Climate change, new construction mean more ruinous fires in the US - CNA

Many whose homes were spared remained without power while temperatures dropped to the single digits. The blaze burned at least 24 sq km.

The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, but experts say it's clear what allowed it to spread so fast.

“With any snow on the ground, this absolutely would not have happened in the way that it did,” said Keith Musselman, a snow hydrologist in Boulder.

“It was really the grass and the dry landscape that allowed this fire to jump long distances in a short period of time.”

Three ingredients were needed to start this fire – fuels, a warm climate and an ignition source, said Jennifer Balch, a fire scientist with the University of Colorado, Boulder. “And then you add a fourth ingredient, wind, and that's when it became a disaster.”

Temperatures in Colorado between June and December were the warmest on record, Balch said. The grasses grew thick because they had a wet spring, but saw no moisture until snow flurries arrived Friday night.

“All of Colorado is flammable, our grasses are flammable, our shrubs are flammable, our trees are flammable," Balch said.

"This is a dry landscape that is flammable for good chunks of the year, and those chunks of time are getting longer with climate change."

The lesson learned throughout this event is that the “wildland-urban interface is way bigger than we thought it was”, Balch said. That means a wider area is under threat of wildfire.

That border area, where structures built by people meet undeveloped wildland prone to fire, has always been the foothills, she said.

Firefighters in Boulder consider the interface west of Broadway, a busy road that passes through the centre of town. But Thursday's fire sparked east of that line, next to thousands of houses that have sprouted up on the east side of the Rockies since the 1990s, Balch said.

“There were stretches between Denver and Fort Collins that had no development, but now it’s just like one long continuous development track,” Balch said. “And those homes are built with materials that are very flammable — wood siding, asphalt roofing.

"We need to completely rethink how we’re building homes.”

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2022-01-02 06:06:00Z
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China to extend preferential tax policies for foreigners until end-2023 - CNA

BEIJING : China will extend preferential income tax policies for foreigners residing in the country to Dec. 31, 2023, the finance ministry said on Friday, as part of measures to ease the burden on taxpayers.

Previously, China said benefits and allowances for foreigners including housing rental and education for their children would cease to be income tax-exempt starting Jan. 1, 2022.

In recent days, the government has pledged to further cut taxes and fees in 2022 to support struggling businesses. China will also extend some favourable income tax policies to ease the burden for middle- and low-income groups.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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2022-01-01 02:59:21Z
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Alaska faces 'Icemageddon' as temperatures swing wildly - CNA

LOS ANGELES: Extreme weather in Alaska that has brought record high temperatures and torrential downpours has left authorities in the far northern US state warning of "Icemageddon".

Huge sheets of ice are blocking roads and choking traffic in Fairbanks, Alaska's second largest city, reported the state's transportation department, which has coined the neologism - a play on "Armageddon" - to describe the chilly impasse.

"We're experiencing an unprecedented series of winter storms," the department tweeted.

Scientists say the unchecked burning of fossil fuels and other human activity is changing the climate, making it more unpredictable and prone to wild swings.

Rick Thoman, a weather specialist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, called the conditions of the past few days "very unusual".

Hours after thermometers on Kodiak Island in the south reached 19.4 degrees Celsius - the warmest December temperature ever recorded in Alaska - the interior of the state saw 25mm of rain fall in just a few hours, a downpour unseen in decades.

Then when temperatures plummeted again, it all froze.

The rainstorm was caused by the same weather system that brought the soaring temperatures, transporting warm, moist air from Hawaii to the frigid far north.

This kind of thing - record high moisture content, record warm air - is exactly what we expect, of course, in our warming climate.

Unsettled weather was continuing to play havoc with flights in an out of Sea-Tac International Airport in Seattle, with hundreds of flights cancelled or delayed this week.

In California, snow and persistent rain also continue to cause problems, with localised flooding forcing evacuations in areas around Los Angeles.

In the north of the state, the tourist magnet of Lake Tahoe - where forest fires a few months ago caused residents to flee - has been buried in heavy snow, leaving some people cut off.

More than 5m of snow have now fallen on parts of the Sierra Nevada mountain range this month, an all-time record, according to the Central Sierra Nevada Snow Laboratory at University of California at Berkeley.

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2021-12-31 02:32:00Z
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Worst stage of the Covid-19 pandemic may end in 2022, WHO chief says - South China Morning Post

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1. Worst stage of the Covid-19 pandemic may end in 2022, WHO chief says  South China Morning Post
2. Deaths in 2021: Headline Names Against the Backdrop of Pandemic  The New York Times
3. 2022 year in preview  The Washington Post
4. The Pandemic Year 2021: Man vs Virus Fight, Global Vaccination Drives, and More | In GFX  News18
5. 5 Ways the Pandemic Will Be Different in 2022  AARP
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2021-12-30 09:00:15Z
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Omicron variant driving record-breaking Covid-19 infection rates in the US and Europe - South China Morning Post

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2021-12-30 08:36:00Z
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Blackpink's Lisa, Myanmar model Paing Takhon: The most beautiful and handsome faces of 2021 - CNA

K-pop star Lisa of Blackpink and model Paing Takhon of Myanmar have got the world’s Most Beautiful and Most Handsome Faces of 2021, respectively, according to TC Candler. 

The film critic website, which has been releasing an annual Top 100 list of the world’s top lookers since 1990, announced its latest lineup on Tuesday (Dec 28).

Lisa, whose full name is Lalisa Manoban, topped the Most Beautiful Face list. The 24-year-old Thai member of the popular South Korean girl moved up a notch from number two last year, while Israeli model Yael Shelbia dropped from last year’s top spot to sixth.

Also in the top 10 list were Norwegian blogger Emilie Nereng (2nd), American model Halima Aden (3rd), Filipino actress Ivana Alawi (4th), K-pop group Momoland’s Nancy Jewel McDonie (5th), K-pop group Twice’s Tzuyu (7th), Indonesian singer-actress Lyodra Ginting (8th), American model Jasmine Tookes (9th) and South Korean actress-singer Nana (Im Jin-ah) (10th).

Lisa’s fellow Blackpink members also made the list with Rose, Jisoo and Jennie coming in at 17, 26 and 30, respectively.

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2021-12-29 05:59:00Z
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Hong Kong siblings arrested on suspicion of laundering HK$384 million - South China Morning Post

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Hong Kong siblings arrested on suspicion of laundering HK$384 million  South China Morning PostView Full coverage on Google News
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2021-12-28 13:18:05Z
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