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Photos: Mauritanians dig deeper wells to cope with climate change

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Photos: Mauritanians dig deeper wells to cope with climate change

Lemghaysse, Mauritania – Rising up on this arid nook of southeast Mauritania, on the sting of the Sahara desert, Ahmed Brahim remembers how seasonal rains would remodel the panorama every year.

Watering holes served native livestock, fruit ripened on timber, and animals would graze on the encircling vegetation.

“With drought, with local weather change, every part has modified,”  Brahim, founding father of the native nonprofit SOS Desert, which works on water entry and local weather adaptation efforts, instructed Al Jazeera. “Every year the groundwater ranges diminish, every year we see lifeless zones, we see erosion, we see the advance of the desert, we see areas that have been for agriculture yesterday, however in the present day aren’t any extra.”

Lemghaysse has seen higher days, Sidi Maytigue, the village chief instructed Al Jazeera, standing in a dried-out seasonal lake mattress.

Droughts have lengthy been a difficulty in Mauritania, however because the Nineteen Eighties, he mentioned, they appear to be getting worse than farmers and herders bear in mind prior to now – much less of part of nature’s cyclical, if typically merciless, rhythms, and extra of an ever-present menace.

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Lately, rains have been erratic and inconsistent, typically too gentle, different occasions overwhelmingly robust – as evidenced by a collapsed nicely close by, led to when a torrential rain soaked the panorama.

The phrases “local weather change” are on everybody’s lips.

Every year of dangerous rains, extra folks depart, hoping to make a residing in considered one of Mauritania’s cities, Maytigue mentioned.

Those that keep behind are doing their finest to adapt to the altering local weather to protect their lifestyle, steeped in agriculture and elevating livestock. Wells are dug deeper, as water that was as soon as only a metre under the floor is now 5 to eight metres down.

A sequence of dams have been constructed final yr, with assist from the United Nations refugee workplace, bisecting the lake mattress. Although the final wet season was weak, they helped entice rains to recharge the groundwater and retain floor water for livestock. That was essential not only for herds owned by native Mauritanians, however for the sheep and cows owned by a rising refugee inhabitants fleeing battle in Mali.

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A superb rain, considered one of lately, will carry again a stable physique of water, residents hope.

Life is harder now, however it goes on. Camels, cows and sheep nonetheless graze the scrubland and drink from water introduced up from the wells, even when it takes extra effort from their human minders lately.

In some situations, males must untie the scarves round their heads so as to add one other few metres to the size of the rope they use to ship buckets down a nicely. It is perhaps tougher to get, however amid temperatures creeping previous 45 levels Celsius, the water continues to be cool and refreshing, a thirst-quenching drop of consistency among the many scorching, dry winds of change.

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Trump Moves to Delay Sentencing in Hush Money Case, Court Document Shows

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Trump Moves to Delay Sentencing in Hush Money Case, Court Document Shows
By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump asked a New York judge on Monday to delay his Jan. 10 sentencing on his criminal conviction on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star. In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers said they planned to appeal Justice Juan …
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Who is Pierre Poilievre? Canada's Conservative leader seeking to become next prime minister after Trudeau exit

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Who is Pierre Poilievre? Canada's Conservative leader seeking to become next prime minister after Trudeau exit

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OTTAWA, Canada— With Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement on Monday morning that he will step down as Liberal Party leader, whoever succeeds him will face Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose Conservative Party has nearly three times the support of committed voters (47% compared to 18% for the Liberals) in this year’s general election.

First elected to the House of Commons in 2004, 45-year-old, Calgary-born Poilievre, 45, became leader of the Canadian Conservatives in 2022 and has seen his party grow in popularity as Canadians have grown tired of 53-year-old Trudeau, whose Liberals formed government in 2015.

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“Bring home the Canadian dream” has been one of the Conservatives’ major themes, and Poilievre has cast the Liberals as governing with ‘an extremely radical ideology,’ which he described as “basically authoritarian socialism,” in a recent 90-minute interview with popular podcast host Jordan Peterson.

CANADA’S TRUDEAU ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION FOLLOWING PARTY PRESSURE AMID CRITICISMS OF TRUMP, BUDGET HANDLING

Leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, speaks during a ‘Spike the Hike – Axe the Tax’ rally in Edmonton, on March 27, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“People are sick and tired of grandiosity,” said Poilievre. “Horrendous, utopian wokeism” serves, he said, “egotistical personalities on top,” rather than “common people.”

Trudeau has said that Poilievre wants to “make Canada great again,” comparing the Tory leader to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” mantra.

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But while Poilievre’s populist messaging has generated comparisons to Trump’s political approach, the Canadian Conservative leader has pushed back the president-elect’s recent comments about making Canada the 51st state.

“I have the strength and the smarts to stand up for this country and my message to incoming President Trump is that first and foremost, Canada will never be the 51st state of the U.S.,” Poilievre said in an interview with Canadian broadcaster, CTV News, before Christmas.

Trudeau announces resignation

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with media outside Rideau Cottage on Monday, Jan. 6, in Ottawa. (AP/Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The incoming Trump administration will almost assuredly deal with a Poilievre government as the Conservatives are poised to win the next Canadian election, which could come as early as this spring. When the House of Commons resumes sitting on March 24, the opposition parties are likely to defeat the minority Liberal government in a vote of no-confidence, which would trigger a national vote.

In his Peterson interview, Poilievre acknowledged that Trump — who has proposed a 25% tariff against Canadian exports — “negotiates very aggressively, and he likes to win.” But as prime minister, the Conservative leader said that he would seek “a great deal that will make both countries safer, richer and stronger.”

TRUMP SAYS US SUBSIDIES TO CANADA MAKE ‘NO SENSE,’ SUGGESTS CANADIANS WANT ‘TO BECOME THE 51ST STATE’

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Canada Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a news conference in a hotel ballroom in Ottawa, on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. 

Canada Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a news conference in a hotel ballroom in Ottawa, on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024.  (ustin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

Poilievre said that he would accelerate approvals to build oil refineries, liquefied natural gas plants and nuclear facilities, and increase its electricity surplus with the U.S.

He also told Peterson that Canada sells its oil and gas to the U.S. at “enormous discounts,” which he characterized as a “ripoff,” in which “Canada is ripping itself off.”

A Poilievre-led government would also embark on “the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history” and that “habitual offenders will not get out of jail anymore,” the Conservative leader said.

On foreign affairs, the Canadian Conservatives’ 2023 policy document states that it would, as government, “take the required steps to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. to close the gaps relating to illegal entries in Canada,” and that the Conservative Party recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Canada’s embassy in Israel is currently in Tel Aviv.

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Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
|Photo: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images.  Canadian opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, (R)
Photo: Graham Hughes/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
|Photo: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images.  Canadian opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, (R)
Photo: Graham Hughes/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(Getty Images)

In a statement released in response to Trudeau’s resignation on Monday, Poilievre said that “this changes nothing” and that a Conservative Canadian government would “take back control of our border, take back control of immigration, take back control of spending, deficits and inflation. Take back control of our streets by locking up criminals, banning drugs, treating addiction and stopping gun smugglers.”

The Conservatives, added Poilievre, “would secure borders, rearm our forces, restore our freedom and put Canada First.”

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US Congress certifies Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 presidential election

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US Congress certifies Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 presidential election

The quiet proceeding contrasts with efforts by Trump’s own supporters to overturn his 2020 loss by storming the US Capitol.

The United States Congress has certified Donald Trump’s victory in November’s presidential election, clearing a final hurdle for his return to the White House later this month.

Monday’s ceremony in Congress officially validated the 2024 Electoral College results.

Overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s main rival in the election, the event passed quickly and with little fanfare.

“Today was obviously a very important day,” Harris, who also serves as the president of the Senate, said in remarks afterwards.

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“It was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.”

The largely procedural affair marked a stark contrast with the last time Congress convened to certify Electoral College votes, on January 6, 2021.

During that ceremony, thousands of Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in an effort to overturn then-President Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.

Lawmakers were forced to evacuate as doors were smashed, police officers were attacked and one protester was shot to death while trying to enter a chamber through a broken window.

The attack took place after Trump held a rally nearby on the Ellipse, a park south of the White House, where he reiterated false claims that the election had been stolen through massive fraud.

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Critics roundly condemned the attack as an assault on democracy, and the US Department of Justice has since charged 1,583 participants with federal crimes.

As of Monday, approximately 1,009 have pleaded guilty, with 327 offering guilty pleas to felony charges.

Trump himself faced two criminal indictments for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results: A federal case in Washington, DC, was recently dismissed, while a state-level case in Georgia is stalled but ongoing.

Nevertheless, four years later, Trump is set to return to power on the heels of his most successful presidential campaign to date.

In November, Trump won 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’s 226 and became the first Republican candidate to win the popular vote since 2004.

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Trump’s Republican Party will also take control of Congress after winning majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Many in the party have since embraced the Republican leader’s false claims about the 2020 election.

“Congress certifies our great election victory today – a big moment in history. MAGA!” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social on Monday, using an acronym for his slogan, “Make America Great Again”.

Harris, meanwhile, urged respect for the tenets of US democracy. She cited Monday’s peaceful certification as an example of the right way forward.

“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it,” she said. “Otherwise it is very fragile, and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis.”

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