INTERNATIONAL NEWS

China Hoax Video Goes Viral

A video of a rescue robot was shared on social media and viewed tens of thousands of times, falsely claiming that it showed an “automatic corpse disposer”, following a surge in COVID-19-related deaths at the start of the year. e 53-second video appears to show medical personnel wearing PPE assisting people on the street while a machine scoops up a person, with a Chinese narration saying the Chinese government had started the production of “automatic corpse machines” amid the rising death toll. e claim began circulating a er China’s strict COVID-19 containment policy was li ed, which resulted in hospitals being inundated with patients, pharmacies running out of medications, and crematoriums overwhelmed. e video, which had been doctored, was traced back to the Tokyo Fire Department, who had posted it on YouTube in 2012 to demonstrate rescue robots, and which used dummy models. ey said the robots had not been in use since 2020.

Norway Shipping Company Bans Electric Vehicles

A Havila Kystruten, which operates coastal passenger services in Norway has banned the transport of electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles on its ships due to their re risk. While the company states that its ships were built with the latest systems and meet all safety requirements, they claim the danger posed by alternate fuel vehicles is too great.

Chile State Of Disaster Declared

Chile declared a state of disaster in February a er a devastating heatwave sparked forest res that le at least 13 people dead in several centralsouthern regions. More than 100 homes were a ected and 47,000 hectares of forest destroyed in three days. Two crew members of a helicopter ghting the res also died when their aircra crashed, and another re ghter was counted among the dead. More than 2,300 re ghters and 75 aircra were deployed to combat the res in the Nuble, Biobio, Maule and La Araucania regions.With temperatures reaching 40C, Chileans feared a repeat of the 2017 disaster in which res in the same region le 11 dead, destroyed 1,500 homes and a ected 467,000 hectares of forest.

“MA of Havila Bent Martini, said: “Our risk analysis shows that a possible re in fossil fuel vehicles will be able to be handled by the systems and crew we have on board. A possible re in electric, hybrid or hydrogen cars will require external rescue e orts and could put people on board and the ships at risk.”

Insurer Allianz has warned the shipping industry of the increased re danger posed by lithium-ion batteries in these vehicles, citing the four main hazards of re, explosion, toxic gases and thermal runaway.

Electric vehicles are widely believed to have contributed to the re last year that destroyed the car carrier Felicity Ace while the vessel was in the middle of the Atlantic.