Millions in India and Pakistan have had to toil through the hottest spring on record, in conditions that scientists fear will soon regularly afflict billions across the globe.
A worker drinks water during a break from loading sacks of wheat on a freight train in Khanna, India on Thursday.Sajjad Hussain / AFP via Getty Images
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May 21, 2022, 1:30 AM PDT
ByAnisha Kukreja,Patrick GaleyandKaswar Klasra
NEW DELHI, India — Street vendor Rohan Mishra wakes before dawn to buy fresh vegetables from the bazaar and steels himself for another day hauling his cart under the punishing New Delhi sun.
Unable to afford time off during India’srecord-shattering heat wave, he endures headaches, dizzy spells and nosebleeds as he desperately tries to hawk his produce before it withers in the basket.
“Money has been difficult recently,” Mishra said. “This…
More than 10 million people remain under a heat advisory for Sunday across the Northeast as record temperatures could be seen from Washington, DC, to New Hampshire.
“If highs reach the mid to upper 90s, this will be record highs for the day and the month!” the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Bostonsaid Friday.
The National Weather Service has forecast Boston could see a high temperature of 96 degrees Sunday. The daily record high for the day is 93 degrees, while the monthly record for May is 97 degrees, set back on May 26, 1880.
The asteroid will zoom safely past Earth at 47,200 mph.
Asteroid 7335 (1989 JA), measuring four times as wide as the Empire State Building is high, will make a close approach to Earth on May 27, 2022.(Image credit: Getty)
An enormous asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building will make a close approach toEarthon May 27, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
Fear not: theasteroid, named 7335 (1989 JA), will soundly miss our planet by about 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) — or nearly 10 times the average distance between Earth andthe moon. Still, given the space rock’s enormous size (1.1. miles, or 1.8 km, in diameter) and relatively close proximity to Earth, NASA has classified the asteroid as “potentially hazardous,” meaning it could do enormous damage to…
World Health Organization reports 92 confirmed monkeypox cases and 28 suspected ones in 12 nations as the mysterious spread continues.
People usually recover within two to four weeks without needing to be hospitalised, but the disease is occasionally deadly [Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/Getty Images]
Published On 22 May 202222 May 2022
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it expects to identify more cases ofmonkeypoxas it expands surveillance in countries where the disease is not typically found.
As of Saturday, 92 confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases of monkeypox were reported from 12 member states that are not endemic for the virus, the UN agency said, adding it will provide further guidance and recommendations in the coming days for countries on how to mitigatethe spread of monkeypox.
Temperatures expected to be 20F to 30F above average for this time of year, breaking records and raising health fears
New Yorkers in the heat at Coney Island last year. Temperatures this weekend are expected to break or tie about 130 records.Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Dozens of states across the US are bracing for historically high spring temperatures this weekend, as a scorching heatwave moves east.
The early onslaught of sweltering weather, before what’s expected to be another hot, dry summer, is forecast to break or tie roughly 130 heat records for this time of year, with temperatures between20F and 30F above averagein the mid-Atlantic and north-east.
More than 120 million Americans are expected to be affected by the punishing heat, raising fears of health risks for the most vulnerable, outdoor workers and those who do not have access…
Donald Trump Jr. bagged a bear on a hunting trip to Utah back in 2018, but if the state’s department of natural resources’ allegations are true the scales were tipped illegally in his favor.
And now the hunting guide who took him on that trip, Wade Lemon, is reportedly facing felony charges for baiting the bear.According to The Salt Lake Tribune,Lemon is now facing five years in state prison for using “a pile of grain, oil, and pastries” to bait the animal.
President Joe Biden said Sunday the new monkeypox outbreak should concern “everybody,” as it continues to baffle medical officials around the world.
“Everybody should be concerned about [it],”Biden said in South Korea, while speaking with a group of reporters before he boarded Air Force One for Japan, Reuters reported.
The president’s remarks come as numerous outbreaks of monkeypox were reported in Africa, followed byother reported cases in Europeand the U.S.
“We’re working on it, hard to figure out what we do,” added Biden.
Avian flu has been found in a commercial flock in the Fraser Valley, the same area where 80 per cent of British Columbia’s poultry farms are located.
B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture says in a statement the infected farm has been placed under quarantine by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and producers within a 10-kilometre radius have been sent notices about the discovery.
Previous outbreaks in the Fraser Valley have prompted culls of millions of birds, although poultry groups now say they have tight control measures to prevent the spread from one farm to the next.
The inspection agency’s website says the H5N1 virus has been found in several wild birds and nine flocks across the province, starting at a commercial farm in the North Okanagan on April 13.
Alberta is the latest Canadian province to have found avian influenza, or bird flu, in another species.
Cases of bird flu have been confirmed in skunks in the Vegreville-Wainwright-Lloydminster area in east-central Alberta, according to the province’s wildlife disease specialist.
“[Avian influenza] was brought into the province in early April in migrating waterfowl, primarily the geese. As a number of geese died, we started getting reports about a number of dead skunks,” Dr. Margo Pybus told CTV News Edmonton.
The skunks tested negative for rabies and positive for bird flu.
Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have all confirmed avian flu cases in foxes, according to Pybus’ sources.
Dead skunks found in east-central Alberta tested positive for avian influenza. (Source: Dr. Margo Pybus).
She called the recent virus strain – which first showed up in Atlantic Canada in late 2021 – “hotter than usual.”
“This is the first time we’ve seen mortality in wild birds, and it’s also the first time we’ve seen mortality in mammals that are eating the wild birds.”
HEAD TILT, SPINNING ARE OBVIOUS SIGNS
Some affected wild birds have turned up at the Strathcona Raptor Shelter, which is run by the Alberta Society for Injured Birds of Prey east of Edmonton.
Roseanna Gullekson, assistant director of the shelter, said it had never been brought a bird flu case before this year.
But since mid-April, the shelter has received seven birds which all displayed the same disconcerting signs of avian influenza: balance issues, spinning, and – the “dead giveaway” – a tilted head.
“The tricky thing is we can’t test them until they’re dead to confirm whether or not it’s bird flu,” Gullekson said.
“Anything that comes in with [central nervous system] issues comes in with a story. The red tail hawk that came in first was hit by two cars. So, right off the bat, you know, maybe that’s what’s causing the head tilt or the balance issues – concussion, right? It’s not strange for that. But the spinning in circles is.”
On Wednesday, she was caring for a mature bald eagle that was believed to be sick with bird flu. A vet found no signs of trauma. However, its head was almost constantly swivelled, sometimes completely upside down.
There is little recourse if it does have bird flu, so the shelter is keeping him in an animal crate with the hope that the forced rest enables him to recover.
“It’s hard to know whether it feels safe, you know,” Gullekson said before shrugging. “No predators are going to eat him, free food, breakfast in bed, basically. It could be worse.”
The eagle, unlike all of the other probable avian influenza cases the shelter has taken in, had been showing signs of improvement. The mortality rate for avian influenza in raptors is 95 per cent.
“It’s pretty bad,” Gullekson said.
OUTBREAK BELIEVED TO BE ON DECLINE
Since April 3, Alberta has found 86 probable cases of avian influenza. Most cases have been found in Canadian geese, red-tailed hawks, and great horned owls.
The most severe kind of avian influenza can only be confirmed by the national lab. As of Thursday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was tracking 28 “infected premises” in Alberta where either commercial or small flocks (both poultry and other kinds of birds) were sick with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
While some strains have the potential to be passed to humans, the Alberta government says there is very low risk to human health and food safety.
Alberta’s outbreak is also believed to be on the decline.
“In other places that have already had their outbreaks, when the geese moved off, then the avian influenza seemed to disappear,” Pybus told CTV News Edmonton. “Certainly the numbers of dead birds and dead skunks in Alberta has tailed off a little bit in just the last seven to 10 days, so we’re thinking that it is on the downward side.”
But, she noted, since this is a new version of avian influenza, it’s not known what will happen in the fall, when outbreaks are atypical.
“Mother Nature’s going to tell us what’s going to happen.”
While there is low risk to humans, anyone who is handling a dead bird is advised to wear gloves, if handling the animal is unavoidable.
Both Pybus and Gullekson said cleaning up infected carcasses to prevent other animals from eating them is the best course of action.
Agriculture producers are advised to be aware of the early clinical signs, and prevent contact between wild animals and domestic flocks.
Runstadler is one of the authors of a new study,published today in the journalPLOS Pathogens,which takes a data-driven lookat influenza viruses circulating among different groups of birds and characterizes which types of birds are involved in spreading the virus. The timing of this paper is impeccable, as ahighly pathogenicstrain of bird fluhas been spreading across North America.
This lineage of bird flu originated around 1996 and was first…
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Dead skunks found in east-central Alberta tested positive for avian influenza. (Source: Dr. Margo Pybus).
