The multibillion-dollar trade has survived previous bans. Now, the Taliban are going after solar-powered water pumps to try to dry up poppy crops in the middle of a national economic crisis.
Tag: Rural Areas
Rural Philippines, Long Neglected, Newly Appealing in Covid Times
The economic disparity of the nation’s rural and urban areas is a problem of long standing. Will the lessons of the pandemic finally lead to change?
The Foot Soldiers in India’s Battle to Improve Public Health
Over a million female health workers treat India’s most at-risk women and children, for little pay and sometimes at the cost of their own lives.
Japan Says It Needs Nuclear Power. Can Host Towns Ever Trust It Again?
The Ukraine war has shown the fragility of Japan’s energy supplies. But the decision to restart plants after the Fukushima disaster is fraught with emotions and political calculation.
A Long Walk Through Japan’s Kii Peninsula
As is true throughout rural Japan, many of the once-vibrant villages on Honshu’s Kii Peninsula are aging into nothingness.
How Your Sense of Direction Is Shaped by Where You Grew Up
Childhood environments shape people’s navigational skills, researchers reported. The findings one day may lead to better tests for early dementia.
In Search of Panama’s Elusive Spider Monkeys
Environmental initiatives in the Azuero Peninsula offer hope for the future of a critically endangered subspecies.
Once Sleepy and Picturesque, Ukrainian Villages Mobilize for War
While Russian assaults on Ukrainian cities have drawn most of the attention in the war’s early days, civilians in country towns have joined the fight, putting aside the routines of daily village life.
England Urges Farmers to Make Peace With Hikers
In a country where public access to parts of the countryside is written into law, the government gave landowners some advice. But farmers say they are not the problem.
As Its Population Soars to 40, Rum Isle Glimpses a Future in the Mist
With four new families recently arriving, the remote and rainy island in the Hebrides is experiencing its version of a population surge, although residents new and old concede living here isn’t easy.