Interesting Global News
This community started as a way to share what I found interesting and help promote the instance. I had no expectations of it growing to the size it is right now. As a result, the basic rules of the community are no longer seem to be enough to keep up with the activity. I'm grateful to people who post, comment and have honest discussions, but lately more and more discussions are going off into off-topic and leads to personal attacks. I am of a strong opinion that discussions and disagreements on the merit lead to real conversations and stronger positions. But, all of that is lost, when conversations devolve into [ad hominem](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ad%20hominem) attacks. Likewise, I believe in evaluating each individual article or source on its own merit. As a result, all sources are welcome here, and each of you can evaluate what do you think about it. Voting and commenting should be used to express those thoughts, not report button. Lastly, misinformation. The whole concept of misinformation is impossible to enforce. I'm just a single person, who is not a subject expert in every single field. Use your brain and do your own research, verify information with multiple sources. If you find something that can lead to immediate danger, report and include as much information as possible so that it can be appropriately evaluated. ## New rules 1. **English only**: Title and associated content has to be in English. 2. **No social media posts**: Avoid all social media posts. Try searching for a source that has a written article or transcription on the subject. 3. **Respectful communication**: All communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences. 4. **Inclusivity**: Everyone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation. 5. **Ad hominem attacks**: Any kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument. 6. **Off-topic tangents**: Stay on topic. Keep it relevant. 7. **Instance rules may apply**: If something is not covered by community rules, but are against [lemmy.zip](https://lemmy.zip) instance rules, they will be enforced. Thank you everyone who participates, and I hope you continue participating in the future.
www.bbc.com
cross-posted from: https://lemy.lol/post/33029458 > “Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
www.rfi.fr
> A Malagasy business has been developing the porridge, prepared daily by local vendors, **to avoid the irreversible cognitive and physical damage that malnutrition causes during the first 1,000 days of a child's life**. > Six days a week, Tantely walks the streets carrying two five-kilogram thermoses of porridge. Tantely hands out portions in exchange for 500 ariary, or about 9 euro cents. “**My job is to mix all the ingredients: peanuts, maize, rice, soy, sugar, minerals, calcium, vitamins and iron**,” says Tantely. It takes about 45 minutes to cook. > *For many of her customers, this is the only nutritious meal they will eat all day*. > Changing the eating habits of these communities, however, wasn't easy. It took at least five years for sellers like Tantely to convince families **to switch from their traditional rice soup to Koba Aina** ("flour of life" = porridge). Through persistent awareness-raising, Tantley was able to break down misconceptions about the supposed nutritional benefits of rice soup. Now, some 42,000 children in Malagasy cities eat Koba Aina every day. > Nutri’Zaza, which has been distributing Koba Aina since 2013, says the flour addresses a critical public health issue. Founded to build on child nutrition projects, Nutri’Zaza reinvests profits to sustain its mission. The company also collaborates with NGOs and government agencies across Madagascar. Nutri’Zaza **hopes** that by making its porridge widely available at an affordable price, **stunted growth** among children in Madagascar’s cities **will be dramatically reduced, breaking the cycle of poverty that malnutrition perpetuates**.
www.rfi.fr
> **Cases of buildings caving in are not uncommon in the country**, often a result of shoddy construction and flouted regulations. > The *eight-storey building* in Kahawa West, a densely-populated neighbourhood north of the capital, **had been condemned for demolition**, Nairobi county officials said. One woman who was standing outside the building when it collapsed was hurt, Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja told AFP, adding that casualties were "**expected to be minimal**". > According to a Nairobi county document seen by AFP and dated October 16, the building had been constructed and occupied **without the requisite approvals**. > The East African nation is undergoing a construction boom, but **corruption has allowed contractors to cut corners or bypass regulations**. > **Five people were killed** when a six-storey building collapsed in a town on the outskirts of Nairobi in September 2022. In April 2016, **49 people were killed** when a six-floor apartment building crumbled in the northeast of the capital after days of heavy rain caused floods and landslides. > The building, constructed two years earlier, had been scheduled to be demolished after being declared **structurally unsound**.
www.rfi.fr
> While India **does not permit “active” euthanasia**, which involves use of substances such as lethal injections or external force to end life, **court rulings have permitted clinicians to withhold life-prolonging treatment in certain cases**. > Now the government has **drafted guidelines** to standardise such decisions and is seeking expert feedback on the proposals. According to the Health Ministry’s draft, published on 30 September, *doctors must take considered decisions in a patient’s best interest in cases involving an incurable condition from which death is inevitable in the foreseeable future*. > Association president RV Asokan warned that “**the guidelines could expose doctors to legal scrutiny and increase stress in their decision-making**”. “The perception and assumption that machines are unnecessarily used to prolong lives is wrong. **It exposes doctors to legal scrutiny**,” he told news agency PTI. > Meanwhile many Christian activists are opposed to any form of euthanasia, which they argue is ripe for abuse. “**Relatives may want to get rid of an old patient who they take to be a burden on them and their freedom**,” John Dayal, former president of the All India Catholic Union, told RFI. “**In a land where kidneys are stolen from beggars and rickshaw-pullers when they have been drugged into sleep, can we trust the medical profession and the law and justice system to be the watchdog guardian?**” > But others involved in frontline care said **the guidelines would help close a regulatory gap**. > “**We have been doing this for years**,” said Sushma Bhatnagar, a professor of palliative care at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, whose experts helped formulate the guidelines. “**Once we know that a patient is terminal, we counsel them and their family members to withdraw care**. They are usually made comfortable and sent home. **However, there was no guideline or legal procedure for the same**,” she told the Indian Express. > Except in cases of medical emergency, she said, **many patients prefer to spend their final days with their family rather than in intensive care**. > By next year, 189 million people will be over 60 years of age and fuel demands for 175 million additional hospital beds in India, **where 32 million people fall below an official poverty line every year because of medical bills**.
www.rfi.fr
> Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but with the G7's dirtiest energy mix, *it is seeking to cut emissions, and atomic energy is making a steady comeback, in part because of AI*. > Before the 2011 quake and tsunami, which **killed around 18,000 people**, nuclear power generated about **a third** of Japan's electricity, with fossil fuels contributing most of the rest. **All of Japan's 54 reactors were shut down afterwards**, including those at KK. To keep the lights on, resource-poor Japan has hiked **imports of natural gas, coal and oil** while increasing solar power. But fossil fuels are expensive, with imports last year costing Japan about **$510 million a day**. > The government is striving for "**carbon neutrality**" by 2050 and to cut emissions by 46 percent by 2030 from 2013 levels. It wants to increase the share of renewables to 36-38 percent from around 20 percent and cut fossil fuels to 41 percent from around two-thirds now. > Japan aims for nuclear power to account for 20-22 percent of its electricity by 2030, up from well under 10 percent now. *Japan in late 2022 decided to accelerate reactor restarts* and to *extend operating time* for nuclear reactors **to 60 years from 40**. > Nine of Japan's 33 still-operable reactors are currently online. > Business groups remain worried about power shortages, particularly as Japan seeks to go big in energy-hungry data centres for artificial intelligence (AI). > Making Fukushima fully safe, meanwhile, has also barely begun. Japan last year started to release into the Pacific Ocean some of the **540 Olympic pools' worth of treated cooling water amassed since 2011**.
www.telegraph.co.uk
> Membership vital to ‘victory plan’, Volodymyr Zelensky tells EU summit, as he warns of need for powerful deterrent against Russia
www.dw.com
> Mass protests in cities like Kolkata and New Delhi seem to finally be changing Indians' view of sexual assault. In the countryside, however, perpetrators are still shielded by caste, power structures, and apathy. Archived version: https://archive.ph/JQona SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Findia-rape-victims-struggle-to-get-justice%2Fa-70532084
www.middleeasteye.net
A 59-year-old Palestinian woman has been shot dead by Israeli forces while attending to her family’s olive grove in the village of Faqqua, east of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank. Hanan Abu Salami was shot in the back on Thursday morning as she was picking olives with other members of her family when soldiers stationed on the nearby separation wall opened fire, her son told Middle East Eye. "We had permission to pick the olives but despite that they shot at us and killed my mother.”
news.cgtn.com
> Armed groups operating in Colombia's Amazon are tightening their grip on the region, and that's stalling government efforts to tackle deforestation, according to a think tank report on Thursday. > The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) **dissidents, known as EMC**, have the ability to slow or accelerate deforestation at will, said the report by The International Crisis Group. > "**This group is the most directly responsible for deforestation in the last five years**," said Rodrigo Botero, director of The Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS). "**More than half a million hectares have been lost in their control zones**." > *More than 40 percent of Colombia is in the Amazon-an area roughly the size of Spain*. **Colombia has the world's largest bird biodiversity. Fifteen percent of the Colombian Amazon has already been deforested**, according to FCDS.
www.rfi.fr
> "**The system was left without power nationwide**" after the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant, Lazaro Guerra, director general of electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, told state television. > When the power plant shut down, "the system collapsed," he said, adding that the government was working to restore service as soon as possible to the island's **11 million people**. > He blamed the situation on Cuba's difficulties in acquiring fuel for its power plants, which he attributed to **the tightening of a six-decade-long US trade embargo** under former president Donald Trump. > The island's electricity is **generated by eight aging thermal power plants**, *some of which have broken down or are under maintenance*, as well as seven floating plants leased from Turkish companies and a raft of generators.
www.theguardian.com
> High blood concentrations of ‘forever chemical’ compound PFOS linked to problems falling asleep and waking up Study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666765724001030#sec0015 Archived version: TBA SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2024%2Foct%2F18%2Fpfas-sleep-disorders
selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov
As first reported by the Free Beacon, following a July investigation into possible transnational repression at an anti-CCP protest on Harvard University's campus, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) uncovered shocking documents that show Harvard placed anti-CCP protestors on disciplinary probation while taking no action to address the illegal behavior of the pro-CCP agitator who assaulted the protestors. "[...] Harvard is punishing brave students who spoke out against the CCP’s human rights abuses while not only letting the student who assaulted them off scot-free but also handing him an apology. The American higher education system needs to wake up to the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on our nation’s campuses and protect students who speak out against the CCP, not punish them for standing up to bullies," said Chairman Moolenaar. “Once again, Harvard has proven to be completely corrupted by adversarial foreign influence. Harvard is kowtowing to Communist China [...] I look forward to working with Chairman Moolenaar and Chairwoman Foxx to hold Harvard accountable and to end Communist China’s infiltration of American universities,” said Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. "I wish I could say I was surprised, but this is par for the course for Harvard – the only consistent part of the university’s disciplinary standards is that they’re always applied selectively to the benefit of favored groups," said Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx. On April 20, 2024, Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng delivered a speech at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. During Ambassador Xie’s speech, Cosette Wu, a Harvard undergraduate student, protested the Chinese government’s human rights abuses by shouting slogans. Subsequently, the pro-CCP agitator dragged her out of the event against her will. As seen on video recorded at the event, Harvard officials watched this attack and did nothing to assist the victim. Additionally, Tsering Yangchen, another Harvard student protester removed from the event after Wu, later told Voice of America that the same graduate student approached her and asked for the names of protestors. That individual then followed her, causing her to feel afraid on campus. [...] Documents also revealed that Harvard placed Ms. Wu and Ms. Yangchen on disciplinary probation from Harvard for their protest, but took no action against the graduate student for his assault of the protestors. In fact, Harvard apologized to the graduate student for his involvement in the incident.
www.theguardian.com
> People could face fines of up to 400,000 rubles, as data suggests birthrate has slid to lowest level in quarter of a century Archived version: https://archive.ph/10QqW SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2024%2Foct%2F18%2Frussia-ban-propaganda-promoting-childfree-lifestyles
www.rfi.fr
> **Ghana** is being swamped by millions of unwanted clothes from the West, creating an *environmental disaster* as textile waste piles up across the country. > About **15 million items of second-hand clothing arrive in Ghana each week**. Nearly half cannot be resold. The unsellable clothes end up in informal dumps or are burned in public washhouses, **contaminating the air, soil and water**. > [The report](https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/press/56381/fast-fashion-slow-poison-new-report-exposes-toxic-impact-of-global-textile-waste-in-ghana/%C2%A0) shows how Ghana has become a dumping ground for the world's unwanted textiles, with devastating consequences for local ecosystems. "**What we're seeing is environmental racism. The Global North is using Ghana as its trash can**," said Helen Dena of Greenpeace Africa.
www.theguardian.com
> After a year-long hunt, IDF soldiers encountered and killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar without knowing it was him Archived version: https://archive.ph/aZl8i SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2024%2Foct%2F17%2Fisrael-idf-prime-target-yahya-sinwar-death-hamas
www.rawstory.com
> A man was arrested after throwing several suspected petrol bombs at the headquarters of Japan's ruling party Saturday and ramming his car into a fence outside the prime minister's office, police said. Archived version: TBA SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Fman-arrested-after-molotov-like-bombs-tossed-at-japan-ruling-party-hq%2F
www.bbc.com
North Korea has started sending troops to fight with Russia in Ukraine, South Korea's spy agency has said as Seoul warned of a "grave security threat". The allegation comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believed 10,000 North Korean soldiers could join the war, based on intelligence information. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called for a security meeting on Friday and said the international community must respond with "all available means". According to the spy agency, 1,500 troops have already arrived in Russia - with anonymous sources telling South Korean media the final figure could be closer to 12,000. This comes as evidence mounts that North Korea is supplying Russia with ammunition, as recently demonstrated by the recovery of a missile in Ukraine’s Poltava region. Moscow and Pyongyang have also been deepening their cooperation in recent months.
“After the start of [Israeli military] operations in Gaza, the government immediately suspended all new export licenses, and all agreements signed after October 7th were not implemented,” the Italian leader stated during a debate at Italy’s Senate ahead of Thursday’s European Council summit. Meloni told lawmakers that licenses authorized before Oct. 7 are being “analyzed on a case-by-case basis by the competent authority at the foreign ministry.” “We have blocked everything,” the Italian premier declared, noting that the policies of her government are “much more restrictive than that applied by our partners—France, Germany and the United Kingdom.”
www.bbc.com
> The move is seen by critics to target LGBT couples, who are not allowed to adopt or use IVF in the country. Archived version: https://archive.li/pV4Vx SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fc62rmv63069o
www.euronews.com
> Israeli airstrikes pounded areas across Lebanon, killing at least 27 people on Wednesday, while UNIFIL says Israeli troops fired at their watchtower in southern Lebanon. Archived version: https://archive.ph/aa5SK SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.euronews.com%2F2024%2F10%2F17%2F27-killed-in-one-day-as-israel-ramps-up-attacks-on-lebanon
www.bbc.com
> The EU chief made the comments to member states, as Italy kicks off a contested migrant processing scheme. Archived version: https://archive.is/dYpxA SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fcx2mzvj4051o
www.bbc.com
> Key elements include a formal invitation to join Nato and a refusal to cede any Ukrainian territory. Archived version: https://archive.li/RitlJ SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fcd0z8gg5v14o
www.rfi.fr
> Pyongyang on Tuesday blew up deeply symbolic roads and railways connecting the two Koreas after warning any further drone flights would be considered a declaration of war, and ordered soldiers on the border to prepare to fire. > "*Millions of young people have turned out in the nationwide struggle to wipe out the ROK scum who committed a serious provocation of violating the sovereignty of the DPRK through a drone infiltration**," the official Korean Central News Agency said, referring to both countries by their official acronyms. It said more than **1.4 million youth league officials and youth and students** across the country volunteered to join or rejoin the Korean People's Army on October 14 and 15. > South Korean authorities in areas near the border with the nuclear-armed North are moving *to prevent activists from launching balloons*. To protect its citizens, the provincial government of Gyeonggi will designate Yeoncheon, Gimpo and Paju "**as special 'danger' zones where anyone trying to send leaflets to the North may be subject to criminal investigation*", an officer from the Gyeonggi provincial goverment told AFP. > South Korean activists -- **many are former North Koreans who defected** -- have also sent materials such as USB drives containing K-pop tracks and K-dramas. The isolated North is extremely sensitive about its people gaining access to the South's popular culture. > Since late July, Pyongyang has broadcast eerie sounds along the border -- some resembling the cries of wild animals -- in apparent retaliation. "**The anxiety and suffering of residents in border areas is becoming increasingly severe**," the Gyeonggi province said in the statement. "*Many are reporting that they can't sleep without medication* due to the constant influx of garbage balloons and unsettling broadcasts from the North."
www.theguardian.com
> Accusation against former Philippines president increases pressure on successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr to allow access to international criminal court Archived version: https://archive.md/ht4vs SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2024%2Foct%2F17%2Fduterte-drug-war-back-in-icc-spotlight-after-parliamentary-committee-hears-claims-his-office-paid-police-17000-to-kill-suspects-ntwnfb
www.rfi.fr
> Literature **students from the University of Buenos Aires**, the country's most prestigious school, **brought their desks out onto the sidewalk in the center of the city as professors lectured loudly over the din of the traffic**. > The protests come a week after **Milei vetoed a law approved by the Senate that envisaged regular funding increases for public universities, whose budgets he slashed**. The law also provided for university instructors and other staff to receive pay increases to offset Argentina's stubbornly high inflation rate. **Annual inflation stood at 209 percent in September**. > At the University of Buenos Aires, the faculties of law, medicine, philosophy and arts, economy, science and social science **all took their classes outside**. > Milei, who has imposed **harsh austerity measures to try to revive Argentina's ailing economy**, argued the increases, which Congress said represented **0.14 percent of GDP**, jeopardized his zero-deficit policy. On Tuesday he insisted he was committed to Argentina's cherished model of fee-free public university education and said it was up to parliament to find a way to fund them *without upsetting his fiscal surplus*. >Around **80 percent of all Argentines who attend higher-level education enroll in public universities**. > **Milei, a self-declared "anarcho-capitalist"** has described them as *hotbeds of Socialist indoctrination*.
> "**If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in Iran, we will strike you again painfully**," Salami said at the funeral of a Guards general killed in an Israeli strike last month. > Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force foreign operations arm, was killed on September 27 alongside Hassan Nasrallah, the chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, in an Israeli strike on south Beirut. > During his speech Salami criticised as "not reliable" the THAAD missile defence battery which the Pentagon on Tuesday said arrived in Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it. > "*We know your weaknesses. You know them well*," he added addressing Israel. > The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is "**designed to intercept targets outside and inside the atmosphere**," according to its manufacturer Lockheed Martin. > Salami's remarks came as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi intensified diplomatic efforts on ways to contain the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon from spreading across the region. Araghchi has over the past nearly two weeks visited **Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Oman and Jordan**. He is currently in **Egypt** and is scheduled to head to **Turkey** afterwards. > Iran has said its October 1 missile barrage, **most of which was intercepted by Israeli air defences, according to Israel**, was in **retaliation for the killing of Nilforoushan, Nasrallah, and the political chief of the Palestinian movement Hamas**.