Monthly Archives: July 2020

Remember Skull & Bones? Ubisoft announced a nautical open world game about pirates on the high seas, with Assassin's Creed's naval combat serving as a base for the action. It sounded like a winner, and we were pretty interested to see how it turned out. Unfortunately, the game has been delayed multiple times since its debut at E3 2017. Most recently, we heard the game will be skipping next financial year, meaning it won't release until mid-2021 at the absolute earliest.

However, the game is apparently still alive. A new report from VGC has the latest on the seafaring adventure, and it seems development veered into rocky waters. The project has reportedly been rebooted after failed attempts to make the game a "premium box" open world, akin to Far Cry or Watch Dogs.

This is according to anonymous development sources, who are also saying Skull & Bones is becoming a "live" game. As VGC writes, the title will contain a persistent world, featuring "quests, characters and storylines that will drastically evolve and change over time". Apparently, Fortnite's "live storytelling" aspects have been a big influence. It sounds like the game will end up in the same waters as Microsoft's Sea of Thieves -- a live, online multiplayer ocean full of pirates that evolves through seasonal updates.

Elisabeth Pellen, writer and director of cel-shaded shooter XIII, has taken over as creative director after Justin Farren moved to another studio.

So, Skull & Bones is still happening, but it's taking on a completely different format. Instead of a big open world blockbuster like Ubisoft's other games, it's becoming a persistent online experience. Here's hoping it's shipshape whenever it comes to shore.

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Skull & Bones Reportedly Rebooted Into an Ongoing 'Live' Game - Push Square

When Springfield native Aaron Schneider expressed his interest in directing the recently-released World War II thriller "Greyhound," he wrote a heartfelt and detailed email to his agent outlining the potential the movie had.

Thinking the email was meant to be passed on, Schneiders agent sent it up the chain of command, finally landing with the head of the agency which represents Tom Hanks, who wrote the movies screenplay and was set to portray the captain of the USS Keeling, codenamed "Greyhound."

"As the story goes, Im told, the agent read the email to Tom over the phone and Tom said, Well, sounds like this guys passionate. Lets sit down, Ill meet him," said Schneider, who grew up in Dunlap and attended schools in Mossville and Chillicothe.

That meeting at Hanks production company, said Schneider, was a wide-ranging conversation about cinematographers Hanks had worked with from Conrad Hall ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") to Gordon Willis ("The Godfather" movies) and that Schneider had admired.

Hanks then grilled Schneider about Bill Murray, who Schneider directed in the independent film "Get Low" (2009) and is set to be reunited with in the forthcoming "Bums Rush."

"Hes envious of Bill Murrays career," Schneider said. "Its not something you expect to come out of the mouth of Tom Hanks.

"By the end of the meeting, (Hanks) said, Hey, why dont you come back in and meet Gary (Goetzman), my (production partner), and before you know it, we were building a movie together."

By his own account, Schneiders Hollywood adventure has gone "off script." A cinematographer (he worked on the second unit of "Titanic," among other films), Schneider got bit by the directing bug. His first film, "Two Soldiers," based on a William Faulkner short story, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. The actor who presented him with the award, Billy Crystal, had suggested years earlier to his father that Schneider go to USC film school.

"Greyhound" dropped Friday on Apple TV+ and has drawn nearly universal praise. In the film, Hanks, as a longtime Navy veteran, is tasked with protecting a convoy of 37 ships carrying thousands of soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic during World War II. The small force battles menacing Nazi U-boats in whats known as "the Black Pit," a three-day ordeal with no air cover.

Schneider was born in Springfield and lived there up until age 8 when his father Delwin Schneider, an executive for Central Illinois Light Co., CILCO, got transferred to a Peoria office and the family, including a younger sister, Mimi, moved to Dunlap.

After retiring, Schneider and his wife, Beverly, who he met at CILCO, returned to Springfield to live.

Aaron Schneider, who turns 55 later this month, still makes an annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to central Illinois. He favors a Steak n Shake steakburger when hes in Springfield and goes for Avantis when he visits Peoria.

"When you grow up in the Midwest, there are certain staples," Schneider said. "Small town life or Midwest community gets under your skin or becomes part of your DNA. Its part of you and you take it wherever you go, whether thats over to Springfield and up to Peoria youre a farm boy working as an executive at CILCO, like my dad or youre an Illinois kid making Tom Hanks movies.

"You are who you are and youre formed by your experiences in your youth and my youth was Midwestern."

Schneider said indelible images of Peoria for him were driving past Caterpillar "with the workers on strike warming their hands over a barrel as we drove by on the school bus," the sight of the riverboat, the Peoria Beer Fest in the summer.

It was Schneiders father who struck up a conversation with Billy Crystal while both were vacationing in Florida. If he was serious about the movie industry, Crystal recommended Schneider, who was then studying mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, go to USCs film school.

"Hes certainly had a lot of support from a lot of people, including us," said Delwin Schneider, in a separate phone interview. "Its been a great ride. Not a whole lot of people from a small town in central Illinois go to the (Academy Awards) to see their son win an Oscar.

"Its been more than a great ride, its been a lot of fun. Hes continued to be successful in his career for which were eternally grateful and very proud."

"Aaron had worked very, very hard to get to that point," added Beverly Schneider, who worked as a real estate agent in Springfield. "My motto with him was, somebodys gotta do it, why not Aaron Schneider? And, lo and behold, hes made it and made a big splash in Hollywood and I couldnt be more thrilled and neither could his dad."

Aaron Schneider said he counts "Saving Private Ryan," a film he first saw with his father, a Korean War veteran, as putting him on a course to try his own hand at directing and to directing "Greyhound" some two and a half decades later.

"I finally get a foothold in this business (as a cinematographer) and I decide to throw caution to the wind and go in a completely different direction (by directing)," Schneider said. "Every step of the way, (my parents) were there saying, All right, go for it. To their credit, they just wanted me to be happy and they have literally been a backbone in that sense my entire life, so my career is as much a testament to their support as it is to the work I put into it.

"Making a movie that goes on to win an Oscar is a cool thing, but it was just one of those times in life where you felt supported. You felt loved."

"Greyhound," Schneider said, "is not the kind of war movie where people pull out photographs and talk about their girl or their kids back home. It throws the audience into the pilothouse of a World War II destroyer on day one of a three-day nightmare and follows it through all the danger and apprehension."

While the action takes place on the high seas, much of the film was shot on the USS Kidd, a decommissioned WWII-era destroyer that now serves as a museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Virtually all of the battle scenes and ocean vistas were created using visual effects.

What did Schneider think about working with Tom Hanks?

"The big news, which probably isnt big news anyway, is that Tom Hanks is everything you expected him to be," Schneider said. "Pretty much what you see is what you get. Hes a lovely man.

"Hes a lot of fun to be with. Hes got good energy, which set the tone for a project."

Schneider attended elementary school and junior high in Mossville before attending Illinois Valley Central High School in Chillicothe.

Schneider describes himself as a bit of "a sentimental sap." Hes gone back to the house he grew up in in Dunlap to find a message "a little dedication" he wrote on a beam in a crawlspace before moving out. Four or five families who have lived in the house since, Schneider said, have also left their own messages there.

Delwin Schneider grew up in Farmer City, where he worked for his uncle, Epstein, who owned a shoe store.

Schneider said his father would tell him stories about characters from the town, people like "Rat Trap Lewis" and "Pushcart Charlie."

It served Schneider well when he was developing Robert Duvalls character, Felix Bush, from "Get Low."

"These were communities with personalities and they had so many stories," Schneider said. "Inevitably, you turn to what you know and you cant help but imbue your own experiences and sense of community into the work. In that sense youre putting a piece of yourself into the work."

Contact Steven Spearie: 622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/stevenspearie.

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Hollywood director Aaron Schneider: Small town life still part of DNA - Pekin Daily Times

Supplies land on T-3 by parachute in June 1969. The murder occurred the following year.Dave Scoboria, USGS via Library of Congress

Mario Escamilla was furious. A colleague of his, nicknamed Porky, had just stolen his jug of raisin wine. So the 33-year-old Escamilla grabbed a rifle and set out to reclaim it. He had no idea he was about to get tangled up in one of the knottiest homicides in historya killing that also raises serious questions about how humankind should handle the first, inevitable murder in outer space.

Escamilla worked on T-3, also known as Fletchers ice island, a Manhattan-size hunk of ice that at the time was floating north of Canada in the Arctic Ocean, roughly 350 miles from the North Pole. T-3 had been occupied off and on since the 1950s, and 19 scientists and technicians were stationed there during the summer of 1970, studying ocean currents and wind and weather patterns.

Despite the constant polar sunshine in the summer, the weather could be harsh, with temperatures dipping down to minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit sometimes and winds reaching 160 miles per hour. But the worst thing the scientists faced was boredom: Besides work, there was almost nothing to do. For movies, they had a few 16-millimeter reels theyd seen a dozen times each. For music, they had two eight tracks. One was Jefferson Airplane.

To compound the problem, the scientists had virtually no contact with the outside world. Satellite communication was iffy and often failed. And planes couldnt land on T-3 most of the summer, since the surface of the ice turned mushy under the sun. So after the initial arrival of people in the spring, that was it. Just 19 smelly dudes, with little to do but stare at one another and drink.

As a result, T-3 attracted some real misfits at times, including alcoholics and weirdos. And all that angry, bored energy finally came to a head exactly 50 years agoon July 16, 1970.

If contemporary accounts can be believed, Donald Porky Leavitt was a drunk, and a mean one. Three separate times on T-3, after running low on liquor, he attacked people with a meat cleaver to get his hands on their booze. On the night of July 16, Porky targeted electronics technician Mario Escamilla, breaking into Escamillas trailer and stealing a prized jug of homemade raisin hooch.

When Escamilla found out, something snapped. He was actually an unlikely vigilante. He was pudgy and wore glasses, and was considered quiet, even wimpy. But when he heard about the theft, he grabbed the base rifle and marched over to confront Porky. It was nearly 11 p.m., but the arctic sun was blazing like a Wild West high-noon showdown.

Unfortunately, Escamilla didnt know that the rifle hed grabbed was faulty. One hard bumpeven without pulling the triggerand it would fire.

Escamilla found Porky in a trailer with a meteorological technician named Bennie Lightsy, a 31-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, who was Escamillas boss on T-3. Porky and Lightsy were, to put it mildly, shitfaced. Theyd been drinking a truly foul mix of raisin wine, grain alcohol, and grape juice; Lightsys blood-alcohol level was later estimated to be 0.26.

A struggle for the raisin wine ensued, and in the confrontation that followed, Escamilla shot not Porky Leavitt, but his boss, Bennie Lightsy, square in the chest. He bled out moments later. With the help of newspaper articles, court transcripts, and online reminiscing from people who were there, Ive laid out more details about the killing in my new podcastalong with many more details about life on the impossibly remote T-3 (including, because I know youre curious, how they went to the bathroom). But here Id like to focus on what happened after Lightsys death, because thats when the real chaos startedthe legal mess.

T-3 was technically run by the U.S. Air Force, but Escamilla was a civilian, so they couldnt court-martial him. The nearest land mass was Canada, but T-3 lay well outside Canadas territorial waters, so it had no jurisdiction there. Perhaps the United States could have claimed the ice islandsimilar to the many uninhabited Guano Islands full of rich, natural fertilizer that the U.S. government seized during the 1800s. But unlike the Guano Islands, T-3 was temporaryit would melt away in the 1980sso under international law, no nation could claim it. Perhaps the law of the sea applied? After all, T-3 was in some sense the literal high seas, being high-latitude frozen seawater. Except, the law of the sea applies only to navigable areas, and T-3 wasnt navigable.

In sum, T-3 was neither fish nor fowl. Murder in Legal Limbo, Time magazine called the case. Some legal scholars seriously questioned whether any nation had the right to try Escamilla. As one noted, It may shock the layman to learn that there may be parts of the world in which possible murders may go untried.

In the end, might essentially tried to make right here. Four U.S. marshals undertook a harrowing, multiday journey via plane and helicopter, first to Greenland and then T-3, fighting brutal Arctic winds and weather. Upon landing, they grabbed Escamilla, the rifle, and Lightsys frozen body for transport back to the United States.

T-3 was essentially treated as a freak occurrencea random, one-off event. But it wontbe.

Escamilla was then charged with murder in a federal court in Virginia. Why there? For the less-than-airtight reason that, well, Virginia was the first place the marshals and Escamilla landed after leaving Greenland, at Dulles Airport. Escamilla initially appeared in court in the same black Arctic rubber boots hed been arrested in.

But the trial presented all sorts of legal issues. First, there was the question of whether the government even had the right to try Escamilla, given T-3s legal limbo. Second, there was the question of venue. Technically, the marshals and Escamilla had landed in Greenland first on the trip back home, so according to international law, he should have been tried there. The U.S. government simply ignored this. Federal prosecutors also attempted to charge Escamilla under special maritime law for crimes committed on vessels, despite the fact that T-3 wasnt a vessel in any real sense.

In addition, the judge in the case instructed the jury to ignore testimony about the harsh, crazy-making conditions on T-3which was surely relevant in determining whether Escamilla had been negligent in wielding a gun there. Along those same lines, theres the question of whether the trial was fair from a constitutional standpoint, on the grounds that Escamilla couldnt possibly be tried by a jury of peers in Virginia. After all, T-3 had no police force or other legal authorityand it did have a meat cleaverwielding maniac running around. Property rights there were enforced with guns or not at all. Contrast that to suburban Virginia, where most peoples grimmest daily fears involved traffic. Could a jury there really understand the pressures Escamilla faced and properly judge his actions?

Ultimately, after an initial conviction for manslaughter and the inevitable appeals and remands, Escamilla was acquitted of all charges, given the faulty rifle. But because of that acquittal, all the juicy legal issues remained unresolved. T-3 was essentially treated as a freak occurrencea random, one-off event. But it wont be.

The July 16, 1970, ice island killing took place one year to the day after the launch of the Apollo rocket that brought the first human beings to the moon. And even at that time, legal scholars realized that, given the legal limbo of T-3, the Escamilla case had huge implications for crime in outer space. No matter how noble and uplifting spaceflight seems, human nature is human nature, and sooner or later somebody will stab or shoot somebody else up there. And we have no idea how well handle it.

When looking for analogues to crime in outer space, some scholars point to Antarctica, where a surprising number of crimes have already taken placeincluding an ax murder over a chess game; an assault with the claw end of a hammer; and arson, when a stir-crazy doctor burned down a building to try to force an evacuation. (Most recently, at a Russian base in 2018, an engineer stabbed a welder in the chest with a knifeeither because, depending on the report, the welder insulted the engineers manhood by offering him money to dance on a table, or because the welder kept spoiling the ending of books the engineer was reading, and he finally snapped.)

In some ways, however, Antarctica isnt a great analogy for space. However remote and undeveloped, its still permanent territory, on Earth, and several countries have made territorial claims, however disputed. Bases down there are largely run by governments anyway and are essentially treated as sovereign territory. The no mans land of T-3 seems a better analogue, legally, to the near-vacuum of judicial oversight in space.

About the only existing law governing space is the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. But the treaty focuses almost entirely on what nation-states can and cannot do (e.g., deploy nuclear bombs, seize celestial bodies). Its virtually silent on what private companies or individuals can dowhich suddenly seems like a glaring loophole given the rise of private space companies like SpaceX, which recently transported its first astronauts to the International Space Station. These private vessels are far murkier in a legal sense.

To be sure, a clause in the Outer Space Treaty does require nations to monitor their own citizens in space, which works fine when astronauts are few. But when hundreds or thousands of people reach orbit, that will become increasingly untenable. And so far, most crimes in remote places like T-3 have involved the citizens of one country alone (e.g., one Russian attacking another).

In 2019, news reports surfaced of the first-ever alleged crime in outer space, when an American astronaut reportedly accessed her estranged wifes bank account from computers on the International Space Station. Since then the astronaut has been cleared, and the wife charged with making false statements.

But even if that crime had taken place, it would have involved two Americans and an American bank, and taken place on the American section of the International Space Station. As a result, only American laws would have applied. But the International Space Station is already, well, international, and future spaceflight likely will be, too. So consider this scenario: a German woman poisons a Congolese man on a spaceship owned by a Chinese-Belgian conglomerate thats headquartered in Luxembourg. Who the hells in charge then?

When colonies get set up on Mars or the moon and people start having children there, things will get even more dicey. Should an Earth court really have jurisdiction over people who have never set foot on Earth in their lives? If exercising legal power over T-3 was a reach, imagine the consequences for doing so on another planet.

As another issue, how would you arrest someone in space? It took U.S. marshals two full days to reach T-3 and grab Escamilla. Mars is multiple months away at its closest, and often farther. So is it really worth sending someone on a billion-dollar interplanetary mission just to make an arrest? Where do you hold the perp in the meantime? (In the most recent Russian assault in Antarctica, the engineer was tossed into the bases tiny Orthodox chapel, since no proper jail cell existed.) And if you do drag them back to Earth, what about finding a jury of peers? Could any earthling truly understand life on Mars and pass judgment on someone living there?

Mario Escamilla had no desire to become a legal pioneer. He just wanted his raisin wine back. But as we return to the moon over the next few yearsNASA has plans to land people there in 2024, and push for Mars in the decade afterexpect to hear more about this obscure homicide. At a minimum, the spacefaring nations of the world need to update the Outer Space Treaty to account for private space flight.

Sure, bickering over treaty clauses and extradition issues isnt as romantic as the quest to land on Mars or as sexy as the technology to get us there. But the Escamilla case shows that mundane legal issues matter, too. Laws dont save lives by themselvesthe first murder in space will happen with or without them. But a little forethought in handling such a case could go a long way toward ensuring that the society were working so hard to build up there gets a chance to survive as well.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

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How Not to Deal With Murder in Space - Slate

Not all flood alerts are the same. Here's what you should take seriously. USA TODAY

It doesn't take a storm to inundate the coast with potentially ruinous floodwaters.

"Nuisance" or "sunny day" high-tide flooding is becoming more commonplace in the U.S., and a federal report released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns that such flooding will worsen in the decades to come as seas continue to rise.

Americas coastal communities and their economies are suffering from the effects of high-tide flooding, and its only going to increase in the future, said Nicole LeBoeuf, acting director of NOAAs National Ocean Service.

As sea-level rise continues, damaging floods that decades ago happened only during a storm now happen more regularly, such as during a full-moon tide or with a change in prevailing winds or currents, according to NOAA.

Although not mentioned in the report Tuesday, seas are rising in part because of climate change: According to an online NOAA fact sheet, "The two major causes of global sea level rise are thermal expansion caused by warming of the ocean (since water expands as it warms) and increased melting of land-based ice, such as glaciers and ice sheets."

In a call with reporters Tuesday, LeBoeuf saidthat "climate change and carbon emissions are a factor at play when we look at how tides are rising.

In 2019 alone, 19 locations along the east coast and Gulf coast set or tied records where rapidly increasing trends in high-tide flooding have emerged, NOAA said.

Evidence of a rapid increase in sea-level rise related flooding started to emerge about two decades ago, and now is very clear, the report said. NOAAs National Weather Service is issuing record numbers of watches (and) warnings for coastal flooding. This will become the new normal unless coastal flood mitigation strategies are implemented or enhanced.

Last year, the Southeast saw a threefold increase in flooding days compared to 2000. For example, Charleston, S.C., had 13 days where flooding reached damaging levels, compared to the two days that were typical in 2000.

Rob Kramer removes debris from a drain as tidal flooding inundated many downtown streets in Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 27, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. Just weeks after historic rains drenched the state, more flooding along the South Carolina coast brought another round of astronomical high tides often called king tides.(Photo: Paul Zoeller, AP)

And along the western Gulf coast, percentage increases were the highest, greater than fivefold. In Texas, Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi had 21 and 18 flooding days in 2019, and in 2000 those locations would typically only experience about one and three days, respectively.

"As a Chesapeake Bay resident, I see the flooding firsthand, and it is getting worse," said William Sweet, a NOAA oceanographer with the National Ocean Service and lead author of the report. "Records seem to be set every year. Communities are straddled with this growing problem."

By 2030, long-term projections show seven to 15 days of high-tide flooding for coastal communities nationally. By 2050, it rises to 25 to 75 days, suggesting high-tide flood levels may become the new high tide.

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Coastal flooding in US will continue to increase as seas rise, report says - USA TODAY

OUR recent series on slavery shows how, even though the North-East is not associated with the trade, its tentacles and its riches reached into our communities.

But the trade also had its opponents, like the Wyvill family of Constable Burton, near Bedale, in North Yorkshire.

The Reverend Christopher Wyvill was nominally in charge of the parish of Black Notley in Essex but he very shrewdly married his cousin, Elizabeth, who was more than 20 years older than him but was the heir to the family hall.

When her father, Sir Marmaduke, died in 1774, he inherited Constable Burton Hall and an income comfortable enough for him to be able to give up his parish.

However, he was desperately keen to see improvements in Britain and in 1779 formed the Yorkshire Association, a group of hundreds of independent members of the gentry which lobbied for economic and Parliamentary reform. Among the many reforming causes to which he gave his support was William Wilberforces crusade to end slavery.

On his death in 1822, his eldest son, also Marmaduke, inherited Constable Burton.

He was the MP for York from 1820 to 1830 and he, too, sided with Wilberforce, declaring himself an enemy of slavery. In 1829, he presented a petition to Parliament signed by hundreds of people in York demanding freedom for slaves.

Admiral Christopher Wyvill, who crusaded against slavery on the east coast of Africa. Picture courtesy of Charles Wyvill

The reverends second son was Admiral Christopher Wyvill who in the 1840s commanded HMS Cleopatra. He took the battle against slavery to the high seas.

He was stationed off the Cape of Good Hope, patrolling the east coast of Africa, where Portuguese traders still harvested slaves in Mozambique and sold them to the plantations of the Americas.

The admiral would chase after the slavers. Some he would capture and liberate hundreds of captives; others, though, would flee from him and in their desperation to escape would run aground. The crew would get away but the human cargo beneath the battened hatches might not be so lucky.

HMS Vestal, the sister ship of HMS Cleopatra which was commanded in the 1840s by Admiral Christopher Wyvill on an anti-slavery crusade

Then the admiral took the fight onland.

The Portuguese, like the Lascelles family of Northallerton MPs whose story we told last week, would pen the Africans in a makeshift prison until there was a ship to sail them off to slavery.

The admiral would destroy these slave factories the permanently moored prison ships pioneered by Henry Lascelles MP or he would land and burn the barracoons the stockades where the captives were incarcerated.

At the end of a long naval career, the admiral retired to The Grange, which is opposite Bedale sports ground, where he died in 1863 aged 71.

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The Wyvill family who were "an enemy of slavery" and the admiral who took the fight to end it to the high seas - The Northern Echo

No technology is as profoundly important to the global economy as the internet, which is dependent on the security of a vast network of some 750,000 miles of seabed cables that criss-cross the oceans depths. The interdependence of global submarine communication systems means that a break in one cable can have cascading effects on internet access to distant states. While the rules to protect this critical infrastructure in peacetime should be refurbished, the need to further develop the rules to secure this global infrastructure during periods of armed conflict is perhaps even more compelling. Although several peacetime treaties protect submarine cables from disruption and criminal acts, albeit weakly, the rules that apply during naval war are even more antiquated. Because the law of naval warfare is principally based on custom and state practice rather than treaties, there is considerable uncertainty over how submarine cables would fare in conflict at sea.

The internet facilitates $10 trillion in international financial transactions daily; submarine cables are the backbone of this distributed, global infrastructure. The critical importance of cables underscores the debate within Western states over the prudence of working with the Chinese communications conglomerate Huawei Marine. Russia and China both view submarine cables as strategic assets and could either tap them or sever them in any future conflict. Russias surface ship Yantar, for example, is monitored by Western naval forces since it is outfitted with cable-cutting gear and deep-sea submersibles.

The principal treaty governing submarine cables, adopted in 1884, sets forth an enlightened and balanced approach that is still followed today. The treaty is supplemented by the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). While Article 2 of the 1884 treaty criminalizes the breaking or injury of submarine cables done intentionally or through culpable negligence that results in disruption of telecommunication services, Article 4 requires cable owners and operators to indemnify each other for damaged cables and, under Article 7, pay for lost anchors and fishing nets sacrificed in order to avoid cutting a cable.

The 1958 convention recognizes that coastal states have sovereign rights over the resources of the seabed. These rights inhere to the coastal state, regardless of its ability to occupy the seabed, access the resources or exercise control over the area. This recognition of coastal state rights codified the U.S. claim in the 1945 Truman Proclamation, which had crystallized into customary international law. Article 4 of that treaty ensures that coastal states may not impede the laying or maintenance of submarine cables or pipelines on their continental shelves. Laying submarine cables is a high seas freedom, and Article 2(4) of the treaty recognizes that all states have a right to do so, while exercising reasonable regard for other statessuch as the coastal state. The act of laying submarine cables is also a high seas right under the peacetime rules reflected in Article 112 of UNCLOS. States are required to adopt necessary laws and regulations to address willful or culpably negligent damage to cables in accordance with Article 113. Articles 114 and 115 of UNCLOS reflect the long-standing regime of liability and indemnity and are derived from the 1884 treaty. Even in peacetime, as set forth by the rules reflected in UNCLOS, the submarine cable system is fragile. The International Cable Protection Committeean industry group that represents 97 percent of submarine cableshas reported coastal state delays and exorbitant costs, such as those imposed by India and Indonesia, that hinder undersea cable repairs on their continental shelves. China has a lax record of enforcement against its fishing vessels that cut submarine cables.

While Article 10 of the 1884 treaty specifies that warships and other government vessels have a right to verify the nationality of a merchant vessel if it is suspected of having broken a submarine cable, this provision is a departure from the concept of exclusive flag state jurisdiction over ships, as embodied in Article 92 of UNCLOS. Still, it is also possible to suggest that Article 10 persists even now by virtue of Article 30 of the 1958 convention, which states that prior agreements already in force shall continue. Thus, the rule that states may approach and visit merchant vessels to investigate cut or damaged cables may still apply to states party to the 1884 convention and the 1958 convention, or perhaps more broadly under customary international law.

While these peacetime instruments are rather dated and would benefit from new agreements to increase penalties for tampering and other criminal acts that disrupt their operation, the rules that apply during armed conflict are perhaps even more uncertain. The 1907 Hague Regulations forbid seizure or destruction of submarine cables connecting an occupied territory to a neutral territory, except in the case of absolute necessity. Furthermore, cut cables must be restored and compensation paid once the conflict is over. Not only does this exception practically negate the rule, but the regulations themselves apply only to war on landoccupied land at thatand are silent on destruction of cables in the open sea. State practice is clear, however, that cables connecting two points in enemy territory (or two enemy states) may be cut. (See p. 95 of volume 50 of International Law Studies, of the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College.)

Article 15 of the 1884 treaty states that the rules on submarine cables do not affect the liberty of action of belligerent states during armed conflict. This is amplified in Rule 37 in the influential San Remo Manual on the Law Applicable to Conflict at Sea, which states that parties to a conflict shall take care to avoid damaging submarine cables and pipelines laid on the seabed that serve neutral states. Article 54 of the 1913 Oxford Manual of the Laws of Naval War prohibits cutting cables in neutral waters connecting neutral states with an enemy state. Such cables may be cut on the high seas only if the belligerent state doing so is conducting an effective blockade of the enemy state. Yet, even the Oxford Manual cautions that seizure or destruction of a submarine cable may not be done unless there is an absolute necessity. This rule applies without discrimination as to nationality of the owner of the cable, whether a natural person or corporate entity. Recently, the 2020 Oslo Manual on Select Topics on the Law of Armed Conflict recognized in Rule 67 that states that have laid submarine cables or pipelines, or whose nationals have done so, are entitled to take protective measures to prevent or terminate harmful interference of them.

It is unclear, however, the extent to which the rules set forth in the Oxford, San Remo and Oslo manuals, weak as they are, reflect the understanding of states. In short, the content of the law is murky. Further, the willingness of states to acknowledge even the rather circumspect restraints from customary law on their conduct during armed conflict at sea is doubtful. And while legal practitioners and scholars might devise some clarity, such as through the ongoing revision process of the San Remo Manual, the challenge of more crisply defining rights and duties of states concerning submarine cables is daunting. In the meantime, states may expect that adversaries plans to disrupt international submarine cables during naval warfare are limited only by their national laws and their imagination.

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Submarine Cables in the Law of Naval Warfare - Lawfare

Typically, ammonia is made in a process known as steam reforming. Hydrogen is generated from a reaction involving methane, water and air, and then combined with nitrogen in a process known as the Haber method. However,carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct.

Dr John Constable, director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, sees one fix for this that banks on carbon capture and storage, a relatively unproven technology that reels carbon dioxide from the air and stores it deep underground. If you can capture the carbon from steam methane reforming, it may be clean at the point of consumption, he says.

Another method picking up traction from Wrtsil involves the use of electricity generated by wind farms to split water into its constituent components of hydrogen and oxygen through a process known as electrolysis.

That hydrogen can then be combined with nitrogen pulled from the atmosphere to create ammonia in a way that has cut carbon emissions altogether. For years, the method has proved too costly given the high price of renewable energy, but it is getting cheaper. Hystad claims 400gW of wind turbines are due to be installed in the North Sea between now and 2050, more than 20 times the current output.

With clean options of generating ammonia emerging, the next challenge involves turning it into a form that can be used as fuel. Wrtsil is exploring the possibility of pumping ammonia 70m below sea level where high pressure can turn it into a liquid, while another option involves cooling the gas to -40 degrees C to liquefy it.

Once in a liquid form, ammonia can be used in a retrofitted internal combustion engine, such as the ones Wrtsil are looking at in existing ships, or can generate electricity in a reaction driven by a device known as a fuel cell.

The ability to create green ammonia is opening up potential applications far beyond the high seas too. A study led by Davennes team in Harwell has been investigating the potential for ammonia to replace kerosene as the go-to fuel in the aviation industry.

At a cruising altitude, ammonia could sit in the wings of a plane as a liquid, given the sub-zero temperatures 30,000ft in the air, and the engine would need few changes to accommodate for ammonia according to their research.

But there are some real hurdles to overcome to get ammonia working as a fuel.

In planes, ammonia could struggle as its energy density is a lot lower than kerosene, meaning much more fuel will be needed onboard. On the ground, wings would have to be refrigerated as ammonia is a gas in that atmosphere, Davenne says.

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Ammonia could be the fuel of the future for shipping - Telegraph.co.uk

The award of the ad-hoc arbitral tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS), only the operative portions of which were publicly released last week, appears to have brought to an end, an eight year long tussle between New Delhi and Rome on the exercise of criminal jurisdiction over two Italian marines accused of manslaughter.

As many would remember, on February 15, 2012, two Italian marines Sgt. Massimiliano Latorre and Sgt. Salvatore Girone, deployed on board an oil tanker MV Enrica Lexieflying the Italian flag en route from Sri Lanka to Egypt, at roughly 20.5 nautical miles off the Indian coast, opened fire, killing two Indian fisherman on board an Indian vessel St. Antonyafter claiming to have mistaken them for pirates.

Soon after the incident, the Indian Coast Guard intercepted the Italian ship and directed it to shore.

The marines were then arrested and charged with murder by the Indian authorities. The Italian government, which claimed to have started its own criminal investigations, strongly contested Indias exercise of criminal jurisdiction over the marines and in any case argued that the marines, having been officially deployed with an anti-piracy mandate, enjoyed sovereign immunity.

Also read: Enrica Lexie: Did India Lose Case Against Italy Because of Lapses By its Own Supreme Court?

The incident and the detention of the marines greatly soured the relationship between Italy and India, with the former deciding to initiate arbitration proceedings under Annex VII of the UNCLOS.

Lotus 2.0?

The incident itself bore strong resemblance with another infamous high seas incident decades earlier that was the subject of a decision rendered by the permanent court of international justice (PCIJ). In the SS Lotus case, following a collision between a French steamer and a Turkish vessel on high seas, resulting in the death of eight Turkish nationals, France objected to Turkeys attempt to criminally prosecute the captain of the French steamer for his role in the collision.

The SS Lotus. Photo: http://www.alchetron.com

The PCIJ, equating the Turkish vessel to Turkish territory, held that under customary international law Turkey was entitled to assert jurisdiction over the persons responsible for the collisions since its effects have taken place on Turkish territory.

The decision thus laid down the foundation for the principle of objective territoriality. Many saw the decision as relevant to the Enrica Lexie incident, with Italy taking the place of France and India that of Turkey. However, there were some notable differences.

First, the Enrica Lexie incident did not take place on the high seas; rather it took place in an area beyond Indias territorial sea called the contiguous zone, where India exercises limited sovereign rights.

Second, the basis of the decision in SS Lotus was overruled through treaty law, specifically Article 97 of the UNCLOS which provided that in the event of a collision or any other incident of navigation on the high seas, involving penal responsibility of any person in the service of the ship, only the flag state or state of which the person is a national would be entitled to assert penal jurisdiction.

Third, the captain of the French vessel SS Lotus was not an agent of the French state. In contrast, the two marines were members of the Italian armed forces specifically deployed as per Italian law framed pursuant to anti-piracy resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council.

Each of these differences appears to have ultimately proved critical to the outcome of the case. The Tribunal dismissed the reliance placed by Italy on Article 97 of the UNCLOS to argue that only Italy as the flag state was entitled to assert jurisdiction over the marines, presumably since the incident did not take place on the high seas and/or did not involve collision or other incident of navigation but rather shooting across vessels.

The Tribunal also found that by firing upon St. Antony, Italy effectively, interfered with an Indian vessels freedom of navigation under Articles 87 and 90 of the UNCLOS, and was entitled to pay compensation to India in connection with the loss of life, physical harm and material damage to the Indian vessel St. Antony and its crew.

Also read: Enrica Lexie: In Setback for India, Tribunal Says Countrys Courts Cant Try Italian Marines

Finally, although under the tribunals award India could exercise concurrent jurisdiction over the marines, as per the tribunal it was precluded from doing so on account of the immunity enjoyed by the marines as sovereigns state officials exercising sovereign functions, presumably under the rules of customary international law.

On immunity

It is this last part of the award finding that the marines are entitled to sovereign immunity that has proved particularly controversial. Under customary international law, as also reflected in the commentary to the Draft Articles on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their property, states (including its organs) and its property, subject to limited exceptions, enjoy immunity from the jurisdiction of the courts of another state.

One significant exception recognised in international law to such jurisdictional immunity, is with regard to the commercial activities of the state and over their commercial assets It is equally well accepted that the armed forces of a state, as an organ of the state, enjoy such jurisdictional immunity, for acts committed in their official functions. This underlying idea of sovereign immunity is also reflected in Articles 95 and 96 of the UNCLOS, which provide that warshipsand ships owned or operated by the state on governmental non-commercial service, enjoy complete immunity from the jurisdiction of any state other then the flag state.

Also read:India, Italy Spar Over Marines Issue Again as Ad-hoc Tribunal Reviews Enrica Lexie Case

However in the Enrica Lexie incident although the marines were indisputably members of Italian armed forces, they had been deputed on board a private Italian oil tanker, with an anti-piracy mandate. Thus according to India, Italy by deploying its armed forces on a private charter was acting in its commercial capacity, and the positions of the marines were equivalent to that of private armed security on board a vessel. However it is important to remember that, and as stressed by the Italians, the marines had been deployed under an Italian law framed pursuant to certain UN Security Council resolutions and had to adhere to rules of command, engagement, etc.

The majority of the tribunal appears to have found favour with the Italian position, whereas the dissenting members appear to have accepted that the Italian state (or its organs) was carrying on commercial activity.

Accordingly the majority of the tribunal, after taking note of the commitment made by Italy during the arbitral proceedings to resume criminal investigation against the marines for the incident, directed India to take steps to cease its exercise of criminal jurisdiction over the marines.

The road ahead

Naturally, as a result of losing jurisdiction over the marines, the award has not been met with much enthusiasm in India, especially in the state of Kerala where the deceased fishermen hailed from.

Enrica Lexie. Photo: Wikipedia/CC BY 3.0

However contrary to the expectations expressed in some quarters, the award of the tribunal at Hague is final and not subject to appeal in terms of Article 11 of Annexure VII to the UNCLOS read with the agreed rules of procedure. As an international law abiding nation, the Indian government has correctly decided to abide by the ruling of the tribunal and its application to the Supreme Court should be viewed in this context.

Having said that, the Indian governments role in this matter is far from over. Although the legal phase of the matter is over, the Indian government should continue to exercise diplomatic pressure on Italy, to ensure that the marines are subjected to a fair trial in Italy for their roles in the incident.

The government must also ensure that the compensation to be agreed with Italy, in terms of the directions of the tribunal, accurately reflects the material and moral loss caused to St. Antony and its crew. In the event no agreement on compensation is reached diplomatically between New Delhi and Rome, expect another round before the arbitral tribunal.

Jay Manoj Sanklecha is a lawyer specialising in international law. Views are personal.

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Is it the End of the Road for India in the Enrica Lexie Incident? - The Wire

With tropical waters largely off limits, frustrated enthusiasts can seek solace in some world-class locations close to home

Snorkelling, scuba diving, wild swimming they turn a pedestrian beach holiday into anadventure. Anyone who has swum alongside a shimmering school of fish or been blessed by a dolphin swim-by will know what it is to experience the magic of the sea. All of which is academic because, for now, most dreams of a blue water paradise are on hold.

There is another way to scratch that itch, however and that is to try diving in Britain. Scuba diving from the shore has recently been approved in England and Northern Ireland, and diving from a club or charter boat in England has also been green-lighted by Defra. Up to six members of different households can dive from a boat, as long as they can maintain social distancing. Once underwater, you can shake hands, hug and be as distance-compromised as you like.

In the past week, diving has also opened up in Scotland and Wales, and it is legal to travel into both countries now that their five-mile travel restrictions have been lifted. Diving, in short, is coming home.

Lets say youre a holiday diver, but might just be persuaded to dip a tentative fin into British seas. The crucial message is not to go it alone you need a proper support network to help you address the safety concerns involved in UK diving, and you may need additional training for some of the dives that follow. Consider joining your local branch of BSAC, the British Sub-Aqua Club (bsac.com) or find a friendly dive centre and ask for help.

Britains temperate water is supercharged with oxygen and rich in plankton. Thats why the water is green its a sign not of degradation, but of richness. After a while, you learn to move slowly through this environment, using a torch to pick out detail on our surprisingly colourful reefs. Yes, its colder than you might be used to and visibility is lower, but this is for connoisseurs the more you dive in green water, the more you appreciate its subtle beauty.

I genuinely believe some of Britains dive sites compare favourably with the best of the tropics. Dont agree? Then squeeze into a 7mm wetsuit you may require some lubrication and join me on a tour of domestic alternatives for the frustrated holiday diver.

Go global:Raja Ampat, in eastern Indonesia, is the worlds most biodiverse area, and renowned for its forests of gorgonian fan corals.

Stay at home: You can find colonies of pink fan corals on many of the shipwrecks around Plymouth, but my favourite place is the Eddystone Lighthouse, where they can be found hanging like nets between rocky gullies. UK fans are a bijoux 12in tall by 16in wide, but look at them up close and you will appreciate the intricacies of their structure, the distinct pinkish-gold hue of the feeding polyps.

Pink sea fans are often used by spotted catsharks (yes, Britain has leopard-spotted sharks, too) to secure their developing eggs to the structure. Look really closely and you may even see a superbly camouflaged sea slug, Tritonia nilsodhneri, which mimics the textures of the coral, just as a pygmy seahorse does out in Raja Ampat.

Dive deeper:Dive centre at Fort Bovisand, Plymouth, through Discovery Divers (discoverydivers.net).

Go global: Where dolphins are diffident, pinnipeds are your pals. The autumn months in Mexicos Baja Peninsula see Californian sea lion pups honing their skills in the Sea of Cortez.

Stay at home: In Northumberland, grey seal pups have taken to the water off the Farne Islands, a demanding offshore environment for which they must be fattened and fit in time for winter. Where the Californian sea lion is an unglamorous brown, the grey seal is resplendent in photogenic hues of silver.

Both use play as a means of asserting themselves in their hierarchical societies. They extend this behaviour to visiting divers it usually manifests in fin-nipping and acrobatic displays at close quarters. Some may even try to snuggle, but be wary of those sharp teeth and remember you are dealing with a wild animal.

Dive deeper: Boat charters from Seahouses (farne-islands.com).

Go global: On Mexicos Pacific coast, you can gawp at great whites from thesafety of a reinforced steel cage at Isla Guadalupe.

Stay at home: July sees ocean-going blue sharks appear in Cornwalls offshore waters, following migrating shoals of mackerel. Veteran diver Charles Hood has devised a way to swim safely with British blues from his boat, RIB Logan. You dont even need scuba equipment, though you must be comfortable snorkelling in deep water.

Charles uses a similar baiting system to the Guadalupe boats, chumming the water with a fragrant bucket of mashed mackerel. Blue sharks are classic oceanic predators, with streamlined bodies and long pectoral fins for riding currents. Join them in the water (try not to make a splash) and you can admire their elegance at close quarters with no cage required.

Dive deeper: Boat charters from Penzance, July to September(charleshood.com/rib-logan).

Go global: Arta beach in Djibouti is the setting for a mysterious gathering of whale sharks each winter, when they arrive to gorge on zooplankton. Its a rare opportunity to swim with these gentle giants as they gulp down mouthfuls of globular goodness.

Stay at home: How do you top the biggest fish in the sea? Allow me to present the second-biggest fish in the sea. While Djiboutis whale sharks are sub-adults measuring 10-16ft in length, the basking sharks that visit the Isle of Coll in the Hebrides each summer are grown-ups reaching 25-30ft. They appear off Coll for the same reason the whale sharks aggregate in Djibouti some local eddy causes plankton to amass, providing a feast for filter-feeders. Snorkelling only.

Dive deeper: Boat charters from Oban (baskingsharkscotland.co.uk)

Go global: Every diver who visits Palm Beach, Florida, hopes to dive the Blue Heron Bridge a waterway packed with unusual creatures.

Stay at home: My UK alternative may not triumph when it comes to diversity, but Swanage Pier offers a more serene setting. At the time of writing, the pier had just reopened, saving divers the 100-yard surface swim across Swanage Bay to reach the stanchions. Instead, you pop down a few steps and stroll straight into the water. The site is shallow and protected, so you can spend a good two hours exploring the seabed under the boardwalk.

The area is home to the bold and brave tompot blenny the underwater worlds answer to the robin redbreast. A snorkeller or diver may also encounter cuttlefish, sand-dwelling dragonets and the colourful gastropods known as nudibranchs.

Dive deeper: Dive centre and boat charter operated by Divers Down(diversdownswanage.co.uk).

Go global: They call it the oceans weirdest square mile, a channel between the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and Lembeh, where the black sand is home to an array of ugly-beautiful beasties such as the hairy frogfish.

Stay at home: Lembeh may be the heartland of the specialism known as muck diving, but the sea lochs of western Scotland offer a similar environment dark sediment interspersed with boulders covered in anemones and immense clusters of brittle stars. The most rewarding locations are Loch Duich, Loch Carron, Loch Creran, Lochaline and Loch Fyne. You will need to research entry and exit points carefully in tandem with local tides to dive here safely. Dont just jump in!

Underwater you should be able to find the incredible firework anemone, or you may run into a sleeping bull huss shark. Sea lochs represent a treasure trove of habitats, so you may find yourself looking at a seabed covered in brittle stars, or communities of flame shells. Its a hidden world of shadows and sea scorpions.

Dive deeper: This is a DIY dive trip your best option is to be part of a club or centre that can organise its own expeditions and arranges for air cylinders to be filled. To get started, buy the book 100 British Shore Dives by Anita Sherwood (britishshoredives.co.uk).

Go global: Fiji is known as the soft coral capital of the world because of its great swathes of these treelike invertebrates, which appear in vivid tones of red, pink, purple and blue.

Stay at home: Look no further than the Isle of Man. Deep water upwellings in the Irish Sea create ideal conditions for reef development at a renowned dive site known as The Burroo, off the Calf. With a maximum depth of just 60ft, the site comprises a series of gullies all plastered in anemones and soft corals, like living wallpaper. Stars of the show are the tiny jewel anemones, which create colour-coordinated zones over every available surface. Framed by pale green water and often in excellent visibility, the Burroo and nearby Chicken Rock are world-class dives.

Dive deeper: Discover Diving at Port St Mary (discoverdiving.im).

Go global: Chuuk (also known as Truk) Lagoon in Micronesia is home to the Ghost Fleet of the Imperial Japanese navy, sunk during Operation Hailstone during the Second World War.

Stay at home: If the Ghost Fleet has an equivalent in the northern hemisphere, its the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow, a natural harbour in Orkney. The ships were scuttled by their own German crews in 1919, while interned under the terms of the Armistice.

Today its possible to dive on four light cruisers and three battleships of the Knig class. Depths vary from 52ft at the top of the cruiser SMS Cln, to 138ft if you want to see the 12in guns on the Kronprinz Wilhelm. Its deep and dark, but rewarding for history buffs who want to see battleship guns that were fired in anger at the British Navy.

Dive deeper: Halton Charters of Stromness (mvhalton.co.uk); also visits Shetland see below.

Go global: The Galapagos Islands are high on the bucket list of most divers, largely due to the schools of hammerhead sharks that gather in the remote northern islands, accessible only by liveaboard dive boat.

Stay at home: With its mosaic of islands and undiluted nature, Shetland is Britains own Galapagos. Underwater visibility is often superb, reaching 65ft or more. There are, admittedly, no hammerhead sharks but you can explore the twilight world of sea caves and marvel at schools of saithe and pollock as they stream around the reefs. Shetland evokes a strong sense of nature untrammeled; it will take your diving to a higher latitude.

If conditions allow, your live-aboard may head to Out Stack, the northernmost rock in the British Isles; its ravine is packed with the most colourful dahlia anemones I have seen. Nearby at Balta Sound, there is the strangely beautiful wreck of the British submarine HMS E49; the sub lies on a bed of pure white sand, a memorial to the 31 crew who died when it struck a mine in 1917.

Dive deeper: MV Valkyrie live-aboard (mv-valkyrie.co.uk); also based in Orkney see above.

Simon Rogerson is the editor ofSCUBA, the official journal of theBritish Sub-Aqua Club

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How to have an incredible diving holiday in UK waters - Telegraph.co.uk

Snow fell in some regions of the Eastern Cape this week.

Strong gale force winds left a trail of destruction in the Eastern Cape over the past two days, reportedly toppling trucks over and causing damage to property, while snow blocked mountain passes.

On Wednesday Garth Sampson, spokesperson for the SA Weather Service's Port Elizabeth office said: "Snow is still evident on the high lying ground in the extreme north-east but should melt off in the next day or so as temperatures recover."

Bitterly cold conditions with frost were recorded over the interior on Wednesday, with Buffelsfontein, Molteno, at -10C, experiencing the lowest temperatures.

Aliwal North, Barkley East and Jamestown recorded-7C while Cradock and Elliotregistered -3C.

Transport authorities had their hands full diverting traffic to alternate routes and towing trucks from the roadside.

The Wapadsberg Pass on the R61 between Graaff-Reinet and Cradock was closed to traffic on Tuesday due to heavy snowfall.

Transport department spokesperson Unathi Binqose said all mountain passes closed to traffic were opened by Wednesday after the snow had melted.

"All clear on our roads except for a stop and go on the N2 section 20 between Mount Frere and Mount Ayliff for approximately 5km. Sugarbush and Lugelweni and Puti will be affected."

Television journalists Aviwe Mtila and Nceba Ntlanganiso reported that they had come across two trucks tipped over by strong winds on the N2 between Mthatha and Dutywa on Monday while on an assignment.

In East London, 40 shacks were destroyed by a fire fuelled by strong winds on Monday. The fire was caused by illegal electricity connections, but was fanned by winds, said Buffalo City Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya.

Ngwenya said strong winds also caused damage to houses and walls in the city. "It has been a challenging day for our emergency and standby services across the city. Due to heavy winds, our personnel have been busy responding to emergency calls related to water, electricity, trees, traffic accidents and fires," said Ngwenya.

A giant gumtree was uprooted by winds in Mdantsane's NU 8 outside East London on Tuesday, said Ngwenya. A second tree fell on an overheard electricity line.

Toppled trees in Mdantsane's NU8. (Supplied by Buffalo City Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya)

A toppled electricity pole in Mdantsane's NU8. (Supplied by Buffalo City Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya)

Ngwenya said 114 people were left homeless by the fire. He said the municipality's disaster management unit took down all the names of the victims for applications for Sassa's social relief package.

Sampson said the rain on Tuesday night "brushed" the coastline.

"This can be seen as the PE airport recorded a nice 31 mm, other parts of the metro, like Uitenhage only received a mere 6 mm. The southern parts of the Langkloof catchment received between 19 and 45 mm in the Kareedouw region, while further up, Joubertina only received a mere 3 mm. Patensie only received 5 mm," said Sampson.

He said temperatures would start improving and no significant weather or rain was expected for the next five days.

Conditions were expected to clear up by Wednesday.

"The weather does start clearing from the morning, with the daytime temperatures also recovering from midday," said meteorologist Lelo Kleinbooi.

The weather authority had warned the marine community of strong to gale force winds and high seas along the coastline on Tuesday. The conditions were expected to improve overnight into Wednesday morning.

"We still advise the public and marine community to take [the] necessary precautions and be safe," said Kleinbooi.

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PICS | Toppled trucks, uprooted trees, shack fires - winds, snow cause havoc in Eastern Cape - News24