Drought uncovers body of suspected mob victim and gun in Las Vegas lake

• Economy The drought that empties the Rhine puts river transport and the supply chain at risk in Germany

US police on Thursday reported the discovery of a

in a dry Las Vegas lakebed near where they found a

that detectives link to the

.

The rapid retreat of

has brought up

this year, sparking speculation that the body inside the barrel may be the work of gangsters in this gambling haven.

Police have released few details about the finds, but the victim discovered in May was shot in the head and concealed in the barrel before being thrown into the lake, in typical Las Vegas hitman style in the 1970s and 1970s. 1980.

"A firearm has been recovered at Lake Mead National Recreation Area on August 17, 2022, very close to where one of the human remains was found," Las Vegas police tweeted.

Days after the barrel was found, another body was found.

A third was found in July and this month two sets of skeletal remains have been discovered in the Swim Beach area.

The

gripping much of the western United States is straining water supplies, with reservoirs and lakes dropping to record lows.

Lake Mead was once 365 meters above sea level.

But after more than two decades of drought, it is rapidly shrinking, falling to 317 meters on Thursday.

Scientists say man-made climate change, fueled by uncontrolled burning of hydrocarbons, is exacerbating the natural cycle of drought.

the hunger stones

The severe drought in Germany is exposing the so-called

​​- Hunger Stones - which contain warnings, in some cases centuries old, related to the danger of famines that the low level of the rivers brought in the past.

"If you see me, cry,"

says the inscription on some of the stones that can be seen again and that are part of a tradition that dates back to the fifteenth century.

This legend appears, for example, on a stone found in the Elbe River, dating from

In the 19th century, many travellers, in times of drought, recorded the Hungersteine ​​and wrote about them.

The current drought in Germany has brought the level of the rivers to historical lows, which have found Hungersteine ​​that were completely forgotten.

​​have been found, according to the newspaper "Sachsische Zeitung"

.

Usually those who wrote the warning also wrote the date of the drought.

On the Elbe

.

The warning, "If you see me, cry," has been linked to the fact that one of the consequences of the drought was crop failure, which in turn could lead to famine.

Several years are recorded in many stones in which the drought caused them to come back to the surface.

Currently, the problem is not so much the threat that the drought implies for agriculture as the problems that the low level of the rivers brings to river transport, which, according to the Confederation of German Industry (BDI), is a threat to supply chains, which can affect all economic activity.

In addition to the problems for the industry, the drought and the low level of the rivers represent an

The increase in water temperature and the low level of rivers create, according to experts, a toxic combination for fish and other animals."

We have little water in the Rhine due to the drought.

In addition we have high temperatures in the water and the combination of the two factors is somewhat toxic for the inhabitants of the Rhine," climate expert Karsten Brandt told "Der Spiegel" magazine.

According to Brandt, what is happening is that what climate change models have been announcing for years, although for some time there has been hope that Germany and Central Europe would be less affected by the crisis.

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