Dutch scientists have found that plastic in water breaks down into nanoparticles that cannot be detected with the naked eye, writes the NL Times portal. Their discovery will make it possible to understand where tons of plastic waste in the ocean disappears every year.
Investigated filtered water samples from the Wadden Sea and analyzed the found particles. It turned out that most of them are polystyrene and PET. The latter is widely used to make plastic bottles and is found in clothing fibers.
Nanoplastic particles are much smaller than microplastics and can enter the cells of the body when swallowed, inhaled or in contact with the skin. Scientists do not know how dangerous they are to humans and animals, and plan to investigate the toxicity of each type of plastic.
Every year, about 13 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean, most of which then disappears without a trace. Previously, scientists could not answer the question of where they go.
<<< July 20, 2022 Feed >>>
The Russian Federation and Iran signed a deal for $40 billion, Shana Iranian news agency writes. As reported, these funds are planned to develop gas and oil fields, as well as the construction of export gas pipelines.
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The Parliament of the Republic of Cyprus approved an amendment to the law on tax incentives for employees of foreign companies moving to the island or already working here.
The new law introduces a 50 percent discount for 17 years from the start of employment (before that it was 10 years) for those who earn more than 55,000 euros a year (previously it was 100,000 euros) or approximately 4,500 euros per month.
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Algerian Sonatrach and its partners — French TotalEnergies, American Occidental and Italian Eni — have extended a production sharing agreement (PSA) for 25 years on onshore blocks 404 and 208 of the Berkin geological basin in eastern Algeria.
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The American missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke entered the port of the Finnish capital Helsinki on Tuesday, the US 6th operational fleet said.
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Freight company LTG Cargo, which is part of the Lithuanian Railways group (Lietuvos gelezinkeliai, LTG), has begun transporting oil products produced by Orlen Lietuva (in the structure of the Polish oil concern Orlen) for Ukraine bypassing Belarus.
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In the first half of 2022, Russneft received a profit under RAS in the amount of 6.5 billion rubles, which is 2.1 times less than in the same period last year — 13.6 billion rubles, follows from the company’s financial statements.
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SAS and pilot unions have reached an agreement on wages, according to Reuters. The strike lasted 15 days, led to the suspension of 3.7 thousand flights and called into question the future of the airline.
Under the terms of the agreement, in particular, SAS will take back 450 retired pilots and increase the number of flights. In return, the pilots will withdraw their lawsuits against the company. The deal now has to be ratified by each of the unions involved in the negotiations, and then approved by a federal court in the United States, as the company is going through a financial restructuring there.
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For half of 2022, Russian courts declared 121.3 thousand citizens bankrupt, including individual entrepreneurs. This is 37.8% more than in the same period last year.
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The court confirmed the legality of the sale of smartphones with Samsung Rau in Russia. The Swiss company Sqwin SA tried to challenge the decision of the court. She says Samsung Pay infringes on her patent
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The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded private aerospace company SpaceX a contract to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into Earth orbit in October 2026, the US space agency said.
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In Iran, a court sentenced film director Jafar Panahi to six years in prison. He was found guilty of supporting anti-government protests in 2010 and «propaganda against the system.» In July of this year, two more colleagues of Panahi were arrested in Iran.
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From July 20, Gazprombank will introduce a commission for incoming SWIFT transfers, servicing foreign currency accounts and crediting funds to them. The commission will be 3% of the transfer amount, and the fee for storing currency balances from 10,000 USD. – 0.017% per day of the total amount
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Syria decided to break off diplomatic relations with Ukraine. The decision was made in response to a similar step by the Ukrainian side. Kyiv decided to break off relations with Damascus after the latter recognized the independence of the DNR and LNR
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The Prosecutor General’s Office declared the activities of the Open Estonia Foundation in Russia undesirable. The activity of the organization «poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the Russian Federation,» the agency explained. The prosecutor’s office sent information to the Ministry of Justice so that the fund would be entered into the appropriate register.
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Roskomnadzor ordered search engines to inform that the NGO Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, violates Russian law.
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A court in London has allowed sanctioned Russian oligarch Pyotr Aven to pay urgent expenses from frozen accounts — urgent expenses amount to about 140 thousand pounds a month.
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The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow has arrested Andrei Morev, head of the Yakimanka municipal district, for 15 days in a case of displaying extremist symbols. The reason for the protocol was a sticker with the symbols of «Smart Voting» on the rear window of the deputy’s car.
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The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization came to the conclusion that the information about the bomb on board the Ryanair aircraft, in which Roman Protasevich and Sofya Sapieha flew on May 23, 2021, was deliberately false and the leadership of Belarus instructed him to hand over to the crew.
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Ranil Wickremesinghe has been elected as the new President of Sri Lanka. His candidacy was chosen following a vote in parliament held today, July 20. Previously, Ranil Wickremesinghe was the country’s prime minister, and after the crisis began, he became acting head of state.
The former president previously fled to the Maldives and resigned via email amid the ‘worst economic crisis’ in the country’s history.
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Biker Surgeon said that the houses of members of the Night Wolves motorcycle club in Europe are being searched. Earlier, the media reported that the members of the club will be included in the EU sanctions list.
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Kyrgyzstan and Russia have completely switched to settlements in rubles, said the Minister of Economy and Commerce of Kyrgyzstan Daniyar Amangeldiev.
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Kyrgyzstan is ready to cooperate with companies that have left Russia, provided that this does not entail sanctions, said Minister of Economy and Commerce of the republic Daniyar Amangeldiev.
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Admission to international flights for Russian airlines will be tied to the volume of domestic flights, follows from the message of the Federal Air Transport Agency. The measure is aimed at fulfilling the presidential order on the transportation of at least 100 million passengers by Russian airlines in 2022.
“The temporary algorithm was developed in order to increase transport accessibility and mobility of the population of the Russian Federation during the period of sanctions and is valid until a decision is made to lift restrictions,” the Federal Air Transport Agency noted.
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More than 5 million Russian citizens have blocked assets in their accounts due to sanctions, the amount of blocked foreign shares of individuals exceeds 320 billion rubles, the Central Bank notes.
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