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By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Iceland’s relatively mild climate is shaped by a crucial network of currents that winds its away around the Atlantic Ocean transporting heat northward — without it, the island would be much icier and stormier. As evidence mounts these currents could be on course for collapse, Iceland’s government has made the unusual move of designating the risk a national security threat, prompting a a high-level response into how to prepare for this “existential threat.” “Our climate, economy and security are deeply tied to the stability of the ocean currents around us,” said Jóhann Páll Jóhannsson, Iceland’s Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — known as the AMOC — is a looping system of currents that works like a giant conveyor belt, pulling warm water from the Southern Hemisphere and tropics to the Northern Hemisphere, where it cools, sinks and flows back south. When scientists are asked which potential climate impact terrifies them most, the collapse of the AMOC is often top of the list. A growing body of research points to the AMOC slowing down, as higher global temperatures disrupt the delicate balance of heat and salinity on which its strength relies. The science is still unsettled on the likelihood and timing of any collapse, but some studies have projected it could be on course to happen this century. A shutdown of the AMOC “cannot be considered a low likelihood risk anymore in view of the evolving science over the past years,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a physical oceanographer and climatologist who has studied the AMOC at Potsdam University in Germany. The impacts would be catastrophic — ushering in huge global weather and climate shifts, including rising sea levels in parts of the US and Europe, disrupted monsoon systems affecting countries in Asia and Africa, and a winter deep freeze in Europe, with sea ice potentially creeping southward as far as the United Kingdom. Iceland “would be close to the center of a serious regional cooling,” meaning the country could be surrounded by sea ice, Rahmstorf told CNN. It’s an “an existential threat,” Jóhannsson told CNN. The AMOC regulates Iceland’s weather, and its collapse could devastate infrastructure, transport and vital industries including fishing, he said. Jóhannsson briefed the government on the latest science after research published in August raised “grave concerns” about the AMOC’s future stability. In September, Iceland’s National Security Council designated the current’s potential collapse as a national security risk, marking the first time a climate impact has received this designation in the country. The decision “reflects the seriousness of the issue and ensures that the matter gets the attention it deserves,” Jóhannsson said. In practice, the designation will mean a high-level, coordinated government response to understand the threat and work out how to prevent and mitigate the worst consequences, he said. Rahmstorf commended Iceland for its decision and said other countries should follow suit. The impacts of an AMOC collapse would be felt across the globe. Scientists are trying to understand the full range of potential impacts on societies and economies, but research has pointed to destroyed crops and catastrophic flooding. Iceland’s decision marks a shift in how the country understands climate risks, Jóhannsson said. “What we do know is that the current climate might change so drastically that it could become impossible for us to adapt,” he said. “In short, this is not just a scientific concern — it’s a matter of national survival and security.” The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. The post A crucial system of ocean currents may be on course to collapse. This country just declared it a national security threat appeared first on KRDO.

By Zoe Whitfield, CNN (CNN) — It’s not uncommon for a bar or café to remind patrons that someone famous once ate there by having a physical photograph of said VIP on display. For 36 years however, at Davé, a Chinese restaurant on Rue Saint-Roch in Paris’s 1st Arrondissement, Polaroids of beloved guests were less a marketing tactic than a key feature of the building’s interior, framed and affixed to any available wall space. The various portraits, which included those of the singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, filmmaker David Lynch, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, model Kate Moss, and entrepreneur and socialite Kim Kardashian, made up something akin to a personal album for owner Tai “Davé” Cheung. “The immediacy fascinated me,” the restauranteur told CNN, recalling his initial interest in the Polaroid. He purchased the camera, at least partly inspired by Andy Warhol, the same year he opened Davé, in 1982, a year and half after his father’s restaurant shuttered. The photographer Helmut Newton and his wife June were early fans (so much so they spent a Christmas on the premises), quickly followed by Vogue’s Grace Coddington, until eventually Davé’s clientele was near-exclusively comprised of significant figures from the arenas of fashion, film, art, literature and music, as a new book, “A Night at Davé,” celebrates. Conceived with writers Charles Morin and Boris Bergmann and released by the London publisher IDEA, the book boasts 115 pages of photographs and selfies, as well as doodles and postcards from several guests. Sofia Coppola, whose father Francis Ford Coppola once booked the entire restaurant for New Year’s Eve, wrote the foreword. “I was fourteen and the place was filled with the fashion and show business of that era, people table-hopping and hanging out, platters of Davé’s mom’s Chinese food and Davé taking Polaroids,” she recalled, characterizing the mood that night. “Somehow I ended up cozied up with Yves Saint Laurent” — one of the 20th century’s foremost designers. “A party always felt like a kind of family gathering, something intimate,” Davé, as he is habitually referred, said over email. “Everything was closed, it created a very private, familial atmosphere.” Even outside the parameters of a private party, the discreet milieu of the restaurant — largely down to Davé’s considered seating arrangements and further encouraged by the scarce lighting (the glow of a tropical fish tank in the center of the space helped somewhat) — meant famous people, who would otherwise typically be bothered by strangers, felt comfortable and relaxed enough that most would return multiple times, making Davé the place to be. Writing in The New York Times in August 1998, Dana Thomas observed, “You can gauge who’s in and who’s out simply by what happens when he or she walks into Davé,” alluding to the owner’s guarded system. That it was close to Jardin des Tuileries, where much of Paris Fashion Week played out, further enamored it to editors, stylists, and models. Indeed, in January 2005, The Guardian ran a profile of the restaurant with the headline, “Welcome to the fashion canteen” (by this point Davé had moved to new premises, about ten minutes away on Rue de Richelieu, but still within the vicinity of fashion week footfall). With its distinctive swirling logo above the front door and, famously, always with a “complet” (meaning “full”) sign in the window, a practice that meant Davé was able to ensure space was kept available for his celebrity regulars, the Polaroid was a frequent feature of any night at the restaurant. “It was very instinctive (taking photographs). I wanted to preserve the beauty and joy of those moments, I didn’t know it would become a thing,” said Davé, who was taught how to focus the camera by the photographer and director, Jean-Baptiste Mondino. “At the beginning, the Polaroids just piled up. One day someone stole one — that’s when I understood they had value, that they were objects of desire.” The images that appear in…

Análisis por Aaron Blake, CNN La próxima semana podría llegar el momento que el presidente de la Cámara de Representantes del Congreso de EE.UU., Mike Johnson, ha estado postergando de una forma u otra durante casi cuatro meses: la votación sobre si se divulgan los archivos de Jeffrey Epstein. A finales de julio Johnson adelantó un día el receso de cinco semanas de la Cámara de Representantes para sofocar una creciente rebelión republicana. Posteriormente, mantuvo a la Cámara en receso durante un período extraordinariamente largo durante el cierre del Gobierno. Esto le brindó la ventaja —ya fuera su propósito expreso o no— de tener una excusa para no juramentar al decisivo miembro número 218, necesario para forzar la votación. El presidente Donald Trump tampoco deseaba claramente esta votación. El miércoles emprendió una infructuosa campaña de última hora para convencer al puñado de republicanos que firmaron la petición de destitución. Pero la votación se acerca, y Johnson ha anunciado que la programará para la próxima semana. ¿Qué sucederá después? ¿Qué implicaciones tendrá la votación? ¿Y cuál es la dinámica política en juego? No es el final del camino, pero sin duda es un momento significativo que podría marcar un nuevo rumbo en la saga de Epstein. Lo primero que cabe destacar es que, a pesar de la oposición, esta votación no es el fin último. No es que la Cámara de Representantes apruebe el proyecto de ley y, de repente, el departamento de Justicia publique todos los archivos del caso Epstein. El proyecto de ley aún tendría que ser aprobado por el Senado y firmado por el presidente. Pero es evidente que hay una razón por la que Johnson y la administración Trump no querían la votación. El temor parece ser que: 1) esto crearía una decisión muy difícil para muchos congresistas republicanos. 2) podría presionar al Senado y a la administración para que hicieran lo mismo, especialmente si se aprueba por un amplio margen en la Cámara de Representantes. Y el amplio margen parece ser lo que muchos anticipan. CNN informó esta semana que la dirección republicana de la Cámara de Representantes prevé deserciones masivas. El principal copatrocinador republicano de la petición, el representante Thomas Massie de Kentucky, tampoco está precisamente rebajando las expectativas. Ha fijado un umbral de éxito de dos tercios de la Cámara, o casi 290 votos, si todos los miembros están presentes. Ese es el punto en el que suficientes miembros apoyan la medida como para que pueda superar un veto presidencial. “Si de alguna manera logramos obtener dos tercios de los votos aquí en la Cámara de Representantes, eso ejerce mucha presión sobre el Senado, y además, si el Senado lo aprueba, será un paso muy serio para el presidente”, apuntó Massie a CNN. Eso sí que sería una victoria muy simbólica. No solo demostraría que una amplia mayoría bipartidista de la Cámara de Representantes quiere que se publiquen los archivos, sino que sugeriría que la cámara podría, de hecho, anular el intento de Trump de bloquearlo, aunque no se llegue a dar ese caso. Se necesitarían aproximadamente 75 de los 219 republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes, si todos los demócratas votaran a favor. Varios republicanos ya han dicho que votarán a favor del proyecto de ley, a pesar de no haber apoyado la petición de destitución de Massie. (Solo cuatro firmaron la petición). También estamos viendo cómo todo esto podría empezar a tener repercusión en el Senado, donde el senador John Kennedy de Louisiana señaló rápidamente el jueves que el Partido Republicano debería optar por la total transparencia. Kennedy había votado previamente en contra de un intento inicial de los demócratas del Senado para forzar la publicación de los archivos. “No creo que este problema vaya a desaparecer hasta que se aborde y se le dé una respuesta que satisfaga al pueblo estadounidense”, manifestó Kennedy a Kasie Hunt de CNN. “Y puede que me critiquen por decir esto, pero así es como lo veo”. Los miembros…

By Kylie Atwood, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump has said he believes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s days are numbered, and that land strikes inside Venezuela are possible. Experts say that the US doesn’t currently have the military assets in place to launch a largescale operation to remove Maduro from power, though Trump has approved covert action within Venezuela, CNN has reported. But if Trump did order strikes inside Venezuela aimed at ousting Maduro, he could face serious challenges with fractured opposition elements and a military poised for insurgency, according to experts, as well as political backlash at home for a president who promised to avoid costly entanglements overseas. CNN reported that Trump received a briefing earlier this week to review updated options for military action inside Venezuela, a concept the White House has been weighing. The administration had not made a decision on whether to launch strikes, CNN reported, though the US military has moved more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops into the region as part of what the Pentagon branded Operation Southern Spear in an announcement Thursday. The concentration of military assets and threats of further attacks beyond the ongoing drug boat campaign have served to increase pressure on Maduro, with administration officials saying he needs to leave office while arguing that he’s closely tied to the Tren de Aragua gang and leading drug trafficking efforts. But if Maduro does flee Venezuela or is killed out in a targeted strike, experts worry about a military takeover of the country or the boosting of another dictator similar to Maduro. There are other members of the Venezuelan Chavismo, the leftist political ideology of former Cuban leader Hugo Chavez that Maduro has championed, who could take the reins and subject the country to even harsher rule, experts and former officials said. “Maduro has said something to the effect of, ‘You want to get rid of me? You think things will get better?’ It is something to consider because Maduro is a moderate inside the Chavismo, and someone else could usurp power instead of the opposition with the backing of the military,” said Juan Gonzalez, a resident fellow at the Georgetown Americas Institute who was a former Biden administration official focused on the region. Another possibility would be a military takeover. “If the military is still cohesive, and I don’t think we see any evidence it is not, they will not collapse because there is a challenge to or an ouster of Maduro,” said John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser in his first term. “They will follow their discipline, assert military control, and suppress anyone who goes into the streets.” Maduro, whose inner circle is made up of both civilians and military officers who are often in competition with each other, is known to have tight control over his administration and has helped stabilize competing factions. External forces, like Colombian insurgent groups who regularly operate from Venezuela or criminal syndicates linked to cocaine, gold and mineral trafficking further complicate the picture. Were Maduro to disappear, these pulls could tear the nation apart – descending into a potential civil war, experts said. “Whether you like it or not, Maduro is the guarantor of the equilibrium,” said a Western diplomat who has spent years in Venezuela, asking to speak anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss with the press. “Everyone knows he’s been politically dead since last year’s election, but if he leaves there’s nobody who can maintain the status quo … so they all close ranks around him.” Opposition Figures The Trump administration may hope that Venezuelan opposition figures would be able to step into a power vacuum created by the removal of Maduro, something that the first Trump administration considered as it propped up Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido after a 2018 election victory for Maduro that was decried…

By Kareem El Damanhoury, CNN (CNN) — Doaa Musallem’s high school grades were so good that she got a congratulatory call from the Palestinian Minister of Education. But for the 18-year-old, the celebration was bittersweet. Like some 56,000 other students from Gaza’s class of 2025, the last two years of her education have been nearly completely disrupted by Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed almost 19,000 school age children, made orphans out of thousands of others, and all but decimated the enclave’s formal education system. “Our happiness is incomplete because our supporter and the pillar of the house is not here,” she told CNN, speaking of her father, who was absent from the celebrations. Doaa’s father Bassam Musallam was critically wounded by shrapnel in November 2023, when an Israeli strike hit a neighboring house and killed his friend in central Gaza, the family told CNN. Musallam was evacuated to Egypt for medical treatment in April 2024 and has been there since, missing many milestones in his daughter’s life, including her exam results, which have gone viral. When she sent her father a photo of the celebrations, standing proudly next to her brother in her graduation gown and cap in front of a bright yellow balloon sign that read: “Congratulations,” she felt like the entire enclave was celebrating with her. “You are a hero,” Palestinian Minister of Education Amjad Barham told Doaa over the phone as he called to congratulate her on graduating high school and earning the highest grade of any student in Gaza, at 99.7%. Doaa’s joyful scene was emulated throughout Gaza Thursday, in bright moments that have been rare over the past two years. As the education ministry announced the grades for tens of thousands of high school students like Doaa, there was a buzz in the air as Palestinians set off fireworks and embraced in song and dance. Mahmoud Elyan, a recent graduate who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah to central Gaza, stood at a crowded dessert shop in his hometown with a grin on his face. “I am happy beyond words,” he told Palestinian state TV. “I am here to buy desserts and hand them out to people because it’s been a long time that people haven’t seen desserts after two years of war and displacement.” For others, graduation day is a reminder of that suffering. Student Doha Nazmi Abu Dalal, who had been displaced in Deir el Balah, central Gaza, achieved a near perfect GPA. But she was killed less than a month before she could see how her hard work had paid off. Abu Dalal, along with 17 members of her family, was killed in an Israeli strike on October 29, weeks after the ceasefire was implemented, according to hospital authorities. A ‘scholasticide’ Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since October 7, 2023, has decimated the education system in Gaza, leaving it on the brink of collapse, according to UNICEF, and prompting accusations from UN experts of a scholasticide, or the systematic destruction of a country’s education. Israel has repeatedly said Hamas uses schools and universities as part of its infrastructure to store weapons or as command centers. It has not addressed the scholasticide accusation directly. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) previously told CNN it seeks to minimize civilian harm while Hamas “cynically exploits civilian infrastructure for terror purposes.” Israeli attacks have damaged or destroyed over 97% of schools in Gaza, according to UNICEF, leaving hundreds of thousands of children with limited access to in-person learning. At least 18,591 school age students have been killed and 27,216 injured over the course of the war, according to the Palestinian education ministry figures. In addition, some 792 educational staff have been killed and 3,251 injured. Al-Hassan Ali Radwan is one of the Palestinian students who experienced the loss of one of his loved ones when his cousin and study buddy was killed during the war. Like his classmates, Al-Hassan had to navigate the challenges of online…