When the skies darkened suddenly over Michael Gatiba’s 10-acre farm in Nakuru County, Kenya, what came pouring down stunned him: millions of desert locusts. “It was like a storm,” Gatiba, 45, said by telephone. “It was like hail. They covered everywhere. Even there was no sun.” That was three months ago. Although Gatiba said he was lucky…
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Critics question reparation offers from British corporations with slave trade ties
Too little, too late? As a number of British institutions and corporations respond to Black Lives Matter protests with pledges of reparations for their historic links to slavery and exploitative colonialism, some are asking whether their moves are no more than “empty gestures.” Calling it “an unacceptable part of English history,” the Bank of England…
Thousands take to London streets to protest racism, George Floyd death
LONDON — After almost a week of violence in cities across the United States following the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, thousands took to the streets of central London on Wednesday to protest racism and show solidarity with their American counterparts. On a gray and dreary day in Britain’s capital, the crowd met…
Health workers fighting coronavirus around the world threatened by violence
As Dr. Trupti Katdare and her colleague, Dr, Zakia Sayyed, traced the contacts of a patient who had tested positive for the coronavirus, a mob set upon them, yelling and throwing stones. “It was very scary,” Katdare said of the incident, which took place April 1 in the Indian city of Indore. “We didn’t understand…
U.N. warns of ‘hunger pandemic’ amid threats of coronavirus, economic downturn
While the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the United Nations food agency warned on Tuesday that a looming “hunger pandemic” will bring “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.” Famine in as many as three dozen countries is “a very real and dangerous possibility” due to ongoing wars and conflicts, economic…
African countries that faced Ebola outbreaks use lessons to fight COVID-19, experts say
African countries previously hit by deadly Ebola outbreaks are using the lessons they learned to fight the coronavirus pandemic, experts say, because they know how to rapidly track down, screen and quarantine potential patients. “When a certain outbreak is over, you have a capacity left behind that you can build on or adapt. It could be…
Lockdowns are fine for the rich, but millions are too poor to shelter from coronavirus
Lockdowns are being championed as a way to help contain the coronavirus, but experts warn that will not be easily achieved in developing countries where crowded cities and slums could see the virus spread “like fire.” Questions over how the world’s poorest will survive the coronavirus pandemic surged Wednesday, a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced…
Who was Iran’s Qassem Soleimani and why does his death matter?
The death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a United States airstrike in Baghdad on Thursday will likely unite Iran and its allies in mourning the man some considered to be Tehran’s second most powerful leader. But little is known outside the Middle East about the man who played such a key role in shaping conflicts across the…
Young female climate activists face hateful abuse online. This is how they cope.
The consequences of rising temperatures for the planet and ecosystems are becoming increasingly apparent, yet less noticed is the vile backlash and abuse being thrown at the young green activists who have successfully pushed the climate agenda into the mainstream. NBC News has spoken to three young climate activists, all female, and their families who now find…
Climate activist group Extinction Rebellion overturns London protest ban
LONDON — The eco-protest group Extinction Rebellion won a bid against London’s Metropolitan Police on Wednesday over the imposition of a city-wide ban against the group’s series of demonstrations last month. The high court ruled that the blanket ban police issued on Oct. 14 to 18 was unlawful, a decision protesters are celebrating. “It is a victory,” Tobias Garnett,…
Extinction Rebellion’s activists leverage disruption, arrests for climate action
LONDON — Wielding a megaphone to rally protesters blocking a major road outside Parliament last month, Dr. Bing Jones was arrested for the fourth time since joining the eco-protest group Extinction Rebellion. The arrests haven’t deterred him, however — in fact, Jones is now keen to adopt an even more disruptive approach. “I will get…
The Women Behind Two Genius Green Energy Solutions
Inna Braverman understands the consequences of polluting energy sources. Born in Ukraine in 1986, she stopped breathing and nearly died when the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded two weeks after she was born. “I grew up with a feeling I got a second chance at life, so I should do something good with it,” says Braverman,…
The Amazon is still on fire. Conservation groups blame illegal logging and criminal networks.
As the Amazon continues to burn in a record fire season, experts say the problem is rooted in illegal logging and criminal networks exploiting the forests for its natural resources and agricultural potential. “The government doesn’t have any governance over what is going on,” Ane Alencar, science director for the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM),…
Teen girls strike for global action on climate change
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — It was the floodwaters brushing her jawline that convinced Theresa Sebastian it was time to get serious about climate change. The teen from Ireland was in Kerala, India, for a family wedding last summer when the region experienced 40 percent higher-than-average rainfall. More than 480 people died in the torrential rains that swept away…
How teen Greta Thunberg shifted world’s gaze to climate change
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Staring through a swarm of photographers and television crews, self-described introvert Greta Thunberg took the stage at a Swiss university last week to pointedly reiterate a message that has captured the attention of leaders and like-minded young women around the globe: The world must take drastic action now to avert ecological and…
Trump’s foreign aid policies endanger women, experts say
LONDON — Caroline Nyandat will never forget the day she watched a 14-year-old girl die due to complications from an unsafe abortion. Nyandat, 36, was then completing her training as a nurse midwife in Kisumu, Kenya, when the teen was in need of surgery but suffered from sepsis before doctors in the hospital could react….
Up to 114 degrees in France: Record-breaking heat in Europe forces tourists to adapt
PARIS — Europeans aren’t breathing a sigh of relief just yet following a day of record-breaking heat, with temperatures soaring once again on Saturday. The unusual heat has left many struggling to cope in the French capital where homes and buildings are not designed for steamy conditions or equipped with air conditioning. “We were not expecting…
Workers, seniors face health risks amid extreme heat wave in Europe
PARIS — In clear view of the Eiffel Tower, Chaima Boutouil and her colleagues have no way of keeping cool while hovering over hot plates making crepes in the midst of a heat wave spreading across Europe on Thursday. “In the morning, I drank six or seven bottles of water,” Boutouil, 25, told NBC News while working…
Congo’s Ebola response threatened by conspiracy theories, rumors
People who have contracted Ebola are opting to die at home rather than seek treatment as conspiracy theories fuel distrust of the government and of health workers grappling with the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the workers and aid groups. Nearly 20 new cases of the deadly illness are being identified…
Tidal energy pioneers see vast potential in ocean currents’ ebb and flow
KIRKWALL, Scotland — Huddled inside what looks like a tanker ship anchored about two miles from shore, engineers from the Spanish company Magallanes Renovables monitor two giant rotors below the hull — but instead of driving the vessel, the rotors are capturing energy from the shifting tides. Here in the Orkney Islands, an archipelago north…