Latest news with #Honduran
Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
Corals keep cooking in climate-heated seas. These crossbreeds may keep hope alive
The first-in-the-world experiment began not with a splash, but with a gasp from a respirator. Neoprene-clad scientists sank to the shallow bottom of Flamingo Reef off Key Biscayne, clutching black milk cartons filled with precious cargo. Inside were a few dozen contraptions that looked like fancy desk toys — round pucks of concrete shielded by a spinning piece of metal resembling the ribs of an umbrella. Underneath the rotating spines were four thumbnail-sized chunks of coral. Two were the usual suspects for South Florida, hunks of elkhorn coral, and two were newcomers, a crossbreed of Florida elkhorns with their Honduran siblings. These 'Flonduran' corals are the first ever corals with parents from different countries to be planted in the wild, according to the University of Miami and Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which approved the experiment. It's a revolutionary new strategy to save corals as human-caused climate change cranks up the temperature of oceans worldwide. The shallow, turquoise waters of the Caribbean have been hit particularly hard. A 2023 marine heat wave was devastating to the Florida reef tract and many neighboring island nations. Only about 1 in 5 staghorn corals on five major Keys reefs survived the event, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found. This pilot project, to share corals throughout the Caribbean and potentially breed new, more resilient varieties that have a chance of surviving the next heat wave, could be a step toward a world where more — but not all — corals survive. And while the scientific tide appears to have turned on the idea of breaking up corals into smaller pieces, growing them rapidly and planting them on reefs, new research suggests that genetically selecting for stronger coral might still give scientists a chance at restoring some reefs. 'We don't have to plant every single coral on the reef. We just have to plant the next generation. That is the goal of restoration, making these systems self-sustaining,' said Andrew Baker, lead scientist on the experiment and a professor at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. 'We're scattering the seeds. We have to wait for the oaks to grow up.' Baker and his team suited up earlier this month and slipped under the waters of Biscayne Bay to deliver these baby corals to their new home. Twenty feet under, they'll be neighbors with other coral experiments from UM, as well as a forest of colorful soft corals and sponges. They'll live here for at least a year, with regular checkups from an army of researchers, before they'll get yanked back to the surface for a round of stress tests. The big question for these tiny animals: Can they take the heat? From Tela Bay to Biscayne Bay Climate change is warming the whole planet, but the ocean is absorbing most of that heat. That's bad news for creatures that are sensitive to temperature changes, like corals. When waters get too toasty, corals spit out the algae that live within their skeletons, the stuff they rely on for food and protection from the sun's rays. Scientists call the ghostly white coral — starving and sunburning — bleached. If a coral stays bleached for too long, it dies. The oceans are always warming unevenly, with some hot spots turning into coral graveyards and others remaining resilient. That's where Baker and his team got the idea to find the sturdiest survivors and interbreed them with their Florida siblings. Over the last few years, Baker tried to scoop up corals from Mexico, Belize, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and even Cuba, where a massive amount of wild corals perished in 2023 when waters reached 95 degrees. He finally found success in Honduras, where waters are 2 degrees warmer than Florida and soupy with pollution from nearby coastal cities. And yet, Baker said, the corals in Tela Bay were 'remarkably resilient.' After a year and a half of permitting delays, Baker and his team managed to successfully airlift a handful of those resilient corals back to Florida. It was a 14-hour journey from sea to lab aquarium, featuring a small plane, a crate of seawater and plenty of bubble wrap. Once safely in the Sunshine State, the Florida Aquarium interbred the Honduras parents with a stock of Florida elkhorns, creating an army of 'Flonduran' children. Scientists call this assisted gene flow. In a commentary published Thursday in the journal Science, a team of leading coral scientists argued it may be the best way to save at least some corals. A reckoning in 2023 In Florida, elkhorn corals in particular are struggling to survive. Only 23 distinct genetic species, out of 153 cataloged before 2023, remain in the wild. The few remaining wild species have all but stopped reproducing in the Keys, scientists say. Some research suggests that, if temperatures continue to rise at the current pace, they could be locally extinct in a decade or two. 'The question is, how do we rescue those corals? They could withstand decades of additional heat stress in other places in the Caribbean,' Baker said. 'If we leave them where they are, they will potentially die off in the next big bleaching event.' Florida approved the outplanting of the new crossbred coral, but it denied an opportunity to outplant another hybrid coral — Florida corals mixed with corals from Curaçao — a few years back. Those offspring are still stored at a research aquarium in Florida. That's because the Honduras corals are genetic siblings to Florida corals, while Curaçao corals are further removed, like cousins once or twice removed. Corals from other locations, like Hawaii, are essentially strangers, scientists say. That leaves an increasingly shrinking pot of corals for Florida to choose from, if this is a strategy the state continues to pursue. While some may look at this strategy of swapping corals around a small region as the whole ocean cooks more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, Baker said he prefers to see it as buying time. 'We need to buy time for as many species to thrive while we as a society figure out whatever the solution is going to be to climate change,' he said. 'It's an inconvenient truth that while this method can be used to help corals in some parts of the region, it's not a solution for all.' The science backs him up. An increasing amount of research has soured on the once very popular idea of rescuing dying reefs by choosing fast-growing species, breaking them up into tiny fragments and planting those regrown pieces on reefs. 'Coral restoration has been a very hot and sexy topic for years. Because of the growing recognition in the coral reef science community that restoring coral is difficult, the research is losing a little bit of momentum,' said Giovanni Strona, a researcher at the European Commission who has studied tropical reefs since 2008. In a paper published in April, Strona and his team argued that restoration only works under narrow circumstances. Replanting a huge number of genetic copies of one type of coral is like building an entire city with only one-bedroom apartments. It's not enough to attract the diverse, healthy ecosystem needed to survive disease, predators or climate change. 'You need to create a reef that's as diverse as the original one. Of course, having something is better than having nothing,' Strona said. It's also simply not happening fast enough. He compared replanting new corals to reforestation projects happening all around the world; they're not keeping up with the global loss of forests — at all. In total, he found, only a few square meters of reef around the world have been restored in recent years. 'It's not about restoring even three soccer fields. We're really talking about very tiny islands,' he said. However, the newest wave of coral research suggests that genetically selecting for stronger, better corals — including interbreeding via assisted gene flow — could still be a visible solution to keep some reefs in selected areas viable. A paper published last year found that lab-reared corals survived the 2023 Caribbean marine heat wave better than nursery-grown or native corals. But in some places, it may already be too late. 'Elkhorn and staghorn corals in some of the region's warmest areas, off the south coast of Cuba, were exposed to unprecedented heat stress during the 2023 bleaching event and have experienced major losses. It is not clear whether these reefs can recover through immigration of even more thermally tolerant genets from elsewhere because these reefs are among the warmest in the region,' the authors wrote in the Science commentary.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Progressive Dem rep faces backlash for calling ICE 'Nazi thugs' while defending MS-13 gang member
A progressive Democratic state representative sparked controversy after referring to ICE agents as "Nazi Gestapo thugs" following an ICE operation in Providence, Rhode Island, that resulted in the arrest of a known MS-13 gang member. "The Nazi Gestapo ICE thugs kidnapped another of our neighbors in Providence this morning. This time on Alverson St.," wrote Rep. Enrique Sanchez in social media posts. "The ICE thugs damaged a couple of residents' cars as well. They think they are above the law. I strongly condemn this act of terror and will be demanding answers and seeking action tomorrow. I am tired of this s**t. Providence doesn't want ICE thugs in our city." The arrest in question was of Ivan Rene Mendoza Meza, a 27-year-old Honduran national illegally present in the U.S. and a self-admitted member of the violent MS-13 gang. ICE sources told Fox News that during the operation, Mendoza attempted to flee, causing a crash by striking ICE vehicles before running into his apartment. He was eventually surrounded and surrendered to agents. Mendoza was seen smirking in his arrest photo, seeming to be unfazed by his capture. Mendoza has a history of criminal activity, including fentanyl trafficking charges in Rhode Island. ICE Boston had previously lodged an immigration detainer against him following those charges in August 2023. However, the 6th District Court of Rhode Island declined to honor the detainer, releasing Mendoza without notifying ICE, forcing agents to locate and arrest him in the community. According to ICE Boston spokesperson James Covington, "Mendoza is a self-admitted member of MS-13 in Honduras and states he has committed crimes on behalf of the gang." ICE spokesperson Emily Covington criticized Sanchez's remarks: "Mr. Sanchez thinks so little of his community that he refers to ruthless MS-13 as his 'neighbors'? What say you, Providence? The only 'thugs' we see are the illegal terrorist gangbangers we are trying to remove from the neighborhoods of Providence." Mendoza originally entered the U.S. illegally near San Ysidro, California, in May 2019 and was quickly returned to Mexico. However, officials say he later re-entered the country unlawfully at an unknown time and place. Sanchez, who has strongly opposed immigration enforcement, taunted ICE agents on Sunday after a farmworker died from injuries sustained from a fall during an immigration enforcement raid on a California cannabis farm. "F*** ICE," Sanchez wrote. "Vallanse a la chingada ICE." "State Representative Enrique Sanchez (D), who was arrested for DUI earlier this year, calls ICE agents "Nazi Gestapo thugs" in an online rant after an MS-13 gang member facing fentanyl charges was arrested with a smile across his face," Libs of TikTok commented on Sanchez's statements. "Just Democrats supporting criminal alien gangs over American citizens." In 2023, Sanchez filed RI H5461, a bill to give illegal immigrants the right to vote in the state. However, the bill was tabled for further study a month after it was introduced.
New York Post
4 days ago
- New York Post
Illegal migrant allegedly held woman hostage for days — where he beat and sexually assaulted her
An illegal migrant from Honduras allegedly kept a sex trafficking victim hostage for five days without food or water — while he beat her and sexually assaulted her, authorities said. Jose Carcamo, 22, was arrested last Monday after he allegedly held the woman captive when she tried to flee a trafficking ring in Houston, Texas, according to KPRC 2. Chilling Ring doorbell camera footage allegedly shows the illegal migrant snatching her off the street and carrying her away as she kicked frantically. 3 Surveillance footage appeared to show Carcamo snatching the Chinese woman during the kidnapping. KPRC Carcamo then locked the woman, who is a Chinese national, in a room inside an East Houston trailer home for five days without food or water, according to court documents obtained KPRC 2. The man is also accused of tying her up, punching her and raping her while she was in captivity. Cops were first alerted to the alleged trafficking ring after receiving a 911 call from a woman screaming for help. A witness then reported seeing a woman running down the street before a man snatched her and carried her away. When deputies searched the East Houston trailer home, they found the woman locked inside a closet, KPRC 2 reported. The woman said she was transported from New York to Texas for a new masseuse job that promised more cash. But the situation quickly turned dark after her captors confiscated her Chinese passport and moved her into the trailer home. 3 Mugshot of a Honduran national Jose Carcomo, who is accused of kidnapping. Harris County Sheriff's Office While in captivity, the woman said she was tied up and sexually assaulted by Carcamo on multiple occasions. 'She said she was a masseuse up in New York. She was offered a position down here in Houston that paid more money. So she was given transportation down here. Someone drove her. Said she spent about four or five days or so in a car driving down here,' Lt. John Klafka, the chief of the adult special crimes unit at the Harris County Sheriff's Office, said. The Chinese woman was locked in the closet after she attempted to break free. 3 Mobile home in Harris County, Texas, where a Honduran national was arrested for kidnapping. KPRC 'He obviously is not the one that drove her from New York,' Klafka said, adding that there are 'other people involved.' 'This is a very traumatic event. You know, you're in a foreign country. You were brought from one giant city to another that's halfway across the country, south. And she has no friends, no family. Nobody is here for her. So we've got to do everything we can to ensure that she can trust us to do our jobs and find the rest of the people that are involved in this,' Klafka said. Authorities believe the incident is linked to a larger trafficking ring involving more suspects and victims, according to KPRC 2. Carcomo was arrested on July 14 and charged with aggravated kidnapping. The migrant's attorney said that Carcamo 'maintains complete innocence.' 'Our client, Mr. Jose Carcamo, is shocked by the serious allegations brought forth against him and firmly maintains his complete innocence. He fully expects that the evidence will ultimately clear his name,' the lawyer said in a statement to KPRC 2. The victim is safe and is receiving counseling and medical care at an undisclosed location, the outlet added.
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Celtic star seals transfer to Champions League club as he makes Parkhead exit just two years after £3.5m move
He's had his say on his big move PALMED OFF Celtic star seals transfer to Champions League club as he makes Parkhead exit just two years after £3.5m move LUIS PALMA has completed his Celtic exit. The Honduran winger has departed Parkhead on loan again just two years on from his £3.5million switch to the club. Advertisement 3 Luis Palma has left Celtic Credit: Kenny Ramsay 3 The winger featured for Honduras at the Gold Cup Credit: Reuters 3 Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers Credit: Getty Palma, 25, moved to Celtic in August 2023 from Greek club Aris. He'd previously been of interest to Rangers who saw a bid kicked out for him earlier in the year. Palma penned a five-year deal at Celtic Park running until 2028. He took some time to get off and running with the Hoops, but did manage to make a decent impact in his first season in Scottish football. Advertisement Palma netted seven goals in 28 Premiership games as Celtic won a league and Scottish Cup double. His second season, however, proved a struggle. Palma fell down the pecking order under Brendan Rodgers and in January, he moved on loan to Olympiacos. Despite being part of a side that went on to win the Greek title, the club decided against buying Palma permanently. Advertisement Having been playing for Honduras at the Gold Club, he wasn't part of Celtic's pre-season tour An exit has always looked likely this summer and now, he's sealed his move away. Humble Celtic star Luis Palma spotted sitting on top deck of bus in city centre Palma has joined Polish champions Lech Poznan but it isn't a permanent departure. He's joined the club on loan for the season ahead. Advertisement He could be thrust straight into European action on Tuesday night with the club in action in Champions League qualifying. They face Icelandic champions Breidablik in the first leg of their second qualifying round tie in Poland. Before touching down in Poland, Palma spoke of why he'd decided to make the move. He said: "I am very happy with the move. Advertisement "I'm delighted to be joining my new club and it was all done very quickly. "I spoke with Celtic and it was my decision to look elsewhere. "I don't know too much about the Polish League, except that it's a good league, with big stadiums and big clubs. "I am going to learn a lot about football there. Advertisement "My goal is to play as much as possible and make a good impression. "I spoke to Reinaldo Rueda about the move, but I did so more as a friend."
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Horror doorbell vid shows illegal immigrant haul fleeing sex slave back into house of horrors before tying & abusing her
A HARROWING doorbell video shows an illegal immigrant dragging a woman back to his house to sexually abuse and torture her, prosecutors say. Jose Armando Carcamo-Perdomo, 22, allegedly tied up the woman and held her hostage for five days at a Texas house without food or water. 5 Doorbell footage shows a struggling woman being marched down a road Credit: x/@breaking911 5 The woman writhes around and screams as she tries to break free Credit: x/@breaking911 5 Jose Armando Carcamo-Perdomo, 22, faces kidnapping and assault charges Credit: ABC The Honduran, who ICE says entered the US illegally in 2020, has been charged with aggravated Footage captured by a neighbor's doorbell shows a man marching down in northeast Harris County with a struggling woman in his arms. The captive writhes around and screams in a desperate attempt to break free from her kidnapper - allegedly Police later discovered the woman inside a closet in a mobile home next door - and Carcamo-Perdomo was arrested. The woman said she willingly travelled from New York to But after she arrived, the suspect seized her passport and would not let her leave, deputies said. This footage allegedly shows the Honduran hauling her back to the house of horrors after the woman made a break for it. A Harris County judge said: "She tried to leave, but this defendant carried her back inside the residence without her consent. Most read in The US Sun "He tied her up and then sexually assaulted her." "She was not allowed to leave that room for five or more days without food or water." Horror moment kidnapper tries to snatch screaming woman and drag her into his truck sparking bloodcurdling fight The neighbor whose camera captured the ordeal took action after seeing the terrifying footage. The neighbor told He incorrectly believed the woman was child. The man, who did not want to be identified, said: "It's very disheartening." "But especially being right next-door you know, I'm angry with myself that I didn't pick up on it sooner or maybe done more. "Even though I had that feeling that something wasn't right, but it could have made a bigger difference with other people maybe, other victims." Harris County Sheriff's Office believes there could be more victims. They're asking anyone who has encountered the suspect to contact them. Read more on the Irish Sun ICE also confirmed they now have a detained on Carcamo, who they say entered the country illegally in 2020 from Honduras. The force wrote on X: "This heinous criminal illegal alien was freely roaming our interior and terrorizing American communities." 5 The mobile home where the woman was allegedly held hostage and abused Credit: x/@breaking911 5 The woman had apparently made break for freedom, but was recaptured Credit: x/@breaking911
