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  • Want to help the ocean? Avoid the moisturizer with shark in it | CNN

    Want to help the ocean? Avoid the moisturizer with shark in it | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    It all seems so daunting: plastics in the ocean, dying coral reefs, entire species being wiped out – but don’t click away in despair!

    There really are things everyone can do to help make the ocean cleaner and keep our environment healthier.

    Here are some easy (or mostly easy) life changes that have a big impact on our environment.

    Whenever you eat fish, make sure you choose a sustainable variety that isn’t endangered.

    The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” program has online guides detailing which fish are your best bets. All of these directories, broken up by region, can be downloaded into a printable pocket guide – so if you’re a seafood lover, it’s a handy resource to keep nearby.

    The most consumed seafoods in the US are shrimp, salmon and tuna. If those are among your go-to choices, some more environmentally responsible options to look for include shrimp from the US or Canada; salmon caught in the US Pacific or Canada; and canned tuna labeled “pole-caught,” “pole-and-line-caught,” or “troll-caught.”

    How your fish is caught is important. You want to make sure you’re not consuming fish caught in nets that are notorious for trapping “bycatch” – turtles, seabirds and whales often get caught in those lines and die.

    And since whales do an excellent job trapping planet-warming carbon emissions – even better than trees – keeping them in the ocean helps us all.

    Trash piles up along the bank of the San Gabriel River near the Pacific Ocean in Seal Beach, California. Rains sent the trash flowing down river from miles inland.

    This is a big one…and one of the worst problems facing the ocean, landfills and even our bodies!

    Jennifer Savage of Surfrider Foundation suggests supporting businesses that avoid single-use plastics.

    If your favorite restaurant still uses plastics, she tells diners to refuse the plastic forks and gently suggest the management move to a more sustainable takeaway option (like bamboo utensils and paper containers and straws) or – even better – go with washable plates and cutlery.

    “It saves money, too. If they’re spending all this money buying single-use plastic, a small investment in a dishwasher and reusable cutlery will save money in the long run.”

    Also, she says, consumers are realizing they prefer the less-disposable options.

    “People love it, people are so much happier. Think about how much better it feels to have a meal with metal utensils and a real plate.”

    As consumers begin to worry about things like microplastics making their way into their bodies, this is a “no-brainer” for restaurants, she says.

    “They found plastic in our bodies…people don’t want to eat off plastic plates with plastic utensils.”

    Surfrider Foundation even has a helpful online guide, highlighting ocean-friendly restaurants.

    Discarded plastic and other debris overflow from a Los Angeles trash bin. Surfrider Foundation reports less than 7% of plastic gets recycled in the US.

    It’s important to realize that most plastic doesn’t get recycled, according to Savage. She says the US rate of plastic recycling is only about 5% to 6%.

    The number system on the bottom of plastic items are not a guarantee they will be recycled. Things marked 1 and 2 — and on rare occasion, 5 — are your best bets, experts told CNN, depending on what your municipality can handle.

    “Things that have a number on them … that’s just a fallacy. That stuff just gets sorted out and put into the landfill,” Savage says. Ditto for that “chasing arrow” symbol you see on the bottom of many plastic containers, she says. Most of it still isn’t recyclable.

    Some states, including California, are starting to crack down on that misleading labeling and aren’t allowing the symbol to appear on plastic that isn’t recyclable.

    So whenever you can: skip single-use plastic and Styrofoam. Support businesses that are part of the solution. And talk to your representatives about phasing it out.

    The beach at Big Sur, California.

    Picking up trash on the beach won’t solve the problem on its own, but it is really important, says Savage.

    “At that moment in time, you’re going to have a cleaner beach. You will have less plastic in your environment. Cleaning it up and leaving it better than you found it makes you feel good.”

    And that “feeling good” often leads to activism. “Next thing you know, they’re going to city council meetings, contacting their representatives.”

    Another bonus of participating in a beach clean-up? It allows organizations to gather data about the most common items that end up as beach litter.

    “In California, you don’t see as many single-use plastic bags, so you don’t see them [on the beach as often] anymore. It helps people to see what the biggest problems are. Whether it’s plastic chip bags, or cigarette butts, or whatever.”

    Cosmetic chemist Autumn Blum is an avid diver and shark lover who produces ocean-friendly sunscreens.

    Autumn Blum is a cosmetic chemist by day, and a shark-obsessed scuba diver on the weekends.

    Ingredients you should avoid in sunscreens

  • Avobenzone
  • Benzophenones/oxybenzone
  • Butyloctyl salicylate
  • Clear or nano zinc/nano particles
  • Cylcopentasiloxane/cyclomethicone
  • Ecamsule
  • Formaldehyde, diazolidinyl urea, quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin and hydroxymethylglycinate
  • Methylisothiazolinone
  • Microplastic
  • Octinoxate/octyl methozycinnamate
  • Padimate O
  • Parabens
  • Sodium lauryl and laureth sulfate (SLS/SLES)
  • Source: Autumn Blum/Stream2Sea

She spent years formulating skin products for other companies before striking out on her own to create a mineral sunscreen business. Her inspiration? Seeing a group of snorkelers surrounded by a circle of oily film on the water, formed by the chemical sunscreens they had slathered on. She was horrified, knowing the chemicals were deadly for coral and many fish.

“There are so many things that impact our waters. Something that we use on our bodies should not be one of them. Period,” says Blum. “That’s an easy piece that we can change to make a positive impact.”

Blum says recent chemical sunscreen bans are already making a difference in places like Hawaii, with reefs coming back to life. She’s also encouraged by efforts to renew coral reefs via coral planting.

There’s still no mutually agreed-upon term to describe what’s “reef-safe,” so what you really need to do is avoid certain ingredients that are known to be harmful, Blum says.

Avoid microbeads

Blum also encourages consumers to make sure they don’t buy products that contain microbeads.

After you wash them off your face or body, those microbeads go down the drain, pass right through your local wastewater plant, and dump into the ocean. From there, they can be eaten by fish.

Humans then eat the fish that have eaten the microbeads…and that’s another way we end up with microplastics in our bodies.

Avoid face wash with plastic microbeads.

Shark-friendly moisturizer

Many new moisturizers are touting “squalane” as their new miracle ingredient.

“Squalane is considered a bio-mimic ingredient, which means your body recognizes it,” Blum tells CNN.

It is a common ingredient in sunscreens, cosmetics, and high-end skin products. “The unfortunate thing about squalane is that it’s frequently obtained from shark livers,” says Blum.

Many species of sharks are facing extinction, and several of those species are considered “critically endangered.”

Plant-based squalanes work just as well as shark-based ones, Blum says. So when reading your ingredient label, make sure it says “vegan squalane” or “plant-based squalane.” Otherwise, advises Blum, assume it comes from sharks.

Vera Meyer, a scientist at the Berlin Institute of Biotechnology, holds a vessel made of scale sponge. The institute hopes to produce clothing, packaging and building material from fungal cultures.

Now for the good news: Materials are being developed that could revolutionize all our packaging, Blum says.

Mycelium, made from mushrooms, performs a lot like current plastics.

Meanwhile, researchers at Yale have discovered a separate fungus with tantalizing abilities to break down polyurethane. It will be awhile, Blum says, but “really cool” technology based on plastic-eating mushrooms could be in our future.

“It’s not commercial-ready, but it’s on the horizon,” she says.

So forget “The Last of Us.” The mushrooms may save us all.

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  • Supreme Court clears way for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to try to use DNA to prove innocence | CNN Politics

    Supreme Court clears way for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to try to use DNA to prove innocence | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Supreme Court cleared the way on Wednesday for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to seek post-conviction DNA evidence to try to prove his innocence.

    Reed claims an all-White jury wrongly convicted him of killing of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old White woman, in Texas in 1998.

    Texas had argued that he had waited too long to bring his challenge to the state’s DNA procedures in federal court, but the Supreme Court disagreed. Now, he can go to a federal court to make his claim.

    The ruling was 6-3. Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the court and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

    Since Reed’s conviction, Texas courts had rejected his various appeals. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Rihanna have expressed support, signing a petition asking the state to halt his eventual execution.

    The case puts a new focus on the testing of DNA crime-scene evidence and when an inmate can make a claim to access the technology in a plea of innocence. To date, 375 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who served time on death row, according to the Innocence Project, a group that represents Reed and other clients seeking post-conviction DNA testing to prove their innocence.

    Kavanaugh, in his opinion Wednesday, said that the court agreed to hear the case because federal appeals courts have disagreed about when inmates can make such claims without running afoul of the statute of limitations. Kavanaugh said Reed could make the claim after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ultimately denied his request for rehearing, rejecting an earlier date set out by the appeals court.

    “Significant systemic benefits ensue from starting the statute of limitations clock when the state litigation in DNA testing cases like Reed’s has concluded,” Kavanaugh said.

    He noted that if any problems with a defendant’s right to due process “lurk in the DNA testing law” the case can proceed through the appellate process, which could ultimately render a federal lawsuit unnecessary.

    Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

    Alito, joined by Gorsuch in his dissent, said Reed should have acted more quickly to bring his appeal. “Instead,” Alito wrote, “he waited until an execution date was set.”

    Alito charged Reed with making the “basic mistake of missing a statute of limitations.”

    Reed has been on death row for the murder of Stites.

    A passerby found Stites’ body near a shirt and a torn piece of belt. Investigators targeted Reed because his sperm was found inside her. Reed acknowledged the two were having an affair, but says that her fiancé, a local police officer named Jimmy Fennell, was the last to see her alive.

    Reed claims that over the last two decades he has discovered a “considerable body of evidence” demonstrating his innocence. Reed claims that the DNA testing would point to Fennell as the murder suspect. Fennell was later jailed for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody and Reed claims that numerous witnesses said he had threatened to strangle Stites with a belt if he ever caught her cheating on him. Reed seeks to test the belt found at the scene that was used to strangle Stites.

    The Texas law at issue allows a convicted person to obtain post-conviction DNA testing of biological material if the court finds that certain conditions are met. Reed was denied. He came to the Supreme Court in 2018 and was denied again. Now he is challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law arguing that the denial of the DNA testing violates his due process rights. 

    But the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals held that he waited too long to bring the claim. “An injury accrues when a plaintiff first becomes aware, or should have become aware, that his right had been violated.” The court said that he became aware of that in 2014 and that his current claim is “time barred.” 

    Reed’s lawyers argued that he could only bring the claim once the state appeals court had ruled, at the end of state court litigation. In court, Parker Rider-Longmaid said that the “clock doesn’t start ticking” until state court proceedings come to an end. He said Texas’ reading of the law would mean that other procedures in the appellate process are “irrelevant.”

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • House fails to override Biden’s veto of resolution to overturn EPA water rule | CNN Politics

    House fails to override Biden’s veto of resolution to overturn EPA water rule | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The House of Representatives on Tuesday failed to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a resolution to overturn an Environmental Protection Agency water rule.

    Republicans have called the rule federal overreach and argue it places a burden on the agriculture community by being too restrictive in defining what is a navigable waterway. Democrats counter, saying the rule is critical for protecting the nation’s waterways and safeguarding clean water.

    A two-thirds majority vote would have been needed in both chambers of Congress to override the veto – a high threshold that was not expected to be met. The final vote was 227-196 with 10 Democrats crossing over to vote with Republicans to override the veto, and one Republican voting with the Democrats against the resolution.

    Biden vetoed the GOP-led resolution earlier this month. “I just vetoed a bill that attempted to block our Administration from protecting our nation’s waterways – a resource millions of Americans depend on – from destruction and pollution,” the president said at the time. “Let me be clear: Every American has a right to clean water. This veto protects that right.”

    Biden’s announcement marked both the second veto of his presidency and the second veto he had issued in recent weeks, illustrating how power dynamics in Washington have shifted since Republicans became the majority party in the House of Representatives at the beginning of this year.

    The House and Senate had previously passed the resolution to rescind the waterway rule.

    In the Senate, Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema joined Republicans in support of the resolution to overturn the rule.

    Proponents of the resolution have argued the rule amounts to burdensome, executive branch overreach.

    “President Biden is ignoring the will of a bipartisan majority in Congress, leaving millions of Americans in limbo, and crippling future energy and infrastructure projects with red tape,” West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who led the joint resolution in the Senate, said in response to Biden’s veto.

    Last month, the House failed to override the president’s veto of a measure to overturn a retirement investment rule that allows managers of retirement funds to consider the impact of climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when picking investments.

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  • Elon Musk sets low expectations before first SpaceX launch of Starship, most powerful rocket ever built | CNN

    Elon Musk sets low expectations before first SpaceX launch of Starship, most powerful rocket ever built | CNN

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    Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.



    CNN
     — 

    Just a few months after NASA introduced the world to the most powerful rocket ever flown to orbit, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is prepared to set off its own creation — which could pack nearly twice the power of anything flown before.

    SpaceX’s vehicle, called Starship, is currently sitting on a launch pad at the company’s facilities on the southern Texas coastline. The company is targeting liftoff at 8 a.m. CT (9 a.m. ET) on Monday, although it has the ability to take off anytime between 8 a.m. CT (9 a.m. ET) and 9:30 a.m. CT (10:30 a.m. ET).

    “I guess I’d like to just set expectations low,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said during a Twitter “Spaces” event for his subscribers Sunday evening. “If we get far enough away from launch pad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success. Just don’t blow up the pad.”

    He added: “There’s a good chance that it gets postponed since we’re going to be pretty careful about this launch.”

    It will be SpaceX’s first attempt to launch a fully assembled Starship vehicle, building on a years-long testing campaign.

    Musk has talked about Starship — making elaborate presentations about its design and purpose — for half a decade, and he frequently harps on its potential for carrying cargo and humans to Mars. Musk has even said that his sole purpose for founding SpaceX was to develop a vehicle like Starship that could establish a human settlement on Mars.

    Additionally, NASA has already awarded SpaceX contracts and options worth several billions of dollars to use Starship to ferry government astronauts to the surface of the moon under the space agency’s Artemis program.

    The inaugural flight test will not complete a full orbit around Earth. If successful, however, it will travel about 150 miles above Earth’s surface, well into altitudes deemed to be outer space.

    Starship consists of two parts: the Super Heavy booster, a gargantuan rocket that houses 33 engines, and the Starship spacecraft, which sits atop the booster during launch and is designed to break away after the booster expends its fuel to finish the mission.

    The massive Super Heavy rocket booster will give the first blast of power at liftoff.

    Less than three minutes after takeoff, it’s expected to expend its fuel and separate from the Starship spacecraft, leaving the booster to be discarded in the ocean. The Starship will use its own six engines, blazing for more than six minutes, to propel itself to nearly orbital speeds.

    The vehicle will then complete a partial lap of the planet, reentering the Earth’s atmosphere near Hawaii. It’s expected to splash down off the coast about an hour and a half after liftoff.

    Starship’s ultimate success or failure immensely consequential. Not only is it crucial to SpaceX’s future as a company — it also underpins the United States government’s ambitions for human exploration.

    But it’s not all riding on this inaugural test flight. SpaceX has long established its willingness to embrace mishaps, mistakes and explosions in the name of refining the design of its spacecraft.

    In the lead-up to the first launch of the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018, which held the title of most powerful rocket before NASA’s SLS took flight last year, Musk foresaw only a 50-50 chance of success.

    “People (came) from all around the world to see what will either be a great rocket launch or the best fireworks display they’ve ever seen,” Musk told CNN at the time.

    The inaugural Falcon Heavy launch was ultimately successful.

    Development of Starship has been based at SpaceX’s privately held spaceport about 40 minutes outside Brownsville, Texas, on the US-Mexico border. Testing began years ago with brief “hop tests” of early spacecraft prototypes. The company began with brief flights that lifted a few dozen feet off the ground before evolving to high-altitude flights, most of which resulted in dramatic explosions as the company attempted to land them upright.

    One suborbital flight test in May 2021, however, ended in success.

    SpaceX workers on February 8 make final adjustments to Starship's orbital launch mount, and the booster's matrix of Raptor engines within, ahead of the company's engine test.

    Since then, SpaceX has also been working to get its Super Heavy booster prepared for flight. The massive, 230-foot-tall (69-meter-tall) cylinder is packed with 33 of the company’s Raptor engines.

    Fully stacked, Starship and Super Heavy stand about 400 feet (120 meters) tall.

    SpaceX has been waiting more than a year to get FAA approval for this launch attempt.

    The company, and federal regulators tasked with certifying SpaceX launches won’t pose risks to people or property in the area surrounding the launch site, have faced significant pushback from the local community, including from environmental groups.

    But the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, announced Friday, April 14, that it granted the company’s request for an uncrewed flight test of the rocket out of the SpaceX facilities in South Texas.

    “After a comprehensive license evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency said in a statement.

    During a call with reporters last week, an FAA official, who declined to be named for publication, said that the agency has been overseeing SpaceX’s compliance with the mitigating actions, some of which are still in the works, even as the company prepares for launch.

    The FAA official said government personnel will be on the ground to ensure SpaceX complies with its license during the test launch.

    SpaceX’s contract with NASA to use Starship for the space agency’s Artemis III moon landing later this decade leaves much of Starship’s development work to SpaceX. A $2.9 billion deal, inked in April 2021, was awarded to SpaceX over several competitors. It was later expanded to include a second lunar landing mission in 2027.

    NASA has been working over the past year to hash out a work flow between the space agency and SpaceX. It’s a dynamic the two organization have had to iron out in previous SpaceX-NASA projects, including an ongoing partnership that uses SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

    A moon mission, however, involves more powerful and complex hardware.

    NASA is not, however, involved in planning the flight profile for this test flight or directing SpaceX on what to do, according to Lisa Hammond, NASA’s associate program manager of the Human Landing System at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

    Hammond did not share a specific checklist of tests or flights that NASA hopes to see before Starship is entrusted with a moon landing mission.

    “I would not put it with a number,” she said, adding that the Artemis II mission, slated for next year, will see humans fly atop the SLS rocket after only one uncrewed test flight.

    “The confidence comes in the design, the confidence comes in the safety of the vehicle for the crew,” Hammond said.

    SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell previously said she hopes the company will conduct more than 100 orbital test flights of Starship before putting humans on board, as the company will need to do in order to help NASA carry out its moon landing with the Artemis III mission, slated for 2025.

    “I think that would be a great goal,” Shotwell said Wednesday, when asked whether that target was still feasible. “I don’t think we will do 100 flights of Starship next year, but maybe (in) 2025 we will do 100 flights.”

    NASA’s current timeline targets 2025 for the first lunar landing mission, which will see astronauts transfer from their Orion capsule, which will launch atop a NASA Space Launch System rocket, and into a Starship spacecraft already in lunar orbit. It will be the Starship vehicle that ferries the crew down to the lunar surface.

    It’s not clear, however, if 2025 is feasible. NASA’s inspector general has already suggested it is not. Delays, according to comments from the inspector general in March 2022, could revolve around Starship.

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  • Indiana’s recycling plant fire is mostly out, but evacuations remain as crews monitor air quality and clear debris from schools and homes | CNN

    Indiana’s recycling plant fire is mostly out, but evacuations remain as crews monitor air quality and clear debris from schools and homes | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A fire burning at a recycling plant in Richmond, Indiana, is mostly out, but hundreds remain evacuated from their homes as crews monitor the air for chemicals and collect potentially harmful debris from neighboring schools and homes, officials said Saturday.

    Richmond residents who live within a half a mile radius of the recycling plant – about 2,000 of Richmond’s 35,000 residents – have been under a mandatory evacuation order since Tuesday, when the massive inferno exploded at the plastic-filled recycling plant in Richmond, sending thick, black smoke over the area.

    When they can return home will mainly depend on whether it’s safe to breathe the air in their community. Officials had warned that the smoke the fire spawned was “definitely toxic,” forcing the closure of Richmond public schools for days as the US Environmental Protection Agency performed air sampling and monitoring tests in the area.

    An announcement was initially expected Saturday on when evacuation orders could be lifted, but Richmond city officials later said that no determination had been made. “We have another meeting in the morning to determine the best time to lift the evacuation order,” Mayor Dave Snow said Saturday evening.

    “Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an exact time when evacuation orders will be lifted. As air monitoring results come back from lab testing and they can be analyzed by our health experts, we are hoping to be able to allow residents to return to their homes,” Wayne County Emergency Management Agency officials said Saturday.

    Those downwind from the fire were asked to continue to shelter in place “if they feel they are in danger or find themselves in a smoke plume,” emergency officials said.

    More meetings and data analysis are needed before the evacuation order can be lifted, Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown told CNN Saturday.

    As for the blaze itself, Brown said firefighters have knocked down 98-99% of the fire at the recycling plant as of Saturday.

    “Right now, there is no plume, there is no product being off-gassed from the fire itself,” Brown told CNN. “What we have coming off of it is mainly a white smoke or some steam. We have no plume. We have a slight wind, which is kind of pushing things out.”

    Inside the facility, there are hot spots and occasional small fires that will continue to smolder for days and produce smoke, soot or the smell of burnt plastic, emergency officials said.

    In the meantime, work is underway to clear debris scattered in the community from the toxic fire.

    Some samples of debris from the area tested positive for asbestos containing materials, Wayne County emergency officials said, citing preliminary tests by the EPA.

    “Because all debris has the potential to contain asbestos, it is important that a trained professional remove all materials suspected to be from the fire,” emergency officials said, asking residents to not disturb or touch any debris they find on their property.

    Asbestos is a naturally occurring, but very toxic, substance that was once widely used for insulation. When inhaled or ingested, asbestos fibers can become trapped in the body, and may eventually cause genetic damage to the body’s cells. Exposure may also cause mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

    Crews in protective gear began collecting debris from three schools near the fire site on Saturday, including three in Richmond and one school in Ohio.

    Officials said that schools impacted with debris will be cleared first, and then contractors will begin to deploy drones to search rooftops for additional debris, according to the post.

    “After school grounds are cleared, these contractors will begin removing debris from residential properties, parks and/or public areas, and businesses,” city officials say in the post.

    The county said the EPA is bringing in federal contractors to assist with the proper cleanup and removal of visible debris in both Indiana and Ohio.

    A primary health concern to residents is particulate matter, which could cause respiratory problems if inhaled, Christine Stinson, who heads the Wayne County Health Department, previously said.

    At the fire zone’s center, the chemicals hydrogen cyanide, benzene, chlorine, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, were detected, the EPA said Friday. They were not detected outside the evacuation zone, the agency said.

    Potentially harmful VOCs also were found in six air samples, the agency said, without saying where the samples were taken.

    Particulate matter also was found inside and outside the half-mile evacuation zone, as expected, the agency said.

    Additionally, one of two air samples taken a little more than a mile from the fire site detected chrysotile asbestos in debris, an EPA official said Thursday. Also called white asbestos, chrysotile asbestos can cause cancer and is used in products from cement to plastics to textiles.

    As for water quality, testing downstream of the fire site is underway and officials say they have “not found anything of immediate alarm, including any sign of fish kills.”

    Crews did find some ash and loose plastic debris, “but weir booms have been installed and are successfully capturing this material. Likewise, Indiana American Water has also been closely monitoring the drinking water and has reported no unusual readings or results from testing,” Wayne County emergency officials said.

    The cause of the fire remains under investigation and likely won’t be known for weeks, officials said. But local leaders have shared concerns since at least 2019 that the facility had hazards and building code violations, records show.

    The mayor has accused the plant’s owner of ignoring a city order to clean up the property, saying the plant was a fire hazard.

    CNN has sought comment from the plant’s owner, Seth Smith. The attorney who previously represented Smith in a related lawsuit declined to comment.

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  • Train derails and causes forest fire in Rockwood, Maine but officials say no hazardous materials involved | CNN

    Train derails and causes forest fire in Rockwood, Maine but officials say no hazardous materials involved | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The train cars that derailed near a village in central Maine Saturday and caused a large fire were not carrying hazardous materials, officials said, adding there was no threat to public safety.

    Officials say the derailed fright train cars were carrying lumber and wiring. Other carts were carrying hazardous materials but were unaffected by the derailment and the fire, a spokesperson for the Canadian Pacific Kansas City rail network said. Officials said the derailment likely was caused by a washout of ice and debris on the tracks.

    The Rockwood Fire and Rescue Department said the train derailed north of Rockwood, a village in Somerset County that borders Moosehead Lake – the largest body of fresh water in the state.

    Officials at the scene assessed the derailment and said the “hazardous materials are not at risk of leaking and are not at risk of catching fire,” Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry spokesperson Jim Britt said in a statement.

    Three railroad employees suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the derailment and are being treated at a nearby hospital, Britt added.

    The derailment happened around 8:30 a.m. ET when the train came across a track washout in a rural wooded area, the rail network’s spokesperson C. Doniele Carlson said in a statement.

    It wasn’t immediately clear which freight train carrier was operating the train Saturday.

    “An early assessment indicates that the derailment may have been caused by a build-up of melting ice and debris that washed out part of the railroad track,” according to the Maine Forest Service.

    The three locomotive engines and six rail cars that derailed were carrying lumber and electrical wiring and caught fire causing a small forest fire, according to the Maine Forest Service. The fire is now contained and being monitored by local emergency first responders, the service said.

    Maine Governor Janet Mills tweeted she was briefed on the train derailment and stated her office “will continue to closely monitor the situation” but that there was “no threat to public health or safety.”

    The rail network, which was inaugurated Friday, combines railways from Canada and the US to create “the first single-line railway connecting Canada, the U.S., and Mexico,” according to a press release.

    “CPKC is the only railway connecting North America and has unrivaled port access on coasts around the continent, from Vancouver to Atlantic Canada to the Gulf of Mexico to Lázaro Cárdenas on Mexico’s Pacific coast,” the press release states.

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  • ‘A new era’: Germany quits nuclear power, closing its final three plants | CNN

    ‘A new era’: Germany quits nuclear power, closing its final three plants | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Germany’s final three nuclear power plants close their doors on Saturday, marking the end of the country’s nuclear era that has spanned more than six decades.

    Nuclear power has long been contentious in Germany.

    There are those who want to end reliance on a technology they view as unsustainable, dangerous and a distraction from speeding up renewable energy.

    But for others, closing down nuclear plants is short-sighted. They see it as turning off the tap on a reliable source of low-carbon energy at a time when drastic cuts to planet-heating pollution are needed.

    Even as these debates rumble on, and despite last-minute calls to keep the plants online amid an energy crisis, the German government has been steadfast.

    “The position of the German government is clear: nuclear power is not green. Nor is it sustainable,” Steffi Lemke, Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment and Consumer Protection and a Green Party member, told CNN.

    “We are embarking on a new era of energy production,” she said.

    The closure of the three plants – Emsland, Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim – represents the culmination of a plan set in motion more than 20 years ago. But its roots are even older.

    In the 1970s, a strong anti-nuclear movement in Germany emerged. Disparate groups came together to protest new power plants, concerned about the risks posed by the technology and, for some, the link to nuclear weapons. The movement gave birth to the Green Party, which is now part of the governing coalition.

    Nuclear accidents fueled the opposition: The partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania in 1979 and the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl that created a cloud of radioactive waste which reached parts of Germany.

    In 2000, the German government pledged to phase out nuclear power and start shutting down plants. But when a new government came to power in 2009, it seemed – briefly – as if nuclear would get a reprieve as a bridging technology to help the country move to renewable energy.

    Then Fukushima happened.

    In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to melt down. For many in Germany, Japan’s worst nuclear disaster was confirmation “that assurances that a nuclear accident of a large scale can’t happen are not credible,” Miranda Schreurs, professor of environment and climate policy at the Technical University of Munich, told CNN.

    Three days later then-Chancellor Angela Merkel – a physicist who was previously pro-nuclear – made a speech called it an “inconceivable catastrophe for Japan” and a “turning point” for the world. She announced Germany would accelerate a nuclear phase-out, with older plants shuttered immediately.

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, provided another plot twist.

    Fearful of its energy security without Russian gas, the German government delayed its plan to close the final three plants in December 2022. Some urged a rethink.

    But the government declined, agreeing to keep them running only until April 15.

    For those in the anti-nuclear movement, it’s a moment of victory.

    “It is a great achievement for millions of people who have been protesting nuclear in Germany and worldwide for decades,” Paul-Marie Manière, a spokesperson for Greenpeace, told CNN.

    For critics of Germany’s policy, however, it’s irrational to turn off a low-carbon source of energy as the impacts of the climate crisis intensify.

    “We need to keep existing, safe nuclear reactors operating while simultaneously ramping up renewables as fast as possible,” Leah Stokes, a professor of climate and energy policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told CNN.

    The big risk, she said, is that fossil fuels fill the energy gap left by nuclear. Reductions in Germany’s nuclear energy since Fukushima have been primarily offset by increases in coal, according to research published last year.

    Germany plans to replace the roughly 6% of electricity generated by the three nuclear plants with renewables, but also gas and coal.

    More than 30% of Germany’s energy comes from coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels – and the government has made controversial decisions to turn to coal to help with energy security.

    In January, protestors including Greta Thunberg converged on the west German village of Lützerath in an unsuccessful attempt to stop it being demolished to mine the coal underneath it.

    “Building new coal capacity is the opposite of what we need,” said Stokes. Fossil fuels are a climate problem, but they’re also a health risk, she pointed out. Air pollution from fossil fuels is responsible for 8.7 million deaths a year, according to a recent analysis.

    Veronika Grimm, one of Germany’s leading economists, told CNN that keeping nuclear power plants running for longer would have allowed Germany more time “to electrify extensively,” especially as renewable energy growth “remains sluggish.”

    A new solar energy park near Prenzlau, Germany. The German government is seeking to accelerate the construction of both solar and wind energy parks.

    But supporters of the nuclear shutdown argue it will ultimately hasten the end of fossil fuels.

    Germany has pledged to close its last coal-fired power station no later than 2038, with a 2030 deadline in some areas. It’s aiming for 80% of electricity to come from renewables by the end of this decade.

    While more coal was added in the months following Fukushima, Schreurs said, nuclear shutdowns have seen a big push on clean energy. “That urgency and demand can be what it takes to push forward on the growth of renewables,” she said.

    Representatives for Germany’s renewable energy industry said the shutdown will open the door for more investment into clean energy.

    “Germany’s phase-out of nuclear power is a historic event and an overdue step in energy terms,” Simone Peter, president of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE), told CNN. “It is high time that we leave the nuclear age behind and consistently organize the renewable age.”

    The impacts of nuclear power shouldn’t be overlooked either, Schreurs said, pointing to the carbon pollution created by uranium mining as well as the risk of health complications for miners. Plus, it creates a dependency on Russia, which supplies uranium for nuclear plants, she added.

    Nuclear has also shown itself to have vulnerabilities to the climate crisis. France was forced to reduce nuclear power generation last year as the rivers used to cool reactors became too hot during Europe’s blistering heatwave.

    The Gorleben nuclear waste storage facility, an interim storage facility for spent fuel elements and high-level radioactive waste.

    Now Germany must work out what do with the deadly, high-level radioactive waste, which can remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.

    Currently, the nuclear waste is kept in interim storage next to the nuclear plants being decommissioned. But the search is on to find a permanent location where the waste can be stored safely for a million years.

    The site needs to be deep – hundreds of meters underground. Only certain types of rock will do: Crystalline granite, rock salt or clay rock. It must be geologically stable with no risks of earthquakes or signs of underground rivers.

    The process is likely to be fraught, complex and breathtakingly long – potentially lasting more than 100 years.

    BGE, the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal, estimates a final site won’t be chosen until between 2046 and 2064. After that, it will take decades more to build the repository, fill it with the waste and seal it.

    Plenty of other countries are treading paths similar to Germany’s. Denmark passed a resolution in the 1980s not to construct nuclear power plants, Switzerland voted in 2017 to phase out nuclear power, Italy closed its last reactors in 1990 and Austria’s one nuclear plant has never been used.

    But, in the context of the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices and pressure to reduce carbon pollution, others still want nuclear in the mix.

    The UK, in the process of building a nuclear power plant, said in its recent climate strategy that energy nuclear power has a “crucial” role in “creating secure, affordable and clean energy.”

    France, which gets about 70% of its power from nuclear, is planning six new reactors, and Finland opened a new nuclear plant last year. Even Japan, still dealing with the aftermath of Fukushima, is considering restarting reactors.

    The Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant, Germany.

    The US, the world’s biggest nuclear power, is also investing in nuclear energy and, in March, started up a new nuclear reactor, Vogtle 3 in Georgia – the first in years.

    But experts suggest this doesn’t mark the start of a nuclear ramp up. Vogtle 3 came online six years late and at a cost of $30 billion, twice the initial budget.

    It encapsulates the big problem that afflicts the whole nuclear industry: making the economics add up. New plants are expensive and can take more than a decade to build. “Even the countries that are talking pro-nuclear are having big trouble developing nuclear power,” Schreurs said.

    Many nuclear power plants in Europe, the US and elsewhere are aging – plants have an operating life of around 40 to 60 years. As Germany puts an end to its nuclear era, it’s coming up to crunch time for others, Schreurs said.

    “There will be a moment of decision as to whether nuclear really has a future”

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  • SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built, receives government approval for launch | CNN

    SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built, receives government approval for launch | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    SpaceX has cleared the final regulatory hurdle standing before the inaugural launch of its Starship rocket — the most powerful rocket ever constructed.

    The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, announced Friday that it granted the company’s request for an uncrewed flight test of the rocket out of the SpaceX facilities in South Texas. The vehicle, which has already undergone preflight ground testing, is poised to take off as soon as Monday.

    “After a comprehensive license evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency said in a statement.

    Earlier Friday, the FAA issued an air traffic restriction for the area surrounding the launch. The Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, orders planes and other air traffic to steer clear of the launch area — which lies due East of Brownsville, Texas — on Monday between 7 a.m. and 10:05 a.m. CT (8 a.m. and 11:05 a.m. ET).

    This will be SpaceX’s first attempt to put Starship into orbit, building on a yearslong testing campaign to work out the design of the rocket.

    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has talked about Starship for about a decade, making elaborate presentations about its design and describing it as the vehicle that underpins SpaceX’s founding purpose: sending humans to Mars for the first time.

    Additionally, NASA has already awarded SpaceX contracts and options — worth more than $3 billion — to use Starship to ferry government astronauts to the surface of the moon under the space agency’s Artemis program.

    The inaugural flight test will not complete a full orbit around Earth. If successful, however, it will reach orbital speeds and travel about 150 miles above Earth’s surface, well into altitudes deemed to be outer space.

    Starship consists of two parts: the Super Heavy booster, a gargantuan rocket that houses 33 engines, and the Starship spacecraft, which sits atop the booster during launch and is designed to break away after the booster expends its fuel to finish the mission.

    On this flight, the rocket booster will be discarded into the ocean shortly after liftoff. In future flights, however, SpaceX plans to recover the vehicle by guiding it to an upright landing back at the launch site. The Starship spacecraft will complete nearly one full lap of the planet, ending its flight with a splashdown off Hawaii.

    Development of Starship has been based at SpaceX’s privately held spaceport about 40 minutes outside Brownsville, Texas, on the US-Mexico border. Testing began years ago with brief “hop tests” of early spacecraft prototypes. The company began with brief flights that lifted a few dozen feet off the ground before evolving to high-altitude flights, most of which resulted in dramatic explosions as the company attempted to land them upright.

    One suborbital flight test in May 2021, however, ended in success.

    SpaceX workers on February 8 make final adjustments to Starship's orbital launch mount, and the booster's matrix of Raptor engines within, ahead of the company's engine test.

    Since then, SpaceX has also been working to get its Super Heavy booster prepared for flight. The massive, 230-foot-tall (69-meter-tall) cylinder is packed with 33 of the company’s Raptor engines.

    Fully stacked, Starship and Super Heavy stand about 400 feet (120 meters) tall.

    SpaceX has been waiting more than a year to get FAA approval for an orbital launch attempt.

    The company, and federal regulators tasked with certifying SpaceX launches won’t pose risks to people or property in the area surrounding the launch site, have faced significant pushback from the local community, including from environmental groups.

    In June, the FAA granted SpaceX one key approval for launching Starship, though it laid out a list of “mitigating actions” the company would need to take before the first launch.

    During a call with reporters this week, an FAA official, who declined to be named for publication, said that the agency has been overseeing SpaceX’s compliance with the mitigating actions, some of which are still in the works, even as the launch license is issued.

    The FAA official said government personnel will be on the ground to ensure SpaceX complies with its license during the test launch.

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  • Racial disparities are working against disaster recovery for people of color. Climate change could make it worse | CNN

    Racial disparities are working against disaster recovery for people of color. Climate change could make it worse | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    People of color in the US face heightened risks of harm from climate-induced disasters. Now, non-profits are pushing to remedy that disparity with more equitable approaches to disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

    “Until we really address the root issues of climate injustice, we’re going to continue to see a disproportionate impact as it relates to disasters in Black and historically excluded communities,” said Abre’ Conner, Director of Environmental and Climate Justice for the NAACP.

    A report by the EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Programs looked at four vulnerable social groups: people living on low-income, racial minorities, those with no high school diploma, and seniors over age 65. Of those four groups, the study found minorities are most likely to live in areas projected to be impacted by climate change.

    Moreover, Black people are 40% more likely than non-African-Americans to live in areas with the highest projected increases in mortality rates due to changes in extreme temperatures.

    It’s a dire warning for the future, based on an inequitable past.

    Many marginalized people, Black in particular, have faced socioeconomic factors that relegate them to living in environmentally hazardous areas or substandard housing structures. So, when a natural disaster hits, they are ill-equipped to withstand the impact.

    That was the situation this past March 24 when a severe tornado leveled much of the Black-majority rural town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, killing 26 people. Racial disparities existed in Rolling Fork for decades. Many residents there were poor, had low access to information or internet service, were priced out of insurance coverage, and lived in mobile homes that weren’t retrofitted to withstand severe weather conditions. With the nearest tornado shelter over 15 miles away, it set the perfect storm to leave people displaced and scrambling for aid and assistance, which was very slow to arrive.

    “The tendency is to ignore and exclude, and that’s a violation of human rights,” said Chauncia Willis, CEO and founder of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management (I-DIEM).

    Willis’ group deploys equity response teams before and after disasters to help community organizations integrate equity into all facets of disaster policy and practices. She started I-DIEM after spending over 14 years in disaster management.

    “I’ve witnessed the disparities, and it hits a little different when the people look like you,” Willis said in an interview with CNN.

    Tracy Harden (Right) hugs Barbara Nell McReynolds-Pinkins near the walk-in cooler where they and seven others took shelter as a tornado destroyed Harden's restaurant in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

    Almost three weeks after the tornado, Rolling Fork’s mayor said about 500 people – roughly a third of the town’s population— remained displaced, leaving victims with questions and concerns. To provide some answers, FEMA, MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency), the Small Business Administration, and the American Red Cross are holding a series of town halls, the first of which took place Tuesday at South Delta Elementary School.

    Housing is a major concern at the present. “It wasn’t just Rolling Fork; it was all of those other communities surrounding that were also impacted by the tornado,” said Willis. “That’s going to be the difference between life and death in the future.”

    The future is concerning; marginalized communities historically endured long-term effects from disasters.

    Remnants of destruction are still visible In New Orleans’ primarily Black 9th ward 18 years after Hurricane Katrina.

    Although natural disasters don’t discriminate, the response can, especially when the lingering effects of structural racism hamper relief.

    In Katrina’s aftermath, Louisiana instituted a “Road Home” program, disbursing emergency funds based on appraised home values rather than actual rebuilding costs. But after decades of discriminatory economic practices including redlining, homes in historically White communities typically appraised far higher than comparable houses in Black neighborhoods.

    Also, New Orleans’ White neighborhoods tend to sit on higher ground with less risk of flooding and easier access to jobs and resources. The circumstances after Katrina ended up forcing many Black families out of the city.

    “Poverty should not hinder survival from disasters. Being a person that is not White shouldn’t limit your survival,” said Willis.

    But there is growing awareness of the unfairness and concerted efforts to fix it. Sally Ray from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy says racial and socioeconomic disparities are key factors guiding where her organization deploys funding.

    “I think we need to quit being uncomfortable talking about the intersection of climate change, racism, and disasters,” Ray told CNN. “The reality is we have long systemic racist problems across our country, and because of these things, when a disaster comes, it’s much more devastating.”

    President Joe Biden speaks in a storm-stricken area of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on March 31.

    A growing body of research spotlights the historical inequity in federal disaster response.

    One 2018 study by sociologists from Rice University and the University of Pittsburgh looked at counties that each suffered the same amount ($10 billion) in hazard damage. In those events, Black survivors’ wealth decreased by an average $27,000 while White survivors’ average wealth increased $126,000.

    In 2020, FEMA’s advisory council acknowledged the inequities and called for the agency to address the issue.

    On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 13985 to advance racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government. Since then, FEMA has undertaken initiatives to expand access and reduce barriers to their response, recovery, and resilience programs.

    In an email to CNN, FEMA spokesman Jeremy Edwards said, “Recognizing this and the realities of historically underserved communities, FEMA—under the leadership of Administrator Criswell—has undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce barriers, so all people, including those from vulnerable and underserved communities, are better able to access our assistance.”

    The agency has simplified the eligibility process, expanded the ways survivors can verify home occupancy, and prioritized casework for vulnerable populations.

    FEMA says these changes have enabled 124,000 survivors to access over $709 million in assistance they would have previously been ineligible to receive.

    But non-profit leaders want FEMA to do more.

    “I think that in earnest they are trying to correct, but we can still do better in pushing to ensure these recoveries are equitable,” said Arthur DelaCruz, CEO of Team Rubicon. This veteran-led humanitarian organization assists global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises.

    Shirley Stamps stands in the rubble of her home in the aftermath of the Rolling Fork tornado.

    Grassroots activists insist equitable disaster planning and response must start with local voices.

    “The future of disaster management is actually going to be at the local level with the locals as the lead rather than the federal government or state government,” explained I-DEIM’s Willis.

    Inherent distrust of authorities after years of racist and discriminatory practices is one reason why. Another reason is simple pragmatism.

    “Who knows the community better?” asked Willis, whose group helps set up Community Resilience Hubs and local-led facilities to support neighbors, coordinate communication and provide emergency management training.

    Willis emphasizes that these types of initiatives, and more, need to be done before disasters strike. “When people are not prioritized before a disaster, those same people will bear the brunt.”

    71-year-old Emma Lee Williams sits in her front yard after the EF-4 Rolling Fork tornado destroyed her house.

    For a long time, non-profit organizations have been counted on to plug gaps that the government had yet to fill in disenfranchised communities. And increasingly, non-profits are doing things differently to address racial disparities in disaster management.

    For Team Rubicon, that means using tools like the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index. The index, launched by the Center for Disease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, uses 16 variables to help emergency planners and officials identify vulnerable communities before, during, or after disasters. Those variables include social factors like poverty, lack of transportation, and crowded housing. The databases and maps generated by the tool help estimate supplies required, emergency personnel needs, evacuation procedures, and even whether an area needs emergency shelters.

    “As we see a disaster strike an area, that is where we try to deploy because we know that’s where the greatest need is,” explained DelaCruz.

    The Center for Disaster Philanthropy focuses on identifying a diverse pool of applicants in their grantmaking, pushing more funds to organizations supporting struggling communities of color, and listening to the needs of the affected people on an individualized basis.

    “We work really at the local grassroots level to get to know the community,” said the Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s Sally Ray, who spoke to CNN from Oklahoma City, which was hard-hit by tornadoes last year. She and her team are on the ground, accessing lingering issues and working on proactive ways to support the town throughout this year’s tornado season.

    “Our goal has always been to leave a community in a better place and be there for the long-term commitment to that, Ray added.

    Meanwhile, many non-profits, especially at the local level, are overstretched as major disasters become more frequent and destructive.

    “There are communities that have suffered disaster after disaster after disaster, and the toll on the people and the community increases each time that happens,” said DelaCruz.

    “We need to start integrating community-based organizations into the global emergency management structure,” said Willis.

    Most of the walls are gone but the furniture remains where a home once stood before the tornado ripped through Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

    Disasters destabilize communities as well as economies. That is why much of the conversation among emergency management leaders lately has focused on building an inclusive approach to disaster resilience.

    “In Rolling Rock, there’s been a disaster. Now is the time to rebuild with the proper strategy, with forethought, a focus on resilience, and a focus on life-saving equity,” Willis from I-DIEM explained. She said these resilience efforts must include disaster preparedness and infrastructure improvement and awareness of socioeconomic issues impacting marginalized communities.

    FEMA says they are committed to helping Mississippi recover.

    To date the agency says they have visited 1,400 homes in Sharkey County alone, interacting with over 2,400 survivors and registering hundreds for assistance. They’ve also provided more than $5.4 million to Mississippi households since the deadly tornadoes struck earlier this year.

    The agency also implemented some grassroots efforts like non-financial direct technical assistance to help build community-wide resilience in 20 communities, tribes, and territories.

    Nonprofits continue to play a crucial role. But the problem looms large, and when it comes to disaster response for historically marginalized communities, there’s more than enough workload to go around.

    “There is no value in not directly preparing communities of color,” Willis said. “The government already underserves them. Do they also need to be underserved by humanity?”

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  • Fuzzy first photo of a black hole gets a sharp makeover | CNN

    Fuzzy first photo of a black hole gets a sharp makeover | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The first photo ever taken of a black hole looks a little sharper now.

    Originally released in 2019, the unprecedented historic image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87 captured an essentially invisible celestial object using direct imaging.

    The image presented the first direct visual evidence that black holes exist, showcasing a central dark region encapsulated by a ring of light that looks brighter on one side. Astronomers nicknamed the object the “fuzzy, orange donut.”

    Now, scientists have used machine learning to give the image a cleaner upgrade that looks more like a “skinny” doughnut, researchers said. The central region is darker and larger, surrounded by a bright ring as hot gas falls into the black hole in the new image.

    In 2017, astronomers set out to observe the invisible heart of the massive galaxy Messier 87, or M87, near the Virgo galaxy cluster 55 million light-years from Earth.

    The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, called EHT, is a global network of telescopes that captured the first photograph of a black hole. More than 200 researchers worked on the project for more than a decade. The project was named for the event horizon, the proposed boundary around a black hole that represents the point of no return where no light or radiation can escape.

    To capture an image of the black hole, scientists combined the power of seven radio telescopes around the world using Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry, according to the European Southern Observatory, which is part of the EHT. This array effectively created a virtual telescope around the same size as Earth.

    Data from the original 2017 observation was combined with a machine learning technique to capture the full resolution of what the telescopes saw for the first time. The new, more detailed image, along with a study, was released on Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

    “With our new machine learning technique, PRIMO, we were able to achieve the maximum resolution of the current array,” said lead study author Lia Medeiros, astrophysics postdoctoral fellow in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, in a statement.

    “Since we cannot study black holes up-close, the detail of an image plays a critical role in our ability to understand its behavior. The width of the ring in the image is now smaller by about a factor of two, which will be a powerful constraint for our theoretical models and tests of gravity.”

    Medeiros and other EHT members developed Principal-component Interferometric Modeling, or PRIMO. The algorithm relies on dictionary learning in which computers create rules based on large amounts of material. If a computer is given a series of images of different bananas, combined with some training, it might be able to tell if an unknown image does or doesn’t contain a banana.

    Computers using PRIMO analyzed more than 30,000 high-resolution simulated images of black holes to pick out common structural details. This allowed the machine learning essentially to fill in the gaps of the original image.

    “PRIMO is a new approach to the difficult task of constructing images from EHT observations,” said Tod Lauer, an astronomer at the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab. “It provides a way to compensate for the missing information about the object being observed, which is required to generate the image that would have been seen using a single gigantic radio telescope the size of the Earth.”

    Black holes are made up of huge amounts of matter squeezed into a small area, according to NASA, creating a massive gravitational field that draws in everything around it, including light. These powerful celestial phenomena also have a way of superheating the material around them and warping space-time.

    Material accumulates around black holes, is heated to billions of degrees and reaches nearly the speed of light. Light bends around the gravity of the black hole, which creates the photon ring seen in the image. The black hole’s shadow is represented by the dark central region.

    The visual confirmation of black holes also acts as confirmation of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In the theory, Einstein predicted that dense, compact regions of space would have such intense gravity that nothing could escape them. But if heated materials in the form of plasma surround the black hole and emit light, the event horizon could be visible.

    The new image can help scientists make more accurate measurements of the black hole’s mass. Researchers can also apply PRIMO to other EHT observations, including those of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

    “The 2019 image was just the beginning,” Medeiros said. “If a picture is worth a thousand words, the data underlying that image have many more stories to tell. PRIMO will continue to be a critical tool in extracting such insights.”

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  • Cyclone Ilsa sets a new wind record as it smashes into Australia’s western coast | CNN

    Cyclone Ilsa sets a new wind record as it smashes into Australia’s western coast | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Cyclone Ilsa smashed into a remote stretch of coast in Western Australia around midnight Thursday local time with wind speeds that broke previous records set more than 10 years ago in the same place.

    After brewing off the coast for days, Cyclone Ilsa made landfall between De Grey and Pardoo Roadhouse as a category 5 storm, according to Australian Bureau of Meteorology – the equivalent of a category 4 Atlantic hurricane.

    The cyclone has since weakened and is moving southeast across the state, bringing heavy rain and sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (74 miles per hour).

    Just before it hit the mainland, Ilsa sped over Bedout Island, a tiny uninhabited island, where its sustained wind speeds reached 218 kph (135 mph) over a 10-minute period.

    “Cyclone George was the previous record holder with 194 kph back in 2007 at the very same location!” the BOM tweeted. Overnight, wind gusts on the island, which is a breeding ground for seabirds, reached as high as 288 kph (179 mph).

    It’s not yet clear what damage the cyclone has inflicted on Western Australia, though the winds had the potential to cause significant damage to trees, buildings, power lines and other infrastructure.

    Officials were planning to survey the damage from the air when it was safe enough to fly helicopters over the area.

    The cyclone appears to have missed the main population centers, including the town of Port Hedland, an important hub for the mining industry and home to about 16,000 people, mostly mine workers. The main Aboriginal community in the area also relatively unscathed, according to early reports.

    “There will there certainly will be damage up along the coastal areas where the crossing occurred, but largely the populated areas did escape the brunt of eye as it crossed the coast,” said Peter Sutton, from the Western Australia department of fire and emergency services.

    Early Friday, reports emerged of “great damage” at Pardoo Roadhouse, a popular destination for travelers on the highway along the coast.

    Authorities had warned residents to tie down anything that might take flight in strong winds – caravans, trampolines, trailers and any loose objects.

    “Winds of this strength are extremely dangerous. Not only can they bring down trees, power lines, and damage roofs and houses, but they can also lift large loose objects from your yard – boats, trailers or caravans – and loft them into the air,” BOM’s senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury warned.

    As the storm approached on Thursday, coastal areas were put under a red alert, meaning people needed to stay in place and shelter within buildings, well away from windows and doors.

    Evacuation centers were opened for people brought in from remote communities at risk of being pummeled by the winds and cut off by debris and flooding. The area is home to the state’s largest Aboriginal community, as well as cattle stations, mining sites and tourist operators.

    Strong winds were felt along the coastline hours ahead of Ilsa’s predicted landfall, as emergency services implored people to lock up anything that might take flight.

    Cyclone Ilsa is also expected to dump heavy rain on the region – as much as 200 to 300 millimeters, according to BOM – and vast areas of the state are under flood watch.

    “Riverine flooding may significantly impact roads and access routes, with many paths becoming muddy or even inaccessible over the coming days,” Bradbury said.

    The strongest storm ever to hit any part of Australia was Cyclone Monica, which arrived in 2006 with sustained winds around 290 kph (180 mph), as it swept across the eastern and northern parts of Australia.

    That cyclone missed highly populated areas but brought down trees and caused severe damage to vegetation along with a storm surge up to six meters high.

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  • The fire at an Indiana plastics recycling plant has been extinguished, though residents’ health concerns remain | CNN

    The fire at an Indiana plastics recycling plant has been extinguished, though residents’ health concerns remain | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    After firefighters spent two days battling an inferno fueled by plastics in eastern Indiana, the fire has been fully extinguished, officials said.

    “We’re now able to turn our attention to collecting air and water samples to determine when the evacuation order can be lifted,” Richmond Mayor Dave Smith told CNN Thursday night.

    But the blaze at a Richmond recycling plant reignited old frustrations over safety hazards at the facility and sparked new fears among residents about the future of their health.

    About 2,000 people living within a half-mile radius of the plant were still under evacuation orders Thursday, two days after the fire started. And for the second straight day, Richmond public schools were closed.

    “If you are downwind of the area, stay inside, close your windows, and turn off air conditioning,” Richmond city officials warned.

    The fire was 90% out as of Thursday afternoon, Richmond Fire Department Chief Tim Brown said at a news conference.

    The US Environmental Protection Agency had not detected any toxic compounds as of Wednesday morning. But the state fire marshal has already said the smoke plumes were “definitely toxic.”

    Due to very little wind, “residents may notice that the smoke from the fire has settled more in and around the city and in areas that had not previously had issues,” the Wayne County Emergency Management Agency said Thursday morning.

    The EPA has been monitoring air quality at 15 locations around the site for the possibility of toxic chemicals from the incinerated plastics.

    The billowing black smoke stirred memories of the recent toxic train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio. High levels of some chemicals from that disaster could pose long-term risks, researchers have said.

    Corey McConnell’s family fled their home in the evacuation zone Tuesday night. He could already smell fumes and saw exhausted firefighters battling the blaze.

    “It’s really unbelievable,” McConnell told CNN. “Makes me worry about the health of my family, not just today but in the future as well. Who knows how long this could be in the air for?”

    Resident Wendy Snyder evacuated to a Red Cross emergency shelter but briefly returned home to grab a few belongings, she told CNN affiliate WHIO. That’s when she noticed the stench of burning plastic.

    “There is a stink in the air when you go outside on our porch,” Snyder said. “In fact, it burned my throat because (we) weren’t wearing a mask.”

    The primary health concern to residents is particulate matter – fine particles found in smoke – that could cause respiratory problems if inhaled, said Christine Stinson, executive director of the Wayne County Health Department.

    N95 masks could protect against the particles, but people should leave an area if they see or smell smoke or experience symptoms, Stinson said.

    Due to the age of the building, asbestos – a naturally occurring but very toxic substance once widely used for insulation – is another possible concern. The EPA was evaluating the area, including school grounds, for potential fire debris that might contain asbestos, it said Wednesday night.

    And while the EPA’s air quality tests had found no signs of toxic chemicals such as styrene or benzene as of mid-Wednesday morning, testing continues as more smoke settles.

    Such chemicals could increase the risk of cancer if someone is exposed to a high concentration for a prolonged period of time, said Richard Peltier, associate professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

    “We know that it is very common that a large range of chemicals are formed whenever plastic materials are burned, including styrene, benzene, and a wide number of polyaromatic hydrocarbons – all of these are strong carcinogens, and it’s important for people to avoid exposures,” Peltier said.

    Short-term exposure could also cause symptoms, such as dizziness, nausea, coughing, headache and fatigue. “Asthma is regularly triggered by these types of complicated exposures so if you have asthma, it’s really important to be extra careful,” Peltier said.

    It’s not clear when evacuated residents will be allowed to return home, Richmond officials said. Fire officials expect the smoldering site to burn for several days.

    While it’s not yet clear what sparked the recycling plant inferno, local leaders have shared concerns since at least 2019 that the facility was riddled with fire hazards and building code violations, records show.

    “We knew it wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when this was going to happen,” the fire chief said.

    In 2019, the city’s Unsafe Building Commission found that the “cumulative effect of the code violations present” rendered “the premises unsafe, substandard, or a danger to the health and safety on the public,” according to meeting minutes obtained by CNN.

    During a commission hearing, the plant’s owner, Seth Smith, admitted one of the buildings on the property had no fire extinguishing system, the records show. CNN has reached out to Smith, and the attorney who previously represented him in a related lawsuit declined to comment.

    Richmond officials “were aware that what was operating here was a fire hazard,” Mayor Dave Snow said Wednesday, accusing the plant’s owner of ignoring a city order to clean up the property.

    The fire began in a semitrailer loaded with plastics, then spread to surrounding piles of recyclables before eventually reaching the building, which was “completely full from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall,” Brown, fire chief, said. When firefighters arrived, he said, they had difficulty reaching the buildings because access roads were blocked by piles of plastic.

    “Everything that’s ensued here – the fire, the damages, the risk that our first responders have taken and the risk these citizens are under – are the responsibility of that negligent business owner,” Snow said.

    After Smith was ordered by the city building commission to repair or demolish and vacate his properties in 2019, the plant owner and his company petitioned a court to review the order.

    An Indiana circuit court judge ruled in favor of the city in March 2020. The court found in part Smith’s properties “constitute a fire hazard; are a hazard to public health; constitute a nuisance; and are dangerous to people or property because of violations of statute and City Ordinance concerning building condition and maintenance.”

    Firefighters try to douse an industrial fire Wednesday in Richmond, Indiana.

    The city last year seized two of the three land parcels the recycling plant sits on after Smith failed to pay property taxes.

    It’s unclear what steps the city took to remedy the site since the seizure and whether it took any steps before 2022 to enforce its orders requiring Smith to repair or demolish and vacate the properties.

    Smith was contacted by an investigator Tuesday night, the mayor said.

    While firefighters try to snuff out the blaze, they face another challenge: trying not to destroy potential evidence that might help determine the cause, Brown said.

    Officials probably won’t be able to identify the cause of the blaze until after the fire is extinguished and investigators can safely enter the plant, the state fire marshal’s office said.

    Any legal liability against the plant owner will be handled after the cleanup process, City Attorney Andrew J. Sickmann said at a Thursday news conference.

    “Whether or not there can be potential criminal liability would be a question for law enforcement and prosecutors,” Sickmann said.

    The only operation running out of the building before the fire was moving materials out and shipping them overseas as ordered by officials, Sickmann said.

    “It’s his mess, it’s been shown again and again it’s his mess,” Snow, the mayor, said of the owner. “Everything that’s ensued here remains his responsibility.”

    Snow added that they are tracking all costs of the incident in case of potential litigation.

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  • Cyclone Ilsa rapidly intensifies as it approaches landfall in Western Australia | CNN

    Cyclone Ilsa rapidly intensifies as it approaches landfall in Western Australia | CNN

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    Brisbane, Australia
    CNN
     — 

    A massive cyclone swirling off Australia’s western coast will likely make landfall as a category 5 storm – the strongest on the national scale – according to the country’s official forecaster.

    The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) expects Cyclone Ilsa to cross the Pilbara coast of Western Australia Thursday evening or Friday morning local time, between Port Hedland and Wallal Downs, lashing the region with wind gusts in excess of 285 kilometers per hour (177 miles per hour).

    Strong winds are already being felt in coastal areas, hours ahead of Ilsa’s predicted landfall, and emergency services are imploring people to lock up anything that might take flight.

    “Winds of this strength are extremely dangerous. Not only can they bring down trees, power lines, and damage roofs and houses, but they can also lift large loose objects from your yard – boats, trailers or caravans – and loft them into the air,” said BOM’s senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury.

    Australia uses a five-tier system to categorize cyclones, a different system to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center which earlier clocked Ilsa’s winds at 215 kph (134 mph), making it the equivalent of a category 4 Atlantic hurricane.

    The region is sparsely populated, and the largest town near the storm’s eye is Port Hedland, home to around 16,000 people. Aboriginal communities, cattle stations, mining sites and tourist operators are dotted around the area.

    Cyclone Ilsa is also expected to dump heavy rain on the region – as much as 200 to 300 millimeters, according to BOM – and vast areas of the state are under flood watch.

    “Riverine flooding may significantly impact roads and access routes, with many paths becoming muddy or even inaccessible over the coming days,” Bradbury said.

    The strongest storm ever to hit any part of Australia was Cyclone Monica, which arrived in 2006 with sustained winds around 290 kph (180 mph), as it swept across the eastern and northern parts of Australia.

    That cyclone missed highly populated areas but brought down trees and caused severe damage to vegetation along with a storm surge up to six meters high.

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  • Severe flooding strikes Fort Lauderdale as parts of South Florida face historic amounts of rainfall | CNN

    Severe flooding strikes Fort Lauderdale as parts of South Florida face historic amounts of rainfall | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Substantial downpours have inundated Fort Lauderdale and parts of South Florida Wednesday night in a once-in-a-half-century rainfall event, leading to a flash flood emergency in Broward County and one mayor calling the deluge the “most severe flooding that I’ve ever seen.”

    Around 10 to 14 inches of rain have fallen across the area Wednesday and an additional two to four inches are possible as heavy thunderstorms continue to move slowly across the area.

    Fort Lauderdale “is experiencing severe flooding in multiple areas of the city,” Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue said on social media, warning to stay off the roads as vehicles may become stuck or submerged.

    A flash flood emergency – the highest level of flood warning – has been issued for portions of South Florida, including Fort Lauderdale, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Miami Wednesday night.

    “This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION,” the NWS warned. “Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”

    Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy told CNN that “city crews are doing everything they can” to deploy pumps wherever possible and keep drains clear.

    “We’ve recorded over 12 inches of rain since midnight, and that’s on top of consecutive days of seemingly nonstop rain,” Levy said. “The ground was already saturated so there is extensive flooding all over our city and throughout South Florida. Many roadways are impassable. Lots of vehicles got stuck and left abandoned in the middle of our roadways.

    “I’ve lived here my whole life. This is the most severe flooding that I’ve ever seen,” he said.

    Officials have asked residents to avoid driving or traveling in Fort Lauderdale this evening.

    “Police and Fire Rescue continue to answer calls for service,” the city of Fort Lauderdale said in a news release on Wednesday evening. “Public Works staff are clearing drains and operating pumps to mitigate the water as quickly as possible. Efforts have been made to relieve traffic congestion through prioritized signaling to assist individuals leaving the City. We are requesting drivers to stay off the roads and avoid the City of Fort Lauderdale until the water has subsided.”

    The flooding was impacting rush hour traffic and led to the closure of a tunnel, the city said.

    “The Henry E. Kinney Tunnel is closed. Please avoid the area. The weather conditions combined with rush hour traffic are compounding issues in the downtown area,” the city said.

    The Broward Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Wednesday it is “being inundated with non-emergency 911 calls regarding the inclement weather” and asks residents to use 911 only for “true emergencies,” also telling residents to avoid driving and to call a tow truck company if a vehicle is stranded and not in an emergency.

    The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is currently closed due to ongoing flooding in the vicinity and will reopen at noon Thursday, according to an update from the airport.

    Observed rainfall totals in and around the Fort Lauderdale area indicate at least a 1-in-50 year rainfall event Wednesday, according to a CNN analysis of precipitation statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with rainfall totals as of 9 p.m. ET Wednesday exceeding 12 inches in 24 hours.

    Some places may have seen even more extreme rainfall. According to the latest flash flood emergency issued by the NWS in Miami, some areas may have received up to 20 inches of rain, which would correspond to at least a 1-in-200-year rainfall event.

    Preliminary 24-hour rainfall totals indicate multiple cities and neighborhoods are being impacted. At least 11.09 inches of rain have fallen in Fort Lauderdale, 12.21 inches in Lauderhill and 13.92 inches in Dania Beach as of Wednesday night.

    The flash flood emergency is in effect for central Broward County until 2 a.m. EDT Thursday.

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  • A 2019 hearing detailed potential fire hazards at the now-burning Indiana recycling plant, and its owner admitted a building did not have fire sprinklers | CNN

    A 2019 hearing detailed potential fire hazards at the now-burning Indiana recycling plant, and its owner admitted a building did not have fire sprinklers | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    More than three years before a large blaze at an eastern Indiana recycling plant began spewing toxic smoke and prompting evacuations, potential fire hazards at the facility had been detailed at a meeting with local leaders.

    A September 2019 hearing by the city of Richmond’s Unsafe Building Commission outlined significant code violations at the recycling plant in Richmond, according to meeting minutes obtained by CNN.

    At the 2019 meeting, Seth Smith, the owner of the recycling plant, admitted conditions at the plant had gotten “out of control,” and that one of the buildings at the site had no fire extinguishing system, claiming that an auction company selling the land destroyed the fire system before he took control of it.

    “I took a review of what was there and what it would take to do it and basically, no fixing that (fire sprinkler) system,” Smith said, according to the minutes.

    Richmond’s deputy fire chief, Doug Gardner, noted at the hearing there was an “excessive amount of plastic materials stored in and around the building,” and that “many of the stacks are unstable and several have fallen over.”

    Aaron Jordan, the city’s building commissioner, said that inside the recycling plant building, “there are boxes stacked up all the way to the ceiling.”

    He also noted that some of the materials were too close to the property line, which was a fire hazard.

    “If it would catch on fire it would catch the building next to it on fire,” Jordan said, according to the minutes. “It needs to be 10 feet away from the lot line.”

    Inspections at the site also found widespread roof leaks and structural issues with its buildings.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also conducted an “air plume study” of the properties at Gardner’s request to determine the density of the particles in the air in the event that a fire was to occur. The study “caused concerns for possible evacuations of the area,” records show.

    CNN reached out to NOAA and the city of Richmond for a copy of that study but did not receive a response.

    This week’s raging fire at the plant has forced evacuation orders for thousands of people since it started Tuesday, while many wonder what the impacts of the thick, toxic smoke may be on their health and community.

    Among the burning items were plastics, which can give off a “host of different chemicals” when they’re on fire, Indiana State Fire Marshal Steve Jones said.

    The smoke rising from the site, Jones said Tuesday, is “definitely toxic.”

    In the 2019 meeting minutes, Smith, the plant owner, made comments committing to cleaning up the site.

    After the building commission granted a one-month continuance to explore a plan of action, it reconvened in October 2019 and issued formal findings of fact that the properties were unsafe.

    The commission found that the “cumulative effect of the code violations present” rendered “the premises unsafe, substandard, or a danger to the health and safety on the public,” records show.

    The panel also ordered Smith to either repair or demolish and vacate the properties in the next 60 days. The next week, Smith and his company petitioned a court to review the commission’s orders deeming his properties unsafe.

    In March 2020, an Indiana circuit court judge ruled in favor of the city, affirming the commission’s decisions requiring Smith to fix conditions at his sites. The court found the evidence “clearly established” that Smith’s properties “are unsafe to people and property; constitute a fire hazard; are a hazard to public health; constitute a nuisance; and are dangerous to people or property because of violations of statute and City Ordinance concerning building condition and maintenance.”

    CNN reached out to Smith for comment but did not receive a response. The attorney that previously represented Smith in the lawsuit declined to comment.

    In 2022, the city seized two of the three land parcels the recycling plant sits on after Smith failed to pay property taxes.

    “We have been through several steps since then to order this particular business owner to clean up this property, because we were aware that what was operating here was a fire hazard,” Richmond Mayor Dave Snow said at a Wednesday morning news conference.

    It’s unclear at this time what steps the city took to remedy the site since the seizure, and whether it took any steps before 2022 to enforce its orders requiring Smith to repair or demolish and vacate the properties.

    “As you might imagine, cleaning up these sites is a significant undertaking,” city attorney AJ Sickmann told CNN. “The city was devoting available resources to abate the problems, but unfortunately the fire began before complete remediation could occur.”

    Details about how this week’s fire started weren’t immediately available. The mayor said the fire department initially responded to reports of a structure fire. Firefighters arrived to see a semitrailer behind a building engulfed in flames, and it spread to other piles of plastics around the trailer and eventually to the building, according to Brown, the fire chief.

    “Our access was very hampered by the rubbish and the piles of plastic that were surrounding the complex,” Snow, the mayor, said. “Yesterday we only had one way in to the entire structure. Today we’re going to use excavators to gain access and to get to the deeper seeds of the fire.”

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  • New Jersey wildfire 75% contained as all roads to reopen soon, officials say | CNN

    New Jersey wildfire 75% contained as all roads to reopen soon, officials say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The wildfire in New Jersey that has burned nearly 4,000 acres in is 75% contained are to reopen, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service tweeted Wednesday night.

    The blaze that began in Manchester Township on Tuesday evening has burned 3,859 acres, authorities said, and all of the previously announced road closures in the area were to be lifted at 9 p.m.

    The service said its personnel will continue to work in several locations and urged residents to “stay vigilant while driving through smoke conditions,” because firefighters may be working on the side of the road.

    The fire remains under investigation, the forest service added.

    The fire came as record heat sets in across the Northeast.

    This single fire has burned more than half the average acres burned in New Jersey in an entire year, according to statistics from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

    About 170 structures in the Manchester Township area were evacuated Tuesday night, but all residents have since been allowed to return home, Manchester Police Chief Robert Dolan said during a news conference Wednesday.

    No structures are damaged and no injuries have been reported, officials said, but firefighters have faced “extreme fire behavior,” said John Cecil, the assistant commissioner of state parks, forests and historic sites at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

    “We saw a wall of fire, 200-foot flames, raining fire embers. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but this was a severe situation that these guys and gals managed to keep in place and protect lives and property. And for that, we cannot thank them enough,” Cecil said.

    No structures are damaged and no injuries have been reported.

    The fire was primarily burning on federal, state and private property in Manchester Township, but it had jumped to the adjacent borough of Lakehurst.

    Summerlike temperatures are expected to last through Friday, with more than 25 potential high records falling.

    “We’ve been under high pressure the past couple of days. This is drying out the ‘fuels’ (dry brushland, dead leaves etc.). We should stay under high pressure for the next day,” Cameron Wunderlin, National Weather Service meteorologist in Mount Holly, New Jersey, told CNN. “Relative humidity drops very low with this flow around the high and all the ingredients are there for the fire weather concerns.”

    The record heat will only make fire conditions worse during the week, as temperatures soar into the mid-80s across New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast along the I-95 corridor.

    Overnight temperatures will also remain high, which will create challenging conditions for firefighters. Nighttime temperatures will only drop to the low 60s or upper 50s, which won’t allow for much recovery overnight.

    “Relative humidity is calculated by temperature and the amount of moisture,” Wunderlin said. “So if you have record highs and low humidity, the relative humidity will drop below the 30% threshold that we look for extreme fire behavior.”

    Places like New York City, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and even Philadelphia could break records Friday with temperatures expected to top out in the mid-80s.

    Springfield, Massachusetts, could shatter its previous record of 77 by nearly 10 degrees if it hits the forecast high of 86 on Friday.

    Winds will remain a factor as sustained winds are expected to stay around 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph.

    April is considered peak fire season for New Jersey. The state has seen other large fires in recent years, including one just last year that scored more than 13,000 acres. The fire in 2022 was roughly 50 miles from where the current fire is burning.

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  • EPA proposes new tailpipe rules that could push EVs to make up two-thirds of new car sales in US by 2032 | CNN Politics

    EPA proposes new tailpipe rules that could push EVs to make up two-thirds of new car sales in US by 2032 | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed ambitious new car pollution rules that could require electric vehicles to account for up to two-thirds of new cars sold in the US by 2032, in what would be one of the Biden administration’s most aggressive climate-change policies yet.

    The tailpipe standards would also have the effect of cutting planet-warming pollution from cars in half. Transportation accounts for nearly 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US, according to the EPA.

    EPA Administrator Michael Regan called the regulations “the strongest-ever federal pollution standards for cars and trucks.”

    Regan touted the proposed rules on “CNN News Central” on Wednesday, claiming they would bring down costs for consumers and slash planet-warming pollution.

    “This is a future for everyone, and we’re starting to see all of the auto industry move in this direction,” Regan told CNN’s Sara Sidner, saying strong auto emissions rules have been part of President Joe Biden’s “vision from day one.”

    EPA officials said that they are considering several different emissions proposals, which could result in anywhere from a 64% to 69% electric vehicle adoption rate by early next decade. If approved, the emissions standards would start model year 2027 vehicles.

    The agency anticipates the new rules would mean EVs could also make up nearly half of all new medium-duty vehicles, like delivery trucks, by model year 2032. Officials are also proposing stronger standards for heavy-duty vehicles, including dump trucks, public utility trucks, and transit and school buses.

    One expert told CNN the Biden administration’s proposal is a pivotal moment for the US auto industry and consumers.

    “It’s a pretty big deal,” said Thomas Boylan, a former Environmental Protection Agency official and the regulatory director for the EV trade group Zero Emission Transportation Association. “This is really going to set the tone for the rest of the decade and into the 2030s in terms of what this administration is looking for the auto industry to do when it comes to decarbonizing and ultimately electrifying.”

    Regan and White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi hailed the proposed regulations as a major climate win that would also save American consumers money in the coming years.

    Zaidi said that in the Biden administration’s first few years, the number of EVs on US roads had already tripled, while the number of public charging stations had doubled. And Zaidi vowed more to come, with funding from Biden’s infrastructure law for a network of EV charging stations combined with consumer tax credits.

    “Whether you measure today’s announcements by the dollars saved, the gallons reduced, or the pollution that will no longer be pumped into the air, this is a win for the American people,” Zaidi said.

    Yet even as the administration is writing aggressive regulations to push the market toward EVs, a Gallup poll released Wednesday suggests that Americans are not yet sold on the idea. Gallup polled more than 1,000 adults in the US last month and found that 41% said they would not buy an electric vehicle.

    Not only are EVs still more expensive than gas-powered cars, but consumers also haven’t yet grasped the climate benefits of transitioning to zero-emissions vehicles, the poll found. Six in 10 respondents said they believe EVs help the environment “only a little” or “not at all,” Gallup reported.

    Transportation is the biggest source of planet-warming pollution in the US, and light duty vehicles – the average cars Americans drive – account for 58% of those emissions. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported last year that aggressive, pollution-slashing changes in the global transportation sector – including the transition to EVs – could reduce the sector’s emissions by more than 80%.

    Speaking on CNN, Regan also emphasized that switching to an EV would save consumers money in the long run.

    “Folks who purchase electric vehicles will see a cost savings over the lifespan of the vehicle, because they’re not having to buy gas, having to pay for maintenance,” Regan said. “So this is a huge opportunity for everyone in this country.”

    Other countries, including the EU and China, are moving faster toward adopting EVs. In the US, California has already proposed that zero-emissions vehicles make up 70% of new car sales by 2030, and 17 other states plan to follow California’s lead.

    That means much of the US car industry will already be transitioning ahead of the proposed federal rules.

    “I believe it’s pretty doable,” Margo Oge, chair of the International Council on Clean Transportation and a former Obama EPA official, said of the aggressive transition to EVs. “The industry is there. Europe is ahead of the US, China is ahead of Europe – and these companies are global companies.”

    New federal tax credits are coming next week that aim to help American consumers save up to $7,500 on an EV. But they have incredibly complex requirements for the auto industry – including that the cars’ batteries and components come from the US or countries it has a free-trade agreement with.

    Still, Boylan said the regulations are designed to gradually work over the next decade, by which time consumers should have far more electric vehicle options to choose from.

    “You’ve got the tax credits as the carrot,” Boylan said. The proposed tailpipe regulation “provides the stick to backstop these incentives and push the industry forward.”

    Regan told CNN the rules would be phased in gradually, giving auto makers and consumers years before they fully go into effect. During that time, the administration is focused on installing more EV charging stations and expanding access to $7,500 federal EV tax credits.

    “What we’re looking at is a ramp-up period,” Regan said on CNN. “We’re going to see a massive buildup over the next couple years, and we’re starting to see those electric vehicle sales numbers grow already.”

    The EPA will take public comment on the proposal before finalizing the rules in the coming months.

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  • Shelter-in-place order is issued for neighborhoods near a burning fishing vessel as the EPA conducts air monitoring | CNN

    Shelter-in-place order is issued for neighborhoods near a burning fishing vessel as the EPA conducts air monitoring | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A shelter-in-place order was issued Sunday for neighborhoods near a burning fishing vessel in the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma, Washington, where a “significant explosion” took place and fire conditions have worsened, officials said.

    The burning vessel – which is believed to be carrying 55,000 gallons of diesel and 19,000 pounds of freon on board – caught fire early Saturday morning while moored in the waterway, the US Coast Guard said in a news release.

    “We were very fortunate that the fire was quickly spotted and reported and the crew onboard was able to safely evacuate,” US Coast Guard Lt. Stephen Nolan told CNN affiliate KING-TV.

    There was a “significant explosion” linked to a heated compressed gas cylinder on the vessel, and smoke production shifted toward Northeast Tacoma, Port of Tacoma officials said Sunday night, citing fire officials.

    “Due to smoke from a boat fire in Tacoma, Twin Lakes and Green Gables residents should avoid prolonged outdoor exposure whenever smoke odors are present or if smoke is visible,” Federal Way mayor Jim Ferrell tweeted late Sunday night.

    By Sunday, the fire had spread throughout the vessel and was about 100 feet from the ship’s freon tanks, according to the Coast Guard. Freon is a trademark name typically used to refer to several different refrigerants, including chlorofluorocarbons, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

    As the fire continues to burn, the heat from the flames can build pressure in the freon tanks, which have built-in heat-activated pressure relief valves designed to release pressure from the tanks in an emergency, according to the Coast Guard.

    “While freon can be toxic if inhaled in large quantities or in a confined space, the release of freon into the atmosphere is not expected to pose any health and safety risks to the public,” the Coast Guard said.

    Still, the City of Tacoma Fire Department asked residents of the Northeast Tacoma, Browns Point and Dash Point neighborhoods to “remain indoors and limit exposures to smoke.”

    “Residents concerned about smoky conditions can provide additional protections by keeping doors closed and shutting outside air vents. Residents may also want to avoid any strenuous activity or exercise outdoors,” the mayor tweeted.

    The EPA has been conducting air monitoring in the surrounding areas and first responders have deployed floating barriers around the vessel to contain any spills, the release said.

    The Coast Guard has also closed the Hylebos Waterway for all commercial and recreational vessel traffic.

    As of Sunday night, no injuries had been reported and there were no signs of maritime pollution, the Coast Guard said.

    As crews continue to battle the fire with cooling spray, it remains unclear what ignited the blaze. Authorities said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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  • How electric tuk-tuks could become a ‘virtual power plant’ for this country | CNN

    How electric tuk-tuks could become a ‘virtual power plant’ for this country | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The streets of Dhaka are filled with constant clamor. Among the chorus of honking horns and ringing bells, roaring cars and rattling rickshaws, you can hear the electric hum of the city’s three-wheeled open taxis, called tuk-tuks, as they weave through traffic.

    Among the chaos, one Bangladeshi startup has spotted an opportunity. SOLshare plans to tap into the country’s estimated 2.5 million electric tuk-tuks, and turn them into a “virtual power plant.”

    “When (the tuk-tuks) return to the garage at the end of the night, they come back with 30% juice in their batteries,” says Salma Islam, head of projects, fundraising and communication at SOLshare. “If they can feed that back into the grid when the demand is really high, that would be amazing.”

    SOLshare knows exactly how much electricity is left in these tuk-tuks because it has been working with local garages to upgrade their conventional lead-acid batteries to smart, lithium-ion batteries. These are equipped with SOLshare’s digital chip, which collects data on the battery’s performance, location, and charge level.

    The startup claims that the leftover electricity in these batteries could provide up to 20% of the nation’s energy when demand is at its highest. The vehicles would recharge overnight when demand on the grid is lowest.

    SOLshare hopes that this mobile power supply could help to stabilize Bangladesh’s energy grid — and power the country’s economic development.

    “The demand is constantly growing, because the population is also growing, and as people’s livelihoods get better, their energy requirements also increase,” says Islam.

    SOLshare launched its EV pilot program, called SOLmobility, in 2021. It partnered with 15 tuk-tuk garages to upgrade the batteries of around 40 vehicles and began gathering data on the mileage and activities of the three-wheelers.

    The smart batteries use 40% less energy than lead-acid batteries, says Islam. Additionally, the lithium-ion batteries charge in just six hours, around half the time of lead-acid batteries, and are lighter and more efficient. Although they’re more expensive, costing more than double compared to lead acid batteries, they last up to five times longer, says Islam.

    Muhammad Delwar Hossain, who has been driving a tuk-tuk in the Dhaka suburb of Tongi for over a decade, started using a SOLshare smart battery last year. He says it’s boosted his monthly earnings by 50% because he can make more trips on a single charge, and he feels his health has improved because he’s no longer breathing in the toxic fumes emitted by the lead-acid battery.

    SOLshare’s ambitions go far beyond tuk-tuks – it wants to transform Bangladesh’s entire energy sector through multiple strands.

    In 2015, the company began building peer-to-peer solar-powered microgrids that allow households without solar panels to buy excess energy from others in the community using a pay-as-you-go mobile top-up system. To date, it has installed 118 microgrids across the country. The startup has raised $6 million so far.

    The company also installs solar panel systems for homes and commercial buildings, and has 27 megawatts of installation in the pipeline, says Islam.

    Increasing solar power can help the country reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, says Islam – and these microgrids could even feed excess energy back into the national grid.

    SOLshare’s innovations come at a pivotal time for the nation’s energy sector.

    “We had massive power grid failures last summer … that was an eye opener for everyone,” says Islam.

    Across the country, households experienced frequent load-shedding, a practice of enforced power outages that reduces strain on the grid to prevent a total blackout. Then, in October 2022, Bangladesh suffered its biggest blackout in eight years when the national grid failed and plunged 96 million people into darkness.

    Bangladesh has the world's largest off-grid solar power program, according to the World Bank. Home solar systems, seen here on the rooftops of Dhaka, supply individual households.

    Despite being home to the world’s largest off-grid solar power program, Bangladesh’s rapid growth and increasing demand for electricity means renewables account for just 3.5% of its energy.

    The low-lying nation is also one of the most climate change-vulnerable countries in the world and is highly susceptible to floods, droughts and storms – so finding a sustainable way to support its growing energy demand is vital.

    “I think they were a little bit early, ahead of their time,” says Sonia Bashir Kabir, founder of Bangladesh venture capital firm SBK Tech Ventures and an early investor in SOLshare. She believes the next five years hold a lot of opportunity for the company.

    “The government has taken a very serious mandate to look at climate, which helps because that means the policies are going to be favorable,” she says.

    Bangladesh isn’t the only country struggling to meet energy demand: disruptions in the oil and gas supply throughout 2022 have caused a global energy crisis. This has fueled a renewable revolution, with solar and wind energy growing 30% faster than expected last year – and many are hoping it will accelerate the expansion of the green energy sector.

    SOLshare installed its first peer-to-peer solar microgrid in 2015, and now has 118 across the country.

    SOLshare is continuing to upgrade more tuk-tuks, as well as working with battery manufacturers to install its digital chip directly into the battery.

    Through its different projects, Islam hopes the company will become “Asia’s largest virtual utility provider” – a model that could play “a massive role” in other countries with large fleets of electric three-wheel vehicles, such as Thailand and India, she says.

    “We are tapping into as many decentralized renewable sources as possible, and not relying on just a central power grid,” says Islam. “The way we see it, if we can do this right here in Bangladesh, you can actually do it anywhere.”

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  • Record warmth in areas with a record snowpack may cause hazardous flooding this week | CNN

    Record warmth in areas with a record snowpack may cause hazardous flooding this week | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: A version of this article originally appeared in the weekly weather newsletter, the CNN Weather Brief, which is released every Monday. You can sign up here to receive them every week and during significant storms.



    CNN
     — 

    This week will be draining in a literal sense, due to rapid snowmelt. A great thaw is set to begin, which will bring the potential for flooding across at least 10 states.

    From the West Coast to the Great Lakes, concern is growing about the significant warmup forecast this week and what impact it will have on the near-record snowpack for many regions.

    “Between 5,000 feet and 7,000 feet snowpack is currently near to above record levels, with 8 to 15 inches of water contained within this snow,” the National Weather Service office in Billings explained.

    Record highs are possible across the Northern Plains and Midwest this week, as temperatures climb into the 60s and 70s.

    The sudden warmth combined with heavy rain from an approaching cold front could lead to rapid snowmelt, causing rivers and creeks to flood quickly; something forecasters have been expecting with this year’s blockbuster winter snowpack.

    “Minneapolis had their third-snowiest winter on record, so a lot of it was sitting around waiting to melt,” Eric Ahasic, a weather service meteorologist in Twin Cities, said. “We didn’t really add a ton of heavy rain on top of the snowpack while that snow was melting, so that kind of allowed it to progress fairly orderly, but we’re going to have some minor flooding in a lot of rivers.”

    He explained the perfect ingredients will exist this week for a rapid melt: warm temperatures, humid air, windy conditions and a strong sun angle.

    Ahasic fears areas to his north will have a much more difficult time with all this melting snow. North Dakota and Minnesota could see more significant flooding where the rivers flow to the north.

    “As that water flows into the Red River, and then flows north up into Canada, it’s going to run into colder weather and even some ice farther north,” Ahasic explained. “That’s why you usually get some really bad flooding up across that part of the United States and Canada, because the water that’s flowing is running into usually some sort of ice blockage.”

    The blockages are often referred to as ice jams, which happen when huge chunks of ice clump together and block the flow of the river, which many times results in rapid flooding.

    In portions of the Northern Plains, temperatures could climb to 80 degrees this week, possibly setting records. Any snow left on the ground will melt quickly with temperatures running at least 15 degrees above normal.

    “With the ground mainly frozen in the foothills, this water will not be able to soak in and will run off,” the weather service in Billings said. “Water flowing downhill and accumulating in low-lying areas may result in localized flooding.”

    The weather service urges people to stay up to date with the flooding situation over the next few weeks, in case any rivers begin to rapidly rise.

    In portions of the southern Sierra, the rate of melting snow will also begin to rapidly increase this week, causing rivers to rise and run more swiftly.

    The weather service warns people to stay vigilant in the lower elevations and campsites, because of the potential for flash flooding.

    Trucks unload snow removed from roads to an area on the edge of town where it can melt safely, rather than blocking drains and causing flooding in Mammoth Lakes, California, on April 6, 2023.

    “Due to their swift currents and very cold-water temperatures, creeks and streams pose life-threatening dangers,” the weather service office in Las Vegas warned.

    While the snow is beginning to melt more quickly this week, it will be something to follow for the next several weeks and even months.

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