Environment

A 5.9 magnitude quake has struck northeastern Japan, 18km NNE of Daigo, and in close proximity to the infamous Fukushima nuclear power plant the US Geological Survey reported; no tsunami warning has been issued. The epicenter of the quake was given as Ibaraki Prefecture in central Japan, the same as was impacted during the 2011 Fukushima quake. The prefecture has a population of some 3 million people.

Earlier, the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) earlier put the magnitude at 6.3.

Israel have begun an aggressive pesticide spraying campaign along the Gaza border between 25 December and 5 January, despite claims by Palestinian farmers that it damages crops and harms the health of those nearby.  The Palestinian ministry of agriculture has condemned the spraying by Israeli occupation authorities, and have warned local residents to expect a loss of crops as a result. Middleeastmonitor.com reports: The ministry’s statement was reported by a number of media outlets.

Submitted by Pyotr Iskenderov via Strategic-Culture.org,

This past year of 2016 set a new record for the export history of Gazprom, Russia’s biggest gas company. Its chairman, Alexey Miller, has claimed that by the end of the year Gazprom will have shipped a total of 180 billion cubic meters to non-CIS countries.

Gazprom had only planned to export between 166 and 170 billion cubic meters of gas in 2016 (in 2015, 158.56 billion cubic meters of gas were delivered to non-CIS countries).

The United States’ highest paid climate change expert has been sentenced to 32 months in federal prison on fraud charges. John C. Beale’s crimes were “inexplicable” and “unbelievably egregious,” said Judge Ellen Huvelle in imposing the sentence in a Washington. D.C. federal court. Beale drew a $200,000 plus salary per year and regularly travelled around the world staying high end hotels – all at the taxpayer’s expense – while claiming to be saving the world from global warming as well as working for the CIA on covert assignments. What else do you think he has been lying about?

A 7.7-magnitude quake struck at 9:22am EST at a depth of 33 kilometers some 40 km southwest of Puerto Quellon in southern Chile on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey said. 

The quake prompted a tsunami threat message by the Tsunami Warning Center for areas as far as 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the epicenter.

Tsunami Info Stmt: M7.7 in southern Chile 0622PST Dec 25: Tsunami NOT expected; CA,OR,WA,BC,and AK

#NTWC

— NWS Tsunami Alerts (@NWS_NTWC) December 25, 2016