♪ california sky ♪ ♪ todos alcanzamos las estrellas ♪ ♪ sunny state of mind ♪ ♪ flexin' all the time ♪ ♪ todo es dorado ♪ ♪ feels so golden ♪ ♪ vive en el estado dorado ♪ >> now from abc 7, live breaking news. kristen: up a pair that was threatening homes. let's give you a look at the area. this is a north bay. sky 7 arrived over the scene five minutes ago. you can see it is burning in a

densely populated area. there are roads, buildings. this is near silverado middle school. there are preliminary reports the school was evacuated. there is a summer program there today, and here sky 7 over the scene. you can see that charred area. fire fighters certainly look like they got a handle on it and may have put out the fire. moments ago, they said they had stopped forward moving progress, but they made quick work. evacuation center has been set up at the napa valley expo center we cruise and fire trucks, cutting what looks to be containment lines. you don't see flames in the area now. . they have been dousing the smoldering grass and the trees. early reports are that the forward progress stopped after 15 acres. sky 7 can show you that you see fields, schools, very much close by. this is time lapse video from

minutes ago from the uc san diego alert california streaming camera. that showed us as the smoke poured from the scene as the fire was burning actively. but as sky 7 shows us live now, that appears to have stopped at the moment with the charred 15 acres. we are working to get more details. we will bring you updates as we get them. now to are getting answers segment. a controversy is growing over proposed changes to the test but immigrants have to take to become a naturalized u.s. citizen. should it become harder? we will talk with a political science professor about how our naturalization test compares to that of other countries. you want to grab your phone because we will give you a chance to see and answer those questions at abc7news.com/vote. if airbnb bookings are one indicator of healthy tourism, then san francisco is in bad shape. san francisco standard looks at

plunging booking levels in the city and how airbnb hosts our cooking. first, yesterday was not only the fourth of july, it was also the hottest day on earth on record. an unofficial record was broken. today may bring forth another record. . joining us to discuss what this means is crisfield, the director of the was institute for the environment at stanford university. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you for having me. kristen: how hot was it yesterday from a global sense? >> the average temperature of the whole world yesterday was just about 63 degrees. that does not sound so hot. remember, that has places like the southeast that are really baking. it also has antarctica in the whole summer -- southern hemisphere. this is really remarkable that we are seeing global highest temperature ever. kristen: met 63 degrees is how much higher comparatively to 30

years ago, 40 years ago? chris: the whole world has warmed by about two degrees. the record temperature had been pretty close to this. it had been within a few tenths of -- few tenths of a you can think of these record temperatures as a strong exclamation point on the idea that quibble warming is occurring. kristen: can i ask you quickly before we move further, why is this an unofficial record? how is it measured? chris: this measurement is taken from satellites that cover the whole world every day. it is unofficial because this is the first analysis of those data sets. once there has been more careful checking, week confident about whether or not it really is validated as the officially hottest day ever. which of course is likely to be surpassed by a hotter day in the near future. kristen: right. i want to ask you, obviously records are broken all the time.

. is the concern here that they are being broken more frequency after shorter in and are intervals -- shorter and shorter intervals? chris: this is the hottest day in the satellite record, which started in the late 1970's. it really shows we are on a rising trend of temperatures and we have an expectation that next year will be hotter than this, in the year after that will be hotter than that, unless we get ahead of the problem and cut the emissions of the heat trapping gases causing global warming. kristen: before we dive deeply into the unless, i want to ask you, what do these higher temperatures translate into in terms of our human experiences around the world? chris: remember, the weather that people experience is different everywhere. currently, we are having punishing heat waves in many locations in the u.s., in the southwest, southeast. even in the northeast. those are combined with other

places where it is unseasonably cool. the average is made of and thousands of observations. what we're seeing is mor drifting warmer and more are drifting into this punishing era of representing really dangerous heat waves. kristen: does this mean and have we already seen more people falling ill, perhaps more people dying? chris: the heat waves are occurring with really increased around the world. in some places, we are getting better at managing the heat waves. in many, we are not. heat is a profound influence on people's health, their ability to work, and what we're seeing is the emergence of heat is a really important factor limiting overall economic activity as well as human health. kristen: since the temperatures

are rising quickly, quickly historically speaking, can human bodies adapt that quickly to catch up to these warmer conditions? chris: people are not very good at changing their physiology to adapt to higher temperatures. in general, the best thing people can do to stay safe is to stay out of the sun, stay well hydrated if they have to be outside, and if you don't have access to air-conditioning, to take advantage of cooling centers that many cities provide and provide a way to get away from the hottest part of the day. kristen: i understand that antarctica, you think of it as very cold, but it is a lot warmer than 30 years ago as well. not a lot of humans there but the warming is having a profound effect on all of us too, right? chris: the largest amount of human caused warming has occurred at the polls, in the north pole and the south pole.

we are seeing the implications of that in the loss of sea ice, especially in the north. and near the south pole, what we are seeing is large amounts of ice being converted into water, rising sea levels. the implications of warming at the polls really impact everybody, especially everybody in these regions. kristen: around here, we have seen more wildfires. canada as well. and of course we had a weird winter. now that we have established one degree makes a huge difference on a macro level, what can we do? chris: is to amp up efforts to decrease emissions of e trapping gases. california has been a leader historically. there is still a lot more to do. one of the things we need to think about in the u.s. is

helping other countries with their admissions reductions. the second thing we need to do is be investing more in helping people and communities cope with the client -- the climate changes that can't be avoided. that can mean everything from early warning systems, cooling centers, to making sure the electricity grid is stable so people don't suffer power failures during times of intense heat waves. kristen: right. let me ask you, and we don't want to think about it, it is perhaps frightening, but if we stay on this path, if we don't make the changes quickly enough, how will things be for us in 10 years or 50 years? what do you foresee? chris: increasing frequency of extreme events. that includes heat waves, it includes intense rainfall. it includes coastal floods.

in the american west, we know it includes an increase risk of wildfires and exposure to wildfire smoke. there is really no alternative to cutting the emissions of the heat trapping gases. california has an ambitious program to reduce emissions to zero by 2045. it is really important that we stick with that, and that we provide the leadership that helps other states and nations around the world be ambitious with their in missions reductions. kristen: dr. chris field with the woods institute for the environment at stanford university, thank you so much. chris: thank you very much. kristen: the u.s. naturalization test that immigrants need to pass to become a citizen is being updated. some advocates are concerned it will become too hard. could you pass it? our interactive test is coming up. . grab your phone and head to abc7news.com/vote.

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kristen: more than 5500 people took the oath to become u.s. citizens this past week. . the ceremony on the hornet on june 30 was one of 180 naturalization ceremonies that u.s. citizenship and immigration services held across the country independence week. . before these new americans were minted, they had to pass a citizenship test. at all-important test is currently being updated, and some immigrants and advocates are worried the changes may hurt them. get your phones out because we are going to pose the naturalization test questions to you. go to abc7news.com/vote. joining us to discuss the test and the proposed changes, u.s. -- uc irvine dr. sarah wallace

goodman. thank you for joining us. >> think you for having me. kristen: full disclosure, i took a naturalization test that can the 1980's. photos -- i passed, obviously. for those who are not familiar, why is the reason behind? why do we do this? >> there is a debate about that actually. the general idea is we want citizenship to be this meaningful experience. when you obtain citizenship and anyone who has participated in a naturalization ceremony will attest that it is a meaningful milestone in your life. the test prepares individuals for that process. others would maintain instead of finishing an integration process, it helps you integrate further. we make a test to make it meaningful, not just as a reward, but to help you along the way, in job placement or social activity, or political participation. kristen: the questions are geared toward that.

they are government or civic or history? dr. goodman: that's right. there are two components to the test. there is the language component where they test on english, than there is specific test where they testing one general knowledge, how many senators there are, who is your senator, what ocean, gorges california. geographic knowledge, historical knowledge, political knowledge. kristen: to give you an idea of yours, here is one question from the list of possible questions to study from. here it is. how many amendments does the constitution have? 18, 24, or 27. dr. wallace goodman, don't answer this. go to abc7news.com/vote to answer. we will keep this up and we will reveal how our audience did at the end of the segment. how many of these questions are there on the current test, and how many do you have to get right? dr. goodman: there are 10 questions on the current test and you have to get six out of 10. kristen: 60%.

they do provide you with a list. these are the ones that could be on the test. dr. goodman: you can get it from a library, downloaded. it is widely available . the whole question bank are prepared -- are of able to prepare. kristen: it is updated every 15 years. the new version is due next year. what are the key proposed changes? dr. goodman: there are two key changes. sometimes the changes more than 50 -- 15 years. during the trump it changed again. there are two components out that are proposed to be changed. the first is on the language test, instead of a conversation about your application, it would be you being shown pictures and asked to disbar -- to describe the pictures. in social sciences, we call this navigational integration. they want to see that you understand or you have ordinary usage of language.

. that is the first proposed change. instead of talking about your application, you are talking about experiences in everyday life. you were shown pictures and you can describe them with high basic english. the second composed changes to the civics test. instead of being an oral exam, that the immigration officer would ask you the questions, it would be a multiple-choice exam that you would read. kristen: what is the controversy arise? where is it that immigrants and advocacy groups are concerned? i will think multiple-choice might be easier. i could be wrong. but also the part about describing short scenarios orally. what is the concern there? dr. goodman: you will have concerns on both sides. the ordinary usage concern is that it is more vocabulary that an immigrant might need to know in order to describe events, whereas maybe they were able to prepare the kinds of vocabulary they already included in their preparation materials.

that is a concern about the english-language component, and about the civics component, there are concerns that reading and choosing from multiple-choice questions requires more knowledge. so you have to know the founding fathers, and you are even four, he would have to know that person is not a founding father to identify the correct answer. that is a different concern of multiple choices. that some people are stronger and oral english, as opposed to reading english. any test is as hard as it most challenged student. if you are coming into this exam and you are a british citizen, this test is not -- these changes are not going to be as difficult as if you are an immigrant from a non-english speaking country, or an immigrant from a refugee background who has language delays or traumatic experiences, or under educated, according to the test levels we have.

kristen: how does the content and difficulty of our test compared to other country's national -- naturalization test? dr. goodman: along almost every metric, the u.s. citizen ship test is easier. it is offered at a lower level of english compared to the english level expected in the u.k. or the german level. there is less questions on the test. the pass rate is lower. you need 60% to pass the u.s. citizenship test. you need 75% to pass the u.k. test. you have higher passage rates overall. about 90% of people who take the u.s. citizenship test passed it, versus 80% in the u.k. along lots of metrics. my favorite, because i am a professor, is they give you the questions ahead of time, so you can study the questions. whereas in the u.k., they give

you a study guide and you read it and it could be anything in that study guide. it could be, who built the tower of london? what is the percentage of muslims in the u.k.? it could be anything. that makes it intrinsically more difficult, especially if you don't have an education background. kristen: you can take it more than once here. if you fail, you can come back and do it again. dr. goodman: that's right. kristen: immigration will not conduct a trial of proposed changes, get feedback from the public. then get expert way in as well. dr. goodman: that's right. kristen: our time is running out. we will see how the body instead with the simple question. 27% of you -- sorry, 82% of you said the u.s. constitution has 27 amendments. professor, did they pass? dr. goodman: great job. kristen: that is the answer. i'm sure nobody googled on the device they used to vote on. thank you for this conversation. fascinating and educational. dr. goodman: thanks for having me.

bookings are plunging as san francisco battles bad press internationally. how our hosts getting by? our media partner at the san francisco standard is here to

kristen:kristen: our media partner at the san francisco standard looks at a new struggle in san francisco. airbnb hosts are reporting bookings are plunging, even as tourism slowly returns after the pandemic. as the standard explains, many are linking it to recent bad press surrounding san francisco. joining us live with more is kevin trung, staff writer for the standard. thank you for joining us. kevin: thank you for having me. kristen: how big of a drop did you find in airbnb bookings this year? kevin: what we are seeing is occupancy down. . this is according to the owner of an airbnb management company active in the bay area. occupancy down 20% to

compared to last year. pricing down 40%. kristen: wow. is that just san francisco or bay area wide? kevin: that is just san francisco. the gentleman i spoke to who runs properties across the bay area has seen a wide decline across the bay area. some places less than san francisco. some places like oakland seeing steeper declines. kristen: what do airbnb hosts in their groups think is driving this? kevin: there are a few reasons why. part of it is a return to more normal patterns after 2022, which saw what a lot of folks have colorfully dubbed revenge travel. a lot of pent-up demand filling up airbnb's. hotels, tourist things of that nature. alternatively, we have not seen a return in the international tourists. a lot of the folks who used to

come from east asia in particular that spent a lot of money in the city has not returned to the level that folks have been expecting or wanting. the last factor is business travel. business travelers the city for meetings comic for conventions. that has not picked up. we are at levels in terms of conventions that we are basically at levels that we have seen in 2018, 2070. kristen: i can see all of those factors contribute. i wonder if the people you cited, whether it is business travelers or visitors from asia, with a be more likely to book at hotels versus airbnb? kevin: right. i think the reason behind some of the deficiencies in the airbnb market is hotels have become more competitive on pricing. if you look at the occupancy numbers in hotels, around 72%. they have not budged much over the last year.

how hotels of been responding is by cutting down prices. what we are seeing is downward pricing pressure, higher competitive pricing. rather, lower competitive pricing from hotels. that has impacted airbnb's. kristen: this hurts airbnb, but -- or the people who are renting out there room for extra income. i'm wondering if housing advocates are, don't want to say happy, but do they say, look? kevin: there has been a lot of conversation around airbnb taking housing away from the housing stock. we have housing affordability issues here. in san francisco, that is not the case. . in order to rent out your room in airbnb, you have to live in that residence for 270 days out of the year. you have a lot of people that are older homeowners, folks who are looking to defray some of the cost of their mortgage. it is not like in a lot of resort communities where there

are entire vacation houses. that is simply not allowed in san francisco. kristen: in the 30 seconds we have left, and wondering what they are going to do about it other than hoping there will be fewer negative headlines about san francisco and potential public safety issues that may deter some visitors. kevin: there is a little knock on wood when it comes to that. they have also talked about improving their listings, improving their options and offerings, and putting money into travel destination and marketing. much like hotels and other tourism packages in the city. kristen: thank you so much. really appreciate that. you can check out more of kevin's article and more articles on the san francisco standard website, where they had a lot of original reporting. that is sf'sstandard.com.

kristen: thank you for joining us for "gettings answers." we will be here every weekday at 3:00 answering questions with experts around the bay area. coming up at 4:00, an arrest in last weekend's stabbing at levi's stadium. and cracking down on illegal fireworks after a busy night for firefighters around the bay area. i will see you back here at 4:00. world news tonight is coming up next. bye-bye. tonight, deadly holiday mass shootings across the country. at least 17 mass shootings over the last four days. prosecutors reveal new details today about the alleged shooter in philadelphia, now charged with five counts of murder. surveillance video shows a gunman opening fire on the street.