The return of the cooling La Nina weather phenomenon this year should help lower temperatures somewhat after months of global heat records, the United Nations' weather agency said Monday. The impact is likely to be felt in the next few months because the warming El Nino weather pattern -- which has helped fuel a spike in global temperatures and extreme weather around the world since mid-2023 -- «is showing signs of ending», the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in its latest update. The WMO warned, however, that global temperatures would continue to rise in the long term due to human-induced climate change, which continues to make extreme weather worse and upend seasonal rainfall and temperature patterns. La Nina refers to the cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in large swathes of the tropical Pacific Ocean, coupled with winds, rains and changes in atmospheric pressure. In many locations, especially in the tropics, La Nina produces the opposite climate impacts to El Nino, which heats up the surface of the oceans, leading to drought in some parts of the world and triggering heavy downpours elsewhere. The WMO said there was a «60 percent» chance of La Nina conditions in the period from July to September and a «70 percent» likelihood during August-November. The chances of El Nino redeveloping are negligible, it added. Every month since June 2023, when El Nino returned, has set a new high temperature record, and 2023 was by far the warmest year on record globally. The WMO said the planet would continue to heat up overall from the use of fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. - Man-made global heating - «The end of El Nino does not mean a pause in long-term climate change, as our planet will continue to warm due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases,» WMO deputy secretary general Ko Barrett stressed. «Exceptionally high sea surface temperatures will continue to play an important role during next months.» Much of the planet's excess heat from climate change is stored in the oceans. In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has already factored the expected La Nina into its forecasts for this year's Atlantic hurricane season. The NOAA said it expected four to seven major hurricanes in the Atlantic between June and November. «The upcoming Atlantic hurricane season is expected to have above-normal activity due to a confluence of factors, including near-record warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, development of La Nina conditions in the Pacific, reduced Atlantic trade winds and less wind shear,» the NOAA said on May 23. The WMO noted that the past nine years had been the warmest on record, even with the cooling influence of a La Nina event that lasted from 2020 to early 2023. The latest El Nino, which peaked in December, was one of the five strongest on record. «Our weather will continue to be more extreme because of the extra heat and moisture in our atmosphere,» Barrett said. The WMO has made it a priority to ensure that all regions of the world are covered by early warning systems by 2027, particularly the least well-equipped, such as Africa. «Seasonal forecasts for El Nino and La Nina, and the anticipated impacts on the climate patterns globally, are an important tool to inform early warnings and early action,» Barrett said. © Agence France-Presse  

Licensed tourism establishment operators on La Digue, Seychelles' third most populated island, who have additional unlicensed rooms  are being asked to apply for a change of use permit to the Tourism Department. The announcement was made on Monday by the principal secretary for tourism, Sherin Francis, during a press conference. Francis said this exercise will start on June 4 and end on July 4.  «According to our data, there are 764 licensed rooms on La Digue, but there could be unlicensed operational rooms,» explained Francis. She said that these unlicensed rooms may have skewed the results of the carrying capacity study done in 2021. The carrying capacity survey on La Digue was done from 2019 to 2021 to establish the current tourism development status concerning a number of key indicators such as the economy, the environment, social welfare, and productive infrastructure. Among the recommendations of the survey is that a moratorium be put in place for new establishments which was extended to December 2023. However, the Tourism Department has noticed that there are people who are illegally renting rooms that are meant for residential purposes. After presenting a proposed strategic accommodation establishment development plan for La Digue to the Cabinet of Ministers, the Tourism Department was instructed to ascertain the total number of rooms on La Digue, so that a phased review of the moratorium can be conducted. At the moment, there are 128 licensed tourism establishments on La Digue, with 764 rooms. «We are doing this exercise to find how many operational there are on La Digue. These rooms have already been built and so they are impacting on all the infrastructures on the island, such as electricity, water, sewage and waste management,» added Francis. The operators of these establishments will be given until July 4, to come forward and apply for the change of use for these unlicensed rooms. They must do so by submitting their applications to the Seychelles Planning Authority. To be considered, operators must include a copy of the current tourism accommodation licence, while also ensuring compliance with all existing minimum requirements stipulated in the Tourism Development regulations. They must also comply with other requirements set by other regulatory bodies such as health and fire departments. Francis added that having the correct data is very important, especially for policy planning purposes. She said it is in the best interest of those involved to come forward during this exercise and added that there will be no penalties to anyone who does come forward to make the change. 

A search effort has been launched for a trio of mountain climbers who were reported overdue after not returning from their excursion near Squamish, B.C.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia will expel thousands of Ethiopian troops stationed in the country to help with security by the end of the year unless Addis Ababa scraps a disputed port deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland, a senior Somali official said on Monday.

Jowhar (HOL) - The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) has provided training to Police criminal investigation officers from Hirshabelle State to help them detect and combat financial crimes and disrupt terrorism financing.

Imposing sanctions on Russia’s nuclear industry would “hurt” EU countries, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said   Read Full Article at RT.com

Algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the way people live and work. Depending on how AI technologies are used and what purpose they serve, they can drive progress and benefit the whole of society, but they also raise ethical concerns and may cause harm. When introduced to the world of work, their transformative potential runs into complex national and EU rules. Existing labour laws, put in place before AI systems came on the scene, do not appear fit to provide meaningful guiderails. As with any new technologies, tensions arise between two opposing regulatory approaches: strict regulation to safeguard society from potential hazards and minimum regulation to promote the technology's deployment and innovation. For employers who invest in AI systems, the main motivation is better workplace organisation, increased productivity, and competitiveness. Workers, on the other hand, may fear losing their jobs, and also want to have a say in how AI and algorithms are to become part of their daily lives. Focusing on workplace deployment of AI, this briefing looks at the state of play of algorithmic management in the workplace and some issues relating to the data that algorithms use and generate. It offers an overview of the current top-down EU legislative approach, of insights brought by the European Parliament, and of advances in collective bargaining, demonstrating the potential of a bottom-up approach to complement AI deployment. The briefing looks at the potential use of sleeping clauses in the existing EU legal framework and – taking note of the views of both employers and trade unions – highlights the many open questions that remain. Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Hunter Biden faces three felony charges related to a gun he purchased in 2018. The federal trial in Delaware is set to begin with jury selection on Monday.

Almost 10 years after a disturbed man with a rifle killed three Mounties in Moncton, N.B., the RCMP have yet to fully implement a key recommendation from a 2014 review aimed at preventing such deadly encounters.

More young people than ever are getting cancer, with diagnosis rates rising by a quarter in two decades.

It's a bitter pill to swallow for grapefruit fans, but the once popular staple of the breakfast table is disappearing from our supermarket shelves.

The real target of the Hackney shooting has said he wished he had been shot in the head instead of the little girl who is still desperately fighting for her life in hospital.

McIlroy shot a final-round 64 to put himself in contention at the RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club as his encouraging form continued.

Protesters stormed the Israel Day parade in New York City holding 'kill hostages now' signs.

Terry Tselane has discussed the political future of South Africa after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority Read Full Article at RT.com

Live updates from the 2024 campaign trail, with the latest news on presidential candidates, polls, primaries and more.

North Korea has said it will stop sending trash-carrying balloons to South Korea, which it did to retaliate for Seoul’s leaflet campaign Read Full Article at RT.com

Republika Srpska is under daily pressure from the US to turn against Russia, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has said Read Full Article at RT.com

Mexico’s electoral authorities say preliminary counting indicates Claudia Sheinbaum has been chosen as the country’s first female president Read Full Article at RT.com

Kiev will be free use Dutch-donated F-16 fighter jets against Russia anywhere, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren has told Politico Read Full Article at RT.com

The man suspected of killing Singaporean Audrey Fang has been confirmed as a beneficiary of her Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings, a Spanish media outlet reported on June 3. Singaporean Mitchell Ong, 43, was arrested in Alicante in Spain nearly a week after Ms Fang, 39, was found dead with more than 30 stab wounds and other injuries on April 10. A court in the town of Cieza said Singapore’s CPF Board had confirmed on May 16 that Ms Fang had named Ong as a beneficiary of her savings, supporting suspicions of an economic motive behind the murder, according to La Verdad. In April, the Civil Guard, one of two national police forces, had found a note on Ms Fang’s iPad that declared a decision to name a ”long-time friend and trusted confidant” as the recipient of her CPF savings in the event of her death. The note also granted the beneficiary a “friendly loan of US$50,000 (S$68,000) based on our friendship in the past”, separate from the CPF nomination. According to her family, Ms Fang had accumulated up to €340,000 (S$498,000) in her CPF accounts, the Spanish daily revealed.

[allAfrica] The South African general elections generated more than one million online mentions between May 24 and 31, tripling the previous bi-weekly average, according to the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC).

Both candidates’ trade plans focus on tariffs on imported Chinese goods even as economists warn they could lead to higher prices.

Election denialism appears to be the attribute needed to be on the VP shortlist.

A thrilling ride down the viral slide at Changi Airport Terminal 4 took an unexpected turn for one woman when she suffered a cut on her head after bumping into the top of the tube slide. The incident occurred just as this traveller was about to fly to Bali, Indonesia, on May 26, said user Koey Har on her Instagram Stories. Har posts mostly fitness content as well as videos showcasing food and activities in Malaysia on her Instagram.  Taking to her social media pages on June 2, Har, shared a video on how she had injured herself and urged others to be mindful of their safety when playing. The minute-long clip begins with her showing off a blood-crusted bump which had formed on the side of her head. An in-video caption says she had «immediately burst into tears». «I think I should've laid down while coming down the slide... So painful,» she says in the video. A video filmed by Har showed her losing one of her sandals while zipping down the slide. A thunk can then be heard as she collides with the top of the tube slide.

The Ministry of Heath has rejected calls by the People's Power Party (PPP) to temporarily suspend Singapore's Covid-19 vaccination programme.  The political party, founded by Goh Meng Seng, issued a statement on May 29 calling for MOH and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) to halt the administering of vaccines in lieu of the «increasing» number of reports regarding the adverse effects associated with the vaccine.  It cited «studies and analyses by prominent medical experts”, which claimed that Covid-19 vaccines caused high incidences of severe side effects. The party also claimed that Singapore had been experiencing »unusual and exceptionally high excess deaths of at least 20 per cent when the Covid-19 vaccine was introduced«.  In a statement on Monday (June 3), the Health Ministry dismissed the PPP's claims as »egregious and false".  It pointed out that Singapore recorded one of the lowest excess death rates in the world during the pandemic as the majority of Singaporeans were vaccinated. 

An SMRT bus driver has been disciplined after he launched into a verbal tirade against an elderly passenger who had mistakenly pressed the bell and called the latter a «childish old man». The incident occurred on board bus service 180 — a loop service to and from Boon Lay Interchange — at around 6.50am on May 25, wrote Facebook user Raven Qiu, who witnessed the incident. Qiu told Shin Min Daily News that the passenger appeared to be in his 70s and had pressed the bell one stop before his intended destination. Upon realising his mistake, he approached the bus driver to inform him of the error and also apologise. However, Qiu said in his Facebook post that the bus driver «made a scene» by berating the elderly passenger to not press the bell if he was not alighting. The passenger then told the driver not to shout and that he could not see his surroundings clearly as the sky was still dark. The driver reportedly retorted: «Wear glasses if you can't see properly.»

The CSTO is a key factor of persisting stability in the Eurasian space capable of ensuring the security of its member states, Imangali Tasmagambetov stressed

According to Mexico's National Electoral Institute, Claudia Sheinbaum, running on the Let's Continue Making History Together ticket, is leading in the Mexican presidential election with almost 57.7% of the vote

Russian Prosecutor General's Office spokesman Andrey Ivanov recalled that the countries in question were parties to the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism

Top stories from the Russian press on Monday, June 3rd

Alexander Grushko stressed that no matter what is supplied to the battlefield, beginning from ground-based weapons, all this is being ground down by Russian fighters

During his presser, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar light-heartedly said that Form 17C was the country's most popular form and everyone preparing for the UPSC or the civil services ought to know about the form.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections concluded on June 1 with votes to be counted on June 4 by the Election Commission of India.