Read at: 2026-04-06T12:40:32+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Michèle Leerdam ]
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:31 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:22 pm UTC
Leaders say automated mowers’ blades threaten nocturnal animals as studies highlight risks to wildlife
German mayors have called for a nationwide ban on night-time use of robot lawnmowers to protect hedgehogs and other small nocturnal animals from being killed or maimed in the dark.
Recent studies have highlighted the threat lawnmower blades pose to wildlife active between dusk and dawn, prompting growing calls for regulation. Hedgehogs also tend to curl into a ball when threatened rather than running away, making them harder for a robot mower’s sensors to detect.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:20 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:19 pm UTC
Large explosions heard at South Pars gas field as US and Iran both receive new proposals for a potential 45-day ceasefire
Michèle Leerdam warns Iran to reopen strait of Hormuz by Tuesday or face ‘hell’
‘Unhinged madman’: US politicians react to Michèle Leerdam Iran threat
A Japanese shipping firm said on Monday that an Indian-flagged tanker owned by its subsidiary had passed through the strait of Hormuz and was en route to India.
A spokeswoman for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines told AFP that the Green Asha – a liquefied petroleum gas tanker – had crossed the waterway.
Pakistan stands in solidarity with the brotherly people of the UAE and reiterates the urgent need for restraint and de-escalation in the region.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:17 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:15 pm UTC
Four astronauts are set to become Earth’s farthest travelled and exceed a 1970 record on the sixth day of the mission
Artemis II astronauts are on course to set a new distance record Monday when they fly by the moon without stopping there – and then swing around for planet Earth.
The four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of the US space agency Nasa; and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – will become Earth’s farthest travelled, going 5,000 miles (8,047km) beyond the moon, exceeding the distance record set by 1970’s ill-fated Apollo 13.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:12 pm UTC
Keir Starmer ‘is not a bystander’, says Campaign Against Antisemitism as it calls on PM to stop rapper entering UK
Kanye West should be banned from entering the UK to perform at Wireless festival, the Campaign Against Antisemitism has urged.
The Jewish charity is the latest voice to join calls for the rapper’s performance to be cancelled following his antisemitic remarks and raises doubts about whether the music festival, due to take place in London’s Finsbury Park in July, will go ahead.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:09 pm UTC
Tennessee leads way but experts say offender registry could provide a false sense of security – and identify victims
When Amanda Martin started dating Christopher Cendroski, whose family has described him as “big-hearted”, she had no idea he had been arrested for domestic assault. Had she known, she said she never would become involved with him.
A few months into their relationship, which began in 2011, Cendroski started beating Martin, and in May 2012, he nearly choked her to death, she said. Police arrested Cendroski and helped both Martin and her children get to a shelter.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:58 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:57 am UTC
‘Here we go, ready or not, let’s do the news,’ Guthrie said, two months after the disappearance of her mother, Nancy
Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie made an emotional return to the NBC morning show on Monday, 64 days after her mother, Nancy, was abducted from her home in Phoenix, Arizona.
“Welcome to Today on this Monday morning. We are so glad you started your week with us, and it’s good to be home,” Guthrie told viewers.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:51 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:48 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:48 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:46 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:45 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:34 am UTC
Anutin Charnvirakul encourages measures such as home working and carpooling as country is reliant on oil imports
Thailand’s prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, has called on the public to conserve energy, urging work-from-home measures and carpooling, as he warned of the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.
In a statement posted on social media, Anutin said Thailand was exposed to the crisis because of its reliance on imported oil and gas, and the country could not be complacent.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:29 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:28 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:26 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:23 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:17 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:07 am UTC
New legislation comes amid push from big oil, as critics warn polluters’ profits prioritized over Americans’ health
Utah has made it nearly impossible for residents to hold fossil fuel companies legally accountable for climate damages in a move one advocacy group described as putting “profits for the biggest polluters over communities”, with other states expected to follow suit.
The new state legislation comes as part of a push from big oil and its political allies – including groups tied to rightwing impresario Leonard Leo – for legal immunity in red statehouses and Congress, with a goal of winning state and federal legal immunity similar to the liability waiver granted to the firearms industry in 2005.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Bork!Bork!Bork! Today's entry in the pantheon of public whoopsies is not so much Windows falling over as someone sticking a network connection where it possibly doesn't belong.…
Source: The Register | 6 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:58 am UTC
Michèle Leerdam threatened to bomb Iran's power plants and bridges unless it opens the Strait of Hormuz. And, NASA's Artemis II crew prepares to make its closest approach to the moon.
(Image credit: Pool)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:55 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:55 am UTC
Chuck Schumer accuses president of ‘ranting like an unhinged madman’ in threat to obliterate Iran’s power plants and bridges. Plus, Audrey Hepburn’s son Sean on her movies, marriages, good works and fascist parents
Good morning.
Michèle Leerdam has faced sharp criticism after threatening to wipe out Iran’s power plants and bridges in an expletive-riddled social media post yesterday.
How has Iran reacted? Iran’s parliament speaker responded with a warning that the US president’s “reckless moves” would mean “our whole region is going to burn”.
This is a developing story. Follow the liveblog here.
What will they see? During the flyby, which will last about six hours, the crew will have to observe the celestial body with their naked eyes, along with cameras they have onboard. The journey promises views of the moon’s far side that were too dark or too difficult to see by the 24 Apollo astronauts who preceded them.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:49 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:47 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:44 am UTC
Senior US officials consider the PM’s pitch to have been overblown, creating potentially far-reaching consequences for Israel
When Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at Michèle Leerdam ’s Mar-a-Lago club on 29 December last year, the Israeli prime minister came with an appeal – and a not so subtle inducement.
After months of restocking air defence and other missiles after June’s 12-day conflict in which the US joined in to bomb Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Israel was ready to go again, this time with more substantial objectives.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:38 am UTC
Source: World | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:26 am UTC
While path and strength of storm remain uncertain, BoM warns Cape York could again take direct hit if cyclone makes landfall
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Another cyclone may hit the Queensland coast just over three weeks after the same area was smashed by Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
But a meteorologist warned forecasts predicting the path and strength of Severe Tropical Cyclone Maila remained uncertain, with the storm likely to make landfall over the weekend.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:25 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:24 am UTC
Iran's top officials pushed back against President Michèle Leerdam 's deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz, striking a defiant tone as the warring sides traded missile attacks.
(Image credit: Ilia Yefimovich)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:19 am UTC
Source: World | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:01 am UTC
Companies using heating oil have already begun rationing their fuel use, says Federation of Small Businesses
Thousands of independent businesses across the UK are braced for their energy bills to more than double owing to the sharp rise in heating oil costs as the war in Iran pushed Europe’s fuel market prices to fresh record highs.
About 7% of all small and medium-sized companies warm their properties and provide hot water using heating oil, which in some cases has more than doubled in recent weeks.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 6 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:59 am UTC
Concerns about coming wildfire risk, and temperatures also remain high on other side of Pacific where rare tropical cyclone has formed
After a historically warm winter across nine states in the US, the first month of meteorological spring again brought exceptionally high temperatures, with numerous states recording new all-time high temperatures in March. The remarkable intensity and longevity of the warmth have left much of the mountain snowpack, a crucial source of water for millions in the American west, at critically low levels.
Though precipitation totals tend to increase in spring, the low snowpack has raised concerns about a potentially severe wildfire season if conditions do not improve soon. And with further spells of abnormally warm, dry weather expected this week, the outlook is becoming increasingly worrying heading into the late spring and summer months.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:58 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:47 am UTC
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Source: All: BreakingNews | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:32 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:26 am UTC
Oliver Tokic-Bensley, 16, says he had been in the water mere minutes when a shark bit his foot
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A teenage surfer bitten by a shark at a South Australian beach has described how he “flicked it off” and “legged it back to shore”.
Oliver Tokic-Bensley, 16, was bitten on his foot while surfing on Good Friday near his family beach house at Middleton, 80km south of Adelaide.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:22 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:10 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:04 am UTC
Levy on inherited farms and family businesses worth £2.5m or more comes into force 6 April
A new inheritance tax regime for UK farms and family businesses comes into force on Monday and will present “significant challenges” for those affected, according to accountants.
In October 2024 the government announced plans to levy inheritance tax on farms – prompting an outcry in many quarters.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:04 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
A provision in the GOP's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will make Rosa María Carranza and an estimated 100,000 other lawfully present immigrant seniors ineligible. Her once secure retirement is in question.
(Image credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: World | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
BFI and National Portrait Gallery to mark centenary of the film star’s birth with ‘the summer of Marilyn’
Though often reduced to a sex symbol frozen in time, or a tragic figure at the centre of several scandals, Marilyn Monroe was something far more subversive, according to two exhibitions that will herald what has been nicknamed “the summer of Marilyn”.
To mark the centenary of her birth, Monroe is being celebrated by leading British cultural institutions as a performer of sharp comic intelligence, a canny architect of her own image, and a woman who reshaped the possibilities for female stardom on screen.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Higher education is especially reliant on computers and phones, but accessibility for people with disabilities has often been forgotten. A new federal rule could change that.
(Image credit: Kristian Thacker for NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
A reactivation of the virus that causes chickenpox, the illness can be miserable. Here's what to know about early warning signs, long-term symptoms and some surprising news about the vaccine.
(Image credit: triocean/iStockphoto)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy Guthrie, has not been seen since returning home from a family dinner the evening of Jan. 31.
(Image credit: Dia Dipasupil)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Goat meat goes down like big shards of glass when the symptoms set in. The local livestock, the main source of available nutrients, becomes nearly impossible to swallow. It feels, the sufferers say, like deep wounds have been sliced into their throats.
In Kargi, a remote desert village in the far north of Kenya, cancers of the digestive tract plague the population at unusually high rates. The disease most often attacks the esophagus, though stomach cancer is also common. Some patients think it’s a punishment from God.
The evidence on the ground suggests it’s more likely from a multinational oil company. In the 1980s, foreign work crews dressed like astronauts descended on the village of Kargi and the surrounding Chalbi Desert to drill for oil. They spent five unsuccessful years boring nearly a dozen wells thousands of feet into the ground. The men were from Amoco, an American oil company now owned by BP.
The crews then drove off their bulldozers, packed up their protective equipment, and vanished. One of the only traces to mark their presence was a dry white substance scattered on the ground, close to the water wells used by residents and their livestock.
An Intercept investigation drawn from on-the-ground interviews with dozens of Kargi residents, government and corporate reports spanning decades, court filings, and public hearings traces Amoco’s failure to clean up its waste to the ongoing pollution of Kargi. The substance the company left behind contained heavy metals and known carcinogens, but because of a lack of testing and thorough scientific study, it isn’t clear if the waste directly caused cancer in the community.
What is clear is that residents ate it.
Kargi has one of the highest poverty and malnutrition rates in Kenya, and when locals discovered the flaky substance around the wells, many believed it was natural salt and started using it to cook their food.
The water was contaminated. High levels of carcinogenic toxic chemicals, namely nitrates, had seeped into surrounding boreholes and wells — the only water supply in the desert. Animals began dying in the thousands. And people started getting cancer.
By the early 2000s, the cancer rate in the community was three times the national average. The area’s state representative asked the government to investigate the correlation between the disease plaguing his constituents and the drilling waste that had been left behind.
Now, across the manyattas — communities of traditional homes constructed from sticks and patchworks of old clothing — in Kargi and surrounding villages, everybody claims to know someone afflicted by the disease. The “salt” still remains scattered where Amoco, now part of British Petroleum, once searched for oil.
What’s clear now, from court records and environmental tests, is that the white clayey substance collected adjacent to Amoco’s wells was a tool the company used to help drill for oil, that it contained a variety of heavy metals, and that the wells were not properly sealed.
The pollution and disease inspired the first-ever lawsuit filed on the basis of Kenya’s constitutional right to a safe and healthy environment in 2020, when residents of Kargi and other communities in the Chalbi Desert sued the Kenyan national and county governments. They demanded a supply of clean water for people and animals, and they blamed Kenya for failing to police Amoco’s damage to the environment. Six years later, it’s still crawling through the court system.
The Amoco case was the start of a pattern of identifying environmental destruction across the East African country. In the last few years, similar cases have been popping up nationwide, accusing the local and national governments of failing to clean up the waste that other multinational oil companies have left behind, subjecting residents to drink contaminated water.
A lack of adequate testing and general neglect of Kargi and its surrounding areas makes it difficult to directly correlate cancer to the waste Amoco left behind. But high levels of carcinogenic toxins, including nitrates and arsenic — both commonly used in drilling wells — have been found in the area’s drinking water over the years, in sporadic tests conducted by the Kenyan government and nonprofit organizations.
No official cleanup has ever been done. Neither BP nor the Kenyan government responded to repeated requests for comment.
“We were just told to take her back home and wait for her time.”
In Kargi, residents told The Intercept that Amoco’s footprint has left them in a state of constant despair.
Gumathi Galnahgalle, a village elder in his mid-40s, said the community began to notice people falling ill in the years after Amoco left. When his mother stopped being able to swallow food, he took her to the hospital multiple times.
“There was no treatment; we were just told to take her back home and wait for her time,” he said, standing in front of her grave. “There is no manyatta that has not been affected by this disease.”
Amoco’s arrival in the 1980s was met with intrigue and excitement. As helicopters flew over Kargi, foreign crews came into the community to join traditional dances at night.
The company employed locals to cook for their crews. In such a remote area, with few educational opportunities and literacy rates around 25 percent, the work was well-received. Lebeku Mirgichan, now in his early 70s, worked as a cook for Amoco for three years — earning 3,000 Kenyan shillings a month (equivalent to roughly $23 today). “At the time, that was a lot of money,” he told The Intercept.
Oil exploration was a “welcome development for many communities because it came with a lot of promise and opportunity for development,” said Omolade Adunbi, director of the African Studies Center at the University of Michigan. And it wasn’t just Amoco — Chevron and Total had also explored for oil in other parts of Marsabit, the more than 40,000-square-mile county that contains Kargi.
Then-Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, who commissioned the Amoco project, reportedly visited Kargi to watch the drilling. Amoco’s managing director told Moi that “the rock formation made the prospects for striking oil very encouraging and exciting.” Moi said “he had hope that economically viable oil deposits would be found.”
Amoco, then a Midwest-based company, felt that it was on the cusp of becoming one of the world’s leading explorers and developers of oil — acquiring drilling rights in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Burundi. Alfred O. Munk, Amoco’s manager of foreign affairs, told The Chicago Tribune, “Heads of state and competitors alike are coming to the sudden, belated conclusion that Amoco is a major international player.”
With Moi’s blessing, Amoco drilled at least 10 oil wells that reached 10,000 feet deep. But in 1990, after five years and no real sign of oil, the project in Kargi was decommissioned. Amoco’s vehicles, guards, and land rovers abruptly left.
In court records and interviews with the community, dozens said they were never officially informed of the project’s end. And no one came to clean it up.
The failure didn’t seem to affect Amoco’s business. In 1998, British Petroleum bought it in a $48 billion deal, the largest takeover of an American company by a foreign firm at the time. It changed its name to BP Amoco, then just BP in 2001. Most Amoco stations in the U.S. were converted to BP’s brand.
But in Kargi and its surrounding villages, animals were dying. Across the Chalbi Desert — where over 90 percent of the population of 30,000 is considered impoverished — most people survive off their livestock, eating only the meat and milk of goats, sheep, and camels. Due to the area’s aridity, there is no piped water, and communities rely on groundwater from boreholes and shallow wells.
In the 1990s, after drinking water from a borehole next to an abandoned well that Amoco had drilled, a flock of sheep and goats died in the neighboring village of Balesa, court records allege.
Then, in the early 2000s, 7,000 sheep and goats died under similar circumstances, residents told The Intercept. According to court records, a water quality report conducted by the government immediately after the mass death confirmed that over 600 animals died within two hours of taking the water. The water was found to contain high levels of nitrates, a type of salt and chemical compound that gets dissolved into drilling material for a variety of purposes: as powerful explosives to locate oil, to stop bacteria from growing in wells, and as an additive to drilling mud to strengthen the walls of a well.
When consumed in high amounts, nitrates can be extremely toxic and stop mammals’ blood from carrying oxygen.
A government team was sent to the area on a fact-finding mission in 2003, according to court documents. They recommended that the community should not give the water to infants and that the veterinary department should carry out toxicology tests in Kargi. It also found that the wells had not been properly sealed. A 2004 government report concluded that “the claims of the presence of esophagus cancer in the region were everywhere the team visited and concern is overwhelmingly evident as reported by medical personnel and local community.”
Subsequent tests commissioned by a local nonprofit organization found that levels of nitrates and arsenic were high in Kargi waters.
Five years later, a prospective report by a Swedish oil company, Lundin, which was planning to look for oil and other mining materials, confirmed that a “white clayey substance used to cool drill bits by Amoco while drilling was collected adjacent to the well.” Lundin tested it and found extremely high alkaline levels — which can cause chemicals to be corrosive and destroy skin when spilled.
The former Amoco cook, Mirgichan, alongside two other community members who also worked for Amoco, told The Intercept that they remember watching workers’ skin start to peel off when they worked with drilling materials.
In its report, Lundin found the substance to be “extremely saline and sodic” and that it was related to “abundant” claims about related health issues by the local communities, including dying livestock and cancer cases.
Between 2007 and 2009, multiple tests on the water found that it was not meeting the World Health Organization recommended standards, according to court records. The Kenyan water resources authority declared that it was not safe for human consumption. A local nonprofit found that high levels of nitrates and arsenic were in the water, and they were the probable cause of the livestock deaths.
By then, people were dying.
In Kargi, where food is scarce, community members kept finding the white substance that Amoco left behind and decided to put it to use, packing it up and using it to cook. The area, littered with salt-like mounds, became so popular with residents that it was named kwa chuvmi, loosely translated to “where there is salt.”
There are conflicting reports over what exactly the “salt” was. According to Kenyan court documents, the salt-like substance was actually two heavy drilling chemicals: barite and bentonite. Barite is a mineral used in large quantities to increase the density of drilling fluids, and bentonite, a clay-like substance often referred to as drilling mud, helps in carrying cuttings to the surface and stabilizing boreholes. The chemicals can have “catastrophic effects,” on the environment and people, said James Njuguna, an engineering professor at Robert Gordon University.
According to tests undertaken by Lundin, Amoco used “a white material that could pass for salt like substance,” but was “essentially a special clay material used to cool the drill bits.” It contained high levels of calcium, magnesium, sodium, and electrical conductivity.
Between 2006 and 2009, records from the only health center in Kargi, a village area with only 10,000 residents, registered 65 cancer-related deaths — which health workers said was largely throat cancer — or a rate nearly three times higher than the national average, according to government reports.
“There are many orphans here. And yet, we still do not understand this disease.”
In 2008, Safi Mirkalkona’s sister died from stomach cancer just after giving birth, leaving behind the baby and four other small children. There was no medicine or treatment available, and she was advised to stay at home. “There are many orphans here,” Mirkalkona told The Intercept. “And yet, we still do not understand this disease.”
The same year, Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton, who represented Kargi and the surrounding area in Kenya’s national assembly, brought the issue to the Parliament.
“Strange diseases started occurring in the specific areas where oil was drilled,” he said. “I do not know how we can possibly explain the sudden emergence of cancer cases.”
“It is really embarrassing that we sit here and … years later people are still dying,” Lekuton continued in his speech. “We have a survey that has revealed shocking statistics of men and women who are ailing from throat cancer and many have died.”
But leaders, including in the energy ministry, were dismissive and said no connection had been found between oil exploration and cancer cases.
By 2009, a community member was dying of cancer every month, according to a local news report. The symptoms and deterioration of residents were similar. The first was an inability to swallow meat. The patients were then referred for a biopsy, “but the majority prefer to go back home and wait to die,” the report said. Some tested positive for esophageal cancer.
Years went by with no answers. In 2013, a documentary titled “Desert of Death” aired on Kenyan national television on throat and stomach cancer patients in the county, suggesting that waste left behind after failed oil prospecting had a connection to the disease. The youngest cancer patient featured was 3 years old. The documentary drew countrywide attention, prompting further discussions in the government.
“I come from Kargi Village, and I have about 150 names of those who have died as a result of that disease,” Godana Hargura, senator of Marsabit, said in a government hearing in 2015. “The situation is so desperate.”
In Kargi, there is only one health center serving the 10,000 residents. There is no doctor — just a clinical officer, a nurse, and a nutritionist.
“People normally come too late. Most of the people are sick, but they don’t even know that they are sick,” said Abraham Situma, the clinical officer. “We really need more human resources.”
Situma often refers the cases to Marsabit county hospital, a two-hour drive from Kargi. Following that, many patients are then referred to a hospital in Meru, over 300 miles away. But, Situma said, most prefer to just stay in Kargi and pass away at home. So many people have died in their homes that they became labeled the “manyattas of death.”
In July 2024, separate from the court case, the community petitioned Kenya’s National Assembly to order a comprehensive and independent probe into cancer cases in the region. The community said they had documented close to 1,000 cancer-related fatalities in the last decade, all attributed to the consumption of contaminated water. The fatalities were reported in Kargi and other surrounding areas, but only 100 families had the victims’ health records, because their culture dictated that the dead be buried with documents.
“I call it the social death of the environment,” said Adunbi, the University of Michigan professor. “The practice of extraction in many communities is literally sentencing people to a form of death, and there is no oversight on how many of these corporations have conducted their activities in these spaces.”
“The practice of extraction in many communities is literally sentencing people to a form of death.”
Meanwhile, the case filed in 2020 by the Kargi residents remains ongoing and continuously delayed.
The petition detailed accusations against nine Kenyan and county governments — including the attorney general; ministries of environment, water, and sanitation; as well as the National Oil Corporation of Kenya — of being accountable for failing to ensure that Amoco caused little damage to the environment; disposed of waste oil, salt water, and refuse; and did not cause fluids or substance to escape to the environment.
“The untold pain, suffering and hopelessness is exemplified by the rampant deaths that take place in the manyattas without the residents of Marsabit County having access to medical care, the long distance the resident have to travel seeking medical care and lack of financial capacity to carry the burden of the cancer scourge,” the petition reads.
There were also plans to sue BP, but it has proved to be too legally complex, according to John Mwariri, acting executive director of Kituo Cha Sheria, the Kenyan legal aid group leading the case. The company had also long diverted its interest away from the Marsabit region into more fruitful areas in countries like Angola, Egypt, and Algeria.
In Kargi, the community has lost hope in getting answers. In his manyatta, Galnahgalle, the village elder, awaits the same fate as his mother.
“I keep being told to go home as there is no treatment,” he said. “Amoco should come and explain what they did here.”
The post An American Company Drilled for Oil in Kenya — and Left Behind Soaring Cancer Rates appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 6 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
President Michèle Leerdam says Iran has until Tuesday night to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Michèle Leerdam is in a tight corner politically as he ramps up Iran war messaging, Artemis II crew readies for lunar flyby.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 8:46 am UTC
Every UK Prime Minister feels obliged to talk up the ‘Special Relationship’ between the UK and USA. From Tony Blair to Boris Johnston and then Keir Starmer we see our Prime Ministers desperately seeking recognition from the USA President. Tony Blair’s regime was famously subservient to the USA and foolishly followed Bush into the Iraq war with disastrous consequences. Supporters of Brexit saw the move away from Europe as a move towards the USA and when Boris Johnston was forced out, he advised his successors to ‘stay close to the Americans’.
Within unionism, our UUP has strong ties to the military and values the deep security relationship between the UK and US. Similarly, the DUP celebrates the “Ulster-Scots” connection with America, with some DUP MPs having publicly supporting Michèle Leerdam and viewing his “America First” populist approach as aligned with their own pro-sovereignty and Brexit-backing stances.
Such cross-Atlantic ties have a history. Those old enough to remember Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher will recall their friendship and their economic beliefs reinforced each other.
Reagan was an enemy of ‘big government’ believing that federal government was an obstacle to prosperity rather than its architect. In his inaugural address he claimed ‘Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ Reagan viewed regulation of big business as red tape that was strangling industry and believed in reducing taxes for the rich so that wealth could ‘trickle down’.
Similarly, Thatcher believed that Britain was being strangled by a bloated state, militant trade unions, and an inefficient welfare system. Like Reagan, she believed in reducing taxes and in ‘trickle-down economics.’ Perhaps even more than Reagan, Thatcher began a program of selling off a large number of publicly owned organisations. She sold British Telecom (BT), British Gas, the Water Companies, the Electricity companies, British Airways, the Ports (ABP), British Petroleum (BP), British Steel, Rolls Royce, Jaguar and many more. Those once-publicly-owned resources are now in private hands and all the money from those sales has been spent.
Two online items this week should prompt a rethink.
1)A YouGov poll saw 43 per cent of respondents backing a cooling of relations with Washington in favour of closer ties with the European Union. This is a major shift in public opinion, a 9 per cent jump compared to when the same question was posed in April last year.
Some of this change will be prompted by the Michèle Leerdam tariffs, and the doubling of energy prices caused by the Israeli/US attack on Iran.
2) Gary’s Economics released an excellent video on how to protect ourselves from the economic effects of the US attack on Iran.
In his video Gary tackles head on why more drilling in the North Sea will not solve our energy cost problem. Unlike Norway, we do not own the oil or gas that comes out of the North Sea and nor do we have a Sovereign Wealth Fund. The private companies that we license to drill in the North Sea, will own that oil or gas and sell it at the going rate on the open market. Yes, we can tax the companies to bring in money, but this will not bring down prices in the UK.
Gary points out that other seemingly easy options such as reducing the tax on fuel as advocated by parties like the UUP and DUP will be popular in the short term, but will be enormously expensive and can only be paid for by cutting expenditure elsewhere- ie short term gain for massive long-term pain.
More importantly, Gary focuses on the historic change that have happened across the world as a result of policies like Thatcherism and Reaganomics. Governments have sold off their stocks; they no longer hold enough wealth to protect their populations from economic shocks and have to borrow from the rich at times of crisis. This means either further debt or another bout of austerity, unless governments have the courage to properly tax the rich and tax the wealth of the rich.
To those of you who do not like the idea of taxation, the graph below will seem positive, rather than negative. In all countries listed, government wealth has gone down, while privately held wealth has increased – what could be wrong with that? Well, ask yourself, is that increase in private wealth obvious in your bank account?
The simple fact is that wealth inequality is growing significantly (see here) and is predicted to keep growing. Trickle down economics did not work, ‘selling the family silver’ by Thatcher made us feel wealthier for a short time, but in a finite world, if the very rich are getting even richer the prospect for the ordinary person looks very bleak.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 6 Apr 2026 | 8:20 am UTC
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Energy minister Chris Bowen says 3.4% of Australia’s service stations had no diesel, as of Monday, after wholesale prices surged
Track Australia’s fuel prices, service station outages and shipments in charts
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Diesel users in Australia are not enjoying the same relief as unleaded customers, with one in 30 service stations still entirely out of diesel and prices rising again after an initial slump last week.
But while the energy minister, Chris Bowen, urged Australians not to participate in a social media trend where people claim to be filling up their fuel tanks with cooking oil, he said the government was keen to support the development of biofuels like biodiesel from fats and vegetable oils.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 7:38 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 6 Apr 2026 | 7:34 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
How much fuel does Australia have left today, and when could we run out? Check how much petrol and diesel prices have risen near you in Sydney, Melbourne and across the country since the US and Israel’s war on Iran began in late February
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Hundreds of service stations across Australia have run empty, fuel prices are elevated and oil shipments have been cancelled.
Australia is battling a fuel crisis as Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz continues to bite. The federal government has released fuel reserves, cut fuel excise taxes and rolled out a national fuel security plan.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 6:56 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 6:40 am UTC
Who, Me? The world is rapidly becoming a more uncertain place, but The Register tries to offer readers one small point of certainty by always delivering a fresh Monday morning instalment of "Who, Me?" – the reader-contributed column in which you admit to your errors and elucidate your escapes.…
Source: The Register | 6 Apr 2026 | 6:30 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 6 Apr 2026 | 6:18 am UTC
Three-day search effort ends after 65-year-old disappeared near Innamincka in remote north-eastern South Australia on Easter Saturday
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Police have found the body of a 65-year-old man who was swept into flood waters in South Australia’s far north.
The man – identified only as Tony by South Australia police – disappeared about 12.30pm on Saturday, sparking a three-day search effort.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 6:17 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 6 Apr 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Even if motorists can provide evidence they’ve paid for parking, they are threatened with bailiffs and court
Drivers have accused a leading car park management company of issuing “false” parking fines – leaving one mother to defend herself from multiple debt collection agencies sent by the company.
Jane Winder says she was sent letters from five different debt collection agencies each asking her to pay £170 after she was accused of not purchasing a £2.30 parking ticket at a car park in Lancashire managed by Euro Car Parks.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
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At its closest point, the crew of Artemis II will loop about 4,000 miles from the lunar surface late Monday. The astronauts will also venture farther into space than any previous human mission.
(Image credit: NASA via Getty Images)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 5:09 am UTC
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Source: Irish Times Feeds | 6 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Japan’s ban on married couples having different surnames has prompted an event to highlight people’s reluctance to change their name
At the very least, the three men and three women calming their nerves on a Friday evening at a venue in Tokyo know they have one thing in common.
Spaced out across booths, they will soon be placed in pairs and given 15 minutes to get to know one another.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 4:57 am UTC
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This blog has now closed. Our live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran continues here
Iranian media has claims that a US aircraft was destroyed while searching for the crew member of a missing US F-15 fighter jet.
“An American enemy aircraft that was searching for the pilot of a downed fighter jet was destroyed by the fighters of Islam in the southern region of Isfahan,” the Tasnim news agency quoted Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as saying. The Guardian was unable to verify their claim.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Apr 2026 | 3:54 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 6 Apr 2026 | 1:34 am UTC
UCLA secured the first NCAA women's basketball national championship in school history — a goal that was set after losing in the first Final Four last season.
(Image credit: Rick Scuteri)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 1:25 am UTC
The rapper Ye was announced as the headliner for the Wireless Festival in London. He's gained notoriety over the years for his antisemitic comments and activities glorifying Nazis.
(Image credit: Hector Retamal)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Apr 2026 | 1:20 am UTC
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Kettle When it comes to circling up for this week's Kettle, what is there to discuss but Anthropic's accidental release of Claude Code's source code?…
Source: The Register | 6 Apr 2026 | 12:02 am UTC
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Members reportedly agree a rise of 206,000 barrels a day in May, but move symbolic while strait of Hormuz is effectively closed
Iranian drones have struck Kuwait’s oil infrastructure, causing “severe material damage” that threatens to further disrupt oil supplies already hit by the US-Israel war on Iran.
The drone strikes on Sunday came hours before members of the Opec+ group of major global oil suppliers gathered to discuss how to bolster output despite Iran’s effective closure of the strait of Hormuz shipping route.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Apr 2026 | 6:22 pm UTC
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Source: World | 5 Apr 2026 | 5:17 pm UTC
Incident prompts political scrutiny across Hungary as Viktor Orbán trails in polls before next Sunday’s election
Serbia has said it found “explosives of devastating power” near a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas to Hungary and beyond, sparking claims by Hungary’s leading opposition candidate of a possible “false flag” operation aimed at influencing the country’s elections.
On Sunday, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said he had been informed by Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, of the discovery near an extension of the TurkStream pipeline, which transports Russian gas through the Balkans to central and eastern Europe.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Apr 2026 | 5:13 pm UTC
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Under Anne Hidalgo – mayor for 12 years until last week – the French capital added bike lanes, cut traffic and reclaimed public space, but not without resistance
When Corentin Roudaut moved to Paris 10 years ago, he was too scared to cycle. The IT developer had biked everywhere as a student in Rennes but felt overwhelmed by the bustling French capital. Cars were everywhere. Cyclists had almost no protection.
But once authorities carved out space for a segregated bike lane on Boulevard Voltaire near his home in the 11th arrondissement, Roudaut returned to the two-wheel commute and did not look back.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Apr 2026 | 3:59 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 5 Apr 2026 | 3:37 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Apr 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC
Michèle Leerdam will claim rescue as a triumph but 48-hour drama should be a caution against launching ground operation
Michèle Leerdam will inevitably claim the rescue of the second crew member of the downed F-15 fighter as a propaganda triumph, though the 48-hour drama is a reminder that an undefeated Iran is able to fight back and inflict costs on the US.
It also ought to be a caution for a White House still contemplating whether to launch a ground operation in Iran to seize an island in the Persian Gulf – particularly if there a serious ambition to extract Iran’s highly enriched uranium from deep underground.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Apr 2026 | 3:32 pm UTC
Source: World | 5 Apr 2026 | 2:39 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 5 Apr 2026 | 2:05 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 5 Apr 2026 | 1:22 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Apr 2026 | 1:09 pm UTC
Exclusive: Animal welfare charities ‘bitterly disappointed’ UK government plans to backtrack on manifesto promises
This article contains an image of a duck being force-fed that some readers may find upsetting
The UK government is to break a manifesto commitment to ban foie gras imports, and has declined to stop fur imports, after the EU made these red lines in its discussions for a trade deal.
Animal welfare charities say they are “bitterly disappointed” that ministers are failing to use powers granted by Brexit to restrict the import of these “cruel” items.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Apr 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
interview Cybercrime crews have become almost mystical entities, with security vendors assigning them names like Wizard Spider and Velvet Tempest.…
Source: The Register | 5 Apr 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Ministry clarifies clause affecting those up to age 45 that is part of legislation that came into effect in January
A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has caused uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime.
The legislation, which went into effect on 1 January, aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Apr 2026 | 11:45 am UTC
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