World News

Hawaii Governor Josh Green, M.D., has announced a critical milestone in the Lāhainā wildfire response, with Tuesday’s closing of the last American Red Cross shelter temporarily housing the survivors of the deadly wildfires on Maui.

The Coral Reef Swim race between Buck Island and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands is planned for November 12, 2023.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo concluded his five-day visit to four African countries with full commitments to strengthening bilateral and business relations between Indonesia and Africa.

Fifty outstanding young social entrepreneurs, environmental champions, innovators and human rights activists from across the Commonwealth have been short listed for next month’s prestigious Commonwealth Youth Awards.Selection of the twenty finalists is currently being made by a panel which is carefully studying the impressive range of projects and initiatives being undertaken by young people aged between 15 and 29 and the strides they are making towards achieving sustainable development goals.The twenty finalists will attend an awards ceremony in London marking the 50th anniversary of the Commonwealth Youth Programme when the winners will be announced.

India has made history as its Moon mission becomes the first to land in the lunar south pole region. The country joins an elite club of others to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.

The acceptance of applications for participation in the International Media Award "Newsky Award" continues. Professional and young journalists, as well as authors of blogs on social networks from all over the world can apply on the official website of newskyaward.org until November 10, 2023 inclusive.

Leading Philippine digital solutions platform Globe has released its revised Environmental Sustainability Policy, underscoring the importance of circularity as it promotes mindful consumption, sustainable production, carbon reduction, resource efficiency, and comprehensive waste management strategies.

The enhanced policy supports the Philippines' Extended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022, which mandates large companies to recover 20% of the plastic they release into the market in 2022. This target recovery rate will increase to 80% by 2028.

Varsha Sharma has been through some turbulent years on her small farm in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, in northern India. For more than a century her family have been rice farmers, but erratic rainfall and water being diverted for industry have made cultivating rice more difficult.

Seven years ago she switched to a hybrid rice variety and to growing apples, but that just caused fresh problems. The hybrid rice variety promised increased production, but needed a lot of additives, which she says damaged the soil.

India's space agency has released latest images of the Moon as its third lunar mission starts descending towards the little-explored south pole. The pictures have been taken by Vikram, Chandrayaan-3's lander, before it began the last phase of its mission.

Vikram, which carries a rover in its belly, is due to land near the south pole on 23 August. The lander detached from the propulsion module, which carried it close to the Moon.

The Online News Act, Bill C-18, in Canada is forcing large social media platforms to pay Canadian news publishers for sharing their content. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, responded by pulling news from its subsidiaries.

Problem is, 50% of Canadians get their news from such social media sources. This is creating an information vacuum for those trying to escape Yellowknife due to rapidly approaching wildfire in the Northwest Territories’ capital.

A strong 6.3 magnitude quake shook the Bogota capital of Colombia as well as other cities such as Medellín and Cali.

The initial quake was followed shortly by a strong 5.7 aftershock sending people out into the streets and causing damage to buildings. The epicentres of both quakes were around 100 miles southeast of Bogota.

With global forecasts positioning travel and tourism as a leading driver of Africa’s economic growth over the next decade, Jamaica’s Minster of Tourism Hon. Edmund Bartlett has highlighted the strategic importance of the Caribbean in engaging members of the African Diaspora domiciled in the Americas to forge stronger partnerships between both regions and benefit from this promising trajectory.

Residents of Yellowknife were scrambling to leave the northern Canadian city by air and road ahead of a noon Friday evacuation deadline. There are hours-long queues at the airport and hundreds of passengers have been turned away from packed flights.

The main highway has long traffic queues with officials fearing the road could be cut off as the fire nears. It is one of 240 fires in the Northwest Territories and was about 15km (9 miles) from Yellowknife on Thursday.

Despite the portrayal of heroism in movies and television, it’s worth remembering that not all superheroes wear capes or fly through the air to fight archvillains intent on ruling the Earth.

World Humanitarian Day, celebrated annually August 19, was established by the United Nations General Assembly to honour humanitarians worldwide who work with little fanfare in conflict zones, refugee resettlement centres, areas hit by disasters or even urban soup kitchens. The following are examples of heroes from the United States:

The Gambia Experience, in partnership with conservation organisation *CAPED Gambia (Community Action Platform on Environment and Development), is supporting a tree planting project in Sintet. Providing vital funds through its Carbon Offset Scheme, the tour operator is assisting the planting of over 7000 highly endangered indigenous fruit and nut tree species.

The project which commenced on July 29th aims to make a significant impact on the environment, food security, and entrepreneurship within the region’s vulnerable rural communities. The Gambia Experience has a longstanding partnership with CAPED Gambia and has previously provided funding to support mangrove restoration over 15 hectares of degraded wetland within the villages of Kalimu and Soma.

The day that World War II effectively ended is commonly known as V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, when Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies.

Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 (which was August 14 in the Americas and Eastern Pacific Islands). September 2, 1945, was the day the formal surrender ceremony took place in Tokyo Bay, aboard the battle vessel USS Missouri, at the war’s end.