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  • India’s endangered tiger population is rebounding in triumph for conservationists | CNN

    India’s endangered tiger population is rebounding in triumph for conservationists | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Tigers once roamed across Asia, their numbers as high as 100,000 at the start of the 20th century, before the species plummeted to the brink of extinction.

    By 2006, their population in India – home to the majority of the world’s remaining wild tigers – hit a record low of just 1,411 individuals.

    But decades of conservation efforts appear to have finally paid off. India’s tigers have more than doubled since then, reaching 3,167 last year, according to the latest tiger census released Sunday.

    That’s about 70% of the world’s wild tiger population, which stands at around 4,500, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

    The resurgence of Indian tigers represents a triumph for conservationists, and a ray of hope for other countries struggling to boost wildlife numbers.

    The report was released alongside celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger, the government’s conservation program launched in 1973.

    “We have thousands of years of history related to tigers … The tiger is considered our brother in many tribes,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an address on Sunday. “A better future for humanity is only possible when our environments are protected and our biodiversity continues to expand.”

    Modi also visited two tiger reserves on Sunday, with photos showing the leader decked in a safari hat and camouflage clothing.

    Tiger numbers began falling steeply in the 1940s as human populations boomed. Agricultural expansion, deforestation, and infrastructure have fragmented tiger habitats, according to the WWF – particularly devastating given tigers are solitary animals who require large territories to roam and hunt.

    Today, tigers exist on just 7% of the land they used to occupy, according to the WWF.

    This dwindling space has meant a rise in human-tiger conflict, with multiple incidents in the past few decades of tigers attacking humans and entering villages in search of food. And they’re not alone – India’s endangered elephants, too, frequently wander into farmlands and devour crops.

    Though environmental degradation is a problem facing countries worldwide, India’s exploding population poses a unique challenge. In 1971, the country had 547 million people; it now has 1.4 billion, and is set to overtake China to become the world’s most populous country this year.

    Unregulated poaching in the 1980s further accelerated the decline in tiger numbers. Tigers were hunted for sport, status and consumption, with their bone and other parts often used in traditional Chinese medicine. India officially banned tiger hunting in 1972, but it remains a major threat, with illegal poaching blamed for the complete extinction of tigers within an Indian reserve in 2005.

    Efforts to reverse the trend has seen India develop 53 tiger reserves covering nearly 75,800 square kilometers (about 7.5 million hectares), up from just nine reserves at the start of Project Tiger.

    Authorities have relocated and paid entire villages to make space for tigers, and created wildlife corridors to link their fragmented habitats.

    The government has also invested in technology like drones, camera traps and software systems to keep track of tiger populations, movements and behaviors.

    There are plenty of challenges ahead, the WWF cautioned. The worsening climate crisis spells trouble for vulnerable habitats. Many tiger reserves and protected areas are “small islands in a vast sea of ecologically unsustainable land use,” with human activity encroaching on tiger environments. And illegal poaching continues despite strict laws.

    Still, the return of the tiger population is encouraging – and India is beginning to share its conservation practices with other countries with declining tiger numbers. In recent years, Delhi has signed bilateral agreements and launched initiatives including conservation workshops with Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

    And, as Modi pointed out in his Sunday address, similar successes are being seen with other species; India welcomed its first newborn cheetahs in March more than 70 years after the big cats were declared officially extinct in the country.

    The cubs were born to two rehabilitated cheetahs brought from Namibia to India, as part of a government plan to re-home 50 individuals over the next five years.

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  • Inside the international sting operation to catch North Korean crypto hackers | CNN Politics

    Inside the international sting operation to catch North Korean crypto hackers | CNN Politics

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    Watch Alex Marquardt’s report on the sting operation on Erin Burnett OutFront on Monday, April 10, at 7 p.m. ET.



    CNN
     — 

    A team of South Korean spies and American private investigators quietly gathered at the South Korean intelligence service in January, just days after North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the sea.

    For months, they’d been tracking $100 million stolen from a California cryptocurrency firm named Harmony, waiting for North Korean hackers to move the stolen crypto into accounts that could eventually be converted to dollars or Chinese yuan, hard currency that could fund the country’s illegal missile program.

    When the moment came, the spies and sleuths — working out of a government office in a city, Pangyo, known as South Korea’s Silicon Valley — would have only a few minutes to help seize the money before it could be laundered to safety through a series of accounts and rendered untouchable.

    Finally, in late January, the hackers moved a fraction of their loot to a cryptocurrency account pegged to the dollar, temporarily relinquishing control of it. The spies and investigators pounced, flagging the transaction to US law enforcement officials standing by to freeze the money.

    The team in Pangyo helped seize a little more than $1 million that day. Though analysts tell CNN that most of the stolen $100 million remains out of reach in cryptocurrency and other assets controlled by North Korea, it was the type of seizure that the US and its allies will need to prevent big paydays for Pyongyang.

    The sting operation, described to CNN by private investigators at Chainalysis, a New York-based blockchain-tracking firm, and confirmed by the South Korean National Intelligence Service, offers a rare window into the murky world of cryptocurrency espionage — and the burgeoning effort to shut down what has become a multibillion-dollar business for North Korea’s authoritarian regime.

    Over the last several years, North Korean hackers have stolen billions of dollars from banks and cryptocurrency firms, according to reports from the United Nations and private firms. As investigators and regulators have wised up, the North Korean regime has been trying increasingly elaborate ways to launder that stolen digital money into hard currency, US officials and private experts tell CNN.

    Cutting off North Korea’s cryptocurrency pipeline has quickly become a national security imperative for the US and South Korea. The regime’s ability to use the stolen digital money — or remittances from North Korean IT workers abroad — to fund its weapons programs is part of the regular set of intelligence products presented to senior US officials, including, sometimes, President Joe Biden, a senior US official said.

    The North Koreans “need money, so they’re going to keep being creative,” the official told CNN. “I don’t think [they] are ever going to stop looking for illicit ways to glean funds because it’s an authoritarian regime under heavy sanctions.”

    North Korea’s cryptocurrency hacking was top of mind at an April 7 meeting in Seoul, where US, Japanese and South Korean diplomats released a joint statement lamenting that Kim Jong Un’s regime continues to “pour its scarce resources into its WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and ballistic missile programs.”

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    “We are also deeply concerned about how the DPRK supports these programs by stealing and laundering funds as well as gathering information through malicious cyber activities,” the trilateral statement said, using an acronym for the North Korean government.

    North Korea has previously denied similar allegations. CNN has emailed and called the North Korean Embassy in London seeking comment.

    Starting in the late 2000s, US officials and their allies scoured international waters for signs that North Korea was evading sanctions by trafficking in weapons, coal or other precious cargo, a practice that continues. Now, a very modern twist on that contest is unfolding between hackers and money launderers in Pyongyang, and intelligence agencies and law enforcement officials from Washington to Seoul.

    The FBI and Secret Service have spearheaded that work in the US (both agencies declined to comment when CNN asked how they track North Korean money-laundering.) The FBI announced in January that it had frozen an unspecified portion of the $100 million stolen from Harmony.

    The succession of Kim family members who have ruled North Korea for the last 70 years have all used state-owned companies to enrich the family and ensure the regime’s survival, according to experts.

    It’s a family business that scholar John Park calls “North Korea Incorporated.”

    Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s current dictator, has “doubled down on cyber capabilities and crypto theft as a revenue generator for his family regime,” said Park, who directs the Korea Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. “North Korea Incorporated has gone virtual.”

    Compared to the coal trade North Korea has relied on for revenue in the past, stealing cryptocurrency is much less labor and capital-intensive, Park said. And the profits are astronomical.

    Last year, a record $3.8 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen from around the world, according to Chainalysis. Nearly half of that, or $1.7 billion, was the work of North Korean-linked hackers, the firm said.

    The joint analysis room in the National Cyber ​​Security Cooperation Center of the National Intelligence Service in South Korea.

    It’s unclear how much of its billions in stolen cryptocurrency North Korea has been able to convert to hard cash. In an interview, a US Treasury official focused on North Korea declined to give an estimate. The public record of blockchain transactions helps US officials track suspected North Korean operatives’ efforts to move cryptocurrency, the Treasury official said.

    But when North Korea gets help from other countries in laundering that money it is “incredibly concerning,” the official said. (They declined to name a particular country, but the US in 2020 indicted two Chinese men for allegedly laundering over $100 million for North Korea.)

    Pyongyang’s hackers have also combed the networks of various foreign governments and companies for key technical information that might be useful for its nuclear program, according to a private United Nations report in February reviewed by CNN.

    A spokesperson for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told CNN it has developed a “rapid intelligence sharing” scheme with allies and private companies to respond to the threat and is looking for new ways to stop stolen cryptocurrency from being smuggled into North Korea.

    Recent efforts have focused on North Korea’s use of what are known as mixing services, publicly available tools used to obscure the source of cryptocurrency.

    On March 15, the Justice Department and European law enforcement agencies announced the shutdown of a mixing service known as ChipMixer, which the North Koreans allegedly used to launder an unspecified amount of the roughly $700 million stolen by hackers in three different crypto heists — including the $100 million robbery of Harmony, the California cryptocurrency firm.

    Private investigators use blockchain-tracking software — and their own eyes when the software alerts them — to pinpoint the moment when stolen funds leave the hands of the North Koreans and can be seized. But those investigators need trusted relationships with law enforcement and crypto firms to move quickly enough to snatch back the funds.

    One of the biggest US counter moves to date came in August when the Treasury Department sanctioned a cryptocurrency “mixing” service known as Tornado Cash that allegedly laundered $455 million for North Korean hackers.

    Tornado Cash was particularly valuable because it had more liquidity than other services, allowing North Korean money to hide more easily among other sources of funds. Tornado Cash is now processing fewer transactions after the Treasury sanctions forced the North Koreans to look to other mixing services.

    Suspected North Korean operatives sent $24 million in December and January through a new mixing service, Sinbad, according to Chainalysis, but there are no signs yet that Sinbad will be as effective at moving money as Tornado Cash.

    The people behind mixing services, like Tornado Cash developer Roman Semenov, often describe themselves as privacy advocates who argue that their cryptocurrency tools can be used for good or ill like any technology. But that hasn’t stopped law enforcement agencies from cracking down. Dutch police in August arrested another suspected developer of Tornado Cash, whom they did not name, for alleged money laundering.

    Private crypto-tracking firms like Chainalysis are increasingly staffed with former US and European law enforcement agents who are applying what they learned in the classified world to track Pyongyang’s money laundering.

    Elliptic, a London-based firm with ex-law enforcement agents on staff, claims it helped seize $1.4 million in North Korean money stolen in the Harmony hack. Elliptic analysts tell CNN they were able to follow the money in real-time in February as it briefly moved to two popular cryptocurrency exchanges, Huobi and Binance. The analysts say they quickly notified the exchanges, which froze the money.

    “It’s a bit like large-scale drug importations,” Tom Robinson, Elliptic’s co-founder, told CNN. “[The North Koreans] are prepared to lose some of it, but a majority of it probably goes through just by virtue of volume and the speed at which they do it and they’re quite sophisticated at it.”

    The North Koreans are not just trying to steal from cryptocurrency firms, but also directly from other crypto thieves.

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    After an unknown hacker stole $200 million from British firm Euler Finance in March, suspected North Korean operatives tried to set a trap: They sent the hacker a message on the blockchain laced with a vulnerability that may have been an attempt to gain access to the funds, according to Elliptic. (The ruse didn’t work.)

    Nick Carlsen, who was an FBI intelligence analyst focused on North Korea until 2021, estimates that North Korea may only have a couple hundred people focused on the task of exploiting cryptocurrency to evade sanctions.

    With an international effort to sanction rogue cryptocurrency exchanges and seize stolen money, Carlsen worries that North Korea could turn to less conspicuous forms of fraud. Rather than steal half a billion dollars from a cryptocurrency exchange, he suggested, Pyongyang’s operatives could set up a Ponzi scheme that attracts much less attention.

    Yet even at reduced profit margins, cryptocurrency theft is still “wildly profitable,” said Carlsen, who now works at fraud-investigating firm TRM Labs. “So, they have no reason to stop.”

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  • Toxic fume warning after fire breaks out at Hamburg warehouse | CNN

    Toxic fume warning after fire breaks out at Hamburg warehouse | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Residents in the German city of Hamburg have been warned of heavy smoke and possible toxins in the air after a major fire broke out at a warehouse.

    Video circulating on social media shows the warehouse engulfed in flames early Sunday morning, with smoke billowing into the sky.

    “Smoke gases and chemical components in the air caused by a warehouse fire can affect breathing. The cloud of smoke is moving towards the city center!” an alert from the Hamburg fire department said.

    Some 140 people have been evacuated, a police spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

    The fire sent a large cloud of smoke over the city

    According to local news outlet NDR, local residents have been instructed to close their windows and doors.

    “The inner city of Hamburg has gone completely dark,” a fire department spokesperson said, as quoted by the outlet.

    It is not clear yet what caused the fire.

    Germany’s national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, said trains between Hamburg and the nearby town of Büchen have been suspended due to the incident.

    Trains between Hamburg and Berlin are also facing delays of up to 90 minutes.

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  • Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel after raids on al-Aqsa mosque | CNN

    Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel after raids on al-Aqsa mosque | CNN

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    Jerusalem
    CNN
     — 

    Dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, in a major escalation that comes amid regional tensions over Israeli police raids at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

    Some 34 rockets were launched from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, with the majority intercepted but six landing in Israel.

    It was the largest such attack since a 2006 war between the two countries left around 1,200 Lebanese people and 165 Israelis dead.

    Videos posted on social media showed rockets streaking through the skies over northern Israel, and the sounds of explosions in the distance.

    The country closed its northern airspace in the wake of the barrage. No deaths were reported, and it is not yet known which group in Lebanon launched the rockets.

    Israel said it would “decide on the place and time” of its response, an IDF defense official who asked not to be named told CNN. An Israeli military spokesman said they believed a Palestinian militant group was behind the attack, not the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

    The Lebanese army confirmed a number of a rockets were launched from the country’s south, but did not detail who had fired them. It said on Twitter that a unit had found “missile launchers and a number of rockets intended for launch” in the vicinity of the Lebanese towns of Zibqin and Qlaileh, and was “currently working to dismantle them.”

    Hezbollah has not yet commented on the incident. It comes a day after Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, arrived in Beirut for meetings with Hezbollah officials.

    Tensions are sky-high in the region after Israeli police stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on two separate occasions Wednesday, as Palestinian worshipers offered prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

    Footage from inside the mosque showed Israeli officers beating people with their batons and rifle-butts, then arresting hundreds of Palestinians. Israeli police said they entered the mosque after “hundreds of rioters” tried to barricade themselves inside.

    The incident, which was met with widespread condemnation from the Arab and Muslim world, sparked retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

    Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN “we are at a very dangerous moment.”

    “What we see unfolding on the Lebanese border is obviously a consequence, a reaction to what we saw happening in al-Aqsa [mosque].” Safadi said.

    Trails from rockets can be seen over the skies of northern Israel in this video screengrab, as authorities raised concerns over increased tensions between Israel and Lebanon.

    Lebanon and Israel are considered enemy states, but a truce between them has largely held since the 2006 war.

    There have been several small-scale rocket attacks from Lebanon in recent years that have prompted retaliatory strikes from Israel. Few casualties were reported in those incidents, with the largest death toll in an exchange of fire in 2015 that left two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper dead. Palestinian factions in Lebanon were believed to be behind those rocket attacks.

    The 2006 conflict was the biggest flare-up between Lebanon and Israel since 1982. Around 1,200 Lebanese people and 165 Israelis died in an exchange of fire that involved a nationwide Israeli aerial assault, and a naval and aerial blockade. Hezbollah fired many rounds of rockets reaching deep into Israeli territory during the conflict.

    The Israeli military pinned the blame for the rockets on either Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with international spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht saying the IDF assumed that “Hezbollah knew about it, and Lebanon also has responsibility.”

    But he emphasized several times that the IDF viewed the attack as having come from a Palestinian source, and that it did not represent a widening of the conflict to actors outside of the direct Israeli-Palestinian conflict, raising hopes that tensions could be ratcheted down after the incident.

    The Lebanese foreign ministry also said it was ready to cooperate with the United Nations and take steps to “restore calm and stability” in the south, while calling on “the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop escalation,” the state-owned National News Agency reported.

    The IDF has been concerned for some time about an escalation on the Lebanese border, and hosted a high-level seminar in the spring of 2022 to brief journalists and policy makers about it.

    The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Thursday’s escalation of violence between Lebanon and Israel was “extremely serious.”

    UNIFIL also said it has directed its personnel stationed at the border between the two countries to move to air raid shelters, as a “common practice.”

    The White House said it was “extremely concerned by the continuing violence and we urge all sides to avoid further escalation.”

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  • ‘Shocked’ by the loss: Scientists sound the alarm on New Zealand’s melting glaciers | CNN

    ‘Shocked’ by the loss: Scientists sound the alarm on New Zealand’s melting glaciers | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Every year scientists in New Zealand fly over some of the country’s most iconic glaciers – ancient ice “rivers” that descend from the Southern Alps, a spine of mountains that extend along the South Island. And almost every year, they find them shrinking.

    This year was no different.

    At the end of March, the team of scientists spent eight hours flying over the peaks, taking thousands of photographs of glaciers for the annual snowline survey. Andrew Mackintosh, a professor at Monash University in Australia who was on the flight, said in a statement that he was “shocked” by what they saw.

    Some of the smaller elevation glaciers had largely disappeared, he said, while the famous Franz Josef and Fox glaciers showed marked signs of retreat.

    “The observations this year reinforce the view that we are continuing to see ice loss across the Southern Alps,” Andrew Lorrey, principal scientist at the research body National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and coordinator of the survey, told CNN.

    Glaciers are huge masses of ice that build up in and around mountains. They grow in cold, snowy winters and retreat when temperatures warm. Glaciers are fresh water sources for nearly 2 billion people globally, but their rapid melting poses a huge risk: not only is it increasing the risk for deadly flash flooding, the melting ice is driving sea level rise.

    Two years of severe, record-breaking heat have taken a toll on the glaciers – 2022 was New Zealand’s hottest year ever, beating a record that was set just a year earlier. But the trend of declining ice is long term.

    It’s difficult to witness, said Lorrey, who has been on these aerial surveys since 2009. “I’m seeing this beautiful part of our natural environment slipping through our fingers. And if you’ve experienced a glacier firsthand, they are absolutely breathtaking and mind-blowing and life-altering.”

    The snowline survey, organized by NIWA, has happened almost every year for nearly five decades and aims to capture a snapshot of a set of more than 50 glaciers – ranging in size and elevation – as close as possible to the end of snow and ice melt season.

    The scientists are looking specifically at the snow that coats them. By understanding where the snowline is “you capture something about the health of our glaciers,” Lorrey said.

    The snow, which provides a nourishing and protective layer for the glaciers, starts in the autumn and continues until spring.

    Lorrey has a financial analogy for the process: The snow is like a savings deposit for the glacier, a buffer against the warmer period ahead. When the melt season starts in the spring, it has to go through this “savings account” of new snow before it reaches the body of the glacier.

    In years when the snowline is lower on the mountain, the glacier can bulk up and is able to advance further down the slope – it has a healthy balance. But when the snowline is higher up, more of the glacier is exposed to melting – sending it into the red – and it will shrink.

    “Right now, we see rapid changes happening in the mountains, with indications that the snowline rise is accelerating along with ice loss,” Lorrey said.

    The results from this year’s flight will be fed into a report on longer term variability in the glaciers which will come out later in the year.

    Principal scientist Andrew Lorrey takes photos of Tasman Glacier during the flight.

    The climate crisis is having a huge impact. “It’s mostly temperature changes that drive what glaciers in New Zealand are doing,” Lauren Vargo, a glaciologist at the Victoria University of Wellington, who was part of the survey, told CNN.

    The extreme melting in 2018, one of the worst years on record for New Zealand’s glaciers, was made up to 10 times more likely by climate change, according to a 2020 study co-authored by Vargo and Lorrey.

    As a scientist, at first the dramatic change in the glaciers “was exciting” in some ways, said Vargo, who has been studying them since 2016. But the persistence of this trend is tough. “It also feels sad and scary when you think about what’s driving it,” she said.

    “As the current warming trend continues, we will keep losing more glaciers,” said Lorrey. And this is a global trend. Up to half the world’s glaciers could disappear by the end of the century, even if ambitious climate targets are met, according to research published in January.

    Brewster Glacier has seen a marked retreat over the last two decades.

    In addition to the impacts of climate change, natural climate variations have also played a role. The unusually long run of La Niña years, which have just ended, brought warmer-than-average sea and air temperatures, helping to drive glacier melting.

    Its counterpart, El Niño, which often brings cooler conditions to this part of New Zealand, is forecast for later in the year and may provide a temporary reprieve.

    “I always look forward to an El Niño and seeing a snow line that is where it normally should be,” Lorrey said. But, he cautioned, “it’s not going to save the bacon of the glaciers.” These years “occur too few and far between to counteract the ongoing warming trend that we’ve been experiencing.”

    Carrington Glacier

    The loss of ice is is keenly felt, Vargo said. “People in New Zealand have this connection to the glaciers.”

    Where once it was possible to park in the car park of a national park and walk a short distance to touch a glacier, now that’s much less common – people often need to go further into the mountain, even fly there on small planes.

    “It’s an experience that will be out of reach for many,” Lorrey said. “A loss of our glaciers will have a significant impact on our relationship with and experiences in the environment.”

    These “water towers,” as Lorrey calls them, also have an important role in supplying high Alpine streams, especially during years of drought.

    The shifts that are happening are a reminder that our mountains – and other places around the world – are changing quickly, he said. Glaciers are a “a highly visual element of environmental change that tells us there are other things that we are not seeing.”

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  • Missouri communities face a long road to recovery after a storm leveled homes and left at least 5 people dead | CNN

    Missouri communities face a long road to recovery after a storm leveled homes and left at least 5 people dead | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As a tornado-spawning storm system that walloped the Central US winds down, communities in southeastern Missouri are left sifting through the wreckage of what used to be homes and looking ahead to a long road to recovery.

    At least five people were killed when a possible tornado struck Bollinger County, Missouri in the dark overnight hours Wednesday, according to Sheriff Casey Graham.

    The storm tore a path of destruction across several communities in the county, reducing homes into piles of wood, scraping the roofs off buildings, splintering trees and littering roads with debris.

    “When you look at the devastation of this, it’s going to be weeks upon months to be able to recover,” Gov. Mike Parson said after touring Bollinger County. “It’s a long journey ahead for the people that live here.”

    At least 87 structures have been damaged, including 12 that were completely destroyed, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Colonel Eric Olson.

    “It was a very quick storm. It felt like it moved very quickly throughout the county,” Graham told CNN affiliate KFVS.

    The devastation in Bollinger County mirrors the destruction left behind in parts of the South and Midwest, where violent storms and tornadoes left 32 people dead just last week.

    On Tuesday and Wednesday, there were at least 12 tornadoes reported, including at least seven in Illinois, where several buildings were damaged in the town of Colona.

    The storm also battered communities with damaging winds and large hail. Davenport, Iowa, was pelted with 4-inch hail – larger than a softball.

    Now, as crews in different communities work to clear debris, a slight risk for severe weather is forecast for over 35 million people Thursday from parts of North Carolina to the Mid-Atlantic.

    Storms from Texas to the northeast could bring with them a slight flood threat on Thursday and Friday, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

    Around 7 million people are under flood watches from east Texas to Kentucky, spanning 750 miles in seven states. Cities in the watch include Shreveport, Nashville, and Memphis, according to the National Weather Service. Watches are in effect through Thursday and into late Friday.

    The flood threat includes Texas, southwest Arkansas, northern Louisiana, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and western Tennessee.

    Heavy rain between 2-4 inches is possible in those areas, with the heaviest storms potentially dropping 5 inches of rain.

    After the suspected tornado ripped through Bollinger County, residents who lost their homes in the storm were trying to salvage what they could Wednesday as the sun came up.

    Resident Alisha Skaggs told KFVS the home her family has lived in for three years was wiped out by the storm.

    “From going to being homeowners to having nothing, having to start over, it’s a lot to comprehend,” Skaggs said.

    Her neighbor, Kim Sear, told the station she had lived in the area since 1997 and had never seen a tornado come through.

    “I never thought our house would ever get hit, our neighbors would ever get hit,” Sear said. “But we have such wonderful neighbors. Everybody was checking on everybody, and I have a wonderful church group and when they’re allowed to come in, they’re gonna help clean up for me.”

    Her daughter Ciara Sear described the frightening moment the storm began beating down on their home.

    “It sounded like a freight train,” Ciara Sear told KFVS. “There’s stuff breaking everywhere, I was scared for everybody else.”

    Glenallen, Missouri, resident Erica White said she and her family had to seek shelter in the bathroom as the roof of their rental home was damaged in the storm.

    “It was super scary, the closest tornado I have encountered,” White told CNN. “I had all four kids in the bathtub with a mattress over them.”

    The sheriff said hundreds of personnel from over 25 agencies converged on Bollinger County Wednesday in the storm’s aftermath. Crews were working Wednesday to search damaged homes and surrounding roadways, and to clear debris.

    “Even in difficult times, it certainly is humbling to see how in our rural communities here in Missouri, that we all come together to work through these very difficult times,” Olson said.

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  • Storm system that killed 5 people in Missouri threatens 50 million Americans with severe weather | CNN

    Storm system that killed 5 people in Missouri threatens 50 million Americans with severe weather | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A destructive storm system that spawned at least 11 tornado reports and killed five people in Missouri now threatens millions more from Texas to New York with damaging winds, large hail and more potential twisters.

    At least five people were killed when a possible tornado struck Bollinger County, Missouri, Sheriff Casey Graham said Wednesday.

    Another five people were reported injured, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Col. Eric Olson. At least 87 structures were damaged – 12 of which were totally destroyed, Olson said.

    Authorities were still involved in search and rescue efforts, a highway patrol official said.

    “When you look at the devastation of this, it’s going to be weeks among months to be able to recover,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said in a news conference Wednesday. “It’s a long journey ahead for the people that live here.”

    The damage in Bollinger County appears to be from a high-end EF-2 tornado, the National Weather Service said, adding details may change as they receive more information.

    The same storm system that battered parts of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan continued to threaten more than 50 million people from Texas to New York Wednesday evening.

    A man surveys the wreckage and debris outside his destroyed home on April 5, 2023 in Glenallen, Missouri.

    At least nine tornadoes were reported Tuesday, including two in Iowa and seven in Illinois – where several buildings were damaged in the town of Colona and multiple semi-trucks were toppled over along the I-88.

    More than 170 hail reports also emerged from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Michigan on Tuesday. Davenport, Iowa, was pummeled with 4-inch hail – larger than a softball – while in Oswego, Illinois, baseball-sized hail plummeted from the sky.

    Debris and wreckage is seen after a tornado in the Glenallen area, Missouri, on April 5, 2023.

    An enhanced risk – Level 3 out of 5 – of severe storms remained in place Wednesday evening from northwestern Tennessee to north Ohio, including Columbus, Nashville, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Louisville.

    A Level 3 enhanced risk means multiple persistent and widespread severe storms are possible.

    And while tornado watches were no longer active, at the peak of the storm earlier in the day, there were more than 20 million people under tornado watches that extended more than 800 miles, from eastern Arkansas to southeastern Michigan.

    This latest round of severe weather comes just days after parts of the South and Midwestt were ravaged by violent storms and tornadoes that left 32 people dead.

    A semi loaded with cattle tipped over in South Dakota.

    Meanwhile, winter storms plagued the Northern Plains Wednesday, a day after “blizzard conditions” led to the shutdown of more than 100 miles of Interstate 90.

    Widespread heavy snow has fallen across the Rockies and is expected to continue over the Northern Plains, which have been seeing snowfall for several hours.

    “Blizzard warnings are in effect for parts of the Dakotas where snow showers and strong winds will cause blowing snow and reduced visibility, which will make travel dangerous,” the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said Wednesday afternoon.

    Parts of eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota will see several inches worth of snow Wednesday, the center added.

    The North Dakota Department of Transportation urged drivers to stay off the roads, warning conditions are too dangerous even for emergency crews.

    “If you don’t need to drive, stay off the roads. It’s dangerous for you and emergency crews. If you’re stranded, crews may not be able to reach you,” the transportation department tweeted.

    Meanwhile, sleet and freezing rain will impact parts of the Upper Great Lakes and New England, the prediction center said.

    “Winter Weather Advisories are in effect for parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont through early Thursday morning,” the center added, warning of possible power outages and difficult travel conditions.

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  • Here’s why beef is still pricey | CNN Business

    Here’s why beef is still pricey | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A slowing economy may lead to a decline in sales of pricey beef cuts, but don’t look for any bargains just yet.

    Market forces that have been building for a long time, including devastating droughts, will likely keep hamburger and steak prices steady — and relatively expensive.

    In part, that’s because there’s less beef. A contraction in beef supplies “has been coming for a while,” said David Anderson, a professor in Texas A&M University’s agricultural economics department. “We’re starting to see the effects that we knew were going to be coming for a couple of years.”

    When extreme drought hit the United States in recent years, farmers started to rapidly sell cattle because the dry conditions, along with higher feed costs, made it expensive or impossible to maintain their herds. That wave of sales, particularly of cows used to breed, has led to supply constraints this year.

    “Tightening cattle supplies are expected to cause a significant year-over-year decrease in beef production, the first decline since 2015,” a March market outlook from the US Department of Agriculture noted.

    “If we produce less beef, the pressure’s on for higher prices,” said Anderson. The “big unknown is going to be consumer demand.”

    The beef supply tends to grow and shrink in roughly 10-year cycles, said Lance Zimmerman, senior beef analyst for the North American market with Rabobank. When supply shrinks, consumer prices tend to go up. But with people nervous about the economy, this year’s more complicated.

    “The biggest thing that looms large, in all of our minds as market analysts right now, is do we have recession risk that we need to price into the market for next year,” Zimmerman said. “If that’s the case, beef prices may be steadier.”

    And with food inflation stubbornly high, consumers are already cutting back on certain items, including beef.

    Tyson

    (TSN)    , which processes about a fifth of the country’s beef, poultry and pork, noted a sales dip in beef in the three months ending December 31, 2022.

    With grocery inflation stubbornly high, some consumers trade down.

    Beef sales “were down 5.6% compared to record high sales in the prior year,” said CFO John Tyson during a February analyst call discussing the quarterly results, noting that prices were down in the quarter due to “softer domestic demand for beef.” The company said that it expects its beef margins to fall this year because of the smaller domestic supply.

    “Retailers through last year continued to push price on the consumer,” said Adam Speck, senior livestock analyst at Gro Intelligence. Now they have to answer a question as they plan for the year: Will demand be high enough to warrant raising prices even more?

    “The answer is probably no,” said Speck. That may not be a huge relief, as beef prices are still relatively high. In 2022, fresh choice beef retailed for $7.59 per pound, according to March data from the USDA. That’s up from $7.25 per pound the previous year.

    Stores may try to test the waters during barbecue season.

    In the spring, “we’re at the bottom of our traditional seasonal demand,” said Bernt Nelson, an economist with American Farm Bureau Federation. Demand for beef typically dips after the holidays, and picks up when people fire up their grills in the summer, he noted. If demand remains strong, “we may see some higher beef prices,” towards the fall and later, Bernt said.

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  • Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan prayers, sparking rocket fire from Gaza | CNN

    Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan prayers, sparking rocket fire from Gaza | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Israeli police stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites, during Ramadan prayers early Wednesday, arresting hundreds of Palestinians and sparking retaliatory rocket fire from militants in Gaza.

    Footage shared on social media showed Israeli officers striking screaming people with batons inside the darkened building. Eyewitnesses told CNN that police had smashed doors and windows to enter the mosque and deployed stun grenades and rubber bullets once inside. Video shared by Israeli police show forces holding riot shields up as fireworks were launched back at them, ricocheting off the walls.

    Israeli police said in a statement that its forces entered al-Aqsa after “hundreds of rioters and mosque desecrators (had) barricaded themselves” inside.

    “When the police entered, stones were thrown at them, and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators,” according to the statement.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent in Jerusalem said at least 12 people were injured during clashes in and around the mosque, and at least three of the injured were transferred to hospital, some with injuries from rubber bullets.

    The Red Crescent added that at one point its ambulances were targeted by police and were prevented from reaching the injured.

    The incident drew condemnation from across the Arab and Muslim world. Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli police actions “in the strongest terms,” and called on Israel to immediately remove its forces from the mosque. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the “storming” of the mosque by police, saying it had caused “numerous injuries among worshipers and devotees” and was “in violation of all international laws and customs.”

    Police said they arrested and removed more than 350 people in the mosque, and that one Israeli police officer was wounded in the leg by stones.

    Images shared on social media showed dozens of detained people lying facedown on the floor of the mosque with their legs and arms bound behind their backs, and others with their hands tied being led into a vehicle.

    Al-Aqsa has seen hundreds of thousands of worshipers offer prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year. Jews are set to celebrate Passover on Wednesday evening.

    Over the last two weeks, there have been calls by Jewish extremist groups to slaughter goats at the mosque compound as part of an ancient Passover holiday ritual that is no longer practiced by most Jews. A greater number of Muslim worshipers stayed in the mosque after calls came to prevent those attempts.

    Last week, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli police at the entrance of the compound. Palestinian and Israeli sources disputed the circumstances that led to the killing of 26-year-old Muhammad Al-Osaibi.

    The mosque compound, frequently a flashpoint in tensions, is home to one of Islam’s most revered sites but also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.

    The compound reopened for prayers shortly after.

    In a statement Wednesday, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned the actions of the Israeli police, saying: “What is happening in Jerusalem is a major crime against worshipers.”

    “Israel does not want to learn from history, that al-Aqsa is for the Palestinians and for all Arabs and Muslims, and that storming it sparked a revolution against the occupation,” Shtayyeh added.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that nine rockets were fired from Gaza Strip toward Israel after the incident in Jerusalem.

    “Following the previous report regarding the sirens which sounded in Sderot, five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory,” said the IDF. “Four of them were intercepted by the aerial defense array.”

    The IDF also said four additional rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel but landed in open space.

    “Following the additional sirens that sounded in the surroundings of the Gaza Strip, four rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip that landed in open areas. No interceptors were launched according to protocol,” the IDF added.

    Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, said in a statement that “the current Israeli occupation’s crimes at the al-Aqsa mosque are unprecedented violations that will not pass.”

    Later on Wednesday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck weapons manufacturing and storage sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas.

    “This strike was carried out in response to rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory earlier,” it said in a statement.

    Last year was the deadliest for both Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and for Israelis in nearly two decades, CNN analysis of official statistics on both sides showed.

    And this year has seen a violent beginning, too. At least 90 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health statistics. In addition to suspected militants being targeted by Israeli forces, the dead include Palestinians killing, wounding or attempting to kill Israeli civilians, people clashing with Israeli security and bystanders, CNN records show.

    In the same period, at least 15 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, CNN records show – 14 civilians and a police officer who was hit by friendly fire after being stabbed by a Palestinian teenager while inspecting bus passengers.

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  • Amsterdam Schiphol Airport proposes a ban on private jets | CNN

    Amsterdam Schiphol Airport proposes a ban on private jets | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get the latest news in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.



    CNN
     — 

    High flyers hoping to hop to the Netherlands in a private jet might be forced to rethink their travel plans, as Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is proposing a private jet ban.

    The notoriously busy airport has suggested a series of measures to reduce its air traffic and create a “quieter, cleaner and better” system, according to a Schiphol airport statement.

    Under new proposals the airport hopes will come into effect “no later than 2025-26,” private jets will “no longer be welcome” at Schiphol. There will also be no aircraft landing between midnight and 5 a.m. local time or taking off between midnight and 6 a.m. local time. Plans for a new runway have also been scrapped.

    Schiphol says it’s targeting private jets because they cause “a disproportionate amount of noise nuisance and CO2 emissions per passenger.” Private jets produce up to 14 times more planet-warming pollution than commercial planes, and 50 times more than trains, according to European clean transport organization, Transport & Environment.

    When these small, swanky aircraft depart from Schiphol, 30% to 50% of them are heading to vacation hot spots like Ibiza in Spain, Cannes in France or Innsbruck in Austria, according to Schiphol. The airport argues there are plenty of airplanes flying from Amsterdam to those destinations, and suggests private passengers should go commercial instead.

    “Sufficient scheduled services are available to the most popular destinations flown to by private jets,” says Schiphol Airport in a statement, adding that small police and ambulance aircraft will be permitted to take off and land as they do currently under the new system.

    Last month, the Dutch government announced plans to restrict international aircraft departures in a quest to cut the country’s carbon emissions.

    The Dutch government’s “Preliminary Scheme Schiphol,” published in January, proposed slashing flight numbers from 500,000 to 460,000 between winter 2023-2024 and summer 2024.

    Airlines including Dutch flagship carrier KLM, as well as Delta and EasyJet, pushed back on this proposed flight cap, launching a legal challenge against the Dutch government.

    The airport’s recent statement suggests limiting nighttime air traffic would mean 10,000 fewer night flights each year, and therefore could help get Schiphol to its target.

    Cutting down on overnight landings and departures should also reduce noise pollution for local residents, with airport data suggesting the number of local residents experiencing severe sleep disturbance will fall by approximately 54%.

    It’s not uncommon for even the busiest airports to implement nighttime curfews – take London Heathrow Airport, for example, which restricts overnight operations.

    “Around 80% of the night flights at Heathrow are between 04:30 – 06:00 with an average of 16 aircraft arriving each day between these hours under normal pre-Covid conditions,” reads Heathrow’s website, which adds that flights are never scheduled to depart between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

    Frankfurt Airport and Zurich Airport are among the other travel hubs with limitations on overnight air traffic.

    Concerns about noise are also reflected in Amsterdam’s proposed “stricter approach regarding noisier aircraft,” with Schiphol suggesting it will gradually tighten “existing standards for aircraft that are allowed to take off from and land at Schiphol.”

    The airport also pledged to put aside 10 million euros a year for an “environmental fund for the local area,” in a bid to be a friendlier neighbor to its surrounding residents.

    In these new measures, Schiphol also promises to safeguard cargo flights, reserving 2.5% of the available takeoff and landing slots for cargo.

    “However, cargo flights will have to adhere to new, tighter rules for noisier aircraft and the new night closure will also apply to cargo,” reads the airport’s statement.

    Ruud Sondag, the CEO of the Royal Schiphol Group, which manages Amsterdam’s airport, says the Schiphol proposals demonstrate that “we mean business.”

    “We have thought about growth but too little about its impact for too long,” he said in a statement. “We need to be sustainable for our employees, the local environment and the world. I realise that our choices may have significant implications for the aviation industry, but they are necessary.”

    Many of the currently scheduled Schiphol night flights are operated by KLM or its subsidiary Transavia. In response to Schiphol suggestions, KLM said in a statement that the airline was “astonished,” and planned to put forward alternative proposals later this year.

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  • Several states ravaged by deadly tornadoes could see more twisters this week after violent storms kill 32 people | CNN

    Several states ravaged by deadly tornadoes could see more twisters this week after violent storms kill 32 people | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Parts of the Midwest and South devastated by catastrophic tornadoes will have almost no time to recover before another round of dangerous storms takes aim at hard-hit areas.

    At least 32 people were killed after an onslaught of tornado-spawning storms Friday obliterated houses, ripped roofs off buildings, wiped out power and prompted governors to announce disaster declarations.

    At least 50 confirmed tornadoes touched down in several states in the South and Midwest.

    Now, some of those same areas ravaged by twisters – including central Arkansas, eastern Iowa and northern Illinois – will see another round of storms Tuesday threatening more tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.

    Some areas in the South already saw high winds Monday afternoon, with nearly 20 storm reports across southern Georgia, southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. There were two tornado reports in southeastern Alabama and two hail reports in southwestern Georgia, while high winds impacted regions in all three states – including Decatur, Georgia, which reported a powerful wind gust of 79 mph.

    And while there will be a brief lull in the harsh weather Monday night and early Tuesday, a new storm system will bring fresh woes Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, putting more than 45 million people from Dallas to Milwaukee under threats of some kind of severe storm.

    More than 3 million people are under a moderate risk for severe storms on Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday, in areas including Springfield, Missouri, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Other cities that could see storms include St. Louis, Des Moines and Little Rock, Arkansas, which was ravaged by a violent tornado Friday.

    The Storm Prediction Center has issued a moderate risk – a Level 4 out of 5 – for southern Missouri, northwestern Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma, saying the possibility was rising that those areas see “rare and dangerous overnight tornadoes and damaging winds” into Wednesday.

    A Level 4 risk means long-lived, “widespread and intense” storms are likely.

    The same risk also stands for parts of Iowa, Illinois and northern Missouri for Tuesday afternoon and into Wednesday.

    “Both afternoon and overnight potential will exist across various regions, including the risk of dangerous nighttime tornadoes,” the prediction center warned about Tuesday’s storms.

    The city of Wynne, Arkansas – population 8,300 – was virtually “cut in half” by a tornado that sliced the city from west to east, destroying homes and killing at least four people, Mayor Jennifer Hobbs said.

    It’ll take “resources beyond our means” to recover, Hobbs told CNN.

    The tornado was rated as a powerful EF-3 by the National Weather Service, with estimated wind gusts topping 136 mph.

    “We have a lot of families that are completely devastated – have no home at all. No belongings survived,” the mayor said.

    Tennessee reported the highest death toll with 15 weather-related fatalities confirmed over the weekend, including 9 deaths in McNairy County alone.

    McNairy County Sheriff Guy Buck said the toll could have been much higher if residents had not heeded early warnings and sought out proper shelter.

    “Had they not, looking at the devastation that we had, our death toll could have been in the hundreds,” Buck told CNN. “The power of Mother Nature is something not to be underestimated.”

    About 30 miles north of Memphis, three Tipton County schools are closed Monday due to either “extensive damage” or a lack of power, school officials said.

    In Illinois, four people were killed, including one person who died after the roof of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere collapsed Friday with more than 200 people gathered inside.

    More storm deaths were reported in Indiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Delaware.

    President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for Arkansas ahead of a trip Sunday by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to survey the damage and assess the needs on the ground.

    Criswell toured Little Rock, where more than 2,900 structures were impacted when an EF-3 tornado roared through Pulaski and Lonoke counties, whipping estimated peak winds of 165 mph, authorities said.

    The mayor of Wynne, Arkansas, says the city was 'cut in half' by a tornado.

    Many residents were displaced from an apartment building in Little Rock that “literally looks like a war zone,” Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said Sunday.

    “From the time our first responders rushed to help their friends and neighbors, to now with the help of volunteers, friends and family, we have rallied as a city to recover and begin to rebuild,” Scott tweeted.

    In Covington, Tennessee, an EF-3 tornado tore a large swath of destruction and left roads impassable.

    Teresa Blankenship’s property took a direct hit, with the tornado shredding her home and flipping over her brand-new car, CNN affiliate WHBQ reported.

    “We’ve lived in this house 44 years. Everything we worked for and paid for is gone,” Blankenship told WHBQ.

    After a tornado struck Little Rock, Arkansas, people work to remove a tree that fell on top of a home Sunday.

    She and her husband saw the tornado headed straight for their home and had just enough time to hop into their underground storm shelter.

    “I believe it saved our lives,” Blankenship told the station as she stood near the mangled remains of her home.

    More than 200 miles away, an EF-2 tornado tore through the area of Readyville, Tennessee, early Saturday morning, ripping the roof off the US Post Office building and destroying the historic Readyville Mill. Numerous homes were also destroyed.

    “It looked like a bomb went off,” Rutherford County Mayor Joe Carr said.

    Calvin Cox stands in front of his destroyed home Sunday after a tornado struck Sullivan, Indiana.

    In Whiteland, Indiana, residents spent hours Sunday trying to salvage what they could from the wreckage of destroyed homes. They looked for wedding dresses, high school diplomas, keys, wallets and other items.

    “We’re trying to go through what we can find, what we can actually pull out of the rooms where the walls have collapsed in,” one resident told CNN affiliate WTHR as he searched through the destroyed relative’s home. “By looking at it, they’re lucky they made it out alive.”

    Another Indiana resident described the terrifying moment the storm beat against her home.

    “We heard whistles like a train. It was just roaring. Our ears started having a bad pressure; we had to put our hands over our ears. Everybody was running to the basement and we got down there, I heard glass shattering,” one Sullivan resident told WTHR.

    “When we came back up, everything was just gone.”

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  • What a difference a year makes: From nearly no snow to a potentially record-breaking pile-up in California | CNN

    What a difference a year makes: From nearly no snow to a potentially record-breaking pile-up in California | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    After a remarkable series of winter storms, California water officials reported Monday in their April snow survey the Sierra snowpack is among the largest on record, dating back to the 1950s.

    The state’s Department of Water Resources surveys mountain snowpack once a month through the winter, and the April survey is usually the most consequential. Officials use the measurement to forecast the state’s water resources for the rest of the year.

    Last year’s survey was pitifully low. Water officials had just a small patch of shallow snow to measure after a disappointing winter. The snow depth on April 2 was just 2.5 inches – part of a disastrous multiyear dry spell that triggered water cuts across the state.

    But what a difference a year makes.

    Twelve months later, the mountains are now loaded with white gold. South of Lake Tahoe at Phillips Station, as snowflakes fell from the surrounding hills, officials measured a snow depth of 126.5 inches and a snow water equivalent – how much liquid water the snow holds – of 54 inches.

    Snowpack in the California Sierra is 221% of normal for this location at this time of year, officials at the Department of Water Resources said. Statewide, snowpack is averaging 237% compared to normal for the date – a significant boost after the back-to-back storms.

    Sean de Guzman, snow survey manager for the state Department of Water Resources, said this is the “deepest snowpack” he has personally ever measured, noting that there have only been three other years when California snowpack has been greater than 200% of average in April.

    “This year is going to join that list and be another year well above 200% of average,” de Guzman told journalists at a briefing Monday. “We still are waiting for more snow data and snow survey results to come in from our various cooperators and partners. But as of this morning, as of right now, it’s looking like this year, statewide snowpack will most likely be either the first- or second-biggest snowpack on record dating back to 1950.”

    Sean de Guzman, right, walks on the snow after he and his team conducted the April snow survey at Phillips Station on Monday.

    Snowpack in the Sierra is critical to the state’s water resources. The snow acts as a natural reservoir – melting into rivers and human-made reservoirs through the spring and summer – and accounts for 30% of California’s freshwater supply in an average year.

    The state’s largest reservoirs, which were recently at critically low levels, have been replenished and are running higher than their historical averages.

    While the heavy rains caused widespread flash flooding and several feet of snow trapped residents in their homes in the higher elevations, the deluge of snow and rain has largely improved California soil moisture and streamflow levels after being gripped by the drought for so long.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom last month also announced the removal of some drought restrictions, while the Department of Water Resources said it will increase the amount of water deliveries to 75% of requested water supplies this year – up from the initial plan of only 5% last year.

    “Even though we have this extraordinary snowpack, we know that the droughts are getting deeper and more frequent, and that means we have to use water efficiently no matter what are hydrologic conditions,” Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said. “And the governor has emphasized that as the path forward for California, and to make sure that we are resilient as an economy and for our environment that we all continue to use water wisely in the state.”

    elam vpx screengrab

    ‘Unbelievable’: CNN reporter reacts to record snowfall in California

    To find out just how much snow the Sierra Nevada were buried under this winter, Airborne Snow Observatories Inc., which provides its data to California’s Department of Water Resources, flies over the range to gauge what’s fallen.

    “We measure snowpack wall-to-wall over mountains from aircraft using lasers and spectrometers,” said Tom Painter, the company’s CEO. “From that information, we can then know the full distribution of how much water there is in a mountain snowpack and also how fast it’s going to melt. That’s allowed us then to change forecast errors from being pretty large to very small and really dramatically changed water management in the west.”

    The planes fly for about six hours at a time, collecting different kinds of data through open portals in the belly of their planes, which they process and deliver within about 72 hours to help municipalities allocate water resources, generate hydroelectricity and meet environmental metrics.

    Snow blows across mountain tops March 29 near Mammoth Lakes, California.

    “The scanning LIDAR is a fancy laser pointer, essentially, that sprays out laser pulses – about 500,000 pulses per second – flying along at 23,000 feet, and measures how long it takes for the laser pulse to go out, hit the surface and come back,” Painter said. “And we can use that information to then know the surface of the snow. Every square foot of mountain snow is touched by our lasers.”

    The scientists then compare this data to when they’ve flown over the same area when there wasn’t any snow.

    “The difference between those two is snow depth,” Painter explained. “Depth times density is equal to what’s called snow water equivalent, which is the most important water metric out there that allows civilization to exist in the Western US. It really is the mountain snowpack that drives all of this civilization.”

    The year-to-year difference couldn’t be starker, Painter said, adding that this year, there will be snow in the Sierra into the summer.

    Last year, the company ended its flyover season in late May; this year, they expect to be flying until August.

    Courtesy Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc.

    For the Tuolumne River Basin around Yosemite National Park – which supplies water to San Francisco and other Bay Area municipalities – imagery from last year this time is mostly dark blue: barely any snow. This year, the same area is swathed in orange, yellow and white, indicating snow depths of 10 to 20 feet.

    On Mammoth Mountain in the eastern Sierra, about 60 feet of snow has fallen this year, breaking the old record set in 2010. And snow depths have reached more than 100 feet in some areas around Mammoth. The amount of snow is so profound that the resort has already announced that the ski season will last through the end of July this year.

    “It’s fascinating to look at how the cliffs up on the upper mountain have really gotten buried and the gullies between them are filling in to where they just are kind of disappearing,” Painter noted, adding that he’s never seen Mammoth Mountain this covered.

    Despite all the rain and snow that has boosted reservoirs and allowed officials to lift some water restrictions, scientists still say drought concerns are a priority as climate change continues to impact California’s weather.

    “The climate models had already been predicting what it is that we are seeing now, which is this hydroclimate whiplash where we’re going from really dry years to really wet years,” Painter said, adding that this whiplash is hard on water managers. “That means we could very well have a dry year next year. No one really knows.”

    And as temperatures warm again as summer approaches, experts warn more flood threats lie ahead as the snow melts. California water officials said that after today, they plan to shift their focus “from snowpack building to snowpack melting,” and actively support emergency flood protection efforts.

    “We’re now heading into another issue of increasing solar radiation and chances of warm nights and lack of refreeze, and that brings up snowmelt flooding concerns,” said Benjamin Hatchett, researcher at the Desert Research Institute. “That’s going to be something to think about as we move into the spring, summer with this colossal snowpack sitting above us.”

    Snow blankets the Sierra Nevada mountains on March 29 in Mammoth Lakes, California.

    Hatchett also warns not to get “caught up in all these benefits,” and consider what all this water can mean for vegetation growth and wildfire fuel.

    “As things start to dry out and get warmer, this is a good year to really think about what’s going to happen, what’s growing, and how can you deal with [the fuels] to reduce your fire risk in upcoming seasons,” Hatchett said.

    Even with California’s historic snowpack this year, the state still pulls about a third of its water needs for the southern part of the state from the Colorado River Basin, where the snowfall totals improved this year, but were not as strong as the numbers posted in California.

    The country’s largest reservoirs – Lake Powell and Lake Mead – in the Colorado River Basin are still hovering at or near-record-low levels following years of drought and overuse. But it could also improve in the coming months as snowpack levels rise in the region.

    “That’s good news for a very strained and stressed system,” Hatchett said. “But we probably need five, six or maybe 10 more years of this to really make a big dent in the situation there, but this is much more encouraging to see.”

    In California, water officials will head back to Phillips Station in May to measure more snow. The last time a May snow survey was necessary was in 2020, when the drought began.

    The difference between last year and this year in California is significant. And although the state has all this excess of water now, climate experts warn that drought is always looming, especially in a drier, hotter and thirstier world.

    Nemeth said there is much more work to be done to prepare and “adapt to our new climate realities.”

    “You really get a sense of the extreme nature of our climate here in California,” she said. “There’s lots of fascinating research around the degree to which climate has been driving the intensity of these storms, but also the very rapid shift from very dry to very wet.”

    “It is truly an extraordinary moment,” she said. “But we don’t get to stop and enjoy that for too long.”

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  • Communities face major destruction after large tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest, leaving at least 24 dead | CNN

    Communities face major destruction after large tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest, leaving at least 24 dead | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Devastated communities across the American South and Midwest are digging through debris Sunday after ferocious storms and tornadoes this weekend left at least 24 people dead and leveled neighborhoods, as parts of the Southern Plains brace for the possibility of their own round of severe weather later in the afternoon.

    The outbreak that walloped the country Friday spawned more than 50 tornado reports in at least seven states, where tornadoes crushed homes and businesses, ripped roofs off buildings, splintered trees and sent vehicles flying.

    Deaths have been confirmed across a wide swath of states, with multiple victims reported in Arkansas, Tennessee and Indiana, where the death toll rose after the Indiana Department of Natural Resources confirmed in a news release that two people had died at a campground in McCormick’s Creek State Park in Owen County.

    At least four people are dead in Wynne, Arkansas – a community about 50 miles west of the state’s border with Tennessee – where the storm peeled the turf off a high school’s football field. At least seven people died after two back-to-back lines of storms hit McNairy County, Tennessee, where the storm “crossed our county completely from one side to the other,” Sheriff Guy Buck told CNN Saturday evening as authorities continued to search collapsed buildings.

    Among the other deaths were four people killed in Illinois, including one person who died after the roof of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere collapsed Friday while more than 200 people were inside, injuring more than two dozen others, according to the city’s fire chief. Three more people were reported dead in Crawford County, Illinois, in the collapse of a residential structure, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

    Elswhere, three people were reported dead near Sullivan, Indiana, per state police. State and local officials also reported one person dead in each of the following places: North Little Rock, Arkansas; Madison County, Alabama; and Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Finally, the storm system left another person dead in Delaware’s Sussex County after a structure collapsed, according to the county’s emergency operations center.

    The latest spate of damaging weather across the South and Midwest comes just a week after a severe tornado-spawning storm walloped the Southeast, killing at least another 26 people and destroying much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

    On Sunday, the threat will shift to the Southern Plains, where nearly 13 million people in north Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, face an enhanced – or level 3 of 5 – risk for severe weather in the later afternoon or early evening hours, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

    “Several tornadoes are possible, a couple of which may be strong,” the center said in an update Sunday, adding there was a 10 percent or greater probability of tornadoes between EF-2 and EF-5 strength within 25 miles around the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

    Scattered severe thunderstorms are expected across central to northeast Texas between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. CT, the Storm Prediction Center said. Hail the size of golf balls or larger could also pose a threat.

    The governors of Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Arkansas all announced emergency or disaster declarations in their states to help free up immediate assistance for impacted counties, and on Sunday, President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for Arkansas.

    The federal declaration frees up federal resources, per the White House, to aid those impacted in Cross County, Lonoke County and Pulaski County, which encompasses the city of Little Rock, where heavy damage but no fatalities had been reported as of Saturday afternoon.

    The National Weather Service reported that an EF-3 tornado had roared through Pulaski and Lonoke counties in Arkansas with estimated peak winds of 165 mph.

    Efforts are now focused on recovery and rebuilding, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said. Nearly 2,600 structures in Little Rock were impacted and around 50 people were sent to hospitals, according to the mayor.

    “It’s unbelievable anytime that you see, literally, vehicles flying across the air, structures being flattened,” the mayor said. “Many people were not at their homes. If they were, it would have been a massacre,” Scott Jr. told CNN.

    An aerial view of destroyed homes in the aftermath of a tornado in Little Rock, Arkansas, Saturday.

    In addition to leaving trails of destruction, storms have also knocked out power to battered communities. More than 30,000 customers in Arkansas remained impacted by outages as of Sunday morning, according to PowerOutage.US, with hundreds of thousands more without power across the South and Northeast, including 120,000 in Pennsylvania and 73,000 in Ohio.

    The severe weather left Wynne, Arkansas, “basically cut in half by damage from east to west,” said Mayor Jennifer Hobbs, who watched the twister as it approached from a distance.

    “I don’t know how to put it into words. It was devastating. It’s much different seeing it firsthand than it is when you see it on TV hit other communities,” Hobbs said.

    Some houses in Wynne – home to about 8,000 residents – were completely crushed into piles of wood while others had their roofs ripped off, exposing the interiors of homes littered with storm debris, drone footage provided to CNN shows.

    “We have a lot of families that are completely devastated. Have no home at all, no belongings survived,” the mayor added.

    Janice Pieterick and her husband, Donald Lepczyk, were in their RV in Hohenwald, Tennessee, when they got the alert of an incoming tornado and rushed to her daughter’s home across the yard, CNN affiliate WTVF reported. The tornado hit minutes later.

    The family hurried into the bathroom where they huddled together as the storm roared outside.

    “We made her and the kids get into the bathtub because that’s supposed to be the safest place. And we just all hunkered down because all the doors blew out. Double doors in the front, double doors in the back, all the glass in the windows. It all blew out at once,” Pieterick said.

    Pieterick said the whole house shook. “You can literally feel it moving. Lifting up. That’s when we thought we were going, too,” she said.

    In nearby McNairy County, Sheriff Buck said the death toll could have been much higher if residents had not heeded early warnings and sought out proper shelter.

    “Had they not, looking at the devastation that we had, our death toll could have been in the hundreds,” Buck said. “The power of mother nature is something not to be underestimated.”

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  • California’s salmon fishers warn of ‘hard times coming’ as they face canceled season | CNN

    California’s salmon fishers warn of ‘hard times coming’ as they face canceled season | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Sarah Bates, the captain of a fishing boat in San Francisco, had a feeling something was wrong with the chinook salmon population back in December.

    “The fish weren’t coming up the river, and to a certain extent, we were just waiting,” Bates, 46, told CNN. “We thought the run was late. And then at some point, it just became clear that fish weren’t coming.”

    But she and other fishermen weren’t sure how bad it could be. It later turned out that catchers along much of the West Coast likely won’t be fishing for salmon at all this year.

    “Salmon is my livelihood. It’s my main fishery,” she said. “And it’s the main fishery for a lot of folks in Fisherman’s Wharf. So, I think there are a lot of us that have some hard times coming.”

    In early March, West Coast regulators announced that they may recommend a ban on salmon fishing this year. It would be only the second time salmon fishing season has been canceled in California.

    The looming ban comes as the West sees a massive decline in fish populations following a blistering, multiyear drought that drained reservoirs and dehydrated much of the land, particularly in California.

    The potential closure, which the Pacific Fishery Management Council is discussing in a multi-day meeting that began Saturday, would affect tens of thousands of people like Bates who depend on salmon fishing for their economic livelihood. It will also upset thousands of Californians who enjoy recreational fishing during the summer.

    The council, which manages fisheries off the Pacific Coast and advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on potential bans like this one, had previously recommended three options for this year – but all of them would result in a cancellation of the salmon fishing season through at least next spring.

    These are necessary measures, according to California and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials, to protect the dwindling Chinook salmon populations, which scientists say have fallen to their lowest levels in recent years due to rampant dam construction as well as climate change-fueled droughts.

    “The outlook is really bad,” Ben Enticknap, Pacific campaign manager and senior scientist with Oceana, told CNN.

    Chinook salmon smolts tumble into net pens for acclimation and transportation in the Sacramento River at Rio Vista, California, on March 26, 2015.

    Beginning their lives in freshwater systems, then traveling out to the salty ocean and back again to their spawning grounds, Pacific salmon face a variety of dangers.

    Manmade dams, which were built decades ago and are prolific on Oregon and California rivers, prevent many salmon species from swimming back to their spawning grounds. Large swaths of wetlands and other estuaries, where smaller fish can feed and find refuge, have also been plagued by infrastructure development.

    Then there are the consequences of the climate crisis: Warmer water temperatures and drought-fueled water shortages in rivers and streams can kill salmon eggs and juvenile fish.

    Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, also said the models that many scientists use to forecast salmon returns and fishing success “appear to be getting less accurate.”

    “They have been overestimating returning salmon numbers and underestimating the number caught,” Milstein told CNN. “That has further complicated the picture. Since the models are based on past experience, they struggle with conditions we have not seen before.”

    In late 2022, one of California’s driest years on record, estimates show that the Sacramento River chinook returned to the Central Valley at near-record-low numbers. Meanwhile, the Klamath River, which flows from Oregon to California, had the second-lowest forecast for chinook salmon since 1997, when the current assessment method started.

    Cassandra Lozano lifts a dead fall-run Chinook salmon from the Sacramento River while conducting a survey of carcasses in January.

    State and federal scientists forecast that less than 170,000 adult salmon will return to the Sacramento River this year – one of the lowest forecasts since 2008, which was the only other time the salmon season was closed. They also estimate that less than 104,000 will likely return to the Klamath River.

    “Climate change is expected to be detrimental to Pacific salmon populations at every life stage,” Enticknap said. “We know that the salmon need cold and clean freshwater for spawning and for growth, and that climate change and this megadrought have decreased water flows and increased river temperatures in a way that’s lethal for salmon.”

    The US Bureau of Reclamation, which controls some of the dams in the Klamath River, announced in February that it would cut flows on the river due to historic lows from the drought, prompting concerns it would kill salmon further downstream.

    “There’s a lot at stake with the Pacific salmon in the West; they’ve been so important to communities as a source of food, and when that’s at risk, those communities and cultures are at risk,” Enticknap added. “There’s also so many species of wildlife that depend on healthy populations. They’re the backbone of the ecosystem here.”

    The $1.4 billion salmon fishing industry provides 23,000 jobs to California’s economy, and businesses that rely on large salmon populations have been particularly devastated, according to the Golden State Salmon Association.

    “When someone catches a salmon, it’s really an emotional experience because the fish is so magnificent,” Andy Guiliano, a 59-year-old owner of a charter boat company, told CNN. “People really have a connection with the salmon.”

    In the past 52 years, the family-owned business Fish Emeryville has chartered patrons to fish for chinook salmon. Guiliano said salmon fishing is what reels in roughly 50% of the business’ revenue.

    Angelo Guiliano holds a freshly caught Chinook salmon. His father, Andy, runs charter fishing expeditions for recreational salmon fishing in Emeryville, California.

    During the ban, Guiliano said, he and other fishermen would have to make do with other fish, though he emphasized that nothing can compete with the revenue that salmon brings in.

    “It’s a poor second tier. It won’t sustain the amount of effort and it is not a replacement,” Guiliano said. “We might get 10 to 15 % [of business] back.”

    While the megadrought largely contributed to the downfall in salmon numbers, some fishing groups blame the way California distributes its water.

    “The shutdown we are seeing now is completely avoidable,” said John McManus, the senior policy director of the Golden State Salmon Association. “Decisions made during the drought deprived salmon of the water that they need to survive. By doing so, they took away our livelihood.”

    Jordan Traverso, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said water management is part of the salmon strategy. But Traverso argues that water policy in California is much more complex, underscoring concerns with regards to agriculture and pointing to the rapidly warming climate.

    “Recent decisions about agriculture aren’t the reason for low numbers because these fish are returning from the ocean voyage as part of their journey,” Traverso told CNN. “Climate disruption is causing strings of dry years and hotter temperatures, shrinking salmon habitat and eliminating the space for them to rebound.”

    The rivers in the middle of California are largely diverted to agriculture. The result is that these rivers are not cold enough for salmon to reproduce and not high enough to help baby salmon swim back to the ocean.

    “We have major issues with barriers to passage in their historic habitat, with dams preventing them from utilizing hundreds of miles of it,” Traverso said.

    The chain reaction from the announcement has already affected a huge swath of business, from bait shops to restaurants that put salmon on the table.

    Another main fishery in California is the Dungeness crab. Here, men can be seen unloading the crabs from fishing boats for Water2Table, Joe Conte's fish distribution company.

    “San Francisco is all about the two iconic California fisheries, which are Dungeness crab and our local king salmon,” Joe Conte, owner of Water2Table, a fish distribution company, told CNN. He said he has been delivering to some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area for more than a decade.

    “It’s disastrous for the fishermen and for us on the pier,” Conte added.

    To meet needs, fishermen can dip into other species, but they run the risk of depleting those populations as well, as they did in 2008.

    “We know exactly what’s going to happen,” Guiliano said. “We saw an enormous amount of effort on the California halibut inside of San Francisco Bay. And then there was four or five years following where the fishery was really poor.”

    Up north in the Klamath River basin, the impact is taking an additional emotional and cultural toll on Native Americans. The Karuk, Hoop and Yurok tribes, in particular, have long fished for the chinook for subsistence. Other fish along the basin like the two endangered native suckerfish – the C’waam and Koptu – are also under threat.

    While some tribes have set their own catch limits, others have made the tough decision to stop their hunting and fishing in hopes of the species’ recovery.

    But as planet-warming pollution rises in the atmosphere, the impacts on biodiversity are ubiquitous. Without salmon, which are a keystone species, other wildlife that depend on it will suffer.

    Last month, the West Coast fishery managers held a public hearing to allow stakeholders to comment on the proposed cancellation.

    What’s surprising, experts say, is that many fishermen support the closure to save the dwindling salmon population, noting that they need every fish to come back to the river.

    “One striking thing is that the fishing community – the commercial fleet and recreational fishing groups – have largely supported the closure of the salmon season,” Milstein said. “That has been apparent in the public comments at the council and elsewhere. They argue that they should not be fishing when the stocks have declined to this level.”

    On the Klamath River, salmon recovery efforts are underway. After a decadeslong campaign by tribal organizers, the federal government in 2022 approved the removal of four dams there. The first dam is set to come down this summer; the rest will be removed by 2024.

    In late 2022, one of California's driest years on record, estimates show that the Sacramento River chinook returned to the Central Valley at near-record-low numbers.

    And there are also “hopeful” signs of rebound, Enticknap said. The recent barrage of storms that pummeled the West has replenished drought-stricken rivers and reservoirs and alleviated arid conditions in California, providing somewhat of a relief for fisheries.

    “We’re hoping that this is going to help salmon populations get back on track and that it’s not an anomaly – in that, this happens once and then we slip back into a drought,” Enticknap added. “My concern right now is that with climate change we’re expecting hotter conditions and more drought and marine heatwaves, where it’s ultimately worse for salmon.”

    Despite the recent onslaught of rain and snow, advocates say they need federal and state officials to implement fair water allocations, since the fishing industry would have to compete with larger California markets like agriculture for the same water supply.

    Although Bates says she is still digesting the new reality they’re facing, she remains hopeful.

    “Don’t waste a crisis, right?” Bates said. “This is a forced opportunity, but it is an opportunity nonetheless, to fix some things that have been broken in California for a long time … so I am somewhat optimistic that this is not the end. It’s just a chapter in the middle.”

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  • NASA set to unveil the crew of astronauts for moon flyby mission | CNN

    NASA set to unveil the crew of astronauts for moon flyby mission | 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
     — 

    Four astronauts — including three Americans and one Canadian — will be tapped by NASA to complete a generation-defining mission to the moon’s orbit, returning humans to deeper into the solar system than has been reached in five decades.

    On Monday, the public will finally learn the crew members’ names.

    Scheduled to launch in 2024, Artemis II will be the program’s first crewed mission to orbit the moon, flying farther into space than any humans since the Apollo program. It will pave the way for the Artemis III crew to walk on the moon in 2025, all aboard the world’s most powerful rocket and at a price tag that by then will approach $100 billion.

    Following months of closed-door decision making, NASA officials plan to unveil the names of the crew members in a ceremony scheduled for Monday at 11 am ET.

    Though officials have remained tight-lipped about their choices, CNN previously spoke with nearly a dozen current and former NASA officials and astronauts to pull back the curtain on the secretive selection process.

    Reid Wiseman, a 47-year-old decorated naval aviator and test pilot who was first selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2009, is at the top of the list, according to CNN’s prior reporting.

    Wiseman served as chief of the astronaut office until November 2022. While the chief is not permitted to fly while holding the post, they are able to wrangle the best flight assignments upon stepping down, an “acknowledged perk” of the job, according to former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman.

    Before stepping down as astronaut chief, Wiseman was also responsible for the decision to broaden the pool of astronauts eligible to fly in order to include himself. While NASA had initially deemed 18 astronauts to be the “Artemis Team” and eligible to fly on moon missions, Wiseman expanded the group of candidates to all 41 active NASA astronauts.

    People familiar with the process also told CNN that along with Wiseman, there are a handful of other candidates atop the list:

    • Randy Bresnik, 55, is also a decorated naval aviator and test pilot who flew combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has flown two missions to the International Space Station: one on the Space Shuttle, another on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Bresnik is often mentioned as a top contender for Artemis because, since 2018, he has overseen the astronaut office’s development and testing of all rockets and spacecraft that will be used in the Artemis missions.
    • Anne McClain, 43, is a decorated army pilot and West Point graduate who flew more than 200 combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and went on to graduate from the US Naval Test Pilot School in 2013, the same year she was selected to be a NASA astronaut. After launching on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2018, she spent more than 200 days at the International Space Station and served as the lead of two spacewalks.
    • Stephanie Wilson is the most senior astronaut on this list. The 56-year-old joined NASA’s 1996 astronaut class, and she served as a mission specialist on three Space Shuttle flights, including the first flight after the 2003 Columbia disaster, which killed seven astronauts.
    • Christina Koch, 44, is a veteran of six spacewalks. She holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, with a total of 328 days in space. Koch is also an an electrical engineer who helped develop scientific instruments for multiple NASA mission. She’s also spent a year at the South Pole, an arduous stay that could well prepare her for the intensity of a moon mission.
    • Jessica Meir is 45-year-old biologist with a doctorate from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She was a member of a NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission in 2002, which involved spending days in an underwater research facility, and, in 2016, completed a two-week caving mission in Italy.

    Koch and Meir together conducted the first three all-female spacewalks in 2019 and 2020.

    Rounding out the Artemis II crew will be one astronaut from Canada, terms that were cemented in a 2020 treaty between the two countries.

    The Canadian Space Agency’s currently has a cadre of just four astronauts, but among them, Jeremy Hansen has generated the most buzz, according to CNN’s reporting. Hansen was selected to be an astronaut almost 14 years ago, but he’s still waiting for his first flight assignment. The 47-year-old fighter pilot recently became the first Canadian to be put in charge of training for a new class of NASA astronauts.

    NASA has also previously committed to selecting a crew with racial, gender and professional diversity.

    Those criteria have not historically been the case for high-profile missions. Going back to the Gemini era, astronauts selected for inaugural crewed missions have been only White and male, and typically come from a background as a military test pilot — a profile notably characterized in the 1979 book “The Right Stuff” by Tom Wolfe.

    That has held true through NASA’s most recent inaugural crewed flight, of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station in 2020, which included former military test pilots Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

    And it may hold mostly true for the Artemis II mission as well: Nearly a dozen current and former NASA officials and astronauts told CNN they anticipated multiple test pilots being named.

    However, if Wiseman, a White man, is selected, that means the other spots will almost certainly need to go to at least one woman and at least one person of color.

    The Artemis II mission will build on Artemis I, an uncrewed test mission that sent NASA’s Orion capsule on a 1.4 million-mile voyage to lap the moon that concluded in December. The space agency deemed that mission a success and is still working to review all the data collected.

    If all goes to plan, Artemis II will take off around November 2024. The crew members, strapped inside the Orion spacecraft, will launch atop a NASA-developed Space Launch System rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    The journey is expected to last about 10 days and will send the crew out beyond the moon, potentially further than any human has traveled in history, though the exact distance is yet to be determined.

    The “exact distance beyond the Moon will depend on the day of liftoff and the relative distance of the Moon from the Earth at the time of the mission,” NASA spokesperson Kathryn Hambleton said via email.

    After circling the moon, the spacecraft will return to Earth for a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean.

    Artemis II is expected to pave the way for the Artemis III mission later this decade, which NASA has vowed will put the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface. It will also mark the first time humans have touched down on the moon since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

    The Artemis III mission is expected to take off later this decade. But much of the technology the mission will require, including spacesuits for walking on the moon and a lunar lander to ferry the astronauts to the moon’s surface, is still in development.

    NASA is targeting a 2025 launch date for Artemis III, though the space agency’s inspector general has already said delays will likely push the mission to 2026 or later.

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  • 1 dead, at least 28 injured after roof collapses at the Apollo Theatre in Illinois following dangerous storms | CNN

    1 dead, at least 28 injured after roof collapses at the Apollo Theatre in Illinois following dangerous storms | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    One person was killed and 28 others were injured after a full roof collapse at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, on Friday evening following devastating storms and tornadoes that ripped through the South and Midwest, officials said.

    Approximately 260 people, including guests, performers and staff, were inside the venue for a heavy metal rock concert at the time of the collapse, according to the event coordinator.

    Belvidere is in northern Illinois, approximately 14 miles outside the city of Rockford. Despite severe weather in the region, there were no reports of an “actual tornado” hitting the area, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said.

    In southern Illinois, three other people died in Crawford County after a residential structural collapse during Friday’s severe weather, according to Kevin Sur, a spokesperson for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. The deaths confirmed in Illinois bring the overall death toll from Friday’s severe weather outbreak to 21 fatalities across six states.

    At the Apollo Theatre, 28 people were transported by ambulance to nearby hospitals, Schadle said. Five had severe injuries; 18 had moderate injuries; and five had minor injuries. “Obviously there were probably other patients transported by personal vehicle,” he added.

    During their initial response, crews coming into the building assisted in getting people out from under the debris. Crews established a triage center and relocation point for victims.

    “It was a large response not only from all the public safety agencies, police, fire, as well as the bystanders to rescue those that were initially injured,” Schadle said.

    A primary search of the theater has been completed, the chief said. “Right now, the MABAS 8 TRT rescue team is still operating behind us. They’re performing the secondary searches. They’re also looking into the stabilization of the building,” Schadle said.

    Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he is “closely monitoring” the situation. “I’ve been in touch with officials for updates and to direct any available resources we can,” he said in a tweet Friday night. “As we learn more, please follow the guidance of all local authorities.”

    Morbid Angel, one of the metal bands scheduled to perform at the event, issued a statement on Facebook canceling the concert and urging fans to “seek shelter and stay safe.”

    “We are currently sheltering in place, and want to extend our support and hope that everyone at the show tonight is safe. Right now our focus is on making sure everyone in the venue tonight is ok and gets home,” the band said.

    A flyer for the event shows other bands set to perform on Friday evening were Revocation, Skeletal Remains and Crypta.

    An investigation into the collapse is ongoing. Schadle said no first responders were injured and so far everyone has been accounted for.

    “The Illinois Emergency Management Agency is working closely with our local and county public safety partners and Emergency Managers to assess the widespread damages across the state including here at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere in Boone County, and at Robinson in Crawford County,” the agency’s director, Alicia Tate-Nadeau, said in a statement. “We continue to assessing other damages in many counties across Illinois.”

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  • Climate activists dye Spanish Steps fountain water black | CNN

    Climate activists dye Spanish Steps fountain water black | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A group called Ultima Generazione or Last Generation have poured what they described as a charcoal-based black liquid into the water of the Barcaccia fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps in central Rome.

    The group posted a video on Twitter, showing three men and a woman inside the fountain opening paper bags of a black powder.

    “It is absurd that this gesture should shock you, when we are experiencing a drought emergency that is putting agriculture, energy production in crisis,” the group said in the tweet.

    The group was stopped by Carabinieri officials and Rome Capital police on Saturday, a police spokesperson said.

    They are in custody pending charges of defacing a public monument and entering a fountain.

    The water remained black with visible stains to the marble fountain on Saturday afternoon.

    Rome’s mayor Roberto Gualtieri visited the fountain – designed by Pietro Bernini in 1629 – and posted a photo of himself staring at the inky water.

    “Rome is at the forefront in the fight against climate change and in the protection of the artistic heritage,” he said.

    “Throwing black liquid into the Barcaccia, risking ruining it, is an absolutely wrong gesture that does not help the environment,” he added, saying work was under way to ensure there was no permanent damage.

    The same group glued themselves to a plinth in the Vatican museums, to Sandro Botticelli’s “Primavera” masterpiece at the Uffizi galleries in Florence and to the Unique Forms of Continuity in Space statue at the Museo del Novecento in Milan last year.

    They are also facing charges in Rome for throwing orange paint on the Italian Senate façade in January this year.

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  • At least 5 killed and dozens others are hospitalized as tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest | CNN

    At least 5 killed and dozens others are hospitalized as tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Devastating storms and tornadoes scraped the South and Midwest Friday into early Saturday, killing at least five people, injuring dozens more, trapping others in their homes, and damaging businesses and critical infrastructure – with the threat of more severe weather looming into Saturday afternoon.

    More than 50 preliminary tornado reports were made Friday in at least six states, including in Arkansas, where storms killed three people – two in the small city of Wynne and another person in North Little Rock, local officials said.

    Two people were killed in Indiana by a storm Friday night that damaged homes and a volunteer fire department near Sullivan, a city about a 95-mile drive southwest of Indianapolis, State Police Sgt. Matt Ames said.

    At least 50 people were sent to hospitals in Arkansas’ Pulaski County, where a tornado roared through the Little Rock area Friday, county spokesperson Madeline Roberts said. Five others were hospitalized after a tornado touched down Friday in Covington, Tennessee, according to a spokesperson for Baptist Memorial Health Care.

    Preliminary information shows at least 22 tornadoes were reported in Illinois, eight in Iowa, four in Tennessee, five in Wisconsin and a couple in Mississippi.

    In Arkansas, at least a dozen tornadoes were reported, including in the Little Rock area. Twisters in that state left homes nearly leveled, and roads were covered with what once was the roofs and walls of buildings.

    William Williams, who told CNN affiliate KATV he’s an employee at a Kroger supermarket in Little Rock, said he’s “thankful to be alive” after a tornado rolled near the area while he was working Friday afternoon. He’d taken shelter inside the store, and went outside afterward to see people injured, including a woman he said had a severe leg injury.

    “Everything happened in like five seconds. It came – boom,” Williams told KATV. “You could hear a lot of commotion and stuff. … I go outside, and it is crazy. People had blood all over their faces. … I’m just thankful that I’m alive.”

    About 100 miles east of Little Rock, the city of Wynne was “basically cut in half by damage from east to west,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN Friday evening.

    “We are still in triage mode,” Hobbs said, adding that crews were trying to determine the severity of the damage and any potential injuries.

    In northern Illinois, more than 200 people were inside the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere for an event when its roof collapsed Friday night, leaving one person dead and dozens injured, the city fire chief said. The collapse came as a line of storms packing 50 mph winds and dumping hail moved through the area, according to officials and the National Weather Service. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the storm caused the theater’s roof to crumble.

    Twenty-eight people were taken to hospitals as a result of the collapse, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said.

    Friday’s severe storms came a week after severe weather walloped the Southeast and killed at least 26 people. An overnight tornado, which makes people most prone to extensive damages, leveled much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where estimated maximum winds of 170 mph roared.

    A team from Summit Energy say a prayer together before investigating a burst gas line in Cammack Village, Arkansas, near Little Rock, after a tornado swept through the area Friday.

    Tornadoes still could happen in southeastern Indiana, western Ohio and northern Kentucky on Saturday through 5 a.m. ET, according to the Storm Prediction Center. The area, which includes the cities of Dayton and Cincinnati, was under a tornado watch that warned of wind gusts up to 70 mph along with large hail.

    For Saturday, about 55 million people are under a slight risk of severe weather – a Level 2 of 5 – in parts of the Ohio Valley, the Northeast, including New York City and Philadelphia, and parts of the Southeast, according the Storm Prediction Center.

    Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms could happen in these areas, and hail and few tornadoes are possible, the center said.

    On Friday, large hail proved to be a dangerous when it bombarded northern Illinois, cracking and denting cars’ windshields, according to a Facebook post from the Fulton County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency.

    Police and firefighters get help from volunteers clearing downed trees on Keihl Avenue after storms ripped through the area on Friday in Sherwood, Arkansas.

    About 78 miles southeast of there, several businesses were “basically destroyed,” Sheriff Jack Campbell told CNN, and up to 40 homes were damaged around Sherman, less than 10 miles north of Springfield.

    Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses were in the dark early Saturday across Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee, with about one-third of the outages reported in Indiana, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.

    In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency, noting the state will “spare no resource” in responding and recovering from the storm and activated the state’s National Guard.

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  • Officials say water and air are safe after train carrying highly flammable ethanol derails in Minnesota | CNN

    Officials say water and air are safe after train carrying highly flammable ethanol derails in Minnesota | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The day after a train carrying a highly flammable chemical derailed and burst into flames in a small city in southwestern Minnesota, crews are still working to clear the area as officials reassure residents the water and air are safe.

    Of the 22 cars that derailed in Raymond, Minnesota, Thursday morning, four containing ethanol ruptured and caught fire, the US Environmental Protection Agency said. Other cars carrying the substance were also at risk of releasing the chemical, the EPA said.

    Other cars that derailed contained corn syrup, the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office said. No injuries have been reported.

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar said at a Friday news conference at the site that it “seems” there is no contamination within the soil.

    “No one was hurt. The ground is good. The air is good. So, let’s just see what we can do going forward to make sure it does not happen again,” the Minnesota Democrat said.

    There are currently 100 people at on the scene of the derailment cleaning up the cars. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, Klobuchar said.

    The EPA said it has been at the crash site and monitoring the air for particulate matter and other compounds, noting there hasn’t been severe impact to the community thus far. And the train operator, BNSF Railway, said it did not find any impact to the drinking water and the air either, it said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

    “Our concern, after the safety of the people here, was what was going to happen with the air and they have done multiple tests and they will continue to do that,” Klobuchar said.

    The cars are expected to be running again – barring a major blizzard – in the next few days, according to Klobuchar and remediation efforts are also underway to help residents who were impacted by the incident.

    Klobuchar said she and fellow Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith are looking into rail safety legislation in Congress.

    In the meantime, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a tweet Friday that he’s “grateful for the swift, coordinated response” of local, state, and national partners.

    “Yesterday’s derailment amplifies the critical need to pass my budget’s investments in rail safety to prevent this from happening again,” Walz said.

    The response to the derailment and fire included 28 fire departments, including several volunteer departments who remained at the crash late Thursday, the sheriff’s office had said in a post online.

    The derailment happened around 1 a.m. Thursday in Raymond, a small city of some 800 residents.

    Homes within a half-mile of the derailment were evacuated, but the order was lifted later in the day, according to the sheriff’s office.

    The derailment in Minnesota comes less than two months after a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals crashed in the Ohio community of East Palestine.

    The blaze burned for days, and toxic chemicals were released into the air and killed thousands of fish. Many residents there have complained of health problems after the derailment and raised concerns about the impact of the chemicals.

    Firefighters work near piled up train cars, near Raymond Thursday.

    In Minnesota, preliminary information from the crash suggested 14 of the train’s 40 cars were carrying hazardous materials, “including ethanol, which was released – leading to a fire,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN Thursday morning.

    Ethanol can explode when mixed with vapor and air. Exposure to ethanol can lead to coughing, dizziness, the feeling of burning eyes, drowsiness and unconsciousness.

    “Ethanol, like many chemicals, can be toxic if inhaled or comes into contact with skin or is ingested. But it requires a certain concentration to be a health hazard,” said Purdue University professor Andrew Whelton, an expert in environmental chemistry and water quality.

    Ethanol is highly soluble in water, meaning it will be relatively easy to dilute.

    “Dilution is one way to reduce the risk” of health issues from any water that may be contaminated with ethanol, Whelton said.

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  • US Justice Department sues Norfolk Southern following train derailment in East Palestine | CNN

    US Justice Department sues Norfolk Southern following train derailment in East Palestine | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The US Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against Norfolk Southern Thursday, alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and seeking damages over the train derailment and subsequent environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, in February.

    The Norfolk Southern Railway Company and parent company Norfolk Southern Corporation are both named in the suit, court records show. The DOJ filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.

    The DOJ says the lawsuit seeks “injunctive relief, cost recovery, and civil penalties” for violations of the CWA, including discharges of pollutants and hazardous materials into waters, and under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

    Norfolk Southern says its focus is on making “progress every day cleaning up the site, assisting residents whose lives were impacted by the derailment, and investing in the future of East Palestine and the surrounding areas,” according to a statement sent to CNN from the company’s spokesperson, Connor Spielmaker, on Friday.

    “We are working with urgency, at the direction of the US EPA, and making daily progress,” the statement said. “That remains our focus and we’ll keep working until we make it right.”

    On February 3, a Norfolk Southern train derailed, igniting a dayslong inferno, spewing poisonous fumes into the air, killing thousands of fish and leaving residents to wonder if it was safe to live in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The fiery derailment prompted fears of a catastrophic explosion of vinyl chloride – a highly flammable chemical linked to an increased risk of cancer. After a mandatory evacuation order, crews released vinyl chloride into a trench and burned it off – averting an explosion but spawning new health concerns.

    Officials said tests showed that the air and municipal water were safe and allowed residents to return home, but some have reported a variety of new health problems including rashes, nausea, bloody noses and trouble breathing.

    While studying the possible health impacts from the train derailment, seven US government investigators also briefly fell ill in early March, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

    “Symptoms resolved for most team members later the same afternoon, and everyone resumed work on survey data collection within 24 hours. Impacted team members have not reported ongoing health effects,” a CDC spokesperson said in a statement.

    The train operator Norfolk Southern must handle and pay for all necessary cleanup, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The company has sent some hazardous waste out of state – fueling more questions about safety.

    The DOJ isn’t the only one filing a lawsuit against the railroad. The state of Ohio also filed a 58-count federal lawsuit against the rail company on March 14, saying Norfolk Southern violated numerous state, federal and Ohio common laws and violated the state’s CERCLA act.

    Norfolk Southern has set up a new web page that summarizes community impact efforts. Spielmaker said it “provides a 7-day look ahead and is updated daily and outlines Norfolk Southern’s continued environmental remediation efforts in concert with state and federal authorities.”

    “When a Norfolk Southern train derailed last month in East Palestine, Ohio, it released toxins into the air, soil, and water, endangering the health and safety of people in surrounding communities,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “With this complaint, the Justice Department and the EPA are acting to pursue justice for the residents of East Palestine and ensure that Norfolk Southern carries the financial burden for the harm it has caused and continues to inflict on the community.”

    The Justice Department, citing annual company reports, alleges in the suit Norfolk Southern both increased operating income and dropped operating costs over the past four years, including making “reductions in spending to repair, service, and maintain locomotives and freight cars, perform train inspections, and pay engine crews and train crews.” The suit also alleges that these measures are a “focus” of the compensation of the company’s executives.

    The lawsuit claims when the train derailed and cars carrying hazardous materials were breached, the dispersion and subsequent combustion of those materials released toxic chemicals into the “air, soil, groundwater, and waterways.”

    The DOJ says seven local waterways including the Ohio River were contaminated as a result.

    The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported “thousands of aquatic animals were killed in the five-mile span of waterway from the Site” to the confluence of two creeks the DOJ described as contaminated, the lawsuit says.

    DOJ is asking for $64,618 per day, per violation of the CWA and $55,808 per day or $2,232 per barrel of oil or unit of hazardous substance, per violation of the CWA – but it was not immediately clear from the suit how many days the DOJ considered the violation to be applicable.

    They’re also seeking a declaration of liability against the company for response costs; a mandated increase in safety precautions by Norfolk Southern when transporting hazardous materials; and for the railroad to “remedy, mitigate, and offset” the environmental damage and public health issues that have arisen as a result of the derailment, court documents show.

    In early March, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw told a US Senate hearing that the company would “clean the site safely, thoroughly, and with urgency.”

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