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The footballer that FIFA forgot. PHOTO: Reuters
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- Bahraini refugee Hakeem al-Arabi's plight captivated the football world
- A new theory suggested soul icon James Brown was murdered in 2006
- Emiliano Sala's body was recovered from the English Channel
- Trump picked a World Bank critic to head the World Bank
- Belichik's stingy defence won the Patriots another Super Bowl
- Costa Rica's Nobel laureate ex-president was accused of sex abuse
- Entrenched unethical behaviour was uncovered in Australian banks
- Virginia's elected representatives redefined the term 'political scandal'
- Renault investigated Carlos Ghosn's palatial tastes
- Italy's deputy PM attended Yellow Vest protests to the dismay of Paris
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The Himalayan ice cap is disappearing. PHOTO: Prakash Mathema / AFP
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This week we learned that 2018 was the fourth-hottest year in recorded human history. Data going back to 1850 shows that the five warmest years have occurred since 2014, and Britain's Meteorological Office believes the next five years will be hotter. Add to this the fact that a Manhattan-sized hole has been found in a glacier in Antarctica. All of this brings into focus a primary challenge for the next century: depending on where you live, you'll either have far too much water, or nowhere near enough of it.
The end of the Ganges
The Hindu Kush Himalayan region boasts some of the most arresting scenery on our planet. Mount Everest, K2, Kangchenjunga and Lhotse each soar more than eight and a half kilometres above sea level. It's up here – in the roof of the world – that howling winds and subzero temperatures maintain a perennial 'third' ice cap. The thousands of glacial lakes in the Hindu Kush has earned the region the moniker 'Asia's water tower'. It's those lakes in the sky from whence the mighty Indus river flows, and on which tens of millions of Pakistanis rely. And across the border in India, Himalayan ice-melt comes thundering down into the life-giving Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers.
But now a new report has delivered a terrifying reality about this crucial region: the roof of the world is leaking. In a 600-page study the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has warned that global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels will see between one- and two-thirds of the region's glaciers melting away. While the peak UN climate body contends that we've got till 2040 before we hit that threshold; British counterparts argue we've got just 5-10 years. Regardless, the eventuality would be catastrophic.
Water-flows would increase drastically for three decades; every monsoon season the higher waters would sweep away vast swathes of farmland and millions of people in the low deltas of West Bengal and Bangladesh. Millions are already displaced in India's poorest state, Bihar, every monsoon. That may become tens of millions. But as the ice cover disappears another violent change will occur too; by 2050 the rivers will shrink. As the river disappears so too will the crops, animals, irrigation and hydroelectric power for those living downstream.
By 2100, the water supply of 1 billion people will be at risk. The Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong and Yellow Rivers may well run dry.
A tale of two climes
Townsville in northeastern Australia is often referred to as being part of the dry tropics. A geographical quirk (the angle of the coastline) means that offshore storm systems in the area usually skip what the locals call 'Brownsville'. But this week Townsville earned its nickname, not from parched grass but rather because it was under several metres of muddy floodwater. Over the course of a week extremely heavy monsoonal rains dumped a year's worth of rain in the hinterland behind Townsville. The Ross River dam reached 200% capacity early in the week and dam operators had no choice but to open the floodgates. Meteorologists have described the storm as a one-in-2000-year event. Two people and more than 250,000 cattle are believed to have been lost in the torrent.
2,000 kilometres South of Townsville Australia's vital Murray-Darling river system is dying. A deadly drought has greatly exacerbated an ongoing debate over water usage between pastoralists and environmentalists. Algal blooms are sweeping downriver and combining with baking heat to kill off fish by the millions. The Murray-Darling basin is often referred to as Australia's 'food bowl'. Now it can barely sustain the life living in it, let alone the rest of the country.
All of this goes to show why the climate change is no just longer a danger to our future. It is a crisis that has arrived. But lest you conclude that all hope is lost, we should point out that there's nothing like immediacy to galvanise the human race. In America, Charismatic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has won support from leading Democratic contenders for a "Green New Deal". In the UK, and around the world, students are striking to demand urgent action from political leaders. And even for Australia, a nation of climate policy laggards, there is hope of meeting the Paris Agreement targets. The latest data shows that as of mid-2018 Australians were installing rooftop solar at more than five times the rate than any other major economy.
Perhaps the issue all along was that climate change had been, as Douglas Adams once brilliantly put it, "someone else's problem". That's clearly no longer the case.
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He's no Pope Urban II (thankfully). PHOTO: Kamran Jebreili / AP
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The good pope
Pope Francis is a man of firsts. The first Jesuit pope, the first pope of the Americas, in fact - the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere. This week the pontifex maximus became the first of his kind to hold Mass on the unfamiliar shores of the Arabian peninsula. Yes, Pope Francis held sway before 180,000 rapturous Christians, inside and outside Abu Dhabi's Zayed Sports City Stadium. It was all the more special because the crowd was overwhelmingly made up of poor Filipinos and Indians; the quasi-bonded labourers of Gulf monarchies. Never before has the chant "viva il papa" been raised so loudly on the peninsula.
The tour may be just another facet of the U.A.E's rather guileless attempt at public relations, but it wasn't a free kick. Early in the week Francis told a gathering of religious leaders, "War cannot create anything but misery, weapons bring nothing but death. I am thinking in particular of Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya". It's a clear message to the U.A.E's temporal leaders who've enthusiastically bombed Yemen back to the 19th century. The Catholic Church is crusading for peace in the middle-east, a long-overdue change in tune.
Francis also made headlines this week by admitting - for the first time - the prevalence of sexual abuse committed by priests and bishops against nuns. While the abuse has been an open secret for nearly two decades, this marks the first occurrence of genuine admission, reflection, and regret. It's heartening to see dignity restored to the office of Christ's own Vicar on Earth.
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Shorty awaits his fate. PHOTO: Rosenburg / Reuters
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A tale of two drug trials
The Sackler family name carries weight. You'll find it in world-famous galleries – the MoMA, the Guggenheim and Britain's Royal Academy – adorning wings and exhibits paid for with Sackler money. Those dollars are derived from the family business, Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which you may (or may not) know as the manufacturer of OxyContin. This week the Massachusetts Attorney General alleged that Purdue's billions were derived from an opioid epidemic that it played a starring role in creating.
The explosive lawsuit alleges that the Sackler family pushed to keep millions of Americans on its product even as the opioid crisis was killing tens of thousands per year. To add insult to injury, Purdue also investigated the possibility of moving into the opioid overdose and treatment markets to further augment their earnings. For their efforts the Sacklers made $4b from OxyContin alone.
Now to the Big Apple where (at the time of publishing) jurors continued to weigh Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's innocence and guilt. The trial has been, all things considered, a circus. There have been accusations of Mexican presidents taking $100m bribes, naked escapes, and all manner of brutal slayings. The press has lapped it up. Despite the defence attorney's blame-shifting (to another Sinaloa boss, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada) Guzmán is undoubtedly complicit in a great many crimes.
One thing is for sure; the courtroom drama will have no impact on the river of drugs flooding spilling north over the Rio Grande. The trafficking of drugs into the ravenous U.S. market has only increased since Guzmán was arrested.
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If George Orwell offers you this, don't eat it. PHOTO: iStock
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A tardy apology
George Orwell's contribution to literature is the envy of just about all aspiring writers. His translated works have captured the imagination in every corner of the globe. And yet, there were some at home who remained unimpressed. 1946 was a particularly lean year for post-war UK, so the British Council commissioned a series of essays to promote local cooking. Orwell submitted a piece but apparently his rather unsentimental lens on cuisine earned him a rejection. This week the British Council acknowledged that in fact it was a brilliant piece and finally published an apology. Although they stood by the judgment that Orwell's orange marmalade recipe was too sweet.
Serenity now!
Don't wait for happiness: get it right now. Researchers from Oxford and Exeter universities have substantially proven a link between thinking positive thoughts about oneself (and one's loved ones) and improved wellbeing. The study, published in Clinical Psychological Science, showed that people focusing on positive thoughts have a more relaxed cognitive state, not to mention a healthier heart pattern. You can try this out at home by thinking positive thoughts about the inkl team. We feel better already.
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The Venezuelan-Colombian border. PHOTO: AP
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A thousand words, all of them sad
It's almost unnecessary to describe this story, given the above photograph. Faced with the indignity of foreign aid pouring into his country, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro ordered the army to blockade the border. Resistance and power over food aid. This is a deflating development in what is becoming an even darker chapter in Venezuela's history.
Cryptic cases
There is at least $190m worth of people's cryptocurrency locked away, and the man with the key is dead. Gerald Cotten, founder of the large Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, died late last year in India from complications with Crohn's disease. Unfortunately for the thousands of people who stored their money in the crypto-vault, only Cotten knew the passcodes for the 'cold storage'. Oops! Cryptocurrency advocates (never a group to miss a conspiracy theory) have argued that a number of small clues - including a misspelled death certificate - point to Cotten faking his own death and absconding with some serious cash.
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Quote of the week
"There could be no greater contrast to the beautiful image of a mother holding her infant child than the chilling displays our nation saw in recent days. Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth."
- Trump goes all-in on the Christian Right evangelical vote ahead of the 2020 elections. His State of the Union address was a predictable mix of taking credit for things he shouldn't have, and haranguing migrants.
Headline of the week
Facebook Wants You to Have Privacy, Just Not From Facebook - Bloomberg Businessweek
Featured long-reads from inkl publishers:
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EDITOR'S NOTE: We're now less than 50 days away from Brexit, and the United Kingdom has no feasible plan to deal with it. Theresa May is freshly returned from her attempt to play chequers at a chess tournament in Brussels. That is to say, empty-handed and demoralised.
If you have any clue where this Britain might be headed, please do tell us. If not, buckle yourselves in and prepare for the most self-inflicted of watershed moments. We'll bring you the best incisive and digestible analysis as we race to the cliff. So if you know anyone who would benefit from the explainers (or dark humour) please forward this email and encourage them to start using inkl today.
We're here to help.
Tom Wharton
@trwinwriting
P.S. Don't forget to follow inkl on Twitter and Facebook.
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