(VNE) TRAN TO NGA

The Paris Court of Appeal's rejection of the lawsuit filed by Tran To Nga against U.S. manufacturers of Agent Orange is not a surprise for the French-Vietnamese woman, who said she will not give up but continue to pursue this lawsuit.

The Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected the lawsuit filed by Nga against the U.S. chemical corporations that supplied AO/dioxin for the U.S. army to use during the war in Vietnam.

Talking to the Vietnam News Agency, Nga, who is a dioxin victim herself, said she is not surprised at this ruling, and that she will not give up but keep pursuing this lawsuit.

As Nga's representatives, William Bourdon and Bertrand Repolt from the Bourdon law office expressed their determination to stay on their client’s side.

The fight by their client does not end with this ruling, and they will take the case to the highest appeals court, the lawyers said, noting that judges of the Paris Court of Appeal held a conservative attitude that runs counter to the modernity of law, as well as international law and European law. More of this article (VN Express) - link - Paris Court of Appeal - link - more like this (Agent Orange) - link

What is Agent Orange?

Agent Orange was a plant-killing chemical (herbicide). 

The United States military used Agent Orange during the Vietnam conflict from 1962 to 1971 to clear trees, plants and vegetation from U.S. bases and to remove foliage used for cover. 

During this time, the U.S. sprayed 11 million gallons of Agent Orange over 20 million acres in Vietnam - link

What 11 million gallons looks like when not being deployed deliberately - link

(NAT) LIVING PLASTIC

When the going gets tough for certain bacteria, they form into spores that can withstand the harshest of environments. Scientists have now utilized that fact to produce "living plastic" that biodegrades – but only under specific conditions.

Spores are a dormant form taken by some types of bacteria, typically when nutrients are in short supply.

They are protected by a tough outer coating that allows them to survive high temperatures, high pressure, desiccation, and caustic chemicals. This makes them one of the most resistant of all life forms. They are able to remain in an inactive state for years or even centuries at a time, becoming active again only when triggered by the right environmental cues.

Some bacteria are also known to break down plastic waste, keeping it from persisting in the environment. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have now taken spores of such bacteria and embedded them in solid plastic, which remains tough and intact until the spores are revived. More like this (New Atlas) - link - more like this (recycling) - link

(F24) AGENT ORANGE APPEAL DISMISSED

A Paris court Thursday rejected an appeal by a French-Vietnamese woman who has been trying to sue Monsanto and other makers of Agent Orange for the chemical's use in the Vietnam war.

Tran To Nga, who was born in what was then French Indochina, accused 14 agrochemicals firms of causing grievous harm to her and others by selling Agent Orange to the American military, which used the herbicide to devastating effect in Vietnam.

She lost her initial case in 2021, when a French court ruled that the companies enjoyed legal immunity from prosecution because they worked for a sovereign government.

The Paris Court of Appeal used the same argument in rejecting Nga's claim.

Her demands "come up against the companies' immunity status," the court said in its written ruling, seen by AFP.

Nga will now take her case to France's highest appeals court for a final ruling, her lawyers said.

The 82-year-old, who covered the 1955-1975 war as a reporter and has lived in France for the past three decades, also accused the companies of environmental damage.

Campaign groups estimate that four million people in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were exposed to the 76 million litres (20 million gallons) of Agent Orange sprayed by US forces to destroy ground cover and food sources in its battle with communist North Vietnamese troops between 1962 and 1971.

Vietnam blames the chemical for severe birth defects in 150,000 children. More of this article (France 24) - link - picture (Vanity Fair - brilliant article by Nick Ut who took the photograph on 8th June 1972 ) - link - Monsanto - link - in the footsteps of Monsanto - link - the glyphosate hangover - link -  more like this (Vietnam) - link

(MAG) ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS UNVEIL 5 NEW BOTS

Zhiyuan Robotics, the startup founded by former Huawei "genius youth" Peng Zhihui, unveiled five new commercial humanoid robot models during the “Zhiyuan Expedition Commercial Sailing” 2024 New Product Launch Conference. 

The company also announced plans to open-source key technologies and datasets to accelerate industry development.

Zhiyuan introduced two new product families designed to cover a wide range of commercial applications:

Expedition Series: The Expedition series consists of three robots tailored for different industrial and service roles.

The Expedition A2 is an interactive service robot designed for customer-facing environments like exhibition halls, reception desks, and business consultations. Standing at 169 cm and weighing 69 kg, it features over 40 degrees of freedom for natural movements and uses a large language model for voice interaction and multi-modal information processing. It can carry loads of up to 1 kg, walk at a speed of 1 m/s, and operate autonomously for 2 hours. During the event, the A2 served as the host, demonstrating its ability to perform light work tasks while interacting seamlessly with attendees. more of this article (maginative) - link - more like this (bots) - link

(NAT) UNITREE ROBOT GOES TO MASS PRODUCTION

China's Unitree Robotics is a relatively recent entry in the general-purpose humanoid robot space, but its $16,000 G1 model is already proving itself to be quite the performer. So much so that the company has now revealed a version that's ready for mass production.

Until December last year, robot development at Unitree was pretty much focused on producing four-legged robo-beasts like the Go2 and B2. And by the time the first biped humanoid made its video debut, there was already stiff competition from the likes of Tesla, Figure, Boston Dynamics and Sanctuary AI.

But progress has been impressive, and the US$90k first effort was soon joined by a much cheaper and more capable model called the G1. This one has a visor-like face instead of an air gap and sports three-digit hands where once were stumps. It also looks less like a development platform and more like something headed for production – and now it appears to be ready to make that leap - more of this (New Atlas) - link - more like this (bots) - link

(MOT) THE NEW FACE OF CLIMATE ACTIVISM

The atmosphere is more festival than crime scene. There’s an accordionist, and two men in beanie hats are playing the drums. It’s a clear spring day in the farmlands of western France. But the people gathered in this field are technically trespassing, and there are signs they expect trouble. Someone has a gas mask slung around their neck.

There’s a contingent clad in balaclavas. Others disguise their features with dark goggles or masks, and one group holds up a wide fabric canopy to obscure the view of police drones. At the center of the maelstrom stands Léna Lazare, holding a pickaxe.

The then-24-year-old’s long brown hair is untied; her face uncovered. That’s important, she says. It adds a sense of legitimacy to what she’s about to do. She drives the pickaxe into the ground as the crowd around her looks on. Again and again she strikes at the hard, dry earth. When she can’t dig any more, another person emerges from the huddle to take over. Several meters down, they find what they’ve been looking for: pipes.

Beneath the field is a network designed to carry water to a new “mega-basin”—a giant reservoir being built near the village of Épannes. The group is here to rip one of those pipes out of the ground. more of this (Mother Jones) - link - more like this (activists) - link

(ENG) SISTERS DOIN' IT

Among corporate America's most persistent shareholder activists are 80 nuns in a monastery outside Kansas City.

Amid rolling farmland, the Benedictine sisters of Mount St Scholastica have taken on the likes of Google, Target and Citigroup - calling on major companies to do everything from AI oversight to measuring pesticides to respecting the rights of Indigenous people.

"Some of these companies, they just really hate us," said Sister Barbara McCracken, who leads the nuns' corporate responsibility program.

"Because we're small, we're just like a little fly in the ointment trying to irritate them."

At a time when activist investing has become politically polarised, these nuns are no strangers to making a statement.

Recently they went viral for denouncing the commencement speech of American football team the Kansas City Chief's kicker Harrison Butker at the nearby college they cofounded. When Butker suggested the women graduates of Benedictine College would most cherish their roles as wives and mothers, the nuns – who are noticeably neither wives nor mothers – expressed concern with "the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman." more of this - Euro News Green - link - more like this (activism) - link

(GRE) WALMART ZERO DEPACK

As it moves towards its global zero-waste goal, America’s largest retailer has introduced a new tech solution to reduce the amount of expired food going to landfill.

As part of an ongoing partnership with Arkansas-based organic recycling company Denali, the retail giant is installing repackaging technology at more than 1,400 Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs in over 16 US cities.

Called Zero Depack, the programme aims to keep food past its sell-by date out of the waste stream by repurposing it into useful products for farmers or converting it into energy with anaerobic digesters. The solution streamlines the unpackaging process of the expired food, separating 97% or more of all trash from organic food waste.

Denali’s machines have increased the volume of potentially reusable organic content from participating locations by over 60%, while reducing compactor trash by around 12%. This will lead to “cleaner waste streams, happier associates, and a host of potential sustainability opportunities”, according to RJ Zanes, VP of facility services at Walmart US. more of this - green queen - link - more like this (waste) - link

(DEZ) PHONES TO FURNITURE

Electronics accessory brand Casetify has launched a series of public art installations in five cities around the world using recycled phone cases as the key material.

These installations form part of the brand's 2024 Earth Month campaign Journey to Re/Birth, which invited local artists from the US, South Korea, China, Australia, and Thailand to create art and design pieces made out of discarded phone cases collected by the brand's Re/Casetify upcycling program.

"All of these are part of the brand's ongoing efforts to make sure the end of any phone case is the beginning of a new one in all possible ways," said Casetify. Dezeen - link - More like this - link

(IAN) OXFORD 204

More like this - link

X - @IanAdamson3000

 I'm on X - @IanAdamson3000

(MOT) OLD EV BATTERIES GO SOLAR

Repurposed electric vehicle batteries at B2U Storage Solutions.B2U Storage Solutions/Grist

On a 20-acre parcel outside the tiny Southern California town of New Cuyama, a 1.5-megawatt solar farm uses the sun’s rays to slowly charge nearly 600 batteries in nearby cabinets. 

At night, when energy demand rises, that electricity is sent to the grid to power homes with clean energy.

To make renewable energy from intermittent sources like solar and wind available when it is most needed, it’s becoming more common to use batteries to store the power as it’s generated and transmit it later. But one thing about the Cuyama facility, which began operations this week, is less common: The batteries sending energy to the grid once powered electric vehicles.

The SEPV Cuyama facility, located about two hours northeast of Santa Barbara, is the second hybrid storage facility opened by B2U Storage Solutions. Its first facility, just outside Los Angeles, uses 1,300 retired batteries from Honda Clarity and Nissan Leaf EVs to store 28 megawatt-hours of power, enough to power about 9,500 homes. This article at Mother Jones - link - GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA - link - more like this - link

(PIN) PET GREENWASHING

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), backed by environmental groups Client Earth and Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), has taken action against major water bottle producers, such as Coca-Cola, Danone and Nestlé Waters/Nestlé, for alleged greenwashing.

Consumer groups from 13 countries have submitted an external alert to the European network of consumer authorities (CPC-Network) demonstrating that claims of “100% recycled” or “100% recyclable” on plastic water bottles can be misleading.

The legal action follows the publication of a report by ECOS and Client Earth, which found evidence that recyclability and PCR content claims are only partially valid for most plastic bottles, and scientific methodologies like LCAs are usually flawed.

“Be it about buying new clothes, opening a bank account or buying water bottles, consumers increasingly want to make the most sustainable choice and seek reliable information to do so. However, they are bombarded with incorrect and deceptive claims, so they do not know which claim or label to trust,” says Ursula Pachl, deputy director general of BEUC.

“Using ‘100% recycled/recyclable’ claims or displaying nature images and green visuals that insinuate that plastic is environmentally friendly is misleading consumers. Such claims, however, can be found on many water bottles sold across Europe. The problem is that there’s no guarantee it will be fully recycled once it’s in the bin. This greenwashing must stop.” more on this from Packaging Insights - link - more like this - link

(SIM) SWITCHBLADE FLYING CAR - FLIES

The Samson Sky Switchblade, one of the most sought-after flying cars, marked a major achievement in its development as it completed its maiden flight in Washington State. 

While the flight was relatively short, The Samson Sky team will reportedly use the flight's data to finalize the production of several prototypes.

Known as "The Flying Sports Car," the Switchblade is designed to shave down 10-hour road trips into three-and-a-half-hour trips from door to door. The milestone comes after 14 years spent designing the flying car, which is estimated to start at $170,000.
Conducting the first flight

The Switchblade's first flight occurred at Grant County International Airport, where Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers typically perform flight testing. Robert Moehle, a veteran test pilot, was at the command of the experimental aircraft, according to Samson Sky. Moehle reportedly devoted years of work on the Switchblade to make creator, designer, and CEO Sam Bousfield's dream of a true high-performance flying car possible. Channing Reid - link - Simple Flying - link - more like this - link

LEST WE FORGET - PRIVATE ALFRED MONK

LEST WE FORGET - LINK