TWENTY-three British citizens left stranded in Morocco as a result of the coronavirus pandemic have been returned to their homes in Gibraltar on two specially commissioned vessels.

DONALD Trump could see his hopes of re-election this November go up in smoke as economists warn the crippling unemployment rate the coronavirus pandemic has caused in the US could remain in double-digits well into 2021.

GEORGE GALLOWAY has claimed the circumstances that set off the First World War could be repeating themselves in 2020, as he warned of a conflict between the US and China.

A RAT virus has mutated and made the jump from animal to human infecting a total of 11 people in Hong Kong.

POPE BENEDICT is "making Francis' life a misery" as rumours of a major row between the two Vatican titans continue to boil, an expert has warned.

SCIENTISTS believe the coronavirus pandemic could have started as early as October and participants at the Military World Games, held in Wuhan that month, could have unwittingly helped transmit the lethal virus around the world.

TWO of Germany's local authorities will bring back certain lockdown measures in some areas following an increase in infections after the government's easing of restrictions.

EVEN the best part of a week on, the incredible arrogance and disrespect towards the Queen from the Sussexes continues to reverberate.

TEXTILES: brace yourselves. We have a new hate crime on our books.

IS THERE any topic in the entire world that Britain is incapable of turning into a matter of class?

MY mother was born in 1928 and grew up in Kent.

WEEK TWO and we're all going feral. And we're facing challenges that would not have even occurred to us 10 short days ago. And one of them is this. In order to stop us from going actually insane under lockdown, we're all being told to host parties online. Here are a few hints.

THERE must be an upside to this, yes? Time to read War And Peace, learn a new language, or discover previously unknown aptitudes such as the ability to paint? Face it, you'll never have an opportunity like this again. But this, alas, is what a real day of self-betterment looks like. Leap out of bed at the crack of noon.

SO enough with the panic buying, already. Now that we're all settling down into quarantine and accepting that the new normal is going to be never seeing anyone, ever again, now is the time to reflect on the last few weeks. And what the last few weeks have revealed to me is that the contents of my cupboards have changed beyond all comprehension.

WEEK five, or is it six, if anyone's still counting, and yet another fiercely competitive trend in social isolating has emerged.

WEEK 190 and as life continues to change before our very eyes, a new way of showing off has emerged. We have moved on from the Zoom drinks party to the Zoom dinner party, which gives you the opportunity to prove to your tragic suburban friends that not only do you have the most exotic ingredients in your kitchen cabinets, but that you are also the best cook.

THE entire world is in the middle of a terrible pandemic. Everyone is worried sick both about catching it and the long-term effects of putting the global economy in the deep freeze. People are concerned about jobs, health, the wellbeing of elderly relatives.

Potters Corner triumphed at the Virtual Grand National with an explosive finish in a boost to the NHS.

Profits of £2.6million have been donated to NHS Charities Together after Saturday's Virtual Grand National.

Horse racing in Britain is currently suspended amid the coronavirus pandemic - but when will racing resume?

Champion jockey Frankie, 49, looks back at his favourite festival on the horse-racing calendar, Royal Ascot

GEORGE SOROS made a chilling warning about the state of global markets in 2012 that has fresh relevance today as world leaders grapple with the unprecedented challenge of rebuilding the post-coronavirus economy.

Emiliano Sala was tragically killed in January 2019 in a plane crash over the British channel.

Peter Whittingham's death has taken the world of football by shock.

ALERT LEVEL: No Alert Level
Region: S
LOCATION: Triabunna
STATUS: Patrol
TYPE: FUEL REDUCTION BURN
SIZE: 533 hectares
Number of Vehicles:
More Info: http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/a/85154
RESPONSIBLE AGENCY: Tasmania Fire Service
UPDATED: Sun, 10 May 2020 00:34:24 +1000

THE QUEEN has one of the most extensive jewellery collections in the world, and is particularly noted for her tiaras. The Belgian Sapphire is a particular favourite of Her Majesty's - and it has a scandalous former royal owner.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II has ruled Britain for nearly 70 years, and many of us cannot remember a time when she was not on the throne. And during her long reign, one item in particular has become synonymous with the monarch.

THE iconic gown Princess Diana wore to a state banquet at the White House in 1985 is currently being held in quarantine.

West Ham signed Jarrod Bowen from Hull City for £22million on transfer deadline day.

Leeds United take on Hull City on Saturday and Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa faces an important decision after Kiko Casilla was issued an eight-match ban.

Leeds continues their Premier League promotion push with a dominant 4-0 win against Hull on Saturday.

Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa has admitted that he faces a selection headache for the Whites' Championship game against Huddersfield on Saturday, and he could drop striker Patrick Bamford in favour of youngster Tyler Roberts, with the 21-year-old scoring twice against Hull last weekend.

The global financial crisis has spawned a global protest movement campaigning against things like inequality, corporate greed, lack of jobs, etc. Although these protests have occurred for decades, they have typically been in the developing countries, or about the situation in developing countries. As such, many Western nations, who have strongly influenced the conditions in developing countries, have typically not paid much attention to such protests, no matter how large. However, this time, the global financial crisis has hit the ordinary citizens of Western nations quite hard, and inspired by the Arab Spring and protests in Spain, a global movement seems to have sprung up.

The global protests page had not been updated since the end of 2003, but has not included a brief overview of more recent protests such as the so-called Occupy Movement. The older content remains because it is interesting to note some of the parallels too, and it is perhaps important to note that these protests are unfortunately not new. Whether this time it can make a difference is too early to tell but a lot of people in wealthy countries this time are also participating.

Read full article: Public Protests Around the World

An overview of the Climate Change Conference (also known as COP 17), held in Durban, South Africa in December 2011.

Predictably and sadly, the same issues have resurfaced: lack of media coverage, West stalling on doing anything trying to blame India and China instead, lack of funding, disagreement on how to address it, etc.

Geopolitical threats (real and imaginary) quickly focus a lot of political will and money is easily found to mobilize military forces when needed.

The economy also takes center stage as the current pressing issue, while climate change is easily deferred, in the hopes that the West can let China and India pick up the burden of addressing emissions even though they have not contributed to the historical build up of emissions that have started the recent changes in the climate.

This page is an overview of the Durban conference.

Read full article: COP17 - Durban Climate Conference

US campaign financing rules have been relaxed even further in recent years, making a worrying problem about the state of American democracy worse (because those with money have even more ability to try and buy votes or influence policy).

Media coverage of this issue, though it may pop up from time to time, seems quite limited. Perhaps because it is estimated that television stations this year could make as much as eight billion dollars from political campaigns.

The state of US mainstream media has unfortunately been lamentable for many years, and after the issues around hurricane Katrina, it was thought that the media would be rejuvenated. Unfortunately it does not seem that way.

This page has been updated with further information about campaign financing issues and how limits in the US have been lifted making the problem worse. Also added were notes on US press freedom, and an info graphic on media ownership concentration.

Read full article: Media in the United States

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis. Their analysis shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago.

Global temperatures have warmed significantly since 1880, the beginning of what scientists call the “modern record.” At this time, the coverage provided by weather stations allowed for essentially global temperature data. As greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles have increased, temperatures have climbed, most notably since the late 1970s. In this animation of temperature data from 1880-2011, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.

Click on the image to see the video:

Read full article: Global Temperature Anomaly, 1880 - 2011

Flexibility mechanisms were defined in the Kyoto Protocol as different ways to achieve emissions reduction as part of the effort to address climate change issues. These fall into the following categories: Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism.

However, these have been highly controversial as they were mainly included on strong US insistence and to keep the US in the treaty (even though the US eventually pulled out). Some of the mechanisms face criticism for not actually leading to a reduction in emissions, for example.

The updates to this article includes a couple of videos summarizing some concerns about cap and trade.

Image ©: Centre for Science and Environment

Read full article: Climate Change Flexibility Mechanisms

Twenty years ago at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, countries adopted Agenda 21 — a blueprint to rethink economic growth, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection. Marking that anniversary, this year sees Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, with aims to get bold agreements to address things like poverty, sustainable development, decent jobs, etc.

This page provides coverage of recent events via Inter Press Service’s news feed.

Read full article: Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development

The latest data covering global arms sales shows that sale of arms in 2011 increased to around $85 billion, 84% of which went to developing countries. This was almost double the arms sales compared to 2010 which was the lowest since 2004.

One major factor for the increase was the US sales of arms to Saudi Arabia. Most other major arms sellers otherwise saw a decrease in sales and the trend in recent years had been declining sales.

The global financial crisis has affected many countries, and many developing countries started to see a decrease in purchases in the last few years. However, just 10 developing countries account for some 85% of all sales to developing countries in the period 2004 to 2011, which the data covers. Saudi Arabia tops that list followed by India and the United Arab Emirates. (As well as concerns about some of the regimes in the top buyers, some of this spending is also said to be due to modernizing efforts.)

Updated graphs and charts on arms sales data are provided here.

The arms trade is big business. The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy, account for approximately 85% of all arms sold between 2004 and 2011.

Some of the arms sold go to regimes where human rights violations will occur. Corruption often accompanies arms sales due to the large sums of money involved.

Read full article: The Arms Trade Is Big Business

A recent study found that coral reefs will face severe challenges even if average global warming temperature rise is restricted to 2 degrees Celsius. This is a rise that most countries are struggling to negotiate and meet. But reefs are very sensitive to temperature changes, experts fear the window of opportunity to prevent massive reef loss is very small.

Read full article: Nature and Animal Conservation

19% of the world’s reptiles are estimated to be threatened with extinction according to a study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Zoological Society of London. Reptiles include snakes, lizards, crocodiles, turtles and tortoises. But some species are at more risk than others. For example, freshwater turtles alone are at a 50% risk of extinction. Reasons vary, but include the usual suspects such as climate change and loss of habitat.

A recent study also estimated that some 100 million sharks are being killed each year — an unsustainable rate, given how long some species take to mature and reproduce. Much of the demand is driven by Chinese rising affluence and demand for shark fin soup in the mistaken belief it has various health benefits.

This small update to the biodiversity loss page has further details.

Read full article: Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions

In recent years, global military expenditure has increased again and is now comparable to Cold War levels. Recent data shows global spending at over $1.7 trillion, despite the global economic conditions. It is still approximately 1% increase since 2008 when the financial crisis began, for example.

Not all nations have felt the impacts of the global financial crisis in the same way. Some have grown economically, including many Asian countries, which has allowed some of them to increase their military spending. There are geopolitical interests at stake for various powers, so economic troubles or not, military spending is seen as important to maintain, or at least to minimize possible reductions.

The highest military spender is the US accounting for 39% of the world’s spending, more than the next top 10 countries combined, and more than all its potential enemies, combined. But this represents a slight decline over previous years as other nations, especially China and Russia, increase their spending. At the same time, the US has reduced military spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Western Europe’s austerity programs affect their military spending budgets.

This update includes new and updated figures, graphs and charts exploring this further.

Read full article: World Military Spending

It is well known that tobacco smoking kills. But it also exacerbates poverty, contributes to world hunger by diverting prime land away from food production, damages the environment and reduces economic productivity. Second hand smoking also affects other people’s lives. Despite many attempts to prevent it, a global tobacco control treaty became international law in 2005.

However, challenges still remain as tobacco companies try to hit back, for example, by targeting developing nations, increasing advertising at children and women, attempting to undermine global treaties and influence trade talks, etc.

This update includes updated stats, as well as more information on the above issues.

Read full article: Tobacco

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) recently published new preliminary figures for aid in 2013.

It showed official development assistance (ODA) aid from wealthy governments had increased to just under $135 billion in 2013 (at constant 2012 prices). This is roughly 0.3% of GNI (Gross National Income) of the donor nations.

Yet, over 40 years ago nations promised to reach 0.7% of their GNI by the mid-1970s. While each year the amount of aid falls quite short of that 0.7% target (less than half of that target), the quality and effectiveness of that aid is often questionable, sometimes benefiting the donor more than the recipient due to the types of conditions attached to this aid.

This update includes a number of new and updated charts and graphs.

Read full article: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance

An overview of the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa that has been described by the World Health Organization as the largest, most severe and most complex outbreak in the history of the disease.

The epidemic began at the end of 2013, in Guinea. From there it spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. Many of the affected countries face enormous challenges in stopping its spread and providing care for all patients.

Thousands of people have died and many are at risk as the fatality rate from this virus is very high. As the crisis worsens, as well as the enormous health challenges involved, the social and economic consequences may set these countries back, reversing some gains a number of these countries have made in recent years.

This new page includes more information on the above issues.

Read full article: Ebola Outbreak In West Africa

Recently released data showed that 2014 was the hottest year since records began in 1880.

This update includes updated charts and graphs and animations that look into this further.

Read full article: Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction

Rangers could be without Alfredo Morelos and Scott Arfield for their trip to play Hearts on Sunday.

Celtic legend Chris Sutton has bitten back Robbie Savage on Twitter, as the Hoops finished the week top of the Scottish Premiership table, after Rangers’ 1-1 draw against Hearts.

David Moyes came close to joining Celtic on two occasions and has opens up on his quest to return to management.

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has suggested he could leave Ibrox after their defeat to Hearts as the manager said he will consider his future over the next couple of days.