News roundup for Tue, Mar 22, 2022 – The Prepared

Ukraine

10 million people have fled Ukraine during these first few weeks:

🔴Ten million people have now fled their homes in Ukraine due to Russia’s “devastating” war, the United Nations refugees chief has saidhttps://t.co/gKWw8N7jxo pic.twitter.com/HlofFksNTh

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 20, 2022

Mariupol, a port city with a population the size of Miami, is being leveled.

NEW: Russian shelling of Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol has leveled grocery stores and a major shopping complex in just days.

Here’s a before of the area, back in June 2021, and today. Russian attacks have isolated the city, a U.S. defense official said today.

📷:@Maxar pic.twitter.com/kBCkOQP5CQ

— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) March 9, 2022

Extreme weather

There were deadly wildfires in Texas last week. Over 60 square miles have burned and hundreds of families have been displaced. High winds and dry conditions are contributing to the complex of fires. Many families are left devastated. And now Central Texas is currently under tornado threat, too:

5:33pm CDT #SPC_MD 0295 , #txwx #okwx, https://t.co/7FcyTnSmPy pic.twitter.com/vRVGWnq43Y

— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) March 21, 2022

Hundreds of thousands of people in Kenya have been displaced over the last decade from severe flooding. Heavy rains in the Kenyan and Ethiopian highlands are responsible for the problem and the expectation is that these events will continue and potentially worsen.

The climate crisis that is responsible for the flooding in Kenya (and in Brazil this week) may also cause your allergies to get much worse. Allergy season will start earlier and have much higher pollen counts as the climate warms.

Antarctica and the Arctic are really way too hot right now. They are 70 and 50 degrees F above normal, respectively. Scientists are shocked by these temperatures.

Pandemic

COVID hospitalizations in England are growing rapidly, in children too:

⚠️BREAKING⚠️

Weekly Hospital admissions in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 0-5 years old

🚨DOUBLED in just 2 weeks 👀 pic.twitter.com/DE1UOLZalg

— Ing. Antonio Caramia (@Antonio_Caramia) March 18, 2022

Omicron stays viable on solid surfaces twice as long as the wild-type virus, but experts say there’s no need to be overly concerned with fomite contamination. Inhalation of the virus is still the most likely way to become infected. From an infection-prevention standpoint, though, it’s a good practice to do frequent hand hygiene.

Another large study shows no benefit from ivermectin as a COVID therapeutic. It’s one of the largest studies to date and it’s a randomized, controlled trial:

TOGETHER trial results were presented today. n=1358 high risk patients with COVID were randomized to ivermectin vs placebo. There was no benefit to ivermectin.

According to one of the PI’s “There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful”https://t.co/uqjeV2ilGR

— Nick Mark MD (@nickmmark) March 18, 2022

Supply chain

Biden approved more natural gas exports to Europe. Hundreds of millions of additional cubic feet of cooled, liquid natural gas will be allowed to be exported per day on top of the billions we already export.

Lebanon has had no wheat orders since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The price of wheat is very high and Lebanon cannot afford market rates. There are concerns for a food crisis. India is producing a bumper crop of wheat this year, but its market rate is also very high:

Indian officials said the country’s wheat exports were seeing a sharp increase as global prices shot up in aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

India’s wheat export is up to 7 million metric ton this fiscal year, from 2 mmt last year.@HariNYT https://t.co/EXlqFWpMlY

— Mujib Mashal (@MujMash) March 17, 2022

Over 5 million chickens culled in Iowa because of bird flu. The CDC said that there is no immediate threat to the public, and it is safe to eat poultry products.

The rest

The US Senate has voted to make Daylight Savings Time permanent. If this goes through many northern US states will have very dark winters, with sunrise coming after 9 am many days. Some argue that making Standard Time permanent would be a better choice. We tried this once before in the 1970s and folks didn’t like it.

Portable electric vehicle chargers will be ready for customers next year. The chargers can give electric vehicles a boost of 20-40 extra miles, which could be helpful for folks who need that extra slack to make it to a proper charging station.