The head of a Southern African public-media alliance resigned Thursday, hours after its board named a popular talk-radio presenter to lead election coverage. Three member broadcasters are threatening to withhold reporters from the alliance’s shared feed, putting its coverage plans for six countries in doubt.
A record salt surge has pushed a large stretch of India’s Sundarbans across a threshold where mangrove loss may accelerate, researchers say. The finding was absent from official forest maps, which count tree cover but miss the failure of new trees to take root.
A peatland in Indonesia’s Riau province has crossed a local drying threshold that could turn a major carbon store into a persistent source of emissions, scientists say. A failed monitoring system concealed the shift for 16 months, while hundreds of thousands of carbon credits tied to the site were issued.
A Thai television star has postponed her comeback after a new law made public the value of 11 endorsement campaigns she had presented as personal recommendations. Experts warn the register could reset the relationship between celebrities and fans — and turn every casual product mention into a test of trust.
A battery-powered survey sled plunged into a new Antarctic fissure before scientists confirmed that 620 sq km of ice shelf had broken apart in just 11 hours. The collapse will not itself lift the seas by metres, but researchers warn it may have removed a crucial brake on a glacier whose worst-case contribution could reach 14cm by 2100.
A scientific paper has prompted the Pacific Va’a Council to announce a 42km (26-mile) outrigger canoe race around Fiji’s Ovalau island next year. The plan also gives island federations four voting seats on the council’s executive, a shift that could reshape who sets the sport’s rules.
A pre-dawn walkout at a glass factory near Most was followed hours later by a ruptured steam pipe that shut production and left thousands of tonnes of orders in doubt. Fire officials reported no injuries, while the company put the potential cost of the stoppage at 620 million koruna (about €25 million).
A section of cliff collapsed on Portugal’s west coast on Wednesday, hours after a court ruling cleared the first stage of work to remove a disputed sea wall. Authorities evacuated 126 people from 41 homes; no injuries were reported.
A director has resigned from his own film days before its theatrical release, protesting a decision to screen the full eight-hour cut in one ticketed sitting. The production, about a fictional lab entrepreneur, is now set to become the longest Canadian narrative feature booked for commercial cinemas.
A demonstration by patients in Ankara has drawn attention to a publicly funded mobile kidney-screening unit that recorded thousands of visits but travelled only 38 kilometres beyond its hospital grounds. The university says the screenings took place at partner clinics; protesters say the grant promised a service that would come to them.
A sudden shortage of digital signing units has forced Nahrain’s election officials to verify ballots by hand, slowing the count as the opposition closes in on a parliamentary majority. The commission says paper records remain intact, but warned that certification could take days longer than planned.
A new orbital measurement has exposed 48,000 hectares of burning vegetation in southern Iraq, far beyond the area shown on public fire maps. Scientists warn that shifting winds could carry dangerous particle pollution into three major cities before December ends.