It started with a bang at 3 a.m. Monday as the residents of Derna were sleeping. One dam burst, then a second, sending a huge wave of water gushing down through the mountains towards the coastal Libyan city, killing thousands as entire neighborhoods were swept into the sea.

More than 5,000 people are believed to have been killed with thousands more missing, though estimates from different Libyan officials and aid groups have varied and the toll is expected to rise.

Buildings, homes and infrastructure were “wiped out” when a 7-meter (23-foot) wave hit the city, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which said Thursday that dead bodies were now washing back up on shore.

But with thousands killed and many more still missing, there are questions as to why the storm that also hit Greece and other countries caused so much more devastation in Libya.

Experts say that apart from the strong storm itself, Libya’s catastrophe was greatly exacerbated by a lethal confluence of factors including aging, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate warnings and the impacts of the accelerating climate crisis.

A ferocious storm

The extreme rainfall that hit Libya on Sunday was brought by a system called Storm Daniel.

After sweeping Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, with severe flooding that killed more than 20 people, it formed into a “medicane” over the Mediterranean – a relatively rare type of storm with similar characteristics to hurricanes and typhoons.

The medicane strengthened as it crossed the unusually warm waters of the Mediterranean before dumping torrential rain on Libya on Sunday.

It brought more than 16 inches (414 mm) of rainfall in 24 hours to Al-Bayda, a city west of Derna, a new record.

While it’s too early to definitively attribute the storm to the climate crisis, scientists are confident that climate change is increasing the intensity of extreme weather events like storms. Warmer oceans provide fuel for storms to grow, and a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, meaning more extreme rainfall.

Storms “are becoming more ferocious because of climate change,” said Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the UK.

A history of flooding

Derna is prone to flooding, and its dam reservoirs have caused at least five deadly floods since 1942, the latest of which was in 2011, according to a research paper published by Libya’s Sebha University last year.

The two dams that burst on Monday were built around half a century ago, between 1973 and 1977, by a Yugoslav construction company. The Derna dam is 75 meters (246 feet) high with a storage capacity of 18 million cubic meters (4.76 billion gallons). The second dam, Mansour, is 45 meters (148 feet) high with a capacity of 1.5 million cubic meters (396 million gallons).

Those dams haven’t undergone maintenance since 2002, the city’s deputy mayor Ahmed Madroud told Al Jazeera.

But the problems with the dams were known. The Sebha University paper warned that the dams in Derna had a “high potential for flood risk” and that periodic maintenance is needed to avoid “catastrophic” flooding.

“The current situation in the Wadi Derna reservoir requires officials to take immediate measures to carry out periodic maintenance of existing dams,” the paper recommended last year. “Because in the event of a huge flood, the result will be catastrophic on the residents of the valley and the city.” It also found that the surrounding area lacked adequate vegetation that could prevent soil erosion. Residents of the area should be made aware of the dangers of flooding, it added.

“It’s very clear that without this dam break, we wouldn’t have seen the tragic number of fatalities that that have happened as a result,” she said.

“The dams would have held back the water initially, with their failure potentially releasing all the water in one go,” Stephens also told Science Media Center, adding that “the debris caught up in the floodwaters would have added to the destructive power.”

Derna has been battered in the past, its infrastructure upended by years of fighting.

From battling ISIS and then later, eastern commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), the city’s infrastructure has crumbled and is woefully inadequate in the face of floods like the one brought by on by Storm Daniel.

A lack of warnings

Better warnings could have avoided most of the casualties in Derna, the head of the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, said.

“If there would have been a normally operating meteorological service, they would have issued the warnings and also the emergency management of this would have been able to carry out evacuations of the people and we would have avoided most of the human casualties,” Taalas told reporters at a news conference Thursday.

Talaas added that the political instability in the country has impeded WMO efforts to work with the Libyan government to improve these systems.

Yet, even robust early warning systems are not a guarantee that all lives can be saved, said Cloke.

While dams are usually designed to withstand relatively extreme events, it’s often not enough, said Cloke. “We should be preparing for unexpected events, and then you put climate change on top, and that ramps up these unexpected events.”

The risk climate-fueled extreme weather poses to infrastructure – not just dams, but everything from buildings to water supplies – is a global one. “We’re not ready for the extreme events coming towards us,” Cloke said.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he raised his “very strong concerns” to China’s premier regarding potential Chinese interference in British democracy after a parliament employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

Speaking to journalists at the G20 summit in New Delhi on Sunday, Sunak said he used a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang to raise several concerns including over “any interference in our parliamentary democracy.”

This comes after two men were arrested under the UK’s Official Secrets Act amid reports that a parliamentary researcher with alleged links to senior Conservative Party politicians including security minister Tom Tugendhat was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

UK newspaper, The Sunday Times broke the story on Sunday, reporting that the researcher was arrested alongside another man on March 13.

According to a statement from London’s Metropolitan Police, police arrested a man in his 30s in Oxfordshire, southern England, and a man in his 20s in Edinburgh, Scotland.

“The investigation is being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, which has responsibility for investigations relating to allegations of Official Secrets Act and espionage-related offences,” the statement said.

After being brought to a police station in south London, the two men were released on police bail until a date in early October, according to the statement.

China’s embassy in London denied the spying accusations.

“The claim that China is suspected of ‘stealing British intelligence’ is completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“We firmly oppose it and urge relevant parties in the UK to stop their anti-China political manipulation and stop putting on such self-staged political farce,” the statement added.

According to the Sunday Times reporting, the arrested parliamentary researcher was also linked to the chairperson of the British government’s foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns.

Posting on Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Kearns declined to comment on the alleged ties, remarking: “While I recognise the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardised.”

A cross party group focused on relations with China, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said in a statement on Saturday on X that it was “appalled at reports of the infiltration of the UK Parliament by someone allegedly acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China.”

“It is for authorities to reveal the name of the person accused, and IPAC is united in hoping that justice is done expeditiously,” the alliance continued.

The NFL season is in full swing. After an opening week filled with both excitement and disappointment, Week 2 began on Thursday with the Philadelphia Eagles’ victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

The action continues this weekend with six divisional matchups, two 2022 playoff rematches, and a Monday Night Football double-header. Here’s everything you need to know:

Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals, 1 p.m. CBS

Sunday afternoon features an AFC North showdown between Joe Burrow’s Bengals and Lamar Jackon’s Ravens.

Cincinnati is looking to escape a 2-0 start to the season, while the Ravens are hoping to establish themselves as legitimate contenders against the two-time division champions.

The Bengals had one of the most disappointing performances of Week 1 – Burrow played arguably the worst game of his career, passing for a career-low 82 yards and getting sacked twice during the 24-3 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

While a sluggish start to the season is never ideal, the Bengals are in familiar territory. In 2022, Cincinnati opened the season with back-to-back single-digit losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. They then went on to complete a 12-4 regular season and made it to the AFC championship.

The biggest challenge for the Ravens will be overcoming injuries. Baltimore will be minus four starters. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey and safety Marcus Williams have been ruled out on the defensive side. Ronnie Stanley and Tyler Linderbaum, two of Baltimore’s best offensive linemen, will also be sidelined. Without Stanley and Linderbaum, the Raven’s backup offensive linemen could be the difference-makers in this matchup.

Kansas City Chiefs @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m., CBS

Defending Super Bowl champions Chiefs will meet a familiar foe in Week 2. The teams met two times last season, with Kansas City securing two victories. The second of those came in the AFC Divisional round, a heartbreaking loss for the Jaguars that ended their most successful season since 2017.

Two key pieces of the Chiefs roster should be making their season debuts against the Jaguars. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said on Friday he expects star tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones to be active on Sunday.

Kelce missed the season opener against the Lions due to a hyper-extended knee, Jones missed the season opener because his contract details had not been finalized. Those two players will significantly improve Kansas City’s chances.

Former Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson and third-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence lead the charge out of Jacksonville.

Lawrence’s go-to target in Week 1 was wide receiver Calvin Ridley, who saw 11 targets and caught eight passes for 101 yards and a touchdown in his Jaguars debut. The duo make Jacksonville a stronger offensive unit than in 2022.

New York Jets @ Dallas Cowboys, 4.25 p.m., CBS

The New York Jets’ most highly-anticipated season in recent history began disastrously as four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon just four snaps into his debut.

The squad managed to squeak out an overtime win, shining a beam of hope on an otherwise discouraging evening. Week 2 begins a new chapter as the Jets travel to Texas to face one of the top defensive units in the NFL.

The Cowboys’ season opener could not have gone any better as Dallas served a 40-0 drubbing to the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football.

Led by defensive powerhouses Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, the Cowboys are likely chomping at the bit to ruin the Jets’ backup quarterback Zach Wilson’s first showing as Rodgers’ successor.

Wilson enters the matchup with a dismal 8-14 record as a starter. He’s thrown more interceptions than touchdowns and has a completion percentage of just 55%. The 24-year-old will have his work cut out for him, facing a defense that just last week racked up seven sacks, 12 QB hits, and a pick-six against Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.

Monday Night Football double-header

Closing out Week 2, Monday Night Football will feature two games on separate networks with staggered kickoff times. New Orleans at Carolina kicks off at 7:15 p.m. on ESPN, and Cleveland at Pittsburgh begins at 8:15 p.m. on ABC.

For fans concerned about missing any action while the games overlap, both broadcasters will keep viewers in the loop with what is happening on the other network.

Beginning at 8:15 p.m, the broadcasts will periodically activate double-box views and alternate score boxes, as well as provide halftime updates of the other matchup.

The Monday Night Football double-feature is the first of three this season, occurring again in Week 3 and Week 14.

Schedule

Sunday 

Green Bay Packers @ Atlanta Falcons, 1:00 p.m. ET

Las Vegas Raiders @ Buffalo Bills, 1:00 p.m. ET

Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals, 1:00 p.m. ET

Seattle Seahawks @ Detroit Lions, 1:00 p.m. ET

Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans, 1:00 p.m. ET

Kansas City @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1:00 p.m. ET

Chicago Bears @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1:00 p.m. ET

Los Angeles @ Tennessee Titans, 1:00 p.m. ET

New York Giants @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 p.m. ET

San Francisco 49ers @ Los Angeles Rams, 4:05 p.m. ET

New York Jets @ Dallas Cowboys, 4:25 p.m. ET

Washington Commanders @ Denver Broncos, 4:25 p.m. ET

Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots, 8:20 P.M. ET

Monday 

New Orleans Saints @ Carolina Panthers, 7:15 p.m. ET

Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers, 8:15 p.m. ET

How to Watch

Here’s how to catch these teams in action, from wherever you are.

Australia: NFL+, ESPN, 7Plus

Brazil: NFL+, ESPN

Canada: NFL+, CTV, TSN, RDS

Germany: NFL+, ProSieben MAXX, DAZN

Mexico: NFL+, TUDN, ESPN, Fox Sports, Sky Sports

UK: NFL+, Sky Sports, ITV, Channel 5

US: NFL+, CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN, Amazon Prime

Since Lionel Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami, the club has experienced a turnaround in its fortunes, going unbeaten in 11 games after a nine-game winless streak.

But that all changed on Saturday as Inter Miami sunk to a 5-2 defeat against Atlanta United, after taking to the field without Messi who was rested for the first time since signing for the club in July.

Inter Miami scored first following a superb Leonardo Campana goal in the 25th minute, as he controlled the ball with his chest, chipped it over a defender, and volleyed it into the net.

However, Atlanta United scored three unanswered goals in just eight minutes, courtesy of Tristan Muyumba, a Miami own goal and Brooks Lennon, to take a 3-1 lead into halftime.

Inter Miami cut Atlanta’s deficit in the 52nd minute after Campana converted a penalty from the spot following a handball in the box but its comeback was short-lived as Atlanta ran away with the match scoring two more goals from Giorgos Giakoumakis and Tyler Wolff to seal victory.

Despite Messi’s absence, about 72,000 fans flocked to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The turf field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta did not play a role, the source said.

Atlanta United coach Gonzalo Pineda said he found out through X, formerly known as Twitter, that Messi would not be playing, and urged his team to change the narrative around the game.

“Honestly, I told the players, there are a lot of things out there in the atmosphere and everything seems to be about Inter Miami,” he said, according to ESPN. “We have to turn that to about us.”

Inter Miami’s next match is scheduled for Wednesday when the club hosts Toronto FC at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, while Atlanta also next play on Wednesday against D.C. United at Audi Field in Washington D.C.

Post-tropical cyclone Lee is bringing heavy rain, destructive winds and coastal flooding to Canada and Maine, knocking out power to tens of thousands, lashing the coasts with big waves and spurring calls to stay indoors.

Lee, once a powerful hurricane, is churning maximum sustained winds of 60 mph as it spreads north after making landfall Saturday on Long Island in Nova Scotia, one of Canada’s Atlantic provinces, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It’s expected to steadily weaken over Sunday and Monday, with conditions improving across rain and wind-battered areas of the northeast US and Canada.

The cyclone is forecast to turn eastward and move quickly to the northeast, across the Canadian Maritimes on Sunday, and into the North Atlantic by early Monday, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said in a video update Saturday.

For now, tropical storm force winds are extending out about 290 miles from what’s left of Lee’s core on Saturday, downing trees and power lines and leaving many in the dark.

In Nova Scotia, 130,250 customers are without power Saturday while 38,000 in New Brunswick were in the dark, according to an outage map by Nova Scotia Power.

In Maine, nearly 60,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to poweroutage.us. Photos from across the state showed toppled trees near homes and on roadways as powerful winds battered the area.

Winds of 83 mph were recorded in Perry, Maine, and 63 mph in Roque Bluffs, Maine.

Utility power crews were out assessing damages and actively responding to downed utility lines and other damage caused by the storm Saturday.

On top of the fierce winds, Lee is also stirring up dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents along the US East Coast, Atlantic Canada and other areas.

“We’ll see very high waves and coastal erosion and minor coastal flooding,” Brennan said.

Another inch of rain was expected over parts of eastern Maine and New Brunswick, and Lee continues to threaten flooding in urban areas of eastern Maine in the United States and New Brunswick in Canada, according to the hurricane center.

In Canada’s New Brunswick province, north of Maine, officials cautioned residents to prepare for power outages and stock up on food and medication for at least 72 hours as they encouraged people to stay indoors during what they forecast would likely turn into a storm surge for coastal communities.

“Once the storm starts, remember please stay at home if at all possible,” said Kyle Leavitt, director of New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization. “Nothing good can come from checking out the big waves and how strong the wind truly is.”

In the US, states of emergency have been declared in Maine and Massachusetts. President Joe Biden has authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in to coordinate disaster relief and assistance for required emergency measures.

Boston’s Logan International Airport saw a spike in flight cancellations Saturday with 23% of all flights into Boston and 24% of flights originating out of the city canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

Formula One driver Lance Stroll will miss Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix after the Canadian suffered a huge crash in Saturday’s qualifying, his Aston Martin team said.

Pushing to make it through to the next round of qualifying, Stroll crashed into the barriers at high speed at the final corner at the end of Q1, causing significant damage to his Aston Martin with debris across the track and a front wheel coming off the car.

In a statement on Sunday, the team said the 24-year-old was “still sore” and that repairing the car was a “huge job.”

“The whole team are relieved that Lance was able to step out of the car after yesterday’s accident – however, he is still feeling the after-effects of such a high-impact crash,” Mike Krack, team principal, said in the statement.

“Our priority now is that he makes a full and speedy recovery. Together, we have decided that he will sit out this evening’s race and instead focus fully on returning to the cockpit for next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.”

Stroll got out of the car unaided and was later passed fit by the medical team, according to F1’s official website.

Stroll is ninth in the drivers’ championship. The Japanese Grand Prix takes place on September 24.

A woman puts on make-up at a railway station in Beijing on December, 12, 2014.

On Saturday, the clip by China Railway was the most searched, most read and most debated item on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform – two months after it was originally posted.

The angry reception to the post comes amid a wider feminist movement calling for greater gender equality in the country of 1.4 billion where men often still dominate boardrooms and top government bodies – and where, in the past, the feminist movement has often been censored.

The post appears to have been intended as part of a campaign by the railway to cut down on anti-social behavior by passengers and follows a series of other posts that have instructed people not to litter, take other people’s seats or talk too loudly.

Unveiled in July, the video features a stylishly dressed woman filming herself preparing to apply lotion and foundation while seated in what appears to be the cabin of a high-speed inter-city train.

She is interrupted by a man on the adjacent seat who taps her on the shoulder, and the clip then shows the man’s face covered in her foundation.

“I don’t need to put on makeup, beauty,” he then tells the woman, who apologizes and helps him clean up.

The clip of around a minute has sparked a controversy that shows no sign of abating.

By Saturday, its related hashtag had garnered 340 million views and 20,000 comments. Many citizens criticized the video as offensive.

“Why does it have to be such a gender-focused case, of women putting on makeup, to illustrate uncivilized behavior?” one Weibo user asked.

Others defended the right to put on makeup. “There isn’t anything uncivilized about it,” said one.

Another asked, “Will the next move involve banning women on trains once and for all?”

Chinese officials have tried to defend the advert, with a commentary circulated by state media outlets calling on people not to “over interpret” it.

The commentary, first published in Nanfang Daily, claimed that makeup incidents such as the one depicted were among the “most common” complaints received.

However, it admitted there were worse behaviors – such as being too loud or occupying another passenger’s seat.

“The publisher of the video is not asking people not to put on makeup on the train but to advocate a civilized form of commuting and to consider the feelings of other passengers,” it said.

In response to inquiries by local press, staff at China Railway’s customer service hotline said putting on makeup is not banned on trains.

From the litany of bad headlines surrounding the world of travel, you could be forgiven thinking it’s been the summer from hell for vacationers.

Environmental disasters, aviation industry mishaps and strikes, dirty beaches, soaring temperatures, deluges, price hikes and overcrowding all seem to have conspired to ruin getaways for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people this year.

For the most part, the inconvenience of travelers has been nothing compared to the tragic impact some of these situations have had on communities around the world.

But, for many people, a summer break is a much-needed annual highlight that offers respite from the stresses not just of everyday life, but other often extreme hardships.

Of course, huge numbers of lucky people enjoyed trouble-free vacations around the world. For every angry thread of tweets from airport departure lounges, there were likely many more smiling poolside selfies.

It’s the bad news that travels furthest. Here’s a roundup of some of the adversity that vacationers have faced over the past few months:

Relentless heat

Not everyone wants warm, sunny vacations but even sunseekers would’ve had more than they wished for in early summer, with July 2023 declared by NASA as the Earth’s hottest month since records began in 1880.

It didn’t stop there. This summer was later declared the planet’s hottest for years, breaking previous records by a significant margin.

Southern Europe sizzled as several fierce heatwaves sent temperatures soaring to near all-time highs, making life uncomfortable and even dangerous for tourists and locals alike.

In Italy, red alert heat warnings were issued alongside guidance for tourists and locals about staying hydrated and seeking out shade and aircon. In Athens, authorities closed key tourist sites including the Acropolis during the hottest part of the day.

Meanwhile, the extreme weather kept coming.

Hailstones of up to 10 centimeters, or nearly four inches, hit northern Italy’s Veneto region. Phoenix in the US endured a record-breaking 31 consecutive days of 110F-plus (43C) temperatures.

America’s national parks, particularly Death Valley, the Grand Canyon and Big Bend in Texas, sweltered, and saw several deaths suspected to be heat-related. At the Grand Canyon, QR codes were posted at trailheads linking to info on water and shelter. In Death Valley signs warned tourists not to hike after 10 a.m. Later in the summer, the same location was closed due to storm flooding.

As temperatures in parts of China soared to new records, extreme heat “tourism” saw visitors flocking to the country’s Flaming Mountains in far-western Xinjiang province to experience scorching temperatures emanating from red sandstone cliffs near Turpan.

Wearing hats and carrying umbrellas, tourists took selfies by a huge thermometer showing a surface temperature of 80 C (176 F), Chinese state television showed.

A world on fire

Inevitably, extreme heat led to extreme wildfires, with tourists and major destinations caught up in some of the worst outbreaks.

In July, blazes broke out in Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Greece, where wildfires ripped through Corfu, Evia and the outskirts of Athens.

The popular tourist island of Rhodes was most severely affected after a fire began in the centre of the island on July 18 and quickly spread to the east and south coasts, threatening beach resorts.

With flames approaching, many tourists and residents were evacuated to makeshift accommodation in sports halls, schools or public buildings on other parts of the island.

Nearly 20,000 people were evacuated by land and sea, some unable to retrieve passports and other personal effects. Airlines and tour companies cancelled flights and vacations while empty planes were sent to repatriate stranded tourists. Greece later offered free spring or fall 2024 vacations to those affected.

In August, Tenerife, one of Spain’s normally temperate Canary Islands suffered wildfires with more than 12,000 people forced to flee their homes. Fires broke out in Italy’s Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo and Puglia regions causing evacuations from homes and hotels. Algeria, in north Africa, also suffered.

Meanwhile Canada has experienced what experts say was its worst wildfire season in history with more than 1,000 blazes since April. Thousands of people were evacuated across the Northwest Territories and British Columbia, where travel was restricted around the popular tourist destination of Kelowna.

The most devastating wildfire of the summer hit Lahaina, the historic town popular with tourists on the Hawaiian island of Maui, on August 8, leaving at least 115 people dead. Hawaii Governor Josh Green called it the worst natural disaster in the state’s history.

Many of Lahaina’s historic and cultural landmarks were decimated by the blaze, including the Baldwin Home Museum – an 1830s-era house believed to be the oldest on Maui – the Lahaina Heritage Museum and the Wo Hing Museum.

There is hope that the sprawling 150-year-old Banyan tree – a popular focal point – may survive.

Storm forces

After the fires came the storms, again wreaking havoc on travel while also causing widespread devastation.

Hurricane Hilary crashed into the US west coast in August bringing destructive rainfall and flooding. The desert city of Palm Springs received more rainfall in an hour than it normally does in a year. At the end of summer, Idalia lashed Florida and other southern states just as the Labor Day weekend approached.

Parts of Southeast Asia were battered by a number of severe typhoons as storm season hit hard. Typhoons Doksuri, Khanun and Lan came with record rainfall and hurricane-force winds, causing deaths, severe flooding, landslides and widespread power outages.

Typhoon Khanun also lashed South Korea with deadly force and led to nearly 40,000 teenagers from 155 countries cutting short the World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, south of Seoul, when the threat of the approaching typhoon added to problems caused by the heatwave and conditions at the campsite.

When Typhoon Lan hit Japan’s southern Wakayama prefecture on August 15, super-fast bullet trains were heavily disrupted. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways also scrapped a host of flights.   

In hot water

Another consequence of rising heat has been water temperatures also reaching  record highs.

While hot tub temperatures of 101.19 F (38.44 C), instead of the usual 80F, recorded on July 25 in Florida’s Manatee Bay might’ve made it uncomfortable for swimmers, they also caused unprecedented mass bleaching and threatened the extinction of coral species on reefs around the Florida Keys.

One report from the Coral Restoration Foundation found “100% coral mortality” at Sombrero Reef off the coast of Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Coral reefs generate billions of dollars for Florida’s economy through fishing and tourism and providing jobs.

And it wasn’t just Florida. The Mediterranean Sea reached a record high of 83.1F (28.4C) on July 24, according to the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The previous record was 28.25C (82.85F) set in 2003.   

Dirty water

In stark contrast to the searing heat in southern Europe, the UK endured a prolonged spell of mixed and wet weather in July and August, washing out many summer breaks and other sporting and cultural events in Britain. Temperatures only rose in early September when most people’s vacations were over.

Experts said the unseasonal weather was down to a blocked weather pattern caused by a kink in the jet stream, the wind that blows west to east high up in the atmosphere.

Perhaps an absence of beach weather was a good thing, with British beachgoers and watersports enthusiasts battling increasing issues with water quality because increased sewage dumping at sea is leaving many shorelines too toxic for swimmers.

Flight chaos

While the frequently creaking US aviation infrastructure held it together over the summer, in Europe there were numerous disruptive events with strikes or threats of strikes by air traffic controllers, pilots or cabin crew leading to thousands of flights being scrapped.

In late August, an air traffic control glitch blamed on a single erroneous data point led to UK’s National Air Traffic Services restricting traffic, causing widespread delays and cancellations across the continent for days.

The UK has also been hit by an ongoing series of rail strikes in 2023, affecting travelers and commuters alike, while waits at UK international ferry terminals such as Dover have become longer than the pre-Brexit era because of extra time needed for passport control.

Overcrowding and overpricing

Despite the hazards and hitches across the globe, tourists were still travelling in droves, perhaps as a rebound from Covid lockdowns. In fact, in some places there were so many visitors that authorities felt the need to limit their numbers.

In France, sites such as the spectacular Mont Saint Michel, have been so overwhelmed there are campaigns to send tourists elsewhere or spread visits out over the year. Amsterdam launched an unusual “stay away campaign” in an attempt to curb visits from rowdy young Brits and, along with Venice, considered restrictions on cruise ships. On Japan’s sacred Mount Fuji, crowds were so bad tourists had to line up to reach the summit.

Venice, meanwhile, has announced a new 5 euro ($5.40) entry fee for daytrippers to cut numbers. And Greek officials say the number of daily visitors to the Acropolis will be limited from September to preserve the monument.

On the Spanish vacation island of Mallorca, a local protest group has claimed to be behind fake signs warning of jellyfish, falling rocks or long walks to reach a nearby beach, saying it’s using them to try to limit overcrowding.

Crowds of tourists have been an easy target for scammers in Italy, where visitors have faced rip-off charges for services like cutting a sandwich in half. Meanwhile many locals say their own country is too expensive for a vacation.     

Covering a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might best be described as a caption contest: The two held what the Kremlin called “very substantive” discussions on Wednesday, but beyond a few photo opportunities, we still have very little idea what went on behind closed doors.

Putin and Kim shook hands at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Amur Region; the North Korean leader got a lift in Putin’s Russian-made Aurus limousine; and Kim raised a toast to his counterpart, promising Russia would punish “evil forces” – dictator-speak that appeared to endorse Putin’s ghastly, grinding war of attrition against Ukraine.

But the two sides held no press conference and issued no communique. No deals were publicly announced. Figuring out the real takeaway from the summit in Russia’s Far East is going to be a challenge, even though the global stakes are quite high.

Back in July, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu went to Pyongyang with an apparent shopping list. After a year and a half of high-intensity combat in Ukraine, Russia’s ammunition stocks have been heavily depleted, and US officials warned that North Korea and Russia were mulling potential deals to replenish supplies for Moscow’s war on Ukraine. North Korea has a substantial arsenal on the Korean peninsula.

If this is what’s being hammered out in Russia – and we have seen no proof thus far that such a deal has been agreed – it would represent Pyongyang’s entry into a contest with the industrial bases of US and NATO members, which have been incrementally but steadily providing Ukraine with the ammunition it needs to slug it out with Russia. It’s a life-or-death race, with Putin apparently counting on support waning for Ukraine as the US enters a presidential election season.

And there’s potential of something in return for Pyongyang. Kim’s regime is heavily isolated: Multiple rounds of sanctions have targeted North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Even Russia has signed on to North Korean sanctions in the past.

But Putin appears to be extending a potential lifeline to Kim as his own government comes under sanction for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, apparently dangling the carrot of access to Russian technology.

On a visit to the cosmodrome, a reporter asked Putin whether Russia would help North Korea “launch its own satellites and rockets” – to which Putin responded, “That’s exactly why we came here.”

“The leader of North Korea shows great interest in space, in rocketry, and they are trying to develop space. We’ll show our new objects,” Putin said.

Kim’s interest in shiny objects may sound somewhat innocuous. But the Kremlin leader’s phrasing calls to mind the old joke credited to the comedian Mort Sahl about Wernher von Braun, the German rocket scientist who pioneered Nazi Germany’s ballistic missile technology during World War II: “He aimed for the stars, but sometimes he hit England.”

Von Braun’s contribution to missile technology and to the US space program is well documented. His work paved the way for both space exploration as well as the development of the intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of lofting nuclear weapons across the globe.

So we are still dealing with a major unknown when it comes to a potential technology exchange between North Korea and Russia. The US believes Pyongyang has already been a player in the Ukraine war, providing the Russian mercenary group Wagner with arms.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner, dismissed the allegation as “nothing more than gossip and speculation” before he died when his plane fell out of the sky last month.

If Russia is handing over this launch technology to North Korea, then, the world may potentially be witnessing the wider global fallout of Europe’s largest land war since 1945. And the convergence of two pariah states may be playing out in unexpected and dangerous ways.

The party of Myanmar’s deposed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Thursday they were concerned she is “not receiving adequate medical care” while in prison, amid reports her health is failing.

“We are particularly concerned that she is not receiving adequate medical care and [the junta] are not providing healthy food nor accommodation sufficiently with the intention to risk her life,” the National League for Democracy (NLD) said in a statement on Facebook.

“If [Aung San Suu Kyi’s] health is not only impaired but her life also is endangered, the military junta is solely responsible,” the party said.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Suu Kyi’s son, Kim Aris, had told the news outlet he was “extremely worried” about his mother’s health, saying she has experienced dizziness and vomiting and has been suffering from severe gum disease.

Aris, who lives in Britain, also said his mother was struggling to eat and was being refused permission to see an outside doctor, according to Reuters.

Reuters did not say how Aris received the information regarding his mother’s health, as he told the news agency that he has not been able to contact his mother “in any way since she was detained by the military” when they seized power in a coup in February 2021.

In recent weeks, several countries and the United Nations have raised concerns about the health of the former leader, who faces years in detention.

On September 6, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary general, called for Suu Kyi’s release saying, “everyone in detention should be able to have access to health care, that is a basic right.”

Leaders of the ASEAN member states also met last week in Jakarta, Indonesia – where Myanmar’s deteriorating security and humanitarian situation was high on the agenda. For the second consecutive year, Myanmar was not invited to the regional summit gathering.

At that summit, US Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated Washington’s commitment to continue the pressure on “the regime to end the horrific violence, [and] to release all those unjustly detained and to reestablish Myanmar’s path to inclusive democracy.”

Suu Kyi led Myanmar for five years before being forced from power and detained after her party was re-elected in a landslide election against military-backed opposition.

Army general Min Aung Hlaing seized power at that time in February 2021, ending Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy, imprisoning multiple opposition figures and plunging the impoverished Southeast Asian nation into a raging civil conflict that continues to this day.

As of the end of 2022, the 78-year-old faced a total of 33 years in jail, including three years of hard labor, for multiple convictions including electoral fraud and receiving bribes.

The ruling military junta on August 1 pardoned Suu Kyi on five charges for which she was previously convicted, reducing her lengthy sentences.