Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.5 earthquake hits the Andaman Islands off India.
5.2 earthquake hits the Kashmir-Xinjiang border.
5.1 earthquake hits the Babuyan Islands, Philippines.
5.0 earthquake hits Malta.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
There are no current tropical storm systems.
Wildlife
The world’s smallest porpoise is on the brink of extinction
The world’s smallest porpoise is on the edge of extinction – but an environmental group has successfully reduced fishing in the protected areas it calls home. The tiny vaquita is the ocean’s rarest marine mammal.
The creatures – which never grow to more than 150cm in length – number between six and 20 in the wild, down from 200 in 2012. The protected species often become entangled and die in fishing nets cast to catch shrimp, finfish or totoaba. But a year of enforcement efforts have significantly reduced fishing in their habitat, the Mexican sea of Cortez. So far, it is unclear whether the efforts have increased vaquita population numbers.
Environment
Israel Refills Sea of Galilee
When the floodgates are open, a torrent of water gushes into a dry river bed and races to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a biblical lake in northern Israel that was being lost to drought and the growing population around it. The water is fresh, high-quality, expensive. Desalinated from the Mediterranean Sea and transported across the country where it awaits the order to replenish the lake should it start to shrink again. Israel built a chain of desalination plants along its Mediterranean coast putting it in the unlikely position of having a surplus of water, a bright spot in an arid region extremely vulnerable to climate change.
Disease
Covid-19
The countries with the 10 greatest number of Covid-19 cases:
COVID-19 was the top infectious disease killer for kids and teens in the U.S. between August 2021 and July 2022, a new analysis shows. It also ranked among the leading causes of death for any reason for U.S. children and teens in the same time period, the researchers determined.
Leprosy – Paraguay
In Paraguay, from 2017 to 2021, 1,493 new cases were registered in the country, an average of 298.5 cases per year. It is worth mentioning that, from 2016 to 2021, a higher proportion of new cases was observed in males.
Dengue Fever – Bolivia
The Bolivia Ministry of Health and Sports reported Sunday an additional 353 dengue fever cases, bringing the country total for the year at 2,221. Authorities deployed more than 5,000 people on Sunday in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, resulted in out of 188,660 mosquito breeding sites and intervened in 5,386 apple trees which host the mosquitoes.