For the first time in roughly 40 years, the Gulf of Panama's seasonal upwelling failed to occur in 2025. Upwelling is a process where strong seasonal winds push warm surface water aside, drawing cold, nutrient-rich water up from the deep. That cold water feeds phytoplankton, which anchors the entire marine food chain in the region. Without it, ocean productivity drops and coastal waters warm. Researchers attribute the failure to unusually weak winds this season. Normally, those winds are reliable enough that marine ecosystems and the fisheries depending on them have built seasonal rhythms around the event. Its absence in 2025 broke a pattern stretching back at least four decades. The practical concern is what this means for fish populations, local fisheries, and the broader marine food web in one of the Pacific's more productive coastal zones. Scientists are watching whether this is a one-off anomaly or a sign that climate-driven wind pattern shifts could make upwelling failures more frequent. No recovery timeline has been confirmed.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have warned that oil tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz without authorisation risk being stopped, even as one tanker proceeded through the waterway. The threat could push up war-risk insurance premiums and crude prices, with major importers like India directly exposed.
Iran and the US traded fresh strikes over the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran hitting US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait and Washington striking Iranian sites near Sirik. The exchanges threaten to collapse a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire signed June 18, with global oil markets exposed to renewed Hormuz disruption.
Iran's IRGC struck US military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday for a third straight day, while Trump threatened Iran would "no longer exist" if the US resumes full war.
Venezuela's earthquake death toll has reached 1,430 with the US Geological Survey warning fatalities could top 10,000, placing it among Latin America's deadliest in a century. US military planes are landing in Caracas, Washington is mobilising $150 million in aid, and rescue teams from 17 countries are on the ground.
