By Michael J. Abramowitz 18 January 2018 (Freedom House) – Political rights and civil liberties around the world deteriorated to their lowest point in more than a decade in 2017, extending a period characterized by emboldened autocrats, beleaguered democracies, and the United States’ withdrawal from its leadership role in the global struggle for human freedom. […]
4 January 2018 (Munich Re) – The hurricane trio of Harvey, Irma, and Maria will cost the insurance industry a record amount in 2017: the final insurance bill for those and other natural catastrophes, including a severe earthquake in Mexico, is expected to come to US$ 135bn – higher than ever before. And overall losses […]
By Mark Kelly 26 December 2017 (CNN) – In 2001, I flew my first flight into space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Roughly a decade later, I commanded that same space shuttle on its final flight. That trip was my fourth journey — and at least for now, my final one — from this planet into […]
By Huu Nguyen and Hung Phong 26 December 2017 (VN Express) – Typhoon Tembin, the sixteenth tropical storm raging Vietnamese waters this year, weakened into a tropical depression as it entered the southern sea on Tuesday morning. Tembin approached the coastline of the southernmost provinces Ca Mau and Bac Lieu at 1 a.m., as winds […]
By Mi Nguyen and Manuel Mogato; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Robert Birsel 25 December 2017 HANOI/MANILA (Reuters) – Authorities in Vietnam prepared to move a million people from low-lying areas along the south coast on Monday as a typhoon approached after it battered the Philippines with floods and landslides that killed more than […]
21 November 2017 (United Nations) – Three weeks following the closure of the Manus Island regional processing centre, the situation on the ground is very serious and deteriorates by the day, a senior United Nations official on protection of refugees has said.“Without distribution of food and clean water over the last three weeks [and] significant […]
By Santosh Harish 20 November 2017 (Forbes Asia) – For most of November, Delhi has been blanketed by dense smog. Doctors in the capital declared the crisis a public healthy emergency, while the chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, called it a “gas chamber.” Since the beginning of the month, average pollution levels in the city have […]
19 November 2017 (Agence France-Presse) – Tens of thousands of runners Sunday choked through smog for the Delhi half marathon, ignoring dire health warnings from doctors who fought for the controversial race in the heavily polluted capital to be postponed. More than 30,000 people, some sporting pollution masks, braved a hazy morning to run through […]
By Irene Ying; Editing by Karl Hille 13 November 2017 (NASA) – A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of Maryland indicates that India may be the world’s top sulfur dioxide emitter. Sulfur dioxide is an air pollutant that causes acid rain, haze and many health-related problems. It is produced predominantly when […]
By Nick Perry, with additional writing by Muneeza Naqvi 15 November 2017 NEW DELHI (Associated Press) – Hundreds of students marched Wednesday in India’s capital to demand action to improve the city’s toxic air.New Delhi has been wrapped in a choking haze for much of the past week. The smog did lift a little in […]
