In Libya’s devastated Derna, families still search for the missing

Derna, Libya Reuters Since a huge flood swept away whole neighbourhoods of Libya’s city of Derna last month, Abdulsalam al-Kadi has been searching for his father and brother. He doesn’t expect to find them alive but he wants to bury them so he has a grave to mourn over. With friends, he has scoured mudbanks […]
US completes recovery of Chinese balloon but other “object” searches called off

Washington DC, US Reuters The United States said on Friday it had successfully concluded recovery efforts off South Carolina to collect sensors and other debris from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by a US fighter jet on 4th February, and investigators are now analysing its “guts.” But US and Canadian authorities also announced […]
Postcards: One year after volcanic blast, many of Tonga’s reefs lay silent

GLORIA DICKIE, of Reuters, reports…
Essay: Crisis with a child’s face – why children are the hidden victims of the COVID-19 pandemic

MERCY JUMO and DANE MOORES, of World Vision Australia, argue that it’s time for children to be put at the heart of COVID-19 response and recovery efforts…
Hope, sadness as volunteers search for victims of Indonesian volcano

Curah Kobokan, Indonesia Reuters At the foot of Indonesia’s Mount Semeru, what is left of the houses along the main village road are covered in a thick layer of hardened volcanic ash. Curah Kobokan was among the worst-hit areas when the 3,676-metre Mount Semeru erupted on Saturday, sending a cloud of ash into the sky […]
Pope gradually resuming work, walking, eating with aides, Vatican says

Vatican City Reuters Pope Francis is continuing a normal recovery from intestinal surgery, gradually resuming work, walking and eating with aides, the Vatican said on Saturday, adding his blood tests were satisfactory. The 84-year-old Pope is in hospital after undergoing a three-hour operation on Sunday to remove part of his colon, which the Vatican said […]
Essay: Disaster recovery from Australia’s fires will be a marathon, not a sprint

Journalist, author and broadcaster AMANDA GEARING, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at what research shows about long-term recovery after events like the bushfires which have burned through millions of hectares in Australia…
BOOKS: CONFRONTING FAMILY VIOLENCE

DAVID ADAMS reads Michael Clark’s ‘From Villian To Hero’…
INDIA: BEYOND SHELTER IN A STORM, ODISHA EYES STURDIER HOMES, POWER AND TREES

In the aftermath of Cyclone Fani, MANIPADMA JENA reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation, on how preparations had mitigated damage and the work to rebuild…
Rising heat scorches recovery efforts in cyclone-hit Indian state

Chennai, India Thomson Reuters Foundation From the safety of a relative’s house, Mohammed Tazmul Hussein watched coconut trees crashing onto the roof of his home as Cyclone Fani barrelled into eastern India. Two weeks after the cyclone struck Odisha state on India’s east coast, travelling at 200kph and forcing the evacuation of more than one […]