Scientists: March set monthly heat record, 10th in row to do so
WASHINGTON — For the 10th consecutive month, Earth in March set a new monthly record for global heat — with air temperatures and the world’s oceans hitting an all-time high for the month, the European Union climate agency Copernicus said.
March 2024 averaged 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit, exceeding the previous record from 2016 by a tenth of a degree, according to Copernicus data. And it was 3 degrees warmer than in the late 1800s, the base used for temperatures before the burning of fossil fuels began growing rapidly.
Since last June, the globe has broken heat records each month, with marine heat waves across large areas of the globe’s oceans contributing.
Scientists say the record-breaking heat during this time wasn’t entirely surprising due to a strong El Nino, a climatic condition that warms the central Pacific and changes global weather patterns.
“But its combination with the non-natural marine heat waves made these records so breathtaking,” Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Jennifer Francis said.
With El Nino waning, the margins by which global average temperatures are surpassed each month should go down, Francis said.
Climate scientists attribute most of the record heat to human-caused climate change from carbon dioxide and methane emissions produced by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.
US aid for Ukraine: The State Department has approved an emergency $138 million in foreign military sales for
Ukraine to provide critical repairs and spare parts for Kyiv’s Hawk missile systems.
The U.S. announced the move Tuesday, saying Ukraine has an urgent need for the maintenance support to keep the missile system running.
The announcement follows a similar round of $300 million in munitions support that the Pentagon announced last month after it was able to convert contract savings in order to offset the cost of providing the aid. The State and Defense departments have been looking for ways to continue to get Ukraine support while a $60 billion Ukraine aid package remains stalled in Congress.
The Hawk is a mediumrange surface-to-air missile system that provides air defense, which is one of Ukraine’s top security needs.
During a Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that without the support, the U.S. risks that Ukraine will fall to Russia. If Kyiv falls, it could imperil Ukraine’s Baltic NATO member neighbors and potentially drag U.S. troops into a prolonged European war.
Climate-change ruling:
Europe’s highest human rights court ruled Tuesday that countries must better protect their people from the consequences of climate change, siding with a group of older Swiss women against their government in a landmark ruling that could have implications across the continent.
The European Court of Human Rights, which is unrelated to the European Union, ruled that Switzerland “had failed to comply with its duties” to combat climate change and meet emissions targets.
The Swiss case sets a legal
precedent in the Council of Europe’s 46 member states against which future lawsuits will be judged.
Activists have had success with lawsuits in domestic proceedings, but this is the first time an international court ruled on climate change — and the first decision confirming that countries have an obligation to protect people from its effects, said Corina Heri, an expert in climate-change litigation at the University of Zurich.
Voting robocall settlement:
Two conservative political operatives who orchestrated a robocall campaign to dissuade Black people from voting in the 2020 election have agreed to pay up to $1.25 million under a settlement with New York state, Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday.
Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were accused of making robocalls to about 85,000 people in predominately Black neighborhoods
in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois that told people they could be subjected to arrest, debt collection and forced vaccination if they voted by mail.
“Don’t be finessed into giving your private information to the man, stay safe and beware of vote by mail,” the automated recording told potential voters in the leadup to the election.
Wohl and Burkman pleaded guilty to felony telecommunications fraud in Ohio in 2022. They previously staged hoaxes and spread false accusations against Democrats and other government officials.
Italy plant blast: An explosion Tuesday at a decadesold hydroelectric plant in northern Italy killed at least three workers and injured five, a regional fire chief said. At least four people are missing. The explosion during maintenance work at Enel Green Power’s Bergi plant south of Bologna collapsed part of the nine-story underground
structure, provoked a fire and caused flooding at depths of up to 200 feet, regional fire chief Francesco Notaro told SKY TG24.
Search efforts are proceeding with care because of the risk of additional collapsing. Divers are aiding the search, which was expected to go through the night.
Enel said in a statement that there was no damage to the dam.
Mexican Embassy raid video:
Mexico released security camera video Tuesday of the moments when Ecuadorian authorities forced their way into the Mexican Embassy, pushed a Mexican diplomat to the ground and carried out Ecuador’s former vice president who had been holed up there. The action Friday night greatly escalated tensions between the countries, which have been tussling since ex-vice President Jorge Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive, took refuge at Mexico’s embassy in December.
At his daily news briefing Tuesday, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador played the security video and said it showed the “authoritarian and vile” way police had raided the embassy.
$6M Superman comic: A 1938 copy of the comic that “introduced Superman to the world” sold Thursday to an anonymous buyer for a record-setting $6 million, the auctioneer who handled the purchase said.
Heritage Auctions hails the rare copy of Action Comics No. 1 as “the most important comic ever published” — noting that the Superman who first appeared in the 1938 spring issue “remains remarkably like” the version still seen in comic strips and on the big screen. The book also introduced Lois Lane.
Only 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to survive out of 200,000 that were printed by National Allied Publications, the predecessor to DC Comics.