landslide

'Second life': Nepal tunnel survivor recalls ordeal

BY DEEPESH DEO JOSHI

  • With no clean water to drink, he survived on whatever he could find.
  • For 10 days, Nepali hydropower worker Sanjay Sah survived in darkness inside a flooded tunnel, drinking muddy water and losing all sense of time as he desperately prayed for rescue.
  • With no clean water to drink, he survived on whatever he could find.
For 10 days, Nepali hydropower worker Sanjay Sah survived in darkness inside a flooded tunnel, drinking muddy water and losing all sense of time as he desperately prayed for rescue.
When a disaster response team finally pulled him to safety on September 4, Sah's first question showed how deeply the ordeal had disoriented him.
"When I was rescued I first asked, how many days has it been?" Sah, 30, told AFP in an interview, while on his way back home in Saptari district Sunday.
"He said that it has been 10 days. I thought it had been just a few days."
Sah was among hundreds of workers at a series of hydropower projects hit by the catastrophic August 26 flood, triggered by a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border.
Sah's extraordinary survival was a rare ray of hope after a disaster that killed at least 1,429 people and left more than 5,640 missing, the majority in Nepal.
Family, friends and neighbours celebrated Sah's return with garlands and a cake, and his home was adorned with balloons and colours.
His mother, Kapur Devi Sah, embraced him tightly as she cried, and later washed his feet for an auspicious welcome.
"My son has returned, I am very happy," she said.
Struggling to hold back tears, Sah recalled how the disaster had struck with stunning speed.
"I was on duty, and then suddenly an unthinkable flood hit us, with tsunami-like waves that were several metres tall," he said.
Workers had received warnings that floodwaters were approaching, but did not get enough time to escape, he said.
"We did get information to stay alert, that a big flood is coming. As much as possible, we tried to be alert and evacuate our friends," Sah said.
"But the water did not give us much time... we shut down everything, and tried to rescue and evacuate our friends."
Within minutes, however, the tunnel was engulfed by raging waters.
The sheer scale of the flood was unlike anything witnesses had seen before, with the government pointing the finger at the dire impact of rising global temperatures on Nepal's Himalayan mountains.

'Divine energy'

Separated from his colleagues, Sah found himself stranded with little idea whether anyone would ever reach him.
His Hindu faith helped carry him through the days of darkness and isolation.
"I survived because of my deep belief and confidence," he said.
"I was chanting Maha Mantra (Hindu prayers), and the divine energy I received because of that allowed me to not be scared or despair," he said.
"I was able to stay there."
With no clean water to drink, he survived on whatever he could find.
"There was water, but it was muddy," he said. "I only had that."
The darkness and isolation might have been overwhelming, but Sah was not entirely alone.
Another trapped worker, Kabir Maharjan, 45, had survived nearby.
"We were separated but speaking to each other."
The ability to hear another human voice offered a lifeline to Sah.
Eventually, after days of excavation and painstaking rescue efforts, search teams broke through to the trapped men and brought them out alive.
Sah's wife, Lakshmi Kumari Sah, said she never gave up hope of seeing her husband again.
"God has helped us, we had our hopes," she said, holding her daughter in her arms.
Sah, who spent several days recuperating in a Kathmandu hospital, says he has mixed emotions.
"I am happy, but I feel sad too," he said. "I was able to get a second life, to survive there. But many of our friends were there."
As rescuers continue searching through the tunnels, Sah urged authorities not to abandon the effort.
One Chinese worker was rescued on September 5, the day after Sah -- but no signs of life have been heard since.
"I hope the government continues its search and rescue. It is possible there might still be someone alive," he said.
"Or they will be able to find bodies of friends who have passed away and hand them over to their families."
str-pm-abh/pjm/

electricity

Lights out in Laos as electricity exports surge

BY BEATRICE SIVIERO

  • But most of the power generated leaves the country and, combined with an ageing grid, that results in frequent outages and sometimes having to import electricity to meet demand.
  • Isolated, under-developed Laos brands itself the "Battery of Southeast Asia", powering its neighbours with dozens of hydroelectric plants, but frequent power outages leave its own people in the dark.
  • But most of the power generated leaves the country and, combined with an ageing grid, that results in frequent outages and sometimes having to import electricity to meet demand.
Isolated, under-developed Laos brands itself the "Battery of Southeast Asia", powering its neighbours with dozens of hydroelectric plants, but frequent power outages leave its own people in the dark.
Exports of electricity to neighbouring countries including Thailand and Vietnam are a key source of revenue for the landlocked nation, designated as a least developed country by the United Nations.
But most of the power generated leaves the country and, combined with an ageing grid, that results in frequent outages and sometimes having to import electricity to meet demand.
When the power cuts out after dark in Vientiane, families wander outside to avoid the stifling heat indoors, using cell phones to light their way.
At one of the two main public hospitals, a doctor in the pediatrics emergency department is used to watching medical equipment suddenly shut down until the generators kick in.
"Over the past three to six months, we've often faced electricity problems, especially at the children's centre," said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"A ventilator came to a halt, but we do have a generator at the hospital."
When old wiring recently caused an electrical fire in the alley outside the hospital, a blackout cut power to X-ray, ultrasound and ventilator equipment, she said.
Elsewhere in the city, a front-desk staffer at a health clinic said power outages occurred two to three times a week, usually announced beforehand.
Without a generator, "we have to reconnect the electricity from a store next to us", said the staffer, who also requested anonymity in a one-party communist state where authorities do not tolerate dissent.
When the power is restored, the cry rings out across the city: "It's back!"

Direct lines

Laos exported around two-thirds of its total generated electricity in 2023, according to the World Bank, but experts say that figure is now even higher.
One former technical expert at state utility Electricite du Laos (EDL) put the figure at around 80 percent.
In the decade to 2024, annual electricity exports more than tripled, from 12 terawatt-hours (TWh) to 38 TWh, according to official data -- enough to power Paris for a year and a half. 
In 2023, they brought in $2.65 billion, according to the government, often sold in deals struck by the state with businesses that invest in Laos's infrastructure.
"Transmission lines from most projects are 'dedicated' to their customers," said Grant Hauber, an Asia adviser at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
"Meaning they are not connected domestically to Laos consumers."
Much of Laos's distribution grid dates back to the 1970s, and now struggles to keep pace with an increasingly modern economy of tourism, massive infrastructure, urban development and air conditioning.
In Vientiane, a power line once used for one household now covers whole apartment blocks with many units, straining old transformers.
In rural areas, if a tree falls onto the power lines, it can cause a blackout for one village, sometimes several, because there is no backup.
Bounchan Manochit, a shop owner in northern Luang Prabang province, said that with no lights, wild animals may enter residents' homes at night.
"We can't see them," she said. "It can be dangerous."

Foreign investment

Almost all of Laos's population of eight million has access to electricity, up from just 15 percent in 1995, according to the government.
But EDL, charged with maintaining the grid, is tackling large debts incurred during the expansion and due to consumer subsidies.
With hydropower accounting for 80 percent of production as of 2024, supply dwindles in the dry season from March to August.
At times, Laos has struggled to provide power to its neighbours and finds itself importing energy, at significant cost, according to a recent World Bank report.
"Electricity production has already fallen short of domestic demand and export contracts on several occasions," it said.
Laos's main export market is Thailand but it is diversifying its client and energy mix.
Vietnam has recently stepped up imports, including through Laos's Monsoon Wind project, the region's largest wind farm that became operational last year.
Researcher Le Hong Hiep of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute noted the growing demands of Vietnam's manufacturing sector and the country's own issues with energy production -- but said politics also played a part.
"Vietnam also wants to import more electricity from Laos to increase its leverage over Laos," part of a wider contest with China for influence in Vientiane, he said.
The energy from the Monsoon Wind project is destined only for Vietnam. 
"Zero for local," noted the former expert at EDL.
str-sco/ar/dan

hazelnuts

Bhutan business bets on hazelnuts for farming future

BY SARA HUSSEIN

  • Pema is one of thousands of Bhutanese growing hazelnuts as part of a social enterprise hoping to help subsistence farmers develop a high-value crop.
  • Farmer Pema Dema had never even heard of hazelnuts when she was first recruited to begin growing them on her land in Bhutan's Thimphu region.
  • Pema is one of thousands of Bhutanese growing hazelnuts as part of a social enterprise hoping to help subsistence farmers develop a high-value crop.
Farmer Pema Dema had never even heard of hazelnuts when she was first recruited to begin growing them on her land in Bhutan's Thimphu region.
"I wondered what sort of a nut it was," the 58-year-old told AFP with a laugh, looking out over the deep valley and terraced rice fields that unfold below her farm.
Now she has more than 140 hazelnut trees on the steep slope overlooking her home, and incorporates them into Bhutan's traditional salted suja tea when guests visit.
Pema is one of thousands of Bhutanese growing hazelnuts as part of a social enterprise hoping to help subsistence farmers develop a high-value crop.
Mountain Hazelnuts began in 2009 as Bhutan's first 100-percent foreign direct investment project in the agriculture sector.
More than 40 percent of Bhutan's workforce is in agriculture, but production remains largely subsistence-based and is complicated by the country's mountainous terrain.
Steep slopes can be impossible to plough and prone to topsoil washing away in heavy rain.
Hazelnuts seemed to offer a solution.
They grow well at high altitudes and on mountainsides, require no ploughing and their roots can fix soil in place.
Hazelnuts are also a high-value crop with a growing market, and the trees can produce for decades.
That was what attracted Pema, who has been farming for 40 years.
"I thought hazelnuts would be better in terms of fetching a better price," she said.
"I hoped that it would benefit us in the future."

Learning curves

Mountain Hazelnuts distributed its first saplings in 2011, over 145,000 plants to 800 growers.
Each recruit's land was assessed for suitability and to ensure the crop was not displacing anything.
Growers can only use land that is fallow or degraded, with the goal of increasing Bhutan's overall farming output and improving the country's soil.
Dawa Dhendup, 82, was keen to put the trees on a steep stretch of his farm where he had struggled to grow potatoes.
"It was hard annual labour. But once the hazelnut trees are planted, it's permanent."
In sunglasses to protect his eyes after cataract surgery, he cut a sprightly figure as he harvested nuts from his 1,400 trees.
The company said it now has around 9,000 families growing hazelnuts on 6,000 acres of land across Bhutan.
But in some ways, the project is only just getting off the ground after a series of setbacks and learning curves.
A mismatch between production and polliniser saplings in early planting delayed fruiting, and had to be solved by mass grafting of polliniser plants into orchards.
The pandemic struck another blow, cutting farmers off from outreach officers who advise them on tending the crop.
And then there was climate change.
The hazelnut variety the company initially distributed needs around three months of cool temperatures to develop properly.
But climate change meant trees at lower altitudes were getting as little as six weeks of colder temperatures.
The company again turned to grafting, using stock from Georgia that required fewer "chill-hours" for plants growing between 1,600 and 2,400 metres (5,250 and 7,870 feet).

'Patient capital'

In a best-case scenario, hazelnut trees take several years to fruit, and the various setbacks and extended waiting time meant some farmers simply abandoned the project.
But both Pema and Dawa said neighbours who had given up were now reconsidering.
"I'm harvesting and the price is increasing, and they're regretting their decision and feeling envious," Dawa said.
Still, like most growers, he does not yet generate significant income from the nuts.
The company has said it will be increasing the price it offers growers, and with trees reaching maturity and yields expected to increase, income should start to rise.
Investors have so far ploughed $36 million in Mountain Hazelnuts, and for now the company remains reliant on what CEO Sean Watson calls "patient capital".
It hopes to be "cash flow positive" by 2031, Watson said, and to reach 10,000 metric tons of production.
That is a long way from the current 30 metric tons, but "fruiting is starting to really kick in", and production is expected to at least double each year, Watson added.
Seated next to flat baskets full of drying hazelnuts, Pema said she had already benefited because the trees have stopped soil from sliding onto her home during heavy rain.
"Every year the yields are increasing," she said.
"If I had more land, I would have planted more."
sah/lga/hol

entertainment

Coastal erosion forces cancellation of California music festival

  • The coastal city of Santa Monica -- the official end point of Route 66 -- has a wide stretch of golden sand and a large wooden pier that features frequently in American television shows and movies.
  • A music festival set to feature The Killers, Olivia Dean and Jack White was cancelled Friday because the California beach where it was to be held has been eaten away by coastal erosion.
  • The coastal city of Santa Monica -- the official end point of Route 66 -- has a wide stretch of golden sand and a large wooden pier that features frequently in American television shows and movies.
A music festival set to feature The Killers, Olivia Dean and Jack White was cancelled Friday because the California beach where it was to be held has been eaten away by coastal erosion.
The two-day Ocean Way Festival had been planned for later this month in Santa Monica, but waves up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) and storm runoff has left the beach in the city near Los Angeles badly degraded, forcing local officials to pull the plug.
"Storm surf generated by Hurricane Marie and runoff from a storm drain outfall eroded a large portion of the festival site," said a statement from the city of Santa Monica.
The storm, which churned the waters of the Pacific over the last week, stripped sand off the beach, making it no longer safe to hold the festival there, the city said.
"The surf took the beach we planned this on, and we cannot put tens of thousands of festival-goers on that sand until it's safe," said Mayor Caroline Torosis. 
The coastal city of Santa Monica -- the official end point of Route 66 -- has a wide stretch of golden sand and a large wooden pier that features frequently in American television shows and movies.
News of the festival cancellation came days after the pounding surf opened a huge sinkhole on the driveway of a beachfront home belonging to Oscar-winning US actor Nicolas Cage.
Officials in Malibu, which sits just north of Santa Monica, have ordered the evacuation of 31 homes because of the danger posed by the hole.
Further south, at least seven homes in Dana Point were declared uninhabitable after the coast on which they sit rapidly eroded, with one house collapsing into the sea. 
A similar problem has occurred in nearby Laguna Beach.
The waters of the Pacific Ocean have been unsettled in recent weeks by a series of tropical storms, with some of them developing into hurricanes.
Scientists say a near-record strength El Nino climate episode is warming the ocean's waters and creating extra volatility.
While the phenomenon is part of a natural cycle, human-caused climate change is thought to be super-charging the heating and exacerbating its effects.
hg/jgc

virus

DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to 7th province

  • The South-Ubangi governor's office in a statement sent to AFP on Friday officially declared an outbreak of the virus in the northwestern province following analysis of a suspected case.
  • An Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo, the deadliest in its history, has spread to a seventh province, bordering the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, the governor of South-Ubangi province said on Friday.
  • The South-Ubangi governor's office in a statement sent to AFP on Friday officially declared an outbreak of the virus in the northwestern province following analysis of a suspected case.
An Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo, the deadliest in its history, has spread to a seventh province, bordering the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, the governor of South-Ubangi province said on Friday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo officially detected the latest outbreak in mid-May, its 17th of the highly infectious virus that has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the last 50 years.
The current outbreak in the DRC has killed 3,310 people out of 6,843 confirmed cases, according to the latest figures from the Congolese authorities.
It began in northeastern Ituri province and spread to conflict-plagued, remote eastern and northern regions where armed groups have roamed for decades, the presence of the state is weak and health infrastructure is largely lacking.
The South-Ubangi governor's office in a statement sent to AFP on Friday officially declared an outbreak of the virus in the northwestern province following analysis of a suspected case.
An Ebola patient died there after undertaking a long journey across several provinces, some of which have not so far had cases of the disease, acting governor Jean-Rene Galekwa told reporters on Thursday.
The patient who died in South-Ubangi had developed symptoms in the capital of Tshopo province, Kisangani, where Ebola cases have been reported, after having travelled to Rwanda, then Uganda and Ituri province, Galekwa said.
He then went by boat on the Congo River to Lisala in Mongala province where he spent two days in a health centre before being transferred to another hospital in Gwaka, in South-Ubangi, he added.

Fears of spread

"The route taken both by the patient and by the boat exposes the population" of the provinces of North-Ubangi, Tshopo and Mongala, Galekwa said. 
"Thirty-eight people have been identified as having been in contact with the patient and have been placed in quarantine," he said.
Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe internal and external bleeding and organ failure.
The organisations that have been tackling the outbreak say the funding is largely insufficient to monitor and isolate cases in the sprawling central African country.
The World Health Organization said this week it needed 5,000 extra health workers to help respond to the virus.
It said it had nearly 1,400 beds across 59 treatment centres but that it estimated it needed another 1,600 beds.
The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment. Several treatments and vaccines are being tested.
str-clt/kjm/rlp

environment

Indonesia seeks to bring back baby orangutans allegedly trafficked to India

  • - Critically endangered -  The Indonesian government has requested India hand over the apes, forestry ministry spokesman Ristianto Pribadi told AFP on Friday. 
  • Indonesian authorities are working to repatriate five baby orangutans allegedly trafficked to India, where they were found motherless in a forest, Jakarta's forestry ministry told AFP Friday.
  • - Critically endangered -  The Indonesian government has requested India hand over the apes, forestry ministry spokesman Ristianto Pribadi told AFP on Friday. 
Indonesian authorities are working to repatriate five baby orangutans allegedly trafficked to India, where they were found motherless in a forest, Jakarta's forestry ministry told AFP Friday.
The critically endangered animals were found Tuesday by rangers patrolling in the Balasore district of India's eastern Odisha state.
Authorities suspect the primates, known for their shaggy red fur, were trafficked into India, sparking a criminal investigation.
The youngsters, estimated to be about one-and-a-half years old, appeared to be healthy and were being cared for at a zoo after their rescue, the ministry said in a statement. 
Orangutans in the wild are native only to Indonesia's Sumatra island and Borneo, which it shares with Malaysia and Brunei.
The five infants appeared to be of Sumatran origin, the ministry said, and DNA tests will be used to confirm where they were from.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which lists Sumatran orangutans as critically endangered, the young of the species are weaned only at about seven years of age.
The last estimate of the species' population size, in 2016, was just over 13,500.
- Critically endangered - 
The Indonesian government has requested India hand over the apes, forestry ministry spokesman Ristianto Pribadi told AFP on Friday. 
"The forestry ministry has begun communicating with the government of India through the Indian embassy in Jakarta," he said. 
Jakarta has also been in touch with conservation NGOs to help rehabilitate the baby orangutans, the ministry statement added. 
Sumatran orangutan population decline is blamed on habitat loss and fragmentation due to human encroachment, as well as illegal hunting. 
The Tapanuli orangutan, another species native to Sumatra, is also classified as critically endangered, with fewer than 800 believed left in the wild.
Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of the Orangutan Information Centre, an NGO, said it supported bringing the primates home.
"Repatriation should be the priority," he said. "In my opinion, the DNA tests can be done after repatriation."
Wild orangutans have been put under pressure in recent weeks by forest fires that have plagued the region and consumed swathes of Borneo island.
In Borneo's West Kalimantan province, at lest 15 of the animals have been rescued from flames and haze since July, some stuck in plantations after fires cut off access to their forest home.
mrc/mlr/cms

weather

Researchers eye AI revolution in natural disaster forecasts

BY NINA LARSON

  • But training such AI models requires vast amounts of high-quality climate and Earth observation data, and significant computing power.
  • A revolution in forecasting natural disasters is underway, say researchers in Switzerland who are training AI models on vast troves of NASA climate data to produce potentially-lifesaving data at lightning speed.
  • But training such AI models requires vast amounts of high-quality climate and Earth observation data, and significant computing power.
A revolution in forecasting natural disasters is underway, say researchers in Switzerland who are training AI models on vast troves of NASA climate data to produce potentially-lifesaving data at lightning speed.
They are feeding the NASA file stash into one of the world's most powerful supercomputers so artificial intelligence can speed up and expand vital weather and climate forecasting, and spot patterns scientists could not have seen.
AI models are increasingly used in weather and climate forecasting and for early detection of natural hazards.
As well as speed, they carry the promise of spotting previously imperceptible patterns in satellite and other data, potentially making it possible to flag in advance disasters like Nepal's devastating flood, which last month left thousands dead or missing.
But training such AI models requires vast amounts of high-quality climate and Earth observation data, and significant computing power.
Researchers at Switzerland's Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) say they now have both, after copying around 100 petabytes of publicly available NASA data onto servers adjacent to one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, known as Alps.
"This is a huge scientific opportunity," said Thomas Schulthess, an ETH computational physics professor and head of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in the southern city of Lugano.
Standing in front of rows of what look like giant filing cabinets that contain Alps, he told AFP he was excited to have all of NASA's climate data plugged directly into the machine.
"It's really enabling scientists to do things we would not even have thought of before," he said.

Data is 'everything'

It took approximately a year to copy the roughly six billion NASA files onto servers connected to the supercomputer, said Reto Knutti, a climate physics professor who heads ETH's Center for Climate Systems Modeling (C2SM).
That is equivalent to around 20 million feature-length films in terms of data volume, or around a million times the storage on a typical computer, he told AFP.
Now the researchers are using the mass of information to develop AI models that can speed up and expand vital weather and climate forecasting.
"Data is essentially everything," Knutti said.
"The next step will be making sense of the data".
That is where the proximity to the massive computing power of Alps comes in, Schulthess said, nodding to the clusters of servers humming loudly just metres (feet) from the supercomputer.
"It matters whether you can move the data within a few seconds or whether you have to wait days for the data to come," he said
New AI-generated statistical models are far faster than the traditional process of using mathematically equations to simulate the complex processes taking place in the oceans and atmosphere.
There is "a revolution in weather forecasting", Knutti said, describing the statistical models as "really, really powerful" and "incredibly fast".

'Save lives'

Instead of the hours traditionally needed to produce a forecast, a statistical model based on pattern recognition "can run a global weather forecast for multiple days -- the whole globe -- in a minute or so", he pointed out.
And while expensive to train, the models are "cheap to run", he said, meaning "you can do more iterations, maybe every few minutes, to see if some specific weather pattern exists".
"That allows us to do early warning systems to save lives."
Not all disasters are foreseeable but those that relate to geology, like landslides and glacier collapses, can often be detected early in the data, if there is capacity to spot the pattern.
Kutti pointed to the case of the Swiss village of Blatten, which was wiped out by a dramatic glacier collapse in May last year, "that was visible in satellite data more than a year before it actually happened".
Thanks to close monitoring, Swiss authorities evacuated the village a week before the collapse, avoiding mass casualties.
Closer monitoring could also possibly have sounded the alarm before the devastating August 26 glacial collapse on the Nepal-China border.
Nature reported last week satellite image analysis showed some warning signs before the disaster, which, had they been spotted, could have flagged the area "as a hotspot warranting closer attention and monitoring".
Knutti agreed that this was a good example of how satellite data could potentially be used for "systematic observing systems for disaster prevention that could save hundreds or thousands of lives".
nl/ag/gil

weather

August hottest month ever recorded globally as huge El Nino emerges

BY NICK PERRY AND ALI BEKHTAOUI

  • The double whammy of climate change and El Nino would mean records "falling over the next six months", said Burgess, an ocean scientist and strategic lead for at ECMWF.  "Climate change makes every El Nino hotter, and until we stop burning coal, oil, and gas these record-shattering months will simply keep on coming," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist from Imperial College London.
  • Europe's climate monitor said Thursday that August was the hottest month ever recorded around the world and warned of worse to come, as an unprecedented El Nino pattern grows stronger.
  • The double whammy of climate change and El Nino would mean records "falling over the next six months", said Burgess, an ocean scientist and strategic lead for at ECMWF.  "Climate change makes every El Nino hotter, and until we stop burning coal, oil, and gas these record-shattering months will simply keep on coming," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist from Imperial College London.
Europe's climate monitor said Thursday that August was the hottest month ever recorded around the world and warned of worse to come, as an unprecedented El Nino pattern grows stronger.
Global temperatures over land and sea soared to all-time highs in August and capped an extreme summer of heatwaves and wildfires that ranked the hottest on record for western Europe and the contiguous United States.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service said global average air temperatures in August were 16.96C -- surpassing by 0.01C the previous record for a single month set in July 2023. The EU monitor said it considered the two months joint-highest given the narrow difference.
Copernicus observations go back to 1940, but evidence from ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons puts today's climate in a much starker historical context.
"Humans haven't seen temperatures as hot as today for, arguably, at least the last 100,000 years," Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which oversees Copernicus, told AFP.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said the "evidence is irrefutable: this is the spiralling price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction".

'Striking'

The exceptional summer also drove ocean temperatures to record highs for three straight months, said Simon van Gennip from Mercator Ocean International on Thursday.
Marine heatwaves have persisted in some overheated basins for more than 60 days, "highlighting just how unusual and persistent" the situation was, he said.
Global sea surface temperatures set a new all-time daily high in August and equalled the hottest month for oceans ever recorded.
Copernicus said the main driver was global heating from burning coal, oil and gas, but also sharp-rising temperatures in the Pacific, where a historic El Nino is gaining strength.
El Nino episodes are characterised by unusually warm Pacific waters but trigger major global changes in rainfall and winds, raising the odds of wild weather thousands of miles away.
Global forecasters predict this year's event will peak later this year at an intensity never observed in the modern era.
On Thursday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said there was a 75 percent chance it "would exceed the strength of previous El Nino events dating back to 1950". 
Copernicus said its influence was already being felt in Indonesia, where a long, intense dry season has fed wildfires that have torched swathes of Borneo island.
But climate scientists said the worst was yet to come -- and August's extraordinary heat was just a preview.
Even ordinary El Nino episodes have a temporary warming effect, boosting global heat and compounding the impact of long-term climate change.
That extra heat often helps make the year after El Nino peaks the hottest on record globally.
Scientists expect 2027 to become a record-setting year but Burgess said 2026 could also prove historic.
"We expected 2026 to be top five but now it's second place, maybe in first place... We've seen a striking reminder of how quickly the climate system can shift when multiple drivers have aligned," she said.
The double whammy of climate change and El Nino would mean records "falling over the next six months", said Burgess, an ocean scientist and strategic lead for at ECMWF. 
"Climate change makes every El Nino hotter, and until we stop burning coal, oil, and gas these record-shattering months will simply keep on coming," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist from Imperial College London.

Extremes

Copernicus said that western Europe experienced its hottest summer, outstripping the long-standing 2003 record.
The season was marked by severe, back-to-back heatwaves that shut schools, dried up rivers and primed the land for devastating wildfires.
Between mid-July and mid-August, the continent's EuroMomo monitoring platform estimated that Europe saw more than 32,000 excess deaths.
But it was abnormally hot elsewhere too -- Copernicus said the June to August period was the equal-warmest globally on record, on par with 2024.
An AFP analysis of Copernicus data showed that regions home to around 900 million people lived through the hottest July ever observed.
And on Wednesday, NOAA said the contiguous United States has endured its hottest summer on record.
The summer has been "exceptional", but the climate will "continue to get more extreme unless we turn off the tap to global emissions", said Burgess.
np-alb/ach 

fire

Indonesia rescues six orangutans from fires in a week

  • Four orangutans were rescued on Friday, with with the help of residents and plantation workers, followed by another mother-infant pair on Tuesday.
  • Six orangutans including two nursing infants have been rescued from fires raging on Borneo island in the past week, Indonesian authorities and rescuers said Thursday, bringing the total to 15 in a month.
  • Four orangutans were rescued on Friday, with with the help of residents and plantation workers, followed by another mother-infant pair on Tuesday.
Six orangutans including two nursing infants have been rescued from fires raging on Borneo island in the past week, Indonesian authorities and rescuers said Thursday, bringing the total to 15 in a month.
The apes were saved from plantations in deep rural West Kalimantan province, on the Indonesian part of the island, where they got stuck after fires cut off access to their forest home, according to the forestry ministry and the YIARI wildlife rehabilitation foundation.
A large fire was burning just 200 metres (656 feet) from where the group of critically endangered primates were found, the ministry and YIARI said in a joint statement.
"This situation left the orangutans without a safe route back to their habitat; they could only move from one plantation to another," said the statement.
"In addition to facing the threat of flames and smoke, the orangutans' movement among plantations also has the potential to increase interactions and conflict with (human) communities."
Four orangutans were rescued on Friday, with with the help of residents and plantation workers, followed by another mother-infant pair on Tuesday.
Rescuers had to anaesthetise the animals to minimise stress and the risk of injury. All six were taken to YIARI's rehabilitation centre in the town of Ketapang.
Orangutans are endemic to Borneo and Sumatra islands -- two of the places hardest hit by wildfires that have destroyed vast swathes of land and spewed putrid haze that has spread as far as Malaysia and Singapore.
The Indonesian government said more than 202,000 hectares of land burnt countrywide between January and July. Figures for August have yet to be released.
The Nusantara Atlas project has put the number at closer to 300,000 hectares, and on Thursday gave an estimate of 895,657 hectares, which includes August.
Last week the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the haze emitted by the fires was the worst for any month of August in 24 years.
Indonesia's dry season typically runs from July to October, made worse this year by a strong episode of the El Nino weather phenomenon.
Wildfires emit dangerous levels of PM2.5 particles so small they can enter deep into the lungs and even the bloodstream, with potentially dire consequences for health.
According to Greenpeace estimates using government data, some 35 million people in Indonesia are exposed to toxic haze.
Some 43,000 firefighters were deployed to combat the blazes, national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Berton Panjaitan told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.
He said a Japanese navy ship had arrived in West Kalimantan with three helicopters to aid water bombing efforts.
mlr/mrc/ami

wine

Portugal harvests grapes at night to beat the heat

BY LEVI FERNANDES

  • At daybreak, the workers leave the vines and the harvest is taken to vats, where the grapes are washed and sorted before being crushed. 
  • Equipped with headlamps and pruning shears, a team of farm workers navigate pitch-black darkness during a nocturnal grape harvest that shields them from Portugal's increasingly oppressive summer heat.
  • At daybreak, the workers leave the vines and the harvest is taken to vats, where the grapes are washed and sorted before being crushed. 
Equipped with headlamps and pruning shears, a team of farm workers navigate pitch-black darkness during a nocturnal grape harvest that shields them from Portugal's increasingly oppressive summer heat.
"At night, it's much cooler, and with this light we see the bunches of grapes better," Maria Jeronima Mendes, 70, told AFP on a rural estate lined with lush vines.
Climate change is intensifying and lengthening spells of extreme heat and drought across Europe, with EU's climate monitor reporting on Thursday that western Europe sweltered through its warmest summer this year, while August was the hottest single month ever recorded globally.
The heat has forced adaptations in the continent's wine-making south that includes Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.
At Herdade das Servas, an estate of around 350 hectares (865 acres) located some 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Lisbon, nighttime grape harvests were fully adopted last year after a successful test in 2024.
At first, the shift came up against the reluctance of its around 20 workers from Portugal, Romania and Southeast Asia, in a sector already struggling to recruit.
But the harvesters have now come to terms with working at night in cooler temperatures that make the manual work more bearable.
"Working at night isn't more tiring, it's just a matter of habit," said Mendes, who has worked in the fields since she was 12 and is the oldest member of the team.
Under a clear sky illuminated only by the stars and the Moon, it was still 28C at midnight at the estate in southern Portugal's Alentejo region.
But the temperature was much lower than the daytime peak of 40C, with such highs creeping into September as well as baking the country during the summer months.
The nighttime harvests "have become a necessity" to spare the workers from "temperatures of more than 40 degrees", said Renato Neves, director of production at Herdade das Servas.
 

 'Response to climate change'

 
As in other European regions struck by an exceptionally warm and dry summer, the grape harvest in Alentejo started in early August -- two weeks earlier than usual.
The new working conditions also offer an advantage for the wine-making process at the estate, which produced some 277,000 litres of red, white and rose wine in 2025.
"At night, the grapes arrive fresher, which delays the start of fermentation," making it possible to "obtain better decanting" and a better "extraction of aromas", explained Neves.
As well as adapting the working hours, Neves's estate no longer removes the weeds that grow at the base of the vines to try to retain soil humidity and thwart the increasingly hot, dry conditions.
At daybreak, the workers leave the vines and the harvest is taken to vats, where the grapes are washed and sorted before being crushed. 
The night harvest then provides another advantage, as the cellar works at full capacity during the day, when the estate's solar panels are at their most productive.
The spread of harvesting at night across several European countries "is a response to climate change, and in Mediterranean climates I think this practice is here to stay", said oenologist Rui Reguinga.
The wine expert believes the new method is "another step in the transition towards a more sustainable viticulture".
But fellow oenologist Tiago Macena, a specialist in grape varieties native to Portugal, said the adaptation had its limits as it requires a specific organisation and a workforce prepared to work at night.
The practice is for now "limited to large wine estates" that characterise the country's south, but is yet to find an uptake among the smaller producers in the north, he said.
lf/imm/phz

environment

Online and undercover: saving trafficked wildlife in Thailand

BY SARA HUSSEIN AND THANAPORN PROMYAMYAI

  • Wildlife traffickers can face up to 10 years in prison for crimes involving protected species, or 15 years for endangered species.
  • Nawee Changpirom has spent years working to rescue trafficked wildlife in Thailand, but even he can sometimes hardly believe the creatures he has found: leopards, hornbills, and once an anteater.
  • Wildlife traffickers can face up to 10 years in prison for crimes involving protected species, or 15 years for endangered species.
Nawee Changpirom has spent years working to rescue trafficked wildlife in Thailand, but even he can sometimes hardly believe the creatures he has found: leopards, hornbills, and once an anteater.
"We even found living corals hidden in a ceiling," he told AFP.
Nawee heads a raid unit in the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) that tries to stop the sale of everything from African elephant ivory to monkeys wanted as pets or for laboratory testing.
Alongside weapons, drugs and human trafficking, the illegal wildlife trade is among the most widespread and profitable forms of organised crime globally, run by cross-border cartels.
Thailand occupies a rareposition because of its abundant local wildlife, the availability of rare species in nearby countries, and its accessibility by sea, air and land.
The DNP set up a dedicated Wildlife Crime Intelligence Unit (WCU)in 2023 with three permanent staff charged with tracking and intercepting illegal purchases.
They spend much of their time trawling social media, which is now "the key channel" for buying and selling illegal animals, said WCU director Polawee Buchakiet.
Wildlife traders often describe animals as needing to be "rehomed", rather than explicitly offering them for sale, and post tightly cropped images of their wares to avoid revealing their locations.
But the WCU has undercover officers who can track them down.

Undercover officers

One undercover officer--known by the pseudonym "Tee"--has shinned up electricity poles disguised as a repairman to peer into courtyards and take photos, and posed as a land surveyor to look into windows on neighbouring plots.
The WCU needs such evidence to obtain court warrants to go in and seize the animals.
He is still haunted by cases where sellers could not be located, or the team arrived too late, finding the creatures either dead or so sickly they died soon after rescue.
Trafficked animals are often weakened by the process of smuggling, stressed by the loss of their habitat and family group, and vulnerable to unfamiliar diseases.
"I wonder to myself if we could have done something to get there sooner," Tee, 43, told AFP.
"Whether they are big or small, all animals' lives are precious."

Exotic pets

At just six months old, the leaf monkey curled up inside DNP vet Thanawadee Phaichana's rubber-gloved hand is very small indeed.
He was intercepted in luggage at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, bound for India, where demand for exotic animals as pets has been growing.
A second monkey found in the same bag died after being rescued.
"Most of these smuggled animals will be in a weak condition... some are given sedatives or even mild anesthetic to keep them from moving or making noise," Thanawadee said.
Animals rescued in and around Bangkok often come to the DNP's small facility for initial treatment before being transferred to a sanctuary.
Older, healthier animals might eventually return to the wild, but younger ones struggle to learn the skills needed to survive.
"I feel sorry for them," said Thanawadee.
Wildlife traffickers can face up to 10 years in prison for crimes involving protected species, or 15 years for endangered species.
There has been a string of recent high-profile arrests, including a July raid that rescued a leaf monkey, a gibbon and hundreds of turtles, as well as multiple interceptions at airports.
But there have also been setbacks.
In 2019, a Thai court dismissed the case against suspected wildlife trafficking kingpin Boonchai Bach. While the Supreme Court later sentenced him to prison, he remains at large.
The team also struggles with stonewalling from social media sites and chronic shortages of staff and funds.
Officers posing as undercover buyers sometimes have to use their own money, Nawee said.
What would make a real difference? An end to the exotic pet trade, he said.
"These are wild animals, they don't belong in a cage."
tp-sah/ar/lkd/abs

climate

As oceans warm, Florida scientists hunt for heat-resistant coral

BY JESUS OLARTE

  • Others are placed onto table frames fixed to the ocean floor, and yet others are mounted onto plugs, screwed into a three-hole "cookie" and planted onto the reef. 
  • Off Florida's coast, a team of scientists and trained volunteers in scuba gear descends to the ocean floor and begins planting young coral onto a reef and examining how others are faring in the increasingly warm waters.
  • Others are placed onto table frames fixed to the ocean floor, and yet others are mounted onto plugs, screwed into a three-hole "cookie" and planted onto the reef. 
Off Florida's coast, a team of scientists and trained volunteers in scuba gear descends to the ocean floor and begins planting young coral onto a reef and examining how others are faring in the increasingly warm waters.
It is part of a long-running "Rescue a Reef" program run by the University of Miami that aims to advance conservation efforts and raise public awareness. 
Part of that work involves researching which coral species are able to better withstand rapidly warming oceans as a result of human-caused climate change.
"Certain species may be more resilient, where they're able to better survive and recover from thermal stress events," program manager Devon Ledbetter explained to AFP during a recent dive to Rainbow Reef about three miles offshore from Key Biscayne. 
Coral reefs support vibrant marine ecosystems, but also act as breakwaters, protecting coastlines from storm-driven erosion and flooding. 
The situation, however, is increasingly dire. 
A record-breaking marine heat wave that began in 2023 left two ecologically vital coral species, elkhorn and staghorn, "functionally extinct" in Florida's Coral Reef, highlighting the growing dangers a warming climate poses for the world's oceans.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believes that this fourth global coral bleaching event likely concluded in mid-2025. But the arrival of a very strong El Nino could bring a return to more widespread bleaching -- including in Florida's waters. 
During the expedition, the participants go about their tasks diligently. Some coral species with fast-growing branches are planted onto "coral trees" that look like old television antennas and are suspended in the water column, with floats to keep them upright. 
Others are placed onto table frames fixed to the ocean floor, and yet others are mounted onto plugs, screwed into a three-hole "cookie" and planted onto the reef. 
These are given predation umbrellas to protect them from the hungry fish having a nibble.
Researchers place color reference charts around newly planted coral to record the pigmentation, a method used to monitor its health and detect early signs of heat stress. 
Coral is made up of tiny individual animals called polyps, which maintain a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae that live within their tissues. 
When the algae are stressed by heat or pollution, however, they leave, causing the coral to "bleach" and become vulnerable to disease and death.
"Anecdotally, we've seen that Mountainous Star Coral tends to be the most resilient to bleaching and thermal stress," Ledbetter explained. So far, this summer the program has planted 615 coral, with 228 of those part of the thermal bleaching study. Their results are then given to state environmental and wildlife authorities. 
The program began in 2015 and Ledbetter explained it exists both to serve science and educate the public -- but also to rebuild the ecosystem "one coral at a time."
The risks have never been higher. Even with the end of the fourth global bleaching event, sea surface temperatures are still higher than 25 to 30 years ago, when the first global coral bleaching event occurred, according to recent research published by NOAA in the journal Coral Reefs.
str-ia/md

celebrity

Evacuations in Malibu after waves open sinkhole at Nicolas Cage's house

  • Malibu city officials issued an evacuation order affecting dozens of homes in some of the most sought-after real estate in Southern California.
  • People living in an upmarket coastal stretch of Malibu were under an evacuation order Wednesday after a giant sinkhole opened up on the driveway of a beachfront home belonging to Oscar-winning US actor Nicolas Cage.
  • Malibu city officials issued an evacuation order affecting dozens of homes in some of the most sought-after real estate in Southern California.
People living in an upmarket coastal stretch of Malibu were under an evacuation order Wednesday after a giant sinkhole opened up on the driveway of a beachfront home belonging to Oscar-winning US actor Nicolas Cage.
The enormous hole appeared Tuesday as heavy surf -- brought by the after-effects of a hurricane -- pounded the exclusive coastline, which is home to some of California's wealthiest people and a host of celebrities.
Photographs of the crater, estimated to be as much as 60 feet (18 meters) wide in places, showed it contained concrete, tiles and a portable toilet that appeared to have been placed at the multi-million dollar home for use by workmen who were doing alterations.
By Tuesday evening, the sinkhole was around 25 feet deep, as waves from the churning Pacific Ocean continued to eat away at the coastline, lapping around the stanchions that support the house which the "Leaving Las Vegas" actor bought for $10.5 million.
Malibu city officials issued an evacuation order affecting dozens of homes in some of the most sought-after real estate in Southern California.
"The Director of Emergency Services of the City of Malibu has declared the existence of a local emergency following a large sinkhole forming near 31630 Sea Level Drive," an announcement said.
"An evacuation order is in effect for all affected properties. Sheriff Deputies have notified residents in person, and a digital alert has been issued by the City."
South of Los Angeles, truckloads of boulders had been placed along a stretch of beach in Dana Point in an effort to protect properties in a spot where seven homes have already been declared uninhabitable, with one partially collapsing into the sea.
Richard Thompson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told AFP on Tuesday that coastal waters were being roiled by the remnants of Hurricane Marie.
"There were some pretty significant surf and swells across area in the last several days," he said.
"At the height of the surf and swell, we had some very significant wave heights of 10 up to 15 feet (3.0-4.5 meters) in some spots, along with significant beach erosion."
This week Hurricane Lowell lashed Hawaii with damaging winds, heavy rainfall and powerful floods, blacking out power across most of one island.
A near-record-strength El Nino climate episode is warming the waters of the Pacific Ocean and promoting the formation of powerful storms.
While the warming phase is a natural phenomenon, scientists believe the human-caused heating of the climate could make its effects much larger.
hg/md

summer

'Alarm bells ringing': US summer heat shatters record

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • - Heat stress and increased energy demand - "The record summer is certainly in line with what we expect from human-caused climate change; as the US and the planet as a whole warms, heat waves become both more frequent and more intense," climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth told AFP. "It should absolutely send alarm bells ringing, as these hotter summers lead to increased heat stress, higher energy demand for cooling, and strain on infrastructure and public health systems."
  • The United States has endured its hottest summer on record, a new peak that scientists said should send alarm bells ringing over the increasingly dire impacts of climate change.
  • - Heat stress and increased energy demand - "The record summer is certainly in line with what we expect from human-caused climate change; as the US and the planet as a whole warms, heat waves become both more frequent and more intense," climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth told AFP. "It should absolutely send alarm bells ringing, as these hotter summers lead to increased heat stress, higher energy demand for cooling, and strain on infrastructure and public health systems."
The United States has endured its hottest summer on record, a new peak that scientists said should send alarm bells ringing over the increasingly dire impacts of climate change.
The average temperature for the contiguous US states -- excluding Alaska and Hawaii -- in the June-to-August period was 74.4F (23.6C), exceeding the previous record, set in 1936 and 2021, by 0.4F, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday.
That means that four of the hottest summers on record occurred within the past five years, with 2022 and 2024 taking fourth and fifth place respectively, with human-caused climate change due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels looming large over the trend.
This year also saw the warmest August since records began in 1895, with average temperatures of 75.6F.
NOAA had previously announced that July 2026 was the hottest of all months ever recorded in the United States.

No surprise

"This is occurring exactly as forecast by scientists literally decades ago," Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, told AFP. 
"The interesting question is not whether we will keep breaking heat records (we will), but whether we're going to do anything about it or just stand there while the climate train runs us over."
The so-called "Dust Bowl summers" of the 1930s -- especially that of 1936 -- were fueled by drought and extreme heat combining with overplowing across the Great Plains.
"We've eclipsed the summer of the Dust Bowl drought of 1936, but just by a hair, it's like a photo finish," Karin Gleason, chief of the monitoring section of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, told AFP.
She explained that while 1936's record was driven by extreme daytime highs, the 2026 record was driven by unusually warm overnight lows -- a result of overall global warming that lets the atmosphere hold more moisture, which keeps nights from cooling off as much.  

Heat stress and increased energy demand

"The record summer is certainly in line with what we expect from human-caused climate change; as the US and the planet as a whole warms, heat waves become both more frequent and more intense," climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth told AFP.
"It should absolutely send alarm bells ringing, as these hotter summers lead to increased heat stress, higher energy demand for cooling, and strain on infrastructure and public health systems."
Precipitation was below average, ranking in the driest third on record for both August and for the June-August period, and drought covered nearly 60 percent of the contiguous US by September 1.
Notable events included Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir, dropping to its lowest level on record. Elsewhere, severe storms brought heavy rain, including in central Indiana.
Beyond those 48 states, Alaska's average temperature during August and average summer temperature ranked in the warmest third among records, while Hawaii saw its third warmest August and a summer that fell into the warmest third. 
Hawaii was also exceptionally wet: Hurricane Lala brought heavy rainfall contributing to its second-wettest August on record.
The data comes as a strengthening El Nino pattern, expected to be the most intense in decades, begins to unleash extreme weather across much of the globe. 
It is predicted to peak between October and December and fuel record heat in 2027. But because of this El Nino's extreme strength -- with near-record ocean temperatures already seen in the tropical Pacific -- it could even push 2026 past 2024 as the hottest year on record.
"The flip side of that is that we can prevent this from getting worse," University of Pennsylvania climatologist Michael Mann told AFP. 
"The consensus among climate scientists is that surface warming of the planet will stop when we reach zero carbon emissions, and we have the clean energy technology to do this. It's simply a matter of finding the political will."
ia/bgs/md

landslide

Nepal seeks survivors two weeks after deadly floods

  • Three people were rescued from deep inside tunnels -- two Nepalis on Friday and a Chinese man on Saturday.
  • Nepali rescuers clung to hopes of finding survivors trapped in hydropower tunnels on Wednesday, two weeks after deadly flooding triggered by a glacial mountain collapse.
  • Three people were rescued from deep inside tunnels -- two Nepalis on Friday and a Chinese man on Saturday.
Nepali rescuers clung to hopes of finding survivors trapped in hydropower tunnels on Wednesday, two weeks after deadly flooding triggered by a glacial mountain collapse.
The August 26 tsunami-like surge of water, mud and debris, which began on the China-Nepal border, has killed more than 1,410 people and left 5,651 missing.
"The rescue and search work in the tunnels at Trishuli 3A, 3B and Chilime hydropower projects is ongoing," Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
In Nepal, 1,367 bodies have been recovered and 5,132 people are missing, its disaster authority said on Wednesday. 
In China, 43 people are dead and 519 are missing, according to state media.
Hundreds of foreigners are among the missing, as well as hundreds of hydropower workers.
Three people were rescued from deep inside tunnels -- two Nepalis on Friday and a Chinese man on Saturday.
But there has been no official confirmation of further survivors since then.
Authorities appealed on Wednesday for overseas family members of the missing -- preferably parents or children -- to submit DNA samples via email.
A public notice outlined specific types of genetic tests the family members should seek out depending on their sex and relationship to the missing person.
Thousands of people displaced by the disaster are living in camps, and the charity Save the Children said as many as 540 children had been separated from their parents.
Nepal police said they were taking extra care to ensure the safety of children and women in relief camps.
"We have become more vigilant in temporary holding centres in the affected areas where there are children, women or minority groups who could be victims of sexual abuse," said Nepal Police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle. 
"We have also started providing psychosocial counselling in different camps," he told AFP.
While the exact cause of the glacial collapse is unclear, climate change is accelerating glacial melt worldwide and increasing the risk of such disasters.
Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million people that has contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, has said reconstruction could cost billions of dollars.
Kafle said security personnel have involved community members to search for bodies feared buried under debris. 
"We have started a special search campaign for missing bodies all across the Bhotekoshi river corridor," he said. 
"We are also using drones to search for bodies."
aoj-abh/lga/des/md

summer

US had warmest summer on record: climate agency

  • Average temperature for the meteorological summer, defined as the June-to-August period, was 74.4F (23.6C), exceeding previous records, set in 1936 and 2021, by 0.4F. That means that four of the hottest summers on record occurred within the past five years, with 2022 and 2024 taking fourth and fifth place respectively, with human-caused climate change, due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels, looming large over the trend.
  • The contiguous United States endured its hottest summer since modern records began, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday, in the latest sign of a warming trend driven by human-caused climate change.
  • Average temperature for the meteorological summer, defined as the June-to-August period, was 74.4F (23.6C), exceeding previous records, set in 1936 and 2021, by 0.4F. That means that four of the hottest summers on record occurred within the past five years, with 2022 and 2024 taking fourth and fifth place respectively, with human-caused climate change, due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels, looming large over the trend.
The contiguous United States endured its hottest summer since modern records began, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday, in the latest sign of a warming trend driven by human-caused climate change.
Average temperature for the meteorological summer, defined as the June-to-August period, was 74.4F (23.6C), exceeding previous records, set in 1936 and 2021, by 0.4F.
That means that four of the hottest summers on record occurred within the past five years, with 2022 and 2024 taking fourth and fifth place respectively, with human-caused climate change, due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels, looming large over the trend.
The so-called "Dust Bowl summers" of the 1930s -- especially that of 1936 -- were fueled by drought and extreme heat combining with overplowing across the Great Plains.
This year also saw the warmest August since records began in 1895, with average temperatures of 75.6F.
Most of the mainland United States experienced above- to much-above-average August temperatures, with near-average conditions seen only in parts of the northern Plains and Midwest, NOAA said. 
It comes as a strengthening El Nino pattern, expected to be the most intense in decades, has begun unleashing extreme weather across the globe. 
It is predicted to bring record heat to 2027, but could also help make 2026 the hottest year on record, surpassing 2024.
ia/msp

Africa

As African space race heats up, Senegal pursues homemade satellites

BY YSIS PERCQ IN MONTPELLIER, WITH AFP AFRICAN BUREAUS

  • There's also the question of independence in an industry still dominated by non-African space agencies and firms.
  • Senegalese engineers in hairnets and white gloves are carefully assembling a nanosatellite at a French lab -- another step towards fostering their own space industry back home. 
  • There's also the question of independence in an industry still dominated by non-African space agencies and firms.
Senegalese engineers in hairnets and white gloves are carefully assembling a nanosatellite at a French lab -- another step towards fostering their own space industry back home. 
Preparations are already under way for the building of future satellites at a new headquarters for Sensat, Senegal's national space programme, outside Dakar -- part of a breakneck push by several African space agencies jostling for their own piece of the final frontier. 
"We have mastered the manufacturing process," Gayane Faye, chief of Sensat, told AFP in the sterile lab at the University of Montpellier in southern France.
The engineers from Sensat built their first satellite -- Gaindesat-1A -- in collaboration with the Montpellier scientists, launching it in 2024. Gainde means "lion" in the local Wolof language.
For the follow-up, Gaindesat-1B, which will collect environmental and climate data, "we've removed the coaching component", Faye said.

Growth

It's part of a drive for technological independence by Senegal, mirrored in many parts of Africa.
Representatives from the continent were set to be a key presence at a space summit held in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday.
Across Africa, national space budgets have grown to $800 million, said Temidayo Oniosun, founder of Lagos-based consultancy Space in Africa, up from less than $300 million in 2018.
That is a tiny fraction of the world total, which was $132 billion in 2024, 60 percent of it from the United States. 
But it is growing: the African Union has a new continental space agency in Cairo, and the number of countries on the continent with a space programme has jumped from eight to more than 20 since 2018, according to Oniosun.
Africa's entry into space is not entirely new: Egypt launched its Nilesat 101 from French Guyana in 1998, a first for the continent.
Nigeria's national space agency was founded the following year, sent its first device space-bound in 2003, and currently runs two satellites in orbit -- one for communications and the other run by the military's separate space agency, said Oniosun.
South Africa, another historic player, is home to a ground station that has overseen communications for hundreds of launches, and a second facility being developed with US space agency NASA is due to open within two years.
Italy built a satellite-launching station on the Kenyan coast in the 1960s that operated until 1988.
Kenya developed its own satellite, Taifa-1, that launched from a SpaceX rocket in 2023.
Even restive Somalia could have its own space port as part of a $6-billion partnership with Turkey announced last year. 
New players continue to join the rush: Ivory Coast named its first space agency director last month and will host the African Space Expo later this month.

Planning, monitoring

Better satellite data is seen as key for urban planning and environmental monitoring, which are major issues on a continent whose cities are growing at a rapid rate and whose farmers and fishers are increasingly at the mercy of a changing climate.
"For the first phase of Africa's space development, success was often measured by whether a country could launch a satellite," said Richard Folly, of Togo-based African Geospace, whose company has worked on flood risk and disaster management.
"The next phase has to ask a harder question: what economic, strategic or societal value is that satellite producing?"
There's also the question of independence in an industry still dominated by non-African space agencies and firms.
Despite the country's long-running satellite programme, Nigerian agencies "don't build technology locally", said Oniosun.
Senegal is determined to start generating its own satellite images since "certain services cannot even be carried out because we lack the means to buy them," said Faye.
For the next satellite, Sensat's third, "we aim to move toward developing our own technology -- specifically, our own payload to be flown on the satellite."
Then, if the infrastructure is ready, "the fourth satellite can be built entirely in Senegal".
burs-nro/er/kjm

climate

Heat forces French champagne makers to stiffen their drink

  • Growers had to harvest exceptionally early this year as extreme heat sped sugar buildup -- and hence natural alcohol production -- in the grapes, according to the Comite Champagne industry association.
  • Drinking this year's champagne might give you a heftier headache as France's record heatwaves are forcing some producers to up the alcohol levels, industry officials said Wednesday.
  • Growers had to harvest exceptionally early this year as extreme heat sped sugar buildup -- and hence natural alcohol production -- in the grapes, according to the Comite Champagne industry association.
Drinking this year's champagne might give you a heftier headache as France's record heatwaves are forcing some producers to up the alcohol levels, industry officials said Wednesday.
French authorities have allowed champagne houses to make their bubbly with alcohol content of up to 15 percent, a historic first for a wine usually limited to 13 percent.
Growers had to harvest exceptionally early this year as extreme heat sped sugar buildup -- and hence natural alcohol production -- in the grapes, according to the Comite Champagne industry association.
Nonetheless, "the crop already has all the hallmarks of producing great, perhaps even exceptional, wines", the group said in a statement.
Authorities have also allowed a temporary easing of strict rules for making several types of cheese after heatwaves scorched grazing pastures.
France is the world's second-largest wine producer after Italy, and this summer's heat and drought have deepened fears for many growers about how they will cope with climate change.
The 2026 harvest was the earliest ever recorded in the champagne region, with the first grapes cut as early as August 6 and the harvest becoming widespread on August 17, two weeks earlier than in 2025, when it was already considered to be early, according to the association.
Due to climate change, "this unusual harvest will probably become the norm in 10 to 15 years," said Maxime Toubart, the co-chairman of the Comite Champagne.
It "should prompt reflection on the champagne of tomorrow", he said.
Fellow co-chair David Chatillon said the relaxed alcohol content would concern just a small number of growers.
"The average after the harvest is below 12 percent," Chatillon said. "Not all winegrowers in Champagne will be above that level."
cln-kau-as/ah/js

environment

The round-the-clock monitors protecting Bhutan from glacier risk

BY SARA HUSSEIN

  • "We, the control room operators, are more vigilant than we were before."
  • In a humble control room a few hours from Bhutan's capital, a team works around the clock to monitor the risks of the Himalayan country's rapidly melting glaciers.
  • "We, the control room operators, are more vigilant than we were before."
In a humble control room a few hours from Bhutan's capital, a team works around the clock to monitor the risks of the Himalayan country's rapidly melting glaciers.
The glacial collapse that caused deadly floods on the Nepal-Tibet border late last month is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by Bhutan, which has over 600 glaciers nestled in the mountain ranges across its north.
As climate change melts these ancient ice rivers, they can form glacial lakes held back by fragile debris walls. When these collapse, the lakes burst and flood communities downstream.
The threat is not theoretical. In 1994, a so-called glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) killed 21 people along Bhutan's Punatsangchhu river, also know as the Sankosh. 
The risk has increased exponentially since then.
"The Thorthormi glacier, due to climate change, it has fully transformed into a glacial lake," said Dechen Peldon, junior engineer at the GLOF emergency warning facility in Wangdue Phodrang region.
"Now we have to be more vigilant and more concerned."
The warning centre began work in 2011, as part of a push for better monitoring after the 1994 GLOF. 
It oversees a network of sensors that detect changes in water levels at glacial lakes and downstream rivers, and sirens that warn communities to evacuate.
There are over 600 glacial lakes in Bhutan, with 17 considered potentially dangerous.
Some of those considered most dangerous sit at the head of a river feeding into the Punatsangchhu. 
Four glacial lakes have formed, with two only separated from each other by a fragile debris dam.
In a "worst-case scenario", the wall separating the lakes would collapse, unleashing an estimated 53 million cubic metres of water downstream.

'More vigilant'

The nearest communities would have just minutes to evacuate, so sirens there are automatically triggered if water level changes suggest a potential GLOF.
Sirens further downstream are triggered manually by Dechen's team, which works 24 hours a day, if a dangerous change in water levels is detected.
Though the recent disaster in neighbouring Nepal involved a glacier collapse, rather than a GLOF, it has reinforced the urgency of the job, said Dechen.
"I'm more alarmed and taking this more seriously," she said.
"We, the control room operators, are more vigilant than we were before."
Working with the disaster agency, the facility organises mock drills and information sessions, but nearby cafe owner Pushpa Karki admitted she was not sure what the siren outside her business even sounds like.
"I've never have been part of any drill," the 30-year-old told AFP.
"They talk about mountain areas being prone to floods, so we are cautious. But I don't know about the glacier-related flood risk."
Around 70 percent of Bhutan's settlements are along rivers, and the government is trying to tackle the risk upstream.
In 2008, the country began a years-long project to dig out and widen a channel from the Thorthormi glacier lake. The gruelling, high-altitude work gradually lowered the level of the lake by five metres, reducing the pressure on the debris dam keeping it in place.
But continuous melt has filled the lake again, and now experts are trying to siphon water out, explained Bhutan's leading glaciologist, Karma, who uses a single name.

'So sad'

"Our glaciers are melting at a very alarming rate," he told AFP at his office in the capital Thimphu, where he works as a specialist for the National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology.
Bhutan's largest glaciers are retreating 30-35 metres (98-115 feet) a year, he said, while smaller glaciers are receding around 12-16 metres.
That is professionally concerning, but also personally painful for Karma, who decided to become the country's first glaciologist after accompanying Japanese experts surveying the region.
"I could literally climb on the glaciers," he said.
"But now you cannot do that... it's so sad actually."
Karma feels Bhutan's experience on the frontlines of climate change is especially unfair, given it absorbs more planet-warning carbon that it emits, partly because its laws require forest cover across 60 percent of its territory.
"The fear, the risk, which is being brought to the communities in Bhutan are not from our fault," he said.
"I would like to appeal to the rest of the world to take responsibility."
sah/lkd/lga/ane

science

Canada eyes researchers looking to leave 'hostile' US

BY FANNY ALARCON

  • Trump has also launched a campaign against certain American universities, accusing them of operating with a left-wing bias and advancing priorities he views with suspicion, including climate science.
  • Fed up with the funding restrictions surrounding her research on the links between climate change and health, American epidemiologist Sheryl Magzamen has left the United States for Canada.
  • Trump has also launched a campaign against certain American universities, accusing them of operating with a left-wing bias and advancing priorities he views with suspicion, including climate science.
Fed up with the funding restrictions surrounding her research on the links between climate change and health, American epidemiologist Sheryl Magzamen has left the United States for Canada.
The former University of Colorado researcher, now with the University of Montreal, is one of the dozens of scientists to quit US-based posts in recent months for a role in Canada, which is making a push to attract US talent.
Watching academic freedom decline in the United States was "very hard," Magzamen told AFP, citing multiple grant withdrawals in a research area that has been derided by President Donald Trump's administration.
But she said the University of Montreal has offered her "an incredible amount of resources" for long-term research -- and she has started learning French to help integrate into Quebec, Canada's majority-francophone province.
Since Trump returned to office last year, major Canadian institutions have publicly declared their desire to recruit leading US-based researchers who may be looking to move.
Canada's largest hospital group, the University Health Network, said last year it would open its doors to a range of foreign experts, including US scientists studying vaccines, an area where the Trump administration has made sweeping and controversial policy changes.
Trump has also launched a campaign against certain American universities, accusing them of operating with a left-wing bias and advancing priorities he views with suspicion, including climate science.
Canada, which is locked in an escalating and costly trade war with the United States, has launched a CAN$1.7 billion (US$1.23 billion) 12-year program to recruit researchers globally, but it's clear the United States is a top poaching target.
"While certain countries are cutting research and turning their back on academic freedom, we're doubling down on science and we're doubling down on research," Industry Minister Melanie Joly said last month.

'Hostile' climate

Molecular biology professor Phillip Zamore is set to leave the University of Massachusetts for McGill University in Montreal in April.
"The climate towards science in the US now is hostile," he told AFP, condemning an approach he called "counterproductive to doing great science."
"I decided I had to move somewhere else," he added, praising Canada for continuing to value "scientific enterprise."
Quebec City's Laval University has hired 15 researchers from the United States during Trump's second term.
Laval's rector, Sophie D'Amours, told AFP that the recruitment effort has been helped by what she called "state control over science" in the United States.

'Healthy competition'

Canada is not the only country eyeing talent from elite US institutions, which for decades has been a major engine for global innovation.
The European Union allocated 500 million euros (US$581 million) from 2025 to 2027 to lure US-based researchers.
In May, France announced that it had identified 60 foreign scientists it wanted to recruit, mostly US-based researchers.
McGill University's vice-president for research and innovation, Dominique Berube, called the battle for US talent "a healthy form of competition" and an opportunity for Canada to bring in specialists in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and medicine to aerospace.
Zamore, the molecular biology professor at the University of Massachusetts, said he used to receive two applications for postdoctoral positions per week, but those applications have completely dried up.
"It is now much more attractive for students to study in Canada than in the United States," he said.
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