AJACCIO, France: An “exceptional” marine heatwave is gripping the western Mediterranean with surface temperatures up to five degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than average, according to experts contacted by AFP.
Although the record-breaking heatwave that baked northern Europe and Britain this month has subsided, the experts said the persistently hotter-than-normal temperatures in the Mediterranean posed a threat to the entire marine ecosystem.
“This huge marine heatwave began in May in the Ligurian sea” between Corsica and Italy, said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at the non-profit research group Mercator Ocean International.
It then spread to the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea, she said.
By July, the heatwave had engulfed the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
“The surface temperature anomaly map shows higher than normal values, in the order of +4 to +5C from the east of the Balearic Islands to the east of Corsica,” Mercator said in a statement.
While humans might find the warmer water temperatures pleasant in the tourist hotspots of the western Mediterranean, the group warned that “ocean warming impacts the entire ecosystem.”
“It is important to be aware of the possible consequences for local fauna and flora, as well as the occurrence of extreme weather events that could result in natural disasters,” it said.
Von Schuckmann said that unusually warm temperatures could cause irreversible migration for some species and “mass die-offs” for others.
She noted knock-on effects for industries such as tourism and fishing which rely on favorable water conditions.
According to the UN’s climate science body, marine heatwaves have already doubled in frequency globally since 1980.
Although the Mediterranean only counts for one percent of Earth’s ocean surface area, it contains nearly 20 percent of all known marine species.
A study published this month in the journal Global Change Biology found that the Mediterranean had experienced five consecutive years of mass mortality events between 2015-2019.
France’s CNRS research center has noted that marine heatwaves in 1999, 2003 and 2006 caused mass die-offs for some species, notably the posidonia, a genus of flowering plants.
“We can predict the main impact will be on fixed organisms such as plants or corals,” said Charles-Francois Boudouresque, a marine ecologist at Aix-Marseille University.
Some species of fish such as the barracuda could become more abundant in warming northern Mediterranean waters, however.
Boudouresque said some species coming through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea could become problematic “within five to 10 years.”
These include the rhopilema, a herbivore jellyfish Boudouresque described as “extremely greedy,” and which could disrupt marine food chains.
Already abundant in the eastern Mediterranean, its appearance in western waters would threaten the algae forests that serve as nurseries for myriad varieties of fish.
Rhopilema can also sting swimmers with enough severity to require hospital treatment.
Another invasive species is the rabbit fish, which is native to the Red Sea but is increasingly found in the Mediterranean.
As there is little governments can do once a marine heatwave takes hold, Von Schuckmann said the best course of action is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to warming.
“Even if we stopped emitting today, the oceans, which contain 90 percent of Earth’s heat, will continue to warm,” she said.
“Since at least 2003 (marine heatwaves) have become more common and in future they will last longer, cover more sea, and be more intense and severe,” said Von Schuckmann.
W. Mediterranean hit by ‘exceptional’ heatwave: experts
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W. Mediterranean hit by ‘exceptional’ heatwave: experts
- The persistently hotter-than-normal temperatures in the Mediterranean posed a threat to the entire marine ecosystem
- This huge marine heatwave began in May in the Ligurian sea" between Corsica and Italy said an oceanographer
A top Taliban official offers amnesty to Afghans who fled the country and urges them to return
Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund made the amnesty offer in his message for the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha, also known as the “Feast of Sacrifice.”
The offer comes days after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The measure largely bars Afghans hoping to resettle in the United States permanently as well as those hoping to go to the US temporarily, such as for university study.
Trump also suspended a core refugee program in January, all but ending support for Afghans who had allied with the US and leaving tens of thousands of them stranded.
Afghans in neighboring Pakistan who are awaiting resettlement are also dealing with a deportation drive by the Islamabad government to get them out of the country. Almost a million have left Pakistan since October 2023 to avoid arrest and expulsion.
Akhund’s holiday message was posted on the social platform X.
“Afghans who have left the country should return to their homeland,” he said. “Nobody will harm them.”
“Come back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace,” he added, and instructed officials to properly manage services for returning refugees and to ensure they were given shelter and support.
He also used the occasion to criticize the media for making what he said were “false judgments” about Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and their policies.
“We must not allow the torch of the Islamic system to be extinguished,” he said. “The media should avoid false judgments and should not minimize the accomplishments of the system. While challenges exist, we must remain vigilant.”
The Taliban swept into the capital Kabul and seized most of Afghanistan in a blitz in mid-August 2021 as the US and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.
The offensive prompted a mass exodus, with tens of thousands of Afghans thronging the airport in chaotic scenes, hoping for a flight out on the US military airlift. People also fled across the border, to neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
Among those escaping the new Taliban rulers were also former government officials, journalists, activists, those who had helped the US during its campaign against the Taliban.
Kyrgyzstan dismantles Central Asia’s tallest Lenin statue
- Officials said the statue was quietly taken down overnight and is set to be relocated
BISHKEK: Russian ally Kyrgyzstan on Saturday quietly dismantled Central Asia’s tallest monument to Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary founder of the Soviet Union.
Ex-Soviet states across the region are seeking to strengthen their national identities, renaming cities that have Russian-sounding names and replacing statues to Soviet figures with local and national heroes.
Russia, which has military bases in Kyrgyzstan, is striving to maintain its influence there in the face of competition from China and the West and amid its invasion of Ukraine.
Officials in the city of Osh — where the 23-meter (75 foot) high monument stood on the central square — warned against “politicizing” the decision to “relocate” it.
Osh is the second largest city in the landlocked mountainous country.
The figure was quietly taken down overnight and is set to be “relocated,” Osh officials said.
The decision “should not be politicized,” city hall said, pointing to several other instances in Russia “where Lenin monuments have also been dismantled or relocated.”
“This is a common practice aimed at improving the architectural and aesthetic appearance of cities,” it said in a statement.
Despite some attempts to de-Sovietise the region, memorials and statues to Soviet figures are common across the region, with monuments to Lenin prevalent in the vast majority of cities in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan was annexed and incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 19th century and then became part of the Soviet Union following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
It gained independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
An electric scooter is blamed for a violent fire that killed 4 in a French city
PARIS: Four people were killed in an “extremely violent” blaze seemingly caused by a battery-powered electric scooter that tore through a 10-story housing block in Reims, the capital of France's Champagne region, authorities said Saturday.
A 13-year-old jumped to his death from the 4th-floor apartment where the fire started in the early hours of Friday and a burned body found inside is believed to be that of his older brother, aged 15, said Reims prosecutor François Schneider.
An 87-year-old woman and her 59-year-old son who lived on the 8th floor suffocated to death in the smoke, he said.
Two people were seriously injured, including the dead boys' stepfather who was badly burned, and 26 others were treated in hospital for lighter injuries, he said.
Schneider said there is “no doubt” that the blaze was accidental, spreading quickly from the scooter that caught fire for reasons unknown.
Battery fires “are extremely difficult to extinguish” and fire officers battled the blaze for more than three hours, the prosecutor said.
Bangladesh to hold national elections in April 2026, interim leader Yunus says
- Yunus took over three days after former PM Sheikh Hasina was ousted in uprising last year
- Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Hasina’s rival, eyes forming new government after polls
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus on Friday said that the country will hold national elections in the first half of April 2026.
In a televised address to the nation on Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said that the Election Commission would roll out a detailed roadmap for the election in due course.
Yunus took over three days after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a student-led mass uprising in August 2024, ending her 15-year rule. Hasina has been in exile in India since.
The interim government banned Hasina’s Awami League party, which is one of the country’s two largest political parties. Hasina faces trial for hundreds of deaths related to the uprising in July and August last year.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by Hasina’s archrival and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, had been demanding the elections be held in December. The BNP is the main political party and is hoping to form the next government in the absence of Hasina’s party.
Salahuddin Ahmed, a spokesman for BNP, criticized Yunus for failing to “to meet the expectation of the nation” about the polls schedule.
He told Channel 24 television that April is not ideal for an election because the annual month of fasting that starts in mid-February makes campaigning challenging. He said it would also be difficult for a new government to formulate the year’s budget, usually announced in June.
The Jamaat-e-Islami party, the country’s largest Islamist party, may also be able to take part in the elections after the country’s Supreme Court on June 1 cleared the path for the party to regain its registration as a political party.
Hasina’s party had fiercely criticized it for its opposition to Bangladesh gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was the country’s independence leader.
Yunus had earlier said that the election would be held between December and next June. The relationship between Yunus and the BNP has been frosty in recent months over a disagreement about the election schedule. Zia’s party accused Yunus of tactics to delay a vote.
In February, a new party was formed by student leaders who led the anti-Hasina uprising. Yunus’ critics say the party had backing from him, and Hasina’s party calls the new National Citizen Party a “king’s party.”
Child pornography swoop leads to 20 arrests in 12 nations
- Spanish authorities arrested seven suspects, including a health care worker and a teacher
PARIS: An international operation against child pornography led by Spanish police has resulted in the arrest of 20 people in 12 nations across the Americas and Europe, Interpol said.
The operation was initiated by Spain in late 2024, when officers carried out online patrols and identified instant messaging groups dedicated to the circulation of child sexual exploitation images, Interpol said late Friday.
“As the investigation progressed, officers were able to fully identify the alleged perpetrators and alert authorities in the relevant countries,” it said.
It said there were “follow-up sessions between authorities to align operational efforts with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay.”
The arrests took place between March and May 2025.
Spanish authorities arrested seven suspects, including a health care worker and a teacher.
The health care worker allegedly paid minors from Eastern Europe for explicit images, while the teacher is accused of possessing and sharing child sexual abuse material via various online platforms.
Sixty-eight additional suspects have been identified and further investigations are underway.
Desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets and digital storage devices were seized. A teacher was arrested in Panama.
The remaining suspects were arrested elsewhere in Europe and the United States.
