The biological non-custodial parents, who police believe abducted the six-year-old, have been arrested and chargedTwo years after she went missing, a six-year-old girl has been found alive and in good health in a makeshift room underneath a staircase in a house in New York state, according to police who said they suspected she was abducted by her biological non-custodial parents.Officers found the girl, Paislee Shultis, on Monday in a house in the town of Saugerties, two years after she went missing from Spencer, New York, about 180 miles (290 km) to the west, the Saugerties police department said in a statement on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Director Rochelle Walensky notes recent declines in Covid cases, hospital admissions and deathsThe leading US health officials said on Wednesday that the nation is moving closer to the point that Covid-19 is no longer a “constant crisis” as more cities, businesses and sports venues began lifting pandemic restrictions around the country.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing that the government is contemplating a change to its mask guidance in the coming weeks. Continue reading...

Travis McMichael described violence against Black people and made frequent racist comments, FBI analyst testifiedTwo of the three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery repeatedly used racial slurs in text messages and social media posts, including some violent comments by Arbery’s shooter about Black people, an FBI witness testified Wednesday in their federal hate crimes trial.Amy Vaughan, an FBI intelligence analyst, led the jury through more than two dozen conversations that Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan had with others, identified only by their initials, in the months and years before the 25-year-old Black man’s killing. Continue reading...

District attorney Chesa Boudin said the charges violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizuresSan Francisco’s district attorney has dropped charges against a woman whose DNA collected from a rape kit was used to link her to a property crime, citing a violation of her constitutional rights.District attorney Chesa Boudin said his office learned that the city’s police were using DNA samples collected from sexual assault victims to identify possible suspects last week, and is calling for legislation to ban the practice. Continue reading...

The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between the US and Russia over UkraineRussian aircraft came close to three US navy planes in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries over Russia’s military buildup along its border with Ukraine.While such interactions are not rare between the United States and Russia, it comes at a particularly delicate time and a heightened concern about any accidents or miscalculations. Continue reading...

Ryan Zinke lied to agency ethics official about his involvement with foundation to advance project in his Montana home townGovernment investigators say the former US interior secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a development project in his Montana home town and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement.The interior department’s inspector general said in a report made public on Wednesday that Zinke continued working with a foundation on the commercial project in the community of Whitefish, Montana, even after he committed upon taking office to breaking ties with the foundation. Continue reading...

This started as a scandal about one man’s behaviour. It could end up a story about the kind of country we choose to beIf a uniformed flunkey holding aloft a vellum scroll had stood in front of Buckingham Palace and read it out for the benefit of the world’s cameras on Tuesday afternoon, the message from the official proclamation would have boiled down to this: “The royal embarrassment is over. Long live the royal embarrassment.”This week’s out of court settlement of Virginia Giuffre’s sexual assault claims against Prince Andrew is not the tidy closure of a tawdry affair. The sleazy content of the allegations and the prince’s boneheaded response to them have not merely discredited him personally – though they have done that so conclusively that only someone as obstinate as he is could think otherwise. They have also shaken the monarchy itself, and at an extremely delicate time – one that is certainly not over yet and that may continue for at least a decade. Continue reading...

Priest in Phoenix, Arizona, resigns after mistakenly using the phrase ‘we baptize you’ instead of ‘I baptize you’ for yearsThousands of baptisms at a Catholic church in Arizona have been invalidated because a priest used the wrong words in performing the ceremony.Father Andres Arango resigned from the St Gregory parish church in Phoenix earlier this month after diocese leaders discovered he had mistakenly used the phrase “we baptize you” instead of “I baptize you” for years. Continue reading...

Recall effort split Democrats as Mayor London Breed criticized school board for being distracted by ‘political agendas’San Francisco residents recalled three members of the city’s school board in the first recall vote in the city since 1983.Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the recall of school board president Gabriela Lopez, vice-president Faauuga Moliga and commissioner Alison Collins, according to tallies by the San Francisco department of elections. Continue reading...

President tells story of woman who called county government to have dog removed from lawn – so Biden put it on her front stepDuring a speech on Tuesday, Joe Biden jokingly reminisced about putting a dead dog on a Republican woman’s doorstep during his time serving in county government when he was in his 20s.While giving remarks at the National Association of Counties 2022 Legislative Conference in Washington, he president spoke about his time representing what he described as a mixed-income district. Continue reading...

To take Afghan money to pay grieving Americans in order to punish the Taliban is nothing less than larceny as collective punishmentLast week, the White House issued an executive order announcing the theft of some $7bn. Shocking, to be sure. But more shocking still was when that same executive order also identified the thief: the White House.In a move that can only be described as brazenly immoral and utterly unconscionable, the Biden administration has begun a process to seize the more than $7bn of assets that the Central Bank of Afghanistan has on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Since the Taliban gained control of the war-ravaged country last year, that money has been frozen in place. Now, the administration has concocted its own mega-grift, planning to spend half of the money – not their money, lest we forget – for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, while reserving the other half of the funds – not their money – for the relatives of the September 11 victims who have brought claims against the Taliban for the 2001 terrorist attacks. Continue reading...

Ex-president had insisted that details of who visited him in the White House were protected by executive privilegeJoe Biden has delivered another blow to Donald Trump’s efforts to keep secret his actions around the time of the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection by refusing to exert executive privilege over the former president’s White House visitor logs, according to a report published on Wednesday.The president has directed the National Archives to turn over the records within 15 days to the House committee investigating the attack by Trump supporters as a “in the light of the urgency” of the panel’s work, the New York Times says. Continue reading...

It’s easier to read from a book, or recycle stories you already know – but sometimes making up stories is betterIn my years as a journalist, I’ve had some challenging assignments: file a piece about an underground dinner for Michelin-starred chefs that ends at 3am in time for it to hit the morning pages, write an obit for an almost-dead person by calling up his nearest and dearest and asking for a few punchy quotes. But all pale in comparison with my new assignment which, like Sisyphus, I must complete nightly.“Tell me a story about a book that is broken, and then the unicorn comes for a sleepover, but she’s really big,” my preschooler barks from her bed, her face awash in the neon pink emanating from her polar bear nightlight.Sophie Brickman is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times and other publications, and the author of Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age Continue reading...

The former president of US Soccer was a polarising figure when he was in office. But he has support behind him as he aims to win back his old roleImagine if, two years after resigning amid the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon had run for president again.It’s not a perfect analogy for the current state of US soccer politics, but it’s close. Two years after resigning in the wake of a legal filing that claimed female players had less ability than their male counterparts, Carlos Cordeiro is running for his old gig as president of US Soccer. Continue reading...

Norway are sitting pretty at the top of the medal table, while it was a mixed day for American hopes

Carmel, Indiana, is an affluent suburb just north of Indianapolis known for low crime rates and some of the country’s best public schools. But early last year, the school board brought in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, which seek to combat structural racism in the education system. Since then, a battle has erupted between those who welcome the changes, and others who see it as leftwing indoctrination Continue reading...

Experts have little faith in announcement and say there are no signs of de-escalation on Ukraine’s borders. Plus, the ‘arrogance’ of Prince AndrewGood morning.A video of a handful of screeching tanks and lumbering armoured vehicles mounting a transport train in Crimea accompanied the Russian defence ministry’s trumpeted announcement that some of the forces that have been encircling Ukraine will “head for their garrisons”, writes Dan Sabbagh.What else did Biden say in his speech on Ukraine? Biden addressed the American people directly, telling them he was not going to “pretend this will be painless” and that they would feel it at the petrol pump.What’s happening today? Nato defence ministers are meeting in Brussels today. The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, will join Stoltenberg and others to consider next steps amid tensions in eastern Europe.Meanwhile, Prince Andrew is facing fresh calls to be stripped of his Duke of York title. The Queen last month stripped Andrew of his military affiliations and royal patronages in an attempt to distance the royal family from the allegations. However, he has kept his Duke of York title.Here’s how the British press reacted to the news of the settlement, which gives an indication of how people in the UK feel. Continue reading...

There is an air of desperation in attacks from those on the right and their supporters in the press. They fear if Johnson falls, the Brexit deception will crumble tooDid something change this month? Having proclaimed the Brexit referendum triumph of 2016 as the unique achievement of Boris Johnson and praised his historic success in the election three years later with the slogan “get Brexit done”, did the wreckers of the European dream slowly begin to realise that if Johnson goes, it shifts the sands from beneath their feet?I’m the president of European Movement – Andrew Adonis is chair – and between us we agreed that this link needed a public airing. Learning from the direct and simple messaging of the anti-European newspapers, we felt the phrase: “If Boris goes, Brexit goes” said it clearly enough. Adonis duly tweeted it, to the horror of the pro-Brexit press.Lord Heseltine was the deputy prime minister under John Major and a member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet from 1979 until 1986 Continue reading...

Brittany Dawn Davis’s followers claim they received similar meal plans and were conned out of paid one-on-one consultsBrittany Dawn Davis, a fitness and Christianity influencer from Fort Worth, is being sued by the state of Texas for promising her followers personalized exercise and nutrition plans that never materialized. Davis’s website promised unsuspecting clients that her Brittany Dawn Fitness (BDF) crew would be with them “every step of the way”, but instead her followers received a generic diet and workout plan not unique to them. The state believes this amounts to “deceptive trade practices” and is seeking damages from $250,000 up to $1m.Davis, who has almost 1 million TikTok followers, became a lifestyle influencer after competing in “bikini competitions”, bodybuilding events where the contestants stay in swimsuits. She launched her business, bdawnfit.com, in March 2014 claiming it promoted a holistic approach to health, including “flexible dieting, effective training, balanced living, and community support”. Continue reading...

Americans face having to move or pay much bigger slice of income to stay in their homes as prices outstrip wagesRental prices across America have soared over the past year, with some cities experiencing average price hikes of up to 40%, leaving many renters stunned and grappling with either having to move to be able to afford rent or pay significantly more of their income to remain in their homes.Joshua Beadle of Sarasota, Florida, lived in a 950 sq ft loft apartment for four years for about $900 a month until about one year ago when the owner sold the building and he was forced to move. Continue reading...

She’s faced a lifetime’s worth of zombies, ridden a Party Bus to Hell and befriended a talking hedgehog called Andy. If anyone deserves to succeed as an MI6 agent ‘with a difference’, it’s herI’m going to let you into a little secret here. Whenever I’m feeling blue, one thing that will cheer me up without fail is looking at Tara Reid’s IMDb page. Not necessarily for the films that she’s made, but for the films that she’s about to make.Like Eric Roberts before her, Reid’s IMDb page contains a long, long list of movies in pre-production. And while Roberts might have her purely on numbers (he currently has some 70 films that are either filming or in pre- or post-production), Reid arguably has him on choices. She has a comparably piffling 18 titles in pre-production, almost all of them seem precision-designed to stretch the limits of plausibility to their very limits. Continue reading...

I’m not a hygiene freak but I draw the line at walking dirt into houses. And don’t get me started on suitcases on bedsThere are three things that make me unreasonably irritated while watching TV. The first is when the person on screen hangs up the phone without any acknowledgment that the conversation is over. Nobody does that in real life. It’s sociopathic! The second is when people put their suitcase on their bed to pack or unpack (this is extremely common on reality TV). “Do you know where that suitcase has been?” I yell at the telly whenever my eyeballs are confronted with such smut. “There’s a 99.99% chance you now have faecal matter and rat urine on your sheets, you filthy animal!”Continuing that theme, my third pet peeve is when TV characters lounge on their beds with shoes on. I’m not a hygiene freak – I’ll happily eat food that has fallen on the floor even after the five-second rule has passed: I’ve always believed that a little bit of dirt a day keeps the doctor away. But I have my limits, and the idea of street shoes on a bed makes me gag. This obviously also applies to real life: I don’t care who you are, you are not setting foot in my house with shoes on. (And before you bring pets into this, let me state for the record that I wash my dog’s paws after a walk: he’s a good clean boy). Anyway, I’m not going to bother going into all the statistics about how there are apparently 421,000 units of bacteria on the outside of an average shoe, or how 93% of shoes will have poo on them after a month of normal use. I am not going to bother trying to argue this topic because, unlike most issues in life, there is no room for debate here: only a barbarian wears outdoor shoes indoors.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Mazars’ cutting ties with ex-president mark significant step in New York investigation of his financial affairs, among 19 current casesThe news that the longtime accounting firm for the Trump Organization has cut ties with the company and retracted 10 years of its financial statements is a new and serious blow to Donald Trump’s increasingly frenzied battle to fend off the legal investigations that are rapidly engulfing him.The revelation that Mazars USA last week ended its relationship with the Trump family comes at a perilous moment for the former president as he strives to protect himself, his family and his business from legal threats that are now coming thick and fast. Continue reading...

Protests such as the Ottawa truck blockade are sweeping rich nations. But the movements are based on capitalist delusionsWhen a group in black fatigues called Alpha Men Assemble began practising paramilitary manoeuvres in a park in Staffordshire at the beginning of this year, it looked pretty threatening. These men, we were warned, were about to launch an insurrection against vaccines and in favour of “the sovereign citizen”. Since then, silence. It wouldn’t be surprising if the group had dispersed: a society of self-proclaimed alphas is bound to fall apart.This was just one example of the incoherent protests now sweeping rich, English-speaking nations. Others include the truck blockade in Ottawa and its duplicates in Australia, New Zealand and the US, and the angry men outside the British parliament, waiting to pounce on passing politicians. By incoherent protest, I mean gatherings whose aims are simultaneously petty and grandiose. Their immediate objectives are small and often risible, attacking such minor inconveniences as face masks. The underlying aims are open-ended, massive and impossible to fulfil. Not just politically impossible, but mathematically impossible. Listening to these men (and most of them are men), it seems that every one of them wants to be king.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Analysis: US president gives the kind of speech normally delivered on the eve of momentous action, while speaking over Putin’s head to the Russian people

Committee to examine coordination behind brazen effort to submit false electoral certificates in states won by Joe BidenThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack issued subpoenas on Tuesday to top Trump campaign and Republican officials involved in the scheme to send false electors for Donald Trump in states won by Joe Biden, as it examines the coordination behind the effort.The panel sent subpoenas to six individuals who were involved in a brazen attempt to meet and submit fake electoral college certificates that formed the backbone of a Trump-connected scheme to have Congress return the former president to office. Continue reading...

Only 54% of the LA sheriff’s department is vaccinated, despite a mandate in place, with about 4,000 deputies at risk of job lossA sheriff’s department in southern California is encouraging law enforcement officers who oppose vaccine mandates to “take back [their] freedom” and apply for jobs with the department.The Kern county sheriff’s office released a video last week inviting applications from deputies within Los Angeles county, where officials passed an order that could lead to the termination of thousands of county workers who haven’t received the Covid-19 vaccine or provided a religious or medical exemption. Continue reading...

Jury rejects claim the newspaper damaged her reputation by erroneously linking campaign rhetoric to mass shootingFormer Alaska governor Sarah Palin lost her libel lawsuit against the New York Times on Tuesday when a jury rejected her claim that the newspaper maliciously damaged her reputation by erroneously linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting.A judge had already declared that if the jury sided with Palin, he would set aside its verdict on the grounds that she had not proven the paper acted maliciously, something required in libel suits involving public figures. Continue reading...

The family of cinematographer alleges that reckless behavior and cost-cutting led to her death on the film’s set in October 2021The family of the late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has filed a lawsuit against actor Alec Baldwin and other members of the film Rust, alleging that reckless behavior and cost-cutting led to Hutchins’ wrongful death on set.Hutchins, a 42-year-old film veteran, was shot and killed on 21 October last year while preparing for a scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, when a gun held by Baldwin accidentally went off, in an incident that shocked Hollywood and prompted a reckoning over production safety and the use of weapons on set. Baldwin has since said in an emotional interview with ABC News that he believed the gun to be safe and did not pull the trigger. Continue reading...

He was never going to win, and now he has struck a settlement that will stand as a stain on his reputation, and that of the monarchy• Stephen Bates is a former Guardian royal correspondentIt was always going to come to this. Prince Andrew’s American lawyer’s statement in New York this afternoon announcing the agreed settlement with Virginia Giuffre sets the seal on the prince’s humiliation over his association with the convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his friend, the woman who procured girls for him, Ghislaine Maxwell.It has cost the prince his much-prized royal position on palace balconies, his perks – all those helicopter flights to golf matches at public expense, all those private flights across the world to shake hands with sheikhs – and all his military ranks, titles and honorifics. No more honorary colonelcies: colonel of the Grenadier Guards, commodore-in-chief of the Fleet Air Arm, to say nothing of the colonelcy of the New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment and the Princess Louise Fusiliers of Canada. All gone. Strangely, he remains a vice-admiral, but the full admiral title will now for ever elude him. He may be a duke, but he is no longer an HRH. The retreat is complete. Continue reading...

Remington Arms will release all discovery and depositions on elementary school mass shooting to the public, attorneys saidA gunmaker has been held liable for a mass shooting in the United States for the first time after Remington Arms agreed to pay $73m to the families of five adults and four children killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.Twenty students and six adults were killed on 14 December 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, by Adam Lanza, who used a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 rifle to shoot his way into the school after killing his mother at home. Continue reading...

Victims ‘financially and emotionally devastated’ by scammers who prey upon vulnerable, often older, people, bureau findsAmericans lost more than $1bn in 2021 alone to “romance scams” such as the one documented in the hit Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, according to the FBI.The majority of the victims who were cheated out of their money were women older than 40, and women who are widowed, divorced, elderly or disabled, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) said in a press statement last week. Continue reading...

Kamila Valieva took to the ice amid a swirl of controversy and elsewhere there were golds, blunders and much moreFreeslopestyle: Can anyone else complete a solid first run? Not Team GB’s Kirsty Muir. Not the ROC’s Anastasia Tatalina, who crashes. Not the USA’s Maggie Voisin, who takes off awkwardly on one element and pulls out of her next trick.Top two are Tess Ledeux (72.91) and Team GB’s Katie Summerhayes (60.01), but it’s hard to see those scores landing on the podium. Continue reading...

The sportswear brand is using 25 pairs of breasts to market its new range of bras. It’s a shameless attention grab and I’m all in favour‘If in doubt, get the breasts out.” That is not an official advertising slogan, but it might as well be. Cleavage has always been the uninspired ad man’s best friend. Flogging fast food? Show a bunch of busty models eating burgers in bikinis. Hawking ice-cream? Film a slow-motion shot of it dripping down a woman’s chest. Selling cars? Boobs. Selling home insurance? More boobs. You get the idea; you would have to be a boob not to.While breasts are not exactly unusual in adverts, Adidas’s new marketing campaign for its expanded range of sports bras takes things to the extreme. Instead of just showing a bit of cleavage, the advert features 25 pairs of bare breasts. Some are scarred; some are small; some are saggy; all of them are unapologetically uncovered. Accompanying the nudity are layers of predictable PR guff about how Adidas wants to celebrate inclusivity and showcase the many varieties of modern mammaries etc etc. Frankly, I would have respected the company a lot more if it just said: it is not that deep – we know this is guaranteed to get people talking, which means our brand name will worm its way into your unconscious and hopefully translate into a sales boost for our bras.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Efforts by Republicans to restrict voting rights could result in return to Jim Crow era, says progressive in New Yorker interviewThe progressive New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes the Republican-led pressure on political systems is so great that there is “a very real risk” democracy will cease to exist in the US within a decade.The leftist Democratic politician derided efforts by Republican legislatures around the country to restrict voting rights as the “opening salvos” in a war on democracy, which she said could result in a return to the Jim Crow-era disenfranchisement of racial minorities. Continue reading...

There isn’t panic on the streets, but I’ve been stocking up on fuel, food, and jigsaws to distract me from anxietyAs a child growing up in Ukraine, every time I blew out the candles on my birthday cake I made a wish that there would be no war in the world. Now the war is at my door.For almost eight years we have been hearing about the dead at the war front in Donbas, seeing the tears of people who lost their families and homes, and who had to start again from scratch. In January, I was visiting friends in the UK, and reading the latest news stories about Russian troops building up on the border.Alexandra Matzota is an event planner based in Ukraine Continue reading...

Millions are seduced by the glamour, but they should also look at the fate of Caroline Flack and others. Fame can exact a very high price“Fame is a sweet poison you drink of first in eager gulps. Then you come to loathe it.” Richard Burton’s aphorism, and the context of his turbulent stardom, is still a near perfect summary of the nature of fame; but as our polarised society and media-industrial complex continue to engorge and mutate, new strains of this toxin hit the market almost daily.Two years on, the collective guilt felt by many of us over the death of Caroline Flack, which has never truly subsided, was again brought to the fore by her mother’s forceful accusation yesterday that the police treated Caroline differently – more harshly – simply because she was famous.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.orgMark Borkowski is a crisis PR consultant and author Continue reading...

The rural back yards of the Czech Republic hide Europe’s biggest methamphetamine problem. Users like Lenka have a complex story to tell

Left-leaning people wonder ‘what’s wrong’ with the unvaccinated. But what if their non-compliance isn’t that surprising? Continue reading...

Move could be sign of de-escalation amid fears of invasion but size of withdrawal is unclear. Follow all developments live here. Plus, Sarah Palin’s lawsuit against New York Times thrown outGood morning.Russia’s defence ministry has announced it is to withdraw some of its troops from the border with Ukraine in a possible de-escalation of the threat of a potential invasion.Is this really a de-escalation? Russia has previously announced the conclusion of military exercises near the Ukrainian border, but social media and satellite photography taken in the following days have not shown considerable changes to Russia’s force posture.Is this any different? It’s unclear yet but Russia’s rouble currency reportedly posted gains following the announcement, indicating that investors hoped this would mark the beginning of a de-escalation of tensions between Russia and the west.The findings have renewed calls for greater transparency in the booming private equity industry, so that communities bearing the brunt of toxic emissions and extreme weather can track the money behind the misery. Continue reading...

Additional funding via the American Rescue Plan comes after a two-year increase in homicides in many major citiesFor years, local gun violence prevention programs have struggled to get long term funding. The people who look out for students on and off US school campus, sit at the bedsides of gunshot wound survivors, and embrace the families of homicide victims, are rarely paid with dedicated public money. Instead many groups survive on unpaid hours, donations and competitive one-off grants. But since 2021 a historic amount of government funding has been made available across the US that can turn the tide.This money comes as US cities are in dire need of intervention and healing resources after a nearly two-year increase in homicides and shootings. Still, this potential windfall also comes with confusion, especially for smaller programs whose staff don’t have the bandwidth to manage tedious, competitive applications without support. Continue reading...

Female genital mutilation is about the subjugation of women. But I am optimistic about ending it in my lifetimeIt is down to sheer ignorance that the misogynistic practice of female genital mutilation still exists in the world. In the UK, for example, FGM has been banned since 1985, but the country’s first court conviction occurred only in February 2019. The truth is, FGM will continue as long as there is inequality between men and women. It is about power and oppression, and its only purpose is to subjugate the woman and her sexuality to the man. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.The UN has a stated goal of eliminating FGM by 2030. Unfortunately, this is pure announcement policy. I worked as a UN special envoy from 1997 to 2003 and came to realise that the organisation is not doing what it should. That disappointed me and is why I started my own organisation, the Desert Flower Foundation. And, in my opinion, we are doing a better job than the UN. Continue reading...