Tag Archives: WorldNews

Why the rains failed – and why they may return

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Traditionally the Sahel – a semi-arid strip of land, south of the Sahara Desert – is one of Africa’s most productive crop regions. But during the 1980s this region, which stretches from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, became better known for drought and famine. Thankfully the region has become wetter again, and now new research indicates that the return of the rains is most likely a beneficial side-effect of global warming.

Rainfall statistics show that between the 1950s and 1980s summer rainfall fell by around 40% across the Sahel, bringing the region to its knees. At the time scientists speculated that the drought was linked to poor land management, and a rapidly growing population. But newer data indicates that it may have been sulphate aerosols, produced by fossil fuel burning in Europe and North America, which slowed evaporation from the North Atlantic and cut off the Sahel’s moisture source.

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‘It’s all just poison now’: Flint reels as families struggle through water crisis

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City’s residents, many of whom live in poverty, fear consequences to their children in Michigan town where life has changed immeasurably

Annette Williams is careful to hold her granddaughter Sharell’s head at bath time, to keep the two-year-old from taking a gulp of toxic water. Though most people no longer drink what flows through Flint’s corroded pipes, many families have little choice but to bathe in it.

Related: ‘Please do not drink the water’: Flint in crisis – in pictures

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‘Refugees are warm, emotional people. There’s a lot we can learn’

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As he continues to document the plight of the world’s displaced people, photographer Giles Duley lands on the remote island of Nagu, south‑west Finland, and is moved by the hospitality shown to its new arrivals

Finland’s warm welcome for refugees – in pictures

In October 2015, I arrived in Lesbos to begin work on a long-term project for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), documenting the refugee crisis across Europe and the Middle East. It was a shocking, moving and deeply troubling experience. As I wrote in the Observer in November last year: “I thought I had seen it all, but I have never been so overwhelmed as by the human drama unfolding on the beaches of Lesbos. In its sheer scale, it is hard to comprehend; the lack of response impossible to explain or excuse.”

At that time, as I stood among the chaos and horror on the beaches of Lesbos, I could scarcely have imagined that three months later, telling the same story, I would find myself caught in the middle of a snowball fight on the remote island on Nagu on the southern west tip of Finland. Yet even here, in a small island community on the edge of Europe, the refugee crisis has had a huge impact. And as in Lesbos, it’s the local community and volunteers who have worked alongside NGOs to make a difference.

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Abused and beaten: MPs need help against violent public – report

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Four out of five MPs have been victims of intrusive or aggressive behaviour, study finds

Psychiatrists working with the Home Office have advised that MPs need greater protection after a groundbreaking study found that four out of five had been victims of intrusive or aggressive behaviour, and 36 even fear going out in public.

Marriages have been left on the brink, MPs have felt forced to take time off from work, a dozen have seen health professionals and several have resorted to seeing therapists or are on medication for anxiety or depression due to their experiences at the hands of members of the public, according to the study. “One MP described how his marriage was close to breakdown, as his wife blamed him for the persistent amorous intrusions of a female constituent,” the research notes.

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