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Copernicus report: 2023 on track to become warmest year on record

October 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The year 2023 is already on track to be the warmest year on record, according to Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service.

The month of September saw several unprecedented temperature anomalies around the world, following the hottest summer ever recorded, according to the monthly climate report released by Copernicus on Wednesday, which analyzes billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world to highlight changes observed in global surface air temperature, sea ice cover and hydrological variables.

Several records were broken “by an extraordinary amount” in September due to never-before-seen high temperatures for that time of year, Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. The month as a whole was around 1.75 degrees Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit) warmer than the September average for 1850 to 1900, the preindustrial reference period, according to the report.

Now, 2023 is expected to round out the year as the warmest on record globally — clocking in at about 1.4 C above pre-industrial levels, Burgess said.

The number is dangerously close to the goal to limit global warming to 1.5 C (2.7 F) above pre-industrial levels set in the Paris Agreement.

Average global surface air temperatures in September 2023 measured at 16.38 C, about 61.48 F, nearly 1 degree Celsius above the 1991 to 2020 average for September and beating the previous record, set in 2020, by .5 degrees Celsius, according to Copernicus.

The global temperature during September 2023 featured the largest deviation from the average, not just for the month of September, but for any month in the dataset going back to 1940, the researchers said.

Among the continents that experienced warmer-than-usual conditions in September was Europe, which beat its previous record by 1.1 degrees Celsius.

Antarctic sea ice extent also remained at a record low level during the month of September. Both the daily and monthly extents reached their lowest annual maxima in the satellite record in September, with the monthly extent 9% below average, according to the report.

Greenhouse gas emissions and El Niño conditions over the equatorial eastern Pacific are likely both playing a role in reaching new global temperature records, models show.

With El Niño conditions forecast to strengthen through the end of the year, the annual temperature anomaly for 2023 could follow trends set in Summer 2023 and September 2023, breaking the previous record by a large margin.

Globally, 2023 has already featured the hottest summer on record, multiple hottest months on record, including July and August, and the hottest day recorded on Earth for several days in a row at the beginning of July.

The last time Earth recorded a colder-than-average year was in 1976.

Twenty-one dead, including 2 babies, after bus falls off overpass near Venice, Italy

October 4, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A bus crash on Tuesday in Mestre, Italy, a suburb near Venice, left 21 dead, including two babies, and another 15 riders injured, according to officials.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the 40-year-old driver suddenly became ill before the coach plunged off an overpass and onto a highway, officials said Wednesday. Investigators are also looking into whether the bus was certified.

The bus was carrying passengers to a campsite in Marghera when the wreck occurred, police said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Many of the injured, who were rescued in an evacuation operation, were listed as code red, indicating they were in critical condition. Authorities initially said 18 people were injured, but on Wednesday the number was revised to 15.

The injured passengers were taken to five hospitals in Veneto, officials said.

Venice City Councillor Renato Boraso told reporters that some of the passengers aboard the electric bus suffered burns.

Veneto Gov. Luca Zaia said most of the passengers on the bus were foreign tourists, but it remained unclear Wednesday what countries they were from. There were no immediate reports of Americans being on the bus.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro declared a state of mourning through Friday for the “tragic accident that occurred in Mestre,” ordering flags to be lowered to half-mast across the city “in memory of the numerous victims who were on the fallen bus,” he said in a statement posted on X.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered her “condolences to the families of the victims and those injured in the serious accident in Mestre.”

Italian President Sergio Mattarella also called the mayor of Venice “to express his condolences for the very serious tragedy of Mestre,” the official account of the Italian president posted on X.

The accident impacted the local railway network, shutting it down for a time, though services were later restored, officials said. Traffic in the area was impacted, according to a post from the City of Venice.

ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Jolie Lash contributed to this story.

Amphibians are in widespread decline, and climate change is to blame, study says

October 4, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A major class of vertebrate species is experiencing widespread population declines due to climate change, according to new research.

Amphibians, the most threatened class of vertebrates, are deteriorating globally, with about 40% of more than 8,000 amphibian species studied categorized as threatened — a greater percentage than threatened mammals, reptiles or birds, a paper published in Nature on Wednesday suggests.

Habitat loss due to agricultural expansion, timber and plant harvesting and infrastructure development is the most common threat, affecting about 93% of threatened amphibian species, Jennifer Luedtke, manager of species partnerships for conservation nonprofit Re:wild and the global coordinator for the Amphibian Red List Authority for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Amphibian Specialist Group, told reporters during a news conference.

But global warming in recent decades is likely the culprit for the increased declines, the researchers said. Since 2004, when the first Global Amphibian Assessment was completed by the IUCN, the primary driver of the declines has shifted from disease to climate change, according to the paper.

Between 2004 and 2022, the effects of climate change were responsible for 39% of amphibian species moving closer to extinction, compared to just 1% in the two decades prior, Kelsey Neam, species priorities and metrics coordinator at Re:wild and program officer for the Red List Authority of the IUCN’s Amphibians Assessment Group, told reporters.

Amphibians are particularly sensitive to changes in their environment, partly because they breathe through their skin, Neam said.

Effects of climate change — like sea level rise, wildfires, changes in moisture and temperature and increasing frequency — and intensity of extreme weather events — such as storms, floods and drought — can result in the loss of important breeding sites for amphibians, which can then lead to increased mortality, Neam said.

Amphibians are often forced to adapt or move elsewhere, but the changes are often occurring too quickly for them to adapt, and habitat fragmentation is creating barriers that make migration increasingly challenging, Neam said.

“Habitat protection alone won’t be sufficient as a risk reduction measure,” Luedtke said. “We really need to be promoting the recovery of amphibians by mitigating the threats of disease and climate change through effective actions.”

Salamanders and newts were found to be the most heavily affected species, according to the paper.

The greatest concentrations of threatened species were found in the Caribbean islands, Mesoamerica, the tropical Andes in South America, the mountains and forests of western Cameroon and eastern Nigeria in Africa, Madagascar, the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka.

Documented amphibian extinctions also continue to increase, the study found. At least 37 species have been lost since 1980, the most recent being two frog species, Atelopus chiriquiensis and Taudactylus acutirostris.

However, not all the paper’s findings were bad news, the researchers said.

Since 1980, the extinction risk for 63 species of amphibians has been reduced due to conservation intervention, “proving that conservation works,” Luedtke said.

Urgent scaled-up investment and policy responses will be needed to support the survival and recovery of amphibians, the researchers said.

Cats among mammals that can emit fluorescence, new study finds

October 4, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Over the last few years, fluorescence under ultraviolet light has been reported among many animals, including birds, reptiles, insects and fish. However, not much has been known about the frequency of fluorescence among mammals. Until now.

In a new study published today by researchers from the Western Australian Museum and Curtin University, fluorescence among mammals was found to be “extremely common.”

These include domestic cats, or Felis catus, along with polar bears, bats, mountain zebra, wombats, dwarf spinner dolphins, leopards and Tasmanian devils.

Fluorescent compounds were found in bone, teeth, claws, fur, feathers and skin, researchers said.

The fluorescent colors observed including red, yellow, green, pink and blue.

“We were quite curious to find out about fluorescence in mammals,” said Kenny Travouillon, curator of Mammalogy at the Western Australian Museum and lead author of the study. “By using the spectrophotometer in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University, we were able to measure the light that was emitted from each specimen when exposed to UV light.”

Scientists explain that fluorescence is the result of a chemical on the surface of a mammal — such as protein or carotenoid — that absorbs light before emitting it at “longer and lower-energy wavelengths” — often a pink, green or blue glow.

The platypus — one of Australia’s most treasured species — was also found to fluoresce under UV light.

“To date, reports of fluorescence among mammal have been limited to a relatively small number of species,” the study’s authors said. “Here, we are able to reproduce the results of these previous studies and observe apparent fluorescence in additional species: we report fluorescence for 125 mammal species.”

The most fluorescent animals were found to be all white or with lighter colored fur, which represented 107 out of 125 species, of about 86%. Fluorescence, however, was more “masked” by melanin in mammals with darker fur, such as the Tasmanian devil.

“There was a large amount of white fluorescence in the white fur of the koala, Tasmanian devil, short-beaked echidna, southern hairy-nosed wombat, quenda, greater bilby, and a cat — and while a zebra’s white hairs glowed its dark hairs did not,” said Travouillon.

Only one mammal examined — the dwarf spinner dolphin — has no fluorescence externally. Only the teeth of the dolphin were found to fluoresce.

“Fluorescence was most common and most intense among nocturnal species and those with terrestrial, arboreal, and fossorial habits,” said Travouillon.

The study makes clear that fluorescent qualities are very common in mammals, however, scientists say debate continues on if fluorescence has any particular biological function in mammals, or if it is simply a result of their surface chemistry: “For most fluorescent animals there is insufficient information to evaluate.”

“The only major mammalian clade missing from our dataset is lemur, a group that requires further investigation for the occurrence of luminescence; we predict, based on the prevalence of white fur, that this clade will also contain fluorescent species,” the researchers said.

“We would not suggest that further studies should focus on non-preserved animals e.g., live or freshly dead,” they concluded.

NYC college student sentenced to one year in Dubai prison over airport altercation freed, group says

October 4, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — A 21-year-old New York City college student who was recently sentenced to prison time in the United Arab Emirates over an altercation at a Dubai airport has been freed, an advocacy group said.

Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, a student at Lehman College in the Bronx, had been sentenced to one year in prison after being accused of “assaulting and insulting” Dubai International Airport customs officials, according to Detained in Dubai, an advocacy organization that supports foreign nationals who have been detained and prosecuted in the United Arab Emirates.

Her sentence has since been commuted and she boarded a flight home to New York late Tuesday night, the group said.

“The 21 year old is ecstatic to be returning to the US after five months of anguish,” Detained in Dubai said in a statement.

De Los Santos had been detained in Dubai since July, according to Detained in Dubai. She was traveling back to New York from a trip to Istanbul with a friend when she had a 10-hour layover in Dubai on July 14, the group said. While going through security, a security officer asked the student, who recently had surgery, to remove a medical waist trainer suit she wears around her waist, stomach and upper chest, Detained in Dubai said.

De Los Santos complied and repeatedly asked the female customs officers for help to put the compressor back on to no avail, according to Detained in Dubai. While calling out to her friend for help, she “gently touched” the arm of one of the female officers “to guide her out of the way” of the security curtain, De Los Santos told Detained in Dubai.

De Los Santos was detained for touching the female customs office, signed paperwork in Arabic and was allowed to leave the airport, according to Detained in Dubai. Upon returning for her flight to the U.S., she was told she had a travel ban issued against her, the group said.

On Aug. 24, judges ordered her to pay a fine of 10,000 dirhams (about $2,700) but customs officials appealed the sentence, according to Detained in Dubai. She was sentenced to a year in prison, the advocacy group said on Monday.

“They either want her in jail or they want to pressure her into making a compensatory payment to them,” Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, claimed in a statement last month. “The government of Dubai should stop this type of corruption by banning government employees from being able to accept out-of-court settlements for criminal complaints,” but does not mention the risk of detention.

The State Department said earlier Tuesday they are “aware of the sentencing” of De Los Santos.

“The department is in communication with her and her family and we’re going to continue to monitor her case and be involved,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Verdant Patel said at a press briefing Tuesday.

ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Dubai authorities seeking comment on the matter.

Prior to De Los Santos’ sentence being commuted, Detained in Dubai said the appeals process could take months and called for De Los Santos’ immediate release. The group also urged the State Department to revise its travel warnings to “include the risk of false allegations and extortion scams.” Currently the State Department’s advisory warns Americans to “exercise increased caution in the United Arab Emirates due to the threat of missile or drone attacks and terrorism.”

De Los Santos’ mother contacted Detained in Dubai after learning about Tierra Allen’s case, the group said. The Texas resident was charged in Dubai for allegedly verbally accosting a rental car agent in April and was issued a travel ban while awaiting trial, according to Detained in Dubai. Her criminal charges were ultimately dropped and the travel ban lifted, and she was able to return to the U.S. in August, according to Detained in Dubai.

Twenty-one dead, 18 injured after bus falls off overpass near Venice, Italy

October 4, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A bus crash in Mestre, a suburb near Venice, and on Italy’s mainland, left 21 dead and 18 injured on Tuesday, according to Italian officials.

The bus, which was carrying passengers to a campsite in Marghera, fell off of an overpass, police said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The accident happened in the Mestre and Marghera neighboring districts of Italy, near the city of Venice.

Many of the injured, who were rescued in an evacuation operation which lasted until 9:30 p.m. local time, were listed as code red, indicating they were in critical condition. The 18 injured passengers were taken to five hospitals in Veneto, officials said.

“A huge tragedy struck our community this evening,” Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, said in a post on X after the crash. “I immediately ordered the city to mourn, in memory of numerous victims who were on the fallen bus.”

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered her “condolences to the families of the victims and those injured in the serious accident in Mestre,” in a post on X Monday night.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella also called Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro “to express his condolences for the very serious tragedy of Mestre,” the official account of the Italian president posted on X.

“The operations to secure the area will last all night,” the City of Venice said in the post.

NYC college student sentenced to 1 year in Dubai prison over airport altercation, group says

October 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — A 21-year-old New York City college student has been sentenced to prison time in the United Arab Emirates over an altercation at a Dubai airport, an advocacy group said.

Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, a student at Lehman College in the Bronx, was sentenced to one year in prison after being accused of “assaulting and insulting” Dubai International Airport customs officials, according to Detained in Dubai, an advocacy organization that supports foreign nationals who have been detained and prosecuted in the United Arab Emirates.

De Los Santos was traveling back to New York from a trip to Istanbul with a friend when she had a 10-hour layover in Dubai on July 14, according to Detained in Dubai. While going through security, a security officer asked the student, who recently had surgery, to remove a medical waist trainer suit she wears around her waist, stomach and upper chest, the group said.

The State Department said they are “aware of the sentencing” of De Los Santos.

ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Dubai authorities seeking comment on the matter.

According to Detained in Dubai, the appeals process could take months. Detained in Dubai is calling for De Los Santos’ immediate release, as well as urging the State Department to revise its travel warnings to “include the risk of false allegations and extortion scams.” Currently the State Department’s advisory warns Americans to “exercise increased caution in the United Arab Emirates due to the threat of missile or drone attacks and terrorism.”

ABC News’ Nasser Atta contributed to this report.

Iranian police deny claim that officers assaulted teen girl over hijab

October 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — A 16-year-old girl’s alleged assault at the hands of Iran’s “morality police” is renewing criticism of the regime more than one year after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini sparked nationwide protests.

Armita Geravand, a student, was hospitalized in Tehran after an alleged encounter with police officers in a metro station southeast of the city on Sunday, journalists and human rights observers said.

Geravand is now in a coma, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported Tuesday.

Islamic Republic officials deny there was an encounter between police and Geravand, claiming the girl fainted “due to low blood pressure.”

The news of Geravand’s hospitalization began spreading Sunday when London-based Iranian journalist Farzad Seifikaran wrote on X that the teen and her friends were stopped by police for allegedly not wearing headscarves. Seifikaran claims police pushed the girl down, she hit her head and fell unconscious.

A statement from Tehran’s metro authority denied a physical assault had happened. CCTV footage released by the agency, which appeared to be edited, shows a group of teenage girls stepping onto a train car without wearing headscarves. One of the girls is then taken out of the car appearing to be unconscious. After a jump cut in the footage, emergency first responders arrive and take the unconscious girl away.

On Monday, Maryam Lotfi, a journalist with Iranian newspaper Shargh Daily was reportedly arrested by security guards after she went to the hospital where Geravand is being treated, the newspaper reported. Shargh Daily later reported that Lotfi was freed that night. There is heavy security at the hospital, the news outlet reported.

The incident comes over a year after the 22-year-old Amini was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not fully complying with the obligatory hijab rules. During her detainment, Amini mysteriously fell into a coma and then died in the hospital.

Her tragic death triggered bloody nationwide protests which swept over the country for months. Tens of thousands were arrested and over 500 people were killed in the protests as Iran Human Rights group reported in April. Protests against the regime also erupted in Paris, Istanbul and other cities around the world.

At least seven Iranian men who allegedly participated in the protests have been executed by the regime. Many women in the country continue their civil disobedience by not wearing obligatory headscarves in public spaces.

Some on social media expressed concern that the 16-year-old might be another Mahsa Amini.

“The story they [the regime] has made up for Armita Geravand is completely similar to the story of Mahsa Jina Amini. ‘Her pressure dropped and her head hit somewhere, and she is still in a coma,'” activist Soran Mansournia wrote on his X account quoting the regime’s defense. Mansournia’s brother was killed four years ago after participating in another round of nationwide protests at the time.

The Islamic Republic News Agency published an interview on Tuesday with a couple identified by the news agency as Geravand’s parents.

“As they say, her blood pressure has dropped,” her mother says.

Many observers claim the video is a “forced confession” by the parents. No video from inside the train car or from the doorway where Geravand enters the train has been released yet.

Paris battles bedbugs ahead of 2024 Summer Olympics

October 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — The City of Light is battling an infestation of bedbugs as it prepares to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Videos recently posted on social media purportedly show the tiny, bloodsucking insects crawling on public transport in Paris and even in Charles de Gaulle Airport.

With the Olympic Games less than a year away, Paris Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has called on French authorities to organize a conference with stakeholders to come up with an “action plan.”

“Faced with the scourge of bedbugs, we must act!” Grégoire said in a social media post last Thursday. “This is a public health problem where all stakeholders must be brought to the table. It is up to owners and insurers to cover the costs of getting rid of these pests.”

French Transport Minister Clement Beaune announced via social media last Friday that he would “bring together transport operators” this week to discuss what’s being done to “reassure and protect” passengers.

Bedbugs are not new to the French capital, but the issue has become widely publicized in recent weeks as the city gears up for the world’s largest sporting event. In an interview on French public radio channel France Inter on Tuesday morning, French Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau tried to ease concerns, saying: “There is no reason for general panic. We are not invaded by bedbugs.”

More than one in 10 households across France was infested by bedbugs between 2017 and 2022, according to a report published in July by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES).

“Contrary to popular belief, their presence does not indicate a lack of cleanliness, and anyone can fall victim to an infestation in their home,” the report states. “The upsurge in bed-bug infestations in recent years has been due in particular to the rise in travel and the increasing resistance of bed bugs to insecticides.”

ANSES recommends using non-chemical methods to exterminate bedbugs, such as dry-heat treatment or freezing, rather than chemical products, which the agency warns can cause poisoning, increase resistance to insecticides and contribute to polluting the environment.

Bedbugs feed solely on the blood of humans and other animals while they sleep, and tend to hide in mattresses and bed frames during the day. The wingless, reddish-brown insects can be carried in clothing and luggage, when traveling or buying second-hand bedding, furniture and clothes, according to ANSES.

Bedbugs can be found in every part of the world and are not known to spread disease. Although their presence has traditionally been seen as a problem in developing nations, bedbugs have recently been spreading rapidly in parts of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eleven dead after roof collapse at baptism ceremony in Mexico

October 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(TAMAULIPAS, Mexico) — Eleven people have died following a roof collapse at a church in Mexico on Sunday, according to local authorities. Everyone else has been removed from the debris, Mexican officials said Monday.

The collapse, which trapped between 30 to 40 people, happened at the Iglesia Santa Cruz Church, a Catholic church in Madero, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Mexican officials confirmed to ABC News. A baptism was being celebrated at the time with approximately 100 in attendance.

Seven adults and three children were among the dead. A total of 60 people were injured, with 23 still in the hospital on Monday.

Following the tragic accident, the Tamaulipas Government released a statement confirming the church collapse and an initial total of seven fatalities, which later increased to 10.

“Today at 2:18 pm, there was a collapse of the roof of the church of the Holy Cross in Cd. Madero, presumably due to a failure in its structure, security and civil protection corporations arrived at the scene, in addition to the municipal authorities that since that moment are taking care of the situation,” the statement read.

“Following this accident, unfortunately the death of 7 people is confirmed, in addition, 10 people have been rescued who are injured and have been transferred to hospitals, 3 to the Civil Hospital and the remaining 7 to the General Hospital Dr. Carlos Canseco. Debris removal continues for rescue efforts,” the statement continued.

“Governor Américo Villarreal Anaya, has instructed the General Secretary of Government, the coordinator of Civil Protection of the State and the authorities of the Health sector, to head to the scene of the events to coordinate the work and personally attend to the affected families.”

Federal and state security forces, civil protection and rescue corporations are on site, according to officials.

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