AFP UK

Switzerland's biggest retailer hopes its new balls of compressed coffee will challenge Nespresso coffee pods

Switzerland’s biggest retailer launched a new coffee machine invention on Tuesday — fully compostable coffee balls which it hopes will shake up the global market and take on Nespresso’s global dominance.

The Migros supermarket chain hopes its innovation will cash in on consumers’ environmental concerns by eliminating the aluminium and plastic waste of regular coffee capsules.

Rather than capsules, the new pods are balls of compressed coffee covered with a thin film made from algae. 

With its new system, which took five years to develop, Migros is parking its tanks on the lawns of its Swiss compatriot Nestle, the giant in the coffee pod sector with its Nespresso brand.

The machines and coffee balls went on sale in Switzerland and France from Tuesday, but interest in other countries is “already huge”, chief executive Fabrice Zumbrunnen said at the launch in Zurich, eyeing a wider rollout.

There are other compostable coffee pods on the market but Migros believes that this is the first system to use biodegradable balls.

The balls have to be used in the Migros CoffeeB system and are not compatible with other coffee machines.

Switzerland’s largest employer said the new development was in response to the growing environmental consciousness of consumers, saying that some 63 billion coffee capsules are sold each year around the world, generating around 100,000 tonnes of waste.

Migros is currently a small player in the market.

According to market researchers Euromonitor International, the market share of its Cafe Royal brand was limited to 0.3 percent in western Europe in 2021, compared to 12.1 percent for Nespresso alone, while Nestle also owns the Nescafe and Dolce Gusto labels. 

But Migros is hoping its compostable coffee system will gain it some market share. 

It points out that the coffee beans used to make the biodegradale balls are sourced from sustainable crops, with fair trade and organic certification.

The cases the balls come in look like egg cartons and are made of recyclable materials. The coffee machines themselves are largely made from recycled materials, Migros said. 

Not beating about the bush: Chimpanzees have signature styles when they drum on tree roots, researchers have found

The drummers puff out their chests, let out a guttural yell, then step up to their kits and furiously pound out their signature beat so that everyone within earshot can tell who is playing.

The drum kit is the giant gnarled root of a tree in the Ugandan rainforest — and the drummer is a chimpanzee. 

A new study published Tuesday found that not only do chimpanzees have their own styles — some preferring straightforward rock beats while others groove to more freeform jazz — they can also hide their signature sound if they do not want to reveal their location.

The researchers followed the Waibira chimpanzee group in western Uganda’s Budongo Forest, recording the drum sessions of seven male chimps and analysing the intervals between beats. 

The chimps mostly use their feet, but also their hands to make the sound, which carries more than a kilometre through the dense rainforest. 

The drumming serves as a kind of social media, allowing travelling chimpanzees to communicate with each other, said Vesta Eleuteri, the lead author of the study published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The PhD student said that after just a few weeks in the rainforest she was able to recognise exactly who was drumming.

“Tristan — the John Bonham of the forest — makes very fast drums with many evenly separated beats,” she said, referring to the legendarily hard-hitting drummer of rock band Led Zeppelin.

Tristan’s drumming “is so fast that you can barely see his hands”, Eleuteri said.

– Hiding their style –

But other chimps like Alf or Ila make a more syncopated rhythm using a technique in which both their feet hit a root at almost the same time, said British primatologist Catherine Hobaiter, the study’s senior author.

The research team was lead by scientists from Scotland’s University of St Andrews, and several of the chimpanzees are named after Scottish single malt whiskies, including Ila — for Caol Ila — and fellow chimp Talisker.

Hobaiter, who started the habituation of the Waibira group in 2011, said it long been known that chimpanzees drummed.

“But it wasn’t until this study that we understood they’re using these signature styles when they’re potentially looking for other individuals — when they’re travelling, when they’re on their own or in a small group,” she told AFP.

The researchers also discovered that the chimps sometimes choose not to drum in their signature beat, to avoid revealing their location or identity.

“They have this wonderful flexibility to express their identity and their style, but also to sometimes keep that hidden,” Hobaiter said.

– ‘A sense of music’ –

While plenty of animals produce sounds we think of as music — such as birdsong — the research could open the door to the possibility that chimpanzees enjoy music on a level generally thought to only be possible for humans. 

“I do think that chimpanzees, like us, potentially have a sense of rhythmicity, a sense of music, something that touches them on an almost emotional level, in the way that we might have a sense of awe when we hear an amazing drum solo or another kind of dramatic musical sound,” Hobaiter said.

Most research on the culture of chimpanzees has looked at their tools or food, she said.

“But if we think about human culture we don’t think about the tools we use — we think about how we dress, the music we listen to,” she added.

Next the researchers plan to investigate how neighbouring and far-off communities of chimpanzees drum in their own differing styles.

Hobaiter has already been looking at chimpanzees in Guinea, where there are very few trees to drum in the open savannah.

“We’ve got early hints that they might be throwing rocks against rocks” to make sound, she said.

“Literal rock music in this case.”

The ferry will link Marseille and the French island of Corsica

A French ferry company has launched what it claims is the first vessel that uses filters to capture almost all air pollutants from the boat’s exhaust fumes, sparking praise from campaigners and local authorities.

La Meridionale, based in the southern French port of Marseille, showed off its innovative ship on Monday to the media.

“It’s an unprecedented solution, a world first,” company chairman Marc Reverchon told reporters on board the blue-and white Piana which sails between Marseille and the French island of Corsica.

The company said the filters captured 99 percent of sulphur oxides emitted by the ferry’s four engines, as well as 99.9 percent of particulate matter created from the burning of its heavy fuel.

The filters use technology already found in power stations or incineration plants in which sodium bicarbonate is injected into the exhaust fumes, causing a chemical reaction with the tiny particles produced during the combustion process.

The pollutants can then be captured by a type of industrial air filter that has been around for more than 30 years, company technical director Christophe Seguinot told reporters.

“We didn’t have to look too far. We didn’t invent anything,” Seguinot explained. “The challenge for us was to make it suitable for a marine setting.”

The ferry group has an agreement with chemicals supplier Solvay, which will dispose of the toxic filter residue — with a view to recycling it in the future, Seguinot said.

Heavy fuel oil, also known as bunker fuel, is one of the cheapest but most polluting transportation fuels, resulting in the thick plumes of dirty brown smoke seen above most ships.

It is also high in sulphur which can cause respiratory problems and acid rain.

– Regulation –

Regulations on the amount of sulphur authorised vary, with ultra-clean fuel mandated in areas such as the North Sea and Baltic Sea in Europe, as well as around North American ports.

Marseille, which hosts cruise and container ships as well as ferries, has struggled with increased smog in recent years and the shipping sector is thought to be responsible for a large part of the problem.

“Let’s hope that the big polluters follow the example of La Meridionale,” Marseille’s Socialist mayor Benoit Payan tweeted on Monday after attending the company event.

He has been battling ship operators over the summer with a petition calling for the dirtiest vessels to be barred during peak pollution times.

Shipping companies are under pressure from regulators and tightening industry standards to tackle their emissions of greenhouse gases as well as atmospheric pollutants, but campaigners want faster action.

La Meridionale “is going much further than current regulations require by treating all of their particulate matter,” Damien Piga from Atmosud, a regional air quality surveillance group, told AFP. 

Some ship owners favour the use of so-called “scrubbing” technology which sees water sprayed into the exhaust fumes, which captures some of the pollutants.

Environmentalists point out that in many cases the water is then discharged into the sea, however.

Other groups are experimenting with engines that run on cleaner liquefied natural gas (LNG) or methanol, while electric and sail powered vessels are also being developed.

Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change

China has logged its hottest August since records began, state media reported Tuesday, following an unusually intense summer heat wave that parched rivers, scorched crops and triggered isolated blackouts.

Southern China last month sweltered under what experts said may have been one of the worst heat waves in global history, with parts of Sichuan province and the megacity of Chongqing clocking a string of days well over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

The average temperature nationwide was 22.4C in August, exceeding the norm by 1.2C, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the country’s weather service.

Some 267 weather stations across the country matched or broke temperature records last month, the report said.

It was also China’s third-driest August on record, with average rainfall 23.1 percent lower than average.

“The average number of high-temperature days was abnormally high, and regional high-temperature processes are continuing to impact our country,” CCTV reported the weather service as saying.

Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change.

Last month, temperatures as high as 45C prompted multiple Chinese provinces to impose power cuts as cities battled to cope with a surge in electricity demand partly driven by people cranking up the air conditioning.

Images from Chongqing showed a tributary of the mighty Yangtze river had almost run dry, a scene echoed further east where the waters of China’s largest freshwater lake also receded extensively.

– ‘Severe threat’ –

Chongqing and the eastern megacity of Shanghai switched off outdoor decorative lighting to mitigate the power crunch, while authorities in Sichuan imposed industrial power cuts as water levels dwindled at major hydroelectric plants.

As local authorities warned that the drought posed a “severe threat” to this year’s harvest, the central government approved billions of yuan in subsidies to support rice farmers.

“This is a warning for us, reminding us to have a deeper understanding of climate change and improve our ability to adapt to it in all respects,” said Zhang Daquan, a senior official at China’s National Climate Centre, in comments carried Monday by the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

“It is also necessary to raise awareness across all of society to adapt to climate change… and strive to minimise social and economic impacts and losses,” Zhang said.

Higher-than-usual temperatures are also expected across China throughout September, CCTV cited the weather service’s deputy director Xiao Chan as saying.

Li Shuo, senior global policy adviser at Greenpeace East Asia, told AFP that while it was difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, “scientifically a long-term warming trend and long-term extreme weather impacts can definitely be said to have direct connection with climate change”.

Li said he thought the extreme weather experienced by China this summer, especially in the southwest of the country, was “once again sounding an alarm for China”.

– Coal boost –

Scientists have said a rapid reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions is needed to avert potentially disastrous global heating and its associated climate impacts.

China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, has pledged to bring its carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and cut them to zero by 2060.

But the record-busting summer heat and drought, combined with a power crunch last year, have pushed authorities to pivot back towards carbon-rich coal use in what they have portrayed as a bump on the road towards a more sustainable future.

Beijing said earlier this year it would raise coal mining capacity by 300 million tonnes and has stepped up approvals of coal plants and related infrastructure.

Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change

China has logged its hottest August since records began, state media reported Tuesday, following an unusually intense summer heat wave that parched rivers, scorched crops and triggered isolated blackouts.

Southern China last month sweltered under what experts said may have been one of the worst heat waves in global history, with parts of Sichuan province and the megacity of Chongqing clocking a string of days well over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

The average temperature nationwide was 22.4C in August, exceeding the norm by 1.2C, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the country’s weather service.

Some 267 weather stations across the country matched or broke temperature records last month, the report said.

It was also China’s third-driest August on record, with average rainfall 23.1 percent lower than average.

“The average number of high-temperature days was abnormally high, and regional high-temperature processes are continuing to impact our country,” CCTV reported the weather service as saying.

Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change.

Last month, temperatures as high as 45C prompted multiple Chinese provinces to impose power cuts as cities battled to cope with a surge in electricity demand partly driven by people cranking up the air conditioning.

Images from Chongqing showed a tributary of the mighty Yangtze river had almost run dry, a scene echoed further east where the waters of China’s largest freshwater lake also receded extensively.

– ‘Severe threat’ –

Chongqing and the eastern megacity of Shanghai switched off outdoor decorative lighting to mitigate the power crunch, while authorities in Sichuan imposed industrial power cuts as water levels dwindled at major hydroelectric plants.

As local authorities warned that the drought posed a “severe threat” to this year’s harvest, the central government approved billions of yuan in subsidies to support rice farmers.

“This is a warning for us, reminding us to have a deeper understanding of climate change and improve our ability to adapt to it in all respects,” said Zhang Daquan, a senior official at China’s National Climate Centre, in comments carried Monday by the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

“It is also necessary to raise awareness across all of society to adapt to climate change… and strive to minimise social and economic impacts and losses,” Zhang said.

Higher-than-usual temperatures are also expected across China throughout September, CCTV cited the weather service’s deputy director Xiao Chan as saying.

– Coal boost –

Scientists have said a rapid reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions is needed to avert potentially disastrous global heating and its associated climate impacts.

China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, has pledged to bring its carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and cut them to zero by 2060.

But the record-busting summer heat and drought, combined with a power crunch last year, have pushed authorities to pivot back towards carbon-rich coal use in what they have portrayed as a bump on the road towards a more sustainable future.

Beijing said earlier this year it would raise coal mining capacity by 300 million tonnes and has stepped up approvals of coal plants and related infrastructure.

Seen here in 2018, Iran's Lake Urmia has been drying up for years in one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades

Iran’s Lake Urmia will dry out completely if rescue efforts are not prioritised over the needs of farmers in the drought gripping the region, an environment official said Tuesday.

The warning comes just four years after a Japanese government-funded programme had raised hopes of stabilising what was once the Middle East’s largest lake and turning around one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades.

“If the water quotas are not delivered and the approved plans are not fully realised, the lake will definitely dry up and there will be no hope of its recovery,” said the head of the environment department’s wetlands unit, Arezoo Ashrafizadeh.

“According to the law, the energy ministry is obliged to provide the environmental water needs of Lake Urmia,” she told Iran’s ISNA news agency.

“But the lake has not received its water entitlement due to a decrease in rainfall among other reasons.”

Ashrafizadeh said there needed to be a halt to all new dam construction and measures to “stop agricultural activities” if the lake is to be restored.

Situated in the mountains of northwestern Iran not far from the Turkish border, Lake Urmia is designated as a site of international importance under the United Nations Convention on Wetlands that was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.

The lake has no outlet to the sea and its former size was the result of the volume of water flowing into it matching or exceeding the volume being removed by humans or evaporating off.

The lake once covered 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 square miles). Since 1995, it has been shrinking, according to the UN Environment Programme, due to a combination of rising temperatures, reduced rainfall, dam-building and over-farming.

The drying out has threatened the habitats of shrimp, flamingos, deers and wild sheep and caused salt storms that pollute nearby cities and farms.

Ashrafizadeh said the lake “has not yet completely dried up, but its northern and southern parts have been separated and about 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) of the lake remain.”

In 2013, Iran and the UN Development Programme launched a campaign to save the lake with funding from the Japanese government.

The plan saw some success as in 2017, the lake expanded in size to reach 2,300 square kilometres (888 square miles) before starting to shrink again in the face of a protracted drought.

In mid-July, police arrested several people for “destroying public property and disturbing the security of the population” after they demonstrated against the drying up of the lake.

It was one of spate of demonstrations in Iran this year against the drying up of rivers and lakes in drought-affected areas of the centre and west.

A largely arid country, Iran suffers from chronic dry spells that are expected to worsen with climate change.

Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change

China has logged its hottest August since records began, state media reported Tuesday, following an unusually intense summer heat wave that parched rivers, scorched crops and triggered isolated blackouts.

Southern China last month sweltered under what experts said may have been one of the worst heat waves in global history, with parts of Sichuan province and the megacity of Chongqing clocking a string of days well over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

The average temperature nationwide was 22.4C in August, exceeding the norm by 1.2C, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the country’s weather service.

Some 267 weather stations across the country matched or broke temperature records last month, the report said.

It was also China’s third-driest August on record, with average rainfall 23.1 percent lower than average.

“The average number of high-temperature days was abnormally high, and regional high-temperature processes are continuing to impact our country,” CCTV reported the weather service as saying.

Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change.

Last month, temperatures as high as 45C prompted multiple Chinese provinces to impose power cuts as cities battled to cope with a surge in electricity demand partly driven by people cranking up the air conditioning.

Images from Chongqing showed a tributary of the mighty Yangtze river had almost run dry, a scene echoed further east where the waters of China’s largest freshwater lake also receded extensively.

– ‘Severe threat’ –

Chongqing and the eastern megacity of Shanghai switched off outdoor decorative lighting to mitigate the power crunch, while authorities in Sichuan imposed industrial power cuts as water levels dwindled at major hydroelectric plants.

As local authorities warned that the drought posed a “severe threat” to this year’s harvest, the central government approved billions of yuan in subsidies to support rice farmers.

“This is a warning for us, reminding us to have a deeper understanding of climate change and improve our ability to adapt to it in all respects,” said Zhang Daquan, a senior official at China’s National Climate Centre, in comments carried Monday by the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

“It is also necessary to raise awareness across all of society to adapt to climate change… and strive to minimise social and economic impacts and losses,” Zhang said.

Waves brought by Typhoon Hinnamnor slam into the coast on South Korea's resort island of Jeju

Typhoon Hinnamnor killed one person and left nine missing on Tuesday, before heading back to sea with few reports of major property damage. 

The typhoon, one of the most powerful to bear down on the country in decades, hit the southern island of Jeju overnight before making landfall near the port city of Busan, which was battered by huge waves and heavy rain which damaged beachfront roads and shops.

Early Tuesday in the eastern port city of Pohang, an elderly woman in her 70s was swept away in flooding and killed, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said.

Death tolls could climb later in the day, authorities having identified at least nine people missing as of Tuesday afternoon, including seven people at a submerged underground parking lot in Pohang.

More than 60,000 households nationwide lost power because of the typhoon.

As a precaution, authorities closed more than 600 schools nationwide, and local carriers grounded some 250 domestic flights — but service gradually resumed Tuesday as Hinnamnor headed towards Japan.

North Korea had also been bracing for the storm, with leader Kim Jong-un overseeing a meeting in Pyongyang to assess the country’s preparedness, state media reported Tuesday.

Kim said boosting Pyongyang’s disaster response was crucial as “nothing is more precious… than the people’s life and safety”, news agency KCNA reported.

Experts say North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding and heavy rains due to deforestation and poor irrigation.

On Tuesday morning, the typhoon was over the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, 100 kilometres (62 miles) off Tsushima island, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Bringing gusts of up to 180 kilometres per hour, it was moving northeast at a speed of 45 kph and was expected to bring heavy rains to western Japan on Tuesday.

More than 35,000 households were without power in Japan’s southwestern Kyushu region, Kyushu Electricity said in a statement.

Some of Japan’s bullet trains were suspended due to strong winds and rain, and many local trains also paused service, operator JR Kyushu said.

At least 120 flights departing and landing at Kyushu’s airport were cancelled, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Remote schools in Siem Reap province use the gardens to teach pupils life skills such as cultivation and cooking

Among the spinach crops at a rural Cambodian school garden, children test their maths skills while weighing produce — but as food prices rise, the vegetable patch has become a safety net for struggling families.

Long before Covid restrictions ravaged the economy, malnutrition and poverty stalked Cambodia’s youth — the legacy of decades of conflict and instability following the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal rule in the 1970s.

Food insecurity has worsened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stoked global shortages and inflation. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) says the prices of local staples have shot up in the past year: duck eggs by more than 20 percent and cooking oil by almost 40 percent.

Noodle seller Chhon Puthy, 31, has lost half her income during the pandemic and worries about her children’s health.

“We parents had to reduce our rations sometimes,” said the mother-of-two from the village of Chroy Neang Nguon, about two hours from Siem Reap.

In recent months, her family has come to rely on the garden and free breakfast programme at her children’s school to ease the financial pressure.

“This community depends on the meal because every morning parents are busy with farming and could not cook for their kids,” she said.

– Garden lifeline –

Remote schools in Siem Reap province use the gardens to teach pupils life skills such as cultivation and cooking.

“I learn about growing vegetables, making organic fertiliser, how to work in soil,” 12-year-old Seyha told AFP, adding that the know-how has helped improve her family’s own vegetable patch.

More than 1,000 schools around Cambodia have meal programmes supported by the WFP, with around 50 learning gardens set up with help from global rights group Plan International.

Before each day’s lessons, students are served a free breakfast of rice and fish soup with vegetables grown in the garden.

Long Tov, principal of the school in Chroy Neang Nguon, said the garden and meal programme helped improve students’ concentration levels, memory and test results.

“It (also) hugely reduces the school dropout rate,” he told AFP.

Vireak, 12, said he was happy to eat at school with his classmates. 

“I feel stronger and smarter and I can learn things much easier than before,” he said.

– Impact –

Malnutrition costs the Cambodian economy more than $400 million a year — about 2.5 percent of GDP — according to a study backed by UNICEF.

The country has made progress on tackling the issue — chronic malnutrition in children under five fell from 32 percent in 2014 to 22 percent — but there are fears that inflation could stall momentum.

“Rising food prices are likely to exacerbate the already high levels of childhood malnutrition, just as the country started showing signs of recuperating from the pandemic’s economic impacts,” the United Nations Nutrition office in Cambodia said in a statement.

At Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, nutrition team leader Sroeu Phannsy told AFP that some poor families were being forced to water down infant milk formula, which can have devastating consequences for a baby’s health.

The fight against malnutrition takes her team of health workers into remote areas, where they treat children with ready-to-eat, energy-dense snacks.

“We worry about their growth in the future, particularly their brain development will be weakened as they prepare to go to school at the age of five or six,” she said.

Children and infants not receiving enough nutrients can go on to suffer low IQs, blindness, stunted growth and weak immune systems.

Back at the learning garden, a teacher shows a class, with full bellies after breakfast, when vegetables are ready to harvest.

“In the learning garden, we are happy and learn important skills… Back home I grow morning glory, cucumber, beans and tomatoes,” 12-year-old Vireak said.

Waves brought by Typhoon Hinnamnor slam into the coast on South Korea's resort island of Jeju

Typhoon Hinnamnor made landfall in South Korea early Tuesday, causing power outages and leaving one person missing, but with few early reports of major damage as it headed back to sea.

The typhoon, one of the most powerful to bear down on the country in decades, hit the country’s southern island of Jeju overnight before making landfall near the port city of Busan, which was battered by huge waves and heavy rain, damaging beachfront roads and shops.

The typhoon was moving at a speed of 43 metres per second when it made landfall, authorities said.

A 25-year-old man went missing after falling into a rain-swollen stream in the eastern coastal city of Ulsan, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said.

As a precaution, authorities closed more than 600 schools nationwide, and local carriers grounded some 250 domestic flights — but service gradually resumed Tuesday as Hinnamnor headed towards Japan.

North Korea had also been bracing for the storm, with leader Kim Jong-un overseeing a meeting in Pyongyang to assess the country’s disaster response preparedness, official state media reported Tuesday.

Kim said boosting Pyongyang’s disaster response was crucial as “nothing is more precious… than the people’s life and safety,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

Experts say North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding and heavy rains due to deforestation and poor irrigation. 

On Tuesday morning, the typhoon was over the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, 100 kilometres (62 miles) off Tsushima island of Nagasaki prefecture in southwestern Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

More than 35,000 households were without power in Japan’s southwestern Kyushu region, Kyushu Electricity said in a statement.

Packing gusts of up to 180 kilometres per hour, it was moving northeast at a speed of 45 kph and was expected to bring heavy rains to western Japan on Tuesday.

Some of Japan’s famed bullet trains were suspended due to strong winds and rain, and many local trains also paused service, operator JR Kyushu said.

At least 120 flights departing and landing at Kyushu’s airport were cancelled, public broadcaster NHK reported.