HONOLULU (AP) — Fears of a devastating tsunami across the Pacific faded Wednesday after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off a sparsely populated Russian peninsula, but communities along South America’s Pacific coast carried out evacuations and closed beaches. Warnings in the first hours after the 8.8 magnitude quake sent people fleeing to rooftops in Japan and forced tourists out of beachfront hotels in Hawaii, snarling island traffic. One death was reported in Japan, and in Russia, several people were hurt while rushing out of buildings, including a hospital patient who jumped from a window. Millions of people were told to…
Author: George Lynch
Officials have recovered at least 24 bodies after rains overwhelmed the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday, causing it to rise as much as 26 feet in less than two hours in the dark, predawn morning. Frantic parents were desperate for news about a group of as many as 25 campers who remain missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls camp at the river’s edge. An extensive water rescue and search effort was still underway in central Texas’ Kerr County, Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Friday evening. “Everyone needs to know that this is 24/7.” Kerr County is located…
As Republicans look to broker a sweeping budget deal, top GOP leadership in the House of Representatives unveiled a series of cuts this week to the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aimed at tackling climate change. This includes proposing to curtail tax credits for clean electricity generation and domestic clean technology manufacturing. To enact the proposed language would deal a swift blow to U.S. efforts to cut emissions and transition to cleaner energy sources. It would also stifle a surge in manufacturing investment that has swept much of the country. “It will come to a screeching halt without the credits,” says…
Just as flood levels start to recede along the New South Wales coast, the atmosphere will serve up further severe weather events across Australia during the coming days — from damaging winds and snow in the south, to widespread rain across the north. The blast of wintry weather for south-east states will arrive with the passage of a vigorous cold front early next week and is likely to bring the heaviest rain in at least five months to drought-ravaged southern South Australia and south-west Victoria, along with a healthy dump of alpine snow. In the meantime, a major rain event…
A record number of Americans applied for British citizenship between January and March, according to the first set of data covering the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. Some 1,931 Americans put in an application, the most since records began in 2004 and a jump of 12% on the previous quarter, figures from the UK Home Office showed Thursday. Applications had already soared during the October-December period, which coincided with Trump’s re-election. Successful applications by US citizens to settle permanently in the United Kingdom, rather than just move there initially, also hit a record high last year, the latest period for which official data is…
With the start of hurricane season a little more than a week away, federal forecasters say the United States will likely experience an “above-normal” Atlantic hurricane season. On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projected 13 to 19 named storms for the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30. Out of those, six to 10 are forecast to become hurricanes, or storms with winds of 74 mph or higher. NOAA is predicting three to five major hurricanes, with winds of 111 mph or higher. Forecasters pointed to several factors that could lead to an above-normal season, including warmer-than-average ocean temperatures. The agency said there’s…
Shaikha Nasser Al Nowais has broken many glass ceilings as a business leader in the United Arab Emirates. And now, the 38 year old hopes to break one more. Al Nowais, a leader in global tourism and hospitality, is being considered for secretary-general of U.N. Tourism for the 2026 to 2029 term. If chosen, she would become the first woman to lead the agency, which promotes responsible, sustainable and accessible tourism across the globe. There are five other candidates vying for the position — from Greece, Tunisia, Ghana, Mexico and Georgia. At the end of May, U.N. Tourism General Assemblymembers…
