Largest coral bleaching event on record impacts 84% of world’s reefs: NOAA
Dr. Pinsak Suraswadi, the Director General of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources conducts a survey on reefs affected by coral bleaching on May 07, 2024 in Trat, Thailand. (Photo by Sirachai Arunrugstichai/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The world’s coral reefs are in the midst of the fourth and largest global bleaching event in recorded history, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced this week.
The grim milestone was recorded between January 2023 and April 2025, with the agency documenting that bleaching-level heat stress has impacted 83.7% of the world’s coral reef area.
The impacted reefs span at least 83 countries and territories, the agency said.
Since early 2023, mass bleaching of coral reefs has been confirmed in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean basins, including parts of Florida and the coastline of the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Australia, the South Pacific, the Persian Gulf, coasts of East Africa and Indonesia, according to NOAA.
The agency deemed this ongoing bleaching event “the biggest to date,” noting that the previous record was set with 68.2% of reefs affected during the third-largest bleaching period, between 2014 and 2017.
The first and second global coral bleaching events occurred in 1998 and 2010, respectively, according to the agency.
Bleaching occurs when warmer ocean temperatures cause the expulsion of algae that live in the coral tissue. This leaves the coral completely white, known as coral bleaching. Coral bleaching does not necessarily mean corals will die, according to NOAA, which noted that corals can recuperate if the strain on their ecosystems is reduced.
At a local level, storms, disease, sediments and changes in salinity can cause corals to bleach; however, mass bleaching, when several varieties of coral reefs are bleached, is largely caused by increased sea temperatures, according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
(MOUNT KATAHDIN, MAINE) — A man has been found dead and his daughter remains missing while attempting to hike to the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine, officials said Tuesday.
Tim Keiderling and Esther Keiderling, both of Ulster Park, New York, set out to hike the summit on Sunday, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.
They were last seen Sunday morning on the Katahdin Tablelands heading toward the summit, which is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and located in Baxter State Park.
Baxter State Park rangers began searching for them Monday morning after their vehicle was still found parked at the trailhead in the day-use parking lot, park officials said.
The search on Katahdin expanded Tuesday to include the help of more than 30 Maine game wardens, including the Maine Warden Service Search and Rescue team, and the Maine Warden Service K9 team. The Maine Forest Service and the Maine Army National Guard also responded as part of an aerial search.
The body of Tim Keiderling, 58, was found Tuesday afternoon, officials said. A Maine Warden Service K9 search team located him at approximately 2:24 p.m. on the Tablelands near the summit of Katahdin, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife said.
The search for his 28-year-old daughter is ongoing.
“We know that many of our social media followers share in our deep sadness for the family and friends of Tim Keiderling, and appreciate your support,” as the search for his daughter continues, Baxter State Park said in a statement on Facebook.
Baxter State Park notes on its website that hiking Katahdin “is a very strenuous climb, no matter which trailhead you choose.” The average round-trip time for a Katahdin hike is eight to 12 hours, it said.
All Katahdin trailhead trails are currently closed until further notice, the park said.
(NEW YORK) — Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, spoke exclusively on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday morning in her first interview since Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with her husband in El Salvador Thursday.
Van Hollen late Thursday released a photo of himself with Abrego Garcia, which was the first time Vasquez Sura had seen him since spotting him in a photo among several other migrants being brought into El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison last month.
“It was very overwhelming,” Vasquez Sura said of seeing the image Thursday night.
“The most important thing for me, my children, his mom, his brother, his sibling, was to see him alive, and we saw him alive,” she told GMA’s Michael Strahan.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States.
After a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that ruling, the polarizing case has become a test of the power of the executive branch versus the courts.
Vasquez Sura, speaking to GMA, denied that her husband is a member of MS-13 or any other gang.
“I won’t stop fighting until he returns home, until I know that he’s safe,” Vasquez Sura told Strahan.
“It’s been 37 days since March 12, since my husband was abducted,” said Vasquez Sura. “It’s been an emotional, emotional rollercoaster, honestly.”
“We’ve been together over seven years. It’s been amazing. He is very a loving husband, and amazing father. We were just young parents trying to live the American dream,” said Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. citizen, along with the couple’s children.
“Our faith has grown, and I keep him in my prayers to bring him back home,” she said.
Strahan questioned Vasquez Sura about her filing for an order of protection from her husband in 2021, in which she cited being slapped, hit with an object, and being detained against her will. The case was closed about a month later when she failed to appear for a court hearing.
“You did take out a temporary order of protection against your husband in 2021. Were you in fear of your husband?” Strahan asked.
“My husband is alive,” Vasquez Sura responded. “That’s all I can say.”
Earlier this week, in a statement released to ABC News through her attorney, Vasquez Sura said, “After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a protective order in case things escalated. We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”
Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Vasquez Sura’s home state of Maryland, flew to El Salvador on Wednesday to try to meet with Abrego Garcia.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance,” Van Hollen said in the social media post in which he shared the photo of him with Abrego Garcia. “I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
Vasquez Sura was told that the meeting between Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia was set up by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, a source close to the family told ABC News.
The source said Abrego Garcia and Vasquez Sura were not able to speak.
(WASHINGTON) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty Friday to human smuggling charges, one week after he was brought back to the Unites States from detention in El Salvador.
The 29-year-old has been the subject of a prolonged legal battle since he was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and attorneys deny.
The Trump administration, after arguing for nearly two months that it was unable to being him back, returned him the U.S. last week to face a two-count indictment alleging that, while living with his wife and children in Maryland, he participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country.
Federal prosecutors say the conspiracy involved the domestic transport of thousands of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, including some children, in exchange for thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors have also asked the judge in the case, Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, to schedule a pre-trial detention hearing in order to determine if Abrego Garcia should continue to be held in custody pending trial. Judge Holmes is expected to consider that motion on Friday.
In a court filing on Monday, prosecutors acknowledged that Abrego Garcia would almost certainly be immediately taken in custody by ICE if Judge Holmes were to deny their motion for pre-trial detention — but they asked the court to consider, for the sake of argument, the possibility that he “would have an enormous reason to flee” if he were not immediately detained by ICE.
They also argued that Abrego-Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties put him at risk of attempting to obstruct justice or intimidate potential witnesses against him, including his alleged co-conspirators.
“The United States would submit that at least one co-conspirator has described that the Defendant has previously used his membership in MS-13 not just to facilitate his illegal activity in the smuggling conspiracy but also to intimidate others in the conspiracy who attempted to confront him about the treatment of female smuggling victims and his smuggling of firearms and drugs which added to the conspiracy’s risk of detection and were not a goal of the overall conspiracy,” the government’s filing said.
In response, attorneys for Abrego Garcia said in a filing Wednesday that the Trump administration’s arguments for a detention hearing are meritless.
“It should also come as no surprise that the government has not cited a single case holding that a generic alien-smuggling charge provides grounds for a detention hearing,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said. “This case should not be the first.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys also argued in the filing that their client is not a flight risk, and said that the government “points to zero facts” suggesting Abrego Garcia has a history of evading arrest, has any prior restrictions, or has “systematically engaged in international travel in the recent past.”
The attorneys also argued that there is no “serious risk” Abrego Garcia will obstruct justice, arguing that the government’s “baseless gang-affiliation allegations” do not support a finding that he poses a “serious risk” of obstructive behavior.
“[The] government is not entitled to seek detention in this case, Mr. Abrego Garcia respectfully asks the Court to deny the government’s motion for detention,” the attorneys said.
