As sand becomes more valuable, Sierra Leone’s Mahera Coast grows more vulnerable


A woman in her 70s holds a sign against the World Health Organization (WHO) in the rain outside the World Health Summit in Berlin, one of the main international forums on global health. The image catches the eye of Gevorg Tamamyan, an Armenian physician and candidate to lead the agency. “When I was a child, the WHO meant trust. Why has that trust become so fragile?” he asks hours later during the first debate among several of the seven contenders to succeed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Despite years of political defeats in Texas, Democrats are hoping that the 2026 midterm elections will finally turn a Senate seat in the staunchly red state purple. James Talarico, a rising star within the party, is seen as one of the keys to achieving that new shade. For Republicans, he has become one of the biggest challenges in this closely contested campaign. So much so that a substantial share of the money being spent in the race has gone not toward promoting their controversial Senate candidate, Attorney General Ken Paxton, but toward attacking his opponent.

© Eric Gay (AP)
In 1990, NASA discovered that the mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope had a very small polishing defect that caused blurred images. While waiting for a repair, astronomers turned to mathematics. Because they knew exactly how that faulty mirror was distorting light, they could undo the blurring with a technique known as “deconvolution.”

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The civil lawsuit over an alleged gang rape at Cornell University has reignited criticism of a “legal loophole” that complicates many sexual assault cases in New York. The debate centers on a key point in state law: it is extremely difficult for a sexual assault victim to obtain justice if they voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs before being abused.

© Lauren Petracca (REUTERS)

From the government, officials speak of unnecessary “alarmism,” but thousands of citizens are not convinced. They are training to respond to any potential interference in the upcoming midterm elections. Many were previously active in efforts to protect migrants from raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and their focus has now shifted to defending democracy against possible threats.

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The Donald Trump administration is creating a team of federal attorneys to represent unaccompanied migrant children (UACs) in their asylum cases. Few details have been released about how the unit will be staffed or operate, but independent organizations that have provided such legal services until now see a clear conflict of interest. Although the new division within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is being presented as independent, the same administration responsible for the children’s custody — and that is pursuing policies aimed at increasing deportations of minors — would also be tasked with defending their cases before immigration judges.

© Eric Gay (AP)
When Republican Greg Abbott was re-elected governor of Texas in 2022, his margin over opponent Beto O’Rourke was nearly 11 percentage points. Less than a month before the midterm elections, however, polls no longer show him with a comfortable lead. Survey averages put Democratic candidate Gina Hinojosa just over two points behind and rapidly closing the gap, raising alarm among Democrats over the need to boost campaign funding in the final stretch.

© Joel Angel Juárez (The Washington Post vía Getty Images)
In the 2024 elections, the Latino vote took center stage, proving decisive for Donald Trump’s victory. In less than a month, their vote could determine whether Republicans keep control of both chambers of Congress or lose it in the midterms. Given that the electorate’s top concern is the economy, the outlook does not bode well for the red party.

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When attorney Vanessa Potkin learned about the botched execution of inmate Christa Pike, she worried that her client, Melissa Lucio, would hear what had happened in Tennessee and think about what might happen to her. The Latina has spent nearly 18 years on death row in a Texas prison trying to prove she is innocent of causing her two-year-old daughter’s death.
Donald Trump’s latest financial promise, a $90 check for people enrolled in Medicare, will be sent out in October to millions of older adults in the run-up to midterm elections that will decide control of Congress, with Republicans facing voter discontent over the president’s economic record.

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President Donald Trump told reporters this week he would embark on a 32-day campaign tour to try to save Republican races ahead of the midterm elections. Texas, along with other traditionally Republican states such as Iowa, is on his must-stop list. But the state attorney general and the party’s Senate candidate, Ken Paxton, does not appear convinced the visit will help.

© Alex Brandon (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Trump administration’s immigration policy and the state of the economy are prompting a shift of Latino voters back toward the Democrats. Although many remain undecided, a new poll shows that in the November midterms, Democratic congressional candidates will receive between six and 10 percentage points more of the Hispanic vote compared with Kamala Harris’s 2024 results. By contrast, Republicans would lose five points of the votes Trump won among this electorate. On November 3, all seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for election, as well as 36 governorships.

© Lynne Sladky (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
A Venezuelan man wounded by an immigration agent during an operation in Austin on September 20 was charged Tuesday by the federal government with assault, resisting authority and impeding the work of federal officers, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

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A federal appeals court will examine Tuesday whether a federal judge can proceed with a criminal contempt investigation into the Trump administration related to the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March 2025.

© GABY ORAA (EL PAÍS)