Oceania Marshall Islands The fish aggregation devices FADs that fishing boats use to make catches easier, lately equipped with satellite communications gear to pinpoint location, are now being built by drug cartels that wrap packs of cocaine and radio transponders to trace troves
Asia Saudi Arabia The holy month of Ramadan begins today according to moon sightings by experts in Saudi Arabia, with countries such as Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar following suit; the country has lifted most restrictions just ahead of Ramadan and the visit to Mecca
America Barbados PM Mottley has declared that the "time is ripe" for Barbados to discuss reparations for slavery with the United Kingdom, stressing that the development deficit present today is the result of past behaviour and must be addressed
Asia Kuwait Today begins the holy month of Ramadan of 1443, as declared by the moon-sighting committee yesterday after the appearance of the crescent of the month
Europe North Macedonia Over 29% of the population is ethnic Albanian and 54% is Macedonian, as reveal the partial results of the first census conducted in 20 years in the country in September 2021 by the State Bureau of Statistics
Africa Ivory Coast Abidjan residents who navigate the lagoon to get around town are increasing, finding boating on the surrounding lagoon more convenient; according to the World Bank, in 2019 commuters were losing more than 3 hours a day in transit
Africa South Africa Netflix has announced a 900 million rand ($62 million) investment in the South African film and television industry, with four new productions, three local and one international, to be filmed in the country by 2023
Europe Ireland RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, an Irish language radio station, will mark 50 years of broadcasting this weekend with a gala concert tonight featuring the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and some of the country’s top traditional musicians
Europe Portugal Marvilla Art Gallery and Studios in Lisbon is open to the public, pioneering a new paradigm of smart and sustainable use of historical buildings in the time restoration permits are underway, with studios visitable while artists are at work
Asia Azerbaijan Students from Turkey, Iran and Russia are the most numerous among those who chose Azerbaijan as their study destination; out of 5.513 international students, 2.257 are from Turkey
Asia Pakistan Many of Pakistan's best female karate players belong to the Hazara ethnic minority, who live in isolated ghettos bordered by checkpoints; for many Hazara women, karate is a way to fight back and break out of the restrictions they face
Africa Ethiopia The Catholic Church in Ethiopia has launched a support project to provide humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation to over 217.000 people affected by insecurity and war in Tigray with a budget of about $2,6 million
Europe Serbia The Adriatic oil pipeline JANAF will suspend oil deliveries to the oil corporation Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), will block Serbia's oil refinery and a petrochemical complex, Petrohemija near Belgrade, in protest against NIS majority shareholder Gazprom
Africa Nigeria The Nigeria Learning Passport, an online, mobile and soon offline learning platform that will provide continuous education to 3 million students in 2022, and 12 million by 2025, has been launched by the government and Unicef