The Mercator map was designed in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to help European explorers navigate across the world. The distortion of his map is a result of the fact that it is impossible to accurately represent the surface of a globe on a two-dimensional chart. Whenever a map of the world is…
Delegates from 196 nations plus EU officials have met in Mongolia to discuss how best to tackle drought and desertification. Often overlooked by the larger and busier climate summits, this small UN desertification summit, known as Cop17, felt more important than ever. Yet countries still could not agree on what needs to be done. Negotiations…
Nairobi — The world is now on course to overshoot the 1.5°C climate threshold within the next few years, with even the most optimistic scenario projecting warming to peak at 1.8°C, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned. In a new report released Wednesday, UNEP said crossing 1.5°C would expose countries and communities to escalating climate…
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 1 2026 (IPS) – Open a can of something fizzy and the reason the sugar doesn’t separate immediately is gum arabic, tapped by hand from acacia trees across the Sahel. Spray on perfume and the reason the scent is still there at dinner is frankincense, a resin cut from Boswellia trees on…
The final week of August was marked by intensifying geopolitical competition, continuing wars, humanitarian emergencies, economic uncertainty and devastating natural disasters. From the Middle East and Europe to Africa, Asia and Latin America, governments confronted a series of crises that demonstrated the increasingly interconnected nature of global security, economics, public health and climate change. The…
The Osher Map Library, at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, is home to half a million rare maps, globes and atlases, dating as far back as the 15th century. Correspondent Martha Teichner explores the world as depicted by cartographers, through maps that are whimsical, political, or intentionally distorted, and examines why – in…
With the qualification race in Group E so tightly contested, another defeat could leave D’Tigers with little room for error heading into their final game of the window against Cape Verde on Sunday Nigeria’s D’Tigers have little times to dwell on their disappointing start to the second round of the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup…
Miss World South Africa, Romanda Hombir, has won the 2026 Miss World Africa Head-to-Head Challenge. She delivered a standout performance at the Head-to-Head (H2H) Challenge held in Nha Trang, Vietnam. She beat out the continental Top 5, which included Nigeria’s Soye Karibi George, Kenya’s Trizah Muhenje Akala, Zambia’s Dr Adah Mushibi, and Eritrea’s Snit Habteab…
African film festivals were once quite rare, but in the past decades they’ve been growing in the continent and mushrooming around the world. A recent open access book explores these events through case studies. The book’s editor, African cinema scholar Sheila Petty, has also written chapters in it about the role film festivals play in…
United Nations — World Humanitarian Day celebrates humanitarian workers and the life-saving services they provide under the most complex and often dangerous conditions. This year, UN leaders are urging the international community to protect humanitarians working in conflict zones and to seek accountability for those who have been injured or killed in their line of…
