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(NEW YORK) — It was a perfect storm that confronted first responders when wildfires broke out on the Hawaiian island of Maui in August, investigators have determined.

“Severe weather” fed the flames, investigators say, and many of the already limited roads became impassable. An already understaffed police force was left to grapple with communications and equipment problems that hadn’t previously been anticipated, a preliminary after-action investigation has found.

Those are some of the findings of the probe, released Monday by the Maui Police Department. It’s the first analysis performed by any of the island’s emergency response agencies since wildfires destroyed the historic Lahaina district of the island on Aug. 8, 2023, ultimately, according to the report, killing 100 people, burning more than 6,600 acres, and leaving thousands of homes and other structures in ruins. The wind-fed blaze stands as what state officials said was the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history and America’s deadliest wildfire in over a century, the fifth deadliest in U.S. history.

“In policing, we respond to dynamic and evolving situations,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier wrote in the report released Monday. “We cannot control the incidents we respond to; we can, however, control our responses in the aftermath.”

At a press briefing Monday evening, Pelletier led the room in 100 seconds of silence “to honor those we lost.”

“If it seems like that was long, realize this: for the families, the pain never ends, and the silence is deafening,” Pelletier said.

The 98-page document paints a picture of chaos on Maui as winds from a Pacific hurricane fueled a series of fires that started throughout Aug. 8 in four different locations on the 727-square-mile island. As one blaze was contained, another seemed to start. Then finally, with the ferocity of the gales of Hawaiian legend, the winds fueled a fire in Lahaina that made it impossible to see, collapsed communications systems, downed power lines and rendered evacuation routes nearly useless, according to the report.

It wasn’t just the thick smoke and rapidly spreading flames, investigators found, that made Maui officers’ jobs — and citizens’ survival — harder: A toxic haze of false information lingered in the chaos, and, the report said, fed confusion.

The police after-action review was led by Sgt. Chase Bell, who was assigned to the investigation by the chief and who interviewed every single officer and police department staffer connected to the department’s response. He said the report was to determine what was done wrong, what was done right and what needed to be done in the future for the island’s police force to be better prepared for the next natural disaster.

Among the report’s findings are:

• As police juggled citizens’ frantic evacuations, redirecting traffic away from hazards — even as their own families were forced to flee — some officers were unable to contact their families and, at first, some went without proper protective gear.
• Emergency dispatch for the island, which is run by the police department, was quickly overwhelmed by a call volume that staffers could not handle.
• Wind and flames quickly tore through utility poles and cables, leaving Lahaina without cellular or Wi-Fi capacity.
• Fractured and fallen utility poles blocked the roads as gusts barreled across the island. Suspended cables and downed high-voltage electrical wires were “spiderwebbed” and strewn across roadways — cutting off what could have been the few critical routes for escape. In hardest-hit Lahaina, that was particularly perilous: A single highway offers the “only major road” through the area, the “primary route for transportation and logistics.”

Despite the red flag warnings of dangerously high winds days ahead of Aug. 8, Hawaiian Electric did not preemptively shut off the power, the utility’s CEO, Shelee Kimura, testified in September, with the company telling ABC News that they, “like many utilities, do not have a power shut-off program;” that “preemptive, short-notice power shutoffs have to be coordinated with first responders,” and “in Lahaina, electricity powers the pumps that provide the water needed for firefighting.”

According to Kimura, a fire at 6:30 a.m. was likely caused by power lines that fell in high winds.

The police investigation didn’t address the utility’s potential culpability for the fires, the origin of the blazes or the response by fire crews. The examination dealt exclusively with the actions of the Maui Police Department, which, in the case of fire, plays a secondary role, assisting with evacuations, communications and rescue efforts.

“Life safety is always our primary priority when responding to any incident, and especially in the incident, in an incident of this magnitude. Our officers’ efforts remain focused on this, whether it was by conducting evacuations, the facilitation of emergency traffic getting out, as well as the transport of individuals,” Bell said at Monday’s briefing. “As we all have come to know, this is an unprecedented, prolonged, constantly evolving and wildly dynamic event.”

A fire broke out in Lahaina during the early morning hours of Aug. 8 but was 90% contained by 8:19 a.m., according to the police timeline. Just over five hours later, the winds were kicking up in that same area, and power lines were coming down. By 2:55 pm, a caller reported smoke and fire spreading fast in the area of Kuialua Street and Hookahua Street, according to police. Sixteen more calls would come in within three minutes, police said.

As the fire’s rampage worsened, officers tried to manage “gridlocked” traffic on “key streets” to alleviate congestion so people could escape the famous enclave in the northwestern part of Maui, according to the report. Police used their loudspeakers to try and direct residents even as the “rapid spread of the fire and reduced visibility” made evacuation “challenging,” the report said.

The fire’s spread toward the Lahaina Civic Center prompted more than a thousand people to evacuate, “many without vehicles,” the report said — and from the onset of Lahaina’s fire and “into the morning” of Aug. 9, police and fire personnel “transported hundreds of citizens” within their own emergency vehicles out of harm’s way, according to the report.

Finding other ways meant improvising for police, the report said: One officer worked with a civilian and county employee “to unlock a series of gates and lead evacuees down a dirt road, creating a vital escape path for vehicles.” Another officer “utilized his own straps to tie to a fence and his police vehicle to pull a fence down,” according to the report.

As the fires began and police worked to get people out of their path, “not all officers had proper [personal protective equipment], especially relative to a fire of this magnitude,” the report said.

The MPD report determined officers must have the training and tools to respond even in a crisis that might be unimaginable. The report recommends equipping every police supervisor’s vehicle with a “breaching kit” to clear blocked escape routes, “to ensure lives are preserved,” and to “create go-bags of PPE for each motorized beat” for emergency events.

The MPD’s report also recommends more “real-time crime center cameras” that “would not only reduce crime and response times to crimes, but also to be able to detect smoke” from a centralized command location.

As the fire raged on Aug. 8, emergency dispatch saw an increase in calls for service that taxed a system that was already struggling to keep up with fires that came atop the normal types of police and medical calls, according to the MPD report.

The report said that, in August 2023, the police department’s staffing was 25% shy of the number of police officers it should have, and the civilian dispatch ranks were even more depleted, with fewer than half the spots filled.

As the Maui wildfires tore through paradise, fire calls were ultimately “coupled in” to the calls for service and “communications personnel were challenged to field three days’ worth of calls within a single day,” the police report said. “Never in any current emergency services dispatcher’s career have they experienced the volume of calls received on Aug. 8, 2023.”

In a crisis when fast, accurate communication is vital, it was stymied by the very elements that had conspired to cause the natural disaster, according to the report.

In the high winds, “drones and aircraft were unable to assist” with the crisis and “unable to be deployed,” according to the report. The Lahaina area was “hit with a complete failure of commercial electrical service,” leaving police to rely on two-way radios, the report said. But as wind made it impossible to hear what was being said on the radios, it “led to some misunderstandings of radio transmissions,” and with officers “actively engaged in evacuations” and the “sheer number” of circumstances before them, it was “apparent that officers may have missed certain transmissions,” according to the MPD report.

As emergency efforts in Lahaina continued, the lack of staffing at police headquarters meant that urgent radio traffic from that community was being fielded by “a single dispatcher,” the report found.

Emergency service dispatch stations “should be equipped with radio capabilities,” which would allow them to “receive and dispatch additional support and calls,” the MPD report recommends.

The county’s two communication centers typically receive roughly 360 emergency 911 calls per day, according to the report — but in the 24 hours of Aug. 8, it was 13 times that much: an “unprecedented” combined total of 4,523 calls, investigators found. The report recommends a “dedicated phone line” for disasters to streamline emergency messaging.

By the morning of Aug. 9, the first fatality was found and confirmed. It would be the first of many, the report said, and victim recovery “would take weeks.”

“An anthropologist would work oftentimes on their hands and knees in a very detailed effort to recover everything that was recoverable,” forensic pathologist Dr. Jeremy Stuelpnagel said at Monday’s press briefing. “Sometimes the fragments were as small as a quarter, or smaller.”

As “radio traffic overflowed, personnel were plentiful, however, there were not enough MPD vehicles for all personnel on duty,” the police report said.

The morgue’s facilities and storage had to expand, increasing its autopsy capacity by nearly 400% to accommodate the complex and sensitive process of identifying the many sets of charred remains, according to the report. The report recommends retrofitting the facility and preparing for possible future mass-casualty events.

In the aftermath, as families were desperate for answers, the community stood in shock and the nation watched in horror, as misinformation and disinformation spread, the police report found.

Amid what was already a chaotic and terrifying situation, artificial intelligence was “used to spread disinformation and undermine trust in the government,” feeding confusion, the report said.

“In the days and weeks that followed the fires, there was voluminous information being disseminated that was both factual and fictitious,” the report said. “There was evidence of a concentrated effort, including some by foreign governments, as well as lone wolf actors, to disrupt the integrity of first responders, the community and government.”

A memorandum later found to be bogus and purportedly from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell was “sent to public and private entities hidden under a @proton.me email account,” the report said, and claimed to highlight “grave concerns” about the “handling” of the wildfire disaster, and “reveals serious lapses by local authorities, potential assumption of federal control and ongoing criminal investigations.” The fact that the memo was completely false didn’t mitigate the damage it did, the MPD report said.

During the process of notifying families of the dead or injured, the report said, undermined trust posed a “challenge.”

“Some of the families were uneasy with trusting government agencies as they were seeing and hearing conspiracies online, by word of mouth and in the media,” the report said, and some were “hesitant to give DNA samples to help identify family members if remains were recovered.”

“Allowing family members to participate and having the speakers, peer support and chaplains walk around and introduce themselves at the beginning of the briefing helped lower tensions and emotions,” the report said, and teams made sure families knew the DNA samples would “only be used for identification purposes and nothing more, leading more people to provide a sample after the briefing and more remains were identified.”

The final after-action report is expected in the next six to 12 months, Pelletier said.

“These were our worst hours. These were our finest moments,” Pelletier said at Monday’s briefing. “We are Maui strong.”

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(NEW YORK) — A 73-year-old man has died in a skydiving incident after he suffered a hard landing when his parachute didn’t fully deploy during his jump, police say.

The incident, which happened last Wednesday in Eloy, Arizona — approximately 70 miles south of Phoenix — when Terry Gardner, a Casa Grande resident, jumped from a plane at 12:04 p.m., his third jump of the day, according to a statement from the Eloy Police Department.

“Terry, accompanied by three friends and fellow skydivers, embarked on their third jump of the day from Skydive,” authorities said in their statement regarding the accident. “The group had planned a formation jump from an altitude of approximately 14,000 feet. While they were unable to complete the intended formation, it is not believed that this contributed to the accident.”

The other three skydivers all landed without any issues but, even though Gardner’s parachute deployed during the jump, officials said he encountered “unexpected complications” which ended up resulting in a “hard landing without a fully deployed parachute.”

“Eloy Fire personnel swiftly administered life-saving measures and rushed Terry to the Casa Grande Banner hospital,” said the Eloy Police Department. “Despite their efforts, he tragically succumbed to his injuries.”

Following an initial investigation, authorities remain uncertain if there were any issues with the parachute. A full investigation will be conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to determine the cause of the complications.

“Our thoughts and condolences are with all those who knew and loved Terry Gardner during this challenging time,” police said.

The investigation into the cause of the accident is currently ongoing.

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(NEW YORK) — The California coast is currently getting pummeled with heavy rain from atmospheric rivers, essentially rivers in the sky that collect moisture from tropical areas and redistribute the water to higher latitudes. The current El Niño pattern is also favoring multiple rounds of heavy rain and an overall period of unsettled, rainy weather, forecasts show.

The relentless moisture is causing life-threatening flooding in some of the most populous cities in Southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego, which were already soaked from a previous round of torrential rain late last week.

Climate change and a strong El Niño event could both play a role in the intensity of impacts that atmospheric rivers bring when they hit the West Coast, according to scientists.

While it is not possible to say that a specific weather event is due to climate change as it unfolds, research shows that climate change is making the impacts from naturally occurring events, like atmospheric rivers, more intense.

There are many variables involved when linking atmospheric river events to climate change, and this year another major variable is El Niño. Some experts caution that more research is needed before the link between climate change and atmospheric rivers can be more specific and with higher certainty.

Julie Kalansky, a climate scientist and deputy director of operations at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told ABC News that while there is still a lot to learn about the potential links between atmospheric rivers, climate change, and El Niño, broader connections can be made to the extreme impacts that certain events bring.

“More of [California’s] precipitation, so rain and snowfall, will be coming from atmospheric rivers, according to the model projections,” Kalansky said.

In a warming climate, more winter precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow, and the winter season will experience larger increases in extreme precipitation events since winter is the season experiencing the greatest overall warming, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, released in November.

The report found that the effects of climate change were worsening in every part of the U.S.

Experts say that this shift in precipitation type could be accompanied by more frequent and intense extreme rainfall events, adding that atmospheric rivers have the potential to cause more extreme precipitation events in the future.

As global temperatures continue to warm, it allows the atmosphere to hold more moisture, causing rainfall events to become more frequent and extreme, according to recent research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

More intense extreme rain events also increase the frequency and scale of flash flooding, as the influx of water is more than current infrastructure was built to handle.

In the continental U.S., California already experiences the most year-to-year variability wet and dry conditions, Kalansky told ABC News. Southern California has an even more variable climate than Northern California, even without the current El Niño event in place, which is also contributing heavily to the excessive moisture in recent weeks.

“Climate projections show that the variability between wet and dry is projected to become even more variable in the future,” said Kalansky.

In states like California, the latest research shows that human-amplified climate change could produce less frequent, but more intense precipitation events. Wild swings, for example, from a devastating drought to record-breaking precipitation will become more common and extreme in the coming years, which could also lead to more destructive impacts, according to the California Climate Adaptation Strategy.

The El Niño pattern currently in place is favoring multiple rounds of heavy rain and an overall period of unsettled, rainy weather, according to NOAA. During the winter months, El Niño typically leads to wetter-than-average conditions across much of the southern U.S, including a large swath of California.

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(NEW YORK) — A 79-year-old woman has achieved her goal of traveling to every country in the world and she told “Good Morning America” it has been a “dream come true.”

Luisa Yu said ever since she was a young girl in the Philippines, she has “always” dreamed of traveling.

“When I [went to] the movies, I [saw] this beautiful backdrop about the scenery, the nature, the rivers, the mountains, and that fascinated me,” Yu recalled. “That’s why I always thought someday I will go to these places and travel.”

Yu said she came to the U.S. as an exchange student when she was 23 and began to travel when she could.

“I started in the U.S. first because of my status … I couldn’t go out of the country,” Yu explained. “So I decided to take a Greyhound bus and tour the United States.”

“Greyhound was the best because you just hop in,” she continued. “Then the next day, you’re in another state.”

After working in the medical technology field, Yu embraced a second career as a travel agent so she could have more flexibility to take time off to travel.

For the past five decades, she traveled wherever she could, from European countries like Italy to Asian nations like Thailand, and further, to African countries such as Libya and Middle Eastern countries like Iran.

Eventually, she said she decided she wanted to visit all 193 countries that are member states of the United Nations.

“Even though [some places were considered] dangerous, I said, ‘I think I can do this. I want to see these places [with] my own eyes because there’s a lot of history and culture that happened there,'” Yu said of her motivation.

Yu completed her goal Nov. 9, 2023, crossing Serbia off her travel bucket list after her friends convinced her to wait to visit the Balkan country last.

“They said, ‘You’re gonna have to come to Serbia because we will be flying. We are very close too and we’re going to celebrate your last country,'” she recounted. “Little did I know that when I arrived, they were already having all these preparations for me. [It] was a big surprise.”

Nomad Mania recognized Yu as one of two people from the Philippines to become a “UN Master,” someone who has traveled to all 193 countries.

After visiting so many countries and meeting countless people along the way, many of whom have become her friends, Yu said she’s learned we’re all more similar than we might think.

“I have seen a lot of things from different people, their life and their cultures — I learned a lot,” she said. “And I find that everybody is like us. They have a dream for a better job and a better opportunity, and most of them are very, very kind and very helpful.”

For anyone else who dreams of traveling, Yu encourages them to take the leap.

“I always tell them, ‘Don’t be afraid, go out, travel,'” Yu said. “Don’t wait for anybody because if the opportunity comes, it might never happen again. Just be yourself. And also, if there’s a will, there’s a way. Nothing is going to be impossible. You just have to go out there.”

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(NEW YORK) — A second storm within one week is pummeling nearly the entire state of California with heavy rain and life-threatening flooding.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a state of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, where floodwaters have inundated roads and high winds are knocking down power lines and trees.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Feb 05, 4:50 PM
Flash flood warning in Los Angeles area extended to 6 p.m. PT

A flash flood warning that covers the Los Angeles-area cities of Glendale, Pasadena and Santa Clarita has been extended until 6 p.m. local time.

A flood advisory covering all of LA County is in effect until 3 p.m. local time.

Feb 05, 4:43 PM
3 people killed by fallen trees

Three people have been killed by fallen trees during the monster storm slamming California.

A man in Carmichael died after a tree fell on him, a Sacramento County spokesperson said Monday.

A tree fell on a house in Boulder Creek on Sunday, killing one resident inside, according to the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department. A second person managed to escape the home, authorities said.

The third fatality was recorded in Yuba City. An 82-year-old man was in his backyard on Sunday when he was killed by a falling redwood tree, Yuba City police said.

Feb 05, 3:13 PM
Flash flooding, mudslides ongoing threat from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles to San Diego

Flash flooding and mudslides are an ongoing threat from Santa Barbara to San Diego on Monday, with the Los Angeles area in the bull’s-eye, as a historic atmospheric river storm slams Southern California.

Ten inches of rain fell in some areas of Southern California. Many spots saw more than a month’s worth of rain over the last 24 hours.

Los Angeles recorded over 4 inches of rain in 24 hours, marking the city’s wettest day since December 2004.

The heavy rain and flooding will continue through Tuesday morning. Another 2 to 4 inches of rain is possible from Los Angeles to San Diego.

By Tuesday afternoon, the downpours will wind down. By Wednesday morning, the showers will linger in Southern California and most of the heavy rain will move into Arizona.

-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin

Feb 05, 2:59 PM
Over 130 flooding incidents reported in LA

Los Angeles has seen 2 to 5 inches of rain, while the Santa Monica mountains and Topanga Canyon area on the outskirts of Los Angeles are facing 5 to 10 inches of rain, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said at a news conference Monday.

The fire department has responded to over 130 flooding incidents and 49 mudslide and debris flow incidents, and Los Angeles police recorded more than 65 traffic collisions, Crowley said.

“Overall, the county has weathered the storm well,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.

The atmospheric river event will continue through Tuesday, bringing another 1 to 3 inches of rainfall to Los Angeles, Crowley said.

Feb 05, 1:45 PM
Cars trapped on flooded roads, drivers rescued amid extreme rainfall

Evacuation orders and evacuation warnings have been issued in some parts of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Orange counties as life-threatening flooding hits the region, trapping people in cars and forcing residents to evacuate their homes.

In Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills neighborhood, about six cars crashed while heading down a hill where the road was partly covered with mudslide debris, according to Los Angeles police. Multiple people were injured and one person might have suffered a broken leg, police said.

In San Bernardino County, three people were trying to drive across a flooded road when the car became submerged, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. The three people clung to a tree and were rescued, officials said.

In Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood, firefighters rescued 16 residents after debris flow damaged homes, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. No one was injured, officials said.

Feb 05, 12:42 PM
2nd fatality confirmed

Two people have been killed by fallen trees during the powerful California storm.

A tree fell on a house in Boulder Creek on Sunday, killing one resident inside, according to the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department. A second person managed to escape the home, authorities said.

The second fatality was in Yuba City. An 82-year-old man was in his backyard on Sunday when he was killed by a falling redwood tree, Yuba City police said.

Feb 05, 11:22 AM
Over 500,000 waking up without power

More than 516,000 customers in California are waking up without power Monday morning as a powerful rainstorm slams the state.

Flash flood warnings and flood advisories are in effect for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Feb 05, 9:25 AM
Latest forecast

Los Angeles recorded more than 4 inches of rain on Sunday, beating the city’s daily record of 2.55 inches set in 1927.

The relentless rainfall and life-threatening flooding are ongoing across the Los Angeles area on Monday morning and will continue throughout the day.

A flash flood warning is in effect from Malibu to Beverly Hills to Brentwood to Hollywood to Burbank.

By Tuesday morning, the heaviest rain will be targeting areas east of San Diego.

On Tuesday afternoon, scattered downpours continue throughout California, and by Wednesday, just a few light showers and sprinkles will remain.

Feb 05, 7:37 AM
4 million under flash flood warning in Southern California

The National Weather Service has a flood watch in effect Monday morning for some 40 million residents in California, where more than a month’s worth of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours.

There was also a flash flood warning in effect until at least 9 a.m. PT for more than 4 million residents in Southern California, from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Hollywood Hills and Griffith Park, including the areas of Hollywood, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Santa Monica, Encino and Brentwood. There were reports of numerous damaging landslides, inundated roadways, submerged vehicles as well as flooded creeks and streams within the region.

Automated rain gauges indicate between 5 and 8 inches of rain have already accumulated in the warning area, with rainfall continuing. An additional 1 to 4 inches of rain was possible there.

-ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Morgan Winsor

Feb 05, 5:49 AM
Over 634,000 customers without power in California

Power is out for hundreds of thousands of electric customers in California amid severe weather.

As of 2:40 a.m. PT on Monday, more than 634,000 customers were without power across the Golden State, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.

-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor

Feb 05, 5:34 AM
Man killed by falling redwood tree in Yuba City, police say

A man was killed by a falling redwood tree in his backyard in Yuba City in Northern California on Sunday, authorities said.

The Yuba City Police Department identified the victim as 82-year-old David Gomes.

A neighbor, who reported the incident, told the responding officers that they last saw Gomes at around 3 p.m. PT and believed they heard the tree fall about two hours later, according to police.

“Through the investigation, it appeared Gomes was possibly using a ladder to try and clear the tree away from his residence when it fell on him,” police said in a statement.

-ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Morgan Winsor

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(NEW YORK) — Could a recently discovered “super-Earth” have the potential temperature and conditions to sustain life?

The new exoplanet is situated “fairly close to us” — only 137 light-years away — and orbits within a “habitable zone,” according to NASA.

Astronomers say the planet, dubbed TOI-715 b, is about one and a half times the width of Earth and orbits a small, reddish star. The same system also might harbor a second, Earth-sized planet, which, if confirmed, “would become the smallest habitable-zone planet discovered by TESS [the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite] so far,” NASA said in a Jan. 31 press release.

Due to the super-Earth’s distance from its parent star, it could be in a conservative “habitable zone” and harbor the right temperature for liquid water to form on its surface, which is essential to sustain life, according to the agency, which also added that “several other factors would have to line up, of course.”

NASA said the measurements of the habitable zone — “a narrower and potentially more robust definition than the broader ‘optimistic’ habitable zone” — put the newly discovered planet, and possibly the smaller Earth-sized planet, in “prime position” from its parent star.

The agency said that because of the short distance the super-Earth orbits from its parent star, a red dwarf that’s smaller and cooler than our Earth’s sun, a “year” for the planet is equal to 19 Earth days.

The tighter orbits mean the “planets can be more easily detected and more frequently observed,” NASA said.

Since its launch in 2018, TESS has been adding to astronomers’ stockpile of habitable-zone exoplanets, such as TOI-715 b, that could be more closely scrutinized by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the agency said.

The Webb telescope is designed to not only detect exoplanets but “explore the composition of their atmospheres, which could offer clues to the possible presence of life,” NASA said.

The super-Earth research and discovery was led by Georgina Dransfield at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and published in the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” journal in January.

The findings mark another step forward in astronomers’ mission to understand what atmospheric conditions are needed to sustain life and further explore the characteristics of exoplanets beyond our solar system, NASA said.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Reality TV star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and his wife, Lauren Sorrentino, jumped into action recently when their son started choking.

The Sorrentinos shared video footage of the incident on Instagram Sunday as a warning to other parents.

Mike Sorrentino said the scary moment started as a typical, everyday dinner for his family last Thursday, but he grew alert when he heard his 2-year-old son, Romeo, starting to make choking noises.

“If I hear a cough during dinner, I assume it’s a problem. So I immediately jumped up,” the “Jersey Shore” alum recalled to “Good Morning America.”

Sorrentino said he picked up Romeo and started patting him on the back while his wife walked to the kitchen to retrieve an anti-choking device they kept in a drawer.

“I knew I didn’t want to hit him too hard when he was upright because I thought maybe that could maybe lodge the food even further,” the father of two said. “So that’s why I had got him upright and ready for when my wife had gotten the anti-choking device.”

In the video clip, taken by a security camera, Lauren Sorrentino is then seen using the anti-choking device on their son successfully.

Sorrentino told “GMA” that he’s still processing what happened, and called the incident “the scariest moment” of both his life and his wife’s.

“To be honest with you, I’ve tingles right now talking about it because everything was kind of textbook and we didn’t even know it,” he said.

Today, Sorrentino said Romeo is doing “amazing.”

“It was definitely a very, very scary close call for sure,” Sorrentino said. “We worked in synergy as a team and I couldn’t be prouder of my wife. I’m gonna break down. But she’s a superhero.”

Experts say when a baby is choking, you should place them belly-down over your forearm or thigh, supporting their head with one hand and delivering sharp blows to their back between their shoulder blades with the other, according to the National Institutes of Health. For an older child, you should give them an abdominal thrust or use the Heimlich maneuver, placing a fist above the belly button and then thrusting it inward and upward in a J shape.

“Crying after an event like this is a really good sign,” Dr. Jade Cobern, a board-certified pediatrician, said of the child’s reaction. “But it doesn’t mean you’re out of the clear. Getting an exam by a medical provider is really important after an episode like this so they can really listen to all the parts of the lungs, examine the child and be confident that they’re good to go.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Earth may have already passed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and could be soon heading for 2 degrees of warming, researchers have found after studying sea sponges in the Caribbean.

The study of 300 years of ocean temperature records kept preserved within sea sponges in the Caribbean indicate that global mean surface temperatures may have already exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius and that a 2-degree Celsius rise could be possible by the end of the decade, according to a paper published in Nature Climate Change on Monday.

While limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution was outlined when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change created the Paris Agreement, the exact figure is less important than keeping global warming as far below that figure as possible. The likelihood of doing so is waning, though, according to climate scientists.

Samples of sclerosponge skeletons found in the eastern Caribbean, where the natural variability of temperatures is less than at other locations, indicate that the pre-industrial period can be defined by stable temperatures from 1700 to 1790 and from 1840 to 1860, with the gap defined by cooling related to volcanic activity, according to the study. The sea sponges revealed that warming related to human activity commenced from the mid-1860s, with clear emergence by the mid-1870s, about 80 years before the period indicated by instrumental sea surface records.

The sclerosponge is a long-lived species that records chemical changes in its calcium carbonate skeleton, serving as a natural archive of ocean temperatures, according to the paper.

The sponges only exist in the Caribbean off the east coast of Brazil, Amos Winter, a professor at Indiana State University’s department of earth and environmental systems, told reporters at a news conference on Friday. Divers ventured up to 100 meters below the sea surface to obtain the sponges, Winter said.

The findings have implications for current projections of global warming, the researchers said. The authors estimate that 1.5 Celsius of warming may have been reached and that a mean surface warming of 1.7 Celsius could have occurred between 2018 and 2022.

“The industrial era of warming commenced earlier than we then was thought — in the mid 1860s,” Malcolm McCulloch, a professor of isotope geobiochemistry at the University of Western Australia and lead author of the study, told reporters during a news conference on Thursday. “Since then, the increasing global mean surface temperatures, which means global warming, has been half a degree greater than the current accepted estimates.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — When her firstborn child estranged herself from the family after getting married, Glenda Boone, 61, thought her daughter’s new husband was to blame for turning her child against her.

It took Boone’s second daughter, Lauren, 32, to explain to her that even though their mother and father were always physically present and provided for their children, they never felt she was emotionally present. Her children felt alienated from her, and their mental health suffered because of it, according to Lauren.

“I never thought about taking care of my mental health because my generation was taught when you talked about mental health, you automatically thought mental illness,” Glenda, a marketing executive, told Deborah Roberts during a “Good Morning America” interview. “So, for me, it was more of a suppression. From [my time as] a small child, even my emotions, you suppress them. You suck it up.”

Black women in America are disproportionately burdened with the mental health syndrome known as superwoman schema, or SWS. It involves the perceived obligation to quell emotion, convey strength, suppress dependence and vulnerability, and to prioritize caregiving over self-care, according to the National Institutes of Health. SWS can cause severe mental distress, but African Americans are less likely to receive mental health services compared to their white counterparts, according to 2022 data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“’Everything that comes my way, I should be able to handle it,’” Dr. Zoeann Finzi-Adams, a licensed psychologist and assistant professor at Howard University, said when describing the typical thought process of a person dealing with SWS. “And that’s exhausting because no one is able to do everything. No one is able to, and that is such a big barrier for getting any kind of support.”

Former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams, who speaks openly about her history of depression, said mental health struggles can look different in women of color.

“Irritability is a missed symptom of depression. Because we think depression is just sadness,” Williams said. “Once I started getting in therapy more consistently, it started giving me language to everything that I internalize.”

Glenda Boone said that her daughters suggested she find support by scheduling her first meeting with a mental health therapist. If she didn’t, Glenda knew she was at risk of losing Lauren, too. She said it took a while to find the right therapist, and to let her guard down during therapy sessions. But once she did, Glenda said she felt a freedom that she had never before experienced.

“I learned how to remove the mask,” she said. “I was allowed to free myself, release myself. The mask of superwoman was mine. I could be all things to all people …. But my daughters let me know, and Lauren in particular … ‘You were there. But you weren’t present.’”

For her part, Lauren Boone says she began to see a change in her mother that she’d longed for nearly her entire life.

“I felt like the little girl in me was getting what she always wanted from her mom, which was the emotional connection,” said Lauren, who is also a mental health care clinician.

Williams said she can relate to the liberation felt after seeking help from a mental health expert.

“There is strength in vulnerability. I can’t tell you how strong you are when you can say, ‘I need help,’ versus thinking your strength is acting out,” Williams said. “The quality of life is so much better when you’re not triggered all the time.”

Lauren Boone saw so much improvement in her mother that she even convinced her to share her progress on Lauren’s YouTube channel. Though Glenda Boone is still estranged from her oldest daughter, she hopes one day that her firstborn will see the progress that she’s made and feel comfortable enough to have a conversation with her.

“We think that everything’s fine with our child,” Glenda said. “So, when stuff happens, normally, it’s a crisis, so we think it’s that event that caused it when in actuality, it wasn’t. Our children might have been trying to communicate something to us before and we weren’t listening.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Three migrants were arrested in the Bronx overnight Monday for a citywide crime spree that included stealing women’s phones off the street, police said.

The New York Police Department executed a search warrant at the suspected safe house and made the arrests.

They are expected to be charged with multiple robberies and grand larcenies and more individuals are being sought.

The suspects are all believed to be from Venezuela, authorities said.

The men were linked to a pattern of at least 62 incidents of women having their pocketbooks and phones snatched, police said.

Detectives believe the suspects were snatching the phones to access the Apple Pay feature, and using credit cards linked to the phones to buy items.

“Most migrants come to NYC in search of a better life. Sadly, some come to commit crime,” NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Today we made tremendous progress in the largest robbery pattern plaguing our city. Our message is simple — commit a crime in our city and we will find you and bring you to justice!”

The arrests are the second prominent case involving migrants in the city in as many weeks. Last week, at least six asylum-seekers were arrested for assaulting police officers in Times Square in a case caught on video. More suspects involved in the attack are still being sought, officials said.

Police and prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office are also investigating whether the first four defendants, who were released without bail, subsequently boarded a bus to California using fake names.

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