World News

Deadly floods have devastated towns and villages in India as heavy rainfall in Kerala state has caused deadly landslides and flooding, with at least 26 people said to have died - some are still missing with homes washed away in the deluge. Villages have been cut off with people becoming trapped in the district of Kottayam.

Thousands of people had to evacuate with a mass number of relief camps having to be set up across the state.

Costa Rica was awarded the first ever Earthshot Prize award yesterday, granted by The Royal Foundation to encourage change and to help protect the planet. The country won the highest prize for the ‘Protect and Restore Nature’ category.

Costa Rica was amongst 15 other countries which were selected as finalists, three for each of the five categories announced by Prince William and The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Jamaican Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett says airline and cruise partners are clearly impressed with Jamaica’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and have been showing a renewed interest in the island as a destination of choice.

Minister Bartlett’s comments were in response to the planned return of TUI, the world’s largest tourism company and that Carnival and Royal Caribbean (the world’s two biggest cruise companies) have committed to bringing back a fleet of vessels to the island over the next 12 months.

GXO Logistics, Inc., the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider, today announced plans to hire more than 9,000 logistics employees across the U.S. and Canada ahead of the peak holiday season. Globally, GXO is recruiting more than 20,000 employees and will continue to expand its use of advanced automation to boost productivity, enhance safety and improve the employee experience.

“We’re proud to offer opportunities to thousands of people across the U.S. and Canada ahead of the busy holiday shopping season,” said GXO’s Chief Human Resources Officer Maryclaire Hammond.

At their annual meeting, Commonwealth Finance Ministers were urged to take action to change the current development finance architecture, enhance access to finance for countries vulnerable to climate change and address debt sustainability.

Chairing this year’s virtual 2021 Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting (CFMM), the Rt Hon Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda said: “It is high time that climate vulnerability is included in the allocation of concessional finance.

A lead figurine of a wrestler produced during the Roman era is now understood to be an African warrior, new research by English Heritage has just revealed.

The figurine, discovered a century ago at Wall Roman Site in Staffordshire, was first thought to depict an enslaved person, and later a wrestler, but the charity has now discovered evidence that the figurine originally carried a spear in one hand, finally revealing its true identity as an African warrior.

Theresa Kachindamoto could not have imagined ever leaving her job in a college in Zomba, in Southern Malawi. But, after 13-years of dedicated service, and following a 2012 United Nations survey, which found that more than half of the country’s girls were married before the age of 18, she was appointed the paramount chief, or Inkosi, of the Dedza District, with informal authority over more than 900,000 people to dissolve the litany of child marriages – and, in its stead, encourage education for both girls and boys.

Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14m / £840,000).

Children across much of Africa are to be vaccinated against malaria in a historic moment in the fight against the deadly disease.

Malaria has been one of the biggest scourges on humanity for millennia and mostly kills babies and infants.

Nam Pavilion was held in spectacular fashion on October 1 at the Expo 2020 Dubai. Attending the event were Prof. Dr. Ta Quang Dong, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuan, the Ambassador of Viet Nam to the UAE; Mrs. Nguyen Phuong Hoa, Commissioner General of Viet Nam at EXPO 2020 Dubai, Director General of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and international guests including Mr. Omar Shehaded, Expo 2020 Dubai's Chief of International Participants, Mr. Graham Cooke, Founder and President of World Travel Awards as well as Ambassadors and Commissioner Generals, Pavilion Director of International participants especially ASEAN member states and ASEAN Secretariat at EXPO 2020 Dubai and many more. This year marks Viet Nam's seventh presence at the World EXPO under the direction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

African leaders speaking at the inauguration celebration for Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called for “peace” following his election victory. They also spoke about bringing the nation together at the public ceremony in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Fifteen individuals and groups have been recognised for making a significant impact on communities, countries and regions of the Commonwealth, by creating innovative solutions to pressing development challenges.

This year’s winners of the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Innovation for Sustainable Development Awards each received a trophy, £3,000 in prize money and the opportunity to scale up their innovations in collaboration with partners and mentors across the Commonwealth.

Antiguan resident Tonilia Eli, is the winner of the Caribbean Institute for Sustainable Island Living’s (CISIL) Logo Competition.

In May, the team at CISIL threw out the challenge to designers in the Caribbean to produce a logo to represent the organization whose mission is ‘To empower Caribbean people to LIVE WELL in harmony with our environment.’

The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma shot lava into the air in loud bursts on Thursday morning while toxic ash blanketed the surrounding area.

For a fifth day, lava flowing down the slopes of the volcano engulfed houses, schools and banana plantations, although more slowly than in previous days.

The official celebration of the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) World Tourism Day 2021, around the theme "Tourism for Inclusive Growth", resonates particularly well in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) because of the rich diversity of our peoples and the colourful tapestry of history woven throughout the centuries by the aspirations of several colonial powers who sailed thousands of miles away from their home countries to our shores.  

We in the USVI take every opportunity to celebrate our glorious heritage by ensuring our tourism is developed in a way which benefits all people in the Territory and educates visitors to our homeland. 

In preparation for COP26, two information sessions were held today on the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. The Declaration, developed by a collaborative group of leading organizations, is an urgent call for all stakeholders to commit to a decade of climate action in tourism.

The signatories of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism are committing to act now and accelerate climate action to cut global tourism emissions by at least a half over the next decade and reach Net Zero emissions as soon as possible before 2050.