Daily Digest Online

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Indonesia has soared past 600, officials confirmed, with hundreds more missing and rescue workers struggling to reach cut-off communities days after a rare cyclone triggered the disaster. Rescue efforts continue in northern Indonesia as the region grapples with the aftermath of devastating floods that have now claimed more than 600 lives. The disaster, triggered last week by Cyclonic Storm Senyar—a rare weather system that formed near the equator—has impacted approximately 1.5 million people across the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra. With another 500 people still missing and thousands injured, the scale of the crisis is still unfolding. Critical infrastructure has been severed; images from the region show bridges washed away, roads buried under mud and debris, and landscapes transformed by powerful waters. For survivors, the wait for aid has become a desperate struggle. In hard-hit Central Tapanuli...

Imagine a landmark known not for its beauty, but for its burden. For decades, the Olusosun dumpsite in Lagos has been just that—a towering symbol of the city’s waste woes. But now, the state government is turning a page, announcing a bold, 18-month plan to finally close the chapter on Olusosun and other aging dumpsites, promising a cleaner, more sustainable future for Africa’s most populous city. The clock is ticking for one of Lagos’s most notorious landmarks. The Lagos State Government has set an 18-month deadline to begin decommissioning the vast Olusosun dumpsite and other legacy landfills that have long strained the city’s environment and infrastructure. The announcement came from the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, during a routine inspection of the sites. He framed the move not merely as a cleanup, but as a fundamental shift in philosophy. "We are moving from a linear waste management system to environmentally friendl...