As cinephiles gear up for Friday's release of "Oppenheimer," the blockbuster biopic about the "father of the atomic bomb," some residents in southern New Mexico where the bomb was first tested say they've been largely erased from the narrative.
The big picture: Those residents say their families have battled rare cancers for generations and have been ignored while Manhattan Project scientists like J. Robert Oppenheimer are celebrated.
By the end of the week, it is likely that 15 days just this month will have breached an unprecedented global temperature threshold — a clarion wakeup call in the form of extreme weather.
Over 20% of the U.S.' population — 80 million people — are expected to face an air temperature or heat index above 105° Fahrenheit this weekend as a record-breaking heat wave persists over most of the South, the National Weather Service (NWS) warns.
Why it matters: The extreme temperatures, which have been exacerbated by human-caused climate change, will come after several days of excessive heat and will be an immediate risk to public health.
Kentucky's governor declared a state of emergency Wednesday after historic rainfall inundated parts of the state and forecasters said additional storms on "extremely saturated ground" overnight raised fresh flooding concerns.
The big picture: Gov. Andy Beshear urged people to "pray for Mayfield and areas of Western Kentucky impacted by significant flooding from last night's storms" as officials responded to the damage. The city in Graves County is still recovering from a December 2021 tornado that left 57 people dead, the Washington Post notes.
The simultaneous, record-shattering heat in the U.S., Europe and Asia may be getting all the headlines (more on these events below), but hotter and drier-than-average conditions are fueling the disaster unfolding in Canada.
Why it matters: As residents of the Midwest and East Coast have repeatedly learned this summer, Canada's devastating fires affect conditions elsewhere.
Record highs were set in the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia on Tuesday, in an example of simultaneous, compounding extreme weather and climate events — which scientists have been warning of for some time.
Why it matters: The heat waves pose an immediate risk to public health and economic output, and signal that climate change impacts are escalating faster than expected in some parts of the globe.
