ZIONIST ILLEGAL OCCUPATION

Israel advances peak number of West Bank settlement plans in 2023 -watchdog

Ozzy Jackson, an 18-year-old settler carries buckets at Kedar Sheep Farm near the Jewish settlement of Kedar

Reuters
Thu, July 13, 2023 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government has promoted a record number of housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank in its first six months, Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday.

Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel occupied in a 1967 Middle East war as illegal, and their continued expansion has for decades been among the most contentious issues between Israel, the Palestinians and the international community.

Since January, Israel has advanced 12,855 settler housing units across the West Bank, said Peace Now - the highest number the group has recorded since it started tracking such activity in 2012.

"In the past six months, the only sector that Israel has vigorously promoted is the settlement enterprise," it said in a statement.

Palestinian leaders have sought to establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. They say settlements cut Palestinian communities from each other and undermine hopes of a viable state.

The United States, Israel's key ally and a broker of statehood negotiations that have stalled since 2014, has repeatedly expressed its objection to Israel's ongoing settlement expansion.

According to the United Nations, some 700,000 settlers live in 279 settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, up from 520,000 in 2012. More than 3 million Palestinians who live in the same area are subjected to Israeli military rule that some rights groups say amounts to apartheid.

Israel cites biblical and historical ties to the area and denies it maintains an apartheid policy against Palestinians. Netanyahu, whose coalition includes far-right ministers who oppose Palestinian statehood, has recently said Israeli settlements were not an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

(Reporting by Henriette Chacar; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Palestinian leader calls on world to ‘protect us,’ and his people respond with bitter laughter

THE BITTERNESS OF WORMWOOD


Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images


Abeer Salman

CNN
Fri, July 14, 2023 

President Mahmoud Abbas, the 87-year-old veteran who has led the Palestinian Authority for nearly two decades, is trending on Palestinian social media – but not in the way he might like.

When he made a rare flying visit to Jenin this week, eight days after the largest Israeli incursion into the city’s refugee camp in decades, many comments in the Facebook live feed of Palestine TV were harsh.

“Most of those cheering are his security forces. Where are the injured people?” one viewer asked.

“Good morning, you can wait for a week more, no harm,” another said, in reference to the time that had passed between the Israeli pullout and Abbas’s arrival.

“Those helicopters were rented,” another said of the two Jordanian aircraft that brought the leader and his entourage to Jenin.

The Facebook feed recorded more laughing emojis in response to viewer comments than hearts during the visit.

And that’s not the worst of it.

Abbas’s speech to the United Nations on May 15 commemorating the displacement of Palestinians at the founding of Israel, known in Arabic as the Nakba, or catastrophe, triggered a wave of cynical and darkly comic social media memes and videos.

Abbas called on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian people. In an emotional plea, he said: “We are getting beaten every day, we scream every day. People of the world, protect us! Aren’t we human beings? Even animals should be protected. If you have an animal, won’t you protect it? Protect us…”

His words struck a chord with many Palestinians – a deeply negative one.

For some, Abbas’s comparison of their suffering to that of animals was deeply insulting, while for others, it was seen as darkly comic. His phrase “Protect us” – “Ehmouna” in Arabic – quickly became a trending topic on social media.

Videos began circulating mocking Abbas’s words.

In one, a child is asked by his father what Abbas said at the UN. The boy, wriggling in the backseat of a car, childishly says “Ehmouna, ehmouna for Allah’s sake” as other people in the car laugh.

A harsher video features an elderly woman cursing Abbas sarcastically and viciously, repeatedly saying “Ehmouna.” She demands that he use his police and security forces to provide protection for his people instead of making a desperate plea to the international community.

Meanwhile, one of the simplest but funniest videos on TikTok, just features a man lip syncing the sound of Abbas saying “Ehmouna,” exaggerating his expressions just enough to make the mockery plain.

Ultimately, these viral moments shed light on the frustrations and aspirations of the Palestinian people, caught between the conflict with Israel on the one hand and their own unpopular leadership on the other.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found last September that 26% of respondents were satisfied with Abbas as president, while 71% were dissatisfied; 74% demanded that he resign. The Center interviewed 1,270 adults face to face September 13-17, 2022, and the poll had a margin of error of three points.

The Palestinian Authority has not held presidential elections since May 2006 – repeatedly postponing votes – leaving the Palestinian people with few ways other than social media to make their voices heard.

“Protect us” was not the first time Palestinians have picked up on a hashtag related to Abbas. Another trend emerged around his calls for peaceful resistance, which many Palestinians view as disconnected from the harsh realities of increasing Israeli settler violence and frequent, deadly Israeli military incursions in the occupied West Bank.

Two Palestinians sarcastically attempt to “act as President Abbas requested” in one video. They pretend to protest against an Israeli military base built on their land, gently urging: “Go away and leave us alone.”

Laughing, they conclude: “They’ll be gone by noon.”

CNN.com

New report estimates 89,000 lives could be saved if Americans make one simple lifestyle change: ‘A significant health benefit’



Roberto Guerra
Thu, July 13, 2023

A new report has highlighted the health benefits of shifting to electric vehicles (EVs) as efficiently as possible, as long as the energy comes from renewable sources.

The American Lung Association released a new report explaining how if drivers stop using conventional air-polluting vehicles and the U.S. cleans up its power grid, 89,000 lives and nearly $1 trillion in health costs could be saved by the middle of the century, as reported by Grist.

According to William Barrett, who authored the report and works on clean air and climate policy at the American Lung Association, “There’s a real significant health benefit to be achieved and significant suffering to be avoided — premature deaths to be avoided, children having asthma attacks avoided — by making this transition to technology that exists today.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost all of the global population (99%) breathes air that exceeds WHO guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants.

Conventional motor vehicles emit pollution that contains particulate matter, which penetrates the lungs and enters the bloodstream, resulting in various impacts on cardiovascular health (such as ischaemic heart disease), cerebrovascular health (such as stroke), and respiratory well-being, the WHO reports.

The organization also states that short-term and long-term exposure to particulate matter is associated with increased mortality rates related to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

Long-term exposure has also been linked to negative perinatal outcomes and lung cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the WHO classified particulate matter as a cause of lung cancer in 2013.

States such as California and Oregon have established goals to achieve “zero-emissions” for all passenger vehicle sales by 2035.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently introduced tailpipe emissions standards that could result in EVs making up around two-thirds of all new car sales by 2032.

However, the American Lung Association’s report also specifies the need for EVs to be powered by clean energy sources, like solar or wind.

Sara Adar, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan who specializes in studying environmental health, particularly traffic pollution, admitted, “If we fail in our attempt to clean the grid and we are still generating electricity based on coal, I think those estimates will no longer be accurate,” Grist reported.

'It's our duty': Hundreds gather to remember Newark firefighters killed in ship fire


Mike Kelly, NorthJersey.com
Updated Fri, July 14, 2023 

NEWARK, N.J. — Firefighters are helpers by nature. It prompts them to run into danger. It’s also the glue that holds them together in tough times.

And so, on a hot, windy Thursday in Newark, New Jersey, hundreds of firefighters — some traveling from as far away as California — gathered to help one another get through the first of two long goodbyes to two Newark firefighters who perished last week after they were trapped aboard a burning ship loaded with used cars bound for Africa.

“This is what it’s all about,” said Tim McGovern, a retired Newark battalion chief who drove from Toms River to pay tribute to firefighter Augusto “Augie” Acabou, 45, who was overcome by smoke along with his colleague, firefighter Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr., while battling flames aboard the Grande Costa D'Avorio, a 692-foot cargo ship, on July 5.

“When something like that happens, you show up,” McGovern said. “It’s part of the job.”

Augusto’s nearly three-hour funeral at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Thursday morning ended only a few hours before a wake for Brooks, whose funeral took place at the same church on Friday morning.

Timeline: Chief breaks down department's response to fatal Newark ship fire

Profound anguish

For firefighters, the loss of just one of their breed in the line of duty often sets off deep emotions about the ever-present dangers of the job that requires them to run into a fire instead of from it. But the loss of two firefighters in Newark seemed to set off especially widespread sorrow.

The anguish was even more profound because Acabou, 45, a 10-year veteran of the Newark Fire Department, and Brooks, 49, who served 16 years, were not rescuing people. They died trying to extinguish a blaze that broke out amid nearly 1,200 cars parked tightly together aboard a 12-story cargo ship that is nearly as long as two football fields.

Firefighter Augusto Acabou's Funeral at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark on Thursday, July 13, 2023.

“That’s what brings us together,” said Lt. Joseph Hoyle Sr., a 31-year veteran of the Englewood, New Jersey, fire department. “We understand our profession, and we understand the extreme risks. But to lose two firefighters to a car fire is especially difficult to live with.”

Hoyle said he hopes that the questions raised about the ship fire would result in some changes in how to battle shipboard fires, just as criticism of the firefighters’ response to a blaze in a truss roof at a car dealership in Hackensack, New Jersey, in July 1988 resulted in new firefighting standards across America.

One recommendation that Hoyle said he and other fire fighters would wholeheartedly support would be the establishment of specially trained fire brigades at America’s shipping ports.

“This will, without a doubt, cause a renewed focus on having a fire service especially at our ports,” Hoyle said of the fire.

In the wake of the deaths of Acabou and Brooks, firefighters have voiced criticism of Newark’s fire department for what they described as insufficient training and equipment to fight ship fires. Some of Newark's fire engines are staffed by only one officer and just two fire fighters. The optimum staffing of fire engines is one officer and four or five fire fighters. But many municipalities cuts budgets by trimming staffing levels.

In a larger sense, firefighters from across the region also questioned why nozzles on the cargo ship’s firefighting system were only one inch wide while the firefighters arrived with hoses with nozzles that were 2.5 inches wide.

Firefighter Augusto Acabou's funeral at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark on Thursday, July 13, 2023.

The criticism also raised concerns about whether the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey should establish its own specially trained fire department for its 272-acre docking facility in Newark, the nation’s third-largest port. For decades, the Port Authority, which has specially trained fire fighting teams at its airports, has relied on Newark’s fire department, which is trained mainly to fight fires in home and offices, to respond to fires at its shipping ports.

Before Acabou’s funeral began, Sean DeCrane, director of health and safety operational services for the International Association of Firefighters, the nation’s largest firefighting union, said federal safety officials planned to examine the Newark port fire with an eye toward improving firefighting techniques. But DeCrane said in an interview with NorthJersey.com and The Record outside the cathedral basilica that the federal study could not begin until Newark’s fire department officially requested it.

On Thursday, Newark fire officials were unavailable for comment on this issue.

Mike Kelly: As Newark firefighters are laid to rest, these are the questions we must answer

More: Newark firefighters union blasts 'neglect' by city in wake of two deaths
A final farewell

Acabou’s funeral was a mix of tradition and heartfelt family memories.

In addition to English, scripture readings were recited in Acabou’s native language, Portuguese.

A large American flag hung from ladders between two firetrucks as Acabou’s coffin was brought to the cathedral basilica in an antique fire engine. A pipe band played the Irish funeral tune “Going Home” — a tradition at many fire department funerals across America. As a farewell, three fire chiefs rang a bell and a Newark fire dispatcher sent a final radio message to city fire fighters that Acabou had answered his last call.

Police on horses stood by. Hundreds of firefighters, clad in blue uniforms and white gloves, saluted. Color guards from fire brigades from across the region lowered their flags as Acabou's coffin, draped in an American flag, was carried into the cathedral basilica.

Inside, the ancient Roman Catholic hymn “Ave Maria” was sung. So was Leonard Cohen’s more modern pop classic, “Hallelujah.” And Acabou’s former football coach at Newark’s Eastside High School, Kevin Bullock, presented his jersey inscribed with the number 85 to his family. Bullock also said that Acabou devoted hours driving his former coach to doctors' appointments or just picking up groceries when he battled cancer.

"Augie would give his heart to anyone," Bullock said. "I said, 'Augie, you don't have to do this.' But that's what Augie did."

“To say that Augie Acabou was brave is an understatement,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in one of six eulogies that included an announcement by the city that Acabou would be promoted posthumously to the rank of captain.

Earlier: Newark firefighters killed in cargo ship fire remembered for dedication, selflessness

The same honor was bestowed Friday on Brooks during his funeral in a proclamation read by Newark Public afety Director Fritz Frage. And just as many who came to Acabou’s funeral had personal memories of him, the same was true of Brooks.

Bob LaCour, a retired Edison firefighter who worked with Brooks on an extra job on the runways at Newark Liberty International Airport, said in an interview that Brooks deeply wanted to help people in need.

“He was a friendly, helpful, jolly person,” LaCour said. “And he really wanted a career in the fire service. Firefighters are just helpful people by nature.”

LaCour said he was especially impressed by Brooks' desire to assist almost anyone. "There are people who take a job for benefits and people who aspire to help people," LaCour said. "Wayne wanted to help people."

Like the service for Acabou, Brooks' funeral brought together hundreds of fire fighters from across New Jersey, with some coming from as far away as Chicago. Brooks' memorial also included a stream of eulogies that praised him as a devoted father and friend. Many mourners wore blue to honor Brooks -- blue dresses for women and blue ties for men.

Jason Brooks spoke of his older brother as a "super hero" who loved to brag about his family's achievements, from graduating from college to the birth of a new baby.

"Let's brag about him even more than he would brag about us," said Jason Brooks, adding that "Wayne was always the type of person who takes the lead in solving a problem. He never complains. He just got things done. Nothing I could say could describe the void left by Wayne because he’s a connector.

"It may be a stretch to call Wayne a 'super hero,' but it's not a stretch to call him a super servant," said the Rev. DeForest "Buster" Soaries, a Baptist minister and noted civil rights leader in New Jersey.

Soaries said that Brooks "had the intellect" to take on any job he wanted but "he chose to become a super servant and now he's a super hero."

Brooks' wife, Michele, did not speak at the service. But a friend read an emotional letter from her.

"Wayne 'Bear' Brooks Jr., loved me in a way I always dreamed for," Michelle Brooks wrote. "You believed and saw the brighter side of things, always."

Captain Brett Hendrie of the New Rochelle, New York, fire department agreed that the instinct to be helpful also creates a unique bond of friendship and loyalty among firefighters. He said that’s why he drove from New Rochelle to Newark to attend the funeral of a man he did not know.

“When they talk about the brotherhood, it’s truly a real thing,” Hendrie said. “What Acabou and Brooks went through could happen to any firefighters. When one of us dies, it’s like a member of the family died.”

Firefighter Augusto Acabou's funeral at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark on Thursday, July 13, 2023.

As a final eulogy, Acabou’s close friend and fellow Newark firefighter Eddie Paulo drew laughs when he mentioned that Acabou quit his amateur boxing career because “he felt bad for the guys he was hurting.”

“It’s a cliché to say that someone is the nicest guy in the world,” Paolo said. “But in Augie Acabou’s case, it was true.”

As he waited outside the cathedral basilica, Englewood firefighter Chandy Campbell, a 28-year veteran, drew quiet as he reflected on the possibility that every firefighter might someday face the same fate as Acabou and Brooks.

“Is it fair?” Campbell said. “No. But it’s our duty.”

As the funeral ended, Acabou’s coffin was driven away in the antique firetruck. The band played “America the Beautiful.”

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Port Newark fire: Hundreds honor Augie Acabou, Wayne Brooks

TEXAS
Company confirms it has found new funding to build a massive gas terminal at the Port of Brownsville


Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News
Thu, July 13, 2023 

The Boca Chica Wildlife Refuge on the Rio Grande delta, about 6 miles east of the proposed 750-acre site of the Rio Grande LNG facility. 

Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

After years of delays, an industrial developer said this week that it has secured funding to proceed with construction of a massive new gas liquefaction plant and export terminal in the wild greenfields and wetlands of the Rio Grande delta.

Houston-based NextDecade says it has secured $5.9 billion in financing from international partners to begin work on the terminal’s first three compressors to liquify natural gas from Texas’ shale fields for export on global markets.

When completed, five giant compressor units, each designed to process 5.4 million metric tons of liquified natural gas per year, will make the 750-acre Rio Grande LNG facility among the largest gas export terminals in the world.

Its location in the Port of Brownsville — the last major deepwater port in Texas that remains without large fossil fuel projects — will complete the energy sector’s coastal sprawl from Louisiana to Mexico. Once constructed in several years, Rio Grande LNG will join the growing Gulf Coast energy export boom, which has pushed oil and gas production in Texas to record high levels.

In the Wednesday announcement, NextDecade CEO Matt Schatzman called the financing agreement “a landmark event reflecting years of hard work and dedication by NextDecade’s employees, shareholders, construction partners, equipment suppliers, and customers.”

One of the project funders, Abu Dabi-based Mubadala, called the deal “the largest greenfield energy project financing in U.S. history.”

Seven such LNG export terminals have cropped up on U.S. coastlines in the last seven years, according to the Energy Information Agency. Another three are under construction and another 11 have been approved by federal regulators.

Along with the Rio Grande terminal, the planned Rio Bravo Pipeline will deliver 4.5 billion cubic feet of Permian gas per day to the South Texas coast, where compressor trains at Rio Grande LNG will super-cool the gas to minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit and then load it onto ocean-going tankers for sale overseas. The facility will occupy 750 acres of greenfield, including 182 acres of wetlands, on a 984-acre waterfront tract.

Initially scheduled for completion in 2023, yearslong delays have plagued the project. Campaigns by local activists and indigenous leaders prompted three French banks, SMBC Group, BNP Paribas and Société Générale, to withdraw their financial commitments. Three nearby municipalities of Laguna Vista, South Padre Island and Port Isabel adopted resolutions opposing the project.

A federal court ordered regulators to modify the conditions of their approval following challenges

by local organizers who hoped to preserve the Rio Grande Delta as the last major inlet on the Gulf Coast of Texas still free from fossil fuel facilities like refineries, chemical plants and terminals.

“The oil and gas companies and the politicians can’t find it in their hearts to keep the industry in an industrial space,” said Lela Burnell, the daughter of a shrimper in the Port of Brownsville and the plaintiff in multiple lawsuits against plans for Rio Grande LNG. “Why do they feel like they need to just inundate and take over the whole coast? They don’t want to leave one spot where there is a sanctuary or a safe zone for nature.”

The final frontier of the Texas Gulf Coast

In the last century, fossil fuel projects have cropped up on almost every major inlet of the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana — from “Cancer Alley,” where the Mississippi River meets the sea, to refinery sectors in Lake Charles, Port Arthur and Houston, where the nation’s largest petrochemical complex lines 44 miles of Galveston Bay.

Further west is Dow Chemical on the mouth of the Brazos, Formosa Plastics on Lavaca Bay, Dow Chemical on San Antonio Bay and the sprawling industrial complex around Nueces and Corpus Christi Bays.

But after that, it’s 160 miles of dunes and beaches, including the nation’s largest stretch of undeveloped barrier island, to the mouth of the Rio Grande — a vast landscape of wetlands with three national wildlife refuges, a state park and the SpaceX rocket factory and launch pad.

Beside the river, the Brownsville Ship Channel runs 17 miles to the Port of Brownsville.

“There's not much else except the Port of Brownsville,” said Jordan Blum, editorial director for Hart Energy. “There are just little, completely undeveloped areas like Port Mansfield, Port O'Connor and Sargent.”

NextDecade initially proposed its Rio Grande LNG terminal in December 2015, one week after the legalization of U.S. oil and gas exports. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the plans in 2019, but quickly faced challenges from local and national activist groups.

A coalition of local groups sued in 2020 to challenge the project’s wetlands permits with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and again to challenge FERC’s study of the project's air quality impacts, environmental justice impacts, mitigation measures, greenhouse gas emissions and the commission’s determination that the project was in the public interest.

Juan Mancias, chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, has campaigned against LNG terminals near the Rio Grande, stands outside the tract for a planned terminal on the Brownsville Ship Channel in April. 

Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

In August 2021, a federal court in Washington D.C. sided with the petitioners and remanded FERC’s approval order, asserting that the commission’s analyses of the projects’ impacts on climate change and environmental justice communities were deficient.

Social costs of carbon

The court ordered FERC to produce a calculation of the “social costs” of the project’s carbon emissions, a measure of the estimated future financial impacts created by releasing greenhouse gasses today.

The FERC determined that the 6.4 million tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent released by the export terminal and gas compressors each year would incur global social costs of about $18 billion in 2020 dollars, while the social costs of the Rio Bravo Pipeline were estimated at $2 billion.

“We recognize that the projects’ contributions to [greenhouse gas] emissions globally contribute incrementally to future climate change impacts,” FERC wrote in its April 2023 re-approval of project plans.

On Tuesday, the groups filed another lawsuit challenging FERC’s re-approval.

“We believe the future of our community is worth fighting for,” Jared Hockema, Port Isabel’s city manager, said in a press release Tuesday. “With the prospects of environmental degradation, harm to our natural resource-based economy or even an explosive disaster being so high, we are determined to continue this fight. We won’t rest until our community, and our people, are safe.”

NextDecade has also proposed a project to capture some of the facility’s carbon emissions and inject them underground.

The project got a major boost last month when energy giant TotalEnergies announced an investment and purchase agreement with NextDecade, acquiring a $219 million interest in the project. Total, a company from France where fracking is illegal, committed to purchasing 5.4 million tons of fracked gas per year from Rio Grande LNG.

In the announcement, Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné said, “Our involvement in this project will add 5.4 million tons per year of LNG to our global portfolio, strengthening our ability to ensure Europe's security of gas supply, and to provide our Asian customers with an alternative fuel to coal that emits half its CO2 emissions.”

Total touts LNG as a centerpiece effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“LNG can contribute to the transition of our global energy economy towards a lower-carbon future,” the company wrote on its website.

Similar statements from across the energy sector have prompted charges of greenwashing from clean energy and environmental advocates.

Shruti Shukla, a senior advocate with the Natural Resource Defense Council in Washington D.C., said energy companies’ efforts to promote LNG around the world are impeding a global energy transition.

“Coal is a fossil fuel just like LNG, so replacing one with the other is not really a replacement, it’s just a continuation,” Shukla said. “Investments in LNG could end up marginalizing investments in cleaner and truly renewable resources that those countries could have.”

Three countries dominate most of the global LNG export market: Australia, Qatar and the U.S. — Shukla said the U.S. exports LNG to 42 countries.

“We just do not have the time or the leisure to wait or delay action on climate,” she said, pointing to the recent record-breaking heatwave in South Texas. “Adding LNG or natural gas to the mix does not help us.”

Disclosure: Dow Chemical has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Join us for conversations that matter with newly announced speakers at the 2023 Texas Tribune Festival, in downtown Austin from Sept. 21-23.

Creature found lurking ‘in disguise’ in waters off Australia. See the new species


Aspen Pflughoeft
Thu, July 13, 2023 

A striped creature lurked “in disguise” amid the shadowy depths off the coast of Australia. The animal had gone relatively unnoticed and, even when spotted, was often misidentified. That all changed when scientists captured one of the animals and discovered it was a new species.

Researchers were surveying the Gascoyne Marine Park off the coast of Exmouth when they captured the striped shark, co-author and shark scientist William White said on Twitter.

The shark was “a striking, small, stripey hornshark,” White said. Researchers recognized it as a previously unknown species.

The new species was named Heterodontus marshallae, or the painted hornshark, according to a study published July 12 in the journal Diversity. It ranges in size from about 1 foot long to about 2 feet long.

Photos show the painted hornshark’s tan or grayish coloring and its darker, blackish stripes. The animal has a “blunt,” almost square-shaped head with a short, “triangular” snout, researchers said.



The painted hornshark “has a remarkably similar color pattern” to another species of hornshark, Heterodontus zebra, the study said. For decades, researchers misidentified any captured painted hornsharks as Heterodontus zebra hornsharks.

To identify the new species, researchers studied older archived specimens and newly collected specimens. They noticed several differences between painted hornsharks and other known species, the study said.

The painted hornshark lives deeper in the ocean and has different color patterns on its snout, gills and fins, the study said. DNA analysis also confirmed the painted hornshark was genetically distinct from other hornshark species.

Unlike other sharks, hornsharks cannot be identified by their teeth, the study said. Instead, researchers identify hornshark species based on their color patterns.

A Heterodontus marshallae, or painted hornshark, as seen from the top and side.

The new species was named Heterodontus marshallae “in honor of Dr. Lindsay Marshall, a scientific illustrator” and scientist who studies sharks and rays, researchers said. The name painted hornshark refers to both “the beautiful coloration of the species” and to Marshall “who has painted all the hornsharks in amazing detail.”

The painted hornshark is native to Australia and has been found in the waters from Exmouth to Bathurst Island, the study said. This area is on the opposite side of the country from Sydney.

The research team included White, Frederik Mollen, Helen O’Neill, Lei Yang and Gavin Naylor.

Cerberus: Why has Europe begun naming heatwaves?


Connor Parker
Thu, July 13, 2023 

Rome has been hit hard by the heatwave. (PA)

Italy and the Mediterranean are currently being gripped by a heatwave that could see the European temperature record broken any day.

For the first time European meteorologists have chosen to name the heatwave, calling it Cerberus.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Europe was in Syracuse, Sicily in August 2021 at 48.8C, with temperatures in recent days hitting 48.C.

President of the Italian Meteorological Society, Professor Luca Mercalli, said: "We know that there will be temperatures above 40C or 45C.

Read more: Cerberus heatwave: Southern Europe faces record 48.8C temperatures as first life lost

"We could get close to the record. Either way, the levels will be very high.”

Italy is the worst hit by the heatwave and it was the Italian meteorological society that decided to give the heatwave a name last week.

Cerberus specifically means the African anticyclone from the Sahara desert which hit Italy on Monday and is the cause of the extremely high temperatures.
Why name a heatwave?

Naming storms and hurricanes has been an adopted practice for decades and the same reasons are being applied to heatwaves.

Essentially meteorologists name weather events to raise awareness and improve communication about the coming threat.

By simply calling it 'Storm X' rather than 'the coming storm' meteorologists, governments and emergency services are able to better communicate their response.

All of this also helps to raise public awareness because named storms often get discussed more in the media and online.

With the rise in recent years of near-annual record-breaking heatwaves and the ever-increasing awareness of climate change, meteorologists have been calling for the same methodology to be applied to heatwaves.

Heatwaves are both more deadly and harder to see than a storm, so raising public awareness about them is important.

Read more: Cerberus heatwave: European data shows land temperatures are scorching - and it's about to get much worse

Tourists have had to take shelter in Rome. (PA)

Promoting the idea in 2020, climate communicator Susan Joy Hassol told Science News: "Naming heat waves will make something invisible more visible.

"It also makes it more real and concrete, rather than abstract."

Several local governments have taken up the ideas in recent years.

The first ever named heatwave, 'Zoe', was given its name by the local authority of Seville in the south of Spain last year.

The pilot programme was launched in June 2022 with the main aim of making residents aware of the threat of the heatwave.

Seville named another heatwave Yago in June this year when temperatures went above 40C.

When discussing Yago Mayor Juan Espadas said: "We are the first city in the world to take a step that will help us plan and take measures when this type of weather event happens."

Why Cerberus specifically?

Usually, when naming a weather event, meteorologists stick by an alphabet system, so the first big storm of the year will be given a name with 'A', then the next 'B', and so on.

But Cerberus is not the third heatwave to be named this year, instead, the name relates to the three climatic zones that Italy will be divided into during the extreme heat.

The name Cerberus originated from Dante's Inferno and was given to the three-headed dog that guarded the third circle of hell.

While temperatures right now in Italy are extremely high, in the north (which is dominated by the Alps) the mercury is only slightly above average.

Locals have been handing out free water all across Italy. (PA)

In the centre of the country, including Rome, temperatures are much higher than usual but are not the hottest.

The worst of the effects are being felt on the Mediterranean Islands of Sicily and Sardina, as well as along the southern western coast of the mainland.

"Metaphorically, the three heads indicate the three main climatic zones into which Italy will be divided," meteorologist Stefano Rossi told La Stampa.

A Ghost Ocean Might Have Dented Earth's Gravity

Tim Newcomb

POP MECH
Fri, July 14, 2023 

Henrik Sorensen - Getty Images

Researchers think they’ve found the reason for the most significant drop in Earth’s gravity, known as the Indian Ocean geoid low.

In this location in the Indian Ocean south of Sri Lanka, our planet’s gravity is at its weakest.

A new study says mantle movement that was part of the ghost ocean Tethys attributes to this anomaly.

We might be able to blame a ghost ocean for one of the wildest gravitational anomalies on Earth.

The existence of the deepest gravitational dip on our planet, known as the Indian Ocean geoid low (IOGL), has long puzzled scientists. For context, the “geiod” is a model that shows what the surface of the Earth would look like if the only influences were gravity and rotation—no land, no wind, nothing else that could disturb the surface. If the Earth were a uniform sphere, that geoid would be even, smooth, and largely uninteresting.

But the Earth isn’t a uniform sphere, and the geoid shows all the ways in which it can vary gravitationally. Areas of lower-than-average mass density, and therefore lower gravity, show up as dents in the geoid, whereas areas of higher-than-average mass density and higher gravity show up as peaks. These peaks and dents, known collectively as gravitational anomalies, indicate regions of particular strength and weakness in Earth’s gravitational field.

In a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a team of researchers ran dozens of computer simulations on the origin of the Indian Ocean geoid low, which spans 8 million square miles and is located south of Sri Lanka. Researchers now believe that this “elusive feature” is, in part, the result of some undersea movements that happened pre-Indian Ocean.

“Assimilating plate motion in global mantle convection models from the Mesozoic till the present day,” the authors write, “we attempt to trace the formation of this geoid low. We show that flow induced by downwelling Tethys slabs perturbs the African Large Low Shear Velocity province and gives rise to plumes that reach the upper mantle.”

Attreyee Ghosh, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science and one of the authors on the study, says in a news release that, while there have been previous studies focused on this anomaly, most attributed it to a remnant of an earlier plate that dived beneath another plate and into Earth’s mantle beneath millions of years ago, none of them have provided what she would deem a sufficient explanation for the anomaly.

Ghosh and her team were not satisfied with that lack of explanation, and attempted to with their study to fill in the blanks. Over the course of their research, the scientists discovered that the gravity low could be attributed to the presence of lighter materials in the upper- to mid-mantel below the IOGL. This can be attributed to mantle plumes—caused by the rising of abnormally hot rock—and the team discovered there was hot material coming from the nearby African large low-shear-velocity providence, known as the African superplume.

“A geoid low or negative geoid anomaly would be caused by a mass deficit within the deep mantle,” Ghosh says. “Our study explains this low with hotter, lighter material stretching from a depth of 300 kilometers up to around 900 kilometers in the northern Indian Ocean, most likely stemming from the African superplume.”

Also known as the African blob, this geological feature that helped form the IOGL likely came from oceanic slabs from the Tethys Ocean, a “ghost ocean” that was possibly in place before India shifted and helped form the Indian Ocean.

Though the researchers say that the lower mantle slabs from the Tethys Ocean likely contributes less to the formation of the IOGL than the plumes, the team also call them “necessary” for the generation of this geoid low. So, apparently, combining plumes with a unique region of mantle structure makes the perfect recipe for the formation of a negative geoid anomaly.

Earth Has Tilted 31.5 Inches. That Shouldn't Happen.

Tim Newcomb

POP MECH
Thu, July 13, 2023 

Earth Has Tilted 31.5 Inches. That's Alarming.

PM Images - Getty Images

Humans pumping groundwater has a substantial impact on the tilt of Earth’s rotation.

Additionally, a new study documents just how much of an influence groundwater pumping has on climate change.

Understanding this relatively recent data may provide a better understanding of how to help stave off sea-level rise.

Water has power. So much power, in fact, that pumping Earth’s groundwater can change the planet’s tilt and rotation. It can also impact sea-level rise and other consequences of climate change.

Pumping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now—thanks to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters—we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to.24 inches of sea level rise.

“Earth’s rotational pole actually changes a lot,” Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University and study lead, says in a statement. “Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”

With the Earth moving on a rotational pole, the distribution of water on the planet impacts distribution of mass. “Like adding a tiny bit of weight to a spinning top,” authors say, “the Earth spins a little differently as water is moved around.”

Thanks to a study from NASA published in 2016, we were alerted to the fact that the distribution of water can change the Earth’s rotation. This new study attempted to add some hard figures to that realization. “I’m very glad to find the unexplained cause of the rotation pole drift,” Seo says. “On the other hand, as a resident of Earth and a father, I’m concerned and surprised to see that pumping groundwater is another source of sea-level rise.”

The study included data from 1993 through 2010, and showed that the pumping of as much as 2,150 gigatons of groundwater has caused a change in the Earth’s tilt of roughly 31.5 inches, thanks to. The pumping is largely for irrigation and human use, with the groundwater eventually relocating to the oceans.

In the study, researchers modeled observed changes in the drift of Earth’s rotational pole and the movement of water. Across varying scenarios, the only model that matched the drift was one that included 2,150 gigatons of groundwater distribution.

Surendra Adhikari, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who was involved in the 2016 study, says the additional research is important. “They’ve quantified the role of groundwater pumping on polar motion,” he says in a news release, “and it’s pretty significant.”

Where the water moves from—and to—matters. Redistributing water from the midlatitudes makes the biggest difference, so our intense water movement from both western North America and northwestern India have played a key role in the tilt changes.

Now that the impact of water movement is known for such a short–and relatively recent—time, digging through historical data may help show trends and provide greater depth to the understanding of groundwater movement effects.

“Observing changes in Earth’s rotational pole is useful,” Seo says, “for understanding continent-scale water storage variations.”

This data may also help conservationists understand how to work toward staving off continued sea level rise and other climate issues. Hopefully, changes can be properly implemented over time.

A Crucial Part of the San Andreas Fault Has Been Disturbingly Quiet for Too Long

AS IF WILDFIRES,FLOODS & DROUGHTS WEREN'T ENOUGH

Darren Orf
Fri, July 14, 2023 

A Lake May Explain Why San Andreas Fault Is Quiet

Lloyd Cluff - Getty Images

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The southern section of California’s San Andreas fault hasn’t experienced a major earthquake in 300 years, and is around a century overdo for a “big one.”

To understand this earthquake “drought,” scientists used computer modeling and analyzed 1,000 years of palaeoseismic data to figure out its cause.

A new paper details how low water levels of the Salton Sea, which was once a part of a much larger lake, could explain why earthquakes along this southern fault line have been less frequent.

The 800-mile San Andreas Fault is one of the largest fault lines in the world. A meeting of the North American and Pacific tectonic plates, this transform fault (where two tectonic plates move past each other) runs nearly the entire length of California, from Cape Mendocino in Redwood country to the desert landscapes of Joshua Tree National Park. Scientists divide the fault into three distinct areas—northern, central, and southern—and while the entire fault is a clear and present earthquake danger, it’s the Los Angeles-adjacent southern section that’s most concerning.

Scientists estimate that this section of fault—over the past 1,000 years—usually triggered a sizable earthquake every 180 years (give or take 40). But the southern San Andreas Fault (SSAF) hasn’t had a good shaking for more than 300 years (despite what mediocre Hollywood disaster films would have you believe).

Wanting to better understand this seismic outlier, scientists from San Diego State University (SDSU) and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography investigated why the fault is behaving differently today than it has in the past. Their answer? Water, or to be more specific, the lack thereof. According to their paper—published on Wednesday in the journal Nature—the low water levels of the Salton Sea, located at the most southern end of the San Andreas Fault, could explain why this section of fault line has seen less movement over the past few centuries.

Mapping the extent of the prehistoric Lake Cahuilla and its relation to the SSAF.UC San Diego

The Salton Sea is a modern remnant of a much larger prehistoric lake called Lake Cahuilla. Some 32 times bigger than today’s landlocked sea, the water levels of Lake Cahuilla rose and fell over a millennia, and using new geologic and palaeoseismic data, scientists confirmed that the past six major earthquakes along the SSAF occurred when the lake was at its fullest. The frequency of earthquakes in China and around the Dead Sea have also previously been connected to water levels of nearby lakes.

But how does the full-ness of a lake impact something like an earthquake? Using computer models, scientists analyzed how the large, ancient Lake Cahuilla affected the fault line, and discovered two primary impacts. First, large volumes of water can cause the Earth’s crust to bend, which has the effect of unlocking the two plates and allowing for more seismic movement. Second, water can penetrate cracks in the Earth’s crust and increase fluid pressure, which also makes earthquakes more likely.

In a press statement, UC San Diego scientists described this hydraulic phenomenon like an air hockey table:

“The effect of increased fluid pressure in a fault is a bit like an air hockey table. With the air on, the puck glides easily, but when the air is off, friction makes it hard to slide the puck. So too with an increase in fluid pressure inside the fault, the water pushes out against the two sides of the fault, making it easier for them to overcome friction, slide by one another and trigger an earthquake.”

This new research adds even more complexity to proposed projects to ferry water from the Gulf of California into the Salton Sea, as adding more water too quickly could trigger potentially deadly seismic activity.

Unfortunately, the drought-like state of the Salton Sea is only one cog in a very complex seismic machine, and isn’t enough to stop earthquakes along the SSAF entirely. Scientists estimate that a magnitude 6.7 earthquake or higher will likely hit the greater Los Angeles area within the next 30 years as pressure continues to building.

When the SSAF finally breaks its 300-year-long silence, it’ll likely do so with an enormous bang.

Kenya's Ruto says further tax-hike protests will not be allowed



Reuters
Fri, July 14, 2023

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President William Ruto vowed on Friday that protests planned next week would not be allowed following two rounds of demonstrations that have left at least 15 people dead.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga's party called earlier in the day for three more days of protests from next Wednesday against tax hikes that Ruto signed into law last month.

Ruto beat Odinga in last August's election. He pledged to be a champion for the poor, but his critics say the tax rises will hurt Kenyans already struggling to afford basic commodities such as maize flour.

"Elections ended August 9 last year. You cannot look for the leadership of this country using the blood of the citizens, the death of the citizens and the destruction of property," Ruto said at the opening of a road in the town of Naivasha.

"These demos will not happen. Listen to me carefully: you cannot use extrajudicial, extra-constitutional means to look for power in Kenya."

Odinga has failed to win the last five presidential votes, but has secured senior positions in government in the past by making deals with those in power following spasms of unrest.

The most recent demonstrations took place despite bans by the police, and Ruto did not say how he planned to stop the upcoming protests.

A spokesman for the U.N. Human Rights Office (OHCHR), Jeremy Laurence, said on Friday it was "very concerned by the widespread violence, and allegations of unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, including the use of firearms, by police during protests in Kenya".

Kenyan authorities have blamed the deaths on the protesters, some of whom have thrown rocks at police and vandalised public property. More than 300 people were arrested in connection with Wednesday's protests.

(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo and Thomas Mukoya; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Aaron Ross and Alex Richardson)

Kenyan religious leaders urge the president to repeal a new tax law as protests surge


A protester burns tyres to block the road in the Kibera neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. Anti-government protesters are demonstrating in a number of Kenyan cities against newly imposed taxes and the cost of living. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno)

CARA ANNA
Fri, July 14, 2023 

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Christian and Muslim leaders in Kenya are urging President William Ruto to repeal a finance bill whose new taxes have sparked protests and police killings of civilians, warning that Kenyans face a level of hopelessness that “can easily inspire insurrection.”

Friday’s statement by national religious organizations came as the main political opposition group announced the next protest would take place next Wednesday, and as Ruto declared it would not be allowed.

Human rights watchdogs have asserted that police killed as many as 10 people in the latest protests this week, while a police official told The Associated Press that officers killed at least six across the country for disturbing businesses. Meanwhile, more than 50 children were sent to a medical clinic after tear gas was thrown into a school in the capital, Nairobi.

“Firearms should never be used to disperse protests,” the United Nations human rights office said Friday. It urged Kenyan authorities to ensure the right to peaceful assembly as guaranteed by the constitution.

Ruto’s government accused demonstrators of “extensive damage of major public assets” after hundreds on Wednesday dismantled part of an entrance to a recently constructed toll expressway that for some symbolizes inequality as everyday traffic surges in its shadow.

The government also blames longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga for the unrest. Odinga, who lost last year’s election to Ruto, has urged Kenyans to civil disobedience to protest the rising cost of living. Odinga’s movement seeks to protest Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week.

Some Kenyans have described the new taxes as leaving them with the highest burden they've ever faced. The finance bill increased the value added tax on petroleum from 8% to 16%, boosted a business turnover tax from 1% to 3% and created a new 1.5% percent housing tax for salaried workers.

Pressure is rising on Ruto, who won election by appealing to Kenya’s “hustlers” as a man of humble childhood and by vowing to reduce the cost of living. But the country struggles with debt and has turned to the new taxes for some relief.

The statement by religious groups also warned Odinga that his calls for mass action risked pushing Kenya into insurrection. “Indeed, the destruction of businesses as well as public and private properties is pushing the cost of living higher, not lower,” it said.

The statement also urged all Kenyans to embrace dialogue and non-violence: “We must not allow the selfish interests of political leaders to destroy our homeland and push us into destitution," it said.