Red Cross warns of heat, water, grill risks this Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer, and as thousands of Georgians pack up their car to take a vacation over the long-weekend, the American Red Cross is offering some safety tips.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), 1.3 million Georgians will travel at least 50 miles from home for Memorial Day weekend.

Red Cross is sharing guidance on how to stay safe throughout the summer during travel, near water, when dealing with heat-related illnesses and while grilling.

With temperatures rising, bodies of water are a popular destination for many travelers. Drivers heading out should be well rested, wear seatbelts and take frequent breaks along the way.

Suzanne Lawler, Red Cross public information officer, said it’s important to use the buddy system when entering the water.

“We did it when we were kids, right? Whether you are a teenager, an adult, or a child, swim with a buddy just so you know where each other are,” Lawler said.

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Spending time in the sun and swimming can be enjoyable, but heat-related illness can set in quickly. Mild dehydration symptoms can develop within one to two hours of intense physical activity or exposure to high heat.

Pets are also vulnerable to extreme heat, with heat stroke sometimes becoming fatal. Dogs with long coats or short snouts, such as pugs and French bulldogs, are at higher risk. Signs of heat stroke include excessive panting, brick-red gums or lethargy.

“You know your dog’s personality,” Lawler said.

Burgers and hot dogs on the grill can be a sign of good weather and fellowship on a summer’s day, but, on average, more than 10,000 home fires in the United States are caused by grills.

Lawler said grills should always be used outdoors on a sturdy, flat surface — never under a carport or in a sunroom. Here are safety tips from the American Red Cross' website:

Grilling safety tips:

• Keep the grill out in the open, away from the house, deck, tree branches or anything that could catch fire. 

• Always supervise a barbecue grill when in use. Don’t add charcoal starter fluid when coals have already been ignited.

• Never grill indoors — not in the house, camper, tent or any enclosed area.

• Make sure everyone, including pets, stays away from the grill.

Safe travel tips:

• Be well rested and alert, use your seat belts, observe speed limits and follow the rules of the road.

• If you plan on drinking alcohol, designate a driver who won’t drink.

• Give your full attention to the road. Avoid distractions such as cell phones.

• Use caution in work zones. There are lots of construction projects underway on the highways.

• Don’t follow other vehicles too closely.

• Don’t overdrive your headlights (drive at a speed where you can stop within the distance you can see).

Beach safety tips:

• Pack a first aid kit to handle insect stings, sprains, cuts and bruises and other injuries that could happen to someone in your group. Take a Red Cross First Aid and CPR course and download the First Aid app so that you will know what to do in case help is delayed. You’ll learn how to treat severe wounds, broken bones, bites and stings and more.

• Sprains and falls are some of the most common misfortunes travelers may face. Falls are the biggest threat, many due to poor decision-making, lack of skill or not being properly prepared. Dehydration is also a danger. Plan ahead for these dangers.

• Share your travel plans and locations with a family member, neighbor or friend.

• Bring nutritious food items and water, light-weight clothing to layer and supplies for any pets.

Summer and pet safety tips:

• Don’t leave your pet in a hot vehicle, even for a few minutes. The inside temperature of the car can quickly reach 120 degrees even with the windows cracked open.

• If you suspect your pet has heat stroke, take their temperature rectally. If the temperature is above 105 degrees, cool the animal down. The easiest way to do this is by using the water hose. Stop cooling the animal when the temperature reaches 103 degrees

• Bring your pet to the veterinarian as soon as possible as heat stroke can lead to severe organ dysfunction and damage. Download the Red Cross Pet First Aid app for instant access on how to treat heat stroke, other emergencies and general care for cats and dogs and take the Cat and Dog First Aid Online Training course.

Ansley Franco is a reporter with the Savannah Morning News, covering public safety and general assignments. You can reach her at AFranco@gannett.com. - Google Search

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News:Stay safe this Memorial Day with travel, heat and water safety tips

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 23, 2026

Red Cross warns of heat, water, grill risks this Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer, and as thousands of Georgians pack up their car to take a vacation over the long-weeken...

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Pope Leo decries 'dizzying' profits earned by companies that pollute

By Ciro De Luca and Joshua McElwee

Pope Leo visits Acerra

ACERRA, Italy, May 23 (Reuters) - Pope Leo on Saturday called out companies who seek "dizzying" profits at the cost of environmental pollution, on a ‌visit to an area in Italy known as a hotbed for illegal dumping of toxic ‌waste.

On a visit to Acerra, about 220 km (137 miles) south of Rome, the first U.S. pope urged the world to "reject temptations ​of power and enrichment linked to practices that pollute the land, water, air, and social coexistence."

Leo said he wanted to come to the area near Naples known as the "Land of Fires", where the European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that authorities had failed to protect residents from waste dumping since at least ‌1988, to "gather the tears" of families who ⁠had lost loves ones to related illnesses.

Arriving by popemobile in an outside square on a sunny spring day, Leo was greeted by people waving small yellow and ⁠white Vatican flags and wearing yellow hats, some holding up posterboards with pictures of family members who had died.

Leo, who in recent months has been speaking more forcefully and will issue his first major document on Monday, ​said "unscrupulous ​people and organizations have been allowed to act with ​impunity for too long". During his four-hour visit ‌to Acerra, he also referred to "the dizzying profits of a few, blind to the needs of people, their work and their future." He also met with victims.

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For years, collection, treatment and disposal of garbage in southern Italy was largely in the hands of a small group of private owners, with contracts sometimes tied to the Camorra, a mafia group based around Naples.

In January 2025 the European court found that Italian ‌authorities had repeatedly failed to act to stop illegal dumping ​in a region also known as the "Triangle of Death", due ​to abnormally high rates of cancer for ​local residents.

The court gave the Italian government two years to establish a comprehensive database ‌of toxic waste sites and communicate the ​risks to the public.

Prime Minister ​Giorgia Meloni in February 2025 appointed an Italian general to head a task force aimed at helping victims and pursuing environmental clean-up.

Leo will issue his first encyclical, a major text, to ​the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, on ‌Monday. It is expected to address the rise of AI and how the technology is ​being used in warfare and challenging workers' rights.

(Reporting by Ciro De Luca in Acerra ​and Joshua McElwee in Rome; Editing by Susan Fenton)

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 23, 2026

Pope Leo decries 'dizzying' profits earned by companies that pollute

By Ciro De Luca and Joshua McElwee Pope Leo visits Acerra ACERRA, Italy, May 23 (Reuters) - Pope Leo on Saturday called out c...

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At least 90 dead in China's worst coal mine disaster in over 16 years

SHANGHAI, May 23 (Reuters) - At least 90 people were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in ‌China's northern province of Shanxi, the country's deadliest mining ‌accident since at least 2009.

Rescuers work at the site following a gas explosion at Liushenyu coal mine

The gas explosion occurred late on Friday at the Liushenyu ​coal mine in Qinyuan county, with 247 workers on duty underground, state media Xinhua reported.

The mine is operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Group Liushenyu Coal Industry, which was established in 2010 and is controlled ‌by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal ⁠Coking Group, according to corporate database Qichacha.

Rescue operations were ongoing and the cause of the accident was ⁠under investigation, according to the local emergency management authority in Qinyuan. Shanxi is China's coal-mining heartland.

President Xi Jinping called for authorities to "spare no ​effort" in ​treating the injured and conducting ​search and rescue operations, while ‌ordering a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident and strict accountability in accordance with the law, according to Xinhua.

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Premier Li Qiang called for timely and accurate release of information and rigorous accountability.

China has significantly reduced coal mine fatalities - often caused by ‌gas explosions or flooding - since the early ​2000s through more stringent regulations and ​safer practices.

In 2009, a ​coal and gas outburst in Heilongjiang Province killed 108 ‌people and injured 133.

Executives of ​the company responsible ​for the mine have been detained, Xinhua reported.

Shanxi provincial authorities have dispatched seven rescue and medical teams totalling 755 personnel ​to the site, the ‌emergency management bureau at Qinyuan said.

(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom ​and Fabiola Arámburo in Mexico City; Editing by Tom ​Hogue, Kim Coghill and William Mallard)

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 23, 2026

At least 90 dead in China's worst coal mine disaster in over 16 years

SHANGHAI, May 23 (Reuters) - At least 90 people were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in ‌China's northern province of Shan...

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Big Ten stole the SEC's playbook for CFP. That's bad for a 16-team field

TheBig Tenholds the cards, and it’s showing theSECits hand.

The numbers are 12 or 24.

"We've had zero conversation about 16 (playoff teams)," Big Ten commissioner Tony Petittisaid at the conference’s spring meetings in California.

That’s the line in the sand.

If the SEC wants to expand theCollege Football Playoff, then the number is 24, a number set by Petitti.

Or, the playoff can stay at 12 teams, a format the Big Ten has dominated in its brief existence.

Petitti’s hardball stance amounts to a move ripped from the Greg Sankey playbook.

Big Ten steals SEC's power-move playbook

You’ll remembera few years ago, Sankey held the best cards in playoff expansion talks. The SEC's commissioner wasn’t afraid to use them.

When other conference commissioners supported an eight-team playoff that included six automatic bids for conference champions, Sankey erected a firewall.

Sankey laid out three options:

1. Status quo of a four-team playoff, which the SEC dominated.

2. An eight-team playoff with no automatic bids and only at-large selections.

3. A 12-team playoff that’d include a mix of automatic and at-large bids.

The eight-team playoff, with six AQs, died on the vine because the SEC vehemently opposed it.

After some squabbling, Option 3 emerged as the winner.

Now, the shoe has switched feet, and the Big Ten is setting the terms for the playoff’s size.

The SEC must choose between a format the Big Ten rules (12) or an expansion model the Big Ten suggested (24), instead of the format SEC headquarters prefers (16, including 11 at-large bids).

So much for theSEC-B1G buddy groupthe conferences announced two years ago, in a pledge to team up to solve problems together.

Petitti, a former MLB Network executive, took the reins of the Big Ten in 2023. He swiftly learned college athletics is a get-mine business and no place for friendship bracelets.

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A 24-team College Football Playoff? No thanks

I’m opposed to a 24-team bracket. It would turn an already long playoff into a five-round affair and bulldoze the playoff’s exclusivity, by opening access to 8-4 teams.

Most importantly, it would devalue the greatest regular season in all of sports.

Petitti likes to point to MLB’s playoff expansion — it went from eight to 10 to ultimately 12 teams — as a model for the CFP.

He’s comparing apples to oranges. It’s absurd to compare a sport with a 162-game regular season and a full complement of games each day to a sport with a 12-game regular season that turns each fall Saturday into appointment viewing.

College basketballserves as a better comparisonfor what Petitti attempts to do to college football.

In a rare act of teamwork,Sankey and Petitti helped muscle through March Madness expansion to 76 teams.College basketball’s regular season is low-stakes filler. At 76 teams, a power-conference team might need only to finish barely above .500 to earn tournament selection. The college basketball diehards watch throughout a monthslong regular season, but most folks wander in when March arrives, as the postseason nears.

Hey, that works for college basketball, which is a tournament sport. College football is distinctly not a tournament sport. It’s always been more of a rivalry-Saturday kind of a sport, where every outcome matters.

Will SEC cave to Big Ten demands?

Although I object Petitti’s vision for the playoff, I understand why he’s not motivated to meet in the middle at 16. He’s paid to represent the Big Ten, and a 16-team bracket would be a greater benefit to the SEC, based on recent history.

Plus, a mega-sized playoff like the 24-teamer the Big Ten supports would allow Fox, its media rights partner, a chance at getting a piece of the playoff pie.

ESPN, the SEC’s media partner and CFP rights holder, prefers a playoff of no more than 16.

With Petitti’s line in the sand drawn, next week’s SEC spring meetings will test Sankey’s power and mettle. They’ll also offer a peek at what size playoff the conference’s presidents and chancellors prefer. Those campus administrators are the quiet but powerful brokers in these negotiations, more so than coaches or athletic directors.

Consider the SEC a company where Sankey functions as CEO serving at the pleasure of the presidents and chancellors, who operate as the company’s board of directors.

Georgia president Jere Morehead, an influential voice among the SEC's presidents and chancellors,told The Athletica 24-team playoff would be "a mistake." Morehead added he thinks the SEC's university brass will follow Sankey's guidance.

Can Sankey persuade the SEC’s presidents and chancellors to stay at 12 teams, if 16 isn’t possible? At 12 teams,the SEC doesn't face a playoff access problem. It received more bids to the 12-team bracket in two years than any other conference. Playoff performance has become the SEC’s issue, a problem that’s not inherently solved by expansion.

A 24-team playoff likely would end conference championship games. If Sankey could convince university administrators the SEC championship game is a sacred cash cow worth saving, that might extend the life of the 12-team playoff.

Don’t expect a solution at the SEC meetings, but they’ll be a bellwether of the conference’s latest playoff mood.

The Big Ten discarded the 16-team option. The SEC has six months to decide which card to choose from the Big Ten's hand: 12 or 24.

Blake Toppmeyeris the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him atBToppmeyer@gannett.comand follow him on X@btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:SEC's College Football Playoff plans for 16 teams boxed out by Big Ten

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 22, 2026

Big Ten stole the SEC's playbook for CFP. That's bad for a 16-team field

TheBig Tenholds the cards, and it’s showing theSECits hand. The numbers are 12 or 24. "We've had zero conversation about...

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It’s all over now: Jagger’s A-list party broken up by police

It was a star-studded celebration to wrap up weeks of filming on one of the most dramatic and remote islands in the Mediterranean.

But a post-production party thrown on the volcanic island of Stromboli forSir Mick Jagger, Dakota Johnson, Josh O’Connor and a host of other British and American celebrities has fallen foul of local bylaws and zealous officials. It was unceremoniously broken up by Italian police on Wednesday night.

The officers were sent in on the orders of the mayor of Lipari, a neighbouring island, which is the administrative centre of theAeolian archipelago, a scatter of impressive outcrops which lie between Calabria and Sicily.

He said the party contravened noise control regulations.

The intervention of the police was met, according to local media, with “perplexity mixed with hilarity” by 82-year-old Sir Mick and his co-stars, who included the Irish actress and singer Jessie Buckley, Saoirse Ronan, and Hollywood actressIsabella Rossellini.

Rossellini has a close personal connection to the island – her father Roberto directed the 1950 cult film Stromboli, which was shot on the island, and had an affair with its leading lady, the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, whom he later married.

Sir Mick and the cast and crew have spent the past few weeks filming an adaptation of an illustrated book called Three Incestuous Sisters by the American writerAudrey Niffenegger.

The book is about three sisters who live together in a house by the sea and vie for the romantic attentions of the lighthouse keeper’s son.

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Sir Mick plays the lighthouse keeper in the gothic drama, which is directed by Italian director Alice Rohrwacher. His son is played by O’Connor, who received plaudits for his portrayal of Prince Charles in the Netflix drama The Crown.

While on Stromboli, Sir Mick reportedly stayed in a villa where Roberto Rossellini began his affair with Bergman.

Row between the two islands

The break-up of the film party this week prompted a row between thetwo islands.

Rosa Oliva, the head of the tourist office on Stromboli, said it was a mean-spirited decision by Riccardo Gullo, the mayor of Lipari.

Rather than being “valued and supported” after a tough winter of bad weather and suspended ferry services, Stromboli had been “penalised”.

The celebrities should have been welcomed with open arms, rather than subjected to a “punitive intervention”, she said.

“From the mayor of Lipari, one would have expected a welcome to the guests, or at least a greeting and a thank you for their crucial contribution to the Aeolian economy and their visibility. Our islands live off tourism,” she said.

It is not known whether the reaction of the Rolling Stones’ frontman was annoyance or amusement.

Either way, he left the island on Thursday by private helicopter.

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 22, 2026

It’s all over now: Jagger’s A-list party broken up by police

It was a star-studded celebration to wrap up weeks of filming on one of the most dramatic and remote islands in the Mediterranean. ...

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