Damage to submarine cables in the Red Sea is disrupting telecommunications networks and forcing providers to reroute as much as a quarter of traffic between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, including internet traffic.

Cables belonging to four major telecoms networks have been “cut” causing “significant” disruption to communications networks in the Middle East, according to Hong Kong telecoms company HGC Global Communications.

HGC estimates that 25% of traffic between Asia and Europe as well the Middle East has been impacted, it said in a statement Monday.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion into Ukraine, Sweden has grown more wary of Russian aggression. The Swedish government wants its citizens to be ready for the worst-case scenario and is encouraging them to become "preppers."

After Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and stepped up military exercises along the Baltic states, Sweden responded in 2017 by reintroducing compulsory military service. Sweden is expanding and better equipping its armed forces, while gradually increasing its defense budget. When Sweden requested NATO membership earlier this year, it marked a historic reversal of the nation’s longtime stance of military non-alignment.

Now, it’s up to Swedish citizens to ready themselves for the unthinkable and actively prepare for disaster. Robin has been prepping for years. The father sees to it that his home in Stockholm always has enough supplies for his family to survive independently for several weeks. He takes regular trips to the forest to spend a few days in the wilderness. His children always come with him, so that they, too, can practice survival skills.

In Sweden, interest in prepping is at an all-time high. Across all social strata, people are carefully stocking tins, training survival skills, and even learning how to shoot. And the preppers are networking. Pär Plüschke is 38 and offers prepping courses. He says enrollment used to be manageable but now he can hardly keep up with the demand.

>I found all kinds of things that normal people would consider secrets and that corporations spend a lot of money - millions and millions of dollars - to try to keep out of the hands of their competitors and criminals. I found people's flight records. I found people's records from their doctors prescribing them medications. I found people's tax documents that they were - thought they were only sharing with their tax preparer. And they were available with one click. I could have opened them up and downloaded them.

> Starting at approximately 2:20 pm ET on Wednesday, the federal government will begin conducting a nationwide test of its Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The EAS portion of the test will send an emergency alert to all radios and televisions, while the WEA portion of the drill will send an alert to all consumer cell phones.

>The test is being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission. Its purpose is to ensure that the systems in place continue to be an effective means of warning the public about emergencies at a national level.

>By now, we’re all caught up with the reality that natural disasters are everywhere, whether it’s hurricanes in New York, ice storms in Texas, wildfires in California, or tornadoes in Illinois. Getting caught in one isn’t an if, it’s a when. And we’re no longer in a world where we can expect the power to come back within 48 hours. Emergency services could take days to get to us. They could take weeks. Yet still, the term “prepper” is sneered at, associated with a host of political and even religious beliefs, and reviled by folks considering themselves good liberals, progressive thinkers, science-based minds.

>Over 2,000 people have died and more than 2,000 others have been injured after a powerful earthquake struck close to Morocco's historic city of Marrakech.

>The 6.8-magnitude earthquake on Friday night devastated homes in villages across the Atlas Mountains, as well as historical sites inside Marrakech city.

>Video footage posted online from the earthquake region shows people dazed and panicked, moving through streets in the dark amid clouds of dust as they try to find some kind of safety.

>I'm sure I got your attention with this one! Ham radio is often said to be the ultimate communication tool for emergencies. I'm here to tell you that it isn't.

>In this video, I'll explore the common 'uses' for ham radio and break apart their strengths and weaknesses.

>The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday.

>“If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Kaz Daughtry, the assistant NYPD Commissioner, said at a press conference.

>Many come to ham radio through prepping. The hobby’s usefulness in a grid-down situation was demonstrated in the Maui fires, when amateur radio operators stepped in after the cell phone system went down, passing along information to civilians and first responders alike. The nature of ham radio clears away the fringiest of preppers. It is governed by the Federal Communications Commission; it requires an exam, license, and registration with the federal government. That leaves the rest of us — every American who recalls the empty store shelves at the height of the pandemic and every Texan who remembers the deadly freeze of 2021 — to benefit from ham radio.

• Climate modeling
• Energy efficiency
• Renewable energy
• Carbon capture
• Disaster prediction
• Ecosystem monitoring
• Climate change policy

>"It's a hobby, but it's a hobby that could save a life."

>The doctors believe the woman became infected after foraging for warrigal greens (aka New Zealand spinach) around a lake near her home that was inhabited by carpet pythons. Usually, O. robertsi adults inhabit the snakes' esophagus and stomach and release their eggs in the snakes' feces. From there, the eggs are picked up by small mammals that the snakes feed upon. The larvae develop and establish in the small mammals, growing quite long despite the small size of the animals, and the worm's life cycle is complete when the snake eats the infected prey.

>Doctors hypothesize the woman picked up the eggs meant for small mammals as she foraged, ingesting them either by not fully washing or cooking the greens or by not properly washing her hands or kitchen equipment. In retrospect, the progression of her symptoms suggests an initial foodborne infection, followed by worm larva migrating from her gastrointestinal tract to multiple organs. The prednisolone, an immunosuppressive drug, may have inadvertently helped the worm migrate and get into the central nervous system.

>Kennedy, a co-author of the report on the woman's case, stressed the importance of washing any foods foraged or taken from a garden. She also emphasized proper kitchen safety and hand washing.

>"Warmer temperatures can enhance evaporation rates, resulting in more moisture in the atmosphere," she says. "This increased moisture content can lead to more intense rainfall and more frequent and severe storms, including hurricanes and cyclones."

>Eight reservoirs in two districts of Beijing and the Yongding River, the largest river to flow through Beijing, released flood water at the same time, flooding parts of Hebei Province, such as Zhuozhou City, stranding many residents. Staff from Zhuozhou's Emergency Management Bureau admitted to Chinese media that upstream flooding from Beijing had caused Zhuozhou's water level to rise quickly. The CCP government communicated internally that in order to protect Beijing, where water isn't draining, both Hebei Province and Tianjin City need to protect Beijing and prioritize diverting floodwaters for Beijing. The flood discharge period will last for 8 days and 23 hours.

>Hurricane Hilary, now a powerful Category 4 storm churning off Mexico's Baja California peninsula, is making its way towards the Pacific coast. It's projected to hit Southern California as a tropical storm — the first since 1939 — by Sunday night and into Monday, bringing high winds and the potential for dangerous flooding.

>"Life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flooding likely over much of Baja California and Southern California this weekend and early next week," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a Friday afternoon advisory.

>The NHC forecasts Hilary will make landfall in Baja on Sunday as a hurricane but lose strength as it makes its way north. It's expected to hit Southern California as a tropical storm as early as Sunday. Hilary's monsoonal rains will cause flash, urban and arroyo flooding with the potential for "significant impacts," the NHC said.

>Menstrual products are so vital in emergency situations, especially when there are supply chain issues and no retail shelves being stocked.

>Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens sounded before people ran for their lives from wildfires on Maui that killed at least 55 people and wiped out a historic town. Instead, officials sent alerts to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations — but widespread power and cellular outages may have limited their reach.

>Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain to alert people to various natural disasters and other threats.

>But many survivors said in interviews Thursday that they didn’t hear any sirens or receive a warning that gave them enough time to prepare and only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby. The wildfires are the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people.

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>Were China planning to invade Taiwan, its military preparations would be hard to hide. But before troops begin to muster, other actions, of an economic and financial nature, might signal China’s intent.

>One area to focus on is commodities, namely energy, food and metals. China would want to secure adequate supplies of each before launching an invasion.

>Energy is a good place to start. China imports nearly three-quarters of the oil it uses. The substance accounts for only 20% of the country’s energy use, but it would be crucial to any war effort.

>Whereas fuel would be needed to power China’s war machine, food must be procured to sustain its people. China imports more agricultural produce than any other country. Obsessed with food security, it already has enormous stockpiles. In 2021 an official said its wheat reserves could meet demand for 18 months.

>As with fuel and food, unusual metal-buying patterns could be a signal. Changes in China’s exports would be a more visible indicator. It might become more reluctant to part with the rare-earth metals crucial to many technologies. China has a near-monopoly on many of these.

>Similar thinking infuses China’s approach to the financial system. It has introduced a cross-border payment mechanism that could, if necessary, bypass Western financial institutions—though at present most transactions still go through foreign platforms. China and its state-owned firms increasingly push trade partners to sign contracts in yuan, to reduce the country’s dependence on the dollar. If it were planning for war, China might also move its foreign-exchange reserves out of dollars and euros and into assets that are harder to sequester, such as gold.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2961593

> Vulnerabilities in Sogou Keyboard encryption expose keypresses to network eavesdropping.