Tourists in central Athens huddled under mist machines and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit popsicles Thursday as southern Europeans suffered through a heat wave that was projected to get much worse heading into the weekend.
Temperatures in parts of Mediterranean Europe were forecast to reach as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 F) starting Friday.
The high-pressure system affecting the region, which crossed the Mediterranean from north Africa, has been named Cerberus after the three-headed dog in ancient Greek mythology who guarded the gates to the underworld.
Officials in several countries were preparing emergency measures, cellphone alerts and adjustments to staffing levels.
In Athens and other Greek cities, working hours were changed for the public sector and many businesses to avoid the midday heat, while air-conditioned areas were opened to the public.
“It’s like being in Africa,” 24-year-old tourist Balint Jolan, from Hungary, told The Associated Press. “It’s not that much hotter than it is currently at home, but yes, it is difficult.”
Cerberus is being tracked by the European Space Agency, which warned that the heat wave will also be felt in parts of northern Europe.
“Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heat wave, with temperatures expected to climb to 48 degrees Celsius on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe” the agency said Thursday.
In the Arctic, a record high temperature of 28.8 degrees Celsius (83.8 degrees F) was measured at Slettness Fyr on the northern tip of the Norway, Norwegian meteorologists said Thursday. This tops a previous record from July 1964 when the thermometer reached 27.6 degrees Celsius (81.7 degrees F). The United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization on Monday said global temperatures recorded in early July were among the hottest on record. As Spain's politicians fret about how the high temperatures might affect turnout in a general election this month, animals in Madrid’s Zoo were being treated this week to frozen food to cool off amid the sweltering heat. Zookeepers fed pandas and bears with watermelon popsicles, seals with frozen sardines and lions with frozen buckets of meat. Television ads in Italy reminded city dwellers to look after their pets and check in regularly with elderly relatives. Authorities were awaiting an autopsy of a 44-year-old roadworker who collapsed near Milan and later died in hospital. Storms overnight felled trees in an Italian region bordering Slovenia and Austria, while baseball size hail fell in valleys near Bergamo in Lombardy.
Rainfall provided some respite in Croatia, but evacuation orders were issued in several areas as a wildfire swept through coastal areas of the country. In North Macedonia, the high heat triggered a spike in emergency calls for health assistance, while residents in Kosovo, which is also landlocked, flocked to an artificial beach near the capital Pristina. Authorities in Cyprus urged the Mediterranean island's residents to avoid forest areas where wildfires could be caused unintentionally.
Meanwhile, emergency services in nearby Turkey also grappled with simultaneous fires and floods. Flooding in the northern Black Sea coast claimed three lives. In the southwest Milas region, 26 water-dropping planes and helicopters helped 600 firefighters contain a wildfire. “While there are heat and fires on one side of the country, there are floods and deluges on the other,” Turkish Deputy Agriculture Minister Veysel Tiryaki said Thursday. "In our country as well as around the world, we are struggling with climate change." ___ Ciaran Giles reported from Madrid. Jovana Gec on Belgrade, Serbia Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Athens, Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia Cyprus, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Andrew Wilks in Ankara, Turkey, Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, North Macedonia, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy and Florent Bajrami in Pristina, Kosovo contributed.
After the latest school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, it wouldn't be a surprise if the traumatic event takes a toll on your mental health — or that of your children. Amy Morin, the editor-in-chief of Verywell Mind and licensed psychotherapist, joined Cheddar News to share coping skills and offer advice about how to talk to your children about these increasingly common tragic events. “I think its important for parents to know what the school’s plan is, what the teacher's plan is, and then we can have our own plans with kids too," she noted. "It's so important for us to talk to kids about how they're feeling — guaranteed they've heard something about it, so ask them what they know already, use age-appropriate language, and rather than just dismissing their fears by saying don't worry about it or I'm sure you'll be safe, talk to them about their feelings."
An recently conducted AP-NORC poll found that majorities of the Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. still find themselves either somewhat worried or extremely worried over the pandemic, while more than half of white Americans responded with either being not too worried or not worried at all. Dr. Chris Pernell, the chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital, joined Cheddar News to talk about how perceptions of COVID-19 differ between groups of Americans. "We’re still seeing people get infected, and because of the toll of the disproportionate impact, we have concerns among the Black and brown community about whether or not they have an increased risk of exposure because of where they work, because of the use of public transportation, because they live in homes that they may not be able to safely quarantine and or isolate in, and because they have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus more severe in those persons," she said.
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the EPA and the president of Beyond Plastics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the role of plastics in the climate crisis and California's investigation of ExxonMobil and other oil companies for misleading the public on the ability to recycle plastics. "The reason why petrochemical companies like Exxon have gotten away with selling more and more plastic is that they've lied to the public and told us don't worry about all those negative upstream impacts and downstream impacts of plastics. Just be sure to recycle it. Well, guess what? Plastics largely are not recycled," Enck said.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 29, 2022, with President Biden asking Congress for a $33 billion aid package for Ukraine, a shrinking GDP potentially leading to a recession, Beijing banning weddings and funerals while closings schools amid COVID, and more.
Virtual care and digital medicine provider Biofourmis recently raised $300 million in a Series D round led by General Atlantic and with participation from CVS Health. Biofourmis offers at-home care and digital therapies backed by artificial intelligence, which can remotely monitor patients while they are at home. The company says it hopes its technology can improve patient outcomes while reducing the cost and burden of care. Kuldeep Signh Rajput, Founder and CEO of Biofourmis, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Moderna is asking the FDA to consider emergency use authorization for its COVID vaccine to be used with children under 6 years old. Dr. Christina Johns, a senior medical advisor at PM Pediatrics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the pharmaceutical company's research into the safety and efficacy of the vaccine for the very youngest of children. "This is very exciting news because children met that goal in their neutralizing antibody response in this age group — means that we really can extrapolate a lot from what we know about data in adults," she said. "I will say that there's a caveat that we have not seen yet the full dataset released, so I'm waiting for that and my fingers are crossed for next week."
Mental health platform Real recently raised $37 million in a Series B round led by Owl Ventures. Through its mobile app, Real says it provides mental health care at a lower cost than traditional therapy and aims to make mental wellness a part of everyone's daily routine. The company also announced that U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe will serve as an adviser to the company. Ariela Safira, Founder & CEO of Real, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 28, 2022, with Elon Musk mocking Twitter's top legal exec Vijaya Gadde on the platform itself, a probe in George Floyd's death finding discrimination within the Minneapolis police force, the latest California drought leading to new water restrictions, and more.
