Africa faces an increasingly heavy toll from climate change with many countries having to spend up to 9 percent of their budgets battling climate extremes, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report said on Monday.
Despite producing far lower greenhouse gas emissions than other continents, Africa’s temperatures have risen more rapidly than the global average.
African countries are now losing on average 2 percent–5 percent of gross domestic product responding to deadly heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, cyclones, and prolonged droughts, said the WMO’s State of the Climate in Africa 2023 report.
For sub-Saharan Africa, adapting to the changing climate will cost an estimated $30-50 billion per year over the next decade, it said, urging countries to invest in state meteorological and hydrological services and to speed up the implementation of early warning systems to save lives.
The warning comes as African countries mull how to use this year’s UN COP meetings to secure a bigger share of global climate financing.
The 54-nation continent has been attracting more funds for climate mitigation and adaptation projects in recent years, but it still gets less than 1 percent of annual global climate financing, government officials said earlier in August.
Africa faces steep costs as temperatures soar, says WMO
https://arab.news/zjykz
Africa faces steep costs as temperatures soar, says WMO
Iran hacking group claims attack on US medical company
- It issued an open warning to what it described as “Zionist leaders and their lobbies,” adding: “This is only the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare.”
WASHINGTON: An Iran-linked hacking group claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a sweeping cyberattack on US medical technology giant Stryker, saying it had wiped more than 200,000 systems and extracted 50 terabytes of data in retaliation for military strikes on Iran.
“Our major cyber operation has been executed with complete success,” Handala said in a statement, describing the attack as retaliation for what it called “the brutal attack on the Minab school” and for “ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure of the Axis of Resistance.”
The group said it had shut down Stryker offices in 79 countries and that all extracted data was “now in the hands of the free people of the world.”
It issued an open warning to what it described as “Zionist leaders and their lobbies,” adding: “This is only the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare.”
Founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Stryker is a global medical device giant with some 56,000 employees and $25.12 billion in 2025 revenues, making everything from orthopedic implants and surgical instruments to hospital beds and robotic surgery systems.
The Handala group later posted that it had also carried out an attack on Verifone, which specializes in electronic and point-of-sale payments.
The outages began shortly after 0400 GMT on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Windows devices — including laptops and mobile phones connected to Stryker’s networks — were remotely wiped.
