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As the planet warms, increasing worry about the impact that may have on infectious diseases

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

By ZOYA TEIRSTEIN, GristNEW YORK (AP) — People around the world are living longer, healthier lives than they were just half a century ago. Climate change threatens to undo that progress. Across the planet, animals — and the diseases they carry — are shifting to accommodate a globe on the fritz. And they’re not alone: Ticks, mosquitos, bacteria, algae, even fungi are on the move, shifting or expanding their historical ranges to adapt to climatic conditions that are evolving at an unprecedented pace.These changes are not happening in a vacuum. Deforestation, mining, agriculture, and urban sprawl are taking bites out of the globe’s remaining wild areas, contributing to biodiversity loss that’s occurring at a rate unprecedented in human history. Populations of species that humans rely on for sustenance are dwindling and getting pushed into ever-smaller slices of habitat, creating new zoonotic-disease hotspots. Meanwhile, the number of people experienc...

Crews battle brush fire near Kearny Mesa

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO — San Diego Fire crews were battling a brush fire near Kearny Mesa Tuesday, officials said.According to SDFD, the approximately one acre brush fire began burning shortly before 1 p.m. near Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Interstate 15, east of the freeway.No structures are currently being threatened and no evacuation orders are in place, SDFD said in a tweet. Mountain biker dies while trying to save dehydrated hikers in Jacumba Residents were asked to use caution when traveling near the area.Shortly before 1:40 p.m., SDFD announced that the eastward progress of the fire had been stopped.Air and ground assets, as well as brush engines designed for off-road capabilities have been assigned to the incident to assist, officials said.The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Bison attack visitors in North Dakota and Wyoming national parks

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A bison severely injured a Minnesota woman on Saturday in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the National Park Service said in a statement on Tuesday.Park officials reported she was in serious but stable condition after suffering “significant injuries to her abdomen and foot.”The woman was taken to a Fargo hospital after being transported by ambulance to a hospital in Dickinson, about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) east of Painted Canyon, a colorful Badlands vista popular with motorists, where she was injured at a trailhead.The attack is under investigation; exact details are unknown. Park Superintendent Angie Richman did not immediately respond to an email requesting information.On Monday, a bison charged and gored a 47-year-old Phoenix woman in Yellowstone National Park. She sustained significant injuries to her chest and abdomen and was taken by helicopter to an Idaho Falls hospital.Park officials reminded visitors that bison are large, powerful and wild, and ca...

Michigan charges 16 fake electors for Donald Trump with election law and forgery felonies

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges Tuesday against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then-President Donald Trump in 2020, accusing them of submitting false certificates confirming they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state.Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that all 16 individuals would get eight criminal charges, including two counts of forgery, which is a 14-year felony. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. “It would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here in the face of overwhelming evidence of an organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election,” Nessel said in a statement. The group is alleged to have met on December 14 and signed their names to multiple certificates stating the...

Effort to find 2 children lost in a Pennsylvania flash flood may soon pivot to an underwater search

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. (AP) — A broad effort to find two young siblings who were swept away from their car during flash flooding in the Philadelphia suburbs over the weekend may soon pivot to underwater searching, authorities said Tuesday.Upper Makefield Fire Chief Tim Brewer provided an update near the search area, saying the team was still looking for Matilda Sheils, 2, and her 9-month-old brother Conrad Sheils. If the children are not located by day’s end, Brewer said, the focus will be on the water, using dive teams. With the search in a fourth day, officials acknowledged the many that have asked to volunteer to help but said they are not needed. Brewer asked people to avoid the area.Some 100 officials, as well as drones and cadaver dogs, have combed the area near the creek that drains into the Delaware River. The search has covered about 117 acres (47 hectares), with those on land logging some 160 miles (257 kilometers), often going back and forth over the same ground, he sai...

Opponents of telescope development in Hawaii urge UN to hold Canada accountable

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada is under fire for its support of a controversial telescope slated for development on Hawai’i Island, the largest island in the state, over allegations the project violates Indigenous rights.A group of academics and advocacy organizations asked the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last Friday for early warning and urgent action on the Thirty Meter Telescope development.“The government of Canada is a major partner and supporter of the TMT project, which for decades Native Hawaiians have challenged legally and opposed physically,” said Uahikea Maile, the director of Indigenous-led research group Ziibiing Lab and a professor at the University of Toronto.“We must not tolerate the status quo of Canadian human-rights violations against Indigenous Peoples, whether in or beyond its borders.”The telescope is slated to be built on Mauna Kea, a place researchers say has ideal observation conditions because it̵...

Goodfood Market shares up after reporting $1.2M Q3 loss, improved margins

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

MONTREAL — Goodfood Market Corp. reported a loss of $1.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $21.1 million a year earlier as its sales fell, but margins improved.Shares in the meal kit company closed up 5.5 cents or just over 12 per cent at 51 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday.The company says the loss amounted to two cents per share for the quarter ended June 3 compared with a loss of 28 cents per share a year earlier.Net sales for what was Goodfood’s third quarter totalled $42.1 million, down from $67.0 million in the same quarter last year.The company says the decrease was mainly driven by fewer active customers and its decision to discontinue its on-demand offering, offset in part by an increase in average order value.The company’s gross margin for the quarter amounted to 41.0 per cent, up from 26.2 per cent a year earlier.This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:FOOD)The Canadian...

Iowa governor plans to appeal block on restrictive abortion law

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said on Tuesday that plans are in progress to appeal a temporary block on the state’s new, restrictive abortion law, previewing a likely emotional court battle that could take months to resolve.Reynolds told reporters at the Iowa Capitol that her staff is working with lawyers in Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office to work out the details, so “it’s just a matter of time,” she said.The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the measure to ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy during a special session last week, and it went into effect Friday, immediately after Reynolds signed it. The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic launched a legal challenge and on Monday, Judge Joseph Seidlin granted their request to pause the law as the courts assess its constitutionality. Abortion providers said they scrambled to fit in as many appointments as possible before the ...

RCMP officers’ group says Mounties shouldn’t be ‘scapegoats’ in police shortage

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

VANCOUVER — The voice for almost 20,000 RCMP says its members should not be used as “political pawns” in the dispute between the British Columbia government and the City of Surrey over its policing situation. Brian Sauvé, the president of the National Police Federation, says in an open letter to Premier David Eby that the government’s lack of funding has led to staff shortages and it’s unfair to blame the Mounties for not filling their vacancies.The staffing vacancies were a key reason the B.C. government had recommended the City of Surrey continue its transition to an independent police force, despite the newly elected mayor’s promise that the city would go back to the RCMP for its policing. The provincial government is expected to announce its decision Wednesday on whether Surrey will be allowed to abandon its transition to a municipal police force and revert to RCMP. Sauvé says in the letter that Eby’s recent attention toward RCMP recruiting is...

Police haul more items from home of man charged in Gilgo Beach killings

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:54:10 GMT

MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Police carted more boxes of potential evidence Tuesday out of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann, who has been charged with killing at least three women and leaving their remains alongside a remote stretch of beach highway.Items pulled out of Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park in recent days have included more than 200 firearms, a large doll in a glass case, a large portrait of a woman with a bruised face and a filing cabinet.Investigators, some dressed in “crime lab” T-shirts and protective suits, were seen Tuesday carting away a desktop computer, a large picture frame, a mirror and many other household items.It remains to be seen whether any of those items will help authorities build their case against Heuermann, an architect who was charged Friday with murdering three women and was said by a prosecutor to be a suspect in a fourth slaying.Heuermann has denied killing the women, according to his attorney, Michael Brown. Since his arrest, Heuer...