of the law on war material,” a spokesman for the Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO) told the newspaper on Sunday.
SECO did not confirm whether the requests were related to ammunition used in Marder infantry fighting vehicles – tanks coveted by Kiev and which are currently part of debates in Germany about sending military material to Ukraine.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz this week has faced heavy criticism for his government’s reluctance to deliver heavy weapons to Kiev to defend against Russian attacks, as other NATO members step up shipments.
Scholz has said Germany’s military stocks are too depleted to send any heavy battlefield weapons like tanks and howitzers while those the German industry has said it could supply could not easily be put into use.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-block-german-request-to-deliver-ammo-to-ukraine/47540394
Swiss industry group worried about global supply chain issues
Despite high demand, the machinery, electrical engineering and metal (MEM) sector is still hampered by disruption to global supply chains, says a top sector representative.
This content was published on April 23, 2022 - 16:02 April 23, 2022 - 16:02
Martin Hirzel, the president of the Swissmem industry association, told SRF public radio on Saturday that an imminent improvement on global markets was “not even wishful thinking anymore”.
The disruption caused by the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine, has thrown supply chains “completely out of step”, Hirzel said. The 1,300 businesses in his association have plenty of orders pending, and demand is high, but they often just can’t make deliveries.
The current lockdown in Shanghai will cause more problems, he added: due to strict Covid measures in place, exports going through the Chinese city over the coming weeks will be impacted, which will again disrupt global flows.
China has grown in importance as a destination for Swiss industrial exports since a free trade deal between the two countries in 2014. China now accounts for 7% of all Swiss MEM exports, and was a key market in helping the industry bounce back after the first wave of the pandemic.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-industry-group-worried-about-world-supply-chain-issues/47539202
Algeria will not abandon its commitment to supply Spain with gas, Tebboune says
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Saturday said his country will not abandon its commitment to supply Spain with gas despite a diplomatic row with the European country over Western Sahara.
"We assure the Spanish friends, the Spanish people that Algeria will never abandon its commitment to supply Spain with gas under any circumstances," Tebboune said in an interview aired on state television late on Saturday.
Algeria said in March it was recalling its ambassador to Madrid for consultations after Spain backed Morocco's plan for autonomy in Western Sahara, which is rejected by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front independence movement.
https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220424-algeria-committed-to-supply-spain-with-gas-tebboune-says
Covid death toll rises in China as authorities warn of 'grim' situation
Shanghai reported 39 Covid deaths Sunday, its highest daily toll despite weeks of lockdowns, while China's capital Beijing warned of a "grim" situation with rising infections.
The world's second-largest economy has been struggling to stamp out its worst outbreak in two years with a playbook of harsh lockdowns and mass testing as it sticks to a strict zero-Covid policy, taking a heavy toll on businesses and public morale.
The cosmopolitan business hub of Shanghai has been almost entirely locked down since the start of the month, snarling supply chains, with many residents confined to their homes for even longer as it became the epicentre of the outbreak.
China's biggest city only announced its first fatalities from the outbreak on April 18, despite reporting thousands of cases each day in recent weeks.
It reported 39 more deaths on Sunday, National Health Commission data showed, bringing its total toll to 87, while the country logged nearly 22,000 new local virus cases.
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20220424-covid-death-toll-rises-in-china-as-authorities-warn-of-grim-situation
Several dead, dozens rescued after migrant boat capsizes off Lebanon
Lebanese troops have retrieved at least six corpses after a boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized in the eastern Mediterranean on Saturday, state media reported.
The official National News Agency had previously reported that eight corpses were recovered after the boat sank off north Lebanon's coast, with more than 40 people rescued.
The corpse of a young girl was retrieved on Saturday night.
"Forty-five people have been rescued and the corpse of one child," has been retrieved from the boat, which sank near the Lebanese city of Tripoli, Transport Minister Ali Hamie told a local broadcaster.
He said around 60 people were on the vessel carrying illegal migrants out of Lebanon.
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20220424-migrant-boat-capsizes-off-lebanon-45-rescued-at-least-1-dead
Conservationists rush to save Georgia's colchis boxwood trees from extinction
An ancient plant that survived the Ice Age and became synonymous with the forests of the Caucasus region is now facing extinction.
Colchis boxwood or boxtree -- considered to be sacred in Georgia -- has been on the decline in recent years, prompting conservationists to increase their efforts to try and save the famous tree.
In recent years, diseases and pests have significantly damaged Colchis boxwood. Pests, which feed on the leaves and bark of boxwoods as they mature from larval caterpillars into moths, have defoliated thousands of acres of these ancient trees, from Russia down to Abkhazia and Georgia.
A single caterpillar can eat dozens of leaves during its development, with hundreds of caterpillars sometimes feeding on single bushes.
https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/23/conservationists-rush-to-save-georgia-s-colchis-boxwood-trees-from-extinction
Profile Information
Gender: MaleCurrent location: U.S.
Member since: Sat May 13, 2006, 07:37 AM
Number of posts: 38,958
