'Airpocalypse' smoke reaches North Pole for the first time ever

By Mark Puleo, Accuweather.com

Satellite imagery from NASA shows smoke from wildfires in the Siberian region of Russia have reached the North Pole in what the agency is calling "a first in recorded history." Image courtesy NASA

Aug. 12 -- Santa Claus isn't supposed to see smoke. For the first time in recorded history, hazy smoke from raging wildfires in the Arctic has reached the North Pole, and NASA satellites have the images to prove it.

A week ago, the space agency's MODIS, an imaging sensor on the Aqua satellite, captured true-color images of what NASA called a "vast, thick, and acrid blanket of smoke" that clouded the North Pole.

The smoke is coming from enormous fires that are burning in the Siberian region of northern Russia.

According to China's Xinhua news agency, the Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar was blanketed in "white smoke." The republic of Yakutia, home to Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited place on Earth, has also been shrouded in smoke, as captured by MODIS images last Friday.

RELATED Climate change is behind forest fires in Yakutia, Siberia, official says

The thick smoke in Yakutia sent air quality measurements in recent weeks plummeting to an extreme category dubbed "airpocalypse," a category described by officials to have "immediate and heavy effects on everybody."

Smoke from the Siberian wildfires can be seen stretching across the Arctic Circle, shrouding the North Pole and impacting areas of Greenland and Canada. Image courtesy NOAA/CIRA

The "airpocalypse" inducing smoke was shown to have traveled almost 1,900 miles from Yakutia to the North Pole, according to NASA

"The smoke, which was so thick that most of the land below was obscured from view, stretches about 2,000 miles from east to west and 2,500 miles from south to north," the agency wrote. "But it captures only a small part of the smoke from the Russian fires."

RELATED Dixie Fire surpasses 500,000 acres; California professor accused of sparking fires

To reach Ulaanbaatar, NASA added that the smoke needed to have traveled more than 1,200 miles. From there, it appeared to waft over nearly the entire Arctic Circle, impacting Nunavut, Canada and areas of western Greenland.

Wildfires have been burning in Siberia more frequently than ever before. While the total size is difficult to determine in the remote area, Russian weather monitoring institute Rosgidromet said this week that more than 8 million acres were burning and more than 34 million have been destroyed so far this season, the second-worst mark on record.

For comparison, during the California wildfire season last year, which was the worst on record, just under 4.4 million acres were burned.

RELATED Portland could hit 104 amid scorching heat wave

In the United States, Americans have seen firsthand this year how wildfire smoke can travel thousands of miles.

Fires in California and Montana have drastically impacted air quality levels in cities like Denver, which is more than 1,000 miles away from the Dixie Fire in Northern California.

Americans have also been on the receiving end of Siberian wildfire smoke. In 2019, wind currents carried smoke across the Pacific Ocean and into Alaska and northwestern Canada.



The moon appears orange due to smoke from wildfires on the West Coast as it sets behind the Manhattan skyline in New York City on July 21, 2021. The fires are leaving smoke all the way across the country to the Eastern Seaboard causing hazy skies. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Census data reveals growth in racial, ethnic diversity in U.S.

WHAT ROSS, SESSIONS, AND TRUMP FEARED

The U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Thursday's data drop from the 2020 Census will begin a frenzied race to redraw congressional districts that will impact the results of House races during the 2020s, and possibly which party controls the lower chamber for the next decade. Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Census data released Thursday indicates that the United States is growing more racially diverse and that the number of people who identify as White in the country has decreased for the first time in more than two centuries.

According to the detailed data from the 2020 census, 204.3 million people identified as White, down from 223.6 million in 2010, an 8.6% decrease. The Census Bureau warned that comparisons between the past two censuses should be "made with caution" because the bureau retooled how questions about race and ethnicity are asked

"As the country has grown, we have continued to evolve in how we measure the race and ethnicity of the people who live here," said Nicholas Jones, director and senior adviser for race and ethnicity research and outreach at the Census Bureau.

"Today's release of 2020 census redistricting data provides a new snapshot of the racial and ethnic composition and diversity of the country. The improvements we made to the 2020 Census yield a more accurate portrait of how people self-identify in response to two separate questions on Hispanic origin and race, revealing that the U.S. population is much more multiracial and more diverse than what we measured in the past."

In addition to a reduction in the absolute number of people who identify as White, the portion of the overall population also dropped from 63.7% in 2010 to 57.8% in 2020.

For the first time, the Hispanic or Latino population became the most prevalent ethnic group in California. The non-Hispanic White population remained the majority in all other states and territories except Hawaii, New Mexico, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The detailed data from the 2020 census is likely to have an impact on federal elections for the rest of the decade, beginning with next year's midterms.

The key population data also will begin a political redistricting process -- redrawing congressional districts -- that occurs once every decade.



Results of the 2020 Census have been weighed down by concerns that the process was rushed under the Trump administration due to delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its efforts to add a citizenship question. File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo

The data released Thursday is used to re-evaluate congressional districts, which are based on population sizes and makeup. Because the next census won't come until 2030, the changes will last for the remainder of the decade, if they withstand legal challenges.

The redistricting is expected to impact the 2022 midterms in 15 months, an election when Democrats will be looking to maintain and expand their majority in the House of Representatives and expand their narrow control of the Senate. Republicans, on the other hand, are looking to retake control of both chambers.

Democratic and Republican strategists predict that some states will finalize their new maps as soon as September. About half of states will set their new districts by the end of 2021 and the rest will follow in the first few months of 2022, Politico reported.

According to census reapportionment data released in April, the influential states of Texas, Florida and North Carolina gained a total of four House seats for 2022. All three states voted to re-elect former President Donald Trump last November.

Colorado, Montana and Oregon are the only other states to gain seats in the House, according to reapportionment data.

The data revealed that cities (8.7%) have grown faster than the overall population (7.35%).

Results from the 2020 Census have been weighed down by concerns that the process was rushed under Trump's administration due to delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the former administration's failed efforts to add a citizenship question.

Thursday's data was originally scheduled to be released in April but was pushed back because of the delays. The bureau committed to release the information this month after Alabama filed a lawsuit calling for its prompt release.

An external task force from the American Statistical Association has been observing and assessing the bureau's process and the organization said last week it will release a report on state-level apportionment numbers following the release of the redistricting files.

In January, Census Bureau Director Steve Dillingham announced his resignation almost a year before he was supposed to retire.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week approved President Joe Biden's selection to lead the bureau, Robert Santos, and placed him on track for full Senate confirmation.

Thursday's data will be released in a raw "legacy" format that can take weeks for states to disseminate. The information will be distributed more broadly in an "easier-to-use" format by the end of next month, the Census Bureau said.

"It's like Ikea furniture instead of Pottery Barn," Kelly Ward Burton, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said of the raw data coming Thursday, according to Politico.

"When you buy from Pottery Barn, it all comes assembled. It's like, 'Here's your desk.' But when you get it from Ikea, it's like, 'Build it yourself.'"

DO NOT DROP IT ON OUR HEADS

NASA mulls how to dispose of International Space Station

The International Space Station is seen from a departing spacecraft. Photo courtesy of NASA

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A plan to use a Russian spacecraft to deorbit the International Space Station as early as 2028 remains in question because the United States does not know Russia's intentions for using the orbiting laboratory, NASA and other parties involved in the decision say.

A NASA safety panel approved a plan in 2019 that relies on Russia to modify and launch a Progress spacecraft to guide the structure into the atmosphere, where most of it would melt and the rest break up over the Pacific Ocean.

But Russia's agreement with space station partners -- including Europe, Japan and Canada -- ends in 2024, and Russian state media reported in April that the nation's deputy prime minister, Yuri Borisov, said it might abandon it by 2025.

Uncertainty over future Russian participation -- and developing its own space station -- has led to a non-committal stance by NASA, pending more clarity about the deorbit plan and whether Russia still will carry out the job.

RELATEDSpacesuit delays threaten moon landing plans, NASA watchdog says

"NASA is continuing to work with its international partners to ensure a safe deorbit plan of the station and is considering a number of options," spokeswoman Leah Cheshier said in an email. She would not elaborate on those options.

Chester said the deorbiting mission would be "shared by the ISS partnership and is negotiation-sensitive at this time."

In the meantime, NASA's cost to run the space station has grown to $3 billion to $4 billion annually.

RELATEDNASA moves ahead with plan to support private space stations

Those familiar with previous negotiations said Russia most likely is posturing to have NASA bear more of the costs for deorbiting the space laboratory.

The space station was projected to have a lifespan of 30 years when Russia and the United States began to launch it in sections in 1998. NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, a group of space and engineering professionals, pushed NASA to finalize the deorbit plan by 2019.

"The details of the decommissioning plan are still under discussion with international partners and contain predecisional and non-NASA technical details and are therefore not releasable at this time," the agency said in an email.

RELATEDAstronauts install new solar array on 6.5-hour spacewalk

An early draft of the deorbit plan dating to 2010 said Russia was to modify a Progress service module, which would use its thrusters to guide the massive platform into the atmosphere starting at its normal speed of about 17,000 mph. That much of the plan is still on the table, NASA confirmed.

The space station would succumb gradually to Earth's gravity and the increased drag from the atmosphere. Friction from the air would heat the 450-ton structure so fast that parts of it would melt quickly. Solar panels would disappear first, while remnants of engines, laboratories and living quarters would fall into the sea.

If a Russian spacecraft isn't used, other spacecraft that could be modified include the SpaceX Dragon, Japanese H-2A or Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo capsule, according to a study of the decommissioning process by European scientists.

NASA is focused on Northrop Grumman's Cygnus as a possible alternative, Dan Huot, a space agency public affairs officer, said in an interview.

"Cygnus ... is the only other vehicle that we're looking at potentially being used besides the Russian Progress," Huot said.

Having Russia act as the demolition leader would be a matter of trust. Most officials familiar with the plan believe Russia is capable of performing the maneuver, but the uncertainly lies in whether it will -- and do so without a hitch.

One reason for doubt is that Russia's recent activity at the space station was marked by a hair-raising accident when its new science and living module, the Nauka, fired thrusters accidentally July 29.

That knocked the orbiting laboratory out of its normal position and caused it to spin 1 1/2 times before engineers regained control.

To prepare for the space station's ultimate demise, NASA is checking off a list of events that need to occur before it can leave orbit, Patricia Sanders, chairwoman of the safety panel, said in an interview.

"They are doing, step by step, the work that needs to be done. Software has already been updated to optimize ... control during deorbit burns," Sanders said.

"The Russians have agreed in principle to provide the Progress capsule, but there is work that they would have to do, also," she said. "Planning like this is never easy with the space station because we have an international community, so you can't unilaterally decide what to do there."

NASA updates the safety panel at each of its quarterly meetings and will continue until the space station no longer exists, she said.

The last update came on July 15, when Sanders said the arrival of Russia's Nauka "indicates continued commitment of that partner to the station."

At the end of its life, space station parts that survive re-entry would fall into an area of the Pacific known as Point Nemo because it is the oceanic region farthest from land, according to NASA. Warnings would be posted internationally for boats and aircraft to avoid the area at that time.

Astronauts and cosmonauts would prepare the space station for its final flight, trying to ensure it will stay together until the heat of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere can burn up all except the biggest, most massive parts.

"Must drop as deep as possible into the atmosphere in one orbit," the early draft of the plan reads.

US Army successfully tests high-energy laser weapon



The U.S. Army in July tested laser-equipped Stryker vehicles in Fort Sill, Okla., which could be fielded as soon as next year. Photo by Jim Kendall/U.S. Army.


Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army says it's developed a combat-capable prototype of a high-energy laser weapon.

The laser, which has been 24 months in the making, can be mounted on a Stryker military vehicle and used to defend troops against drones as well as rockets, artillery and mortars, according to an Army press release this week.


Over the summer, the new weapon was successfully tested in Fort Sill, Okla., in a "combat shoot-off" against a series of possible combat scenarios.

The Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office said it expects to deliver a platoon of four laser-equipped Strykers in fiscal year 2022.

RELATED Second test of Air Force's drone-killing laser may start later this year

"This is the first combat application of lasers for a maneuver element in the Army," said Lieutenant General L. Neil Thurgood said in the release.

"The technology we have today is ready. This is a gateway to the future," said Thurgood, director for hypersonics, directed energy, space and rapid acquisition.

The shoot-off was a competition between defense contractors Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, which had both developed two 50-kilowatt laser weapons, Task & Purpose reported.

RELATED Army testing new air defense system, laser weapons

The Directed Energy-Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense laser prototype was built with a soldier-centered design, which the Army said was proven as soldiers were operating the system proficiently within days.

Other branches of the military are developing similar technology.

Last year, the Navy broke ground on a facility to test, fire and evaluate complete laser weapons systems in maritime settings.

RELATED L3 technologies receives $37.5M for precision aiming lasers

Earlier this year, the Air Force said it would continue tests of its High Energy Laser Weapon System 2, made by Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, that would also be used against drones.

The military had originally hoped to use laser-equipped Strykers in Iraq and Syria against explosive-laden drones but now plans to use the technology in Europe where military planners short-range air defense gap.

The Army is also working on a larger 300 kilowatt truck-mounted laser to defend against cruise missiles that it hopes to have ready by 2024.

RELATED First anti-drone laser delivered to Air Force for year-long test deployment

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) ep04 - The Destroying Ray

Classic Movies

Chapter Four of the classic 1940 Flash Gordon Serial.

This is the third serial, the first being 'Flash Gordon', and the second 'Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars'.

Warfare, not climate, is driving resurgent hunger in Africa, says study

After years of progress on food security, some nations see sharp reversals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: VIOLENT CONFLICTS ARE BEHIND INCREASED HUNGER IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA SAYS A NEW STUDY. HERE, A FARMER CARRIES FORAGE FOR HIS MULE IN SOUTHWESTERN ETHIOPIA. FURTHER NORTH IN THE COUNTRY, STARVATION SPREAD THIS YEAR IN THE FACE OF CIVIL WAR. view more 

CREDIT: JACQUELYN TURNER, INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

For years, it seemed the world was making progress eliminating hunger. Then, starting in 2014, the trend slid back slowly and reversed in many nations; now, some 700 million people—nearly 9 percent of the world’s population—go to bed hungry, according to the UN.

One of the hardest-hit regions is sub-Saharan Africa. Here, many people reflexively blame droughts stoked by climate change. However, a new study looking at the question in granular detail says that is not the case: long-running wars, not the weather, are to blame. The study, just published in the journal Nature Food, finds that while droughts routinely cause food insecurity in Africa, their contribution to hunger has remained steady or even shrunk in recent years. Instead, rising widespread, long-term violence has displaced people, raised food prices and blocked outside food aid, resulting in the reversal.

“Colloquially, people would say it’s climate-induced droughts and floods, because that’s what people tend to say,” said Weston Anderson, who led the study as a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society. “But academics have not compared the importance of drought to violence in triggering food crises in a holistic way.”

To reach their conclusions, the researchers analyzed 2009-2018 data from the Famine Early Warning System, a USAID-funded network that provides information to governments and aid organizations about looming or ongoing food crises in dozens of countries. The system shows that the number of people requiring emergency food aid in monitored countries surged from 48 million in 2015 to 113 million in 2020. The system is not designed to quantify the different factors behind the emergencies. But Anderson and his colleagues were able to tease these out for 14 of Africa’s most food-insecure countries. The nations reach in a band from Mauritania, Mali and Nigeria in the west, through Sudan, Chad and other nations, to Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in the east. The study also took in several nations further south, including Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that periodic, well-documented droughts have been behind food crises across large areas. However, the overall effects of drought did not increase during the study period; of anything, they went down in some areas. When drought did hit, farmers usually bounced back in the next planting season, within a year or so. Animal herders took twice as long to recover, because the areas where they live saw with more extreme conditions, and it took people time to rebuild their hard-hit livestock herds.

Amid the usual ups and downs of rainfall, violence has been responsible for the progressive increase in hunger, the study found. Long-term conflicts ranging from repeated terrorist attacks to pitched combat between armies have caused shortages lasting year after year, with no end in sight, the authors say.

CAPTION

Frequency of violent conflicts 2009-2018 in 14 African countries studied.

CREDIT

Adapted from Anderson et al., Nature Food 2021

This has been especially the case in northeast Nigeria, where the Boko Haram guerrilla army has waged a relentless hit-and-run campaign against the government and much of the populace for the past decade. Also in South Sudan, where a messy, multi-sided civil war that started in 2013 continues to sputter along. Sudan and Somalia also have seen warfare-induced increases in hunger, but in those nations, droughts have been the more dominant factors, the study found. In most cases, pastoralists are again the most affected by violence as they are with drought, because they are more likely to live in the most violence-prone areas.

The latest casualty is Ethiopia, where hunger has arced upward across the country in recent years, mainly due to below-average rainfall. But civil war erupted in the country’s Tigray region last year, greatly adding to the misery. The study did not examine this new conflict, but a recent UN report said that more than 5 million people in the region urgently need food aid, and many are already seeing out and out famine. “This severe crisis results from the cascading effects of conflict, including population displacement, movement restrictions, limited humanitarian access, loss of harvest and livelihood assets, and dysfunctional or nonexistent markets,” a top UN official said. On top of that, the drought in Ethiopia is projected to continue through this year.

The researchers looked into a third possible cause of hunger: locusts. Again,  not surprisingly, locusts affect food security in some years by damaging forage and crops—but not on a scale large enough to account for the increase in hunger during the study period. (The study did not look at the unusually large waves of locusts that swept much of East Africa in 2019-2020; these may have had more drastic results.)

One further factor the researchers looked at: whether the onset of drought contributed to flareups of violence, and thus more hunger. One of the report’s coauthors, climatologist Richard Seager of Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, connected the dots in this regard in a widely cited 2015 study arguing that one spark for the ongoing Syrian civil war was a multi-year drought that drove many people off their land, into cities. This does not seem to be the case for the African countries, he said. The authors write, “We found no systematic relation between drought and either frequency of conflict or deaths related to conflict. Conflict may be affected by environmental stress in some cases but the relationship across Africa in recent decades is complex and context-specific.”

CAPTION

Drought periodically causes widespread food insecurity across much of sub-Saharan Africa, and may exacerbate the effects of warfare. Here, farmers in the village of Diouna, southern Mali, listen for weather bulletins.

CREDIT

Francesco Fiondella/International Research Institute for Climate and Society

While warfare has been the predominant driver of hunger in some countries, that does not mean others have completely escaped the violence that can disrupt food supplies. For instance, over the last decade, much of Mali has been subject to on and off attacks by separatist and Islamist insurgents who at times have taken entire cities. Since 2015, the once largely peaceful nation of Burkina Faso has seen hundreds of attacks by rebels and jihadists, including a raid on a village in early June this year that killed more than 100 people.

“The overall message is that if we’re going to predict and handle food crises, we need to be paying attention to conflicts, which can be really complicated—not just the more easily identified things like drought,” said Anderson. “Droughts have a clear start and a clear end. But there are all kinds of violence. And a lot of the time, there is no clear start or end to it.” That said, warfare is certainly behind surging hunger in other parts of the world that the team did not examine, he said, most obviously amid the civil war raging in Yemen.

The other authors of the study are Elisabeth Ilboudo-Nébie, Wolfram Schlenker, Fabien Cottier, Alex De Sherbinin, Dara Mendeloff and Kelsey Markey, all of Columbia University; and Sonali McDermid and Kelsey Markey of New York University.

# # #

Study: Political violence, not climate

 change, to blame for rising hunger in Africa

Violent conflicts are behind increased hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new study, including in parts of Ethiopia, where a farmer is pictured carrying forage for his mule in the southwest of the African nation. Photo by Jacquelyn Turner/International Research Institute for Climate and Society

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- After years of progress in the fight against hunger, food insecurity is again a growing problem in Africa, where famine threatens millions of people -- new research suggests prolonged violence is to blame.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where the problem is especially pronounced, many experts have traditionally blamed climate change and an increase in the frequency of extreme droughts for the expanding crisis.

To better understand the primary driver of hunger in the region, researchers took a focused, granular view of the problem, teasing out links between hunger and a variety of factors, including precipitation, locusts and political violence.

The analysis, published Thursday in the journal Nature Food, showed the effects of droughts and flooding on food security in Africa has remained mostly stable during recent decades

While extreme weather undoubtedly impacts access to food, researchers found the effect of extreme weather on hunger has declined in many parts of Africa.

On the other hand, increases in widespread, long-term violence and warfare has fueled steady increases in famine. Political violence has displaced thousands of people, fueled spikes in food prices and in some cases, prevented the transport of food aid.

"Colloquially, people would say it's climate-induced droughts and floods, because that's what people tend to say," study leader Weston Anderson said in a press release.

RELATED U.N.: 400,000 in Tigray now facing famine, nearly 2M more on the brink

"But academics have not compared the importance of drought to violence in triggering food crises in a holistic way," said Anderson, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society.

For the study, researchers relied on data collected between 2009 and 2018 as part of the Famine Early Warning System, a USAID-funded network that gathers data on hunger to warn policy makers about impending food crises in vulnerable nations.

Data collected by the network showed the number of people in Africa requiring emergency food aid increased from 48 million in 2015 to 113 million in 2020.

By tracking changes in weather and political stability across 14 nations most hard hit by the growing hunger crisis -- a band stretching west-to-east from Mali and Nigeria to Kenya and Somalia -- researchers were able to identify the primary drivers of famine across sub-Saharan Africa.

While the data showed droughts can cause periodic dips in food supply, leading to increases in hunger, researchers found farmers were typically able to recover by the following growing season.

Prolonged political violence and regional warfare, however, have led to long-term increases in hunger. Ongoing conflicts between state armies, guerrilla groups and terrorists have led to regional food shortages year after year.

Authors of the new study suggest the impacts of violence on hunger are most evident in places like northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram continues to carry out guerrilla attacks on both government forces and local civilians, and South Sudan, where a complex civil war has caused large numbers of people to go to bed hungry.

In Syria, some researchers have argued prolonged droughts, which forced thousands of people from the countryside and into cities, sparked the political instability that triggered the region's ongoing civil war.

But when researchers looked at whether droughts themselves have triggered political violence in Africa, thus fueling further hunger, they found no evidence of such a feedback loop.

"We found no systematic relation between drought and either frequency of conflict or deaths related to conflict," the authors write. "Conflict may be affected by environmental stress in some cases but the relationship across Africa in recent decades is complex and context-specific."

As climate change continues to stress natural resources, researchers suggest food policy experts must consider the impacts of ongoing political violence in some of the world's most food-insecure nations.

"The overall message is that if we're going to predict and handle food crises, we need to be paying attention to conflicts, which can be really complicated -- not just the more easily identified things like drought," said Anderson.

"Droughts have a clear start and a clear end. But there are all kinds of violence. And a lot of the time, there is no clear start or end to it," he said.

Anderson added that warfare is certainly behind surging hunger in other parts of the world that the team did not examine, offering an obvious example of the civil war raging in Yemen.

Flash floods kill 11 as Turkey reels from multiple disasters

Heavy rains produced flash floods that turned streets into running rivers and sparked mudslides that buckled roads - Demiroren News Agency (DHA)/AFP/File

Issued on: 12/08/2021
Istanbul (AFP)

Turkish rescuers distributed food and relocated thousands of people into student dormitories Thursday as the death toll from flash floods that swept across several Black Sea regions rose to 11.

The torrential rains descended on Turkey's northern stretches just as rescuers reported bringing hundreds of wildfires that have killed eight people since late July under near total control in the south.

Turkey has been grappling with drought and reeling from a rapid succession of natural disasters that world scientists believe are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change.

Storms that swept in from the Balkans late Tuesday turned streets into running rivers and set off mudslides that buckled roads and tore down bridges in three mountainous regions hugging Turkey's rugged Black Sea coast.

Emergency services said waters briefly rose in some parts as high as four metres (13 feet) before subsiding and spreading across a region stretching more than 150 miles (240 kilometres) wide.

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli warned on Wednesday that the area was facing "a disaster that we had not seen in 50 or 100 years".

Rescuers were forced to evacuate a hospital holding 45 patients -- four of them in intensive care -- in the region around the coastal city of Sinop on Wednesday.

Images on television and social media showed stranded villagers being plucked off rooftops by helicopter and bridges collapsing under the force of the rushing water below.

Turkey's disaster response authority said 10 people had lost their lives in the northern Kastamonu province and one in the neighbouring region of Sinop.

 

Nine people have lost their lives in flash floods in the northern Kastamonu province - 

Demiroren News Agency (DHA)/AFP

Rescuers were also searching for a person who disappeared in the northern city of Bartin.

- More rain -

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said he held a phone call with the heads of the affected regions Thursday and promised to provide all state assistance available.

The emergencies authority said more than 1,000 rescuers were working in the region while Turkish Red Crescent teams were distributing food packages and hot meals.

Officials said more than 5,000 places had been allocated in student dormitories to shelter those displaced by the floods.

Dozens of villages suffered electricity and mobile phone service disruptions as masts and power lines went down.

The Anadolu state news agency said rescuers were focusing on a four-floor apartment building that partially crumbled and another one next to it that completely collapsed.

Images showed parts of both river-front buildings toppling into the rushing flood of brown water below.

Weather services predicted rains to continue to lash the affected area for the remainder of week.

The disaster struck less than a month after six people died in floods caused by heavy rains in the northeast Rize province.

Turkey's mountainous Black Sea regions frequently experience heavy rains that produce flash floods and mudslides in the summer months.

© 2021 AFP

'Bath time': Volunteer vets tend to Greece's fire-hit pets

Issued on: 12/08/2021 - 
   

The volunteers are exploring what help they can give to stricken animals on Evia ANGELOS TZORTZINIS AFP/File

Athens (AFP)

With balm and bandages for scorched paws, volunteers at a makeshift animal shelter north of Athens are doing what they can for cats and dogs, whether strays or left behind as their owners fled advancing wildfires.

The volunteer vets have organised an "intensive care" area to monitor severely burnt animals under a tarpaulin in an abandoned quarry on the outskirts of the capital.

"So far we have taken in 233 animals," Yannis Batsas, president of Action Volunteers Greek Veterinarians, told AFP.

And the animals keep coming. "We receive about 20 every day."

A dog recovering from burns to his paws at a makeshift shelter in Athens

STRINGER AFP

The less severely affected four-legged survivors get baths every two to three hours to cool their burns.

"It's time for a bath," one young volunteer said as she took hold of two small puppies, easing them into a small basin of water.

- First victims -

Many in the Athens area were evacuated at the start of August as advancing wildfires ravaged pine forests and homes some 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of the capital.

Along roads lined with the charred husks of pine trees, AFP reporters met groups of volunteers collecting abandoned aminals in Efnides and other affected villages.

As people fled Evia, some refused to leave their pets behind

 ANGELOS TZORTZINIS AFP/File

With strays common in the area, the animals are the first victims of the fires, the vets say, not to mention the many domesticated animals left in gardens as their owners fled.

The volunteers at the shelter do what they can to comfort the animals, circulating among cages where dogs with bandaged paws await their owners.

In a cacophony of barking, the dogs, burnt on their paws or on their bodies, joyfully welcome the volunteers whenever they approach.

Settled on sheets filled with ice cubes, about 20 of the canines are waiting for their owners to come and reclaim them or, failing that, a family to adopt them.

So far, nearly 90 animals have found their families, said Elena Dede, founder of nonprofit organisation Dogs' Voice.

Dede said more than 2,000 people showed up to volunteer, many agreeing to take dogs home for a couple of weeks to ease pressure at the shelter.

A volunteer cools down two puppies with burn injuries from Greece's wildfires, at a makeshift shelter in Athens STRINGER AFP

"Instead of having 200 animals all in one place, you'll never have more than about 50, and that's because of the shelters and adoptions," said Batsas.

- Outpouring of solidarity -

Dede said the group had received donations amounting to about 10 tonnes of dog and cat food.

"That will be distributed all over Attica, in areas affected by the fires and here of course," she said.

The outpouring of solidarity in Athens is encouraging volunteers to open another centre on the island of Evia, where wildfires continued to rage on Thursday.

A volunteer tends to a dog at the Athens shelter STRINGER AFP

"A team left for Evia to go and see the farms, the goats, the sheep that were burnt," said Batsas.

"Evia is a different story. We have to be sure that we’ll have the capacity to respond with the same efficiency that we have here," said Dede.

Evacuating injured animals from Greece's second largest island is complicated.

"They have to be transported by boat, which lengthens the journeys," said Irini Tapouti, director of the Chalkida veterinary clinic on Evia.

On the beach at Pefki, where deckchairs are now covered with ash, Roula Papadimitri and her daughter Eva are bringing first aid and comfort to a dozen dogs they saved from the flames.

They were forced to abandon their house in the adjoining village of Artemisia on foot.

"There is no way I'm leaving without them," Eva said.

"How can you abandon dogs," asked her mother, incredulous.

A shepherd walks among goats that perished in a wildfire on the Greek island of Evia ANGELOS TZORTZINIS AFP

Slowly, Roula poured water into the animals' thirsty mouths. A small cat rescued from the flames weaves in and out between the trembling dogs.

Three dogs have been caged to stop them running away and endangering themselves, said Roula.

"I'm not going to let them go and be taken by a wolf."

© 2021 AFP

Algeria combats wildfires, observes day of mourning

Heavy smoke rises during a wildfire in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the Algerian capital Algiers Ryad KRAMDI AFP

Issued on: 12/08/2021 - 

Tizi Ouzou (Algeria) (AFP)

Blazes raged across northern Algeria on Thursday as the country observed a national day of mourning for dozens of people killed in the latest wildfires to sweep the Mediterranean.

The North African country has been in the grip of devastating fires since Monday that have claimed at least 69 lives -- 41 civilians and 28 soldiers.

Soldiers and civilian volunteers have joined firefighters on multiple fronts in the effort to extinguish the blazes that have been fanned by windy and tinder-dry conditions.

In Tizi Ouzou district, the area with the highest casualty toll, an AFP journalist reported entire sectors of forest going up in smoke.

Villagers forced to evacuate in order to escape the flames began trickling back to their homes, overwhelmed by the scale of the damage.

Deadly wildfires in northern Algeria Cléa PÉCULIER AFP

"I have nothing left. My workshop, my car, my flat. Even the tiles were destroyed," one of them told AFP.

But he said he had "managed to save his family", while adding that "neighbours died or lost their relatives".

- 'Surge of solidarity' -

Flags were flying at half-mast after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared three days of national mourning starting from Thursday.

Algerian authorities say they suspect widespread arson after so many fires erupted in such a short space of time.

The country's state prosecutor on Thursday ordered an investigation after a mob allegedly lynched a man they accused of sparking the wildfires.

Video footage posted online Wednesday showed a crowd beating to death 38-year-old Jamal Ben Ismail and setting him ablaze in the Tizi Ouzou district.

On the fourth day of the wildfires, efforts to overcome the blazes are continuing in many regions where civilians and soldiers often with limited means joined the fight.

Flags of Algeria fly at half-mast in mourning for the victims of the Kabylie region forest fires in Algeria's capital Algiers, on August 12, 2021 Ryad KRAMDI AFP

Images of trapped villagers, terrified livestock and forested hillsides reduced to blackened stumps have been shared on social media.

Algeria is also chartering two firefighting planes from the European Union.

France also announced the arrival in Algeria of two Canadair firefighting planes it has sent.

"They will help the rescue efforts to deal with the terrible fires," French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.

Neighbouring Morocco, with whom Algeria has long had strained ties over the Western Sahara, also offered to help by providing two planes.

Burned houses stand amid charred trees, following a wildfire in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the Algerian capital Ryad KRAMDI AFP

Faced with the scale of the disaster, pleas for assistance are multiplying in Algeria and beyond.

"Individuals and associations are mobilising... by organising collections of clothes, foodstuffs, medicines and hygiene products," said Algeria's TSA news website, calling it a "surge of solidarity".

Djaffar, a resident of the village of Agoulmim in Kabylie, expressed his gratitude on Berber TV.

"God bless them... We had no electricity and people brought in generators from all around," the exhausted villager said after his ordeal.

"The flames were so high, they destroyed everything. Suddenly it was like a volcano," he said.

- Heatwave -

High winds fuelled the rapid spread of the flames in tinder-dry conditions created by a heatwave across North Africa and the wider Mediterranean.

The authorities have raised the possibility of criminal behaviour.

Volunteers of the SIDRA Association NGO take part in an initiative with the Algerian Food Bank to send aid packages to victims of the Kabylie region forest fires in Algeria's capital Algiers, on August 12, 2021 Ryad KRAMDI AFP

Four suspected "arsonists" were arrested so far, but their identities or suspected motives have not yet been disclosed.

Armed forces chief Said Chengriha visited soldiers in Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia, another badly affected area. Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane also visited Tizi Ouzou.

Each summer, Algeria endures seasonal wildfires, but rarely anything approaching this year's disaster.

Meteorologists expect the Maghreb heatwave to continue until the end of the week, with temperatures in Algeria reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

An injured man looks on during a wildfire in Tizi Ouzou Ryad KRAMDI AFP

Across the border in Tunisia, where almost 30 fires have been recorded since Monday, the mercury hit an all-time record of 50.3 Celsius in the central region of Kairouan (centre).

Almost 30 fires have been recorded in Tunisia since Monday.

On the northern shores of the Mediterranean, deadly wildfires have been raging in Turkey and Greece for the past two weeks.

In Italy, where firefighters were battling more than 500 blazes overnight, Sicily recorded a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday that is believed to be a new European record.

© 2021 AFP

Greek wildfires: 'a major ecological catastrophe', PM says

 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday described the devastating wildfires that burned across the country for more than a week as the greatest ecological catastrophe Greece had seen in decades. The fires broke out as the country roasted during the most intense and protracted heat wave experienced since 1987. Hundreds of wildfires erupted across the country, stretching Greece’s firefighting capabilities to the limit and leading the government to appeal for help from abroad. Hundreds of firefighters, along with planes, helicopters and vehicles, arrived from 24 European and Middle Eastern countries to assist.

Italian wildfires rage on after 49 degree heat record

  

Italian firefighters continued to battle blazes in Sicily as temperatures reached what may possibly be a record high in Europe.The region's agriculture-meteorological information service (SIAS) reported that the temperature rose to 48.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday afternoon.

Sicily's temperature of nearly 120 degrees may be record for Europe

A fire is seen in the Ragusa area of Sicily, Italy, on Thursday. Firefighters are battling hundreds of blazes that are being aided by a heat wave. Photo by Francesco Ruta/EPA-EFE

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The World Meteorological Organization is trying to determine if Sicily set a new record Wednesday for the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe, with a temperature of 119.84 degrees Fahrenheit.

The temperature was recorded by the Sicilian Meteorological Information Service for Agriculture amid a prolonged heat wave.

If the WMO confirms the temperature as a record, it will top the previous mark of 118.4 set in Athens, Greece, in 1977.

"We can't yet confirm or deny its validity," the WMO said in a Twitter post Thursday. "The WMO will seek to verify reports."

Lt. Col. Guido Guidi of Italy's Aeronautical Meteorological Service told The New York Times it may take some time to verify the record. He said data recorded by stations across the region need to be validated.

The hottest temperature ever recorded worldwide, according to the WMO, was set in Furnace Creek, Calif., in 1913 -- 134 degrees.

The mark in Sicily came a couple days after a United Nations climate change report said human-led increases in extreme weather conditions are unavoidable, but noted that there's still a small window open to dodge the worst effects.

Sicily registers record 49°C heat as Italy's wildfires rage on

Issued on: 12/08/2021 - 

A man refreshes himself at a fountain in Palermo, Italy, on August 11, 2021. 

© Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse via AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Fires stoked by hot winds swept through southern Italy on Thursday, a day after a monitoring station in Sicily reported temperatures of 48.8 Celsius (119.84°F) which some scientists believe could be the highest in European history.

The record temperature, which still needs to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), was reported close to the city of Syracuse, in the southeast of the island of Sicily.

"If the data is validated, it could become the highest value ever recorded in Europe, beating the previous record of 48 degrees measured in Athens on July 10, 1977," meteorologist Manuel Mazzoleni wrote on 3Bmeteo.com, a specialist website.

Firemen said on Twitter they had carried out more than 500 operations in Sicily and Calabria in the last 12 hours, employing five planes to try to douse the flames from above. They said the situation was now "under control" on the island.



Local media reported that trees and land were burning in the Madonie mountains some 100 km from the Sicilian capital of Palermo and in the small town of Linguaglossa, on the slopes of the Etna volcano.

"Our small town was really invaded by fire. It is a catastrophe ... We are living through some really sad moments," said Giovanna Licitra, from the village of Giarratana in the south of the island which was hit by fires on Wednesday.

Serious damage has also been reported in Calabria, the toe of Italy's "boot", where some families left their homes and a man died on Wednesday.

A woman refreshes at a fan nebulising water next to the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, on August 12, 2021. © Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP

Temperatures are expected to rise in several Italian cities including the capital Rome on Friday, when the heatwave could reach its peak, according to a health ministry bulletin.

(REUTERS)