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Today is Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. And we begin with troubling news for the icon of the Antarctic. Emperor

penguins are now considered an endangered species, not just near threatened. The status change

was just made by the global network of scientists, governments, and conservation groups known as

the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

According to the IUCN and reported by CBS News, global warming will reshape the entire Antarctic continent and devastate the animals that call it home.

Emperor penguins, the biggest of the species, rely on sea ice to live, hunt, and breed.

The IUCN believes changes to that ice could drop the Emperor Penguin population in half by the 2080s.

We're midway through a wild week of weather in the U.S.

It began with at least 10 tornadoes, winds up to 115 miles an hour, a series of thunderstorms, and softball-sized

hail hitting parts of Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and the danger for

125 million Americans isn't over yet. Forecasters expect violent storms to linger for the

southern plains to Great Lakes

through Friday. On the flip side, the northeast is basking in summertime temps in the 80s, while

California dries out from inches of late-season rain and feet of springtime snow in the mountains.

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