World News

Happy Diamond Jubilee, Trinidad and Tobago! This week I am taking time to shine some light on the achievements of the land of my birth on the occasion of 60 years of independence.

While I primarily identify as Bajan, I am in fact a proud Trinidad-born West Indian national with Guyanese roots – born in Trinidad and Tobago to Bajan and Guyanese parents, who perhaps would not have been responsible for my arrival had they not met while studying at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.

Scraping the smelly sargassum seaweed off some beaches on Mexico’s resort-studded Caribbean coast has become not only a nightmare, but possibly a health threat, for the workers doing it — with the quantities washing ashore this year seemingly mountains not mounds.

Decomposing sargassum, which is actually algae, generates hydrogen sulphide gas. In small amounts in open areas, it’s not much more than an annoying odor: sulphurous, like rotting eggs.

The sea of Les Rouge et Bleu was joined by burgundy at Parc des Princes this Sunday as Paris Saint-Germain celebrated its new Official Jersey Partner, Qatar Airways.

The airline, which was named the team’s Official Airline Partner in 2020 and most recently became the Official Jersey Partner in June 2022, hosted multiple celebrations with fans both in-person and virtually to commemorate the partnership. 

Boatyard, the first customer experience platform designed for the marine industry, announced today that Joe Lingerfelt, former product leader for YachtWorld and more recently for the Fortune 500 company Expedia, has joined their team as Principal Product Owner. 

“We are excited that Joe has brought his years of leadership experience at one of the largest tech companies in the world to Boatyard,” said Boatyard founder and president Nathan Heber.

Justine Konde wanted to remove pests from her small farm in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially the pesky fall armyworm that damages her crops.

She learned about effective pest control at a farmer field school organised by Feed the Future, a U.S. government programme to combat global poverty and hunger.

Epsy Campbell Barr, the politician and economist who served as the Vice President of Costa Rica from May 8 2018 to May 8 2022, and is now a member of the UN's Permanent Forum Of People Of African Descent, will make a live opening presentation at the African History Reflection Day (IHRD) online event.

One of Pakistan's southern provinces, Sindh, is bracing itself for worse to come as the country deals with catastrophic floods. Deluges from swollen rivers are heading for lower-lying areas, officials say, threatening more misery for millions.

The floods have killed nearly 1,000 people across Pakistan since June, while thousands have been displaced - and millions more affected. In this province - which has a population of almost 50 million - there has been a little reprieve from the rains.

The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in more than 40 years. The East African region stretches from Eritrea in the north, through Ethiopia and Djibouti to the southern tips of Kenya and Somalia.

More than 18 million people face severe hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, according to the US government's Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU).

Pakistan is facing "a monsoon on steroids", the UN's secretary general has warned, after floods submerged a third of the country.

Antonio Guterres urged the world to come to Pakistan's aid as he launched a $160m appeal to help the tens of millions affected in the disaster.

The presence of Sandals Resorts International in the Caribbean is strong, with five brands and 24 properties in countries and territories including Antigua, The Bahamas, Barbados, Curaçao, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Turks & Caicos. The company employs approximately 18,000 team members.

Switzerland’s 1,400 glaciers have lost more than half their total volume since the early 1930s, a new study has found, and researchers say the ice retreat is accelerating at a time of growing concerns about climate change.

ETH Zurich, a respected federal polytechnic university, and the Swiss Federal Institute on Forest, Snow and Landscape Research on Monday announced the findings from a first-ever reconstruction of ice loss in Switzerland in the 20th century, based in part on an analysis of changes to the topography of glaciers since 1931.

Asia's richest man Gautam Adani is seeking to take over Indian news broadcaster New Delhi Television, which is widely known as NDTV. It comes as the multi-billionaire moved to take a majority stake in the firm.

NDTV says that this was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the company's founders. Mr Adani's bid for NDTV, which operates TV channels and websites, has drawn attention because he is seen as being close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The United States is providing high-quality seeds to wheat farmers in northeast Syria to help feed people during the global food security crisis.

Northeast Syria experienced one of its worst harvests on record in 2021. To prevent a recurrence, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) answered local Syrians’ requests for assistance and provided nearly 3,000 metric tons of high-quality wheat seeds in time for the 2021 winter planting season.

Elephant Gin launched in 2013 when Founders Tessa and Robin Gerlach created a range of premium, handcrafted gins following their adventures in Africa. Keen to give back to the continent that has inspired them, 15% of bottle profits have been donated to the endangered African elephant since inception.

The University of Virginia, acknowledging its past as an institution that enslaved 4,000 people to build and maintain its grounds, has unveiled a memorial to honour them.

Its ‘Memorial to Enslaved Laborers’ recognizes the men, women and children forced to live and work at the school between 1817, when the school’s construction began, and 1865, when the Civil War ended slavery.

Supermodel and TV personality, Stacey McKenzie, hosted the third year of The Walk Camp Jamaica camp, which is dedicated to the self-development and empowerment of girls in inner-city communities and at the Half-Way Tree Primary School, with each participant encouraged to be mentored by business people in their respective fields.