2016 ‘very likely’ to be the hottest year on record, U.N. agency declares

- Timed for the ongoing international climate meetings in Marrakech, Morocco, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has affirmed what many scientists had already considered inevitable — 2016, the agency said, will “very likely” be the hottest year on record. That would mean that the last three years — 2014, 2015, and 2016 — have set ever more impressive temperature records in quick succession.

The agency was able to say as much, despite the year not even being over yet, due to the jaw-dropping heat seen throughout much of the year. Multiple months in 2016 set new monthly temperature records, buoyed by a very strong El Nino event.

Sixteen “of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century,” noted the agency.

Overall, the WMO said, 2016 was 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer on average than temperatures for the pre-industrial Earth. That’s a highly significant number, in that it puts the planet quite close to the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature threshold enshrined as an aspirational goal in the Paris climate agreement. Some scientists have said we could cross 1.5 degrees for good by 2030. (FullText)

At Least Two Dead, Tsunami Warning Issued After New Zealand Rocked by Strong Earthquake

wallstreetjournal - At least two people died when a powerful earthquake struck New Zealand near the city of Christchurch, causing strong jolts felt more than 120 miles away and prompting a tsunami threat along the country’s east coast.

The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey initially recorded as magnitude 7.4 but later raised to 7.8, struck just after midnight Sunday and was centered 93 kilometers (57 miles) northeast of Christchurch, on the country’s South Island.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said at least two people were killed, but provided no details at a news conference Monday morning in Wellington, the capital.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management said on its verifiedTwitter account that a tsunami threat covered all of New Zealand’s east coast, including Christchurch, Wellington and the Chatham Islands, and urged people in those areas to move to high ground or go inland.

The agency later said the first wave had arrived on the northeastern coast of the South Island, but didn’t say how tall it was. “The first wave may not be the largest. Waves may continue for several hours,” MCDEM said on Twitter. At 6.09 a.m. local time, the tsunami threat was downgraded for much of the east coast, although the agency continued to warn of unusually strong currents and unpredictable flows of water close to shore.

The USGS said the quake was at a depth of 23 kilometers. The quake was followed by a number of strong aftershocks.

New Zealand Police said one casualty had been reported at a collapsed property in Kaikoura, a coastal town on the country’s South Island. “Police are also trying to access a property at Mt Lyford, north of Christchurch, where a further casualty has been reported, which is believed to be a fatality,” it said.

In Wellington, 214 kilometers north of the quake’s epicenter, people were urged not to travel into the city as train and ferry services were suspended and some roads could be blocked. However, the city’s airport remained open following an inspection of the runway.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had just completed a visit to New Zealand, leaving for Oman hours before the earthquake struck.

New Zealand is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Ocean prone to seismic upheaval. In 2011, a 6.3-magnitude quake killed 185 people in Christchurch—most because of building failures—triggering a nationwide clampdown on unsafe properties. (FullText)

Colombia peace deal: Government and Farc reach new agreement

BBC - The Colombian government and the Farc rebel group have announced a new peace agreement, six weeks after the original deal was rejected in a popular vote.

Alvaro Uribe, a former president who led the "no" campaign, was involved in this round of negotiations intended to end 52 years of civil war.

The initial deal was deemed to be too favourable the left-wing rebels.

The new agreement will have to be approved by parliament, rather than being put directly to voters.

"We have reached a new final agreement to end the armed conflict, which incorporates changes, clarifications and some new contributions from various social groups," officials said in a joint statement.

The statement was read by diplomats from Cuba and Norway, the mediating countries, in the Cuban capital, Havana.

The previous deal was rejected by 50.2% of voters in a referendum held on 2 October.

Polls initially indicated that the agreement would be approved by a comfortable margin, but as the results came in it became clear that opposition to the agreement had been stronger than expected.

Syria Conflict: Putin is encouraged, Assad is safe with a weak America

(NeewsWeek - Those who advocate modest military measures to stop or at least slow the mass murder of Syrian civilians by Russia and its Assad regime client should not evade the patently unfair question they are often asked: "Are you willing to risk World War III?"

As important as it is to defend civilians—for both humanitarian and policy reasons—the answer, of course, must be no. And even if world war is a remote possibility, any circumstances possibly bringing the armed forces of nuclear powers into contact are troublesome.

But what of those who use the World War III ploy to argue for continued American passivity (coupled with soaring, empty rhetoric) in the face of defiant, unspeakable atrocities executed by those who have come to count on total impunity? Are they answerable for nothing in terms of risk?

If Russian President Vladimir Putin concludes, on the basis on American behavior in Syria, that Uncle Sam is an empty suit—willing to talk about everything but stand for nothing—is that a risk-free outcome in Syria and the world beyond?

If anything at all has been learned from the past five years of Levantine murder and mayhem, it is this: What happens in Syria does not stay in Syria. Even if it did—as Obama administration senior officials hoped it would, way back when—American passivity in the face of mass homicide would still have raised questions and inspired objections, both moral and policy-related.

But nothing about this abomination has been contained within Syria, other than a ruling family and an enabling entourage preserved by Russia and Iran.

D.C votes in favour of US statehood claiming nearly 80% of vote

- Residents of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of becoming the nation's 51st state. NPR reported "79 percent of voters cast votes in favor of the ballot measure, which splits the district into a residential state with a small federal district in the middle of it for government buildings and monuments." The measure also includes the approval of a Constitution of the State of New Columbia and the guarantee of an elected representative.

Now that the nation's capital has voted in favor of the referendum, the measure will go to Congress and the next president for the final stamp of approval. Though Congress has the power to deny the petition, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has already pledged to have a petition for D.C. statehood ready to go by Inauguration Day.

Bowser said many of the district's voters are frustrated by their lack of representation in Congress. "We need equality, and the only way to get there is with statehood," she told The Washington Post.

(Source)

2016 Election: Donald Trump Wins the White House in Upset

nbcnews) - America woke up Wednesday to a new and unexpected reality — Donald J. Trump will be the next president of the United States.

In a resounding rebuke to the political establishment, the Manhattan mogul and reality TV star was elected the 45th president following one of the most bitter and wildly unpredictable campaigns in the nation's history.

Trump, in an upset for the ages, defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton by running the table in battleground states across the country — from Florida and North Carolina to Ohio and Pennsylvania.

He declared victory Tuesday night before a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters, pledging to help unite the country after his rancorous battle with Clinton.

"Now it's time for America to bind the wounds of division," Trump said at the Midtown Hilton in New York City. "I say it is time for us to come together as one united people." He congratulated Clinton on a "very, very hard-fought campaign."

Trump said Clinton called him sometime after 2 a.m. ET to concede the race. But she did not address her supporters until several hours later at a Manhattan hotel, admitting "this is painful and it will be for a long time."

"I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans," she said of Trump, in a call for unity. "We must accept this result and look to the future. We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead."

President Barack Obama, who campaigned furiously for Clinton, congratulated Trump by telephone early Wednesday and invited him to a meeting at the White House on Thursday.

But it was not enough. And now President-elect Trump is poised to be the first person to be sworn in as commander-in-chief without having held elected office or served in the U.S. armed forces.

His unexpected victory also dashed the dreams of millions of women who had hoped Clinton would shatter the ultimate glass ceiling and become the nation's first female U.S. president. (FullText)

'Lazy' Mosquitoes Spread Chikungunya, Other Viruses, to Women

"Lazy mosquitoes" are the reason why women, who tend to spend more time at home than men, are more likely to be infected by chikungunya virus, researchers said on Monday.

Chikungunya, which is commonly transmitted by the daytime-biting Aedes aegypti mosquito, can cause debilitating symptoms including fever, headache and severe joint pain lasting months.

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed a 2012 outbreak of chikungunya in the Bangladeshi village of Palpara, 60 miles from the capital Dhaka.

The study found more than a quarter of cases were spread within the same household, while half of infections occurred in households less than 200 meters away, creating small clusters of the disease.

Because infected mosquitoes did not like to travel far, Bangladeshi women, who spend two thirds of the day at home, were 1.5 times more likely to catch chikungunya than men who spend less than half their time at home during the day.

"It appears that mosquitoes are very lazy," Henrik Salje, the research leader from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a statement.

"They bite someone in a household and get infected with a virus and then hang around to bite someone else in the same home or very nearby. The extra time women spend in and around their home means they are at increased risk of getting sick."

The disease occurs in Africa and Asia, but cases have also been reported in Europe and the Americas.

The study said while there was no vaccine and little treatment available for diseases such as chikungunya, Zika, dengue and yellow fever, which are all transmitted by the Aedes aegypti, knowing where outbreaks were likely to be clustered could help in slowing them.

"We don't yet have a very good toolbox for fighting these diseases," Salje said.

"But once we do, this research tells us how we could trigger a response and tailor our interventions - particularly in rural communities - to those at the greatest risk, and those people are the ones who spend the most time in and around their homes."

The researchers said that coils designed to repel mosquitoes did not help stop chikungunya transmission in the Palpara region. (FullText)