Maputo (AFP) March 12, 2023 Heavy rains and winds lashed parts of Mozambique on Saturday as Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit the country for the second time in two weeks, authorities and aid agencies said. Satellite images showed Freddy, which is on track to become the longest-lasting cyclone on record, made its second landfall near the eastern seaport of Quelimane at around 10:00 pm (2000 GMT). … Continue reading Heavy rains hit Mozambique as Cyclone Freddy lands again

Pajaro, United States (AFP) March 12, 2023 Another powerful storm pummeled California overnight into Saturday, forcing thousands to evacuate and resulting in at least two deaths, while causing a levee to give way in coastal Monterey County. “We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight,” Luis … Continue reading Latest California storm leaves at least two dead, breaks levee

Rio De Janeiro (AFP) March 10, 2023 Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and fragile Cerrado savanna hit record highs in February, according to government figures released Friday, showing the challenges President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces to reverse surging environmental destruction. Satellite monitoring detected 322 square kilometers (124 square miles) of forest cover destroyed in Brazil’s share of the world’s biggesthttp://dlvr.it/SkjhX7 Continue reading Record deforestation in Brazilian Amazon in February

Geneva (AFP) March 10, 2023 Nearly 130,000 people in the Greater Horn of Africa are “staring death in the eyes” from catastrophic hunger, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Friday. Some 48 million people in the Greater Horn – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – are facing crisis levels of food insecurity, the WHO said. That means households skipping meals and … Continue reading Nearly 130,000 facing starvation in Horn of Africa: WHO

Los Angeles (AFP) March 11, 2023 Dozens of evacuation orders were in place Friday as a powerful atmospheric river, known as a “Pineapple express,” surged into an already-sodden California, sparking warnings of widespread flash flooding. Up to nine inches (23 centimeters) of rain were expected in some parts of the state, with several feet of heavy, wet snow falling over mountains where a huge snowpack … Continue reading ‘Pineapple express’ storm wallops California

Sydney (AFP) March 11, 2023 Rescuers flew residents out of a remote Australian town by helicopter on Saturday as record-high floods rose rapidly and authorities issued a “final alert” to evacuate. Police said helicopters and other aircraft had already flown out 53 vulnerable people over the past few days from the small community of Burketown in northeastern Australia. Murky water lapped at the sides of … Continue reading Rescuers airlift residents from remote Australia floods

Sydney (AFP) March 11, 2023 Police urged all residents of a remote Australian town to evacuate Saturday, warning that record-high floodwaters were expected to rise further over the weekend. Helicopters and other aircraft have already flown out 53 of the most vulnerable residents of Burketown, home to about 200 people in northeastern Australia, the authorities said. Murky water lapped at the sides of buildings and … Continue reading Police urge residents to flee flooded Australian town

Brasilia (AFP) March 9, 2023 Joenia Wapichana is used to charting new territory: the first Indigenous woman to earn a law degree in Brazil, she was also the first elected to Congress. But she faces one of her biggest challenges yet in her new job as the first native person to lead Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, which she said was dismantled for the past … Continue reading Brazil’s new Indigenous affairs chief sets sights on illegal gold

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Mar 09, 2023 Scientists studying a nearby protostar have detected the presence of water in its circumstellar disk. The new observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) mark the first detection of water being inherited into a protoplanetary disk without significant changes to its composition. These results further suggest that the water in our Solar System formed billions ofhttp://dlvr.it/SkfYSr Continue reading ALMA traces history of water in planet formation back to the interstellar medium

Bangkok (AFP) March 9, 2023 Nearly 200,000 people in Thailand have been admitted to hospital because of air pollution this week, officials have said, with Bangkok shrouded in a harmful haze. The Thai capital, home to an estimated 11 million people and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, has been blanketed for days by an unpleasant yellow-grey mix of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions … Continue reading Health warnings as Bangkok chokes on pollution