Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #WorldatFive
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#WorldatFive: “Kodokushi” — a lonely death — is an increasing feature of an ageing, urbanised Japanese society in which more and more people live and die alone and unnoticed, strangers even to their closest neighbours thetimes.co.uk/article/cleani…
The situation has been made all the more extreme by the pandemic, which has reduced contact even between people who were formerly close.
There are no national statistics or an agreed upon definition of kodokushi but the government counted 5,500 such deaths in central Tokyo in 2018, a 16 per cent increase on the previous year — and that was before the pandemic.
#WorldAtFive🌍: There seems no relief in sight for a land devastated by a decade of conflict and now parched by a cruel drought
thetimes.co.uk/article/water-…
thetimes.co.uk/article/water-…
The once-fertile plains of the Euphrates, the Tigris and their tributaries have been decimated by a mixture of war, climate change and poor environmental policies.
Farmers are leaving the land as yields collapse. The lives of those who remain have entered a vicious circle, as they use diesel pumps to find groundwater ever deeper under the earth, denuding the reservoirs and polluting the land and air with fumes and residues.
#WorldAtFive🌍: A rash of developments has raised fears for the country’s environment and heritage, and turned attention back to the corruption exposed by Daphne Caruana Galizia before her murder five years ago, writes Tom Kington thetimes.co.uk/article/maltas…
After a decade in which Malta’s economy was turbo-charged by banking, online gambling and passport sales to Asian billionaires and oligarchs, a resulting rash of construction has allegedly been accelerated by quick permits and conflicts of interest.
In Xaghra, close to Qala, cranes dominate the skyline and trucks pound down narrow streets filled with dust clouds from building sites as developers seize the chance to build apartments overlooking the nearby Ramla beach. 
#WorldatFive 🌎: The once mighty Republicans party is nearly a decade out of power and is still weeks from choosing its candidate to face President Macron.
With each passing day it loses ground to a racist outsider, @CharlesBremner writes. thetimes.co.uk/article/french…
With each passing day it loses ground to a racist outsider, @CharlesBremner writes. thetimes.co.uk/article/french…
With the election six months away, many MPs are appalled that the centre-right party is waiting another six weeks before anointing its champion to resist the recent ambush of the right by Zemmour, the anti-Muslim TV pundit.
A quarter of people who voted for the last Republicans presidential candidate, the scandal-dogged François Fillon, are telling pollsters that in next April’s election they will back Zemmour, who has several convictions for hate speech.
#WorldatFive 🌎: Up to 2 million have fled a despotic regime where statues are made of gold but eggs are a delicacy for ordinary people condemned to poverty. thetimes.co.uk/article/turkme…
In March last year 59 Turkmen were poisoned after drinking pure alcohol.
It was Turkmenistan’s official silence on that incident, then on a hurricane that swept though the country’s Lebap and Mary provinces in April last year, that jolted a handful of exiles into activism.
It was Turkmenistan’s official silence on that incident, then on a hurricane that swept though the country’s Lebap and Mary provinces in April last year, that jolted a handful of exiles into activism.
“Some people sent videos of the storm to relatives outside the country, and they were shared very quickly on social media. Then the regime started putting pressure on the people who had sent them. Some have been sent to psychiatric hospitals.”
#WorldAtFive 🌎: They first appear as great black smears on the horizon. As they move closer, they black out the sun and the land goes dark.
Then to the growing rhythm of millions of beating wings, they drop lower and lower, devouring all in their path. thetimes.co.uk/article/un-usi…
Then to the growing rhythm of millions of beating wings, they drop lower and lower, devouring all in their path. thetimes.co.uk/article/un-usi…
Patrick Mutugi, a farmer in Meru, eastern Kenya, watched in horror as the worst locust plague to hit the Horn of Africa for more than 70 years invaded his land.
Terrified villagers, fearing that the insects would enter their homes, tried to chase them away, to no avail.
Terrified villagers, fearing that the insects would enter their homes, tried to chase them away, to no avail.
“They ran around singing, shouting, even throwing stones to try and frighten them off,” he said.
“When the swarm descends, the air is so think with them you can barely see. They carpet the ground.” The crops are stripped bare. The locusts move on.
“When the swarm descends, the air is so think with them you can barely see. They carpet the ground.” The crops are stripped bare. The locusts move on.
#WorldatFive: Now dominated by six Republican appointees, over the coming months the Supreme Court will weigh in on abortion, guns, religion and race, the most divisive issues in American life thetimes.co.uk/article/as-the…
With furious demonstrations sweeping the country and a legal challenge by the Justice Department under way, the Supreme Court is now set to hear an appeal that calls for the overturning of Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion.
Mississippi has sought to reinstate its law banning abortions after 15 weeks, which was struck down by lower courts. In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the state has argued that the simplest solution would be to overturn the precedent set almost 50 years ago by Roe v Wade.
#WorldatFive: No longer fought over by the forces that tore Syria, Raqqa has become an unlikely haven for families fleeing problems from all directions.
thetimes.co.uk/article/raqqa-…
thetimes.co.uk/article/raqqa-…
Paradise Square was once famous as the roundabout where Islamic State crucified and displayed the heads of its victims. Now it has a Nutella House café.
The café, newly built next to one of the bombsites that filled Raqqa four years ago, is just one symptom of the city’s stark change in fortunes.
#WorldatFive🌏: Richard Spencer reports from al-Hawl in Syria on the thousands of families living in internment camps after being displaced by the fall of ISIS.
thetimes.co.uk/article/soon-t…
thetimes.co.uk/article/soon-t…
Islam Haitham was found dead in a sewage ditch.
Her face is framed by curly black hair. Her eyebrows are unkempt, but they added extra character to a look that could easily be imagined as laughing. The entrance wound in her right cheek from the shot that killed her is neat.
Her face is framed by curly black hair. Her eyebrows are unkempt, but they added extra character to a look that could easily be imagined as laughing. The entrance wound in her right cheek from the shot that killed her is neat.
No one knows why she was killed, at least among the camp authorities. The 20,000 black-clad women who occupy the Iraqi and Syrian section may have an inkling. They nod knowingly when asked about Islam but scurry on and refuse to talk about it.
#worldatfive🌍: President Biden has promised the West’s closest allies in Syria that he will not abandon them as he did Afghanistan, their leader has told The Times
thetimes.co.uk/article/biden-…
thetimes.co.uk/article/biden-…
The White House sent General Frank McKenzie, head of US central command, on an unannounced visit to give a personal assurance to Mazloum Abdi, leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Syria.
The SDF is the Kurdish-dominated alliance of local militias that defeated Isis in eastern Syria with American and British support.
Abdi has forged the SDF into an effective fighting unit and established significant autonomy in eastern Syria since the defeat of Isis.
Abdi has forged the SDF into an effective fighting unit and established significant autonomy in eastern Syria since the defeat of Isis.
In today’s #WorldatFive 🌎: When the self-styled king of the paparazzi arrived at the French Riviera the week before last, he was not on the trail of a debutante actress. He was after the rising star of the far-right. thetimes.co.uk/article/scanda…
Rostain was in position when Zemmour, in his white towelling robe, and Sarah Knafo emerged from a path to the beach at La Seyne-sur-Mer. “I knew they were going to the beach,” Rostain said on the phone last week, without specifying how. “I took a big telephoto lens.”
It sparked a media frenzy but what obsessed le tout Paris was not any damage that revelations of an alleged dalliance with a much younger woman might inflict on Zemmour, it was the suggestion that he may have staged the whole exposé himself.
#WorldatFive: The terrifying eruption on La Palma has brought a wave of destruction but while some flee, others are drawn towards the spectacle thetimes.co.uk/article/la-pal…
About 6,000 people on La Palma have been evacuated so far and 183 houses damaged. Lava by today had covered around 250 acres of terrain, according to the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme.
Last night thousands of cars carrying locals keen to see the spectacle of the volcano created a traffic jam along the 20-mile stretch of the island’s main road between El Paso and Santa Cruz de la Palma, its capital.
#WorldAtFive 🇦🇺 With the southern half of Australia in lockdown, thousands of visitors in the north are unable or unwilling to return to their homes. Bev Hadgraft is one of them
thetimes.co.uk/article/postca…
thetimes.co.uk/article/postca…
"Every autumn in Australia, a procession of campers migrates from the south of the country to escape the winter and enjoy the sunshine in the north. By now, as spring comes to the continent, most would have left.
This year, many are staying — including me"
This year, many are staying — including me"
"The Delta variant of the coronavirus has upended our normal lives back home, so we remain in our vans, tents and trailers in the Covid-free north, vacillating between glee at our freedom and despair"
#WorldatFive: As the 20th anniversary of September 11 approaches, Andrew Card, George W Bush’s chief of staff, recalls the day he had to deliver the news to the president. thetimes.co.uk/article/9-11-t…
“September 11, 2001 started as a perfect day,” he says. “There wasn’t a cloud in the sky over the entire continental United States. The president woke up to an easy day.”
Shortly before going out in front of a class of seven year olds at the Emma E Booker elementary school in Sarasota, Bush had been told by staff that a small prop plane had crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Centre.
#WorldatFive 🌎: Europe is riven by deep-running hidden divides and scars from the pandemic that threaten to bring conflict between old and young in the years ahead, the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank said thetimes.co.uk/article/covids…
“The divisions that are becoming apparent across the continent could create a new political age in Europe as they burst into view,” said Ivan Krastev, one of the report’s authors.
The “most glaring” division is between young and old, with most people under 30 seeing themselves as “major victims” of the crisis.
#WorldatFive: Millions of homes and businesses across Lebanon are enduring power cuts and disruption to food and water supplies. thetimes.co.uk/article/fuel-c…
Drivers queue in their thousands at petrol stations that have little or no fuel to sell.
The UN has warned that four million people — two thirds of Lebanon’s population — could lose access to water supplies in the next few days as pumping stations lose power.
For the residents of the Cota 905, an impoverished community in the centre of Caracas, the most powerful man in the country is not President Maduro.
Instead, it is ‘Koki’, a gang leader believed to have made a fortune through kidnapping and extortion 🇻🇪 thetimes.co.uk/article/el-kok…
Instead, it is ‘Koki’, a gang leader believed to have made a fortune through kidnapping and extortion 🇻🇪 thetimes.co.uk/article/el-kok…
The Maduro government, distracted by its own chaotic battle for survival, used to quietly ignore the growing influence of the gangster on its doorstep.
But this year, after Koki’s network began expanding, it took action.
But this year, after Koki’s network began expanding, it took action.
Posters were distributed, offering half a million dollars for information leading to the arrest of the gang leader
A rare photograph was released showing him snarling at the camera, with a military haircut and three thick gold chains
A rare photograph was released showing him snarling at the camera, with a military haircut and three thick gold chains
#WorldatFive 🌎: Tokyo during the #Olympics has been a city split between two versions of reality jarringly at odds with one another.
Coronavirus cases are soaring while the Japanese sense of cohesion is fraying. thetimes.co.uk/article/olympi…
Coronavirus cases are soaring while the Japanese sense of cohesion is fraying. thetimes.co.uk/article/olympi…
In spite of climbing cases, much has gone right from the point of view of the host country.
The bureaucracy of testing and quarantining has been handled as well as could reasonably be expected. The absence of spectators from the stadiums has not ruined the Games.
The bureaucracy of testing and quarantining has been handled as well as could reasonably be expected. The absence of spectators from the stadiums has not ruined the Games.
But outside the Olympic “Bubble” of athletes, officials and journalists is a city in crisis. The coronavirus pandemic is worse than it has ever been.
Cuban artists, actors and musicians have been propelled by protesters who appear to have overcome their fear of taking to the streets | ✍️ @STHGibbs
#WorldAtFive
thetimes.co.uk/article/an-old…
#WorldAtFive
thetimes.co.uk/article/an-old…
Happy workers in sugar fields. The dashing Che Guevara. Bearded heroes clutching AK-47s. And, of course, Fidel Castro. Love it or hate it, the Cuban revolution has been one of the most successfully-marketed political projects of the 20th century.
But the most important audience for the revolutionary mythology was the domestic one: inside the island.
The largest protests for six decades which rocked the country in July, are seen by opponents as evidence that most people want change.
The largest protests for six decades which rocked the country in July, are seen by opponents as evidence that most people want change.
#WorldAtFive 🇿🇦 The worst bout of lawlessness since the end of apartheid makes a fresh exodus of talent from South Africa seem likely, writes @janeflan thetimes.co.uk/article/south-…
The mass departures of the early 90s were dominated by so-called “white flight”, but recent inquiries are split evenly along racial lines. “Mostly young and highly skilled families” looking for safe haven in Britain, Canada and Australia
More than half of those polled this year believed corruption still festered among politicians, officials and advisers working in the office of the president. That number has been creeping up steadily since 2002 when 13 per cent expressed distrust.
Joseph Naddaf tried to stop the disaster at Beirut port, the explosion which ripped through the city, enveloping it in flames and smoke, and killing 200 people a year ago
Yet afterwards he was interrogated, arrested and held in jail for eight months thetimes.co.uk/article/jailed…
Yet afterwards he was interrogated, arrested and held in jail for eight months thetimes.co.uk/article/jailed…
Naddaf had repeatedly warned his superiors of the impending disaster and the dangers of the ammonium nitrate stashed in Hangar 12
He has now been released on bail, but still faces charges, even though he is back at his job
He has now been released on bail, but still faces charges, even though he is back at his job
At first, he says, he thought he was victim of a fishing trip, a trawl of anyone who had information. But then he ended up in a cell for eight months.
“I was surprised,” he said in an interview with The Times, with some understatement. “‘Why was this?’ I asked myself.”
“I was surprised,” he said in an interview with The Times, with some understatement. “‘Why was this?’ I asked myself.”
#WorldAtFive🌍: The Communist Party is obsessed with the past, but its centenary celebrations suppress some of its defining moments like famine, purges, and the Tiananmen Square massacre, writes @tangdidi.
thetimes.co.uk/article/the-hi…
thetimes.co.uk/article/the-hi…
Instead, President Xi when speaking at the event invoked a history of international humiliation, poverty and struggle to rouse the Chinese people and bolster party support.
“Any attempt to deviate from the official narrative is described as “historical nihilism” and considered an attack on the party.” Says @tangdidi.
#WorldAtFive 🇦🇫 : Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Karzai has described the 20-year Nato campaign in his country as a “military failure” that has allowed terrorism and extremism to flourish there, as the last US-led troops leave the war thetimes.co.uk/article/you-ha…
“The country is in shock, in such dire, dire straits,” Karzai told The Times at his home in Kabul. “Look at the scene. We are in shambles. The country is in conflict. There is immense suffering for the Afghan people."
Karzai, a politician and Pashtun tribal leader from Kandahar who led Afghanistan for nine years as president, continues to wield considerable influence both inside the country and abroad.
#WorldatFive 🌍: “A long history of winding up the Russians goes some way to explaining Moscow’s furious reaction this week to a British ship’s incursion into its claimed waters”, says @CharlesBremner thetimes.co.uk/article/britai…
In 1791, when Russia annexed Crimea and Britain sent warships into the Black Sea, a London newspaper celebrated the episode with a cartoon of plucky Britons whipping the Russian leader, drawn in the shape of a bear.
The king was George III and the bear was Empress Catherine the Great but the message was the same as this week’s patriotic twinge over HMS Defender’s dash through Russia’s claimed waters.
