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☆ A US soldier may have falsely reported a US raid in Afghanistan while attempting to secure the adoption of a baby he found in the rubble
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Associated Press | Katie Hawkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

Maj. Joshua Mast, after a raid on an Afghan village, tried for years to adopt a baby he found in the rubble. The high-profile legal battle pits an Afghan family against an American one, and has drawn responses from the White House and the Taliban. The AP has located no records of the birth of the farmer's baby or photographs of her with the family before the raid. Four of the farmer's children had survived, so covered with dust and dirt they were almost unrecognizable, said neighbor Rahim. Less than two years after the raid, Mast helped the Afghan couple and the toddler flee as the country collapsed and the Taliban took over.

Persons: Joshua Mast, Mast, Major Mast, Patricia Gossman, Gossman, we'd, Neighbor Abdul Khaliq, Khaliq, they'd, aren't, Doe, Abdul Rahim, Rahim, Mohammad Zaman, Zaman, Neighbors, —, Erica Gaston, unquote, Gaston, Joshua Mast's, Richard Mast, Richard Mast's, David Yerushalmi, fidgets Organizations: Service, White, Taliban, Afghan, International Committee, Marine, Associated Press, Department of Defense, United, of Defense, Defense Department, AP, The Defense Department, Human Rights Watch, U.S, American, U.S . State Department, State Department Locations: Wall, Silicon, American, Al Qaeda, Virginia, Afghanistan, United States, Asia, Afghan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, U.S

Wildfires devouring swaths of Algeria’s Mediterranean coast have killed 34 people over two days, the Algerian authorities said on Tuesday, as an extreme heat wave sears North Africa, Southern Europe and the sea between them. The dead include 10 soldiers who were aiding rescue efforts across Algeria’s forested Kabylia region, the Algerian Interior Ministry said. Another 16 people died in the fires in the village of Ath Oussalah, according to Berber TV, a local broadcaster. “I wish her home burned down but she was still alive,” the woman told onlookers in the village. Plumes of smoke rose from at least 16 cities east of the capital, Algiers, including Bejaia, Jijel and Tizi Ouzou.

Persons: “ Organizations: Algerian Interior Ministry Locations: North Africa, Southern Europe, Kabylia, Algerian, Ath Oussalah, Algiers

☆ Yellen urges China to support existing institutions to fight climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The United States and China, as the world's two largest economies, must work together to combat the "existential threat" of climate change, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese government officials and climate experts on Saturday. "Continued U.S.-China cooperation on climate finance is critical," Yellen said in a prepared text. She said financing for such initiatives should be coordinated efficiently and effectively, adding that Beijing's support for existing multilateral climate institutions like the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds, alongside the Washington and others, could boost their impact. China is the largest market after Europe for climate funds, surpassing the U.S. as funds in China have more than doubled since 2021 to $46.7 billion, according to research firm Morningstar. That group had in recent years developed a roadmap for sustainable finance, held workshops on carbon pricing and non-pricing policy levers, developed a transition finance framework, and made a range of recommendations on climate finance, she said.

Persons: jerry, Janet Yellen, Yellen, –, Morningstar Organizations: Bandai, Treasury, U.S, Climate Fund, Climate, Bank, Sustainable Finance Locations: Pali district, Rajasthan, United States, China, U.S, Beijing, Paris, Washington, Europe, India

CNN —Ma Khin Hla and her five siblings didn’t have time to run when a fighter jet buzzed over their village in Myanmar’s central Sagaing region. We didn’t get to run as it immediately dropped bombs.”When she opened her eyes after the strike on Tuesday, Ma Khin Hla said she saw her siblings’ bodies scattered around her. A monastery hit by the junta airstrike in Pale township, Sagaing region, Myanmar. CNN reached out to junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the airstrike but did not receive a response. Ma Khin Hla, whose five siblings were killed, said she has been forced to take shelter with relatives in another village.

Persons: Khin Hla, didn’t, ”, Ma Khin Hla, Zaw Htet, ” Zaw Htet, Min Aung Hlaing, “, Zaw Min Tun, Ar Lu Organizations: CNN, Facebook, Administration, Peoples Defense Forces, National Unity Government, SAC, United Locations: Myanmar’s, Sagaing, Nyaung Kone, Pale, Myanmar, Zaw, “, United Nations, Russia, China, Singapore

☆ The scarcity of water is emerging as a global economic threat. With China and India looking the most at risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Charmaine Jacob | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ghosh warned that water scarcity must not be viewed as a sectoral issue, but one that "transcends the entire economy." Asian economies "must understand that it is a regional common good and it is in their own interest to mitigate the risks that come their way in order to prevent the economic shocks that severe water scarcity will impose," he said. India, now the world's most populous nation, will be the hardest hit from water scarcity. "Water scarcity is not particularly problematic to these industries because a lot of the water can be recycled. The Gezhouba dam water conservancy project of the Yangtze River after heavy rain in Yichang, Hubei Province, China.

Persons: Ritesh Shukla, Arunabha Ghosh, It's, Ghosh, Shanshan Wang, Wang, Wayne Middleton, Arup Organizations: Getty, Council, Energy, CNBC, World Bank, Lowy Institute, Arup, Visual China, Getty Images, Water, Future Publishing Locations: Peth, India, China, Asia, Philippines, Singapore, Kunming, Yunnan Province, Getty Images India, Taiwan, Yichang, Hubei Province

☆ Croatia clears mystery clumps of oil from beaches before tourists arrive
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Antonio Bronic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

No official explanation has been given for the pollution, which has stuck, in small patches, to the rocks and wild limestone beaches near the town of Pula. This is not the first time oil had drifted ashore in the area, she said, and people deserve to know the cause. "We cannot just wait and fear each year that wind will bring us a new oil spill," Buttignoni told Reuters. "There will be a problem because this (oil) constantly keeps coming though in smaller quantities," said villager Giuliano. "There will be a problem with tourism, when guests arrive and probably step on it.

☆ Facebook co-founder Moskovitz funds research into cooling the Earth with sunlight reflection
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

(It's sometimes called solar radiation modification or solar geoengineering.) But it's potentially important, it could be very, very helpful, it could be disastrous," Stone told CNBC. And so it goes for solar geoengineering," Stone said. Everyone perceives it to be controversial," Camilloni told CNBC. "This is no one's Plan A for how you deal with climate risk, and whatever happens, we have to cut our emissions," Stone told CNBC.

☆ Rural China is running out of coffins because COVID-19 is rampant — and the cost of funerals is skyrocketing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Rural areas in China are running out of coffins amid a COVID-19 outbreak, the BBC reported. There's no official COVID-19 death count or estimate in some rural areas in China. One villager told BBC that funeral industry workers were "earning a small fortune." One doctor who operates a small clinic in rural china told BBC that he is hopeful the worst is over and that most of the residents in his town had already caught COVID-19. But there is a concern that more COVID-19 deaths are still to come, the BBC reported.

Almost three years of pandemic restrictions have been especially hard for Zu, who has autism spectrum disorder, but thanks to Chen's Studio, music has become his saving grace. REUTERS/Tingshu WangBEIJING, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Almost three years of pandemic restrictions have been hard for 23-year-old Chinese villager Zu Wenbao, but thanks to Beijing-based Chen's Studio, music has become his saving grace. All that changed when he started learning music free of charge at Chen's Studio, which started lessons for people with autism just as the pandemic began. Chen says he knew very little about autism before he started teaching a bass player with the disorder in 2020. When COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions on movement curtailed his regular music lessons, Chen started the free-of-charge lessons for people with autism.

More than 22,000 homes were destroyed and over 58,000 people have been displaced, BNPB Major General Suharyanto said on Tuesday. “The majority of those who died were children,” West Java’s governor, Ridwan Kamil, told reporters Monday, adding the death toll was likely to increase further. “So many incidents occurred at several Islamic schools.”Villagers salvage items from damaged houses following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in Cianjur on November 22, 2022. “We hug each other, strengthen each other, and continue to pray.”Municipality officers in Cianjur evacuate an injured colleague following the earthquake. Workers inspect a school damaged in the earthquake in Cianjur, West Java.

☆ Myanmar villagers say army beheaded high school teacher
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The slain teacher, Saw Tun Moe, was a longtime educator who had participated in anti-military protests before taking charge of a high school founded by the country’s pro-democracy movement in his native Thit Nyi Naung village. Saw Tun Moe also taught mathematics at his village school and another nearby alternative school and was involved in the administration of Thit Nyi Naung, where he lived with his family. She said Saw Tun Moe was taken to Taung Myint village, almost a mile north of Thit Nyi Naung, and killed there the following day. A villager from Taung Myint village said he saw Saw Tun Moe’s body at about 11 a.m. Monday after the soldiers had left. I immediately knew that it was Teacher Moe.

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