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WORLD NEWS Thursday 25 augusT 2022

EU report: Drought-hit Europe could face 3 more dry

months

By LORNE COOK
Associated Press
BRUSSELS (AP) — Parts of
the European Union could
face three more months of
warmer and drier condi-
tions as Europe weathers
a major drought that has
fueled forest fires, dried
up rivers and devastated
crops, the 27-nation bloc’s
Earth observation program
is warning in a report.
“Warmer and drier than
usual conditions are likely
to occur in the western
Euro-Mediterranean region
in the coming months till
November 2022,” notably
in Spain and Portugal, the
EU’s Copernicus program
said in a report for the Horses gather around two hay bins on a dried out meadow in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany,
month of August. Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. German agriculture suffers from a long and warm weather period without
Almost half of the 27-nation rain.
EU is under drought warn- Associated Press
ing, with conditions wors- Copernicus said that a and cooling liquid. storms.
ening in Belgium, France, shortage of rain and a Water shortages and heat The report comes amid
Germany, Hungary, Ire- sequence of heatwaves stress are also reducing what experts say could
land, Italy, Luxembourg, since May has led to the European crop yields, with be the continent’s worst
the Netherlands, Portugal, dry conditions and lower maize, soybeans, and drought in 500 years. Little
Romania and Spain. The river levels. That in turn has sunflowers hardest hit. Re- significant rainfall has been
report also noted rising hit the energy sector, de- cent rainfall in August has recorded for almost two
drought hazards outside priving hydroelectric and helped some regions, but months, but Europe isn’t
the EU, in Britain, Serbia, other power plants of their crops in other areas have alone. q
Ukraine and Moldova. prime source of energy been battered by thunder-

WHO: COVID deaths down by 15%, cases fall nearly

everywhere

GENEVA (AP) — The num- ment of the COVID-19 world region except the asked U.S. regulators to
ber of coronavirus deaths pandemic, the U.N. health Western Pacific. authorize its combination
reported worldwide fell by agency said there were Deaths jumped by more COVID-19 vaccine that
15% in the past week while 5.3 million new cases and than 183% in Africa but fell adds protection against
new infections dropped by more than 14,000 deaths by nearly a third in Europe the newest omicron rela-
9%, the World Health Orga- reported last week. WHO and by 15% in the Ameri- tives, BA.4 and BA.5, a key
nization said Wednesday. said the number of new in- cas. Still, WHO warned that step towards opening a fall
In its latest weekly assess- fections declined in every COVID-19 numbers are booster campaign.
likely severely underesti- The Food and Drug Admin-
mated as many countries istration had ordered vac-
have dropped their testing cine makers to tweak their
and surveillance protocols shots to target BA.4 and
to monitor the virus, mean- BA.5, which are better than
ing that there are far fewer ever at dodging immunity
cases being detected. from earlier vaccination or
WHO said the predominant infection.
COVID-19 variant world- Meanwhile, in the U.K.,
wide is omicron subvariant regulators authorized a
BA.5, which accounts for version of Moderna’s up-
more than 70% of virus se- dated COVID-19 vaccine
quences shared with the last week that includes pro-
world’s biggest public viral tection against the earlier
database. Omicron vari- omicron subvariant BA.1.
ants account for 99% of all British officials will offer it to
A boy talks to his mother from a smartphone during the opening sequences reported in the people aged 50 and over
of classes at the San Juan Elementary School in metro Manila, last month.
Philippines on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. beginning next month.q
Associated Press Earlier this week, Pfizer