Over 50 individuals participated in an online forum held by non-profit organisation La Vida Brunei on Wednesday.
Panellists covered a range of topics from different perspectives, in support of equal rights and opportunities for all.
The event served to raise greater awareness on the importance of equal rights and opportunities for women, people with different abilities, and the underprivileged.
The talk also highlighted ways for communities to support the initiative.
Among the activities featured at the forum were talks from Brunei Council on Social Welfare (MKM) member Natasha Halim and Special Olympics Brunei Darussalam board member and Special Olympics Asia Pacific Family Input Council member Pengiran May Fazura binti Pengiran Haji Radin Hanafi.
Founder and Executive Director of Project Women and Girls Development, also known as Project Women Brunei Nur Judy binti Abdullah; and behaviour therapist, researcher and psychologist Francisca Lee working with children of different abilities, delivered talks from their respective fields.
Legislative Council member Yang Berhormat Khairunnisa binti Haji Ash’ari with attendees and panellists. PHOTO: LA VIDA BRUNEI
Jaguar Land Rover has partnered with Pramac, a global leader in the energy sector, to develop a portable zero-emission energy storage unit powered by second-life Jaguar I-PACE batteries.
Called the Off Grid Battery Energy Storage System (ESS), Pramac’s technology – which features lithium-ion cells from Jaguar I-PACE batteries taken from prototype and engineering test vehicles, supplies zero-emission power where access to the mains supply is limited or unavailable.
According to a press release, the partnership is the first in Jaguar Land Rover’s plans to create new circular economy business models for its vehicle batteries.
As part of its commitment to net zero status by 2039, the company will be launching programmes that deliver second life and beyond uses for its electric vehicle batteries.
Post-vehicle applications exist because Jaguar Land Rover’s batteries are engineered to the highest standards and can therefore be safely deployed in multiple low-energy situations once battery health falls below the stringent requirements of an electric vehicle.
The flagship system has a capacity of up to 125kWh. Pramac directly reuses up to 85 per cent of the vehicle battery supplied by Jaguar Land Rover within the storage unit, including modules and wiring. The remaining materials are recycled back into the supply chain.
Charged from solar panels, the unit is a self-contained solution that consists of a battery system linked to a bi-directional converter and the associated control management systems.
Charged from solar panels, the unit is a self-contained solution that consists of a battery system linked to a bi-directional converter and the associated control management systems. PHOTO: INDERA MOTORS
Available for commercial hire, the units are fitted with Type 2 Electric Vehicle (EV) charge connections with dynamic control and rated at up to 22kW AC to allow electric vehicle charging.
To showcase its capability, the unit helped Jaguar TCS Racing prepare for the 2022 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship during testing in the UK and Spain, where it was used to run the team’s cutting-edge diagnostic equipment analysing the race cars’ track performance, and to supply auxiliary power to the Jaguar pit garage.
An Off Grid Battery ESS will also be deployed at Jaguar Land Rover Experience Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa – the world’s biggest – to help the site cope with inconsistent power delivery from the mains.
Circular Economy Team at Jaguar Land Rover Battery Manager Andrew Whitworth said, “This announcement is a great example of how we will collaborate with industry leaders to deliver our sustainable future and achieve a truly circular economy. We’re delighted to be working with Pramac to use Jaguar I-PACE second-life batteries to provide portable zero-emissions power and supporting Jaguar TCS Racing this season was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate what these units are capable of.”
Jaguar Land Rover Executive Director for Strategy and Sustainability François Dossa said, “The transition to an electric future, with Jaguar becoming all-electric from 2025 and the first all-electric Land Rover model expected in 2024, is integral to our sustainability strategy through the development of a comprehensive EV ecosystem from batteries to charging. This includes our effort to enable technical and business innovations for battery reuse for second life applications.
“Our collaboration with Pramac is a proof point in such direction, showing how it’s possible to supply zero-emission power through the combination of renewables and second life batteries.”
Pramac Director Danny Jones said, “We have been privileged to work so closely with Jaguar Land Rover who are a hugely supportive partner in our journey to successfully build a robust product and a commercially viable business case using second-life EV modules. This brings a new element to the sustainability story as a manufacturer of energy efficient and carbon reducing technology.”
The Kampong Jerudong ‘B’ Village Consultative Council (MPKJB) held a tree-planting activity at Jelutong Lampong Muslim Cemetery in Kampong Jerudong on Friday.
Kampong Jerudong ‘B’ Acting Village Head Kamis bin Panjang led 20 participants in planting 30 tabebuia rosea trees and 20 mahogany trees. Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation (JASTRe) Director Martinah binti Haji Tamit was the guest of honour.
The tree-planting activity aimed to beautify the surrounding areas of the cemetery and served as a response to the government’s call to achieve a greener environment amid
climate change.
ABOVE & BELOW: Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation (JASTRe) Director Martinah binti Haji Tamit with Kampong Jerudong ‘B’ Village Consultative Council members and participants; and a tree-planting activity. PHOTOS: MPKJB
COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka cancelled exams for millions of school students as the country ran out of printing paper with Colombo short on dollars to finance imports, officials said yesterday.
Education authorities said the term tests, scheduled a week from Monday, were postponed indefinitely due to an acute paper shortage as Sri Lanka contends with its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948.
“School principals cannot hold the tests as printers are unable to secure foreign exchange to import necessary paper and ink,” the Department of Education of the Western Province said.
Official sources said the move could effectively hold up tests for around two thirds of the country’s 4.5 million students.
Term tests are part of a continuous assessment process to decide if students are promoted to the next grade at the end of the year.
A debilitating economic crisis brought on by a shortage of foreign exchange reserves to finance essential imports, has seen the country run low on food, fuel and pharmaceuticals.
The cash-strapped South Asian nation of 22 million announced this week that it will seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to resolve its worsening foreign debt crisis and shore up external reserves. The IMF on Friday confirmed it was considering President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s surprise on Wednesday request to discuss a bailout.
Around USD6.9 billion of Colombo’s debt needs to be serviced this year but its foreign currency reserves stood at about USD2.3 billion at the end of February.
Long queues have formed across the country for groceries and oil with the government instituting rolling electricity blackouts and rationing of milk powder, sugar, lentils and rice.
Police stop demonstrators during a protest outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s seafront office in Colombo. PHOTO: AFP
MEJILLONES (AFP) – When Chilean scientist Osvaldo Ulloa led an expedition 8,000 metres under the sea to an area where no human had ever been, his team discovered microscopic organisms that generated more questions than answers.
The January submarine expedition dove into the Atacama Trench, created by the meeting of two tectonic plates in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
“We pulled off the feat of taking humans into the trench where no other human being had been before,” director of the Millennium Institute of Oceanography at the University of Concepcion Ulloa told AFP.
He was joined by American explorer Victor Vescovo and Millennium assistant director Ruben Escribano on the 12-week journey off Chile’s northern coast in the 5,900-kilometre long trench that extends up to Ecuador.
By the time the expedition, named Atacama Hadal, reached a depth of 100 metres it was already in pitch black darkness, with the crew members’ vision limited to what the ubmarine’s powerful LED light could capture.
Further down out of the darkness emerged remarkable examples of deep sea life.
“We came across geological structures and there we saw a type of holothurians or translucent sea cucumbers, like jelly, that we had not recorded and were most probably new species,” said Ulloa.
Chilean scientist Osvaldo Ulloa waves. PHOTO: AFP
“We also discovered bacterial communities that had filaments that we did not even know existed in the Atacama Trench and which feed on chemical and inorganic compounds.
“That opened up a huge number of questions: What are those compounds? What type of bacteria are they? We have no idea, we’re going to have to go back there.”
The expedition also found species of amphipods, a type of crustacean closely related to shrimp, which were scavenging crustaceans, segmented worms and translucent fish. They were discovered in the same place in an unmanned expedition in 2018.
The Atacama Trench – also known as the Peru-Chile Trench – lies where the Nazca and South American tectonic plates converge.
It is an area that has produced many earthquakes and tsunamis.
“We will put three sensors on the South American Plate and two on the Nazca Plate to see how the oceanic floor is deformed,” said Ulloa.
For the moment, “these types of sensors only exist on land.”
The devices will allow scientists to observe where energy is building in areas that have not had an earthquake, thus helping predict where the next temblor will take place.
“It is an incredibly ambitious project,” said Ulloa, adding that it is “the largest experiment that has been done in underwater geology here in Chile.”
The sensors are due to be placed during the second half of this year.
“There is a lot of interest from the international community to put more sensors in this region to study all the processes associated with the collision of these two plates.”
YANGON (CNA) – Myanmar will resume international passenger flights from April 17, the military said yesterday, lifting a two-year ban on foreign tourists.
The Southeast Asian nation closed its borders to visitors in March 2020 at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to prevent rising infections.
Myanmar was further isolated after a coup last year saw huge protests and a bloody military crackdown on dissent, sending its economy – including its tourism industry – into freefall.
“We will open all international flights on April 17, and can fly as regularly,” said the National Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease, citing falling COVID-19 infections.
In a statement, it said the decision was “in order to improve the tourism business sector, and in order to have smooth trip for visitors who come to visit Myanmar”.
Visitors will be required to quarantine for a week – undergoing two PCR tests – and must be fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.
Myanmar’s tourism industry was battered by the pandemic, with the country registering 40,000 daily COVID-19 cases at its peak last year. It has recorded almost 20,000 deaths in total. Spiralling violence following the junta takeover has also dented business, with many international firms pulling out of the nation.
Myanmar, home to the temples of Bagan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, will re-open to foreign tourists on April 17. PHOTO: AFP
The Magistrate’s Court yesterday ordered a local company to settle a BND5,000 fine after the director pleaded guilty to the failure to file the particulars of its income tax returns.
Prosecutor Syafina binti Abdul Hadzid revealed in court that the company had failed to submit its income tax returns to the Income Tax Collector for the business years ending on June 30, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Magistrate Dewi Norlelawati binti Haji Abdul Hamid presided over the case.
NEW YORK (AP) – A particularly prized copy of the first-ever Marvel comic book fetched more than USD2.4 million in an online auction, the auctioneer said on Friday.
Known as the Marvel Comics #1 ‘pay copy’, it’s “arguably one of the top three comic books in the world of comics collecting,” said chief operating officer of ComicConnect Vincent Zurzolo. The New York-based auctioneer sold the book on Thursday night for a bit under USD2,427,800.
The buyer’s name has not been disclosed. He is “an extremely passionate comic book collector and investor” who also collects other items, Zurzolo said.
Published in 1939, Marvel Comics #1 introduced characters including Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch, a precursor of the character of the same name that was later a member of Marvel’s Fantastic Four. The book launched what became the Marvel universe of comics, movies, TV shows and video games.
The very well-preserved ‘pay copy’ is especially sought-after because it bears the publisher’s handwritten notes recording how much the multiple writers and artists were paid. For example, Frank R Paul earned USD25 for drawing the cover of a book now worth nearly 100,000 times as much.
“It’s an incredibly important look into the world and behind the scenes of the creation” of a comics powerhouse, Zurzolo said.
The Marvel universe would eventually include such characters as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, Daredevil and the Hulk, often known on-screen as the Incredible Hulk.
Stephen Fishler holding a copy of Marvel Comics #1. PHOTO: AP
BIRMINGHAM, UNITED KINGDOM (AFP) – Arsenal took another big step towards ending a five-year exile from the Champions League (CL) as Bukayo Saka’s strike beat Aston Villa 1-0 to open up a four-point lead in fourth in the Premier League.
The Gunners could even increase that gap with a game in hand over fifth-placed Manchester United and were well worthy of the three points against a toothless Villa despite the narrow scoreline.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta had complained about the tight turnaround his side faced after Wednesday’s 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool.
That defeat ended a five-game winning run and there was no sign of tiredness from the visitors in the early stages.
Emile Smith Rowe returned to the starting line-up as one of two changes as Gabriel Martinelli and Aaron Ramsdale missed out through illness and injury respectively.
Aston Villa’s Ashley Young and Philippe Coutinho combine to tackle Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka during the match at Villa Park. PHOTO: AP
Smith Rowe had the first chance inside the three minutes when he fired over from Martin Odegaard’s pass. Odegaard and Thomas Partey were dominating the midfield and a nice move between the two deserved a better finish from the Ghanian as he fired straight at Emiliano Martinez.
Saka was a constant threat and fittingly got the only goal on 30 minutes when Villa failed to clear a free-kick and he fired low past Martinez from the edge of the area.
Villa improved after the break but lacked the creativity to break Arsenal down as Philippe Coutinho failed to hit the heights of his best form since joining on loan from Barcelona.
Ramsdale’s absence meant Bernd Leno was making his first Premier League appearance since August.
The German was not forced into a save until the final kick of the game when he parried Coutinho’s free-kick to safety and was mobbed by his teammates at full-time as Arsenal celebrated a big three points in their quest to get back to European football’s elite competition.
Some 144 graduates were celebrated during the Kolej International Graduate Studies (KIGS) 2021 Convocation Ceremony yesterday at the lobby of the college’s main building.
Minister of Transport and Infocommunications Dato Seri Setia Awang Abdul Mutalib bin Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Setia Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yusof presented certificates as the guest of honour.
The convocation ceremony themed ‘Digital Technology Transformation Enrichment’ began with a recitation of Surah Ar-Rahman verses 1-9 and Surah Al-Qalam verses 1-7 by Religious Teachers University College of Seri Begawan (KUPU SB) Education Officer Haji Nasrul Fakhri bin Haji Yahya.
It was followed by welcoming remarks from KIGS Chief Executive Officer Dr Haji Azaharaini bin Haji Mohd Jamil. He said the convocation’s theme is a reminder for KIGS management and lecturers to embrace and encourage digital technology for more effective administration as well as better teaching and learning.
The minister then delivered a speech followed by a video presentation and choir performance.
Certificates were presented to the graduates as well as awards – Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr Lim Kok Wing’s Excellence Award and Pengiran Setia Jaya’s Excellence Award – for top students.
ABOVE & BELOW: Minister of Transport and Infocommunications Dato Seri Setia Awang Abdul Mutalib bin Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Setia Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yusof presents a certificate to a graduate; and graduates during the Kolej International Graduate Studies 2021 Convocation Ceremony. PHOTOS: BAHYIAH BAKIR
There were 33 graduates with Bachelor (Hons) in Business Administration and nine with Bachelor of Business (Hons) in Accounting.
Faculty of Information Technology (IT) had 15 graduates in Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Information Technology and 12 in Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Software Engineering with Multimedia.
Eighteen diploma-level students and 12 certificate-level students received their certificates from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
The Faculty of Multimedia and Broadcasting had 11 graduates with Bachelor of Communication (Hons) in Digital Media, 30 diploma graduates and four certificate students.
Yesterday’s ceremony coincided with the launch of the college’s 11th Vibe event by the guest of honour.
