Protests in Ukraine are now in their third month, with protestors showing no sign of letting up, despite the brute treatment they have received in clashes with security forces.

GENEVA — The U.N. weather agency is predicting that the phenomenon known as La Nina is poised to last through the end of this year, a mysterious “triple dip” — the first this century — caused by three straight years of its effect on climate patterns like drought and flooding worldwide. The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday said La Nina conditions, which involve a large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures, have strengthened in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific with an increase in trade winds in recent weeks. The agency’s top official was quick to caution that the “triple dip” doesn’t mean global warming is easing. “It is exceptional to have three consecutive years with a La Nina event. Its cooling influence is temporarily slowing the rise in global temperatures, but it will not halt or reverse the long-term warming trend,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. La Nina is a natural and cyclical cooling of parts of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather patterns worldwide, as opposed to warming caused by the better-known El Nino — an opposite phenomenon. La Nina often leads to more Atlantic hurricanes, less rain and more wildfires in the western United States, and agricultural losses in the central U.S. Studies have shown La Nina is more expensive to the United States than the El Nino. Together El Nino, La Nina and the neutral condition are called ENSO, which stands for El Nino Southern Oscillation, and they have one of the largest natural effects on climate, at times augmenting and other times dampening the big effects of human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists say.

PORT AUX BASQUES, Newfoundland — It will take several months for Canada to restore critical infrastructure after the powerful storm Fiona left an "unprecedented" trail of destruction, officials said Sunday, as crews fanned out in five provinces to restore power and clean up fallen trees and debris.  "It's like a complete war zone," said Brian Button, mayor of Port aux Basques, one of the hardest hit towns on the southwest tip of Newfoundland with just over 4,000 residents. More than 20 homes were destroyed and the cost of damages "is in the millions (of dollars) here now," Button said in an interview.  No fatalities have been confirmed so far, but police in Newfoundland are searching for a 73-year-old woman they suspect was swept out to sea.  "The woman was last seen inside (her) residence just moments before a wave struck the home, tearing away a portion of the basement. She has not been seen since," police said in a statement.  Fiona slammed into eastern Canada Saturday, forcing evacuations as wind gusted up to 170 km per hour (106 miles per hour).  While the full scale of Fiona's devastation is not immediately clear, the storm could prove to be one of Canada's costliest natural disasters.  Scientists have not yet determined whether climate change influenced Fiona, but in general the warming of the planet is making hurricanes wetter, windier and altogether more intense.  Canada's federal government is sending in the armed forces Sunday to help clear fallen trees and debris, which will in turn open the way for crews to restore power, Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told Reuters.  The province of Nova Scotia requested the troops and machinery to clear debris Saturday, "and we said yes, and so they're being deployed today," Blair said. Other provinces are also in discussions about federal aid, Blair said.  The Canadian Hurricane Center estimated that Fiona was the lowest-pressured storm to make landfall on record in Canada. In 2019, Dorian hit the region around Halifax, Nova Scotia, blowing down a construction crane and knocking out power. Fiona, on the other hand, appears to have caused major damage across at least five provinces.  "The scale of what we're dealing with, I think it's unprecedented," Blair said Sunday.  "There is going to be... several months' work in restoring some of the critical infrastructure - buildings and homes, rooftops that have been blown off community centers and schools," he said.  Hundreds of thousands of residents across Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Newfoundland, Quebec and New Brunswick remained without power Sunday. Blair said hundreds of utility crews had already been deployed to restore power.  "When it's all said and done... Fiona will turn out to have caused the most damage of any storm we've seen," Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told the CBC.  Officials warned Saturday that in some cases it would take weeks before essential services are fully restored.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had convened a meeting of his emergency response group for Sunday to coordinate the government's response, according to a statement.  "We do know that the damage is very extensive, quite likely the worst we have ever seen," Dennis King, PEI premier, told reporters Saturday.  "Islanders ... should know that our road to recovery will be weeks or longer. It will be an all-hands-on-deck approach," he added.  The storm also severely damaged fishing harbors in Atlantic Canada, which could hurt the country's C$3.2 billion lobster industry, unless it is fully restored before the season kicks off in a few weeks.  "Those fishers have a very immediate need to be able to access their livelihood once the storm passes," Dominic LeBlanc, minister of intergovernmental affairs of Canada, said Saturday. 

DOHA, Qatar — A top Qatari official involved in the country's World Cup organization has put the number of worker deaths for the tournament "between 400 and 500" for the first time, a drastically higher number than any other previously offered by Doha. The comment by Hassan al-Thawadi, the secretary-general of Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, appeared to come off the cuff during an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan. It also threatened to reinvigorate criticism by human rights groups over the toll of hosting the Middle East's first World Cup for the migrant labor that built over $200 billion worth of stadiums, metro lines and new infrastructure needed for the tournament. The Supreme Committee and Qatar's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In the interview, portions of which Morgan posted online, the British journalist asks al-Thawadi: "What is the honest, realistic total do you think of migrant workers who died from — as a result of work they're doing for the World Cup in totality?" "The estimate is around 400, between 400 and 500," al-Thawadi responds. "I don't have the exact number. That's something that's been discussed." But that figure hasn't been discussed publicly by Qatari officials previously. Reports from the Supreme Committee dating from 2014 through the end of 2021 only include the number of deaths of workers involved in building and refurbishing the stadiums now hosting the World Cup. Those released figures put the total number of deaths at 40. They include 37 from what the Qataris describe as nonwork incidents such as heart attacks and three from workplace incidents. One report also separately lists a worker death from the coronavirus amid the pandemic. Al-Thawadi pointed to those figures when discussing work just on stadiums in the interview, right before offering the "between 400 to 500" death toll for all the infrastructure for the tournament. Since FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010, the country has taken some steps to overhaul the country's employment practices. That includes eliminating its so-called kafala employment system, which tied workers to their employers, who had say over whether they could leave their jobs or even the country. Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers and required food and housing allowances for employees not receiving those benefits directly from their employers. It also has updated its worker safety rules to prevent deaths. "One death is a death too many. Plain and simple," al-Thawadi adds in the interview. Activists have called on Doha to do more, particularly when it comes to ensuring workers receive their salaries on time and are protected from abusive employers. Al-Thawadi's comment also renews questions on the veracity of both government and private business reporting on worker injuries and deaths across the Gulf Arab states, whose skyscrapers have been built by laborers from South Asia nations like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Mustafa Qadri, the executive director of Equidem Research, a labor consultancy that has published reports on the toll of the construction on migrant laborers, said he was surprised by al-Thawadi's remark. "For him now to come and say there is hundreds, it's shocking," he told The Associated Press. "They have no idea what's going on."  

Since Israel restricted Muslim access to a holy site in Jerusalem, Israelis and Palestinians have plunged into a new battle in their eternal war.

Droves of small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe are moving away from growing food crops and turning to tobacco, a trend that seriously threatens the country's food security.

Legal frameworks play a powerful role in transforming norms and protecting girls' rights. Although many African countries have established 18 as the minimum marriage age for girls, weak enforcement has meant these laws have had little impact.

During a recent tour of the US, Weller, a longtime advocate for leftwing causes, performed with a Palestinian flag draped over his guitar amplifier.

MDA team from Karnei Shomron sped to southern Israel on October 7 to save lives

Heed this warning: Islamic fundamentalists may start with the Jews, but they won’t stop there.

How global anti-Israel sentiment endangers US security and alliances.

The limited scope of the Israeli attack, which targeted only a few military bases and weapons storage facilities without causing widespread damage, does not necessitate an Iranian response.

The Free Press founder urges Jewish leaders to confront rising antisemitism and embrace resilience in her powerful DC speech.

Bilzerian has also described Hamas as a "resistance organization" and had called its late leader Yahya Sinwar "a hero" after his death on the Piers Morgan Uncensored show.

[Liberian Investigator] Monrovia -- Sources have hinted to The Liberian Investigator that the Executive Branch, through the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning, is contemplating submitting the 2025 draft national budget to the breakaway "majority bloc" in the House of Representatives later this week.

[MSF] An alarming number of children suffering from severe malaria have been admitted to Aweil state hospital, where Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) runs the paediatric and maternity wards, in Northern Bahr El-Ghazal state, South Sudan, over the past three months. Malaria admissions to the children's ward began to increase in June and, by September, up to 400 children a week were being admitted to the paediatric department with severe malaria - more than double the numbers compared to September the

[allAfrica] Cape Town -- allAfrica's Juanita Williams and Joy Basu, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, overseeing Economics and Regional Affairs across Sub-Saharan Africa, discussed the work of the Digital Transformation With Africa (DTA) project, which is coming up for its two-year anniversary in December 2024, how DTA chooses its partners, and how AI is not a panacea for the challenges the continent faces. Basu is in Cape Town for the Africa Tech Festival, and Williams spoke with her

Electronic Music Malta has opened a new chapter in the history of contemporary Maltese music with its very own każin in Ħamrun, called ISSA

Social protection systems are essential to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, social protection is insufficient across Asia and the Pacific, and the region is at risk from megatrends: climate change, demographic shifts and digitalization. Tens of millions of people have been pushed into extreme poverty since COVID-19, reversing past gains, and many […]

The warnings from the United Nations and from anti-nuclear activists are increasingly ominous: the world is closer to a nuclear war—by design or by accident—more than ever before. The current conflicts—and the intense war of words—between nuclear and non-nuclear states—Russia vs. Ukraine, Israel vs. Palestine and North Korea vs. South Korea—are adding fuel to a […]

How will Israel respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missiles barrage? “Strategic patience” is the best course. Israel has its hands full with Hamas and Hezbollah. Now is not the time to escalate a new major war with Iran, which could have nuclear implications. Israeli intelligence is still chafing from its failure to preempt Hamas’ attack […]

The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres congratulated grassroots Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo on being awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. “The atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as the hibakusha, are selfless, soul-bearing witnesses of the horrific human cost of nuclear weapons,” he said in a statement. “While their numbers grow smaller each […]

In a world where the fight for land rights often pits the powerful against the marginalized, Indigenous communities stand as resilient defenders of their ancestral lands. These communities, rich in culture and tradition, face numerous challenges, from encroachment and exploitation to climate change. Empowering Indigenous communities is not just a matter of justice; it is […]

Migration, trade, the defence of democracy, the confrontation with China and the collapse of multilateralism are issues that shed more doubts than certainties on Latin America’s expectations of the imminent presidential elections in the United States. Interest and tension have grown after dozens of polls and bookmakers have shown similar chances of victory for Democrat […]

While the expansion of democracy is a key condition for peace, the Achilles’ heel of democracies is that their leaders are constrained by electoral calendars, forcing them to push for peace or delay, whereas autocracies can afford to play the long game to achieve the favorable outcomes they desire. Take, for example, the current wars […]

On the day following the US election, UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres issued a brief statement commending the people of the United States for their active participation in the democratic process. He wisely omitted mention that the election of Donald J. Trump – who attempted to overturn the people’s mandate by inciting an insurrection in […]

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s inflation slowed to 2.7% in October, the lowest level in three years in a win for the libertarian government of President Javier Milei who came to power almost a year ago promising to pull Argentina out of a dire economic crisis. Argentina’s statistics agency on Tuesday reported October’s number. In September, inflation was 3.5%. READ: Recession-hit Argentina gripped by ‘Ponzidemia’ On an annual basis, inflation in October was 193% compared to 209% reported in September. Milei has trumpeted falling prices in recent months as a victory in his fight against Argentina’s worst economic crisis in […]...

Keep on reading: Argentina's monthly inflation drops to 2.7%, lowest level in 3 years