More than one-third of the people in the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, which scientists predict would be submerged by rising seas, have applied for a landmark climate visa to migrate to Australia, according to official figures.
Tuvaluan Permanent Representative to the UN Tapugao Falefou on Sunday said he was “startled by the huge number of people vying for this opportunity.”
Tuvalu, one of the countries at greatest risk from climate change, which experts say is boosting sea levels, has a population of 11,000 on its nine atolls scattered across the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.
Photo: Reuters
Since applications for Australia’s visa lottery opened this month, 1,124 people have registered, with family members bringing the total seeking the visa to 4,052 under the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty, which established a “special human mobility pathway” between Australia and Tuvalu.
Applications close on July 18, with an annual cap of 280 visas designed to ensure migration to Australia does not cause brain drain from Tuvalu, officials said when the treaty was announced in 2023.
The visa would allow Tuvalu residents to live, work and study in Australia, accessing health benefits and education on the same basis as Australian citizens.
“Moving to Australia under the Falepili Union treaty will in some way provide additional remittance to families staying back,” he said.
By 2050, NASA scientists project daily tides would submerge half the main atoll of Funafuti, home to 60 percent of Tuvalu’s residents, where villagers cling to a strip of land as narrow as 20m. That forecast assumes a 1m rise in sea levels, while the worst case, double that, would put 90 percent of Funafuti under water.
Tuvalu, whose mean elevation is just 2m, has experienced a sea-level rise of 15cm over the past three decades, one-and-a-half times the global average.
It has built 7 hectares of artificial land, and is planning more, which it hopes would stay above the tides until 2100.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
RSS