World News

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.

The University of Magdalena’s Hotel Management Technology and Tourism and Hotel Business Administration programs have been working for several years on a project based on strengthening tourism training in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This project was published by one of the most rigorous international portals on tourism issues, called Tourism and Society Think Tank, it seeks to reflect and offer contributions that allow us to anticipate and trace tourism trends in the world and their impact on communities, in this occasion the strengthening of this sector in the mountainous massif was pondered.

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 organized by Feed the Future, a U.S. government program to combat global poverty and hunger.

Brown’s Town and Windsor communities in Jamaica’s St Ann parish have just seen the launch of free public Wi-Fi under the Universal Service Fund (USF) Community Wi-Fi Initiative.

The secure Internet connectivity has a range of 800-feet and can allow up to 200 residents to simultaneously log on with their smartphones or tablet devices.

The United States and the Philippines are working together to expand access to clean energy and find solutions to the climate crisis. On August 6, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced a grant to the Philippines’ Aboitiz Renewables, Inc. supporting development of offshore wind projects that could produce up to 3 gigawatts of clean energy, enough to power more than 2 million homes in that country.

The MarineMax service team while attending their National Service Managers meeting collaborated and worked as a team to build bikes for the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF). Seven deserving families in the community received the finished bikes. 

Andy Rishovd, National Service and Parts Manager, said: “This years’ service meeting was a great experience for everyone involved, we got to help the community, meet new faces and collaborate with one another.

The Caribbean tourism community was saddened last week upon learning of the sudden passing of regional tourism leader Warren Solomon. 

The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) extended condolences to the family and friends of Solomon, a long-time friend of the organization and champion of tourism across the Caribbean.

The United States and Africa must “work together as equal partners,” to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said August 8.

Blinken highlighted those challenges in a major speech delivered at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, while outlining a new U.S. strategy to advance shared goals with African nations.