Author: Uponsci

HOUSTON — Kimberly Rubit had one priority in mind as Hurricane Beryl ripped through Houston this summer: her severely disabled daughter.

The 63-year-old worked nonstop to prevent Mary, 42, from overheating without air conditioning, water or lights after Beryl knocked out power to their home for 10 days. At least three dozen other people suffered heat-related deaths during the extended outage.

“It was miserable,” Rubit said. “I’m sick of it.”

Electric grids have buckled more frequently and outages have become longer across the U.S. as the warming atmosphere carries more water and stirs up more destructive storms, according to an AP analysis of government data. In the Pacific Northwest this week, a “bomb cyclone” caused roughly half a million outages.

People with disabilities and chronic health conditions are particularly at risk when the power goes out, and many live in homes that lack the weatherizing and backup power supplies needed to better handle high temperatures and cold freezes, or can’t pay their electricity bills, said Columbia University sociomedical sciences professor Diana Hernandez, who studies energy instability in U.S. homes.

At any given time, 1 in 3 households in the U.S. is “actively trying to avoid a disconnection or contending with the aftermath of it,” Hernandez said.

In Texas, as another winter approaches, people can’t shake fears of another blackout like the one during a cold freeze in 2021 that left millions without power for days and killed more than 200 people. Despite efforts to create more resilience, a winter storm that powerful could still lead to rolling blackouts, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of the state’s power grid.

Beryl also knocked out power to millions for days, sickening many in the sweltering July heat. Local and state officials showered criticism on CenterPoint Energy, Houston’s power utility, saying it should have communicated more clearly, taken more preventive measures such as tree trimming before the storm hit and repaired downed power lines more quickly. The utility’s response remains under investigation by the Texas attorney general.

CenterPoint says it is focused now on improving resiliency, customer communications and community partnerships with the one defining goal: “to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country that can better withstand the extreme weather of the future.”

Texas lawmakers, meanwhile, are debating whether assisted living facilities need more regulation. One suggestion: requiring them to have enough emergency generator fuel to power lifesaving equipment and keep indoor temperatures safe during an extended blackout, as Florida did after a scandal over hurricane-related nursing home deaths.

The legislative panel also reviewed emergency responses this month. Regulated facilities and nursing centers fared better than places such as senior communities that aren’t subject to strict oversight, according to city and state officials. This meant hundreds of apartment complexes catering to older adults, as well as private homes, were likely more susceptible to losing power and going without food.

“We’ve got to find a way to mark these facilities or get it entered into the computer dispatch systems,” said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. “There are so many places in our own city that we have no idea until that 911 call comes into that facility,” he said.

Texas energy companies have been required since 2003 to provide advance notice of scheduled outages to medically vulnerable households that submit a form with physician approval. But that law didn’t require the utilities to share these lists with state or local emergency management agencies.

Numerous states have similar regulatory requirements and 38 have policies aimed at preventing disconnections during extreme weather, according to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. In Colorado, medically vulnerable residents are protected from disconnection for up to 90 days. In Arkansas, utilities can’t disconnect power to people who are 65 or older if temperatures are forecast to reach above 34 degrees Celsius.

In Houston, Rubit and her daughter share one of the roughly 3,000 households where unreliable power can quickly spiral into a life-and-death issue because at least one person requires a medical device powered by electricity, according to public filings from CenterPoint. The utility offers such households payment plans to keep the electricity on when they fall behind on their bills.

The utility’s efforts bring little solace to community members at a Houston living center for seniors, Commons of Grace, where outages have become a haunting facet of life for more than 100 residents, said Belinda Taylor, who runs a nonprofit partnered with the managing company.

“I’m just frustrated that we didn’t get the services that we needed,” Taylor said. “It’s ridiculous that we have had to suffer.”

Sharon Burks, who lives at Commons of Grace, said it became unbearable when the power went out. She is 63 and uses a breathing machine for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes shortness of breath. She had to resort to her battery-powered breathing pump, which isn’t meant to be used for long periods.

“I didn’t expect anything from CenterPoint,” Burks said. “We’re always the last to get it.”
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BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — As nerves frayed and the clock ticked, negotiators from rich and poor nations were huddled in one room Saturday during overtime United Nations climate talks to try to hash out an elusive deal on money for developing countries to curb and adapt to climate change.

But the rough draft of a proposal circulating in that room was getting soundly rejected, especially by African nations and small island states, according to messages relayed from inside. Then a group of negotiators from the Least Developed Countries bloc and the Alliance of Small Island States walked out because they didn’t want to engage with the rough draft.

The “current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” said Evans Njewa, chair of the LDC group. When asked if the walkout was a protest, Colombia Environment Minister Susana Mohamed told The Associated Press: “I would call this dissatisfaction, [we are] highly dissatisfied.”

With tensions high, climate activists heckled United States climate envoy John Podesta as he left the meeting room. They accused the U.S. of not paying its fair share and having “a legacy of burning up the planet.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, more than double the previous goal of $100 billion set 15 years ago but far short of the annual $1 trillion-plus that experts say is needed. The rough draft discussed on Saturday was for $300 billion in climate finance, sources told AP.

Accusations of a war of attrition

Developing countries accused the rich of trying to get their way — and a small financial aid package — via a war of attrition. And small island nations, particularly vulnerable to climate change’s worsening impacts, accused the host country presidency of ignoring them for the entire two weeks.

After bidding one of his suitcase-lugging delegation colleagues goodbye and watching the contingent of about 20 enter the meeting room for the European Union, Panama chief negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez had enough.

“Every minute that passes we are going to just keep getting weaker and weaker and weaker. They don’t have that issue. They have massive delegations,” Gomez said. “This is what they always do. They break us at the last minute. You know, they push it and push it and push it until our negotiators leave. Until we’re tired, until we’re delusional from not eating, from not sleeping.”

With developing nations’ ministers and delegation chiefs having to catch flights home, desperation sets in, according to Power Shift Africa’s Mohamed Adow. “The risk is if developing countries don’t hold the line, they will likely be forced to compromise and accept a goal that doesn’t add up to get the job done,” he said.

Teresa Anderson, the global lead on climate justice at Action Aid, said that to get a deal, “the presidency has to put something far better on the table.”

“The U.S. in particular, and rich countries, need to do far more to show that they’re willing for real money to come forward,” she said. “And if they don’t, then LDCs [Least Developed Countries] are unlikely to find that there’s anything here for them.”

Climate cash deal is still elusive

Developing nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to help adapt to droughts, floods, rising seas and extreme heat, pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather, and transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy. Wealthy nations are obligated to pay vulnerable countries under an agreement reached at these talks in Paris in 2015.

Panama’s Monterrey Gomez said even the higher $300 billion figure that was discussed on Saturday is “still crumbs.”

“Is that even half of what we put forth?” he asked.

Monterrey Gomez said the developing world has since asked for a finance deal of $500 billion up to 2030 — a shortened timeframe than the 2035 date. “We’re still yet to hear reaction from the developed side,” he said.

On Saturday morning, Irish Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said it’s not just about the number in the final deal, but “how do you get to $1.3 trillion.”

Ryan said that any number reached at the COP will have to be supplemented with other sources of finance, for example through a market for carbon emissions where polluters would pay to offset the carbon they spew.

The amount in any deal reached at COP negotiations — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater climate spending. But much of that means loans for countries already drowning in debt.

Anger and frustration over state of negotiations

Alden Meyer of the climate think tank E3G said it’s still up in the air whether a deal on finance will come out of Baku at all.

“It is still not out of the question that there could be an inability to close the gap on the finance issue,” he said.

Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Negotiators, said the bloc is “prepared to reach agreement here in Baku … but we are not prepared to accept things that cross our red lines.”

Despite the fractures between nations, several still held out hopes for the talks. “We remain optimistic,” said Nabeel Munir of Pakistan, who chairs one of the talks’ standing negotiating committees.

The Alliance of Small Island States said in a statement that it wants to continue to engage in the talks, as long as the process is inclusive. “If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement,” the statement said.
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BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — In the sprawling pavilion section of the United Nations climate talks, where countries, nonprofits and tech companies use big, flashy signs to get the attention of the thousands of people walking through, small aqua and purple beverage cans sit conspicuously on a counter at the Singapore display.

Those who approach learn that the cans are beer — a brand call NEWBrew — and free for anybody who asks. But there is something not everybody who cracks one open finds out right away, if at all: the beer is made with treated wastewater.

“I didn’t know. I was really surprised,” said Ignace Urchil Lokouako Mbouamboua, an international relations student from Congo, who recently sipped one while taking a break from the conference.

“I can even suggest that they make more and more of this kind of beer,” added Mbouamboua with a smile, sharing it was his third day in a row he stopped for a can.

NEWBrew is made in Singapore with NEWater, the name of treated wastewater that’s part of a national campaign to conserve every drop in one of the world’s most water-starved places.

The drink, which some attendees jokingly call “sewage beer,” is one of many examples of climate- and environment-related innovations on display during this year’s climate talks, COP29, taking place in Azerbaijan. Highlighting the use of treated wastewater underscores one of the world’s most pressing problems as climate change accelerates: providing drinking water to a growing population.

For years, Singapore has been a leader in water management and innovations. The city-state island of 6 million people in Southeast Asia, one of the most densely populated countries, has no natural water sources. In addition to water imports from Malaysia, the other pillars of its national strategy are catchment, desalination and recycling. Authorities have said they need to ramp up all water sources, as demand is expected to double by 2065.

While drinking treated wastewater is a novelty for many at the climate conference, for Singaporeans it’s nothing new. National campaigns — from water conservation pleas to showing the wastewater recycling process — go back decades. In 2002, then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong was famously photographed drinking a bottle of NEWater after a tennis match, done to normalize its use.

Ong Tze-Ch’in, chief executive of the Public Utilities Board, Singapore’s national water agency, said NEWBrew was developed by a local brewery in 2018. The idea was to showcase treated wastewater at the country’s biennial International Water Week. The beer was next produced in 2022, 2023, then again this year.

“It’s part of the acceptance of the use of recycled water, which in general is a difficult topic,” said Ong. “We did many things to drive it.”

And is he happy with how it turned out? 

“I chose this flavor,” said Ong, adding that he was part of the group that worked with the brewery for this year’s version, a “modern pilsner.”

“You know, beer is always very subjective,” he added with a laugh.

After attending a panel on water management at the Singapore pavilion, Peter Rummel, director of infrastructure policy advancement at Bentley Systems, which creates infrastructure engineering software, stepped up to the counter and got a beer. Rummel told onlookers he was in a good position to judge beer, as he hailed from Munich, Germany, home to the Oktoberfest beer festival.

“It’s fresh, light, cool. It has a nice flavor,” said Rummel, while looking at the can.

Wee-Tuck Tan, managing director of the local brewery, The Brewerkz Group, said they have made about 5,000 liters, or roughly 15,000 cans, for each edition of NewBrew. He said they use the same process as with other beers, and the cost is also similar, about 7 Singaporean dollars (around $5 U.S.) per can when bought in a supermarket.

Wee-Tuck said he believes the beer has shifted how some in Singapore view NEWater.

“They think it tastes funny,” he said. “When put into a beer, it changes the mindset. Most people can’t tell the difference.”

As problems with water scarcity grow, there is increasing embrace of the use of treated wastewater, said Saroj Kumar Jha, the World Bank Group’s global water department director, who participated in the water management panel in the Singapore pavilion. Traveling to over 50 countries in the last two years, he said leaders have frequently told him it’s important not to use the term “wastewater,” and instead call it “used water.”

After the panel concluded, Jha and the other panelists opened NEWBrews and toasted.

“It’s really good,” said Jha. “It’s the fourth time I’ve had it.”

“This year,” he added with a laugh. “Not today.”
…

london — The mpox outbreak continues to represent a public health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The WHO first declared the emergency in August, when an outbreak of a new form of mpox spread from the badly hit Democratic Republic of Congo to neighboring countries.

The WHO convened a meeting of its Emergency Committee and, agreeing with its advice, the WHO director-general has determined that the upsurge of mpox continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

The decision is based on the rising number and continuing geographic spread of cases, operational challenges in the field and the need to mount and sustain a cohesive response across countries and partners, the WHO said.

Mpox is a viral infection that spreads through close contact and typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild, but it can be lethal.

This year, there have been more than 46,000 suspected cases across Africa, mainly in Congo, and more than 1,000 suspected deaths.

The label of “public health emergency of international concern” is the WHO’s highest form of alert and was also applied to a global outbreak of a different form of mpox in 2022-2023.

The alert issued this year followed the spread of a new variant of the virus, called clade Ib.

Cases of this variant have been confirmed in the U.K., Germany, Sweden and India, among other countries.

In September, after facing criticism on moving too slowly on vaccines, the WHO cleared Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox and, earlier this month, listed Japan’s KM Biologics’ shot for emergency use.
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BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — The COP29 climate summit ran into overtime on Friday after a draft deal that proposed developed nations take the lead in providing $250 billion per year by 2035 to help poorer nations drew criticism from all sides.

World governments represented at the summit in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku, are tasked with agreeing on a sweeping funding plan to tackle climate change, but the talks have been marked by division between wealthy governments resisting a costly outcome and developing nations pushing for more.

The two-week conference in the Caspian Sea city, which was to end Friday evening, spilled past its scheduled close as the wrangling continued, with expectations the $250 billion target could yet rise.

“I’m so mad. It’s ridiculous. Just ridiculous,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, the special representative for climate change for Panama. He called the proposed amount too low. “It feels that the developed world wants the planet to burn.”

A European negotiator, meanwhile, told Reuters the figure in the draft deal released by the summit presidency was uncomfortably high and did not do enough to expand the number of countries contributing to the funding.

“No one is comfortable with the number, because it’s high and [there is] next to nothing on increasing contributor base,” the negotiator said.

Governments that would be expected to lead the financing include the European Union, Australia, the United States, Britain, Japan, Norway, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland.

The draft invited developing countries to contribute voluntarily but emphasized that paying in climate finance would not affect their status as “developing” nations at the United Nations, a red line for countries such as China and Brazil.

“This is not at a landing ground yet, but at least we’re not up in the air without a map,” said Germany’s special climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan.

‘First reflection’

Negotiations have been clouded by uncertainty over the role of the United States in the deal after climate-change skeptic Donald Trump won the presidential election on November 5, promising to withdraw the world’s top historic greenhouse gas emitter from international climate efforts when he retakes office in January.

The Azerbaijani COP29 presidency described Friday’s text as a “first reflection” of what countries had said in consultations and expressed hope negotiators would find agreement soon.

Azerbaijan’s lead negotiator, Yalchin Rafiyev, told reporters the draft deal had room for improvement.

“It doesn’t correspond to our fair and ambitious goal, but we will continue to engage with the parties,” he said.

The draft also set a broader goal to raise $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035, which would include funding from all public and private sources.

That is in line with a recommendation from economists that developing countries have access to at least $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade. Those same economists criticized the current $250 billion core target as too low.

But filling the gap between government pledges and private ones could be tricky, negotiators have warned.

“This goal will need to be supported by ambitious bilateral action, MDB contributions and efforts to better mobilize private finance, among other critical factors,” a senior U.S. official said, referring to multilateral development banks.

The current climate finance commitment, $100 billion per year, ends in 2025. Without a new collective target agreed through the U.N. process, some of the poorer countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change would have little assurance of the money they need.

That means such countries have an incentive to negotiate hard, but even those most unhappy have a reason not to walk away or block a deal.

“We are far away from the $1.3 trillion,” said M. Riaz Hamidullah, a Bangladeshi foreign office official. “It’s a bit like haggling in the fish market, which we do often in our part of the world.”

Hottest on record

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres returned to Baku from a G20 meeting in Brazil on Thursday, calling for a major push to get a deal and warning that “failure is not an option.”

The showdown over financing for developing countries comes in a year that scientists say is destined to be the hottest on record. Climate woes are stacking up in the wake of such extreme heat, raising cries for more funding to cope.

Widespread flooding has killed thousands across Africa this year, while deadly landslides have buried villages in Asia. Drought in South America has shrunk rivers — vital transport corridors — and livelihoods.

Developed countries, too, have not been spared. Torrential rain triggered floods in Valencia, Spain, last month that killed more than 200, and the United States has so far registered 24 billion-dollar disasters, just four fewer than last year.
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Kabul residents are struggling with severe water shortages, often waiting hours at the Afghan capital’s dwindling wells for drinking water. The United Nations cautions that urbanization and climate change could deplete the city’s groundwater within the next five to six years. VOA’s Afghan service has this report, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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LAS VEGAS — Federal water officials made public on Wednesday what they called “necessary steps” for seven states and multiple tribes that use Colorado River water and hydropower to meet an August 2026 deadline for deciding how to manage the waterway in the future.

“Today, we show our collective work,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said as she outlined four proposals for action and one “no action” alternative that she and Biden’s government will leave for the incoming Trump Administration — with formal environmental assessments still to come and just 20 months to act.

The announcement offered no recommendation or decision about how to divvy up water from the river, which provides electricity to millions of homes and businesses, irrigates vast stretches of desert farmland and reaches kitchen faucets in cities including Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Instead it provided a bullet-point sample of elements from competing proposals submitted last March by three key river stakeholders: Upper Basin states Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, where most of the water originates; Lower Basin states California, Arizona and Nevada, which rely most on water captured by dams at lakes Powell and Mead; and more than two dozen Native American tribes with rights to river water.

“They’re not going to take the any of the proposals,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “The federal government put the components together in a different way … and modeled them to provide near-maximum flexibility for negotiations to continue.”

One alternative would have the government act to “protect critical infrastructure” including dams and oversee how much river water is delivered, relying on existing agreements during periods when demand outstrips supply. “But there would be no new delivery and storage mechanisms,” the announcement said.

A second option would add delivery and storage for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, along with “federal and non-federal storage” to boost system sustainability and flexibility “through a new approach to distributing” water during shortages.

The third, dubbed “cooperative conservation,” cited a proposal from advocates aimed at managing and gauging water releases from Lake Powell amid “shared contributions to sustain system integrity.”

And a fourth, hybrid proposal includes parts of Upper and Lower Basin and Tribal Nations plans, the announcement said. It would add delivery and storage for Powell and Mead, encourage conservation and agreements for water use among customers and “afford the Tribal and non-Tribal entities the same ability to use these mechanisms.”

The “no action” option does not meet the purpose of study but was included because it is required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the announcement said.

In 2026, legal agreements that apportion the river will expire. That means that amid the effects of climate change and more than 20 years of drought, river stakeholders and the federal government have just months to agree what to do.

“We still have a pretty wide gap between us,” Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s main negotiator on the Colorado River, said in a conference call with reporters. He referred to positions of Upper Basin and Lower Basin states. Tribes including the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona have also been flexing their long-held water rights.

Buschatzke said he saw “some really positive elements” in the alternatives but needed time to review them in detail. “I think anything that could be done to move things forward on a faster track is a good thing,” he said.

Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado said in a statement the alternatives “underscore how serious a situation we’re facing on the Colorado River.”

“The only path forward is a collaborative, seven-state plan to solve the Colorado River crisis without taking this to court,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll watch the river run dry while we sue each other.”

Wednesday’s announcement came two weeks after Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election to Republican former President Donald Trump, and two weeks ahead of a key meeting of the involved parties at Colorado River Water Users Association meetings in Las Vegas.

Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network advocacy group, said “snapshots” offered in the announcement “underscore the uncertainty that is swirling around future river management as a new administration prepares to take office.”

“The river needs basin-wide curtailments, agreements to make tribes whole, a moratorium on new dams and diversions, commitments for endangered species and new thinking about outdated infrastructure,” he said.

Buschatzke declined to speculate about whether Trump administration officials will pick up where Biden’s leaves off. But Porter, at the Kyl Center, said the announcement “shows an expectation of continuity.”

“The leadership is going to change, but there are a lot of people who have been working on this for a long time who will still be involved in the negotiations and modeling,” she said. 
…

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Human-caused climate change made Atlantic hurricanes about 29 kilometers per hour (18 miles per hour) stronger in the last six years, a new scientific study found Wednesday. 

For most of the storms — 40 of them — the extra oomph from warmer oceans made the storms jump an entire hurricane category, according to the study published in the journal, Environmental Research: Climate. A Category 5 storm causes more than 400 times the damage of a minimal Category 1 hurricane, more than 140 times the damage of a minimal Category 3 hurricane and more than five times the damage of a minimal Category 4 storm, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

For three storms, including this month’s Rafael, the climate change factor goosed wind speed so much that the winds increased by two storm categories. 

This isn’t about more storms but increasing power from the worst ones, authors said. 

“We know that the intensity of these storms is causing a lot more catastrophic damage in general,” said lead study author Daniel Gifford, a climate scientist at Climate Central, which does research on global warming. “Damages do scale [up] with the intensity.” 

The effect was especially noticeable in stronger storms, including those that made it to the top of the Saffir-Simpson scale of storm intensity: Category 5, study authors said. The study looked at 2019 to 2023, but the authors then did a quick addition for the named storms this year, all of which had a bump up due to climate change. 

“We had two Category 5 storms here in 2024,” Gifford said. “Our analysis shows that we would have had zero Category 5 storms without human-caused climate change.” 

This year’s three most devastating storms — Beryl, Helene and Milton — increased by 29 kph (18 mph), 26 kph (16 mph) and 39 kph (24 mph) respectively because of climate change, the authors said. A different study by World Weather Attribution had deadly Helene’s wind speed increase by about 20 kph (13 mph), which is close, said Imperial College London climate scientist Friederike Otto, who coordinates the WWA team and praised the Climate Central work. 

“It absolutely makes sense from a fundamental standpoint that what’s going on is we’ve added more energy to the system,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Rick Spinrad said at United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

“The change is going to manifest in terms of what we’re already seeing. You look at Hurricane Helene, which was massive, 804 km [500 miles] across. We’re going to see changes in terms of the velocity of these storms. We’re going to see changes in terms of Hurricane Milton spawning so many tornadoes.” 

Since 2019, eight storms — 2019’s Humberto, 2020’s Zeta, 2021’s Sam and Larry, 2022’s Earl, 2023’s Franklin and 2024’s Isaac and Rafael — increased by at least 40 kph (25 mph) in wind speed. Humberto and Zeta gained the most: 50 kph (31 mph). 

In 85% of the storms studied in the last six years, the authors saw a fingerprint of climate change in storm strength, Gifford said. 

Warm water is the main fuel of hurricanes. The warmer the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico get, the more potential energy goes into storms. Other factors — such as high-level crosswinds and dry air — can act to weaken hurricanes. 

The waters in the hurricane area have increased by 1.1 to 1.6 degrees Celsius (2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit) in general and as much as 2.2 degrees C (4 degrees F) due to climate change, Gifford said. They know this because Climate Central has used scientifically accepted techniques to regularly track how much warmer oceans are because of the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. 

That technique basically uses computer simulations to create a fictional world with no human-caused warming and then compares it to current reality, with the difference being caused by greenhouse gases. They account for other factors, such as the lessening amount of sulfate pollution from marine shipping which had been counteracting a bit of the warming before the skies cleared up more. 

To go from warmer waters to stronger storms, the authors looked at a calculation called potential intensity, which is essentially the speed limit for any given storm based on the environmental conditions around it, Gifford said. 

MIT hurricane expert and meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel, who pioneered potential intensity measurements, wasn’t part of the study but said it makes sense. It shows the increase in storm strength that he predicted would happen 37 years ago, he said. 

Past studies have shown that climate change has made hurricanes intensify quicker, and move slower, which causes even more rain to be dumped.
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NEW YORK — Distant, ancient galaxies are giving scientists more hints that a mysterious force called dark energy may not be what they thought.

Astronomers know that the universe is being pushed apart at an accelerating rate and they have puzzled for decades over what could possibly be speeding everything up. They theorize that a powerful, constant force is at play, one that fits nicely with the main mathematical model that describes how the universe behaves. But they can’t see it and they don’t know where it comes from, so they call it dark energy.

It is so vast it is thought to make up nearly 70% of the universe — while ordinary matter like all the stars and planets and people make up just 5%.

But findings published earlier this year by an international research collaboration of more than 900 scientists from around the globe yielded a major surprise. As the scientists analyzed how galaxies move they found that the force pushing or pulling them around did not seem to be constant. And the same group published a new, broader set of analyses Tuesday that yielded a similar answer.

“I did not think that such a result would happen in my lifetime,” said Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki, a cosmologist at the University of Texas at Dallas who is part of the collaboration.

Called the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, it uses a telescope based in Tucson, Arizona to create a three-dimensional map of the universe’s 11-billion-year history to see how galaxies have clustered throughout time and across space. That gives scientists information about how the universe evolved, and where it might be heading.

The map they are building would not make sense if dark energy were a constant force, as it is theorized. Instead, the energy appears to be changing or weakening over time. If that is indeed the case, it would upend astronomers’ standard cosmological model. It could mean that dark energy is very different than what scientists thought — or that there may be something else altogether going on.

“It’s a time of great excitement, and also some head-scratching and confusion,” said Bhuvnesh Jain, a cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvania who is not involved with the research.

The collaboration’s latest finding points to a possible explanation from an older theory: that across billions of years of cosmic history, the universe expanded and galaxies clustered as Einstein’s general relativity predicted.

The new findings aren’t definitive. Astronomers say they need more data to overturn a theory that seemed to fit together so well. They hope observations from other telescopes and new analyses of the new data over the next few years will determine whether the current view of dark energy stands or falls.

“The significance of this result right now is tantalizing,” said Robert Caldwell, a physicist at Dartmouth College who is not involved with the research, “but it’s not like a gold-plated measurement.”

There’s a lot riding on the answer. Because dark energy is the biggest component of the universe, its behavior determines the universe’s fate, explained David Spergel, an astrophysicist and president of the Simons Foundation. If dark energy is constant, the universe will continue to expand, forever getting colder and emptier. If it’s growing in strength, the universe will expand so speedily that it’ll destroy itself in what astronomers call the Big Rip.

“Not to panic. If this is what’s going on, it won’t happen for billions of years,” he said. “But we’d like to know about it.”
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CHEYENNE, Wyoming — A state judge on Monday struck down Wyoming’s overall ban on abortion and its first-in-the-nation explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy. 

Since 2022, Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens has ruled consistently three times to block the laws while they were disputed in court. 

The decision marks another victory for abortion rights advocates after voters in seven states passed measures in support of access. 

One Wyoming law that Owens said violated women’s rights under the state constitution bans abortion except to protect a pregnant woman’s life or in cases involving rape and incest. The other made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, though other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion. 

The laws were challenged by four women, including two obstetricians, and two nonprofit organizations. One of the groups, Wellspring Health Access, opened as the state’s first full-service abortion clinic in years in April 2023 following an arson attack in 2022. 

“This is a wonderful day for the citizens of Wyoming — and women everywhere who should have control over their own bodies,” Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said in a statement. 

The recent elections saw voters in Missouri clear the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in a series of victories for abortion rights advocates. Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota, meanwhile, defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place. 

Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters also approved an amendment in support of abortion rights, but they’ll need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. 

The abortion landscape underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states. 

Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy — often before women realize they’re pregnant. 

Nearly every ban has been challenged with a lawsuit. Courts have blocked enforcement of some restrictions, including bans throughout pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming. Judges struck down bans in Georgia and North Dakota in September 2024. Georgia’s Supreme Court ruled the next month that the ban there can be enforced while it considers the case. 

In the Wyoming case, the women and nonprofits who challenged the laws argued that the bans stood to harm their health, well-being and livelihoods, claims disputed by attorneys for the state. They also argued the bans violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment saying competent Wyoming residents have a right to make their own health care decisions. 

As she had done with previous rulings, Owens found merit in both arguments. The abortion bans “will undermine the integrity of the medical profession by hamstringing the ability of physicians to provide evidence-based medicine to their patients,” Owens ruled. 

The abortion laws impede the fundamental right of women to make health care decisions for an entire class of people — those who are pregnant — in violation of the constitutional amendment, Owens ruled.
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California’s public health department reported a possible case of bird flu in a child with mild respiratory symptoms on Tuesday, but said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus and that the child’s family members tested negative.

California officials said they have sent test specimens from the child to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation.

A CDC spokesperson said the agency is aware of the presumptive positive case of H5 avian influenza, is collaborating with the state’s investigation, and will provide further updates promptly. The agency has said the risk to the general public remains low.

Although human infections in the United States have been rare, bird flu has infected 53 people since April, according to the CDC, most recently a person in Oregon last week tied to a bird flu outbreak in a commercial poultry operation in the state.

In Canada, officials earlier this month reported that a teen infected with bird flu in British Columbia was in critical condition.

The child in California was in daycare with mild symptoms before the illness was reported, the state said.

Local health officials have contacted potentially exposed caregivers and families to check for symptoms and offer preventive treatment and testing if they become symptomatic.

The child and all close family members have been treated with preventive medication, the state said. The child had no known contact with an infected animal, but public health experts are investigating possible exposure to wild birds.

“It’s natural for people to be concerned, and we want to reinforce for parents, caregivers and families that based on the information and data we have, we don’t think the child was infectious,” said California health department director Dr. Tomas Aragon, adding, “and no human-to-human spread of bird flu has been documented in any country for more than 15 years.”

Most U.S. bird flu cases, including 26 in California, have occurred among farm workers working with poultry or dairy cows that were infected with the virus.

Because bird flu viruses can mutate and gain the ability to spread more easily between people, California public health officials said they are monitoring animal and human infections carefully.

The state urged residents to avoid contact with sick or dead wild birds and renewed the warning against consuming raw milk or raw milk products, which have not undergone pasteurization to inactivate the bird flu virus and other harmful pathogens.
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London — As the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan enters its final days, there are growing frustrations over the apparent lack of progress toward securing a deal on climate finance, which is seen as a crucial step in reducing emissions and limiting global warming.

Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s COP29 president, called on delegates to show more urgency.

“People have told me that they are concerned about the state of the negotiations,” Babayev told delegates Monday. “It’s time for them to move faster. This week we will welcome ministers from around the world as the negotiations reach their final stage.

“Politicians have the power to reach a fair and ambitious deal. They must deliver on this responsibility. They must engage immediately and constructively,” he said.

Climate finance

Money is at the center of the COP29 negotiations — or, in COP terms, climate finance. Who will pay for poorer countries to adapt to climate change and transition away from fossil fuels — and how much will it cost?

It’s hoped that the COP29 meeting will set an ambitious new funding target. Most estimates put the cost of climate finance in excess of $1 trillion every year. It’s reported that many richer nations are reluctant to agree to such an amount.

The current target of $100 billion annually, agreed in 2009, was met only in 2022.

‘Failed promises’

Bolivia’s representative at COP29, Diego Balanza — who chairs a negotiating bloc of developing nations — accused richer nations of a decade of failed promises.

“Our countries are suffering the impacts of climate change due largely to the historical emissions of developed countries. For us as developing countries, our people’s lives, their very survival and their livelihoods, are at stake,” Balanza told delegates in Baku.

He added that most of the climate finance so far has been provided through loans, not grants, which “has adverse implications for the macroeconomic stability of developing countries.”

Slow pace

Many observers have criticized the slow pace of negotiations in Baku. Mohamed Adow, director of the campaign group Power Shift Africa, accused the Azerbaijani hosts of a lack of direction.

“This has been one of the worst COPs — at least, one of the worst first weeks of COPs — that I have attended in the last 15 years,” Adow told VOA. “There has been very limited progress on climate finance and even on the rules around carbon markets and how the world is going to cut emissions.”

‘Theatrics’

Simon Stiell, the United Nations Climate Change executive secretary, on Monday called on parties to “cut the theatrics.”

“There is still a ton of work to do to ensure COP29 delivers. Parties need to be moving much faster towards landing zones. … I’ve been very blunt: climate finance is not charity. It is 100% in every nation’s interest to protect their economies and people from rampant climate impacts. Parties must wrap up less contentious issues early in the week, so there is enough time for the major political decisions,” Stiell said.

Emissions cuts

An ambitious COP29 deal on climate finance is meant to unlock the crucial next stage of negotiations. Ahead of next year’s COP30 in Brazil, all countries are due to deliver action plans on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so-called ‘nationally determined contributions,’ with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a key target of the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change.

On the current trajectory, scientists estimate the world is heading for a likely catastrophic 2.7°C of warming by the end of the century, which is predicted to cause widespread extreme weather and sea level rise.

Trump shadow

Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa, fears the COP29 negotiations are being overshadowed by the recent U.S. presidential election win for Donald Trump.

Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change during his first term. His successor, Joe Biden, re-entered the deal on his first day in office.

“I think the cloud hovering over these talks is the known unknown, around the election of Donald Trump and what the Trump administration is going to do. So, you have the rich world, that is actually hiding behind Trump — and not wanting to respond to the calls that we’ve had from the developing countries on the US$1.3 trillion that they require for climate finance,” Adow told VOA.

The COP29 talks are due to close on Friday. The deadline could be extended if a deal is in sight.
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NAIROBI, KENYA — The spread of a mosquito in East Africa that thrives in urban areas and is immune to insecticide is fueling a surge in malaria that could reverse decades of progress against the disease, experts say.

Africa accounted for about 95% of the 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 deaths worldwide in 2022, according to the most recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO), which said children under 5 accounted for 80% of deaths in the region.

But the emergence of an invasive species of mosquito on the continent could massively increase those numbers. 

Anopheles stephensi is native to parts of South Asia and the Middle East but was spotted for the first time in the tiny Horn of Africa state of Djibouti in 2012.

Djibouti had all but eradicated malaria only to see it make a slow but steady return over the following years, hitting more than 70,000 cases in 2020. 

Then stephensi arrived in neighboring Ethiopia and WHO says it is key to an “unprecedented surge,” from 4.1 million malaria cases and 527 deaths last year to 7.3 million cases and 1,157 deaths between January 1 and October 20, 2024.

Unlike other species which are seasonal and prefer rural areas, stephensi thrives year-round in urban settings, breeding in man-made water storage tanks, roof gutters or even air conditioning units.

It appears to be highly resistant to insecticides, and bites earlier in the evening than other carriers. That means bed nets — up to now the prime weapon against malaria — may be much less effective.

“The invasion and spread of Anopheles stephensi has the potential to change the malaria landscape in Africa and reverse decades of progress we’ve made towards malaria control,” Meera Venkatesan, malaria division chief for USAID, told AFP.

More research is needed

The fear is that stephensi will infest dense cities like Mombasa on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast and Sudan’s capital Khartoum, with one 2020 study warning it could eventually reach 126 million city-dwellers across Africa.

Only last month, Egypt was declared malaria-free by WHO after a century-long battle against the disease — a status that could be threatened by stephensi’s arrival.

Much remains unknown, however.

Stephensi was confirmed as present in Kenya in late 2022, but has so far stayed in hotter, dryer areas without reaching the high-altitude capital, Nairobi. 

“We don’t yet fully understand the biology and behavior of this mosquito,” Charles Mbogo, president of the Pan-African Mosquito Control Association, told AFP.

“Possibly it is climate-driven and requires high temperatures, but much more research is needed.”

He called for increased funding for capturing and testing mosquitos, and for educating the public on prevention measures such as covering water receptacles.

Multiplying threats

The spread of stephensi could dovetail with other worrying trends, including increased evidence of drug resistant malaria recorded in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Eritrea.

“The arrival of resistance is imminent,” said Dorothy Achu, WHO’s head of tropical and vector-borne diseases in Africa. 

WHO is working with countries to diversify treatment programmes to delay resistance, she said. 

A new malaria variant is also evading tests used to diagnose the disease. 

“The increased transmission that stephensi is driving could potentially help accelerate the spread of other threats, such as drug resistance or another mutation in the parasite that leads it to be less detectable by our most widely-used diagnostics,” said Venkatesan at USAID.

Another added challenge is the lack of coordination between African governments. 

Achu said WHO is working on “a more continental approach”. 

But Mbogo in Kenya said “more political will” was needed. 

“We share information as scientists with colleagues in neighbouring countries,” he said. “But we need to reach the higher level. We need cross-border collaborations, data-sharing.”
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Cancer patients and advocates are urging authorities in Zimbabwe to ensure cancer centers have lifesaving equipment needed to properly treat patients. Some patients say public hospitals do not have working machines to provide radiotherapy. Columbus Mavhunga has more from Harare. (Camera: Columbus Mavhunga)
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warsaw, poland — Poland’s health authorities on Monday urged polio vaccinations for children after the virus was detected in Warsaw’s sewage during regular tests this month.

The state Main Sanitary Inspectorate in a statement said the presence of the virus does not necessarily mean people have been sick, but those who have not been vaccinated against polio could be at risk. The vaccinations are free in Poland for people under 19.

New measures also include more intensive testing of Warsaw’s sewage, renewing the vaccination stocks and updating the list of children still unvaccinated. Polio is most often spread by contact with waste from an infected person or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food.

The polio virus mostly affects children under 5. Most people infected don’t have symptoms, but in severe cases, polio can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis within hours, according to the World Health Organization. It estimates that 1 in 200 polio cases results in permanent paralysis, usually of the legs.

Poland’s inspectorate said about 86% of the country’s 3-year-olds have been vaccinated against polio and that vaccinating at least 95% of children can prevent the spread of the virus. Poland has seen the rise of anti-vaccination movements among some parents, which has worried health officials.

The statement said Poland’s last case of polio was in 1984.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan — United Nations climate talks resumed Monday with negotiators urged to make progress on a stalled-out deal that could see developing countries get more money to spend on clean energy and adapting to climate-charged weather extremes.

U.N. Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell called for countries to “cut the theatrics and get down to real business.”

“We will only get the job done if Parties are prepared to step forward in parallel, bringing us closer to common ground,” Stiell said to a room of delegates in Baku, Azerbaijan. “I know we can get this done.”

Climate and environment ministers from around the world have arrived at the summit to help push the talks forward.

“Politicians have the power to reach a fair and ambitious deal,” said COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev at a press conference at the venue. “They must deliver and engage immediately and constructively.”

Climate cash is still a sticking point

Talks in Baku are focused on getting more climate cash for developing countries to transition away from fossil fuels, adapt to climate change and pay for damages caused by extreme weather. But countries are far apart on how much money that will require.

A group of developing nations last week put the sum at $1.3 trillion, while rich countries are yet to name a figure. Several experts estimated that the money needed for climate finance is around $1 trillion.

“We all know it is never easy in politics and in international politics to talk about money, but the cost of action today is, as a matter of fact, much lower than the cost of inaction,” said Wopke Hoekstra, the EU climate commissioner at press conference.

“We will continue to lead to do our fair share and even more than our fair share, as we’ve always done,” he said. But Hoekstra added that “others have a responsibility to contribute based on their emissions and based on their economic growth too.”

Teresa Anderson, the Global Lead on Climate Justice at ActionAid International, was skeptical about rich countries’ intentions.

“The concern is that the pressure to add developing countries to the list of contributors is not, in fact, about raising more money for frontline countries,” Anderson said. “Rich countries are just trying to point the finger and have an excuse to provide less finance. That’s not the way to address runaway climate breakdown, and is a distraction from the real issues at stake.”

Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists said $1 trillion in global climate funds “is going to look like a bargain five, 10 years from now.”

“We’re going to wonder why we didn’t take that and run with it,” she said, citing a multitude of costly recent extreme weather events from flooding in Spain to hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States.

Robert Habeck, Germany’s climate and economic affairs minister said rich nations shouldn’t try to stop developing nations from producing more energy, but it has to come from cleaner sources.

“They have the same right to create same work, same education and health system,” he said. “On other hand, if we’re they are doing the same as we did for 100 years of burning fossil energy, that is completely messed up.”

Climate watchers keep an eye on Rio and Paris

Meanwhile, the world’s biggest decision makers are halfway around the world as another major summit convenes. Brazil is hosting the Group of 20 summit, which runs Nov. 18-19, bringing together many of the world’s largest economies. Climate change — among other major topics like rising global tensions and poverty — will be on the agenda.

COP President Babayev said the world “cannot succeed” in its climate goals without G20 nations.

“We urge them to use the G20 meeting to send a positive signal of their commitment to addressing the climate crisis. We want them to provide clear mandates to deliver,” he said.

Harjeet Singh, global engagement director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said G20 nations “cannot turn their backs on the reality of their historical emissions and the responsibility that comes with it.”

“They must commit to trillions in public finance,” he said.

Also on Monday, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been mulling a proposal to cut public spending for foreign fossil fuel projects. The OECD — made up of 38 member countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and Germany — are discussing a deal that could prevent up to $40 billion worth of carbon-polluting projects.

At COP29, activists are protesting the U.S., South Korea, Japan, and Turkey who they say are the key holdouts preventing the agreement in Paris from being finalized.

“It’s of critical importance that President Biden comes out in support. We know it’s really important that he lands a deal that Trump cannot undo. This can be really important for Biden’s legacy,” said Lauri van der Burg, Global Public Finance Lead at Oil Change international. “If he comes around, this will help mount pressure on other laggards including Korea, Turkey and Japan.”
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In New York City, where some communities have limited access to fresh produce, a unique classroom program is teaching students how to grow their own food and improve their eating habits. Aron Ranen has more on how gardening is shaping healthier futures for kids.
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The World Bank is helping Malawi’s vulnerable communities address the impact of the climate-related disasters, such as cyclones and drought, that the country has been facing since 2022. Participants say increased community involvement would lead to more immediate outcomes from the program. Lameck Masina reports from the Karonga District in northern Malawi
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