There's a certain aesthetic attached to the oldest cities in the world: bustling souks beneath a bright blue sky, flowing garments made of whispery white cotton, stone masonry painted yellow by the sun. In reality, however, the oldest cities in the world have faced deep unrest to get to where they are today. Tragically, some are still uninhabitable. The Syrian town of Aleppo, for example, is likely the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world but rages with civil war today. Damascus too is categorically off limits. The post The oldest cities in the world appeared first on Atlas & Boots.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called on Friday for European Union countries to coordinate their COVID-19 border reopening policies and guard against new variants of the virus. Macron said EU countries must be careful not to allow new variants to spread, adding that the EU was watching developments in Britain, which has seen a steep rise in the weekly reported cases of the Delta variant. “Some countries have reopened their borders earlier for tourist industry reasons, but we must be careful not to re-import new variants,” he told a joint news conference with Merkel before a working dinner at the chancellery in Berlin. Merkel added: “We can’t act as if the coronavirus is over.” “Caution is still necessary so that we have a summer of many freedoms, if no...
South Africa on Tuesday assumed the rotating monthly presidency of the United Nations Security Council. During the month, South Africa will focus on strengthening the cooperation between African Union (AU) and United Nations, and emphasising the importance of a proactive approach to the maintenance of international peace and security, particularly in the form of drawing greater attention to “preventative diplomacy mechanisms,” Jerry Matjila, permanent representative of South Africa to the UN and president of the Security Council for the month of December, told journalists during a hybrid press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York. This is South Africa’s second presidency during its two-year (2019-2020) elected term on the council. December will also be the country’s final month on t...
A new report by two United Nations agencies warned Friday of a heightened risk of famine in three conflict-torn African states and Yemen, and a high hunger risk in 16 more. The Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme warned that a “toxic combination of conflict, economic decline, climate extremes and the Covid-19 pandemic … is driving people further into the emergency phase of food insecurity”. The agencies swung the spotlight on Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, all facing rising levels of acute hunger with potential risk of famine. Issuing “a stark warning” in their Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Insecurity Hotspots, the agencies said the four countries have areas that could soon slip into famine. Some parts of the population “are already experiencing...
A journalist has been shot dead in crime-ridden northern Mexico, authorities said Friday, the sixth such murder this year in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for reporters. Chihuahua state governor Javier Corral condemned the “cowardly” killing of Arturo Alba Medina in Ciudad Juarez near the US border. Corral said on Twitter that he had told prosecutors to ensure the perpetrators are punished, adding: “Justice will be done.” The 49-year-old journalist and television news show host was assassinated a few minutes after the end of his program on Thursday night, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. “This was clearly an execution and his media colleagues where he worked are afraid and don’t know the reason for the crime,” Balbina Flores, RSF representative in Mexico...