Monday, January 12, 2026

BIG Wrap

Fiona batters Canada’s Atlantic coast

Hurricane-strength Fiona is ripping through Canada's eastern seaboard after making landfall in Nova Scotia early Saturday, slamming the area with fierce rain and damaging winds, and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands in what could be a "landmark" weather event for the country. Fiona, now a post-tropical cyclone, had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph -- the power of a Category 1 hurricane -- at 8 a.m. ET Saturday, with its centre over the...

Mexico earthquake triggers ‘desert tsunami’ 2,400 km away in Death Valley cave

About five minutes after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit near Mexico's southwest coast Monday, typically calm water deep in a Death Valley National Park cave started sloshing against the surrounding limestone rock, reports Grace Toohey at Phys.org. The reverberations from the earthquake more than 2,400 kilometres away created what experts have called a "desert tsunami," which on Monday made waves erupt up to over a metre high in the cave known as Devils Hole, a pool of...

Tesla ordered to recall 1.1 million U.S. cars

Tesla is recalling nearly 1.1 million cars in the U.S. because the windows might close too fast and pinch people's fingers. Documents produced by American regulators show the windows may not react correctly after detecting an obstruction. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk criticized the description as a recall, calling it "outdated and inaccurate".The car giant says a software update will fix the problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the fault is a safety-standards violation. The world's...

Scientists engineer mosquitoes that cannot spread malaria

Scientists have engineered mosquitoes that slow the growth of malaria-causing parasites in their gut, preventing transmission of the disease to humans. The genetic modification causes mosquitoes to produce compounds in their guts that stunt the growth of parasites, meaning they are unlikely to reach the mosquitoes' salivary glands and be passed on in a bite before the insects die. So far, the technique has been shown to dramatically reduce the possibility of malaria spread in a lab setting, but if...

Lebanese banks to remain shut indefinitely amid economic crises

Lebanese banks will remain shut "indefinitely" due to a lack of security protection by authorities, say their association. The announcement by the Association of Lebanese Banks follows a string of raids by customers demanding access to frozen savings last week, the BBC reports. It said their employees faced risks that had not been mitigated. A woman armed with a toy gun reportedly staged a hold-up at a bank on Wednesday to pay for family medical bills. There have...

More than 80% of maternal deaths in U.S. are preventable – CDC study

By Nada Hassanein Medical Xpress A staggering number of maternal deaths in the United States were found to be preventable, according to a federal analysis of maternal death data released Monday. More than 80%, or roughly 4 in 5 maternal deaths in a two-year period, were due to preventable causes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found. The analysis of 2017 to 2019 pregnancy-related deaths, which disproportionately occur among women of colour including Black and Indigenous, are...

Molly Russell inquest to put big tech under the microscope

Almost five years after Molly Russell took her life, the inquest into her death is due to begin. Molly, 14, killed herself in 2017 after viewing material about self-harm, suicide and depression, on social media sites such as Instagram and Pinterest. Her father Ian, a campaigner for online safety, hopes it is a turning point. "I hope that we will learn lessons and that it will help produce the change that's needed to keep people safe, to...

Hurricane Fiona knocks out Puerto Rico power

Parts of Puerto Rico remained without power on Monday after Hurricane Fiona took out the entire electricity supply. The storm left behind landslides and widespread flooding as it headed west to the Dominican Republic, with conditions too dangerous to make immediate repairs, the BBC reports. Heavy rain is expected to continue to batter Puerto Rico. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for the U.S. island, allowing authorities to provide disaster relief. As well as a complete...

Nearly 10% of U.S. individuals age 12 and older report having depression

Increases in depression without commensurate increases in treatment are widespread, reports a study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and City University of New York. In 2020, past 12‒month depression was prevalent among nearly 1 in 10 Americans and almost 1 in 5 adolescents and young adults. The findings will be published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Data were drawn from the 2015−2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health,...

Excess weight (not high blood sugar) associated with increased risk of COVID-19 infection and long COVID

High body mass index (BMI), rather than high blood sugar levels, are associated with excess risks of COVID-19 infection and long COVID, according to a meta-analysis of more than 30,000 U.K. adults from nine large prospective cohort studies. The findings by Dr. Anika Knuppel from the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, U.K., and colleagues are being presented at this year's European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting...