Devils on the cross: After drab start to new season, focus now falls on Ten Hag’s capacity to bring sunlight to dull Man United
More than once, the ball dribbled out into touch from the boot of a United player trying to get a move going. Those that did find a red shirt were often off target. In one counter-attack before the interval, Joshua Zirkzee laid off to Marcus Rashford but put the ball behind his run. All Rashford could do was pivot and slam a return pass into a Spurs defender. He showed his frustration by flapping his arms.
Fade out: Country music songwriter, singer and actor Kris Kristofferson goes silent forever at 88
Kris Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.
Israeli bombs fall as Kenyan, Ethiopian, Filipino and other migrant workers are stranded in Lebanon, passports confiscated
While the bombs fall, the death toll grows, and there are rumours of both a ceasefire and an Israeli ground invasion. Wangari is simply hoping for a new job so she can keep scraping together money to send to her five-year-old son in Nairobi. His name, Jayson, is tattooed across her arm as a reminder of why she is in Lebanon.
How remittances from Gambians in Europe are a lifeline for families, but the sacrifices take a toll
Almost 10 per cent of Gambia’s population of 2.7 million has left the country, most of them young men from rural areas. The money they send is an economic lifeline for their families but their absence weighs heavily on their communities.
Population of rhinos rises in range states just as poaching peaks, with South Africa most affected
Known as mega herbivores that mow the parks and create inroads for other herbivores, rhinos are also good for establishing forests by ingesting seeds and spreading them across the parks in their dung.
UN Pact for the Future: Developing nations cite ‘disease discrimination’ as world plans digital IDs, vaccine passports, massive censorship
“In spirit, the Summit and Pact for the Future is a relaunch of the Great Reset,” said Tim Hinchliffe, publisher of The Sociable. “Both talk about reshaping our world, which includes a desire to transform the financial system and to implement global governance surrounding issues such as climate change, healthcare and all things related to the SDGs” (Sustainable Development Goals).
Booming construction industry in Somali capital Mogadishu pushes the poor and vulnerable to margins of society
The urbanisation free-for-all has a social cost, discriminating as it does against those living on the margins of society – the displaced and the urban poor. They lack documentation and legal protections, and, as land values increase, there has been a related rise in forced evictions in a city where those with money and clan backing can act with impunity.
Medical coder in Arizona details how huge ‘financial incentives led hospitals in US to use Covid treatments that killed patients’
Under the Covid-19 hospital protocols, patients “would be on the ventilators for 30 days or more sometimes, which was incredibly rare,” Smith said. “On top of that, they weren’t talking about disconnecting these patients from the ventilator, which should be something they’re talking about within 24 hours, because the longer you’re on, the less likely you are to come off the ventilator.”
South Sudan braces for permanent mass displacement due to climate change as Lake Victoria overflows
Around 2.6 million people were displaced in South Sudan between 2020 and 2022 alone, a result of both conflict and violence (1 million) and flooding (1.5 million). In practice, the two are interlinked, as flooding has caused displaced herders to come into conflict with resident farmers over land.
Tree of life: Why African baobab is a ‘superfood’ consumers in US and Europe are jostling for
The global market for baobab products has spiked, turning rural African areas with an abundance of the trees into source markets. The trees, known for surviving even under severe conditions like drought or fire, need more than 20 years to start producing fruit and aren’t cultivated but foraged.
