How Maui’s 151-year-old banyan tree is coming back to life after fire
LAHAINA, Hawaii — When a deadly wildfire tore through Lahaina on Maui last August, the wall of flames scorched the 151-year-old banyan tree along the historic town’s Front Street. But the sprawling tree survived the blaze, and thanks to the efforts of arborists and dedicated volunteers, parts of it are growing back — and even thriving.
One year after the fire, here’s what to know about the banyan tree and the efforts to restore it.
Why is Lahaina’s banyan tree significant?
The banyan tree is the oldest living one on Maui but is not a species indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands. India shipped the tree as a gift to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first Protestant missionaries to live in Lahaina. It was planted in 1873, a quarter century before the Hawaiian Islands became a U.S. territory and seven decades after King Kamehameha declared Lahaina the capital of his kingdom.
The tree is widely beloved and fondly remembered by millions of tourists who have visited Maui over the years. But for many others it is a symbol of colonial rule that has dispossessed Native Hawaiians of their land and suppressed their language and culture.
For generations, the banyan tree served as a gathering place along Lahaina’s waterfront. By many accounts, it was the heart of the oceanside community — towering more than 18 meters (60 feet) high and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre.
The enormous tree has leafy branches that unfurl majestically and offer shade from the sun. Aerial roots dangle from its boughs and eventually latch onto the soil to become new trunks. Branches splay out widely and have become roosting places for choirs of birds.
What happened to it during the fire?
The 2023 fire charred the tree and blackened many of its leaves. But it wasn’t the flames so much as the intense heat that dried out much of the tree, according to Duane Sparkman, chair of the Maui County Arborist Committee. As a result of this loss of moisture, about half of the tree’s branches died, he said.
“Once that section of the tree desiccated, there was no coming back,” he said.
But other parts of the tree are now growing back healthy.
How was it saved?
Those working to restore the tree removed the dead branches so that the tree’s energy would go toward the branches that were alive, Sparkman said.
To monitor that energy, 14 sensors were screwed into the tree to track the flows of cambium, or sap, through its branches.
“It’s basically a heart monitor,” Sparkman said. “As we’ve been treating the tree, the heartbeat’s getting stronger and stronger and stronger.”
Sparkman said there are also plans to install vertical tubes to help the tree’s aerial roots, which appear to be vertical branches that grow down toward the ground. The tubes will contain compost to provide the branches with key nutrients when they take root in the soil.
A planned irrigation system will also feed small drops of water into the tubes. The goal, Sparkman said, is to help those aerial roots “bulk up and become the next stabilizer root.” The system will also irrigate the surrounding land and the tree’s canopy.
“You see a lot of long, long branches with hundreds of leaves back on the tree,” Sparkman said, adding that some branches are even producing fruit. “It’s pretty amazing to see that much of the tree come back.”
What other trees were destroyed in the fire?
Sparkman estimates that Lahaina lost some 25,000 trees in the fire.
These included the fruit trees that people grew in their yards as well as trees that are significant in Hawaiian culture, such as the ulu or breadfruit tree; the fire charred all but two of the dozen or so that remained.
Since the blaze, a band of arborists, farmers and landscapers — including Sparkman — has set about trying to save the ulu and other culturally important trees. Before colonialism, commercial agriculture and tourism, thousands of breadfruit trees dotted Lahaina.
To help restore Lahaina’s trees, Sparkman founded a nonprofit called Treecovery. The group has potted some 3,500 trees, he said, growing them in “micro-nurseries” across the island, including at some hotels, until people can move back into their homes.
“We have grow hubs all over the island of Maui to grow these trees out for as long as they need. So, when the people are ready, we can have them come pick these trees up and they can plant them in their yards,” he said. “It’s important that we do this for the families.”
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China’s drivers fret as robotaxis pick up pace – and passengers
WUHAN, China — Liu Yi is among China’s 7 million ride-hailing drivers. A 36-year-old Wuhan resident, he started driving part-time this year when construction work slowed in the face of a nationwide glut of unsold apartments.
Now he predicts another crisis as he stands next to his car watching neighbors order driverless taxis.
“Everyone will go hungry,” he said of Wuhan drivers competing against robotaxis from Apollo Go, a subsidiary of technology giant Baidu 9888.HK.
Baidu and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declined comment.
Ride-hailing and taxi drivers are among the first workers globally to face the threat of job loss from artificial intelligence as thousands of robotaxis hit Chinese streets, economists and industry experts said.
Self-driving technology remains experimental but China has moved aggressively to green-light trials compared with the U.S which is quick to launch investigations and suspend approvals after accidents.
At least 19 Chinese cities are running robotaxi and robobus tests, disclosure showed. Seven have approved tests without human-driver monitors by at least five industry leaders: Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX and SAIC Motor 600104.SS.
Apollo Go has said it plans to deploy 1,000 in Wuhan by year-end and operate in 100 cities by 2030.
Pony.ai, backed by Japan’s Toyota Motor 7203.T, operates 300 robotaxis and plans 1,000 more by 2026. Its vice president has said robotaxis could take five years to become sustainably profitable, at which point they will expand “exponentially.”
WeRide is known for autonomous taxis, vans, buses and street sweepers. AutoX, backed by e-commerce leader Alibaba Group 9988.HK, operates in cities including Beijing and Shanghai. SAIC has been operating robotaxis since the end of 2021.
“We’ve seen an acceleration in China. There’s certainly now a rapid pace of permits being issued,” said Boston Consulting Group managing director Augustin Wegscheider. “The U.S. has been a lot more gradual.”
Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Waymo is the only U.S. firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares. It has over 1,000 cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix but could grow to “thousands,” said a person with knowledge of its operations.
Cruise, backed by General Motors GM.N, restarted testing in April after one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian last year.
Cruise said it operates in three cities with safety its core mission. Waymo did not respond to a request for comment.
“There’s a clear contrast between U.S. and China” with robotaxi developers facing far more scrutiny and higher hurdles in the U.S., said former Waymo CEO John Krafcik.
Robotaxis spark safety concerns in China, too, but fleets proliferate as authorities approve testing to support economic goals. Last year, President Xi Jinping called for “new productive forces,” setting off regional competition.
Beijing announced testing in limited areas in June and Guangzhou said this month it would open roads citywide to self-driving trials.
Some Chinese firms have sought to test autonomous cars in the U.S. but the White House is set to ban vehicles with China-developed systems, said people briefed on the matter.
Boston Consulting’s Wegscheider compared China’s push to develop autonomous vehicles to its support of electric vehicles.
“Once they commit,” he said, “they move pretty fast.”
‘Stupid radishes’
China has 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers versus 4.4 million two years ago, official data showed. With ride-hailing providing last-resort jobs during economic slowdown, the side effects of robotaxis could prompt the government to tap the brakes, economists said.
In July, discussion of job loss from robotaxis soared to the top of social media searches with hashtags including, “Are driverless cars stealing taxi drivers’ livelihoods?”
In Wuhan, Liu and other ride-hailing drivers call Apollo Go vehicles “stupid radishes” – a pun on the brand’s name in local dialect – saying they cause traffic jams.
Liu worries, too, about the impending introduction of Tesla’s TSLA.O “Full Self-Driving” system – which still requires human drivers – and the automaker’s robotaxi ambitions.
“I’m afraid that after the radishes come,” he said, “Tesla will come.”
Wuhan driver Wang Guoqiang, 63, sees a threat to workers who can least afford disruption.
“Ride-hailing is work for the lowest class,” he said, as he watched an Apollo Go vehicle park in front of his taxi. “If you kill off this industry, what is left for them to do?”
Baidu declined to comment on the drivers’ concerns and referred Reuters to comments in May by Chen Zhuo, Apollo Go’s general manager. Chen said the firm would become “the world’s first commercially profitable” autonomous-driving platform.
Apollo Go loses almost $11,000 a car annually in Wuhan, Haitong International Securities estimated. A lower-cost model could enable per-vehicle annual profit of nearly $16,000, the securities firm said. By contrast, a ride-hailing car earns about $15,000 total for the driver and platform.
‘Already at the forefront’
Automating jobs could benefit China in the long run given a shrinking population, economists said.
“In the short run, there must be a balance in speed between the creation of new jobs and the destruction of old jobs,” said Tang Yao, associate professor of applied economics at Peking University. “We do not necessarily need to push at the fastest speed, as we are already at the forefront.”
Eastern Pioneer Driving School 603377.SS has more than halved its instructor number since 2019 to about 900. Instead, it has teachers at a Beijing control center remotely monitoring students in 610 cars equipped with computer instruction tools.
Computers score students on every wheel turn and brake tap, and virtual reality simulators coach them on navigating winding roads. Massive screens provide real-time analysis of driver tasks, such as one student’s 82% parallel-parking pass rate.
Zhang Yang, the school’s intelligent-training director, said the machines have done well.
“The efficiency, pass rate and safety awareness have greatly improved.”
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Sex eligibility rules for female athletes are complex, legally difficult
PARIS — Women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics has highlighted the complexity of drafting and enforcing sex eligibility rules for women’s sports and how athletes like Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan are left vulnerable in the fallout.
When eligibility for women’s events has come into question, it often has been a legally difficult process for sports bodies that has risked exposing athletes to humiliation and abuse. In the 1960s, the Olympics used degrading visual tests intended to verify the sex of athletes.
The modern era of eligibility rules are widely known to have started in 2009, after South African 800-meter runner Caster Semenya surged to stardom on the track as an 18-year-old gold medalist at the world championships.
Semenya, the Olympic champion in the 800 meters in 2012 and 2016, is not competing in Paris because she effectively is banned from doing so unless she medically reduces her testosterone. She is, however, still involved in a legal challenge to track’s rules, now into its seventh year.
Here’s a look at sex tests in sports and the complexity they create amid changing attitudes toward gender identity:
What is the criteria for female participation?
Testosterone levels — not XY chromosomes, which is the pattern typically seen in men — are the key criterion of eligibility in Olympic events where the sport’s governing body has framed and approved rules.
That’s because some women, assigned female at birth and identifying as women, have conditions called differences of sex development, or DSD, that involves an XY chromosome pattern or natural testosterone higher than the typical female range. Some sports officials say that gives them an unfair advantage over other women in sports, but the science is inconclusive.
Semenya, whose medical data proved impossible to keep private during her legal cases — has a DSD condition. She was legally identified as female at birth and has identified as female her whole life.
Testosterone is a natural hormone that increases the mass and strength of bone and muscle after puberty. The normal adult male range rises to multiple times higher than for females, up to about 30 nanomoles per liter of blood compared with less than 2 nmol/L for women.
In 2019, at a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing, track’s governing body argued athletes with DSD conditions were “biologically male.” Semenya said that was “deeply hurtful.”
Semenya’s case played out very publicly before 2021, when gender identity was a big story at the Tokyo Olympics and in society and sports in general. She took oral contraceptives from 2010-15 to reduce her testosterone levels and said they caused a myriad of unwanted side effects: weight gain, fevers, a constant feeling of nausea and abdominal pain, all of which she experienced while running at the 2011 world championships and 2012 Olympics.
Female athletes of color have historically faced disproportionate scrutiny and discrimination when it comes to sex testing and false accusations that they are male or transgender.
Why does sex verification testing differ between sports?
Each governing body of an Olympic sport is responsible for drafting its own rules, from the field of play to who is eligible to play.
Women’s boxing came to the Paris Games with effectively the same eligibility criterion — an athlete is female in her passport — as at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 after the International Boxing Association was permanently banned from the Games following decades of troubled governance and longstanding accusations of a thorough lack of normal transparency. Much has happened in the science and debate in those eight years.
Since the Tokyo Games in 2021, track’s World Athletics tightened the eligibility rules for female athletes with DSD conditions. Starting in March 2023, it required them to suppress their testosterone levels below 2.5 nmol/L for six months, commonly through hormone-suppressing treatment, to be eligible to compete.
That was half the level of 5 nmol/L proposed in 2015 for athletes competing at distances from 400 meters to 1 mile (1.6 kilometers).
World Athletics followed another major sport — World Aquatics — in prohibiting transgender women from competing in women’s races if they had undergone male puberty. The International Cycling Union also took this step last year.
The swim body’s world-leading rules additionally require transgender women athletes who did not benefit from male puberty to maintain testosterone levels below 2.5 nmol/L.
World Aquatics is not actively testing junior athletes. The first step for athletes is that national swim federations “certify their chromosomal sex.”
Similarly, soccer’s world body FIFA defers to its national member federations to verify and register the sex of players.
“No mandatory or routine gender testing verification examinations will take place at FIFA competitions,” it said in a 2011 advisory that is still in force and has been under a lengthy review.
Why do governing bodies care about who identifies as female?
Many sports bodies try to balance inclusion for all athletes and fairness to all on the field of play. They also argue that in contact and combat sports, like boxing, physical safety is a key consideration.
In the Semenya case, the judges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport acknowledged in a 2-1 ruling against her that discrimination against some women was “a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means” to preserve fairness.
Male athletes are not required to regulate their natural levels of testosterone, and female athletes who do not have DSD conditions also can benefit.
“The idea that a testosterone test is some kind of magic bullet is actually not true,” International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said in Paris as the women’s boxing debate has raged.
What does the IOC require?
The IOC is at times very powerful and at others not at all.
The Switzerland-based organization manages the “Olympic Charter” book of rules, owns the Olympics brand, picks the hosts and helps fund them through the billions of dollars it earns selling the broadcasting and sponsor rights.
The Olympic sports events, however, are run by the individual governing bodies, like FIFA and World Athletics. They codify and enforce their own athlete eligibility and field-of-play rules as well as disciplinary codes.
So when Olympics sports reviewed and updated how they handled sex eligibility issues, including with transgender athletes, the IOC published advice in 2021, not binding rules.
That was the organization’s framework on gender and sex inclusion that recognized the need for a “safe, harassment-free environment” honoring athletes’ identities while ensuring competitions are fair.
Boxing, however, was different, and the consequences have hit hard in Paris.
The IOC has been in a yearslong and increasingly bitter feud with the International Boxing Association, which is now Russian-led, culminating in a permanent ban from the Olympics last year.
For the second straight Summer Games, the Olympic boxing tournaments have been run by an IOC-appointed administrative committee and not a functioning governing body.
In this dysfunction, boxing eligibility rules have not kept pace with other sports, and the issues weren’t addressed ahead of the Paris Games.
At the 2023 world championships, Khelif and Lin were disqualified and denied medals by the IBA, which said they failed eligibility tests for the women’s competition but has given little information about them. The governing body has contradicted itself repeatedly about whether the tests measured testosterone.
In a chaotic press conference Monday in Paris, IBA officials said they did blood tests on only four of the hundreds of fighters at the 2022 world championships and that it tested Khelif and Lin in response to complaints from other teams, apparently acknowledging an uneven standard of profiling that is considered widely unacceptable in sports.
Who is challenging established rules in some sports?
Before Semenya, there was sprinter Dutee Chand of India who went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. She challenged track and field’s initial testosterone rules passed in 2011 as a reaction to Semenya.
A first CAS ruling for Chand in 2015 froze the rules and led to an update in 2018, which was then challenged by Semenya. Her career in the 800 stalled because she refused to take medication to artificially suppress her testosterone levels and was barred from competing at elite events.
Semenya lost at CAS in 2019 but went through Switzerland’s supreme court to the European Court of Human Rights, where she scored a landmark, but not total, win last year.
In May, another ECHR hearing in Semenya’s case was held, and a ruling likely will come next year.
The case could be sent back to Switzerland, maybe even back to CAS in the Olympic home city of Lausanne, Switzerland. Other sports are watching and waiting.
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Central Asia leaders call for joint policy on water issues
Almaty, Kazakhstan — Central Asian leaders met in Kazakhstan on Friday seeking to agree on a shared policy on water management in a region where the scarce resource causes frequent disputes.
Interruptions to water supplies are a regular occurrence in the five ex-Soviet Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – whose territory is 80% desert and steppe.
Hosting the summit, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said it was “necessary to develop a new consolidated water policy, based on equal and fair use of water and strict fulfilment of obligations,” the presidential website said.
The way water access is shared in the Central Asian states has remained the same since the Soviet era and is fraught with problems: those countries with more water exchange it in return for electricity from the more energy-rich countries.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which have more water than the others, have often clashed over control of supplies.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on Friday called for the creation of a “mutually economically beneficial mechanism for water and energy cooperation,” taking into account “the limited amount of water resources and their importance for the whole region.”
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev emphasized the need to adopt a “regional strategy on the rational use of water resources of cross-border rivers.”
The volume of water in the main Central Asian rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, is expected to continue falling in the years to come, according to experts.
Shortages of water, along with global warming, is compounded by significant waste due to outdated infrastructure.
After three years of tensions, the Central Asian states are now trying to coordinate efforts in numerous areas, particularly water management, amid growing demand for agriculture and energy generation in a region with a population of about 80 million.
Another concern for the Central Asian governments is the construction by the Taliban of the Qosh Tepa Canal to irrigate northern Afghanistan, which could further threaten water supplies.
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Tightrope walker marks Twin Towers stunt, 50 years on
NEW YORK — Renowned French high-wire artist Philippe Petit marked the 50th anniversary of his famous walk between New York’s Twin Towers with a performance in a Manhattan cathedral, accompanied by live music from Sting.
Petit walked between the spires of the World Trade Center skyscrapers, 1,350 feet up, on August 7, 1974.
A photographer captured the feat with the New York skyline in the background as Petit — without a harness — made the crossing.
Now 74 years old, Petit partly re-created his gravity-defying stunt Thursday in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, about seven miles north of the former Twin Towers, which were destroyed in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
“Of course, my illegal walk between the towers was the most important moment of my life at the time, and now I look back and I have done something like 100 high wire walks all over the world,” Petit told AFP.
In the reconstruction, Petit was met by a police officer as he completed his walk.
The New York Times, which called Petit’s Twin Towers walk the “art crime of the century,” reported that in 1974 after 45 minutes of “knee bends and other stunts,” Petit turned himself over to waiting police.
He was charged with disorderly conduct and trespass, but the charges were dropped in return for a free aerial performance in a city park.
The feature film The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire tell the story of the famous stunt.
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Flying electric taxis, personal aircraft prepare for takeoff
Flying cars, long the dream of futurists, may finally be here. From California, Matt Dibble has our story about the rise of electric aircraft.
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UN: Climate change wreaks havoc through large parts of Africa
GENEVA — United Nations aid agencies warn climate change is wreaking havoc throughout large parts of eastern and southern Africa, worsening the plight of millions of people struggling to survive conflict, poverty, hunger and disease.
Since mid-April, El Nino-related heavy rainfall has led to extreme weather events across East Africa, including flooding, landslides, violent winds and hail.
In Sudan
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reports climate-induced heavy rains and flooding have upended the lives of tens of thousands of people in war-torn Sudan this year, displacing, injuring and killing many.
The agency warns that heavy seasonal rains are creating further misery for thousands of displaced, including refugees in dire need of humanitarian aid.
UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado told journalists in Geneva Friday that torrential rains and severe floods in the past two weeks are having a devastating effect on the lives of thousands of refugees and internally displaced, noting that more than 11,000 people in the eastern Kassala state are in desperate straits.
“They include many families who recently arrived after fleeing violence in Sennar state,” she said. “Some have been displaced three or four times already since the start of the conflict.
“They have lost their belongings, including food rations, and are facing significant challenges in accessing clean water and sanitation facilities, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases,” she said.
The International Organization for Migration reports that more than 10 million people have become displaced inside Sudan and 2 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries since mid-April 2023, when rival generals from Sudan’s Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged Sudan into war.
The UNHCR reports Sudan continues to host about 1 million refugees and asylum seekers from other countries.
Sarrado said the UNHCR is prepositioning core relief items and shelter kits in the eastern and western parts of the country where more rainfall is expected. She added that flooding in the Darfur region is causing concern among aid agencies, as this will further limit their ability to reach thousands of destitute people.
“The humanitarian needs are reaching epic proportions in the region, as hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in harm’s way and famine has been recently confirmed in a displacement site, as you all know,” she said. “The conflict has already destroyed crops and disrupted livelihoods. The climate crisis is making those displaced even more vulnerable now.”
In Southern Africa
While the heavy rains continue to pound refugees and displaced communities in Sudan, the World Food Program reports that more than 27 million people across Southern Africa, devastated by an El-Nino-induced drought are going hungry.
“I have just returned from Zimbabwe and Lesotho, two of the worst-affected countries, where 50% and 34% of the countries’ respective populations are food insecure,” said Valerie Guarnieri, WFP assistant executive director, program operations.
Speaking from Rome, she said the drought sweeping across the region has decimated crops, causing food prices to spiral and triggering a hunger crisis at a time when their food stocks are at the lowest.
She noted that the onset of this year’s lean season, which is usually from October to March, has come early this year.
“People are facing an early and much deeper lean season,” she said, adding that the situation is likely to get worse, “given production shortfalls and dwindling supply.”
She said that 21 million children, 1 out of 3 in southern Africa, are stunted and 3.5 million children are struggling with acute malnutrition and require nutrition treatment.
“These numbers are not as stark as they are in other parts of the region. Countries that are facing famine — Sudan, for instance. However, we should not have these kind of numbers in Southern Africa,” she said.
“We know that to deal with stunting, to prevent wasting, we need to be ensuring that all children and all women of child-bearing age, in particular, have access to the nutrients that they require in order to grow and to thrive.”
To deal with this crisis, Guarnieri said WFP is scaling up its operation to provide emergency food and nutrition support to 5.9 million people in seven countries between now and March.
She said that WFP is facing a $320 million funding shortfall “that jeopardizes our ability to mount a response at the scale required.”
UNHCR’s Sarrado also expressed concern that her agency’s appeal for nearly $40 million to assist and protect 5.6 million refugees, returnees, internally displaced and local communities in Sudan and five countries of refuge “has so far received only $5 million in funds.”
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UN approves its first treaty targeting cybercrime
United Nations — U.N. member states on Thursday approved a treaty targeting cybercrime, the body’s first such text, despite fierce opposition from human rights activists who have warned of potential surveillance dangers.
After three years of negotiations and a final two-week session in New York, members approved the United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime by consensus, and it will now be submitted to the General Assembly for formal adoption.
“I consider the documents … adopted. Thank you very much, bravo to all!” Algerian diplomat Faouzia Boumaiza Mebarki, chairwoman of the treaty drafting committee, said to applause.
The committee was set up, despite U.S. and European opposition, following an initial move in 2017 by Russia.
The new treaty would enter into force once it has been ratified by 40 member nations and aims to “prevent and combat cybercrime more efficiently and effectively,” notably regarding child sexual abuse imagery and money laundering.
Hailing a “landmark convention,” South Africa’s delegate said, “the provisions of technical assistance and capacity building offer much needed support to countries with less developed cyber infrastructures.”
But the treaty’s detractors — an unusual alliance of human rights activists and big tech companies — denounce it as being far too broad in scope, claiming it could amount to a global “surveillance” treaty and be used for repression.
In particular, the text provides that a state may, in order to investigate any crime punishable by a minimum of four years’ imprisonment under its domestic law, ask the authorities of another nation for any electronic evidence linked to the crime, and also request data from internet service providers.
Warning of an “unprecedented multilateral tool for surveillance,” Deborah Brown of Human Rights Watch told AFP the treaty “will be a disaster for human rights and is a dark moment for the UN.”
“This treaty is effectively a legal instrument of repression,” she said. “It can be used to crack down on journalists, activists, LGBT people, free thinkers, and others across borders.”
Human rights clause
Nick Ashton-Hart heads the Cybersecurity Tech Accord delegation to the treaty talks, representing more than 100 technology companies, including Microsoft and Meta.
“Regretably,” he said Thursday, the committee “adopted a convention without addressing many of the major flaws identified by civil society, the private sector, or even the U.N.’s own human rights body.”
“Wherever it is implemented the Convention will be harmful to the digital environment generally and human rights in particular,” he told AFP, calling for nations not to sign or implement it.
Some nations however are complaining the treaty actually includes too many human rights safeguards.
A few days ago, Russia, which has historically supported the drafting process, complained the treaty had become “oversaturated with human rights safeguards,” while accusing countries of pursuing “narrow self-serving goals under the banner of democratic values.”
During Thursday’s session, Iran attempted to have several clauses with “inherent flaws” deleted.
One paragraph in question stipulated that “nothing in this Convention shall be interpreted as permitting suppression of human rights or fundamental freedoms,” such as “freedoms of expression, conscience, opinion, religion or belief.”
The deletion request was rejected with 102 votes against, 23 in favor (including Russia, India, Sudan, Venezuela, Syria, North Korea and Libya) and 26 abstentions.
Neither Iran nor any other country, however, chose to prevent approval by consensus.
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Microsoft: Iran accelerating cyber activity in apparent bid to influence US election
NEW YORK — Iran is ramping up online activity that appears intended to influence the upcoming U.S. election, in one case targeting a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday.
Iranian actors also have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, laying the groundwork to stoke division and potentially sway American voters this fall, especially in swing states, the technology giant found.
The findings in Microsoft’s newest threat intelligence report show how Iran, which has been active in recent U.S. campaign cycles, is evolving its tactics for another election that’s likely to have global implications. The report goes a step beyond anything U.S. intelligence officials have disclosed, giving specific examples of Iranian groups and the actions they have taken so far. Iran’s United Nations mission denied it had plans to interfere or launch cyberattacks in the U.S. presidential election.
The report doesn’t specify Iran’s intentions besides sowing chaos in the United States, though U.S. officials have previously hinted that Iran particularly opposes former President Donald Trump. U.S. officials also have expressed alarm about Tehran’s efforts to seek retaliation for a 2020 strike on an Iranian general that was ordered by Trump. This week, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against a Pakistani man with ties to Iran who’s alleged to have hatched assassination plots targeting multiple officials, potentially including Trump.
The report also reveals how Russia and China are exploiting U.S. political polarization to advance their own divisive messaging in a consequential election year.
Microsoft’s report identified four examples of recent Iranian activity that the company expects to increase as November’s election draws closer.
First, a group linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in June targeted a high-ranking U.S. presidential campaign official with a phishing email, a form of cyberattack often used to gather sensitive information, according to the report, which didn’t identify which campaign was targeted. The group concealed the email’s origins by sending it from the hacked email account of a former senior adviser, Microsoft said.
Days later, the Iranian group tried to log into an account that belonged to a former presidential candidate but wasn’t successful, Microsoft’s report said. The company notified those who were targeted.
In a separate example, an Iranian group has been creating websites that pose as U.S.-based news sites targeted to voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the report said.
One fake news site that lends itself to a left-leaning audience insults Trump by calling him “raving mad” and suggests he uses drugs, the report said. Another site meant to appeal to Republican readers centers on LGBTQ issues and gender-affirming surgery.
A third example Microsoft cited found that Iranian groups are impersonating U.S. activists, potentially laying the groundwork for influence operations closer to the election.
Finally, another Iranian group in May compromised an account owned by a government employee in a swing state, the report said. It was unclear whether that cyberattack was related to election interference efforts.
Iran’s U.N. mission sent The Associated Press an emailed statement: “Iran has been the victim of numerous offensive cyber operations targeting its infrastructure, public service centers, and industries. Iran’s cyber capabilities are defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces. Iran has neither the intention nor plans to launch cyber attacks. The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere.”
The Microsoft report said that as Iran escalates its cyber influence, Russia-linked actors also have pivoted their influence campaigns to focus on the U.S. election, while actors linked to the Chinese Communist Party have taken advantage of pro-Palestinian university protests and other current events in the U.S. to try to raise U.S. political tensions.
Microsoft said it has continued to monitor how foreign foes are using generative AI technology. The increasingly cheap and easy-to-access tools can generate lifelike fake images, photos and videos in seconds, prompting concern among some experts that they will be weaponized to mislead voters this election cycle.
While many countries have experimented with AI in their influence operations, the company said, those efforts haven’t had much impact so far. The report said as a result, some actors have “pivoted back to techniques that have proven effective in the past — simple digital manipulations, mischaracterization of content, and use of trusted labels or logos atop false information.”
Microsoft’s report aligns with recent warnings from U.S. intelligence officials, who say America’s adversaries appear determined to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims ahead of November’s vote.
Top intelligence officials said last month that Russia continues to pose the greatest threat when it comes to election disinformation, while there are indications that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously when it comes to 2024.
Iran’s efforts seem aimed at undermining candidates seen as being more likely to increase tension with Tehran, the officials said. That’s a description that fits Trump, whose administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of the top Iranian general.
The influence efforts also coincide with a time of high tensions between Iran and Israel, whose military the U.S. strongly supports.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said last month that the Iranian government has covertly supported American protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Groups linked to Iran have posed as online activists, encouraged protests and provided financial support to some protest groups, Haines said.
America’s foes, Iran among them, have a long history of seeking to influence U.S. elections. In 2020, groups linked to Iran sent emails to Democratic voters in an apparent effort to intimidate them into voting for Trump, intelligence officials said.
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COVID-hit Lyles misses out on a double; US team breaks 100-medal mark
PARIS — Sprinter Noah Lyles revealed he had COVID-19 after missing out on another gold medal for the United States at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.
Elsewhere, French basketball star Victor Wembanyama moved closer to his dream of a first gold after helping Les Bleus beat Germany to set up a dream final against the U.S. team after the Americans edged Serbia 95-91.
On the same Stade de France track where he won the historically close 100 meters by five thousandths of a second, Lyles was third behind gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and U.S. teammate Kenneth Bednarek in the 200-meter race.
Medics tended to a tired-looking Lyles and took him off in a wheelchair. Wearing a mask as he spoke with reporters, Lyles later said he had COVID.
“It definitely affected my performance,” said Lyles, adding that he tested positive early Tuesday morning but was cleared to compete. The U.S. track federation said it and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee adhered to all Olympic and Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
Over at Bercy Arena, with former NBA stars Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker watching their respective countrymen, France held on to win 73-69.
Wembanyama, the NBA rookie of the year, clenched his fists at the buzzer and teammate Evan Fournier jubilantly threw the ball into the crowd.
The 20-year-old star didn’t play three years ago in Tokyo, when the French lost the final to the U.S. They meet again Saturday, when Wembanyama hopes to give France its first Olympic gold in men’s or women’s basketball.
Highlights of what happened on Day 13 of the Paris Olympics:
Curry leads semifinal fightback against Serbia
LeBron James had a triple double and Steph Curry scored 36 points as the American men rallied from 17 points down.
The U.S. faced an 11-point halftime deficit — the biggest successfully overcome by an American team since NBA players were added to the Olympic mix in 1992 — and again trailed the Serbs by 11 with just over seven minutes left.
Serbian players fell on their backs at the buzzer after coming so close.
It was a far cry from their group opener when the U.S. rolled to a 110-84 win.
US team gets a world record, breaks the 100-medal mark
The United States now has more golds and more overall medals than any other nation.
With three days left of competition, American athletes total 30 golds for 103 medals overall.
The U.S. went 1-2 in the women’s 400 hurdles with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone breaking her own world record in a time of 50.37 seconds, and Anna Cockrell taking the silver.
Grant Holloway followed up with gold in the men’s 110 hurdles in 12.99, beating countryman Daniel Roberts.
Also, Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall won the women’s long jump with Jasmine Moore taking the bronze behind Germany’s Malaika Mihambo.
China’s diving double ends with tears
China claimed its sixth gold medal in diving at the Paris Games with defending champion Xie Siyi winning the 3-meter springboard.
The Chinese made it a podium 1-2 as Wang Zongyuan took the silver ahead of Mexico’s Osmar Olvera Ibarra.
Wang was in tears afterward.
He hadn’t lost a major diving competition in the event since finishing behind teammate Xie at the Tokyo Olympics. After that silver, Wang won three straight world championship titles.
“It is regrettable I lost,” Wang said through an interpreter. “I must learn to accept any failure and my response is to make a greater effort to improve myself.”
Another world record but no gold
American Sam Watson left the Games with another world record to his name but didn’t get the gold medal.
The 18-year-old Watson broke sport climbing’s speed world record on Thursday for the second time at the Paris Games, but that came in the fight for bronze.
Veddriq Leonardo of Indonesia won gold in 4.75 seconds in the final.
Charron lifts for another medal
Maude Charron raised Canada’s flag at the opening ceremony for the Paris Games and lifted up another medal in weightlifting.
Charron took the silver medal in the 59-kilogram category to add to her gold in the 64-kilogram competition at the Tokyo Games.
Rahimi stars as Morocco gets bronze
Soccer-mad Morocco fans finally have an Olympic medal to celebrate after routing African rival Egypt 6-0 for the bronze.
Soufiane Rahimi scored twice and the Casablanca-born striker will surely become a household name back home after netting an impressive eight goals in the tournament.
He was comfortably the leading scorer ahead of Friday’s final between Spain and 1984 Olympic champion France.
Morocco won the African Cup of Nations title in 1976.
Dutch end long wait for gold in men’s field hockey
Duco Telgenkamp scored the golden goal in the shootout to give the Netherlands a 2-1 victory over Germany.
It was the Netherlands’ first gold in men’s hockey at the Olympics since 2000 and third in the country’s history.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored both goals as India beat Spain 2-1 for a second straight bronze, after beating Germany at the Tokyo Games.
French get gold, Portugal a rare medal
Track cyclist Benjamin Thomas overcame a crash in the men’s omnium race to give France its 14th gold medal of the Paris Games.
Thomas held off Iúri Leitão, whose silver medal was only Portugal’s second medal so far — compared to 54 for the French.
Also, world champion Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand won the Olympic title in the women’s keirin.
Nadeem gets Pakistan’s first medal with an Olympic record
Arshad Nadeem got Pakistan’s first medal of the Paris Games in style by setting an Olympic record in javelin.
Nadeem’s throw of 92.97 meters beat Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen’s mark of 90.57 from the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Plain sailing for Austria
In the southern port city of Marseille, Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr of Austria won gold in a tight race in the mixed-gender dinghy.
The sport became a new sailing category at these Games.
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President Maduro suspends X social network in Venezuela for 10 days
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro said he has ordered a 10-day block on access to X in Venezuela, accusing the owner Elon Musk of using the social network to promote hatred after the country’s disputed presidential election.
Associated Press journalists in Caracas found that by Thursday night posts had stopped loading on X on two private telephone services and state-owned Movilnet.
“Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network itself,” said Maduro in a speech following a march by pro-government groups. Maduro alleged Musk “has incited hatred.”
Maduro also accused the social network of being used by his opponents to create political unrest.
Venezuela’s president said he had signed a resolution “with the proposal made by CONATEL, the National Telecommunications Commission, which has decided to remove the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from circulation in Venezuela for 10 days so that they can present their documents.” Maduro did not provide more details about the process taken against X.
X’s press office did not immediately respond to an email from AP requesting comment.
“X out for 10 days! Elon Musk out!” Maduro said.
The president’s announcement comes after Maduro and Musk exchanged accusations over Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election. Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but have yet to produce voting tallies. Meanwhile, the opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 electronic voting machines nationwide showing the winner was their candidate, Edmundo González.
Musk used the social network to accuse the self-proclaimed socialist leader of a “great electoral fraud.”
“Shame on the dictator Maduro,” Musk said on Monday in a post.
Since the election, Maduro has expressed the need to “regulate” social networks in Venezuela.
Maduro also denounced that the social platform was used by his adversaries to threaten the families of his followers and political allies, military personnel, police officers and to generate a state of anxiety in Venezuela.
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Plot to attack Taylor Swift show in Austria linked to Islamic State
VIENNA, AUSTRIA — The 19-year-old Austrian who masterminded a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift fans at a concert in Vienna with a bomb or knife had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, authorities said on Thursday.
The main suspect, who has North Macedonian roots, made a full confession in custody, Austria’s general director for public security, Franz Ruf, told a news conference.
He swore loyalty to the IS militant group’s leader on the internet and kept chemicals and technical devices at his home in the town of Ternitz in preparation for an attack, Ruf said.
The 19-year-old, whose name was not given, was planning an attack with an explosive or knife among the estimated 20,000 “Swiftie” fans set to gather outside the stadium, said national intelligence head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.
“There is currently no information that other concerts are subject to an explicit threat,” he said at the news conference.
Two other Austrian youths, ages 17 and 15, were also detained Wednesday over the foiled plot.
Swift’s three concerts in Vienna, due to start on Thursday for a sold-out audience of 65,000 each, were canceled, to the consternation of fans, many of whom had traveled far.
“It’s just heartbreaking, just frustrating. But at the end of the day, I guess it’s for everyone’s safety,” said Mark del Rosario, who had flown from the Philippines for the show.
U.S. broadcaster ABC cited law enforcement and intelligence sources as saying Austrian authorities had received information about the Swift concert threat from U.S. intelligence.
It cited the sources as saying at least one of the suspects had pledged allegiance to ISIS-K, a resurgent wing of IS, on Telegram in June, although the plot was IS-inspired rather than directed by the group’s operatives.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said foreign intelligence agencies helped with the investigation, as Austrian law does not allow monitoring of messenger apps.
Event organizer Live Nation urged fans of Coldplay, which is due to play at the same stadium on August 21, to stay calm and said it was in contact with authorities.
It did not comment on whether the show would take place.
British police said on Thursday there was nothing to indicate that the planned attack in Vienna would have an impact on her shows at Wembley Stadium in London next week.
Past attacks and plots
“Concerts are often a preferred target of Islamist attackers, large concerts,” said Karner, listing the 2015 attack on Paris’ Bataclan venue and the 2017 bombing at the Manchester Arena where U.S. pop star Ariana Grande had played.
The planned attack also recalled a foiled plot by three IS-linked suspects against Vienna’s gay pride parade last year.
Authorities have revamped their national security intelligence in the wake of a 2020 attack by a convicted jihadist in the center of Vienna that left four dead, the first such militant attack in the Austrian capital in a generation.
Swifties disappointed
The shows were to be part of the record-breaking Eras Tour by the American singer-songwriter, which started on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona, and is set to conclude on Dec. 8, 2024, in Vancouver, Canada.
Swift, 34, has not yet commented on the cancellations on her official Instagram account, which has 283 million followers.
Her fans were horrified at the threat, with some begging organizers to postpone the concert instead of canceling it outright. Promoters have said they will pay back tickets.
“I can’t believe the concert i’ve been waiting for over 10 years is now gone. I don’t think i’ll ever get over this,” wrote one fan on social media.
“As disappointing as not being able to go to this concert is TRUST ME u do not want to experience that,” added another.
Some who had traveled from abroad for the concerts planned to do some sightseeing or hang with friends instead.
“We’ll check out some museums, maybe catch up with a few friends who reside here,” said del Rosario. “But apart from that, maybe look at Swiftie-organized events. To be with fellow fans, you know, share the same pain and just dance it out. As I believe Taylor Swift would want us to have fun.”
One group of local Swifties said they had received permission to still hold tour parties in coordination with local police.
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World’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas
GEORGETOWN, Texas — As with any desktop 3D printer, the Vulcan printer pipes layer by layer to build an object – except this printer is more than 45 feet (13.7 m) wide, weighs 4.75 tons and prints residential homes.
This summer, the robotic printer from ICON is finishing the last few of 100 3D-printed houses in Wolf Ranch, a community in Georgetown, Texas, about 30 miles from Austin.
ICON began printing the walls of what it says is the world’s largest 3D-printed community in November 2022. Compared to traditional construction, the company says that 3D printing homes is faster, less expensive, requires fewer workers, and minimizes construction material waste.
“It brings a lot of efficiency to the trade market,” said ICON senior project manager Conner Jenkins. “So, where there were maybe five different crews coming in to build a wall system, we now have one crew and one robot.”
After concrete powder, water, sand and other additives are mixed together and pumped into the printer, a nozzle squeezes out the concrete mixture like toothpaste onto a brush, building up layer by layer along a pre-programmed path that creates corduroy-effect walls.
The single-story three- to four-bedroom homes take about three weeks to finish printing, with the foundation and metal roofs installed traditionally.
Jenkins said the concrete walls are designed to be resistant to water, mold, termites and extreme weather.
Lawrence Nourzad, a 32-year-old business development director, and his girlfriend Angela Hontas, a 29-year-old creative strategist, purchased a Wolf Ranch home earlier this summer.
“It feels like a fortress,” Nourzad said, adding that he was confident it would be resilient to most tornados.
The walls also provide strong insulation from the Texas heat, the couple said, keeping the interior temperature cool even when the air conditioner wasn’t on full blast.
There was one other thing the 3D-printed walls seemed to protect against, however: a solid wireless internet connection.
“Obviously these are really strong, thick walls. And that’s what provides a lot of value for us as homeowners and keeps this thing really well-insulated in a Texas summer, but signal doesn’t transfer through these walls very well,” Nourzad said.
To alleviate this issue, an ICON spokeswoman said most Wolf Ranch homeowners use mesh internet routers, which broadcast a signal from multiple units placed throughout a home, versus a traditional router which sends a signal from one device.
The 3D-printed homes at Wolf Ranch, called the “Genesis Collection” by developers, range in price from around $450,000 to close to $600,000. Developers said a little more than one quarter of the 100 homes have been sold.
ICON, which 3D-printed its first home in Austin in 2018, hopes to one day take its technology to the Moon. NASA, as part of its Artemis Moon exploration program, has contracted ICON to develop a construction system capable of building landing pads, shelters, and other structures on the lunar surface.
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Stranded NASA Starliner pilots may return to Earth on SpaceX
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — What should have been a quick trip to the International Space Station may turn into an eight-month stay for two NASA astronauts if they have to switch from Boeing to SpaceX for a ride home.
There’s lingering uncertainty over the safety of Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, NASA officials said Wednesday, and the space agency is split over the risk. As a result, chances are increasing that test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may have to watch from the space station as their Starliner is cut loose to return to Earth empty.
If that happens, NASA will leave behind two of four astronauts from the next SpaceX taxi flight in late September, with the vacant seats set aside for Wilmore and Williams on the return trip in February. The pair expected to be gone just a week or two when they launched June 5 as Starliner’s first crew.
NASA is bringing in additional experts to analyze the thruster failures experienced by Starliner before it docked. At the same time, NASA is looking more closely at SpaceX as a backup.
At this point, “we could take either path,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief.
During a recent meeting, “we heard from a lot of folks that had concern, and the decision was not clear,” he said. A final decision is expected by mid-August.
Boeing issued a brief statement following NASA’s news update, repeating its position that the capsule could still safely bring the astronauts home.
“We still believe in Starliner’s capability and its flight rationale.” the company said.
Boeing will need to modify the capsule’s software in case Starliner ends up returning without a crew.
No serious consideration was given to launching a separate SpaceX flight just to retrieve Wilmore and Williams, according to commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.
Tests on the ground have replicated the thrust problems, pointing to seals as one culprit. But it’s still not understood how or why those seals swell when overheated and then shrink back to the proper size, Stich noted. All but one of the Starliner’s five failed thrusters have since been reactivated in orbit.
These thrusters are essential for allowing Starliner to back away from the space station following undocking, and for keeping the capsule in the proper position for the deorbit.
At the same time, engineers are grappling over helium leaks in Starliner’s propulsion system, crucial for maneuvering. The first leak occurred before liftoff but was deemed isolated and stable. Then more cropped up in flight.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttles retired in 2011. SpaceX flew its first crew in 2020. Boeing stumbled on its first test flight without a crew and then fell further behind after a repeat demo.
Officials repeated their desire for a backup taxi service on Wednesday, A situation like this one could happen again, and “that’s why we want multiple vehicles,” Bowersox said.
The next crew flight will be SpaceX’s 10th for NASA. On Tuesday, it was delayed for a month until late September to allow for extra time to figure out how best to handle Starliner’s return. Three NASA astronauts and one Russian are assigned to the flight, and managers on Wednesday declined to say who might be bumped.
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Extreme heat in July debilitates hundreds of millions worldwide
GENEVA — Soaring temperatures in July have had detrimental effects on the well-being of hundreds of millions of people worldwide who have found the monthlong extreme heat too hot to handle, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
“The extreme heat, which continued throughout July after a hot June … has had really, really devastating impacts on communities, on people’s health, on ecosystems, also on economies,” WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis told journalists Tuesday in Geneva.
“Extreme heat has a domino effect across society,” she said, noting that the world’s hottest day on recent record was registered on July 22. “All of this is really yet another unwelcome indication, one of many, of the extent that greenhouse gases from human activities are, in fact, changing our climate.”
WMO data show widespread, intense and extended heat waves have hit every continent in the past year and global average temperatures have set new monthly records for 13 consecutive months from June 2023 to June 2024.
“At least 10 countries in the past year have recorded daily temperatures of more than 50 degrees Celsius [122 degrees Fahrenheit] in more than one location,” Nullis said. “You can well imagine this is too hot for the body to handle.”
WMO reports that Death Valley in California, considered to be the hottest place on Earth, registered an average monthly temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius (108.5 degree Fahrenheit) at Furnace Creek, “which is a record for the site and possibly the world.”
WMO normally does not measure monthly temperature records. But Randall Cerveny, chief rapporteur for the WMO’s committee for evaluating climate and weather extremes, said ”the record appeared to be reasonable and legitimate.”
While human-induced activity is largely responsible for the long-term warming trend, meteorologists cite above-average temperatures over large parts of Antarctica as another contributing factor.
According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, this has resulted in anomalies of more than 10-degrees Celsius above average in some areas, and above-average temperatures in parts of the Southern Ocean.
WMO climate expert Alvaro Silva said two consecutive heat waves that hit Antarctica over the last two years have contributed to record global temperatures.
“The reason is still under research, but it seems to be related with the daily sea ice extent,” he said, noting the Antarctic daily sea ice extent in June 2024 “was the second lowest on record. … This follows the lowest extent that we have in Antarctica in terms of sea ice in 2023.”
Sea ice extent is the surface area of ice covering an ocean at a given time.
Speaking from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, Silva provided a sobering regional overview of the heat waves and extreme heat events, which are contributing to record global temperatures.
He observed that July was the warmest on record in Asia, while in Africa, he cited record-breaking temperatures in Morocco as having had “an important impact in terms of human health and deaths.”
He said intense heat waves in southern and southeastern Europe have “caused casualties and severe impacts on health.” At the same time, he pointed out that the fallout of heat waves in North America have been quite severe, noting that on August 1, “more than 160 million people, about half of the United States population, were under heat alert.”
WMO officials say evidence of our rapidly warming planet underscores the urgency of the Call to Action on Extreme Heat initiative launched by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres July 25.
In issuing this call, the U.N. chief warned that “Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere” and this was posing an increased threat to “our socio-economic and environmental well-being.”
WMO officials also stressed the importance of adaptation to climate change as a lifesaving measure, noting that recent estimates produced by WMO and the World Health Organization indicate the global scale-up of heat-health-warning systems for 57 countries alone “has the potential to save an estimated 98,000 lives per year.”
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said bolstering heat early warning systems in line with her agency’s Early Warnings for All Initiative would ensure at-risk populations receive timely alerts so they can take “protective actions.”
But, she emphasized, climate adaptation alone is not enough.
“We need to tackle the root cause and urgently reduce greenhouse gas levels, which remain at record observed levels.”
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Great Barrier Reef waters spike to hottest in 400 years, study finds
WASHINGTON — Ocean temperatures in the Great Barrier Reef hit their highest level in 400 years over the past decade, according to researchers who warned that the reef likely won’t survive if planetary warming isn’t stopped.
During that time, between 2016 and 2024, the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem and one of the most biodiverse, suffered mass coral bleaching events. That’s when water temperatures get too hot and coral expel the algae that provide them with color and food, and sometimes die. Earlier this year, aerial surveys of over 300 reefs in the system off Australia’s northeast coast found bleaching in shallow water areas spanning two-thirds of the reef, according to Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Researchers from Melbourne University and other universities in Australia, in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, were able to compare recent ocean temperatures to historical ones by using coral skeleton samples from the Coral Sea to reconstruct sea surface temperature data from 1618 to 1995. They coupled that with sea surface temperature data from 1900 to 2024.
They observed largely stable temperatures before 1900 and steady warming from January to March from 1960 to 2024. And during five years of coral bleaching in the past decade — during 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024 — temperatures in January and March were significantly higher than anything dating back to 1618, researchers found. They used climate models to attribute the warming rate after 1900 to human-caused climate change. The only other year nearly as warm as the mass bleaching years of the past decade was 2004.
“The reef is in danger, and if we don’t divert from our current course, our generation will likely witness the demise of one of those great natural wonders,” said Benjamin Henley, the study’s lead author and a lecturer of sustainable urban management at the University of Melbourne. “If you put all of the evidence together … heat extremes are occurring too often for those corals to effectively adapt and evolve.”
Across the world, reefs are key to seafood production and tourism. Scientists have long said additional loss of coral is likely to be a casualty of future warming as the world approaches the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold that countries agreed to try and keep warming under in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Even if global warming is kept under the Paris Agreement’s goal, which scientists say Earth is almost guaranteed to cross, 70% to 90% of corals across the globe could be threatened, the study’s authors said. As a result, future coral reefs would likely have less diversity in coral species — which has already been happening as the oceans have grown hotter.
Coral reefs have been evolving over the past quarter century in response to bleaching events like the ones the study’s authors highlighted, said Michael McPhaden, a senior climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was not involved with the study. But even the most robust coral may soon not be able to withstand the elevated temperatures expected under a warming climate with “the relentless rise in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere,” he said.
The Great Barrier Reef serves as an economic resource for the region and protects against severe tropical storms.
As more heat-tolerant coral replaces the less heat-tolerant species in the colorful underwater rainbow jungle, McPhaden said there’s “real concern” about the expected extreme loss in the number of species and reduction in area that the world’s largest reef covers.
“It’s the canary in the coal mine in terms of climate change,” McPhaden said.
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Rural South Africans flock to Chinese classes
China’s Confucius Institutes teach Chinese around the world, but there’s more to them than that. VOA’s Kate Bartlett visited a new one that is hundreds of kilometers outside the capital in rural South Africa that’s also focusing on green technology. Camera: Zaheer Cassim.
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Drones warn New Yorkers about storm dangers
NEW YORK — Gone is the bullhorn. Instead, New York City emergency management officials have turned high-tech, using drones to warn residents about potential threatening weather.
With a buzzing sound in the background, a drone equipped with a loudspeaker flies over homes warning people who live in basement or ground-floor apartments about impending heavy rains.
“Be prepared to leave your location,” said the voice from the sky in footage released Tuesday by the city’s emergency management agency. “If flooding occurs, do not hesitate.”
About five teams with multiple drones each were deployed to specific neighborhoods prone to flooding. Zach Iscol, the city’s emergency management commissioner, said the messages were being relayed in multiple languages. They were expected to continue until the weather impacted the drone flights.
Flash floods have been deadly for New Yorkers living in basement apartments, which can quickly fill up in a deluge. Eleven people drowned in such homes in 2011 amid rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
The drones are in addition to other forms of emergency messaging, including social media, text alerts and a system that reaches more than 2,000 community-based organizations throughout the city that serve senior citizens, people with disabilities and other groups.
“You know, we live in a bubble, and we have to meet people where they are in notifications so they can be prepared,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Adams is a self-described “tech geek” whose administration has tapped drone technology to monitor large gatherings as well as to search for sharks on beaches. Under his watch, the city’s police department also briefly toyed with using a robot to patrol the Times Square subway station, and it has sometimes deployed a robotic dog to dangerous scenes, including the Manhattan parking garage that collapsed in 2023.
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More than 120 people die in Tokyo from heatstroke in July
TOKYO — More than 120 people died of heatstroke in the Tokyo metropolitan area in July, when the nation’s average temperature hit record highs and heat warnings were in effect much of the month, Japanese authorities said Tuesday.
According to the Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office, many of the 123 people who died were elderly. All but two were found dead indoors, and most were not using air conditioners despite having them installed.
Japanese health authorities and weather forecasters repeatedly advised people to stay indoors, consume ample liquids to avoid dehydration, and use air conditioning, because elderly people often think that air conditioning is not good for one’s health and tend to avoid using it.
It was the largest number of heatstroke deaths in Tokyo’s 23 metropolitan districts in July since 127 deaths were recorded during a 2018 heatwave, the medical examiner’s office said.
More than 37,000 people were treated at hospitals for heatstroke across Japan from July 1 to July 28, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
The average temperature in July was 2.16 degrees Celsius (3.89 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the average over the past 30 years, making it the hottest July since the Japan Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1898.
On Tuesday, heatstroke warnings were in place in much of Tokyo and western Japan. The temperature rose to about 34 C (93 F) in downtown Tokyo, where many people carried parasols or handheld fans.
“I feel every year the hot period is getting longer,” said Hidehiro Takano from Kyoto. “I have the aircon on all the time, including while I’m sleeping. I try not to go outside.”
Maxime Picavet, a French tourist, showed a portable fan he bought in Tokyo. “It works very, very well,” he said. “With this temperature, it’s a necessity.”
The meteorological agency predicted more heat in August, with temperatures of 35 C (95 F) or higher.
“Please pay attention to temperature forecasts and heatstroke alerts and take adequate precautions to prevent heatstroke,” it said in a statement.
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Musk’s X sues advertisers over alleged ‘massive advertiser boycott’
wichita falls, texas — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has sued a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws.
The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted.
It accused the advertising group’s brand safety initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of helping to coordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.
Musk posted about the lawsuit on X on Tuesday, saying “now it is war” after two years of being nice and “getting nothing but empty words.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a video announcement that the lawsuit stemmed in part from evidence uncovered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which she said showed a “group of companies organized a systematic illegal boycott” against X.
The Republican-led committee had a hearing last month looking at whether current laws are “sufficient to deter anticompetitive collusion in online advertising.”
The lawsuit’s allegations center on the early days of Musk’s Twitter takeover and not a more recent dispute with advertisers that came a year later.
In November 2023, about a year after Musk bought the company, a number of advertisers began fleeing X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Musk later said those fleeing advertisers were engaging in blackmail and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.
The Belgium-based World Federation of Advertisers and representatives for CVS, Orsted, Mars and Unilever didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
A top Unilever executive testified at last month’s congressional hearing, defending the British consumer goods company’s practice of choosing to put ads on platforms that won’t harm its brand.
“Unilever, and Unilever alone, controls our advertising spending,” said prepared written remarks by Herrish Patel, president of Unilever USA. “No platform has a right to our advertising dollar.”
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NASA delays next crew launch to buy more time at space station for Boeing’s troubled capsule
your ad hereWHO: Governments unprepared to combat global COVID-19 surge
Geneva — The World Health Organization is warning that governments throughout the world are unprepared to combat the global surge of COVID-19, which is putting millions of people at risk of severe disease and death.
“COVID-19 is still very much with us,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told journalists in Geneva Tuesday.
“The virus is circulating in all countries. Data from our sentinel-based surveillance system across 84 countries reports that the percent of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been rising for several weeks,” she said.
Not only is COVID-19 surging in many countries across seasons, she said, but at least 40 Olympic athletes have tested positive in Paris despite efforts by authorities to safeguard the venues against infectious disease circulation.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic as an international health threat on May 5, 2023. Since then, the U.N. agency has received scant official information from countries regarding the number of new infections and deaths, as well as other essential information.
That has forced health agency officials to scroll through government websites, looking at ministry of health reports to ascertain monthly trends on hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 infections.
“On the hospitalization rates, we have seen increases in the Americas. We have seen increases in Europe. In recent months, we have seen increases in the Western Pacific,” Van Kerkhove said. “Thirty-five countries out of 234 countries and territories are providing this information. … So about 15% of available countries and territories have that information to share with us.”
Based on wastewater surveillance, WHO officials have determined that circulation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is 2 to 20 times higher than is currently being reported.
“This is significant because the virus continues to evolve and change, which puts us all at risk of a potentially more severe virus that could evade our detection and/or our medical interventions, including vaccinations,” said Van Kerkhove.
Over the last two years, she noted that there has been “an alarming decline in vaccine coverage,” especially among health workers and people over 60, “two of the most at-risk groups.”
“I am concerned,” said Van Kerkhove. “With such low coverage, with such large circulation, if we were to have a variant that was more severe, then the susceptibility of the at-risk populations to develop severe disease is huge. It is huge in every country.”
WHO officials observe that governments and their people have been lulled into a sense of complacency because the impact of COVID-19 is less now than it was during the pandemic. However, they also warn that could change for the worse as the immunity achieved through previous infections, and the protection achieved through vaccination, wears off.
The WHO says countries could and should be doing much more to prevent the current global surge from turning into another full-blown pandemic. The global health agency is urging countries to continue to sharpen their pandemic preparedness, readiness and response systems “to be ready for surges of COVID-19 as well as other emerging and reemerging pathogens,” such as avian influenza H5N1, mpox and dengue.
The WHO recommends that people in the highest risk groups receive a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of their last dose. To increase uptake and protection, it recommends people get their COVID-19 shot in tandem with their seasonal flu shot.
“Vaccination with any of the approved vaccines will protect against severe disease and death,” said Van Kerkhove. “It will lower your risk of developing severe disease. It will also lower your risk of developing post-COVID condition,” otherwise known as long COVID.
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