Argentina, Uruguay restore power after massive blackout

A massive power outage plunged tens of millions of people in Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Paraguay into the dark on Sunday, in what government officials called an "extraordinary" and unprecedented blackout, the cause of which is not yet known.The blackout struck at 7:07am local time (10:07 GMT), triggered by what Argentine government officials called a failure in a coastal grid that serves a number of countries, and a "total disconnection".Authorities were working frantically to restore power, but by mid-afternoon nearly half of Argentina’s 44 million people were still in the dark.Voters cast ballots by the light of cell phones in gubernatorial elections in Argentina. Public transportation halted, shops closed and patients dependent on home medical equipment were urged to go to hospitals with generators.“I was just on my way to eat with a friend, but we had to cancel everything. There’s no subway, nothing is working,” said Lucas Acosta, a 24-year-old Buenos Aires resident. “What’s worse, today is Father’s Day. I’ve just talked to a neighbor and he told me his sons won’t be able to meet him.”By mid-afternoon, power had been restored to most of Uruguay’s 3 million people. But in Argentina, only 56% of the nation’s grid was back up and running as of 3:30 p.m. local time, Energy Minister Gustavo Lopetegui told a news conference.The government is not ruling anything out, including a cyberattack, although Lopetegui said it is not among the primary potential causes being considered.Carlos Garcia Pereira, head of Transener, Argentina's largest power-transmission operator, said the failure in the system could be caused by something as simple as humidity during a day of heavy rainfall.Lopetegui stressed that Argentina's power system is "very robust" and is generating more than it requires.An investigation is under way to determine who is responsible, and if sanctions are necessary.

5G technology jeopardises forecasting

5G signal could jam satellites that help with weather forecasting i.e. is the stark warning of meteorologists around the world, who say the next-generation wireless system now being rolled out across the globe is likely to disrupt the delicate satellite instruments they use to monitor changes in the atmosphere.The result will be impaired forecasts, poorer warnings about major storms, and loss of life, they say.“The way 5G is being introduced could seriously compromise our ability to forecast major storms,” said Tony McNally of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading. “In the end it could make the difference between life and death. We are very concerned about this.”The crisis facing the world’s meteorologists stems from the fact that the radio frequencies the new 5G networks will use could contaminate critical Earth observations made by weather satellites. One example is the 23.8 gigahertz (GHz) frequency. Water vapour emits a faint signal at this specific natural wavelength, and this data is monitored and measured by weather satellites. Forecasters then use this information to work out how a storm or weather system is likely to develop.Instruments on board the satellites peer down into the atmosphere and study variables such as water vapour, rain, snow, cloud cover and ice content – all crucial factors that influence our weather.The urgency of the problem is underlined by the fact that US Federal Communications Commission and similar agencies in other countries have already started to auction off frequencies close to the 23.8 GHz frequency to future 5G network providers. In addition, other bands that are used to probe our weather include the 36-37 GHz band, which is used to study rain and snow; the 50 GHz band, which is used to measure atmospheric temperature; and the 86-92 Ghz band, which helps to analyse cloud and ice.They accuse phone operators of ransacking the radio spectrum for wavelengths to exploit, and regulators of failing to protect the natural frequencies vital for Earth observation from space.

Social media has become unhealthy: Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez the 26-year-old singer finds social media "unhealthy". She used to spend much of her time engaging with her fans on social media, but has now said she's limited the time she spends on apps such as Twitter and Instagram, because they began to make her feel "depressed". She said during an appearance on 'Live! With Kelly and Ryan': "I have it on someone else's phone. And when I feel like I want to share something with my fans or just mess around with it, I do it then."The star's comments come after she said it was "impossible" to make social media a safe place whilst speaking at a press conference at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.Speaking about her decision to stop replying to comments, the 'Wolves' hitmaker said: "I used to a lot, but I think it's just become really unhealthy, I think, personally, for young people, including myself, to spend all of their time fixating on all these comments and letting this stuff in. It was affecting me. It would make me depressed. It would make me feel not good about myself and look at my body differently and all kinds of stuff."

Wreckage of AN 32 aircraft found in Arunachal

Afer huge search operations the Indian Air Force confirmed that the wreckage of  missing Indian Air Force (IAF) AN-32 was spotted Tuesday. 16 kms North of Lipo, North East of Tato at an approximate elevation of 12000 ft by the IAF Mi-17 helicopter undertaking search in the expanded search zone. The AN-32 is a twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft and the IAF currently operates a sizeable number of it. Here's everything you need to know.The aircraft carrying six officers, five airmen and two non-combatants (enrolled) took off from Jorhat, Assam at 12.27 hours for the Mechuka Advance Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh, where it was supposed to reach Mechuka at 13.30 hours. More than a week after the Indian Air Force’s An-32 with 13 people on board went missing near Arunachal Pradesh, the wreckage of the transport aircraft has been found. The IAF launched a massive operation to trace the missing aircraft but the search was badly hit by poor weather conditions. The assets deployed for the operation included Sukhoi-30 aircraft in addition to a fleet of C-130J and AN-32 planes and Mi-17 and ALH helicopters. The ground forces included troops from the Army, Indo Tibetan Border Police and state policeISRO's Cartosat and RISAT satellites were also used to take images of the area around Menchuka. IAF also stated that On Twitter efforts are underway to establish the status of occupants and establish survivors. “Further details will be communicated as the recovery actions progress,” IAF tweeted.