Environment

Powerful Hurricane Idalia pummels Florida, churns on to Georgia

By Gerard MARTINEZ Idalia roared across Florida Wednesday as a dangerous and powerful hurricane, bringing potentially catastrophic storm surge to coastal communities and knocking out power to thousands as the storm swept through the southeastern United States. As it barreled into neighboring Georgia, Idalia weakened to a tropical storm that nevertheless was drenching the region with up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain and bringing life-threatening inundations from rising water moving inland, officials said. […]

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Japan PM eats ‘safe and delicious’ Fukushima fish

  TOKYO, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Japan’s prime minister ate what he called “safe and delicious” fish from Fukushima on Wednesday, days after wastewater was released from the area’s crippled nuclear plant into the Pacific. A video clip showing Fumio Kishida eating Fukushima fish, published on social media by his office, comes after China banned all seafood imports from its neighbour following the discharge that began on August 24. “This is very good,” Kishida […]

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Japan’s century of efforts to tame earthquakes

By Etienne BALMER Takashi Hosoda was in a Tokyo skyscraper when the 9.0 magnitude quake struck on March 11, 2011, but the trained architect was “not particularly worried” as modern Japanese buildings are designed to protect their occupants. A century after Tokyo was destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Japanese capital today bears no resemblance to the city levelled by that 7.9 tremor, which killed 105,000 people. The low-rise, largely wooden city […]

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‘Animals are thirsty’: Dust and bones on Turkey’s shrinking lake

By Fulya OZERKAN Shepherd Ibrahim Koc recalls his youth with fondness as he grazes cattle on a barren field that was once lush with vegetation on the edge of Turkey’s largest lake. An occasional shrub marks the spots from where Lake Van has retreated over years of global heating and drought. “The animals are thirsty,” the 65-year-old lamented. “There is no water,” Koc said, echoing sentiments expressed by a growing number of Turks who have […]

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Hurricane Idalia intensifies as nears Florida

By Jesus Olarte, with Gerard Martinez in Steinhatchee, Florida Hurricane Idalia intensified early Wednesday as it hurtled towards northwest Florida, threatening “catastrophic” impacts including a dangerous storm surge, with officials forecasting it will slam the coast within hours as an extreme and historic Category 4 storm. Authorities in the southern US state described Idalia and its potentially deadly storm surge as a once-in-a-lifetime event for Florida’s northwest coast, as they ordered mass evacuations and issued […]

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Houses destroyed in Swiss landslide

A landslide slammed into a Swiss village on Tuesday after days of heavy rain, destroying half a dozen houses but causing no injuries, media reported. The landslide rammed into the small village of Schwanden in Switzerland’s far east at around 5:30 pm (1530 GMT), the Keystone-ATS news agency reported, citing regional police in Glarus canton. Large amounts of mud, rocks and other debris pummelled down the mountainside, wreaking havoc across 400 metres (1,300 feet), destroying […]

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Several sea lions die from bird flu in Argentina

Scores of sea lions have died from bird flu in Argentina, officials said Tuesday, as an unprecedented global outbreak continues to infect mammals, raising fears it could spread more easily among humans. Animal health authorities have recently reported dead sea lions in several locations along Argentina’s extensive Atlantic coast, from just south of the capital Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz near the southern tip of the continent. Another “50 dead specimens have been counted… with […]

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Tropical Storm Idalia strengthens off Cuba, barrels toward Florida

Tropical Storm Idalia strengthened as it passed by the western tip of Cuba on Monday, taking aim at the Gulf coast of Florida as forecasters predicted it could become a hurricane “at any time.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned the storm — likely to make landfall there as a major hurricane by Wednesday — could have major impacts along the Gulf of Mexico, telling a news conference that evacuations would take place and residents should […]

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‘Like an urban dumpster’: rare corpse flower stinks out California

A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but with a corpse flower — well, tinkering around the edges isn’t going to help. A giant Amorphophallus Titanium opened its less-than-delicate petals this week at the Huntingdon Library near Los Angeles, an event that only comes once every few years. And it is giving off a powerful reek. “It smells of rotting flesh,” says conservatory gardener Bryce Dunn. “It’s trying to attract carrion flies […]

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7.1-magnitude quake, aftershocks rattle Bali residents

A strong, deep 7.1-magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks rattled Bali and other Indonesian islands on Tuesday, the USGS reported, sending panicked tourists into the streets but causing no major damage. The quake struck at a depth of around 515 kilometres off the northeastern coast of Bali at around 3:55 am local time (1955 GMT Monday), according to the US Geological Survey. The tremors were felt across Bali, and also in the nearby islands of Lombok […]

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‘Animals are thirsty’: Dust and bones on Turkey’s shrinking lake

By Fulya OZERKAN Shepherd Ibrahim Koc recalls his youth with fondness as he grazes cattle on a barren field that was once lush with vegetation on the edge of Turkey’s largest lake. An occasional shrub marks the spots from where Lake Van has retreated over years of global heating and drought. “The animals are thirsty,” the 65-year-old lamented. “There is no water,” Koc said, echoing sentiments expressed by a growing number of Turks who have […]

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