Situation Report

Image: People queueing to buy food are prey for thieves in Caracas, capital of Venezuela. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

theguardian.com - May 14th 2016 - Emma Graham-Harrison

Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has declared a state of emergency, hours after US intelligence officials warned that the South American country could be on the brink of disintegration.

The powers Maduro obtains after Friday night’s declaration allow him “to stabilise our country, and confront all the international and national threats against our fatherland in this moment”, the president said, but he did not detail how he intends to use them.

African countries like Uganda are among the world's most ethnically diverse, and they are also vulnerable to climate change. New findings suggest peace will be harder to achieve and maintain in places like Uganda as the climate changes.
Credit: AMISOM Public Information/Flickr

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Armed-conflict risks enhanced by climate-related disasters in ethnically fractionalized countries

Droughts and other extremes can cause dangerous economic shocks

scientificamerican.com - by John Upton - July 26, 2016

Following the warmest two years on record and spikes in violence that fueled a global refugee crisis, climate scientists on Monday reported that armed fighting is prone to follow droughts, heatwaves and other weather-related calamities in turbulent countries. . . 

. . . Donges and three other European researchers detected the pattern after analyzing extreme weather events that inflicted heavy economic damages, and outbreaks of fighting that left at least 25 dead in a year. The results were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

submitted by Albert Gomez

cnn.com - by Debra Goldschmidt - July 29, 2016

(CNN) Four individuals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have been infected with the Zika virus by local mosquitoes, Florida health officials said Friday.

These are the first known cases of the virus being transmitted by mosquitoes in the continental United States.

The unidentified individuals had not traveled to a Zika-affected area, had not had sexual contact with someone who had traveled to a place where the virus is circulating and had no other known exposure to the virus.

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Philippe Wojazer/Reuters

Britain has voted to exit the European Union. It is a historic decision sure to reshape the nation’s place in the world.

Britain held a referendum on Thursday on whether to leave the European Union, a process often referred to as “Brexit.”

CLICK HERE - CNN - Brexit News Coverage

CLICK HERE - BBC - Business Live: Markets in turmoil

CLICK HERE - The Guardian - LIVE - EU Referendum

CLICK HERE - Reuters - LIVE - EU Referendum

CLICK HERE - The Telegraph - EU Referendum

CLICK HERE - The UK's EU referendum: All you need to know

CLICK HERE - EU referendum petition signed by more than 2.5m