The community center in Altha, Florida after Hurricane Michael, shown on 12 February 2019 (top) and 11 September 2019 (bottom). Photo: Tallahassee Democrat

Hurricane Michael survivors hanging on one year later – Thousands of Panhandle residents still live in tents, trailers, and hotel rooms – “Collectively we’ve forgotten them”

By Nada Hassanein 12 October 2019 SNEADS, Florida (Tallahassee Democrat) – Rodney and Tonya Hewett remember gazing outside the window of their farmhouse during Hurricane Michael. They saw their pool fence flying in the forceful winds, the wooden poles like swords. A deer that tried to run for safety went airborne. The Hewetts have been […]

Drone video showing hundreds of blindfolded men being led from a train in China, posted anonymously on 17 September 2019. The video raises new concerns over the ongoing crackdown on Muslim Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang. Video: War on Fear (战斗恐惧) / YouTube

Authoritarian advance: How authoritarian regimes upended assumptions about democratic expansion – “These regimes are turning the tools of coercion outward to push back on democracy”

By Laura Rosenberger 13 September 2019 (GMF) – Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, democracies again face a struggle against authoritarianism. This is not the ideological battle of the Cold War, but it is a confrontation between systems of government. As democracies are showing cracks and as authoritarian regimes are gaining strength, […]

Aerial view of houses inundated by monsoon floodwaters in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on 28 September 2019. Photo: Rajesh Kumar Singh

Photo gallery: Flooding in India during heaviest monsoon rainfall in 25 years

By Niha Masih 1 October 2019 NEW DELHI – People using rafts on roads, waterlogged hospitals and shops, food packets being airdropped — this is what life has been like in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh after heavy rains led to large-scale flooding. India received the heaviest monsoon rainfall in 25 years, […]

Satellite view of the Valdecañas Reservoir in Spain, on 24 July 2013 and 25 July 2019. The record heatwave and extreme drought of 2019 revealed the lost “Spanish Stonehenge”, the Dolmen of Guadalperal. Photo: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Record heatwave and extreme drought reveal lost “Spanish Stonehenge”

By Kasha Patel 19 September 2019 (NASA) – In 1963, the Spanish government under Francisco Franco built the Valdecañas Reservoir in order to bring water and electricity to underdeveloped parts of western Spain. However, the creation of the reservoir flooded some inhabited areas as well as large stone (megalithic) monuments. After fifty years underwater, one […]

Climate activist Greta Thunberg glares at Donald Trump arriving at the United Nations on 23 September 2019, after she scolded international politicians over inaction on global warming at Climate Action Summit 2019. Photo: The Independent

Trump drops by UN climate summit, skips Greta Thunberg’s speech, hurries off to talk faith and freedom – Standing ovation for Trump at religious freedom panel that never mentioned plight of Uighur Muslims

By Julian Borger 23 September 2019 NEW YORK (The Guardian) – In the UN general assembly chamber, the world’s leaders gathered to share the latest grim news of the planet’s climate crisis, but 100 metres away another meeting had been prepared: a summit of one. Donald Trump had booked a separate venue in the middle of the […]

Satellite view of smoke from forest fires in Indonesia, from 3 September 2019 to 12 September 2019. Photo: NASA Worldview

Thousands pray for rain in Indonesia as forests go up in smoke – “We’re doing everything we can, now we pray to Allah for the rain”

By Gayatri Suroyo and Jessica Damiana 11 September 2019 JAKARTA (Reuters) – Thousands of Indonesians prayed for rain in haze-hit towns on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo on Wednesday, as forest fires raged at the height of the dry season, the state Antara news agency reported. Fires have burnt through parts of Sumatra and […]

Anti-Muslim incidents reported to Tell MAMA between 30 July 2018 and 25 August 2018. Graphic: Tell MAMA UK

Boris Johnson’s burqa comments caused surge in anti-Muslim attacks in 2018 – Abuse incidents jumped by 375 percent in the week following PM’s article

By Nazia Parveen 1 September 2019 (The Guardian) – Boris Johnson’s comments on women wearing the veil led to a surge in anti-Muslim attacks and incidents of abuse, the monitoring group Tell MAMA has said. [pdf] In its annual report, the group said two significant spikes occurred in 2018. The first, in spring, reflected the “Punish a Muslim […]

Pope Francis greets the faithful as he arrives for the weekly general audience at the Vatican, 28 August 2019. Photo: Remo Casilli / REUTERS

Pope urges politicians to take “drastic measures” on climate change – “We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own”

By Philip Pullella; Editing by Jane Merriman 1 September 2019 VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis challenged governments on Sunday to take “drastic measures” to combat global warming and reduce the use of fossil fuels, saying the world was experiencing a climate emergency. Francis issued his appeal, a written message for Sunday’s World Day of […]

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in Paolo VI hall at the Vatican on 7 Aug 2019. Photo: Maurizio Brambatti / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock

Pope Francis again warns against nationalism, says recent speeches sound like “Hitler in 1934”, fears “devastation of nature that can lead to the death of humanity”

By Siobhán O’Grady 9 August 2019 (The Washington Post) – Pope Francis called for a united Europe in an interview published by Italian daily La Stampa on Friday, saying recent political rhetoric has echoed that of Nazi Germany. “I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934,” he said. “ ‘Us […]

Puddles are seen in farm fields as heavy rains caused unprecedented delays in U.S. corn planting in the spring of 2019, near Sheffield, Illinois, 13 June 2019. Photo: Tom Polansek / REUTERS

U.S. farmers now face extreme heat wave after floods and trade war – “We’ve never seen a year like this”

By Emma Newburger 20 July 2019 (CNBC) – In the past year, torrential rains have dumped water on U.S. farmlands, destroying acreage and delaying crops from getting planted on time. Now, farmers face another hurdle: a stifling heat wave that’s spreading across the United States and is expected to be the worst in the farm […]

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