How the crash in oil prices devastated Angola and Venezuela

[Editors note: Nairobi bureau chief Kevin Sieff and Mexico City bureau chief Josh Partlow recently took reporting trips to Angola and Venezuela, respectively. This a transcript of a conversation they had shortly after those trips about the collapse of petro-states.] Kevin Sieff: You got back from Venezuela recently. I got back from Angola recently. Both […]

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2016/08/02/how-the-crash-in-oil-prices-devastated-angola-and-venezuela/

Anthrax spreads from reindeer to humans in an outbreak at ‘the end of the world’

The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is not a place that gets much media coverage. This sub-division of Siberia — made up mostly of flat, lake-pocked tundra — is the size of California, Texas, Montana and both Dakotas combined, with tens of thousands of square miles to spare. The nomadic people of the region call themselves the Nenets, and they […]

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2016/08/02/anthrax-spreads-from-reindeer-to-humans-in-an-outbreak-at-the-end-of-the-world/

The strange, short-lived Olympic skit involving a black youth and supermodel Gisele

RIO DE JANEIRO — In an otherwise uplifting celebration of Brazilian culture, one part of Sunday's dress rehearsal for the Olympics opening ceremony struck some viewers as cringe-worthy: the moment when supermodel Gisele Bundchen got seemingly robbed by a black kid from the slums. “It’s totally unacceptable,” said Fernando Alvares Salis, head of the communications department […]

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2016/08/02/the-strange-short-lived-olympic-skit-involving-a-black-youth-and-supermodel-gisele/

Maps of Australia are all five feet off. Would you be brave enough to use a self-driving car there?

Australia's extensive road network would theoretically be perfect for self-driving cars. But there is one major problem: Tectonic movements have pushed the continent five feet away from where it used to be, and where GPS systems assume it is still located. In other words: All maps of Australia are five feet off at the moment. It's a problem that has created […]

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2016/08/02/maps-of-australia-are-all-five-feet-off-would-you-be-brave-enough-to-use-a-self-driving-car-there/

Egypt’s grand mufti says harming gays is unacceptable even as LGBT crackdown continues

Egypt's grand mufti recently said that hurting gays and lesbians is unacceptable despite the fact that homosexuality is not allowed in Islam. In an interview with Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper late last month, Shawki Allam said that he condemned the Orlando massacre in which 49 people were killed and that no one had "the right to hurt homosexuals or […]

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2016/08/02/egypts-grand-mufti-says-harming-gays-is-unacceptable-even-as-lgbt-crackdown-continues/