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satu alasan utama meningkatnya popularitas Slot QRIS Indonesia adalah kemudahan dalam penggunaannya. Pengguna tidak perlu lagi menghafal nomor rekening atau melakukan proses transfer yang panjang. Cukup dengan memindai kode QR melalui aplikasi perbankan maupun dompet digital, transaksi dapat diselesaikan dalam hitungan detik.

Kemudahan tersebut memberikan pengalaman yang lebih nyaman, terutama bagi generasi muda yang telah terbiasa dengan layanan serba digital. Di tengah mobilitas yang semakin tinggi, metode pembayaran yang cepat menjadi kebutuhan yang sulit dipisahkan dari aktivitas sehari-hari.

Didukung Ekosistem Digital yang Terus Berkembang

Pertumbuhan penggunaan QRIS juga tidak lepas dari dukungan ekosistem digital nasional yang semakin matang. Berbagai bank dan penyedia layanan keuangan telah mengintegrasikan QRIS ke dalam aplikasi mereka, sehingga pengguna memiliki banyak pilihan untuk melakukan transaksi.

Kondisi ini menciptakan lingkungan yang mendukung adopsi teknologi secara luas. Semakin banyak masyarakat yang mengenal dan menggunakan QRIS, semakin tinggi pula tingkat kepercayaan terhadap sistem pembayaran tersebut. Efeknya terlihat pada meningkatnya jumlah transaksi digital yang memanfaatkan metode QR setiap tahunnya.

Keamanan Menjadi Nilai Tambah

Selain praktis, faktor keamanan turut berperan dalam mendorong popularitas Slot QRIS Indonesia. Sistem ini dirancang dengan standar yang telah ditetapkan untuk memastikan proses transaksi berlangsung dengan lebih aman dan terverifikasi.

Pengguna tidak perlu membagikan informasi rekening kepada pihak lain saat melakukan pembayaran. Seluruh proses dilakukan melalui aplikasi resmi yang telah dilengkapi berbagai lapisan keamanan, sehingga risiko kesalahan transaksi dapat diminimalkan.

Menjangkau Berbagai Kalangan Pengguna

Popularitas Slot QRIS Indonesia juga didorong oleh kemampuannya menjangkau berbagai lapisan masyarakat. Tidak hanya pengguna perbankan konvensional, pemilik dompet digital pun dapat memanfaatkan metode pembayaran ini dengan mudah.

Fleksibilitas tersebut membuat QRIS menjadi solusi yang relevan bagi masyarakat urban maupun daerah yang mulai beralih ke layanan keuangan digital. Dengan satu standar pembayaran yang dapat digunakan di berbagai platform, pengalaman transaksi menjadi lebih sederhana dan konsisten.

Perubahan Gaya Hidup Digital Masyarakat

Meningkatnya penggunaan QRIS mencerminkan perubahan gaya hidup masyarakat Indonesia yang semakin mengandalkan teknologi dalam berbagai aktivitas. Mulai dari pembayaran makanan, transportasi, hingga layanan digital, semuanya kini dapat dilakukan melalui satu perangkat yang selalu berada di tangan pengguna, yaitu smartphone.

Perubahan ini menunjukkan bahwa masyarakat semakin menghargai kecepatan, efisiensi, dan kemudahan akses. QRIS hadir sebagai jawaban atas kebutuhan tersebut, sehingga tidak mengherankan jika popularitasnya terus meningkat dari waktu ke waktu.

Prospek yang Masih Terbuka Lebar

Melihat tren yang berkembang saat ini, popularitas Slot QRIS Indonesia diperkirakan masih memiliki ruang pertumbuhan yang besar. Dukungan pemerintah, sektor perbankan, serta meningkatnya literasi digital masyarakat menjadi fondasi kuat bagi perluasan penggunaan QRIS di masa mendatang.

Di tengah percepatan transformasi digital nasional, QRIS telah berkembang menjadi lebih dari sekadar metode pembayaran. Sistem ini menjadi simbol perubahan menuju transaksi yang lebih modern, praktis, dan terintegrasi. Dengan berbagai keunggulan yang ditawarkan, tidak mengherankan jika semakin banyak masyarakat yang memilih QRIS sebagai bagian dari aktivitas digital mereka setiap hari.

Dr. Stacy Jupiter is the Executive Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Global Marine Program. Melissa Wright is Bloomberg Ocean Initiative Lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies. 

For years, the dominant story on coral reefs has been one of inevitable loss, with news headlines focusing on mass bleaching, ecosystem collapse, and catastrophic tipping points. As ocean temperatures continue to rise, many people have come to see the decline of the world’s reefs as unavoidable. 

The threats are real and urgent, but new evidence points to a more complicated and useful conclusion: some reefs still have a meaningful chance to survive and recover, provided they are protected. 

A major new analysis, published today with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, identifies more than 165,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, across 71 countries and 100 territories and jurisdictions, with the strongest potential to withstand and recover from climate impacts. 

Drawing on more than 45,000 coral surveys, along with decades of climate and ocean data, the research finds that three times more reefs may be capable of surviving the climate crisis than previously understood. That has major implications for reef-dependent communities, food security, coastal protection, fisheries, tourism, and national economies. 

• Jun 5, 2026 Nature Offshore oil and gas expansion threatens key marine ecosystems, report warns Sea life in countries like Kenya is under threat from planned new oil and gas production, analysis by environmental groups has found Read more
• Jun 11, 2026 Comment The Pacific made history in the courts – now we must do it in the negotiations Legal clarity alone will not lead to reduced emissions, more finance or stronger national climate plans – political will is key to meeting states’ obligations Read more

Essential natural infrastructure for communities

The findings make clear that reefs will not all respond to climate impacts in the same way. Some are located in rare underwater cool spots that can help shield them from extreme heat. Some show greater resistance to bleaching and other climate-related stress. Others recover more quickly after severe disturbances. These differences matter because they show where protection can have the greatest long-term impact. 

More than 500 million people depend on reefs for food, livelihoods, and coastal protection. For those communities, climate-resilient reefs are not an abstract conservation priority. They are essential natural infrastructure. They help protect coastlines, sustain fisheries, support local economies, and reduce climate risk. Because ocean currents move coral larvae and marine life between reef systems, some of these reefs may also help regenerate wider reef ecosystems after climate shocks. 

This should change how governments, funders, and conservation partners prioritize action. 

Comment: The ocean, our planet’s forgotten hero, deserves a formal place in UN climate talks

Climate change remains the greatest long-term threat to coral reefs. At the same time, many of the pressures pushing reefs closer to collapse are immediate and local. Sewage pollution, deforestation, agricultural runoff, destructive fishing practices, and poorly managed coastal development continue to damage reefs that are already under stress. Recent research shows that water pollution and fishing pressure are now among the leading local threats affecting nearly two-thirds of the world’s coral reefs. 

These pressures can be reduced. Governments and local partners are already working to improve reef management, cut pollution, strengthen enforcement, and protect critical ecosystems. Those efforts need to move faster, alongside much stronger action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Prioritising climate-resilient reefs

The new maps of climate-resilient reefs give governments, communities, and reef managers a clearer basis for action. They show where reefs have the strongest potential to persist over time, and where protection can deliver the greatest benefits for people, coastlines, and economies. 

Right now, only around 28 percent of the identified climate-resilient reefs fall within protected or conserved areas. If these reefs are among the most capable of surviving climate impacts and helping regenerate broader reef systems, they should be prioritized for protection, management, and investment. 

The case for action is practical as well as ecological. Healthy reefs can reduce wave energy by up to 97 percent, helping protect coastlines from storms, flooding, and erosion. They support fisheries that feed millions of people, sustain tourism jobs and local economies, and help reduce climate risk for vulnerable coastal communities. 

For many families, a healthy reef means food, income, and protection when storms hit. For Indigenous Peoples and coastal communities, reefs are also tied to culture, heritage, identity, and traditional knowledge systems. 

Ocean conservation must catch up

Governments are beginning to recognize the urgency of protecting climate-resilient reefs. At last year’s UN Ocean Conference in Nice, 11 countries signed a declaration committing to stronger protection of these reefs, including action to address destructive fishing, pollution, and unsustainable coastal development.

As leaders meet in Kenya this week to discuss the challenges facing the world’s ocean, more governments should join the declaration and help build a broader coalition committed to safeguarding these critical ecosystems. 

As coral reefs pass tipping point, ocean protection rises up political agenda

Some countries are already showing what this leadership can look like. Brazil has included corals in its national climate plans. The Bahamas is embedding reef protection into national policy and local stewardship systems. The declaration offers a way to build on these efforts and scale them globally. 

But commitments will not be enough. Success will depend on implementation. That means stronger protection and management, reduced local pressures, increased investment, and meaningful support for the Indigenous Peoples and local communities stewarding these ecosystems. 

The science is clear. Many reefs still have the capacity to persist and recover. The question is whether policy and investment will move quickly enough to protect them, so they can continue sustaining communities, economies, and coastlines for generations to come. 

The post Coral reefs are not doomed – but policy must catch up with the science  appeared first on Climate Home News.

Money for child care and hospitals will deliver far more positive economic and social impacts than handing out cash to private companies for yet more data centres. But for now, Carney is committing to blowing public money into the private AI bubble regardless of the potential long-term impact on workers and the economy.

The post Riding high on the AI bubble  first appeared on Spring.

In capacity-addition terms, fossil fuels are now just a thin orange strip at the bottom of a very tall green wall.

The post Chart of the Day: Farewell King Coal, long live King Solar (and wind and batteries) appeared first on Renew Economy.

The oceanic phenomenon known as El Niño, which increases temperatures worldwide, has officially begun, according to U.S. weather forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. 

Meteorologists have warned that this could be the strongest El Niño this century. It is expected to drive extreme weather events around the world, including both severe droughts and heavy rainfall, likely leading to major disruptions in agricultural production and food security. 

El Niño is part of a cyclical, naturally-occurring weather pattern that redistributes warm air, surface water temperatures, and moisture across the tropical Pacific Ocean. During El Niño, trade winds that typically blow east-to-west from the Americas to southeast Asia slow down or sometimes reverse. Normally, these winds push warm water along the Equator — but during El Niño conditions, that warm water shifts back east. Although El Niño does not follow a specific timeline, it typically occurs every two to seven years. 

Beginning in the summer, El Niño typically peaks around December or the following January. (The pattern was named El Niño — Spanish for little boy — by fishermen in South America who noticed warmer waters around Christmas time, and associated it with the birth of Jesus Christ.) That means the most significant impacts of the cyclical weather phenomenon may not be felt until months from now. NOAA’s most recent calculations show a high likelihood of a “very strong” El Niño, meaning average surface temperatures in the Pacific jump by more than 2 degrees Celsius. (Some experts are calling this year’s a “super” El Niño, although some agencies, like the World Meteorological Organization, reject this language.)  

Because it impacts a “diverse set of geographies,” said Weston Anderson, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland, so “there is no one set of impacts.” El Niño can contribute to severe droughts in one part of the world and heavy rainfall in others — both of which can disrupt growing seasons in key breadbaskets of the world. 

But the ways in which this year’s El Niño will interact the effects of global warming — and what that means for food security — is something scientists are still actively observing and untangling. 

The typical impacts of El Niño to the continental U.S. and Canada during Northern Hemisphere winter. NOAA

“That question is still really important open science,” said Jennifer Burney, a professor at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability whose work focuses on climate and food security. 

History can give us some examples. In 1877, one of the strongest El Niños ever recorded was associated with historic droughts across Asia, as well as in parts of Brazil and northern Africa. These droughts, “along with colonial policies contributed to famines in many regions which were really devastating,” said Deepti Singh, an associate professor at Washington State University who co-authored a study on this period of global famine. 

The fatalities associated with these famines, upwards of 50 million people, said Singh, “are humbling to think about.”

The last El Niño occurred in 2023 and 2024. It was one of the five strongest El Niños ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization, or WMO, and is considered to have contributed to the historic temperatures in 2024, making it the hottest year on record. 

That year came with devastating consequences for growers, especially in arid regions where agricultural producers primarily rely on rainfall to irrigate their crops. Droughts driven by El Niño across southern Africa contributed to increased food insecurity and malnutrition in several countries. 

Burney noted that in some vulnerable regions, local governments may have adaptive strategies in place to grow key crops earlier in the growing season or to increase imports during El Niño years, which can help offset food insecurity. But even in those cases, local farmers who depend on growing and selling crops to support themselves and their families may still experience economic setbacks. In other words, certain policies may ensure there’s “enough food,” but “that’s not going to take care of the people whose livelihoods depend on” agriculture, Burney said. 

This year, El Niño conditions are expected to impact a number of growing areas — another setback for agricultural producers who have faced higher input costs stemming from the Iran War. Although the United States and Iran are potentially set to unveil an agreement to reopen the all-important Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil flows, farmers worldwide have already been impacted by fertilizer shortages and price hikes since the passage closed this spring. 

Weather variability fueled by El Niño will add to growers’ woes. India, where the majority of the world’s rice comes from, is projected to have a weaker monsoon season, which could reduce yields. Drier, hotter conditions could lead to diminished maize production in southern Africa. The southern U.S. states, from California all the way to the eastern seaboard, will experience a wetter year than normal, which could lead to flooding and upend crop production. 

But the exact way that this El Niño will unfurl is yet unknown. As El Niño interacts with the additional warming and moisture currently in our atmosphere caused by climate change, “there is likely to be a change in which regions are likely to be affected” by extreme weather, said Singh. Still, she added, we can expect “the severity, extent, and likelihood” of extreme weather events like droughts “to be higher” in today’s warmer climate.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The ‘super El Niño’ is here. What happens next could upend food systems worldwide. on Jun 16, 2026.

First Past the Post is no longer fit for purpose, writes Livvy Gibbs

The post Elections 2026: Britain’s electorate has changed – our voting system needs to keep up appeared first on Red Pepper.

Every year on 16 June, South Africa commemorates Youth Day and honours the courage of the young people who stood up for dignity, equality, and a better future in 1976.

Fifty years later, young people continue to face barriers that limit their opportunities and undermine that vision. While democracy opened many doors, millions of young South Africans are still locked out of opportunities by poverty, unemployment, and the rising cost of living.

One of the most overlooked barriers is access to affordable electricity.

As South Africa prepares for the 2026 Local Government Elections, we must ask: How can young people build their futures without reliable, affordable, and clean energy?

For many households, the promise of opportunity is interrupted by rising electricity costs, disconnections, and an energy system that prioritises profit over people’s needs. For young people in particular, access to affordable electricity can shape the course of their futures. It means being able to study after dark, charge devices needed for learning and job-seeking, access information, and participate in an increasingly digital world. Affordable electricity is therefore about far more than keeping the lights on. It powers opportunity, helping to unlock the rights to education, health, and dignity that every young person deserves. 

Yet South Africa’s energy system continues to fail those who need it most. Around 80% of the country’s electricity still comes from ageing coal-fired power stations, locking communities into a system that is polluting, expensive, and increasingly unreliable. Air pollution linked to coal-fired power generation contributes to thousands of premature deaths every year, while rising electricity costs leave millions in the dark.

Young people are among those hardest hit. With youth unemployment at around 60% and the cost of living continuing to rise, many households are forced to ration electricity or go without it. What should be a basic service has become another source of hardship and inequality.

The Free Basic Electricity (FBE) programme was introduced to support vulnerable households for these kinds of hardships. However, despite its intention, millions of eligible families remain excluded due to administrative barriers and outdated systems. 

It’s not like there is no solution. South Africa has abundant renewable energy resources and the potential to build an energy system that delivers clean, affordable, reliable power to communities. With the right investments, municipalities can play a leading role in generating and distributing publicly owned renewable energy that strengthens local economies and expands access to electricity.

Expanding FBE from 50 kWh to 350 kWh through municipally owned renewable energy would help ensure households can meet their basic energy needs while reducing dependence on expensive, polluting fossil fuels. More than a social support measure, an expanded FBE programme is an investment in education, employment, public health, and economic opportunity. It is an investment in the future of South Africa’s young people.

 

28 July 2023: Portrait of Letta Kedebone. Photograph by Daylin Paul

The generation of 1976 fought to transform the South Africa they inherited. Today’s generation must do the same. Ours is to ensure that future generations inherit a country where access to affordable energy, economic opportunity, and a healthy environment is not a privilege but a right enjoyed by all. A better future requires more than promises. It requires power.

—

Author: Boitumelo Masipa

The post Powering the Future: Why Energy Justice is a Youth Issue appeared first on 350.

Ende Gelände's new beginning Channel News brendan 16th June 2026 Teaser Media

Report says data centres could fix the demand shortage and tenor gap needed to get renewables projects across the line – as long as they avoid troubles of their own.

The post Data centres could unblock renewables bottlenecks – if they don’t hit barriers of their own appeared first on Renew Economy.

Greater transparency between neighbours and better coordination across industry sectors are among a new set of "best practice" standards renewables developers are expected to meet in this state.

The post Farmers welcome “nation-leading” guidelines for wind, solar and batteries – but warn they are not binding appeared first on Renew Economy.

If the AEMC really thinks that we should pay for networks just like we pay for milk, then I’m hopeful that they’ve come to their senses on this fraught issue.

The post Network tariffs: Imagine if the AEMC was in charge of selling milk appeared first on Renew Economy.

In China, they deliver wind turbine blades in convoy to project sites. It must be much lower cost than in Australia, where blades are moved piece by piece, with police escorts.

The post Photo of the Day: Australia should allow wind turbine blades to be trucked in convoy appeared first on Renew Economy.

• The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it will no longer enforce a provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting racial discrimination in federal funding. (KQED)
• President Trump loves to tear up bike lanes in Washington, D.C. because they supposedly inconvenience drivers, but he’s perfectly fine with snarling traffic for months to build a monument to himself. (Politico)
• Transit projects should be treated like any other type of infrastructure. (Next Metro)
• The cost for the Minneapolis Blue Line rose again to $3.6 billion as it nears completion. (KSTP)
• Denver could be facing a 20 percent transit budget cut. (Denver Post; paywall)
• It’s bad enough that Houston forces cyclists and pedestrians to use tunnels, but lately those tunnels have gotten flooded. (ABC 13)
• The St. Louis Metro is deploying a new integrated fare and gate system to improve fare recovery and make riders feel safer. (Metro Magazine)
• Washington state passed a law distinguishing between e-bikes and motorcycles (Government Technology) as many other cities and states struggle to do the same.
• The Urbanist says Seattle should be spending its bike-lane money faster.
• Milwaukee held its first Vision Zero summit. (On Milwaukee)
• San Francisco cyclists are fed up with Waymos blocking bike lanes. (Chronicle; paywall)
• The Trump administration might be cracking down on immigration and talking about annexing Canada, but train travel across the border from Seattle has never been easier. (KOMO)
• Barcelona may make a controversial decision to get rid of its private bikeshares in favor of expanding the public option. (Road.cc)
• Seoooooul Train: The Korean capitol is building six new urban rail lines. (Chosun Biz)

We’re well into the 21st century, but pedestrians in the United States are being killed like it’s still 1982.

According to a new analysis of nationwide traffic deaths, 7,080 pedestrians died on American roads in 2024. That number is 6 percent lower than 2022’s figure, but still a 72-percent increase since 2009, and almost the exact same number of pedestrian deaths as 42 years ago.

This staggering figure, which heralds our country’s years-long devolution in road safety, is part of the annual Dangerous by Design report released last week by the advocates at Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition. The report uses the most recent year of federal data available, puts it in five-year windows for context, and crunches the numbers to reveal the metro areas and states with the deadliest roads per capita for pedestrians.

It’s ugly down there. New Mexico was the deadliest state in the country for pedestrians from 2020 through 2024, with a fatality rate of 4.42 pedestrians per 100,000 people.

According to the report, 57 percent of all roadway fatalities in 2024 occurred on state-owned roads, and state DOTs wield significant power in both creating (or blocking) live-saving policies. 

Despite this power, meaningful state-level progress is almost non-existent.

“Of the 20 most-deadly states, 19 showed no signs of improvement or became even more dangerous,” the report notes. “Only five states that improved in the 2024 report have continued to improve and build upon that progress in this report, and only eight states in total have improved since the last report when comparing five-year periods.”

Delaware was the most-improved state, lowering pedestrian fatalities by 0.41 percent over that five-year period, but it still remains the 10th most-deadly state in the country. 

Memphis was the deadliest metro area for pedestrians in the country in that five-year period, with a fatality rate of 5.5 pedestrians per 100,000 people, according to the report. One local news TV segment from earlier this month encapsulated the city’s problem, both with its headline (“More than a dozen Memphis pedestrians hit by cars in just over a week”) and with its anti-pedestrian framing.

“It’s more about being observed, paying attention when you’re crossing the street, not being distracted by cell phone usage or whatever the case may be,” a local sheriff tells the camera, apparently addressing a likely-to-be-struck pedestrian.

Earlier this spring, the Trump administration, citing the slight decline in pedestrian fatalities last year, declared victory: “Under President Trump and Sec. [Sean] Duffy, American roads are safer,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Jonathan Morrison crowed in a press release in April — while ignoring the fact that we have returned to the Reagan era when it comes to killing pedestrians with vehicles.

Advocates want real and sustained safety improvements, not press releases.

“Our leaders are celebrating small improvements from historic deaths as some major victory, while thousands of people continue to be hit and killed while walking every year,” Beth Osborne, president and CEO of Smart Growth America, said in a written response to the NHTSA. “If we were any other country, this would be treated as a national crisis. Instead, our leaders are quick to accept these deaths as a necessary aspect of our transportation system.”

The federal government has a warped perception of traffic fatalities partly because of how NHTSA measures traffic fatalities, which is per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This odd metric, which is mostly unique to the United States, obscures the epidemic. Deaths remain high, but as Americans drive more, the death rate falls. (Another terrifying statistic: Americans drove 3.279 trillion (!) vehicle-miles in 2024, an increase of 1 percent from the year before).

The rest of the world, including Smart Growth America, measures death rates per capita — and using this metric, the U.S. continues to head in the wrong direction compared to other developed nations. In 2024, we had 11.7 traffic fatalities per 100,000 people, compared to 8.73 in the 34 “peer nations” that managed to achieve over a 10-year span of addressing traffic safety, according to the report. If the U.S. had managed that same level of improvement, the report asserts, more than 63,000 lives would have been saved between 2014 and 2024. 

Pedestrian fatalities continue to disproportionately fall along lines of class and race — American Indian and Alaskan Natives had a fatality rate of 7.9 per 100,000 people, nearly quadruple the overall rate of 2.15, according to the report. Black Americans had a rate of 3.67, Hispanic or Latino Americans were at 1.9, and whites were at 1.6. Low-income Americans are more likely to die in crashes.

Historically, traffic fatalities have decreased in the U.S. following huge pushes in national policy — like mandating seatbelts in new vehicles in 1968, or setting a national speed limit of 55 mph in 1974. But the Trump administration has little appetite for the safety measures that are being adopted in Europe — like forcing all new vehicles to be installed with GPS speed governors, or imposing higher taxes and parking fees on heavier, more dangerous trucks and SUVs. Pedestrian plazas and bike lanes are still somehow controversial, even in places like New York City.

The $1.2-trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021 also contained next to nothing to fund the kind of safety-minded, traffic-calming design changes that ultimately force drivers to slow down and pay attention. The authors of the report point out that the bill was supposed to force the US DOT to adopt a “Safe System approach” to new road projects, but that the NHTSA’s own “Safe System” dashboard seems to be, uh, broken. 

Make this safe.

There’s not much evidence to suggest that our federal lawmakers fully grasp the issue. In a letter sent to Senate Republican earlier this month, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey put “Make Transportation Safer” near the top of his list of what he and his Democratic colleagues see as priorities for this year’s surface transportation bill.

Markey correctly notes that we are in the midst of a “safety crisis,” and adds that the vehicular death rate in the U.S. is “four times higher than that in Britain or Germany.” But in the same breath, he claims that the IIJA made “important progress” in advancing safety initiatives, and that somehow, “the next surface transportation bill has the potential to move the nation meaningfully closer to zero road deaths.” (Tellingly, Markey’s first request, above safety, to these MAGA-pilled politicals, is “Protect Infrastructure Grants from Political Interference.”)

A spokesperson for the NHTSA has not responded to Streetsblog’s request for comment on the report.

Dmytro Stechenko was not just a stand-up guy, but had a personal morality that he simply did not violate. He didn’t litter. He didn’t jaywalk. He wouldn’t so much as sit in an accessible seat on a subway, even if no one was around.

So it’s the cruelest irony that the Ukraine-born cyclist was killed on the Queensboro Bridge on May 28 in a collision with the rider of an illegal scooter who reportedly made a risky passing maneuver, the victim’s best friend told Streetsblog.

Dmytro Stechenko with his cat Luni.

“It just feels super unfair that somebody who would never break the law, even a tiny one, would be killed in such a [way],” said Alex Pawlowski, the best friend of 35-year-old cyclist, reflecting on Stechenko’s way of life and connecting it to the need for Mayor Mamdani to not wait for another death to crack down on illegal high-powered electric two-wheelers and improve existing bike infrastructure.

“I want the politicians to know that we don’t have to wait for the next death to happen in order to create the impetus to change,” he said.

Pawlowski and Stechenko met 16 years ago at the National Technical University of Ukraine in Kyiv, where both men studied computer science. The two were reunited after both moved to the United States and would often ride endurance laps in Central Park, a fitness hobby the pair picked up in their 30s.

In fact, the friends were together the morning before the May 28 crash, when scooter operator Francis Delvalle, 39, crashed his illegal electric scooter into Stechenko, killing them both.

The first time Pawlowski rode on the Queensboro Bridge, in fact, was the day of his friend’s death, after a mutual friend called him about the crash. Pawlowski said he always avoided the East River bridges because he felt they were too narrow and unsafe. Now he just wants to make sure no one else has to lose a friend in the same way.

“We always know that something is unsafe, but we rationalize it [because] nothing has happened yet,” he said. “But it will eventually happen. And when it happens, it takes away somebody’s brother, husband, someone’s friend, their best friend of 16 years. It’s not like better street design is some kind of mystery. We have a lot of experience in urbanism, there are people who can help. We just have to take their advice and actually implement those changes.”

In fact, the Queensboro Bridge recently received major safety improvements. Last year, after inexplicable delays and years of advocacy about the danger, the Department of Transportation finally opened up one lane of the bridge’s so-called “South Outer Roadway” to pedestrians so that cyclists and other legal electric two-wheelers no longer had to dodge walkers on the narrow path.

But DOT’s efforts to protect roadways with evidence-based redesigns must endure a gauntlet of theatric community board meetings and navigate a broken political system that allows powerful New Yorkers and influential businesses to delay, dilute and cancel those redesigns.

Even when DOT overcomes these hurdles, however, it still takes too long to implement redesigns. Indeed, the road markings on the Queensboro Bridge have not yet been updated, creating a confusing situation for those using the bridge path.

“To be fair, the Queensboro Bridge, the markings were confusing,” said Pawlowski. “When I was riding there for the first time on that day, I was also a bit confused, because it was showing that I have to go the opposite direction that I was going.” He pointed out that while cyclists and pedestrians now each have their own lane, car drivers still enjoy seven lanes of traffic on the bridge.

Stechenko moved to New York around 2016, and was working as a software engineer at Meta when he died. Pawlowski followed him to the city in 2021. Cycling provided a way for the two to stay connected. “It was nice that he started cycling with me because it’s cool to have somebody to share your hobby with,” Pawlowski said. “Especially an old friend.”

When Pawlowski reached the crash scene on the morning of May 28, he was struck by the severe damage to his friend’s bike, especially compared to Delvalle’s illegal scooter. “This thing was not even damaged,” he said. “I was looking at the scooter and it just seemed completely pristine.” The only exception was a tiny aluminum clamp that allowed the scooter to fold in half.

By contrast, Stechenko’s carbon-fiber road bike was cracked in half. The bike was “outclassed” by the heavy scooter, Pawlowski said.

The illegal scooter and the bike in the aftermath of the crash that killed two men on the Queensboro Bridge bike path.

This type of damage may not have been possible if both men were riding street-legal devices. After the crash, Streetsblog identified the scooter as a Blade GT II by the Chinese brand Teverun. Thanks to its 4900W motor, the vehicle can reach 53 mph in under four seconds. While the city requires electric bikes to top out at 750W, the law is less clear for scooters. But the city still bans scooters that are capable of exceeding 20 mph.

It’s unclear how fast Delvalle was going, but the debris caused by the crash and the fact that both men died while wearing protective helmets clearly suggests a high-speed collision. Pawlowski blamed the sheer power and torque of the device under Delvalle’s feet.

“We live in a dopamine-fueled environment,” he said. “People are seeking dopamine from anything, just like phones, and I think that type of instant acceleration is another source that can, over time, distort your sense of risk.”

He continued: “The idea that you can overtake anything, it’s just there, this acceleration, which goes to the wattage rating of the motor. If the motor was less than 750 watts, it would not be capable of that much acceleration. But if it’s multiple kilowatts of power, it’s instant torque.”

It is currently illegal to operate this type of scooter on city streets and bike paths, but it is not illegal to buy one. That means online retailers can continue to market and sell thousands of street-illegal e-scooters and e-bikes to New Yorkers. Local brick-and-mortar stores dedicated to these illegal vehicles have popped up, too.

Pawlowski wants the city to enforce existing laws and take a clue from Europe, where many cities equip law enforcement personnel with specialized devices known as dynamometers that measure the power of electric scooters and bikes in order to determine which are legal — and which are not.

“We have to start enforcing [the regulations],” said Pawlowski. “Something like in the EU where they take the scooters and they test the top speed. Something like that needs to happen. New York is a busy city, people are rushing everywhere so probably that somewhat partially explains it, but I think it’s unreasonable to expect culture to change. That’s why we don’t live in a utopia — you have to make bad behaviors difficult to do.”

State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez (D-Long Island City) represents the neighborhood where Stechenko lived and the bridge on which he died. She told Streetsblog that she is drafting legislation to close this loophole and prevent future deaths like Stechenko’s, which she described as “devastating.”

“It’s clear we need reform around the sale of these dangerous products,” she said in a statement. “When these products are advertised it needs to be clear they are not street safe and there needs to be transparency on the risks of using them. I am actively working on legislation at the state level that would keep dangerous devices off of our streets and address enforcement at the point of sale.”

City Hall did not respond to a request for comment on Pawlowski’s call to action.

A new land access agreement between Traditional Owners of the Pilbara region and iron ore giant Fortescue will see the two parties collaborate on decarbonisation of mining operations on Country.

The post Fortescue to lease electric haul trucks as part of land deal with traditional owners appeared first on Renew Economy.

Federal and state governments back rollout of 18 community batteries on parts of the grid with particularly high rooftop solar uptake.

The post Australia’s biggest isolated grid to soak up suburban solar with 18 new community batteries appeared first on Renew Economy.

Canada’s economy has been growing very slowly for the last year, since Donald Trump launched his trade war against Canada’s exports. The side-effects of Trump’s attacks against Iran (including high oil prices and accelerating inflation) have further undermined growth in Canada.

Recent Statistics Canada data indicate that real GDP in Canada (adjusted for inflation) declined very slightly (by 0.036%) in the first quarter of 2026. Coming on the heels of a larger decline in real GDP in the final quarter of 2025, this signifies that Canada is experiencing a ‘technical recession” – traditionally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction in real GDP.

There is no doubt that Canada’s economy faces serious headwinds, primarily the decline in exports to the U.S. and weak business capital spending (hurt by the uncertainty surrounding the trade environment and the economic outlook). As Centre for Future Work Director says in this commentary, originally published in the Toronto Star, whether the resulting growth is slightly above or slightly zero is not meaningful for economic policy decisions.

A technical recession is more about politics than economics By Jim Stanford

Statistics Canada recently released its quarterly report on Canadian GDP, covering the first three months of 2026. Most economists had expected a modest increase in GDP, but the final number came in slightly below zero.

Coming on top of a small decline in the last quarter of 2025, this means Canada has experienced what is commonly called a ‘technical recession’: two consecutive quarters of shrinking real GDP (adjusted for inflation).

Opposition politicians jumped on this report as evidence that Canada’s economy is being mismanaged. They were joined by Pete Hoekstra, the famously undiplomatic U.S. ambassador to Canada, who cited the data to renew his call for Canada to become the 51st state.

‘Technical recession’ is a very rough-and-ready benchmark commonly used to determine whether the economy is shrinking. One-quarter declines in real GDP often occur, without signalling serious economy-wide trouble.

The two-quarter rule is only slightly more robust. But it is still arbitrary and subjective, and doesn’t necessarily say much about what’s actually happening in the economy.

The U.S. follows a much stricter definition. A technical committee at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) monitors dozens of indicators, including employment, consumer spending, and business investment. Only when there is widespread evidence of significant contraction “spread across the economy and last[ing] more than a few months,” will it declare a recession.

Even as technical recessions go, this one is as ‘technical’ as they can get. Both of the quarters in question registered tiny declines in measured real GDP. And both of those declines reflected unusual statistical quirks, more than evidence of broader economic contraction.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, GDP declined solely because businesses sharply reduced excess inventories accumulated earlier in the year, after Donald Trump started his trade war. Statistics Canada accounts for inventory reductions as a charge against GDP. Excluding that $13 billion drawdown, GDP would have grown a modest 0.3 percent.

Then in the first quarter of 2026, GDP shrank because of an unusual surge in gold imports, which rose (coincidentally also by $13 billion) as industrial users and financial investors took advantage of softer gold prices. Without that temporary inflow of gold, GDP would have grown 0.5 percent.

So in neither case was the broader economy genuinely shrinking. Canada’s economy is not in recession, in any economically meaningful sense. This week’s strong labour force report, showing Canada created 88,000 jobs in May, confirms the economy is still growing, albeit too slowly.

Opposition politicians see the technical recession as great fodder for memes and sound bites. Indeed, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre talked of virtually nothing else last week. Politicians should be careful, however, about putting too much emphasis on this single, arbitrary metric.

Statistics Canada regularly revises its GDP data on the basis of new information. The decline in first-quarter GDP was so tiny (just $900 million out of a $3 trillion economy, or 0.036%) it could easily switch positive with the next revision. In fact, that decline was so small Statistics Canada’s official release stated that GDP was “unchanged” – a nuance lost in the histrionics of Question Period.

Just such a revision occurred back in the third quarter of 2023. A much larger initial decline in GDP (reported as -0.4% at the time) was later changed to a small increase. If that happens again, the whole pseudo-recession will be revised right out of existence, and these politicians will rightfully look silly.

There’s no doubt Canada’s economy is facing tough times. Donald Trump’s tariffs, now followed by his war in the Persian Gulf, are the clear culprits behind weak exports and investment uncertainty. Whether GDP growth is slightly above zero, or slightly below, is irrelevant. The critical priority is to boost spending, investment, and job-creation in all sectors (including public services) fast enough to offset that shock and enhance Canada’s economic independence.

Theatrics over whether an arbitrary line has been crossed are an unhelpful distraction from that task.

The post Political Drama Over Technical Recession Not Justified appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

Neoen Australia boss calls on government to focus on quick wins with its flagship renewables program if it wants to meet its 2030 target.

The post Only shovel-ready projects should be allowed to win CIS rounds, says Australia’s leading renewables developer appeared first on Renew Economy.

At the Audubon Center at Debs Park, the start of summer brings a bittersweet milestone: our FLIGHT interns have officially “fledged the nest.”After nine months of learning, restoration work, bird...