Disaster

The appearance of an oil tanker, washed up and grounded on the shores of Liberia in west Africa with no crew or life boats, remains a mystery and a security concern. The Maritime Executive reports: The ship was abandoned when discovered by local residents, leading to speculation (but no confirmed reports) regarding the crew’s whereabouts. Farbric Radio reports that fishermen had spotted the vessel near the town of Taililor on Monday, and had not seen either crew or lifeboats aboard; the station said that she may have already been abandoned at the time she went aground.

NASA’s MESSENGER has revealed a Topographic map of Mercury after the spacecraft ran out of fuel and slammed into the planet’s surface last year, bringing an extraordinary eleven year mission to a successful end. The Planetary Data System (PDS) released the first global elevation model of Mercury’s surface on Friday.  MESSENGER Mission News reports: The global topographic model was among three new products released today by the Planetary Data System (PDS), an organization that archives and distributes all of NASA’s planetary mission data.

Yesterday we showed dramatic footage from various dash cams capturing the "apocalyptic" inferno that has made a burning ghost town out of Fort McMurray and is still raging in the heart of the Alberta oil sands. Today we present something more personal: in the following clip, Fort McMurray resident James O’Reilly watches on his iPhone as his home of almost 20 years burned to the ground just minutes after he and his wife fled the oncoming wildfire.

The fire burning in the middle of Canada's oil sands, which as reported earlier has led to the evacuation of over 80,000 local residents, has resulted in is set to trim oil output by about 500kbp for about 10 days, has been described as "apocalyptic." The following dash cam videos which have captured the reality for some 80,000 local residents demonstrate why. 

Earlier today, Obama landed in Flint, Michigan, his first visit to the city since its contaminated drinking water crisis began two years ago. Air Force One landed at Bishop International Airport and Gov. Rick Snyder was among the officials waiting on the tarmac to greet the president.

With him, Obama brought a message of hope to residents of Flint, Michigan: a promise for change after lead from old pipes tainted their drinking water.