Ocean temperature hit record high in February 2024, EU scientists say
London, UK Reuters Ocean temperatures hit a record high in February, with the average global sea surface temperature at 21.06 degrees Celsius, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday. February’s average sea surface temperature surpassed the previous record of 20.98 degrees Celsius set in August, 2023, in a dataset that goes back […]
Ireland to vote on removing ‘sexist’ references to women from constitution
Dublin, Ireland Reuters Ireland is poised to vote on Friday – International Women’s Day – to replace constitutional references on the importance of a woman’s “life within the home”, the latest attempt to update its socially conservative 1937 founding document. While social change in the once deeply Catholic nation has spurred the removal of bans […]
Snapshot: Hills and water, Lesotho
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Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers major coral bleaching
Sydney, Australia Reuters Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been hit by a major coral bleaching event, with the results consistent with patterns of heat stress that have built up over summer at the biologically diverse site, a government agency said on Friday. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), the agency tasked with monitoring […]
Namibian communities demand return of land in dispute over German genocide legacy
Windhoek, Namibia Reuters Namibian communities whose ancestors were massacred by German colonial forces and had their property seized more than a century ago are calling for fresh talks with Berlin to negotiate the return of ancestral land. Germany agreed in May 2021 to fund projects worth €1.1 billion over 30 years to make up for […]
Biden takes on Trump over Russia, democracy in fiery State of the Union address
Updated: 3pm (AEDT) Washington DC, US Reuters President Joe Biden assailed former President Donald Trump for kowtowing to Russia, failing to care about COVID-19 and papering over the 6th January Capitol assault on Thursday in a State of the Union speech making his case for re-election in 2024. Biden, speaking before a joint session of […]
IAEA Board calls on Russia to leave Zaporizhzhia, two years on
Vienna, Austria Reuters The UN nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors voted on Thursday to demand Russia withdraw from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), in a resolution passed days after the two-year anniversary of the plant’s capture by Russian troops. It was the board’s fourth resolution condemning Russia’s actions against Ukrainian nuclear facilities. The first […]
Pope meets with child protection board as events outside Vatican show abuse scandal isn’t going away
Rome, Italy AP Pope Francis sought to encourage his child protection board on Thursday to continue helping victims, as new developments outside the Vatican underscored that the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandal isn’t going away anytime soon. Francis met with his Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is expected to soon release the […]
Gunmen kidnap 227 pupils from school in Nigeria
Kaduna, Nigeria Reuters Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped more than 200 school pupils in the northern town of Kuriga on Thursday, a teacher, local councillor and parents of the missing children said, in the biggest mass abduction from a school since 2021. Police in Kaduna state did not respond to requests for comment on the abductions, […]
“Grave danger”: Millions of Sudanese go hungry as war disrupts food supply
NAFISA ELTAHIR, of Reuters, reports on the daily struggle Sudanese are facing to find food in a nation riven by war…