PARIS — The year 2023 was the hottest on record, with the increase in Earth’s surface temperature nearly crossing the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, EU climate monitors said Tuesday. Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C above the preindustrial benchmark, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported. “It is also the first year with all days over one degree warmer than the preindustrial period,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. “Temperatures during 2023 likely exceed those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years,” she said. Nearly half the year exceeded the 1.5C limit, beyond which climate impacts are more likely to become self-reinforcing and catastrophic, according to scientists. But even if Earth’s average surface temperature breaches 1.5C in 2024, as some scientists predict, it does not mean the world has failed to …

Researchers in Taiwan are using a special robot to hunt mosquitoes that carry the virus that causes dengue fever. From the southern city of Kaohsiung, Shelley Schlender has our story. …

The impact of climate change is increasingly evident along El Salvador’s coastlines where saltwater is slowly claiming what once was farmland. Veronica Villafañe narrates this report from Claudia Zaldaña …

…

BISMARCK, ND — The first person to spot it was a shovel operator working the overnight shift, eyeing a glint of white as he scooped up a giant mound of dirt and dropped it into a dump truck. Later, after the truck driver dumped the load, a dozer driver was ready to flatten the dirt but stopped for a closer look when he, too, spotted that bit of white. Only then did the miners realize they had unearthed something special: a 2-meter-long mammoth tusk that had been buried for thousands of years. “We were very fortunate, lucky to find what we found,” said David Straley, an executive of North American Coal, which owns the mine. The miners unearthed the tusk from an old streambed, about 12.1 meters deep, at the Freedom Mine near Beulah, North Dakota. The 18,210-hectare surface mine produces up to 14.5 million metric tons of lignite coal per …

sydney — With fangs that could pierce a human fingernail, the largest male specimen of the world’s most venomous arachnid has found a new home at the Australian Reptile Park where it will help save lives after a member of the public discovered it by chance. The deadly Sydney funnel-web spider dubbed Hercules was found on the Central Coast, about 50 miles north of Sydney, and was initially given to a local hospital, the Australian Reptile Park said in a statement Thursday. Spider experts from the nearby park retrieved it and soon realized it was the largest male specimen ever received from the public in Australia. The spider measured 7.9 centimeters from foot to foot, surpassing the park’s previous record-holder from 2018, the male funnel-web named Colossus. Sydney funnel-web spiders usually range in length from 1 to 5 centimeters, with females being generally larger than their male counterparts but not as …

NEW YORK — The flu season in the U.S. is getting worse but it’s too soon to tell how much holiday gatherings contributed to a likely spike in illnesses. New government data posted Friday for last week — the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s — show 38 states with high or very high levels for respiratory illnesses with fever, cough and other symptoms. That’s up from 31 states the week before. The measure likely includes people with COVID-19, RSV and other winter viruses, and not just flu. But flu seems to be increasing most dramatically, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We expect it to be elevated for several more weeks,” said the CDC’s Alicia Budd. So far, though, this is a moderate flu season, she said. Interpreting flu reports during and after the holidays can be tricky, she noted. Schools are closed. More people are …

…

WASHINGTON — At a time when growing numbers of young Americans are diagnosed with mental health conditions, media are looking at ways to cover the issue more responsibly. Data shows a rise in young adults being diagnosed with conditions such as depression or anxiety. But media reports of public incidents involving mental health sometimes use damaging language, experts say. Terms such as “unhinged” or “erratic” — language used to describe a homeless man killed on the New York subway last year — are held up as poor examples of coverage. Reporters on the health beat and experts who specialize in mental health say that such terms are damaging for those who have a medical condition and that they can be misleading. “Media plays an important role in shaping public perception of many things, including mental illness,” said Christine Herman, a freelancer journalist. Coverage can make it appear as if the illness …

A busy week for SpaceX launches. NASA eyes an upcoming moon mission. And Australian buffaloes get a high-tech upgrade. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. …

NEW YORK — More U.S. hospitals are requiring masks and limiting visitors as health officials face an expected but still nasty post-holiday spike in flu, COVID-19 and other illnesses. While many experts say this season likely won’t prove to be as deadly as some other recent winters, it still could mean hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and many thousands of deaths across the country. New York City last week instituted a mask mandate for the city’s 11 public hospitals. Similar measures were ordered last week at some hospitals in Los Angeles and Massachusetts. Some hospitals reinstated masking rules for employees months ago, in anticipation of a seasonal rush of sick people. Flu and COVID-19 infections have been increasing for weeks, with high levels of flu-like illness reported in 31 states just before Christmas. Updated national numbers are to be released Friday, but health officials predict infections will grow in many states …

…