by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | asia, CNN
Dozens of heat records have fallen in Siberia, as temperatures climbed above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius).
Despite only being early June, records are tumbling across parts of Siberia as extreme heat pushes into unusually high latitudes.
Last Saturday, temperatures reached 37.9 degrees Celsius (100.2 Fahrenheit) in Jalturovosk, its hottest day in history, according to the climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who tracks extreme temperatures across the globe.
A slew of temperature records have fallen in Siberia since then.
Several all-time heat records were broken on Wednesday, including in Baevo, which reached 39.6 degrees Celsius (103.3 Fahrenheit), and Barnaul, which hit 38.5 degrees Celsius (101.3 Fahrenheit).
Some of these stations have between five and seven decades of temperature recordings, Herrera told CNN. “So we can say it’s really exceptional.” It’s the region’s “worst heat wave in history,” he posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
And it looks set to get even worse. “Records keep falling today with again temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius,” Herrera told CNN on Thursday
A scientific analysis may be done to asses how much influence climate change is having on this event, but we know that global warming is causing more extreme temperatures, especially in the higher latitudes.
A particularly intense and prolonged heat wave in 2020, which saw the Arctic Siberian town of Verkhoyansk hit 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), would have been “almost impossible” without human-caused climate change, an analysis by a team of international scientists found.
Siberia tends to see large monthly and yearly temperature fluctuations, but the last few decades have seen a strong warming trend.
“Siberia is one of the fastest warming regions on the planet with hot extremes increasing in intensity,” Omar Baddour, chief of climate monitoring and policy services at the World Meteorological Organization, told CNN.
The region “has seen some very intense heat waves,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. “These heat waves have major implications for people and nature and will continue to happen more frequently unless we rapidly cut emissions of greenhouse gases,” she told CNN.
As wildfire season takes hold in the Northern Hemisphere, Siberia – along with Canada – has also been grappling with significant and intense wildfires. Fired that raged across Russia’s Ural Mountains in May, killed at least 21 people.
Extreme heat is likely to worsen wildfires.
It’s not just Siberia that has seen record heat this week. It has spread across Central Asia. In early April, Turkmenistan saw temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit), which was “a world record for that latitude,” Herrera said.
Since then the heat hasn’t stopped, with rolling heat waves gripping the region.
On Wednesday, temperatures of more than 45 degrees Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) were recorded in China, 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in Uzbekistan and 41 degrees Celsius (105.8) in Kazakhstan.
It’s “a historic heat wave, which is rewriting world climatic history,” Herrera said on Twitter.
by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | asia, CNN
Vaccines against African swine fever being tested in Vietnam are close to approval, global and US veterinary officials said, in what would be a major breakthrough to tackle the deadly animal disease that regularly ravages pig farms worldwide.
African swine fever has for years disrupted the $250 billion global pork market. In the worst outbreak in 2018-19, about half the domestic pig population died in China, the world’s biggest producer, causing losses estimated at over $100 billion.
After decades of failed attempts due to the complexity of the virus, two vaccines co-developed by US scientists being tested in large pilot schemes by Vietnamese companies are showing “very promising” results, Gregorio Torres, head of the science department at the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“We have never been so close to get a vaccine that may work,” Torres said, noting the two shots had “probably the highest chances to succeed” and be authorized for sale worldwide.
Both vaccines have received approval in Vietnam for pilot commercial use, now completed. The next step will be nationwide authorization, the first ever for an African swine fever vaccine, and possible sales overseas.
US agriculture secretary Thomas Vilsack said there was likely to be interest in precautionary purchases in the United States, despite the country having so far been spared from the virus.
“There will be a specific interest obviously,” Vilsack said in an interview with Reuters in April, speaking about possible purchases of the Vietnamese vaccines.
The vaccines were tested in Vietnam, where swine fever is a constant threat, because they could not be developed in the US as the virus is not present there.
Since 2021, swine fever, which is not deadly to humans, has been reported in nearly 50 countries and caused about 1.3 million pig deaths, WOAH said in a regular report last week.
Currently there are no major outbreaks, but agribusiness lender Rabobank warned in April that the possible spread of the disease, especially in China, remained among the top risks to the global pork industry.
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) researchers have reviewed the results of one of the vaccines, NAVET-ASFVAC, which they co-developed with Vietnamese company NAVETCO, a USDA spokesperson said.
After the vaccine showed a high level of efficacy and no safety risks in trials, 600,000 doses were approved for initial sales to pig farmers in Vietnam, of which the first 40,000 “have been delivered without any safety problems,” USDA said.
That followed an initial hiccup when use of the vaccine was suspended after dozens of pigs died last summer following inoculations in farms that used the vaccine off-label, USDA said, administering it to hogs that were not supposed to be inoculated, such as pregnant sows.
No problems emerged after deliveries resumed with adequate veterinary monitoring, USDA said.
NAVET-ASFVAC is an attenuated live-virus vaccine, like those used in childrens’ routine vaccinations around the world. Use of unlicensed live-virus vaccines in China in past years raised concerns they caused the emergence of new strains of swine fever.
Only limited data are available from China’s trials on a live-virus vaccine against swine fever.
The second vaccine tested in Vietnam, AVAC ASF LIVE, which was discovered by US researchers and commercialized by Vietnamese firm AVAC, has been delivered to more pigs than NAVET-ASFVAC under its pilot deployment, but USDA said it had not yet reviewed the data.
NAVETCO, AVAC and Vietnam’s agriculture ministry, which is responsible for approval of veterinary vaccines, did not respond to requests for comment.
by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | asia, CNN
For days, images of New York choking in smoke have stunned the United States, as residents struggle to deal with the unfamiliar challenge of severe air pollution.
The smoke, originating from wildfires in Canada, has prompted authorities to issue air quality alerts down the East Coast and people have again donned N95 face masks, largely abandoned since the pandemic. On social media, people share photos of the “apocalyptic” scene and tips to minimize health risks.
Outside of West Coast states like California that experience annual wildfires, these scenes are rare in the US.
Half the world away, however, fighting smog is nothing new. And the intense air pollution caused by noxious smoke, gases and industrial chemicals that smothers many major cities across Asia for much of the year could become the norm for many more worldwide as the climate crisis worsens.
Last year, six of the world’s 10 most polluted cities were in India, according to monitoring network IQAir. Researchers have estimated that bad air could be reducing the life expectancy of hundreds of millions of Indians by as much as nine years; in 2019, air pollution is thought to have caused nearly 1.6 million deaths in the country.
The capital New Delhi is regularly shrouded in smog, thanks to several factors including vehicle emissions, coal-fired power plants, and the annual practice of burning agricultural fields to prepare land for its next crop.
That means its people are exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, a widely used indicator of harmful air pollution. The tiny pollutant is highly dangerous; when inhaled, it can travel deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream, and has been linked to health problems including asthma and heart disease.
It comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms – and wildfires, meaning New York is now smothered in the pollutant.
New York’s PM2.5 levels peaked Wednesday afternoon, measuring 303.3 micrograms per cubic meter. For comparison, World Health Organization guidelines recommends a limit of an average annual level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter; London measured 9.4 micrograms per cubic meter on Wednesday, and Hong Kong measured 21 micrograms per cubic meter, both safely within IQAir’s “good” range.
Many countries in Southeast Asia are also all too familiar with the disruptions to daily life that air pollution can bring, especially during the annual stubble-burning season, when farmers set fire to the straw stubble left after the harvesting of grains.
In 2019, the air got so bad in Malaysia that dozens of students fell ill and experienced vomiting, prompting more than 400 schools to close across the country.
Just a few months later, Malaysia was again covered by a dense haze that came from large-scale forest fires in nearby Indonesia, allegedly lit to clear land for the production of paper, palm oil and other industries.
More recently, Thailand’s northern city of Chiang Mai took the unenviable title of world’s most polluted city for at least a week straight in April, due to smoke from forest fires and crop burning elsewhere in the region. Massive numbers of people sought medical attention for respiratory issues including asthma and shortness of breath, with one hospital saying wards were so full they had to turn some patients away.
But perhaps the city most notorious for its pollution – and that has most successfully turned things around – is Beijing.
For years, residents in the Chinese capital breathed in acrid air every day. It culminated in the infamous 2013 “air-pocalypse,” when the air quality index hit 755, smashing what was supposed to be the top of the scale at 500, according to the US Embassy in Beijing that kept a daily air quality monitor. That historic high meant the air was beyond hazardous, forcing residents to shut themselves indoors, wear filtered face masks, and crank air purifiers on high.
The event attracted global media attention and forced the issue into China’s mainstream – and soon after, China launched a sweeping anti-pollution campaign, shutting down coal mines and coal plants, setting up nationwide air monitoring stations, and rolling out new regulations.
There are still issues – China has turned back to coal in recent years, rapidly building new power plants even as more and more countries look toward renewable energy – but the improvement in the capital is undeniable. In 2021, Beijing recorded its best monthly air quality since records began in 2013; photos now show mostly blue skies in the city.
It’s an encouraging sign, and evidence that the right policies and investment can help fix air quality. But, scientists and experts warn, there are only further challenges on the horizon – that even cities with normally good air like New York cannot escape.
Human-caused climate change has exacerbated the hot and dry conditions that allow wildfires to ignite and grow. Scientists recently reported that millions of acres scorched by wildfires in the western US and Canada – an area roughly the size of South Carolina – could be traced back to carbon pollution from the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement companies.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pointed to “the devastating impacts of climate change” in a statement on Wednesday, after speaking with US President Joe Biden on how to put out the Quebec fires.
The image of the United Nations building in New York, barely visible through orange smog, “is the perfect image for how world leaders have failed at stopping the climate crisis,” tweeted scientist and climate advocate Lucky Tran on Wednesday, adding in a separate post: “Today New Yorkers and East Coasters are experiencing this impact first hand.”
by tyler | Jun 5, 2023 | asia, CNN
Former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern, who stepped down from her post earlier this year, has been made a dame in one of the country’s highest honors.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced the appointment on Monday to mark the King’s Birthday public holiday, with Ardern among 182 recipients receiving various honors for their contributions to the country.
“Having served as Prime Minister from 2017 to 2023, Dame Jacinda Ardern is recognized for her service to New Zealand during some of the greatest challenges our country has faced in modern times,” Hipkins said in a statement.
“Leading New Zealand’s response to the 2019 terrorist attacks and to the Covid-19 pandemic represented periods of intense challenge for our 40th Prime Minister, during which time I saw first hand that her commitment to New Zealand remained absolute.”
Hipkins hails from the same party as Ardern, the Labour Party, and succeeded her as leader.
The move grants Ardern the title of Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. The Order of Merit, established in 1996, is awarded to those in any field who have performed “meritorious service to the Crown and the nation” or who are known for their “eminence, talents, contributions, or other merits,” according to the government site.
In a statement to CNN affiliate Radio New Zealand (RNZ), Ardern said she was “incredibly humbled” by the accolade.
“I was in two minds about accepting this acknowledgment,” she said. “So many of the things we went through as a nation over the last five years were about all of us rather than one individual.”
“But I have heard that said by so many Kiwis who I have encouraged to accept an honour over the years. And so for me this a way to say thank you – to my family, to my colleagues, and to the people who supported me to take on the most challenging and rewarding role of my life.”
When Ardern became the country’s prime minister in 2017 at the age of 37, she was New Zealand’s third female leader and one of the youngest leaders in the world. Within a year, she had become only the second world leader to give birth in office.
Her time in power was defined by multiple crises, including the Christchurch terrorist attack, a deadly volcanic explosion, and the pandemic.
She quickly became a progressive global icon, remembered for her empathy while steering New Zealand through these crises and for taking her baby daughter to the United Nations General Assembly.
However, at home her popularity ebbed amid the rising cost of living, housing shortages and economic anxiety. And she faced violent anti-lockdown protests in the capital Wellington, with threats made against her.
Ardern announced her shock resignation in January, saying she no longer had enough fuel in the tank to contest an election – prompting a wave of praise and warm farewells from other world leaders and her many international admirers.
In April, she revealed she will head to Harvard University this fall to complete two fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School, the university’s school of public policy and government. She will be gone for a semester, missing out on the New Zealand general election, but will return at the end of the fellowships, she said.
by tyler | Jun 2, 2023 | asia, CNN
Approximately 50 people are thought dead and hundreds injured after three trains collided in India on Friday evening, according to a local official, in what has been described as a “violent” crash.
Two passenger trains and a goods train collided in an accident in the city of Balasore in Odisha state, according to a video statement by state chief secretary Pradeep Jena.
In an interview with CNN affiliate News18, he added, “We have received reports suggesting that the death toll is approximately 50, while the number of injured individuals exceeds 300.”
Local authorities say rescue teams have been dispatched to the site of the crash, and efforts include more than 115 ambulances and several fire service units.
Authorities have yet to look at the cause of the multi-train accident as their main priority is rescue operations, Jena told News18. “We are only working (at) sending additional doctors, ambulances, buses, so all those things we are doing so we have not thought of asking what happened, how it happened,” he said.
Jena earlier warned that more resources were needed to help the injured. “Nearly 50 ambulances have reported but the injured appear far too many. Large no (number) of buses being mobilized to shift injured to hospital,” he wrote on Twitter.
One of trains involved in the accident is the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel express, carrying passengers from West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of the state of West Bengal, said on Twitter. The train travels through India’s east coast, between West Bengal’s capital Kolkata to the South Indian city of Chennai.
The crash has shocked the country, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting his condolences.
“Distressed by the train accident in Odisha. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Rescue ops are underway at the site of the mishap and all possible assistance is being given to those affected,” he wrote.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said he will visit the site of the accident on Saturday morning to review the situation, the department said.
India’s Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology announced that about $12,136 will be provided as compensation to victims’ families in the case of death, and $2,427 will be provided for individuals with grievous injuries, and $606 will be given to people with minor injuries from the accident.
India’s extensive rail network suffers from aging infrastructure and poor maintenance – factors that are often responsible for accidents.
In 2021, some 16,431 people were killed in nearly 18,000 railway accidents across the country. “Majority (67.7%) of railway accident cases were reported (as) ‘Fall from trains /collision with people on track,” according to a 2021 report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
One of the most deadly incidents of recent years occurred in November 2016, when more than 140 people were killed after several train cars derailed in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
The following November, at least 39 people died and 50 others were seriously injured in a train derailment in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
by tyler | May 26, 2023 | asia, CNN
The Taliban should be investigated for crimes against humanity over their brutal crackdown on the rights and freedoms of women in Afghanistan, two leading human rights organizations have urged.
Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said the group’s treatment of women and girls meets the criteria for gender persecution, which is defined as a crime against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The group has increasingly excluded women from public life, imposing a swathe of draconian laws since it regained power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Girls and women have been suspended from secondary and university education; barred from various work sectors; refused access to public spaces; seen their right to travel abroad restricted; and been ordered to cover themselves in public.
“Let there be no doubt: this is a war against women,” Agnès Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, said in a statement Friday unveiling the joint report. “These are international crimes. They are organized, widespread, systematic.”
“The Taliban’s campaign of gender persecution is of such magnitude, gravity and systematic nature, that cumulatively the acts and policies form a system of repression which aims to subjugate and marginalize women and girls across the country,” added Santiago A. Canton, Secretary General of the ICJ, a group of prominent judges and lawyers headquartered in Switzerland.
“Our report indicates that this meets all the five criteria to qualify as a crime against humanity of gender persecution,” Canton said.
The Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, Bilal Karimi, told CNN: “This type of statement is full of hatred and propaganda.”
Karimi claimed the report only gave a partial view of the situation in Afghanistan, adding: “Women are working in different government departments like ministries and airports, however wherever they work should be based on Afghan culture and Islamic values.”
Afghanistan is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC, and is therefore within the court’s jurisdiction. The court, located in The Hague, in the Netherlands, tries four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes.
But the ICC does not conduct trials in absentia, so if its investigations result in an arrest warrant, any individuals named must be detained by the country they are in – making it highly unlikely that any Taliban officials would face a trial while the group is in power.
Following their lightning-fast takeover in August 2021, the Taliban were eager to present a new, reformed image as a relatively inclusive and restrained group, in comparison with their previous repressive rule from 1996 to 2001.
But the group quickly returned to its old playbook, targeting political enemies, minority groups and women in a series of hardline reforms.
Amnesty and the ICJ urged the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to work to establish “an independent international accountability mechanism to investigate crimes under international law” at their next session in October.
Last month, the UN said it was forced into making an “appalling choice” by instructing all of its personnel in Afghanistan to stay away from its offices in the country, after the Taliban banned female Afghans from working in international aid.
“Our report provides a holistic and in-depth perspective underlining the scale and seriousness of the violations by the Taliban,” Canton said.
“It calls for a drastic and urgent change in the international community’s approach to the Taliban’s persistent and flagrant criminal conduct preventing the women and girls in Afghanistan from exercising most of their human rights.”
