Category: Oceania

Black Lives Matter protests come under scrutiny

China, General, Government, Health, Oceania, Politics, Social Issues

An Australian court has ruled against Black Lives Matter protesters’ request to appeal the decision that denied the permission for a protest scheduled on Tuesday 28th July 2020. The decision comes as Australia reported a record number of new cases per day, with the total number reaching over 500 for the first time since the virus was reported in the country in January 2020. 

In response to the decision to deny the appeal, David Elliott, New South Wales police minister, said: ‘I welcome the court of appeal’s decision to uphold the supreme court’s verdict on the authorisation of a protest planned for Tuesday 28 July.’ He went on to describe how the ‘NSW government urges both the organisers and anyone thinking of attending to stay away, abide by the law and seriously consider the consequences of their potential actions. A pandemic is no time to attend a mass gathering, no matter how honourable the cause.’ The decision is a controversial one as Black Lives Matter protests have begun around the world, with momentum behind the movement increasing after the death of George Floyd in the USA on 25 May 2020. Starting in Minneapolis, the protests have spread globally, with Aljazeera even creating an interactive map of the rally site locations. 
The July record high comes following numbers as low as 3 and 12 back in May and June. The last peak of record new cases per day came back in March, which saw 469 cases reported in one day likely because of high numbers of returning international travellers. The majority of new cases were found in Victoria, with others in New South Wales and one in Queensland. As of the 22nd July there were currently 214 in hospitals around Australia following an additional 31 people submitted since the 14th July. Over 20 of the patients are intensive care units on ventilators.

AirAsia X Places Order for 42 Airbus Planes

Asia, Australia, Oceania, South East Asia, UncategorizedNo Comments

AirAisa X has closed a deal with Airbus for 42 new aircraft. Twelve A330-900 and thirty A321XLR are set to bolster the trans-Asian airline’s already formidable presence in the affordable air travel market. 

The Airline

AirAsiaX is, unsurprisingly, a sister company of AirAsia, the largest Asian international carrier. Based in Malaysia, AirAsia runs a myriad of routes between many nearby Asian (especially Southeast Asian) cities. AirAsiaX focuses on long distance routes, especially between Asia, Australia, and the United States. Its first route, commenced in 2007, was between Kuala Lumpur and the Australian Gold Coast. It tends to use peripheral airports rather than central ones to keep ticket prices down; in 2018, it swapped its KL-Melbourne route for nearby Avalon Airport.

The Aircrafts

The A330-900 is an extended fuselage version of the Airbus A330neo.  It can seat up to 300 passengers in a three-class layout; that number rises to 440 if an airline choses to forgo luxury seating options. Its range of 13,400km is sufficient for most intercontinental routes, with the exception of some trans-Pacific flights.

The A321XLR is the newest adaptation of the A321neo, the world’s best-selling single aisle aircraft. It has been refined to make its range “Xtra Long”, and can now travel up to 8500km. Smaller bodied planes better accommodate smaller airports; the A321XLR is a popular choice for smaller regional airlines. For AirAsiaX, the more efficient, but still lower passenger capacity model will enable the opening and continuation of less-traveled routes such as India-Europe and China-Australia, according to the Airbus website. 

Boeing Awaits Fate, Passengers Wait

Countries, North America, Oceania, Regions, Technology News, USANo Comments

Hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger airplanes remain grounded across the world pending conclusion of an ongoing investigation into two fatal crashes, only months apart, in 2018 and 2019. Some airlines are finding it difficult to cope with their diminished fleets. If you find your flight delayed, this may be why.

The crashes and causes

Shortly after takeoff on 29 October 2918, Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. The plane was reported to have entered the sea at a sharp angle, and an investigation pointed out that a likely flaw in an automated system that controlled the aircraft’s pitch, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). 

On 10 March 2019, just over four months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, traveling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, crashed under similar circumstances. Two minutes after takeoff, the plane’s MCAS engaged, sharply pitching the aircraft back towards the ground. Over the course of the next four minutes, the pilots struggled to disengage the MCAS while retaining other forms of automated/assisted control. Flight data shows drastically fluctuating rates of climb, descent, and air speed. The MCAS engaged a second time; shortly after, the aircraft struck the ground at nearly 1100 kilometers per hour, killing all 157 persons aboard.

Boeing’s new best-seller..

The Boeing 737 was developed in the 1960’s and is the most popular commercial passenger aircraft. The 737 MAX was introduced in 2011, featured larger engines, and became Boeing’s fastest-selling plane ever. Put briefly, the engine’s increased weight made stalling more likely in some ascent conditions. The MCAS was designed to detect these stalls and adjust engine and tail fin angles to push down the plane’s nose to counteract them.

..and how it was (allowed to be) made

The MCAS directly caused both flights. This having been established, inquiries into the development and implementation of the system are now underway, with Boeing currently under investigation by the Justice Department and FBI. A former Boeing engineer has reported that developers were under explicit commands to minimize the cost of the 737 renovation (to the 737 MAX) as well as to downplay changes in design and features in order to more smoothly pass Federal Aviation Administration standards. FAA certification processes are partially outsourced to airline producers, one of those being Boeing.

Fallout

Much of the reignited discussion of the 1986 Chernobyl reactor explosion focuses on how a country could knowingly (the fail switch that actually sparked the temperature spike was discovered, but not revised, due to anticipated costs) endanger its citizens and the world. How reckless of them! 

We now have a crater in Ethiopia, with debris reaching up to nine meters into the ground, made by a plane that was hastily created, certified, and sold by a company across the world. Take it from there.

Alarming percentage of food delivery drivers eat from orders

Asia, Australia, Countries, FMCG, North America, Oceania, Regions, Regulation News, Social Issues, Technology News, USANo Comments

Think twice next time you’re about to tip the man or woman delivering food to your house. According to a recent survey conducted by US Foods, nearly 30 percent of delivery drivers have swiped something from a customer’s food order.

The survey interviewed some 500 delivery drivers who worked for various apps (including UberEats, GrubHub and DoorDash). Twenty-eight percent of those drivers confessed to having taken food from a customer’s order prior to delivering it, while more than half (54 percent) admitted to thinking about doing so.

From the report: “We’re sorry to report that sometimes, impulse gets the best of deliverers, and they violate their sacred duty by taking some of the food!”

As you might expect, customers (1,500 of whom were polled by US Foods as part of the same study) are less than thrilled by the idea of a delivery driver lifting a bit of their meal. US Foods asked customers to to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 meaning “no big deal” and 10 meaning “absolutely unacceptable”), how upset they would be to learn that such a thing occurred, and the average response was 8.4. No surprise there.

Meanwhile, 85 percent of customers said they would like their order to come with a sticker or label which, if broken, would indicate that the delivery boy/girl had gotten hungry on the drive over.

Taking food from an order is of course a violation of company policy: if caught, drivers are liable to be fired.

On the flip side, drivers had some bones to pick as well. Sixty percent of those surveyed said they were “consistently irritated” by a lack of tips. MarketWatch reports:

“On the customer side, 95% of those surveyed said they tipped their drivers, though 66% said service and delivery fees — which don’t go to the driver — affected how much they tip. $5 was the average tip for about one in three customers, but 57% of customers said they tipped less than that. Just 11% said they tipped an average of $6 or more.”

Upon hearing this news, customers might be even less inclined to tip, further enraging delivery drivers and leading them to retaliate by, well, stealing some food. Sounds like a vicious cycle.