WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.400
Good morning. I'm Micah Finch. It's Thursday, October 1, and this is your lol what dot net

2
00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:08.600
morning briefing.

3
00:00:08.600 --> 00:00:12.480
Switzerland's glaciers have lost more than 5 percent of their ice volume in the latest

4
00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:14.800
annual assessment.

5
00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:18.880
The report released today by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network and the Swiss Academy of

6
00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:24.560
Sciences follows a winter with too little snow and a summer of record temperatures.

7
00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:28.760
Reuters reports that almost a fifth of the country's glacier ice has gone over the past

8
00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:34.560
five years. The consequence reaches beyond the mountain landscape. Melting ice helps

9
00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:38.960
supply rivers when rain and seasonal snow are scarce, but that water comes out of a

10
00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.640
shrinking reserve.

11
00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:46.920
A study published in January examined 88 Swiss river catchments during the drought of 2022.

12
00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:51.000
Researchers found that extra glacier melt could offset substantial shortages of rain

13
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.360
and snowmelt in some mountain catchments.

14
00:00:53.550 --> 00:00:59.270
Yet, in two-thirds of the catchments studied, total summer glacier meltwater was lower than

15
00:00:59.270 --> 00:01:05.110
during the comparable hot summer of 2003, despite more intense melting.

16
00:01:05.110 --> 00:01:10.490
Smaller glaciers can release less water even when each remaining patch melts faster.

17
00:01:10.490 --> 00:01:13.830
That explains the apparent paradox in today's report.

18
00:01:13.830 --> 00:01:18.510
Extra melt can ease a summer shortage while reducing the ice available to buffer a later

19
00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:18.590
one.

20
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.320
Next, let's look at flooding in the United States.

21
00:01:23.320 --> 00:01:25.080
In its Wednesday night assessment,

22
00:01:25.080 --> 00:01:28.000
the Weather Prediction Center forecast further heavy rain

23
00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:31.040
across parts of the southern and central plains.

24
00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.200
For Thursday, it placed the greatest flash flood risk

25
00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:36.800
in Texas and southern Oklahoma, where

26
00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:39.040
a front is expected to stall.

27
00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:42.040
It said repeated thunderstorms over the same areas

28
00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:45.520
could increase rainfall totals, while ground already saturated

29
00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:47.880
by earlier rain could send more water

30
00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:50.120
into streams and streets.

31
00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:52.520
Preliminary totals for the multi-day storm

32
00:01:52.520 --> 00:01:56.760
included more than 5 inches at some gauges in Arizona, Kansas,

33
00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:58.280
and Texas.

34
00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:00.480
Those are accumulated totals, rather than

35
00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:02.240
a measure of how fast rain was falling

36
00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:04.360
at any particular moment.

37
00:02:04.360 --> 00:02:08.000
In New Mexico, Doña Ana County lifted its evacuation order

38
00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.840
for Rincon on Wednesday morning, after officials

39
00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:13.450
determined that the major flooding risk had subsided.

40
00:02:13.450 --> 00:02:18.870
The county still reported debris, damaged roads, and other hazards. Hurricane Polo had

41
00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:24.010
dissipated over northwestern Mexico on Tuesday night. Its final Hurricane Center advisory

42
00:02:24.010 --> 00:02:28.810
warned that leftover moisture could still produce heavy rain. A storm's wind strength

43
00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:34.210
and its rainfall effects need separate attention. For people in affected areas, local official

44
00:02:34.210 --> 00:02:40.010
notices remain the practical guide. Follow our live desk at lolwhat.net for verified

45
00:02:40.010 --> 00:02:40.510
updates.

46
00:02:41.850 --> 00:02:44.890
Turning to trade, a federal court in New York

47
00:02:44.890 --> 00:02:47.890
heard arguments Wednesday over President Donald Trump's

48
00:02:47.890 --> 00:02:49.510
tariffs.

49
00:02:49.510 --> 00:02:51.610
The administration imposed them in July

50
00:02:51.610 --> 00:02:54.090
under Section 301 of the Trade Act,

51
00:02:54.090 --> 00:02:55.710
saying trading partners had failed

52
00:02:55.710 --> 00:02:59.050
to impose and effectively enforce bans on imports

53
00:02:59.050 --> 00:03:01.010
made with forced labor.

54
00:03:01.010 --> 00:03:04.890
Small businesses and 25 states are challenging the action.

55
00:03:04.890 --> 00:03:06.530
Their lawyers argue that the government

56
00:03:06.530 --> 00:03:08.610
failed to make the country-specific findings

57
00:03:08.610 --> 00:03:10.710
the law requires.

58
00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:13.110
The Justice Department says those investigations

59
00:03:13.110 --> 00:03:16.270
were conducted and support the duties.

60
00:03:16.270 --> 00:03:18.110
Reuters reports that judges questioned

61
00:03:18.110 --> 00:03:20.470
both sides about the detail needed to establish

62
00:03:20.470 --> 00:03:23.230
a burden on American commerce.

63
00:03:23.230 --> 00:03:24.870
The law permits tariffs in response

64
00:03:24.870 --> 00:03:26.890
to certain foreign trade practices

65
00:03:26.890 --> 00:03:29.190
that are unreasonable or discriminatory

66
00:03:29.190 --> 00:03:31.710
and burden US commerce.

67
00:03:31.710 --> 00:03:33.870
America also has a separate existing ban

68
00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:36.990
on importing goods made with forced labor.

69
00:03:36.990 --> 00:03:39.430
Customs guidance sets the disputed rates generally

70
00:03:39.430 --> 00:03:43.630
at 10% or 12.5%, with exemptions and special treatment

71
00:03:43.630 --> 00:03:45.250
for some products and partners.

72
00:03:45.250 --> 00:03:49.450
For a simple illustration, a 10% duty on $100 of import value

73
00:03:49.450 --> 00:03:51.170
means $10 in duty.

74
00:03:51.170 --> 00:03:53.490
US regulations place that payment obligation

75
00:03:53.490 --> 00:03:54.810
on the importer.

76
00:03:54.810 --> 00:03:58.570
Federal Reserve research on 2025 found tariff-related price

77
00:03:58.570 --> 00:04:02.530
increases developed gradually in the retail goods it tracked.

78
00:04:02.530 --> 00:04:04.530
The courtroom dispute therefore matters

79
00:04:04.530 --> 00:04:06.570
both for the limits of trade authority

80
00:04:06.570 --> 00:04:08.650
and for businesses planning their costs.

81
00:04:09.850 --> 00:04:15.590
Now, to technology with a very practical purpose, helping emergency crews communicate across

82
00:04:15.590 --> 00:04:17.310
European borders.

83
00:04:17.310 --> 00:04:21.710
The European Commission proposed a new critical communication system on Wednesday, intended

84
00:04:21.710 --> 00:04:26.390
to give first responders secure, resilient channels for coordinating their work.

85
00:04:26.390 --> 00:04:31.530
The Commission says national systems are currently incompatible and insufficiently connected.

86
00:04:31.530 --> 00:04:35.510
The preparation program describes a more varied picture, with only a few countries having

87
00:04:35.510 --> 00:04:41.110
established cross-border links, and many older systems limited to voice and short messages.

88
00:04:41.110 --> 00:04:44.110
The practical goal is easy to picture.

89
00:04:44.110 --> 00:04:47.730
Firefighters or rescue teams arriving from a neighboring country should be able to exchange

90
00:04:47.730 --> 00:04:52.150
information with the local crews, including richer materials such as video.

91
00:04:52.150 --> 00:04:56.230
Achieving that involves shared procedures as well as compatible equipment.

92
00:04:56.230 --> 00:04:58.590
Teams need to agree how they join a network and work together.

93
00:04:58.750 --> 00:05:03.650
The preparation program sets out trials of mobile broadband technology and operating

94
00:05:03.650 --> 00:05:08.010
procedures, with a goal of a European system by 2030.

95
00:05:08.010 --> 00:05:09.810
That is a development target.

96
00:05:09.810 --> 00:05:14.530
Wednesday's proposal does not establish that the full service is available today.

97
00:05:14.530 --> 00:05:20.090
For the public, the potential benefit is clearer coordination when assistance crosses a border,

98
00:05:20.090 --> 00:05:22.890
provided the technical and operational work succeeds.

99
00:05:24.200 --> 00:05:29.660
Moving to the Mediterranean, the Copernicus Ocean State Report, released Wednesday, documents

100
00:05:29.660 --> 00:05:33.040
exceptional marine heatwaves in 2024.

101
00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:37.240
Copernicus says that year had the highest number of Mediterranean marine heatwave days

102
00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:41.920
in two decades, with the most extreme conditions in the eastern basin.

103
00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:45.480
Its wider scientific lesson is about looking beneath the surface.

104
00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.960
A study in the report compares surface temperatures with heat stored in the upper 40 meters of

105
00:05:49.960 --> 00:05:52.720
the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

106
00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:57.360
It finds that surface and subsurface measures often agree, but summer events can show weaker

107
00:05:57.360 --> 00:05:58.680
agreement.

108
00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:03.620
In the Black Sea, some underwater heat events escape surface-based measures, with circulation

109
00:06:03.620 --> 00:06:07.000
patterns appearing to influence where the warp sits.

110
00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:12.920
The researchers used reconstructed ocean conditions, combining models with observations, to examine

111
00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:13.950
changes through time.

112
00:06:13.950 --> 00:06:19.190
A marine heat wave is a sustained spell of unusually warm water relative to historical

113
00:06:19.190 --> 00:06:20.310
conditions.

114
00:06:20.310 --> 00:06:24.430
The definition and comparison period affect which events get counted.

115
00:06:24.430 --> 00:06:30.410
For fisheries, aquaculture, and marine ecosystems, depth matters, because organisms experience

116
00:06:30.410 --> 00:06:32.070
the water around them.

117
00:06:32.070 --> 00:06:36.590
Combining surface and subsurface indicators gives researchers a fuller picture of that

118
00:06:36.590 --> 00:06:40.830
exposure, including warmth that a surface temperature map may miss.

119
00:06:42.150 --> 00:06:48.310
And before we go, a butterfly discovery gives those striking wings another possible job.

120
00:06:48.310 --> 00:06:53.110
Research published in Nature on Wednesday suggests that wing patterns and flapping movements

121
00:06:53.110 --> 00:06:58.110
work together to create misleading impressions of speed and direction.

122
00:06:58.110 --> 00:07:02.090
Researchers filmed butterfly takeoffs at a thousand frames a second, then compared the

123
00:07:02.090 --> 00:07:06.110
natural patterns with digitally altered, unpatterned versions.

124
00:07:06.110 --> 00:07:09.970
Models based on how vision detects motion found stronger misleading signals from the

125
00:07:09.970 --> 00:07:11.670
patterned wings.

126
00:07:11.670 --> 00:07:17.110
The team also simulated flight across nearly 400 European butterfly species and tested

127
00:07:17.110 --> 00:07:22.730
predictions with a hundred human volunteers trying to tap moving butterflies on a screen.

128
00:07:22.730 --> 00:07:26.790
Patterns predicted to produce greater confusion tended to draw attempts farther behind the

129
00:07:26.790 --> 00:07:27.710
virtual butterfly.

130
00:07:28.250 --> 00:07:34.230
The proposed explanation involves the relationship between a moving body and its moving wings.

131
00:07:34.230 --> 00:07:38.470
A wing can sweep in a different direction from the animal's overall travel, giving

132
00:07:38.470 --> 00:07:41.230
a visual system competing clues.

133
00:07:41.230 --> 00:07:45.470
The human experiment supports the mechanism, while its importance in encounters with wild

134
00:07:45.470 --> 00:07:47.710
predators remains a question.

135
00:07:47.710 --> 00:07:51.950
So those bright markings may help shape how a butterfly is tracked in flight.

136
00:07:51.950 --> 00:07:55.270
Beauty, in this case, may also be a little misleading.

137
00:07:55.270 --> 00:07:56.890
I'm Micah Finch.

138
00:07:56.890 --> 00:07:57.670
Thanks for listening.