Bombs explode near Damascus hotel housing Macron on Syria visit pred 17 urami in 3 minutami Blasts did not interrupt French president’s visit but are setback for Syrian leaders’ attempt to project stabilityExplosions rocked Damascus near the hotel where French president, Emmanuel Macron, was staying on Tuesday, wounding at least 18 people, Syrian authorities said.Macron was in the presidential palace for a meeting with the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, when two improvised explosive devices detonated near the Four Seasons hotel where Macron was reported to be staying. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Lake Powell, a vital reservoir, plunges toward unprecedented low levels as water crisis deepens in US west pred 17 urami in 18 minutami Experts say the critical reservoir system is careening toward a breaking point as the US west’s climate warms and driesLake Powell, US’s second-largest reservoir, threatens to plunge to unprecedentedly low levels this year after a historically bleak snowpack failed to raise its water level, scientists and water experts have said, adding renewed urgency to stalled talks over how to conserve a water source depended on by tens of millions of people in the US south-west.The 185-mile Colorado River reservoir currently stands at about 23% of its capacity, or roughly 5.6m acre-feet. Lake Powell fell below that level for a few months three years ago. But those 2023 levels were recorded in the winter, when the reservoir straddling the Utah-Arizona border hits its lowest ebb. Spring runoff carried the level back up to 9.6m acre-feet by June, according to data from the US Bureau of Reclamation. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
