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Dead fish in River Oder on Polish/German border spur contamination probe
By Marek Strzelecki WARSAW (Reuters) – Tonnes of dead fish have been hauled out of the River Oder, which flows along part of Poland’s border with Germany, and officials warned people not to enter the...
Britain’s dry summer set to trigger drought declarations
LONDON (Reuters) – Parts of England are likely to declare a drought on Friday, local media reported ahead of a meeting between the government, its environment agency and water companies to discuss a long period of dry weather. Parts of England are in the middle of their second heatwave this summer with temperatures forecast to...
UK leadership candidate Sunak says scrapping BoE independence would be a massive mistake
LONDON (Reuters) – Rishi Sunak, the underdog in the race to become Britain’s next prime minister, said scrapping the Bank of England’s independence would be a mistake that would scare off international investors. Asked about comments from leadership front-runner Liz Truss’s team suggesting that the central bank’s rate-setting independence should be reviewed, Sunak said: “That...
Colombia peace commissioner in Cuba to meet ELN rebels
By Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s new high peace commissioner has traveled to Cuba to meet representatives of the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels and examine a possible restart to peace talks, President Gustavo Petro said on Thursday. Petro, who took office on Sunday and is a former member of the M-19 guerrilla...
Explainer-Causes and consequences of Amazon fires and deforestation
By Jake Spring and Gloria Dickie (Reuters) – Brazil vowed last year to halt deforestation by 2030, yet the number of fires burning in the country’s Amazon rainforest hit a 15-year high in June. Burning season began last month and the rate of forest clearing remains high. Things could worsen this month, as Brazil’s fires...
Landfills around the world release a lot of methane – study
By Gloria Dickie LONDON (Reuters) – Decomposing food waste is releasing thousands of tonnes of planet-warming methane gas at landfills in Buenos Aires, Delhi, Mumbai, and Lahore, new research finds. With about 570 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas emitted every year from both industrial and natural processes, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere...
Pivotal evolutionary change helped pave the way for human speech
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have identified evolutionary modifications in the voice box distinguishing people from other primates that may underpin a capability indispensable to humankind – speaking. Researchers said on Thursday an examination of the voice box, known as the larynx, in 43 species of primates showed that humans differ from apes...
Eye socket changes amped up bite force in T. rex and friends
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tyrannosaurus rex possessed awe-inspiring bite force, with the huge meat-eating dinosaur’s bone-crunching chomp estimated to pack about 8,000 pounds (3,630 kg) of might – about equal to the weight of three small cars. This bite strength was aided in T. rex and other large predatory dinosaurs by an intriguing...
Exclusive-Rotavirus childhood vaccine shortage hits four African countries
By Jennifer Rigby LONDON (Reuters) – Supplies of a vaccine to prevent the deadly rotavirus infection in children have either run out in Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal and Cameroon or are close to doing so, officials close to the roll-out told Reuters, after disruptions at drugmaker GSK. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 200,000...
Landfills around the world release a lot of methane – study
LONDON (Reuters) – Decomposing food waste is releasing thousands of tonnes of planet-warming methane gas at landfills in Buenos Aires, Delhi, Mumbai, and Lahore, new research finds. With about 570 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas emitted every year from both industrial and natural processes, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere has been increasing...
Canadian police arrest 22 in crackdown on gun and drug smugglers
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian police arrested 22 people, seized 27 handguns and drugs worth C$1.3 million ($1 million) during a 10-month investigation into a gun- and drug-trafficking network operating in Canada and the United States, authorities said on Wednesday. The seized guns were obtained illegally and with criminal intent, Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Paul...
Polio spreading in London, booster campaign launched for under-10s – health agency
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain is launching a polio vaccine booster campaign for children in London aged below 10, after confirming that the virus is spreading in the capital for the first time since the 1980s. The UK Health Security Agency has identified 116 polioviruses from 19 sewage samples this year in London. It first raised the...
Serena’s looming retirement drives U.S. Open ticket sales
(Reuters) – Demand for tickets to witness tennis great Serena Williams in action at the U.S. Open spiked in the 24 hours following her announcement that she would retire after the hardcourt major in New York, ticket retailer StubHub told Reuters. “We typically see demand spike on StubHub when a player announces their retirement, and...
Energy price crisis exposes Britain’s ‘leaky’ homes
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Sitting in his cool front room in Worcester Park, a suburb of sprawling south London, John Butler explains how it used to feel living in his 1930s home. The damp caused cupboards to go mouldy and the wallpaper to peel. The interior walls could be cold to the touch in...
Japan PM shuffles cabinet as anger deepens over ties to Unification Church
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his cabinet on Wednesday amid growing public anger about the ruling party’s ties to the controversial Unification Church, saying the group had held no sway over party policy. The Liberal Democratic Party’s longstanding links to the Unification Church, which critics call a cult, has become a major...
11th August
Cuba tames its largest fire, fuel depot locals begin to return
MATANZAS, Cuba (Reuters) – Massive clouds of steam rose from Cuba’s largest fuel depot in Matanzas on Wednesday as firefighters, helicopters and boats poured water and foam on the smoldering remains of the largest fire in the island’s history. Black charcoal covered with white ash remained red hot after the flames died down. One firefighter...
‘Hitting rock bottom’ – drought, heat drain Spanish reservoirs
CIJARA, Spain (Reuters) – A flock of sheep shelter from the midday sun under the gothic arches of a medieval bridge flooded in 1956 to create the Cijara reservoir in central Spain, but now fully exposed as the reservoir is 84% empty after a severe drought. In Andalusia, one of Europe’s hottest and driest regions,...
Like a scene from ‘Parasite’: Floods lay bare social disparity in South Korea
SEOUL (Reuters) – Using a plastic bowl, Ha In-sik bailed water out of his lower ground apartment in the low-income housing district of Sillim in southwestern Seoul on Wednesday, where flooding caused by torrential rain forced his family to sleep at a nearby park. The 50-year-old man, along with his wife and daughter had collected...
What’s in a name? Illinois hopes to make invasive carp fish more palatable
(Reuters) – Illinois is rebranding an invasive carp in the hopes of encouraging people to eat it – and solving a decades-old issue that has been threatening the ecosystem of the U.S. state’s waterways. “We’ve launched a new name, ‘copi’, to help people consume this delicious fish and help us do our work in keeping...
Brazilian woman swindled mother of more than $100 million in art, police say
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian woman Sabine Coll Boghici, 48, was arrested on Wednesday on allegations she was part of a bizarre scheme to defraud her 82-year-old mother, Genevieve Boghici, the wife of the late art collector Jean Boghici, out of money, artwork and jewelry totaling some 724 million reais ($142.42 million). Her arrest...
Satellite imagery shows Antarctic ice shelf crumbling faster than thought
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Antarctica’s coastal glaciers are shedding icebergs more rapidly than nature can replenish the crumbling ice, doubling previous estimates of losses from the world’s largest ice sheet over the past 25 years, a satellite analysis showed on Wednesday. The first-of-its-kind study, led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los...
Cathay Pacific narrows loss but COVID rules on crew cloud outlook
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said Hong Kong’s strict COVID rules for air crew were crimping the airline’s ability to exploit rising demand for travel, even as its first-half loss narrowed to HK$5 billion ($636.98 million). The carrier is falling behind traditional rival Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIA) in restoring international capacity as roster...
Japan weather bureau: 60% chance of La Nina continuing through early winter
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s weather bureau said on Wednesday there was a 60% chance of La Nina continuing in the northern hemisphere through the early winter and 40% chance of weather conditions returning to normal during the autumn. La Nina brings unusually cool ocean temperatures to the equatorial Pacific Ocean region and is also linked...
Australia, China not yet ready to tackle trade disputes – Chinese envoy
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia and China have not yet reached the point of talking about how to resolve their trade disputes, the Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said on Wednesday. “Currently, there have been top level communications … even face-to-face contacts but we have not yet come to the stage to discuss about how...
Torrential rain lessens in S.Korean capital amid heavy flood damage
SEOUL (Reuters) – Torrential rains that have slammed South Korea’s capital, Seoul, diminished on Wednesday after killing at least nine people and damaging about 2,800 homes and other buildings. More rain was forecast for Wednesday, but less than the heavy downpours on Monday and Tuesday that submerged some streets and buildings, trapping people in flooded...
Rhine water falls again in Germany, river shipping costs rise
HAMBURG (Reuters) – Water levels on the river Rhine in Germany have fallen again in hot and dry weather and shipping costs are rising as vessels cut loads to continue sailing, commodity traders said on Wednesday. Shallow water after the summer heat-wave has hampered shipping on the entire river in Germany since July, along with...
Wildfires rage in France, thousands evacuated from homes
HOSTENS, France (Reuters) -Wildfires tore through the Gironde region of southwestern France on Wednesday, destroying homes and forcing the evacuation of 10,000 residents, some of whom had clambered onto rooftops as the flames got closer. Black-and-orange skies, darkened by the smoke billowing from forests and lit up by the flames, were seen across the area...
Trump declines to answer questions in N.Y. attorney general investigation
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he declined to answer questions during an appearance before New York state’s attorney general in a civil investigation into his family’s business practices, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination. Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and daughter Ivanka Trump had fought unsuccessfully to avoid...
Shock, shame among some Muslims as Afghan accused of New Mexico murders
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Reuters) -Muslims in New Mexico interviewed on Wednesday said they felt shock and shame at the arrest of a Muslim immigrant from Afghanistan in connection with the murders of four Muslim men. Police on Tuesday said they detained 51-year-old Muhammad Syed. A motive for the killings remains unclear, but police said he may...
UK faces danger of running out of monkeypox vaccine by this month – FT
(Reuters) -Britain will run out of monkeypox vaccines in about two to three weeks as the country has little more than 8,300 doses of vaccine left, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Shipments of a new order of 100,000 doses will not resume until late September, the report added citing an internal National Health Service...
