Uganda military says helicopter that crashed in Somali capital is theirs
Felix Kulayigye said three of the helicopter's eight occupants had survived, while a fire that was burning after the crash was being put out before the fate of the others could be determined.
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The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
The polluted city struggling to enforce single-use plastic ban
Nigerian shop manager Olarewanju Ogunbona uses Styrofoam and plastic packaging multiple times a day, a common practice in Lagos, one of the world's most plastic -polluted urban areas. The megacity's over 20 million residents contributed 870,000 tonnes to the global 57 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2024. Last month, Lagos state authorities imposed a ban on single-use plastics, but its effectiveness is being undermined by weak enforcement and a lack of viable alternatives, according to residents. The law, which commenced on 1 July, prohibits items such as cutlery, plates, and straws, with offenders risking business closure. However, other plastic forms, comprising a smaller percentage of the city's waste, remain in use. The ban is far from fully implemented, with some shops still openly displaying Styrofoam packs. Mr Ogunbona, who continues to purchase his meals in such packaging, observed: "Sellers are still using it very well." This ongoing reliance highlights the significant challenge facing Lagos in its bid to curb its pervasive pollution problem. A global treaty on plastics In Geneva this week, countries including Nigeria are negotiating a treaty to end plastic pollution. Such talks broke down last year, with oil-producing countries opposed to any limits on plastic production. In large part, plastics are made from fossil fuels like oil and gas. Lagos generates at least 13,000 tons of waste daily, almost a fifth of which is plastics, officials have said. In the absence of a proper waste management system, most of it ends up in waterways, clogging canals, polluting beaches and contributing to devastating floods. Although the state government has promoted the ban on single-use plastics as a major step, watchdogs are skeptical. 'Its effectiveness is limited without strong enforcement, affordable alternatives for low-income vendors and meaningful improvements in the city's overwhelmed waste management systems,' Olumide Idowu, a Lagos-based environmental activist, told The Associated Press. The Lagos state government did not respond to a request for comment. Scraping off labels with razor blades With the quest for a better life driving millions of Nigerians to Lagos, some in the city are finding ways to manage the pollution. Recent years have seen a rise of private waste managers and sustainability groups helping to tackle the crisis. At a sorting site in Obalende, a bustling commercial suburb adjacent to the upscale Ikoyi neighborhood, two women with razor blades scraped labels from plastic soft drink bottles. They uncapped the bottles and threw them into different nets, ready to be compressed and sold for recycling. Competition has become tougher as more people join the work, the women said. The informal network of waste collectors sell to, or sort for, private waste management companies. They can make around 5,000 naira ($3.26) a day. But far more work is needed. Manufacturers have a key role to play in tackling the plastic waste problem, according to Omoh Alokwe, co-founder of the Street Waste Company that operates in Obalende. 'They need to ... ensure that the plastics being produced into the environment are collected back and recycled,' Alokwe said. Experts also call for a behavioral change among residents for the law banning single-use plastics to be effective. Lagos residents need alternatives to plastics, shop owner Ogunbona said. Otherwise, 'we will keep using them."
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
I told my mum I was unsure about having children. Her reply opened my eyes
To me, my mother is Mummy and Mum; the fount of all knowledge and the source of love; the keeper of the rulebook and the holder of the cheerleader's pompoms. She's all of those things, but she is also a madwoman, who on her first night out in England from Zimbabwe was shocked by how cold it was after leaving her flat in a short skirt and heels, no jacket. She was pushed into hockey, literally, by her friend, who shoved her out of the line when the coach asked for a volunteer. I am named after that friend. My mother is both a protester and a nurturer; she has been teargassed at least twice (that I know of) while protesting in the name of human rights. Her life is a series of near misses and question marks, which I enjoy learning about and am sometimes horrified by. Given the obvious richness of her experience, I have asked her many times why she decided to have children. I couldn't figure out why somebody who had such a full life would want to risk changing it for anything. When I was a teenager, she jokingly responded that she was bored. But as I get older, my curiosity has only grown. Because of her difficulties with endometriosis, the chances of her having children were slim. Becoming an older, black mother sounded even harder, with the risks associated with so-called geriatric pregnancies and systemic racism within maternal health settings. One day, we were having a conversation at home, laughing about one of those interior design shows in which the couple had a child on the way and another running around, when I asked her again why she decided to have children when everything about it sounds so stressful and tiring. 'I wanted to be a mother on my own terms. Not anyone else's,' she told me. And then she went on: 'Everyone has this magical idea of a baby. But those babies don't stay babies.' By this, I understood that she never felt any pressure to have children because she had always looked at children as separate beings – not as possessions or boxes to tick or part of a life plan. What it said about her her attitude to life – the determination to raise a person rather than be a mother for the sake of it – really floored me. 'What about getting married?' I asked her, and she answered with an indescribable look that I have yet to capture on camera. She told me she had never wanted to be a wife. Not that she thought marriage was a bad thing; in fact, her own parents had a long, happy marriage. But her father once told her that marriage and giving birth were not exactly achievements. Living a life worth talking about, where you made a difference, big or small, caring for other people – that is what mattered. That was the example she should give to children she might have. And that's what she tried to do. And so, in her mid-30s, she decided she was ready to pass on what she had experienced and learned to a new generation. I told her: 'I don't think I'll ever have children.' I had said so on many occasions, usually after babysitting a younger cousin or friend's child – the best form of birth control. However, I wondered, did my mother wish to be a grandmother? My early childhood is filled with fond memories and pictures of her mother, my Gogo. She was excited to be a grandmother, for her daughter to have daughters. But she shrugged and said: 'Good. You could change your mind, but someone who realises early on that they don't want children is someone who recognises the immense responsibility it is.' If children were meaningful to me, that was good. If not, still good. She had a life before, during and after me. She has her bookcases full of novels, a rack full of good wine and holidays planned for herself in business class. We were her joy – but not the only thing in life that brought her joy. Her approach has always been: live a good life, do something meaningful. Basically, just don't kill anyone. I do not have children. Maybe that will change; it is highly likely it will not. But I am always comforted to know that whether I raise dogs, alpacas, cats or even children, my mother will be fine with my choices. Michaela Makusha is a freelance journalist
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
World Lion Day: Five facts about the King of the Jungle
World Lion Day is celebrated on 10 August - it's a special day to highlight the importance of protecting these amazing their size, strength, huge teeth and massive paws, it only takes one roar to see why they're called the kings of the jungle!They are seen across the world as symbols of courage and strength. Lions are also very social animals and are the only big cat to live in a group, called a they are vulnerable to extinction in the wild, with the World Wildlife Fund estimating that there are probably only around 20,000 - 25,000 left. World Lion Day started in 2013 with the goal of raising awareness about the challenges lions face in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have also warned that numbers will continue to decrease without proper conservation is due to several factors, including loss of habitat and food out our top lion facts, and tell us what you love about the big cats in the comments below... 1. They're really very lazy They may be pretty tough and scary when they're awake, but that actually isn't very love nothing more than a good snooze, sleeping for up to 20 hours a day! 2. They're all about girl power When it comes to lions, the ladies are in charge. Lionesses do nearly all of the hunting, bringing food back for the entire are also responsible for raising the children, and typically give birth to a litter every two years, which could between one and four cubs. 3. They don't have great table manners Despite their huge teeth, lions don't actually chew their they swallow it in huge chunks, using just one side of their mouth. 4. They're not exactly quiet! A lion can't actually roar until it is two years when it does, it's so loud you can hear it five miles away. 5. They don't like porcupines They may not be very big, but porcupines are surprisingly a lion's biggest into sniffing the little animal, unlucky lions can end up with one of the porcupine's spikes stuck in their mouth for the rest of their lives. Do you love lions? What do you like about them? Let us know in the comments...
