Massive Saharan dust plume is heading for Florida
Dust is forecast to hit south and central Florida on Saturday and stay for at least several days, according to CBS Miami's NEXT Weather radar.
Computer models show that after an initial dust wave, a larger and denser plume could be seen in Florida by the middle of next week, CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG reports.
Radar also shows dust over south Texas on Monday.
Saharan dust was already seen in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands this week, the National Weather Service in San Juan reported on Tuesday. It noted dust impacts included reduced visibility and hazy skies, and said more dust is forecast to move in Saturday and linger through at least Tuesday.
Satellite imagery showed dust above most of the Atlantic's tropical waters on Thursday — spanning all the way from Africa's coast to the Gulf, the National Hurricane Center's Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch said in a post on X. It noted that the dry air suppresses the development of storms. Hurricane season officially starts on Sunday.
It is typical for dust to move across the Atlantic every year in early summer, WKMG reports. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it is called the Saharan Air Layer, which is "a mass of very dry, dusty air that forms over the Sahara Desert during the late spring, summer and early fall."
Its activity usually "ramps up" in the middle of June before peaking from late in the month to the middle of August, meteorologist Jason Dunion told NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service back in 2020. New "outbreaks" — formed when "ripples" in the atmosphere along the edge of the Sahara Desert kick up dust — can occur every few days and reach as far west as Florida and Texas. Dust sometimes covers areas over the Atlantic as large as the continental United States, Dunion said.
The National Weather service said the dust can impact allergies and lead to eye irritation.
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Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Palestinians are ‘walking corpses' says UN, as Starmer calls starvation ‘unspeakable and indefensible'
Palestinians are beginning to resemble 'walking corpses', a United Nations official said on Thursday as Sir Keir Starmer called the starvation unfolding in Gaza 'unspeakable and indefensible'. Humanitarian workers in the territory are seeing children who are 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without urgent treatment, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UNRWA relief agency. The prime minister is due to hold an emergency call with France and Germany on Friday to push for aid – and a ceasefire. 'We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,' he said. 'The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen.' Sir Keir's comments came just hours before French president Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognise Palestinian statehood in September at the United Nations General Assembly. The number of people starving in Gaza is reported to have increased dramatically in recent days; most of the 113 hunger-related deaths recorded there so far have occurred in recent weeks, and 82 of those who have died were children, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has imposed heavy restrictions on the amount of food and aid allowed to enter the territory, limiting aid to a handful of trucks each day following an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials say the aid delivered into the strip is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. 'We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay,' Sir Keir said. Mr Lazzarini said a UNRWA worker had described people in Gaza as 'neither dead nor alive – they are walking corpses'. He said the agency has the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt, which have not yet been allowed into the territory. 'Families are no longer coping: they are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened,' he said. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians who were attempting to secure food from a limited number of aid trucks. The killings have drawn widespread condemnation, including from many of Israel's own allies. As more than 100 human rights groups and charities demanded in a letter on Wednesday that more aid be allowed in, Palestinians living in Gaza said they had been forced to trade personal items, such as gold jewellery, for flour. 'We are living in hunger and daily suffering, as prices have risen in an insane way that no Gazan citizen, whether employed or unemployed, can bear, in a way that is beyond comprehension,' said Wajih al-Najjar, 70, from Gaza City, the breadwinner for a family of 13. 'People are forced to go to death in search of some aid,' he told The Independent, lamenting the exorbitant price of flour, which he says has shot up from 35 shekels (£7.74) to up to 180 shekels (£39.80) per kilo. Mr Najjar, who has lost one quarter of his bodyweight – dropping from 85kg to 62kg – said he cannot get a full meal for himself. 'So what about children who need food more than three times a day?' he said. Meanwhile, major broadcasters and news agencies, including the BBC and Reuters, issued a joint statement to say that their journalists on the ground in Gaza are also facing the 'threat of starvation'. 'We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,' it read. 'For many months, these independent journalists have been the world's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. 'Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.' Prices continue to rise beyond control, and food scarcity has soared to an unprecedented level in the Gaza Strip, in the 21st month of a destructive Israeli invasion and bombardment that Palestinian health officials say has killed more than 60,000 people. The war and invasion began on 7 October 2023 in response to attacks perpetrated on Israel by Hamas militants, who killed 1,200 people and captured at least 250 hostages. Ihab Abdullah, a 43-year-old university lecturer who is the breadwinner for nine family members, said that every night before he goes to sleep, he asks: 'How will I provide for my children today? I can bear the hunger, but what about my children?' 'We have become unable to buy or find food in the markets. We live in daily hunger, because the most needed commodity, flour, is not available in sufficient quantities. We are in a situation where we cannot buy food, even if we have money. Those who have money and those who do not have money are the same. Purchasing value has disappeared.' Younis Abu Odeh, a 32-year-old who is displaced in Gaza, says he feels as if Palestinians have been 'put on a chicken farm and starved'. 'We are living through a war of extermination, famine, and psychological warfare,' Mr Odeh told The Independent. 'A war of displacement, a war of tents, a war of heat and sun.' The Israeli government insists it is not causing a famine. Spokesperson David Mencer said that the 'manmade shortage' of food has been 'engineered by Hamas'. Mr Mencer said on Wednesday that more than 4,400 aid trucks had entered Gaza between 19 and 22 July, containing food, flour and baby food. The deepening crisis came as Israel brought its delegation home from the Gaza ceasefire talks on Thursday after Hamas delivered a new response to a proposal for a truce and a hostages deal. The Israeli prime minister's office thanked mediators for their efforts and said the negotiators were returning home for 'further consultations'. Earlier it said Israel was reviewing the response from Hamas. In his statement, Sir Keir said: 'It is hard to see a hopeful future in such dark times. But I must reiterate my call for all sides to engage in good faith, and at pace, to bring about an immediate ceasefire, and for Hamas to unconditionally release all hostages. We strongly support the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to secure this. 'We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution, which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.'
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
One in five children in Gaza City is malnourished, UN aid agency says
One in five children in Gaza City is malnourished and cases are increasing every day, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) says. In a statement issued on Thursday, Unrwa Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini cited a colleague telling him: "People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses." More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups have also warned of mass starvation - pressing for governments to take action. Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into Gaza, says there is no siege and blames Hamas for any cases of malnutrition. The UN, however, has warned that the level of aid getting into Gaza is "a trickle" and the hunger crisis in the territory "has never been so dire". In his statement on Thursday, Lazzarini said "more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger". "Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don't get the treatment they urgently need," he said, pleading for Israel to "allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza". Unrwa workers are "increasingly fainting from hunger while at work", according to Lazzarini, who added: "When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing". On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said a large proportion of the population of Gaza was "starving". "I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation - and it's man-made," the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. In northern Gaza, Hanaa Almadhoun, 40, said local markets are often without food and other supplies. "If they do exist then they come at exorbitant prices that no ordinary person can afford," she told the BBC over WhatsApp. She said flour was expensive and difficult to secure, and that people have sold "gold and personal belongings" to afford it. The mother-of-three said "every new day brings a new challenge" as people search for "something edible". "With my own eyes, I've seen children rummaging through the garbage in search of food scraps," she added. During a visit to Israeli troops in Gaza on Wednesday, Israel's President Isaac Herzog insisted his country was providing humanitarian aid "according to international law". But Tahani Shehada, an aid worker in Gaza, said people "are just trying to survive hour-by-hour". "Even simple things like cooking [and] taking a shower have become luxuries," she said. "I have a baby. He's eight months old. He doesn't know what fresh fruit tastes like," she added. We might get killed, but we have to get food, injured Gazan tells BBC The hardest time I have lived through, says BBC Gaza journalist on struggle to feed family He went to get aid and didn't come back - stories of people killed in Gaza Israel and US leave Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar Israel stopped aid deliveries to Gaza in early March following a two-month ceasefire. The blockade was partially eased after nearly two months, but food, fuel and medicine shortages worsened. Israel, with the US, established a new aid system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). According to the UN human rights office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food aid over the past two months. It says at least 766 of them have been killed in the vicinity of one of the GHF's four distribution centres, which are operated by US private security contractors and are located inside Israeli military zones. Another 288 people have been reported killed near UN and other aid convoys. Israel has accused Hamas of instigating the chaos near the aid sites. It says its troops have only fired warning shots and that they do not intentionally shoot civilians. The GHF says the UN is using "false" figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Najah, a 19-year-old widow sheltering in a hospital in Gaza, said she fears she would "get shot" if she travelled to aid distribution site. "I hope they bring us something to eat and drink. We die of hunger with nothing to eat or drink. We live in tents. We are finished off," Najah told the BBC. A doctor working in Gaza with a UK medical charity, Dr Aseel, said Gaza was not close to famine, but already "living it". "My husband went once [to an aid distribution point] and twice and then got shot and that was it," she said. "If we are to die from hunger, let it be. The path to aid is the path to death." Abu Alaa, a market seller in Gaza, said he and his children "go to bed hungry every night". "We are not alive. We are dead. We are pleading with the whole world to intervene and save us," he added. Walaa Fathi, who is eight months pregnant with her third child, said Gazans are "experiencing a catastrophe and a famine that no one could have imagined". "I hope that my baby stays in my womb and I don't have to give birth in these difficult circumstances," she told the BBC from Deir al-Balah.
USA Today
10 hours ago
- USA Today
Israel and US recall teams from Gaza truce talks, US says Hamas not showing good faith
JERUSALEM/CAIRO - Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Gaza ceasefire talks for consultations on Thursday, with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff accusing the Palestinian militant group Hamas of failing to act in good faith in the talks. It marked the latest setback in efforts to secure a deal that would bring a ceasefire to Gaza, secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and bring respite to Palestinians suffering a sharply worsening humanitarian crisis. Witkoff said mediators had made a great effort but "Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith". "We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza," he wrote on X. There was no immediate reaction from Hamas. An Israeli official with knowledge of the talks said Hamas' response to the latest ceasefire proposal "does not allow for progress without a concession" by the group but that Israel intended to continue discussions. Both Israel and Hamas are facing pressure at home and abroad to reach a deal following almost two years of war, with the humanitarian situation inside Gaza deteriorating and Israelis worried about the conditions in which hostages are being held. Dozens of people have starved to death in Gaza the last few weeks as a wave of hunger crashes on the enclave, according to local health authorities. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the suffering and starvation in Gaza was an "unspeakable and indefensible" humanitarian catastrophe and called on Israel to urgently let in aid. "While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe," Starmer said in a statement. He will hold an emergency call with French and German partners on Friday to discuss what could be done to "stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need," he said. The Gaza health ministry said two more people had died of malnutrition. The head of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said the two were patients suffering from other illnesses who died after going without food for several days. Earlier in the day, there had been some apparent signs of progress in the mediation. A senior Hamas official told Reuters that there was still a chance of reaching a ceasefire deal but it would take a few days because of what he called Israeli stalling. A senior Israeli official had been quoted by local media as saying the new text was something Israel could work with. But, Israel's Channel 12 said a rapid deal was not within reach, with gaps remaining between the two sides, including over where the Israeli military should withdraw to during any truce. Witkoff's team did not immediately respond to a request to explain the Hamas demands that led to his withdrawal of the U.S. negotiators. The Hostages Families Forum, representing the family members of those held in Gaza, expressed concern at the recall of the Israeli team. "Each day that passes endangers the hostages' chances of recovery and risks losing the ability to locate the fallen or gain vital intelligence about them," it said. Pepper spray fired at aid site Women going to fetch aid for their families on Thursday said U.S. contractors organising distribution asked them to come to pick up goods and then fired tear gas and pepper spray at them. "The Americans said "go, go", and then said no, get back. They sprayed us with pepper spray so we went away. Five minutes later they shot tear gas at us ... is this American humanitarian aid?" said Mervat al-Sakani. Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the aid organisation - the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - said a limited amount of pepper spray was used 'to prevent civilian injury due to overcrowding', adding that GHF 'didn't want people to get hurt.' The spokesperson said women-only aid distribution had been "a major success" overall. GHF, a U.S.-and Israeli-backed organization, began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May. The U.N. has called the GHF's model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which GHF denies. The U.N. rights office said on July 15 it had recorded at least 875 killings within the preceding six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points. Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that civilians were harmed, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with "lessons learned". Israel, which cut off all supplies to Gaza from the start of March and reopened it with new restrictions in May, says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent Hamas diverting it. Israel says it has let in enough food for Gazans, and blames the United Nations for being slow to deliver it; the U.N. says it is operating as effectively as possible under conditions imposed by Israel. The war began when Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in its October 7 attacks on Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has since killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health authorities.
