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Unprecedented Climate Crisis In Florida: Heatwave, Coral Bleaching, And Sahara Dust Exacerbate Challenges
(CTN NEWS) – The soaring water temperatures, reaching the mid-90s (mid-30s Celsius), are posing a significant threat to the fragile coral reefs.
Additionally, swimmers are being deprived of refreshing swims due to the excessively warm waters, further intensifying the already oppressive summer climate in the Sunshine State.
Meteorologists are cautioning that, due to high humidity, temperatures could feel as hot as 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius) by the end of the week.
As if that weren’t challenging enough, Florida is also bracing for an influx of Saharan desert dust from Africa, which is expected to negatively impact air quality in the region.
The global temperature has reached unprecedented levels in recent times, as confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Monday.
Utilizing data from Japan’s weather agency, the WMO substantiated the unofficial records reported throughout the previous week by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.
Japan reported that Friday’s global average temperature surpassed the previous record set in August 2016 by half a degree (0.3 degrees Celsius).
Meteorologists have reported that global sea surface temperatures have been record-breaking since April, with the North Atlantic experiencing exceptionally high temperatures since mid-March.
Climate Change Amplifies Unprecedented Heatwave in Florida, Challenging Residents and Researchers
These extreme conditions are attributed to climate change, which is increasingly linked to more frequent and deadly events.
WMO’s Director of Climate Services, Christopher Hewitt, expressed concern over the situation, stating, “We are in uncharted territory, and we can expect more records to fall. This is worrying news for the planet.”
Now, it is Florida’s turn to face the consequences. On Monday evening, the water temperature near Johnson Key approached a remarkable 97 degrees (36.1 degrees Celsius), according to a buoy operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
A day earlier, another buoy near Vaca Key recorded a temperature close to 95 degrees (35 Celsius).
These readings are approximately 5 degrees higher than the usual temperatures for this time of year, as stated by meteorologists.
National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Orrison expressed astonishment at the situation, saying, “That’s incredible. The water is so warm that you really can’t cool off.”
Although the recorded temperatures were measured in shallow waters, University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy noted that water temperatures ranging from 90 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit (32 to 34 degrees Celsius) across much of Florida were extremely warm.
McNoldy humorously added that even his own swimming pool, with a temperature of 95 degrees, fails to provide any relief and only leaves him wet.
Orrison explained that water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and Southwest Atlantic are 4 to 5 degrees (2 to 3 degrees Celsius) higher than usual, leading to increased humidity in Florida.
This elevated humidity exacerbates the already challenging conditions, making it more oppressive for people spending time outdoors.
The heat dome that plagued Texas and Mexico earlier in the summer has now moved to Florida, accompanied by intense sunshine, minimal cloud cover, and a lack of rainfall.
This situation, worsened by the warm oceans, has led to increased humidity, according to Orrison and McNoldy. The stagnant weather patterns and the potential for worsening conditions indicate a sign of climate change, as argued by some scientists.
Orrison even predicted that the situation may deteriorate further, with NOAA forecasting a heat index of around 110 degrees by the weekend.
The situation is even more severe in other parts of the United States. Orrison mentioned that air temperatures of 110 degrees are forecasted for the U.S. Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and southeastern California.
Death Valley is expected to experience highs of 120 to 125 degrees, possibly reaching a highly unusual 130 degrees by the end of the week.
At Hollywood Beach, located south of Fort Lauderdale, the temperature of 91 degrees on Monday was considered average.
Despite the scorching sand, beachgoer Glenn Stoutt stated that the breeze made it bearable for him to perform lunges and calisthenics, although he had to wear shoes.
He amusingly observed how new visitors and tourists would realize halfway through their walk that their feet were getting burned by the hot sand, causing them to run towards the water for relief.
Climate Change Threatens Coral Reefs as Heatwave and Sahara Dust Compound Challenges in Florida
Scientists are particularly concerned about the impact of the heated water on coral reefs.
Mark Eakin, a retired top coral reef scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), stated that there is a high probability of heat stress accumulating early in the season, which could lead to severe bleaching.
Liv Williamson from the University of Miami’s Coral Reef Futures Lab shared alarming reports of bleaching in Belize, occurring unusually early in the summer.
Global projections indicate a 90% chance of major bleaching on numerous reefs, including those in Pacific Islands along the Equator, the eastern tropical Pacific in Panama, the Caribbean coast of Central America, and Florida.
Coral bleaching and die-offs have become more frequent due to climate change, particularly during El Niño events. Williamson mentioned that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef lost half its coral during the last major El Niño in 2016.
Scientists attribute the current heatwave to the presence of a new El Niño event and the continued warming resulting from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas.
In addition to the heatwave, Florida is also contending with Sahara dust. Typically, at this time of year, plumes of dust particles from the Sahara Desert are carried across the Atlantic by upper-level winds.
However, strong winds are required for the dust to reach Florida, making it a relatively infrequent occurrence. One such plume settled over South Florida on Monday, with another expected later in the week.
These plumes dry the atmosphere, leading to a reduction in the usual afternoon rains experienced during Florida summers.
An interesting consequence of the Sahara dust is the enhancement of sunrise and sunset colors due to sunlight reflecting off the particles.
Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami, remarked that “In general, it makes the sunrises and sunsets more vibrant and beautiful.”
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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.
According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.
Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.
Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.
Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.
To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.
Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.
Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

Pixa Bay
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.
TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.
When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.
And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.
Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.
A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.
Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.
But today, it feels more like reality.
Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.
SOURCE | CNN
News
2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Washington — Trump Media, The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.
The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.
The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.
The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.
Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.
Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.
The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.
The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.
SOURCE | AP
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.
The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.
Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.
This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.
In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.
The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.
This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.
The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.
In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.
According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.
Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.
The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.
For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.
Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.
As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.
As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.
The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.
SOURCE: AP
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