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  • 5.9 magnitude earthquake shakes Pakistan and Afghanistan, no damage reported


    PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck parts of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan on Saturday, sending panicked residents across Pakistan rushing out of their homes, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

    The epicenter was in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.1.

    Tremors were felt in Islamabad, as well as in the eastern province of Punjab and the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. It was also felt in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

    Emergency services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said district administrations were placed on alert.

    Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said that initial assessments had found no reports of casualties or damage.

    In Afghanistan, the quake jolted Kabul and other parts of the country, the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority said.

    Pakistan lies along an active seismic zone and is frequently affected by earthquakes. A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 2005 killed tens of thousands of people in Pakistan and Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region divided between Pakistan and India and claimed by both countries.

    Afghanistan has also suffered repeated quakes in recent years that have claimed thousands of lives.


  • People aren’t the only ones hit by heat. What to do if you see wildlife affected by hot temperatures


    As Europe scorches under extreme heat, people aren’t the only ones impacted by the high temperatures and humidity. Birds and other wildlife are at risk without respite, too.

    Birds, especially, are crucial to ecosystems across the globe, providing services like pollinating flowers, controlling pests naturally, dispersing seeds and even serving as early warning systems.

    Experts said there are ways to respond if people see a bird in need in the heat, and how to react to other wildlife. Here’s what to know.

    What happens to birds in high heat?

    Birds are very diverse, and often well adapted to dealing with prolonged periods of heat, said David Bird, McGill University emeritus professor of wildlife biology.

    They also have a higher body temperature than mammals, with some birds around 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) or even slightly higher.

    They may adjust their feathers in certain ways, or increase airflow across a complex series of air sacs, to help keep cool. They also adapt to heat behaviorally.

    But birds have a maximum level of heat they can withstand, just like humans, said Aimee Van Tatenhove, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

    “This level differs by species, and as you can imagine, species that live closer to the poles are often much more susceptible to heat than species that live closer to the equator,” Van Tatenhove said. “Prolonged intense heat like Europe is experiencing right now is likely pushing many species toward their maximum heat tolerances, putting them at risk of heat illness or death.”

    Birds don’t sweat like humans and some other mammals do, but they have other ways to naturally beat the heat, experts say.

    Some species, including backyard birds, will “gape,” opening their beaks and panting, not unlike a dog. Others will also flutter the pouch skin on their necks to cool off. This behavior is known as “gular fluttering.”

    Birds also often seek out shade, and dip in birdbaths, fountains and shallow ponds to lower their body temperatures.

    What should people do if they see birds out i
    n the heat?

    It’s difficult to fully protect birds that are also experiencing the ongoing heat wave, but experts offered a few tips.

    In the short term, people could set up shallow water sources — in spots that are safe from harm, like predators — though experts caution it’s important to keep these baths clean.

    People can also fill bird feeders, providing an easy food source for birds that might be avoiding foraging for their next meal in the hot sun. Insect populations are also dramatically down, in part due to climate change and pollution, impacting a major natural food source for birds.

    Over the long term, people who are able to can provide shaded areas around their yard, including layered vegetation such as small shrubs and taller trees, Bird noted.

    If passive approaches aren’t possible, it might be best to leave them be, said Jack Kottwitz, assistant professor at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “These birds know better than what we do about what is comfortable for them.”

    Birds often seek out cooling temperatures, by finding lower places to perch or even fans.

    What about other wildlife that might be seen and found?

    As far as other wildlife, it might also not be the best choice to try to intervene by giving an animal foreign food or water or attempting to bring it indoors, experts say.

    Local wildlife rehabilitators are the best resource to contact if a sick or injured animal is found, as signs of extreme heat stress can also be similar to those of diseases that wild animals may carry. Experts know best how to help wildlife and provide needed care.

    “The best thing for wildlife is to let them be wild,” said Lisa Duke, sanctuary grounds manager at the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, also affiliated with Michigan State. “They know what to do with their bodies.”

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    Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

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    Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.


  • There’s a beef about beef at the World Cup, as Argentina fans pour into Texas


    DALLAS (AP) — Drop thousands of Argentina fans into Texas for the World Cup and the debate is inevitable. It’s not about who has the best team or whether Lionel Messi is the best player at the tournament. It’s about who produces the best, most succulent steaks, and how to prepare the meat.

    That’s right: There’s a beef about beef between two of the top cattle-raising areas of the world, where steak is deeply ingrained in diet and culture. Texas ranks No. 1 in the United States in beef production and the U.S. is second only to Brazil globally, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Argentina ranks sixth.

    It’s a high-steaks question: Who does do it best?

    The case for Argentine beef

    “Argentine beef is simply unbeatable. The savory texture, the style of the cut — there is no competing with it,” said Carlos Eduardo Barahona, 64, an Argentine chef who’s lived in Texas since 1998.

    From the cheapest cuts to the most expensive, Argentina is tops, asserts Barahona, who has worked in restaurants across Argentina, Uruguay, and Texas.

    “You can make an (Argentine) asado with the cheapest cut in our country and you will enjoy it. Here, you can use the best meat, like tenderloin, and depending on its source, it can turn out tough, inedible or tender. But our beef has a completely different flavor profile,” Barahona said.

    Argentine beef cattle is mostly grass-fed on open pastures, taking longer to reach the point it is ready for market. The result is leaner meat with intense earthy flavors.

    The case for Texan beef

    Predominantly grain-fed beef in Texas and the U.S. will have more marbling — the streaks of intramuscular fat that act as internal baster and make the meat juicy and tender — and a sweeter flavor.

    “There’s no better beef than U.S. beef, particularly Texas beef,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

    But Argentine beef is very good too, Miller said. Thanks to Texas.

    Miller said his agency opened a marketing office more than a decade ago to connect Texas’ cattle raisers with ranchers in South America, notably in Argentina.

    “I don’t want to disparage our friends in Argentina, but we have helped them improve,” he said.

    “Their genetics were lacking. We do have them up to pretty high quality. We sold them a lot of semen, embryos, and breeding stock,” Miller added.

    Miller congratulated Argentine farmers on improving the quality of their cows.

    “Their herds have American genetics in them, so they should be good,” Miller said.

    The verdict is in the eye of the beefholder

    Argentine fan Gonzalo Herrera browsed packaged meat at a Walmart in Arlington, Texas, after watching Messi score two goals in a win over Austria. He shrugged at the whose-beef-is-better debate.

    “Honestly, I don’t see a massive difference,” Herrera said as he packed four T-bone steaks into his shopping cart.

    “The key is knowing exactly which cuts to buy and finding the equivalent of what we eat in Argentina,” he said, shaking his head at the $45 price.

    “Prices are higher here,” Herrera said.

    The beef banter just as easily boils down to recipes and preferences in style and thickness of cuts. It’s a matter of taste, quite literally, when it comes to seasoning, searing, smoking, butter, pepper, sauces and so forth.

    At Corrientes 348 Argentinian Steakhouse in Dallas, steaks are prepared with just salt and mesquite charcoal, said assistant manager Emmanuel Tobon.

    “There’s a big difference. Texans use a lot of pepper, they use butter, they use a little barbecue (sauce),” Tobon said. “(Argentines) like to bring all the flavor of the steak by only using salt.”

    Argentina still has at least one more match to play in Dallas, on Saturday. Fans of the Albiceleste have been packing the restaurant, seeking a quick taste of home during the World Cup.

    “They have been enjoying the Texas culture,” Tobon said. “(But) it has been a great pleasure to have all of them, to make them feel like home.”

    Argentines are fiercely proud of their steak culture, recipes that have been passed down for generations, and the “sacred” work of the grill master at large family meals, he said.

    For Fernando Garcia Morillo, an Argentine from Buenos Aires who now lives near Miami, the meat from both countries is great. But he longs for the traditions of home whenever he orders steak in the U.S.

    “I order just salt, no pepper, just plain,” Morillo said. “Sometimes they use a lot of sauce.”

    He dismissed any notion of a beef between the U.S and Argentina.

    “Maybe there’s a rivalry as usual against Brazil, our neighbor,” he said. “I love the U.S. meat.”

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    Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.

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    See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here


  • A large, harmless asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend


    NEW YORK (AP) — A large asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend, but don’t worry: It poses no danger.

    The space rock — 1997 NC1 — makes its closest approach Saturday morning, coming within 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers), according to the European Space Agency.

    Discovered nearly three decades ago by an asteroid-tracking system in Hawaii, the asteroid is between 2,461 feet (0.75 kilometer) to 5,413 feet (1.65 kilometers) wide — roughly the size of two to four Empire State Buildings.

    Skygazers with binoculars and small telescopes may be able to spot the asteroid as a small point of light passing harmlessly through the sky. It won’t greet Earth from such a distance again until 2133, according to NASA.

    The last time an asteroid similar in size passed safely by Earth from an even closer distance was in 2022, when a space rock called 1994 PC1 made its approach.

    NASA, ESA and other space agencies track the paths of asteroids and other space junk so they can keep Earth safe from any possible collisions. Last year, astronomers tracked a smaller asteroid resembling a spinning hockey puck and said there’s no chance of it hitting Earth or the moon.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


  • Get a load of this: Humans and great apes share similar giggles


    NEW YORK (AP) — Humans and great apes have been giggling in similar ways since branching off the evolutionary tree, a new study suggests.

    How do we know this? Researchers tickled 13 captive apes — including gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos — and recorded the results. The new research reexamined those decades-old recordings and compared them with the newly captured giggles of four young children while they were being tickled and playing at home.

    It turns out that the chuckles of humans and great apes follow similar rhythms, with regular timing between their laughs, a uniting thread that likely reflects their ties to a common ancestor, researchers said.

    “In a way, we are very similar to other great apes because we’ve been laughing in a similar way for 15 million years,” said study author Chiara De Gregorio, a primatologist at the University of Warwick in England.

    Laughter communicates a playful, happy feeling without using words. Many animals can laugh too, but the giggles don’t follow human patterns as closely. When researchers tickle rats, for example, they respond with ultrasonic squeaks.

    Scientists trying to uncover how laughter evolved have picked apart animals’ facial expressions, but less work has been done on how laughs sound. And compared with apes, human laughter has become faster and more complex. For one, our laughs sound different based on context — from a polite chuckle among colleagues to a full-bodied guffaw with close friends.

    “We are like the masters of laughter, I would say,” said De Gregorio, whose findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology.

    These giggles evolved to best suit animals’ different social lives, said Brittany Florkiewicz, who studies animal communication at Lyon College and had no role in the new research. She said the study’s findings make sense, and point to a need for more investigation.

    Florkiewicz said she’d like to hear comparable recordings of other animals with playful facial expressions, like dogs, horses and cats. That could tell us more about how laughter evolved, so we can “understand what makes us uniquely human, but also what is similar between humans and other animals.”

    Studying the origins of laughter may seem corny, but it’s one aspect of human communication that can help us understand others — including how we learned to speak. Because sounds don’t fossilize, scientists are using the evidence we do have to trace things back, one chuckle at a time.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


  • Astronomers find biggest super-puff planets yet that are lighter than cotton candy


    Astronomers have uncovered a pair of giant planets that are lighter than cotton candy — super-puffs the size of Jupiter.

    The featherweight pair — orbiting a star 1,110 light-years away — are the biggest exoplanets found to have less density than cotton candy.

    That makes them the lightest known planets of their size, said the University of Oxford’s George Dransfield.

    “These two planets have densities comparable to a nice blob of shaving foam, fresh from the can,” Dransfield said in an email. She and her team reported their findings Wednesday in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

    Dransfield suspects these fluffy, wispy worlds are probably white or blue, depending on whether the skies there are cloudy — no shades of cotton-candy pink. The planets are probably mostly hydrogen and helium, although it will take follow-up observations by NASA’s Webb Space Telescope to confirm their chemical makeup.

    Detected by NASA’s Tess satellite over the past decade, these two especially puffy-puffs orbit a star in the southern constellation Volans, known as the flying fish. The researchers studied the planets’ orbits using telescopes on Earth to determine their density, from 1,110 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

    Jupiter, by comparison, is as much as 35 times denser than these two lightweights.

    Considered rare in the cosmos, super-puffs are thought to form around the disk of gas and dust around a newborn star where there is more gas than dust. They shed much of the material over time, stripping down even more.

    NASA’s tally of worlds outside our solar system currently stands at nearly 6,300 confirmed. Fewer than 40 are super-puffs, according to Dransfield.

    “Ultimately, by studying exotic systems containing rare planet types, we add further pieces to the puzzle of planet formation and learn more about our place in the cosmos,” she said.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


  • A plan to sell artifacts from the Titanic faces US government opposition


    A plan to auction more than 100 artifacts salvaged from the wreckage of the Titanic — including personal belongings, currency, kitchen items and decor — is facing pushback from the U.S. government, according to newly unsealed court documents.

    RMS Titanic Inc., the company that owns exclusive salvage rights to the famous wreck in the North Atlantic, wants to sell the artifacts for the first time despite previous agreements to only display them at museums and traveling exhibitions.

    Georgia-based RMS Titanic proposed auctioning the artifacts and displaying them on a global tour in four cities, although those locations haven’t been publicly revealed. Court documents filed in the U.S. referenced the company’s plan to sell artifacts including a bronze cherub, a necklace of gold nuggets and a heart-shaped pendant.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration represents U.S. interests and oversight in the wreck site. The agency contends such a sale would violate RMS Titanic’s legal obligations to the site, according to documents a judge ordered unsealed earlier this month.

    In arguing that the auction should be prohibited, the government wrote that the company “does not seek the Court’s approval, does not believe that approval is required, and asserts that it is not restricted in its ability to sell” the artifacts.

    Representatives for RMS Titanic did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Its attorneys previously said in a federal court filing that the proposed auction arrangement wouldn’t violate existing court orders and agreements about the artifacts.

    This is the latest attempt to sell Titanic artifacts

    Since 1987, salvage operations have retrieved thousands of items and even chunks of the Titanic’s hull. RMS Titanic makes money by exhibiting them.

    Over the decades, the company has tried to sell artifacts to fund future explorations and as it faced financial trouble. But those efforts were roundly opposed by U.S. courts along with preservation groups and relatives of the victims. Some of the salvaged items belonged to passengers aboard the ship.

    However, items saved by survivors or plucked from the water by rescuers can be sold and often fetch big sums. A life jacket worn by a passenger went for just over $900,000 in April, while a gold pocket watch given to the ship captain who rescued the survivors was sold for nearly $2 million in 2024.

    Auctioneers say the unending fascination with the Titanic — which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Europe to New York, killing more than 1,500 people — and the rarity of artifacts adds up to high demand and exorbitant prices.

    A trans-Atlantic dispute over the artifacts

    RMS Titanic wants to auction some of the first artifacts salvaged from the wreck. Those items were taken to France, which awarded ownership of them to the salvager. French oceanographic institute IFREMER partnered with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on the discovery of the wreck.

    The rest of the collection was retrieved during subsequent expeditions, and the salvage claim was made in a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.

    NOAA argues that all of the roughly 5,000 items — regardless of whether they were claimed in France or the U.S. — must remain in one collection based on conditions set by the U.S. court. NOAA also maintains on its website that a French court’s conditions required that the artifacts not be sold individually and be kept together as a single collection.

    The company has argued, among other things, that the U.S. court lacks jurisdiction over the items claimed in France.

    Representatives for the French government did not respond to requests for comment late Monday.

    Pieces of history for all to see

    Some undersea explorers have pushed back at the idea of selling Titanic artifacts, which they argue should be displayed in the public interest.

    “I don’t have a problem with people recovering artifacts from the Titanic as long as it’s done careful, with proper archaeological techniques,” said Greg Stone, a veteran ocean explorer and ocean scientist. “I’d feel better if it was a nonprofit enterprise.”

    Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston who specializes in public interest advocacy, said rules on the display and sale of Titanic artifacts are intended to preserve the wreckage for the benefit of the public, and so it can’t be “picked up by billionaires for further display of their wealth and power.”

    “If it’s something where someone can walk through their house and say ‘Yes, I bought this for $5 million and it’s original from the Titanic,’ that’s not a good thing,” he said.

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    Associated Press writers Ben Finley in Washington D.C. and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.


  • Mexico, Italy and others see up to two more months of heat stress than in the 1970s, study says


    Mexico, Kenya, Italy and other nations around the world are experiencing one to two more months of heat stress than they were several decades ago, new research published Monday says, and some areas even more so. Regions previously untouched by heat stress are now feeling it, too.

    Extreme feels-like temperatures, heat stress days and tropical nights have all become dramatically more frequent, long and severe over the past six decades as the planet’s warming intensifies — a result of the burning of fossil fuels coal, oil and gas — according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday.

    The researchers went beyond just temperature, which is frequently studied, and used feels-like temperatures, to understand more of the impact on people. They assessed heat stress on individual humans, influenced by temperature, humidity, wind speed and more. They used what’s called the Universal Thermal Climate Index to analyze those factors and model the human body’s response to the environment.

    The combination of heat and humidity can be dangerous for humans, because humidity impacts how sweat evaporates, and that’s a cooling mechanism. Heat waves that are humid can be more fatal than dry heat waves as humans don’t cool down as easily.

    Heat stress is worsening in already-warm regions, and beyond

    Past studies have looked at the extent to which human-driven climate change has sent temperatures soaring, especially in recent years. One study says people globally suffered an average of 41 extra days of dangerous heat in 2024. Some research says that the world is on track to add nearly two months of superhot days each year by the end of the century.

    Here, researchers looked at heat stress at three levels: strong (index temperatures of greater than or equal to 32 degrees Celsius, or 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit); very strong (index temperatures of greater than or equal to 38 degrees Celsius, or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit); and extreme (index temperatures of greater than or equal to 46 degrees Celsius, or 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

    Places that might see around 50 more days per year of at least strong heat stress compared with the 1970s include parts of Southern Africa, such as in Namibia and Angola; Eastern Africa, including parts of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda; and parts of Mexico and Central America.

    In Southern Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey, some areas will see up to 40 additional days with strong heat stress compared with the 1970s. Much of Southern Europe is seeing almost a full month of additional strong heat stress days from decades ago.

    In the U.S., much of the country sees 15 or more days of at least strong heat stress, and southern parts, including Texas and Florida, are seeing close to 25 or more days with very strong heat stress.

    Those heat stress seasons are also lasting longer.

    The study’s lead author Rebecca Emerton, also a senior scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in the United Kingdom, said it was striking “to see heat stress not only intensifying in those places that we already consider as being hot or used to experiencing heat waves … but also to see this, we call it, expanding footprint of heat stress expanding into regions where it’s historically been rare or non-existent.”

    According to the study, the feels-like temperatures on the ten warmest nights of each year have also increased faster — 0.32 degrees Celsius (0.58 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade — than the ten warmest days, 0.27 degrees Celsius (0.49 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade.

    For tropical nights, the researchers considered minimum temperature of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). This means people might not be recovering properly from daytime heat in the overnight hours.

    And now, one billion more people face at least one day of extreme heat stress each year than they did in the 1970s.

    The future impact depends on action

    The world has known that adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests will warm the globe, said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod, who was not involved in the research.

    “This study adds stark details about increasing dangers to billions of humans,” Francis said. “This analysis shows not only is temperature rising, but so is humidity, which makes high temperatures more deadly because our body’s air conditioning system — sweating — struggles to keep up.”

    Emerton says the work highlights the urgent need to mitigate future warming and ensure adaptation strategies, heat health action plans, early warning systems and climate risk assessments are in place.

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    Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

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    Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.


  • No maps, no insurance: Michigan floods expose lack of information, preparation in many rural areas


    ONAWAY, Mich. (AP) — Tom and Diane Peterman tried to buy flood insurance when they moved to their retirement home on the shores of Black Lake 14 years ago but were told it wasn’t available. John Solum was told he wasn’t in a flood zone when his family bought a 1940s-era cabin there.

    Then came this spring’s historic and devastating floods across northern Michigan — in some areas, for the first time anyone can remember — swamping homes, pushing dams to the brink of failure and washing out roadways. Dozens of counties were under a state of emergency.

    Black Lake was so high that floating ice broke apart decks and crashed through windows.

    “We’ve never seen anything like that. Never,” said Solum, who experienced flooding often when he lived in Houston. Knee-high floodwater forced them to tear out flooring, drywall, furniture, bedding and appliances.

    Across Michigan, thousands were left without financial protection after record April rains fell on top of record March snowfall. Worse, many had no idea they were at risk despite years of increasingly heavy precipitation.

    Their experience exposes vulnerabilities across the country, experts say, because flood plain maps don’t cover all areas. What’s more, the federal government’s mapping method is arguably outdated and does not account for actual risks as climate change increases the odds of more extreme weather.

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency develops and updates maps that determine who’s in a flood plain and must buy insurance, and to help communities plan. But it hasn’t developed maps in many less-populated areas, including some Michigan counties that experienced unprecedented flooding.

    Black Lake, for example, straddles two counties — Cheboygan, which has a 2012 FEMA flood plain map, and Presque Isle, where most areas have never been mapped. The longtime summer and retiree destination is ringed by small cabins and some larger homes.

    Another issue: FEMA’s maps are based on risks of rivers, streams and other waterways overflowing their banks. But they don’t account for flooding caused strictly from increasingly heavy rainfall that overwhelms stormwater infrastructure in urban areas and inundates rural towns where there’s nowhere for the water to go.

    First Street, a company that researches the financial implications of climate change, found more than twice the number of properties at significant flood risk nationwide after incorporating that rainfall data into its own models and by mapping the whole country, including smaller streams that FEMA does not.

    That includes four times more properties in Michigan.

    “I couldn’t believe it when we first started building our model how different we were from FEMA,” said Jeremy Porter, chief economist at First Street, who says federal maps are “missing a whole source of flooding.”

    FEMA uses that extra rainfall data to help set insurance rates, experts said. But it’s unclear whether it’s proceeding with an effort to incorporate it into flood plain mapping.

    The General Accounting Office, a federal watchdog agency, raised concerns five years ago that FEMA’s flood hazard maps didn’t reflect the best available climate science or heavy rainfall.

    FEMA declined an interview request, but said in a statement that 95% of the U.S. population lives in areas with maps, which are “snapshots in time.” It did not respond to questions about whether this year’s flooding adds urgency to mapping less-populated areas or whether it’s updating its mapping methods.

    Climate change sets the stage for devastating floods

    Michigan experienced “truly a monumental flood” that in many areas exceeded what is known as a 100-year flood, meaning it has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year, said Matthew Occhipinti, the state’s National Flood Insurance Program coordinator.

    But it wasn’t a fluke, experts said.

    A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture for longer periods, which can lead to heavy rain or snow when enough builds up. And this spring, an “extraordinarily warm” Gulf of Mexico set the stage for both snow and rain in the upper Midwest, said Richard Rood, a University of Michigan climate scientist.

    A massive March snowstorm dumped up to 2-4 feet (61-122 centimeters) across northern Michigan. Then April’s record rainfall created more runoff than waterways, dams and culverts could handle.

    “We call these storms historic; that is only true compared to the past,” said Rood, adding that Michigan and neighboring Wisconsin experienced their wettest March 1-April 15 period on record. “I think it is more appropriate to consider it typical of the climate of the future.”

    That’s why it’s important to update flood maps and for communities to be prepared, experts said.

    “You should never be lulled into complacency that, ‘Oh geez we just had the big flood so we’re good for another 100 years or another 500 years,’” said Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. “Mother Nature does not obey statistical averages.”

    FEMA mapping progress is slow in rural areas

    FEMA has been working to update existing flood plain maps — some that were decades old — but has made little progress creating new ones in rural areas where development could occur, despite a 2012 congressional mandate, Berginnis said.

    The agency has historically prioritized places with the greatest population and risk, which makes sense due to budget constraints, Berginnis said, but also leaves about two-thirds of the country’s streams, rivers and coastlines unmapped. Some of those areas are unpopulated federal land that likely won’t be mapped.

    His organization estimates it would cost $4 billion to $12 billion to fully map the country, but FEMA has never had the funding to do so, he said.

    Flood plain managers worry the agency could fall even further behind due to significant staffing losses under the Trump administration.

    FEMA lost close to 20% of its total workforce in 2025, according to a General Accounting Office report. That includes about 25% of its permanent and most senior staff, said Christopher Currie, who audits FEMA for the GAO.

    “We’re very concerned,” said Currie, adding that FEMA was chronically understaffed even before Trump’s second term. Now it would have to divert resources from many programs, including mapping, to respond to multiple disasters.

    Some communities don’t understand their risks

    Getting accurate flood-risk information to communities is a challenge even beyond flood plain mapping.

    Communities must participate in the National Flood Insurance Program before homeowners can buy policies underwritten by FEMA and sold by private companies. But many — including several hundred in Michigan, Occhipinti said — have never joined.

    Communities can participate without a map. But experts say those that haven’t might never have experienced damaging floods or don’t understand the insurance program.

    They also might not realize they have an elevated risk if they rely on FEMA’s National Risk Index, a separate tool from mapping. The index gives one score for a community’s overall risk of any type of natural disaster, and assumes there are no flood risks if the community doesn’t have a flood plain map, said Berginnis.

    That means a community with a low score might actually have elevated flood risks, he said, which “gives people the absolute wrong sense of security.”

    But even program participation doesn’t guarantee homeowners get accurate information.

    Diane Peterman, who evacuated as her crawlspace filled with floodwater, said she tried buying insurance three times but was told she couldn’t, even though her township participates in the National Flood Insurance Program.

    “They said, ‘You’re not in a flood zone’ and I said, ‘But I live on a lake,’” said Peterman, who later learned that her neighbor had insurance.

    In Michigan, an average policy costs about $1,000 for $250,000 in coverage, though that rate can vary widely based on factors such as home value and location, Occhipinti said. Some companies will sell private flood insurance, though it’s rare, he said.

    Berginnis said homeowners and communities should seek information beyond what FEMA provides.

    “FEMA flood maps should always be the beginning of the journey and not the end,” he said. “Maybe states and communities need to step up and lead a little bit more.”

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  • Mourners gather in Beirut to pay respects to Lebanese conservationist who died after Israeli strike


    BEIRUT (AP) — Mourners gathered Sunday in Beirut to pay their respects to a much-loved Lebanese conservationist who died after succumbing to wounds sustained in an Israeli strike on her home on the country’s southern coast.

    Mona Khalil, who spent more than two decades protecting sea turtles along Lebanon’s coastline, was critically injured in the strike on her home in the village of Mansouri earlier this month and died of her wounds Friday. She was 76.

    The Orange House, which Khalil helped build into a small conservation hub and ecotourism site in Mansouri, became a refuge for endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles and a training ground for volunteers documenting nesting activity along the coast.

    News of her death triggered an outpouring of grief among environmentalists and those who volunteered and worked with her over the years.

    Journalist and environmental activist Fadia Jomaa first met Khalil in 2016 while researching sea turtles in Lebanon and then decided to volunteer with her project.

    For the volunteers, “this relationship didn’t stop at being a volunteering relationship — Mona became our mother,” Jomaa said.

    Jomaa became one of Khalil’s closest collaborators, eventually helping manage the sea turtle conservation project with her. She also brought her own children to volunteer, introducing them to the work of protecting nesting turtles and hatchlings along Lebanon’s southern coast.

    During the previous war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in 2024, Khalil initially refused to leave Al-Mansouri beach, Jomaa said. The Lebanese army ultimately persuaded her to evacuate for her safety. “She was the last one to leave the area,” Jomaa said.

    “She had an awful time in Beirut,” Jomaa said, adding that Khalil longed to return to the south, to the Orange House and the beach she had spent years protecting.

    Another Israel-Hezbollah war erupted in March. Hezbollah fired across the border into Israel on March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. attacked its ally, Iran.

    Khalil could have left Lebanon altogether. She held Dutch as well as Lebanese citizenship, having lived in the Netherlands before returning to Lebanon and settling in what had once been her grandmother’s home — the building that would later become known as the Orange House

    But she refused to leave her home again.

    “She said I am a civilian, I have no weapons, I will shut my door,” Jomaa said.

    On June 4, an Israeli strike hit her home. Khalil and her domestic worker were rushed to the hospital. It was not clear what the intended target of the strike was.

    The Israeli military said in a statement that Khalil “was not a target of the IDF” and that “there is no known IDF strike in which she was injured,” but added that “strikes were conducted in the area after the IDF issued evacuation warnings.” It said it “deeply regrets any harm caused to civilians and remains committed to operating in accordance with international law.”

    Khalil’s condition initially appeared hopeful after surgery, Jomaa said, but she succumbed to her wounds two weeks later.

    “It is a great loss for conservation, for the country, and for all of us who cared about the sea and the natural heritage of Lebanon,” said Johnny Baaklini, a former volunteer at the Orange House who worked closely with Khalil.

    Like Jomaa, he recalled that Khalil “treated us, the conservation advocates, like her kids.”

    “It feels impossible to describe the impact Mona personally had on me and on so many other young naturalists,” he said.

    At the heart of Khalil’s work was a narrow stretch of coastline, Al-Mansouri beach in Tyre province. Each nesting season, she and volunteers would patrol the beach at night, marking fresh tracks in the sand and carefully relocating vulnerable nests away from human activity and coastal light pollution.

    The Orange House also functioned as a small beachfront bed-and-breakfast.

    During the summer nesting season, Khalil organized sea turtle hatchling viewings for visitors. Many families brought their children to watch the small miracle unfold.

    These viewings typically took place at sunset, when volunteers would guide groups to the beach to observe hatchlings making their way from protected nests to the sea.

    “She used to say, ‘My soul will stay here,’” Jomaa said, recalling conversations in which Khalil would point to an olive tree or a small hill overlooking Al-Mansouri beach. “She used to say, ‘This is where you will bury me.’”

    Where Khalil will ultimately be buried remains uncertain and is tied to the security situation in the area, Jomaa said.