Salt water from the recent spring tides has entered the rice lands in the Mahaicony Backlands and farmers are unsure of future cultivation since the land has become salted and will not be able to sustain growth.

This occurrence is one that the farmers have been dreading as their livelihoods are sustained through rice cultivation and livestock rearing. Currently, farmlands in the communities between Dantzig and Zealand are inundated by salt water.

Two separate springtides over the last month have had devastating effects on the lives of residents leaving them to cope with unexpected damage as well as being flooded. The residents of Mahaicony became vulnerable as a result of the breaches in the sea defence along Dantzig to Fairfield.  The three-kilometre stretch along the shoreline is currently being impacted by major erosion of the foreshore and depletion of the mangrove fringe.

“At Mahaicony, significant stretches of earthen embankment have been subjected to severe erosion and overtopping due to the exceptional natural erosion of the foreshore and the depletion of the system of mangrove. The critical condition of the shoreline has escalated due to the impacts of the current spring tide. Major breaches have occurred releasing salt water into the adjacent Bellamy Canal and agriculture lands…” the Ministry of Public Infrastructure had stated.(stabroek news)…[+]

Boris Johnson has rejected the suggestion from Nigel Farage and Donald Trump that he should work with the Brexit Party during the election. The Tory leader told the BBC he was “always grateful for advice” but he would not enter into election pacts. His comments come after the US president said Mr Farage and Mr Johnson would be “an unstoppable force”.

Downing Street sources say there are no circumstances in which the Tories would work with the Brexit Party. In an interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, the prime minister said the “difficulty” of doing deals with “any other party” was that it “simply risks putting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10”.

“The problem with that is that his [Mr Corbyn’s] plan for Brexit is basically yet more dither and delay,” Mr Johnson said. Mr Johnson also said there was “no question of negotiating on the NHS” as part of any future trade deal with the US, but he did not rule out expanding the amount of private provision in the health service in the future. But Labour’s shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said the public “can’t trust the Tories on the NHS”, saying they would “increase privatisation even further and do a deal with Donald Trump”.(BBC)…[+]

US presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has offered details on funding for her healthcare plan, which is expected to cost the federal government $20.5tn (£15.8tn) over 10 years. She said the “Medicare for All” plan would not raise taxes “one penny” for ordinary Americans, but be largely paid for by businesses and the wealthy.

Ms Warren is a Democratic front-runner in the 2020 race to the White House. She has faced criticism over lack of detail about her plan. Ms Warren said her plan would not spend “any more money overall than we spend now”, but the share spent by the federal government would increase to $20.5tn.

It would mandate that employers pay the government the same amount that they currently contribute for private health insurance for their employee. According to her campaign, the current US health system will cost $52tn over the next decade. Economists have estimated Medicare for All’s cost at between $13.5tn to $34tn in the same time frame.

“The $11tn in household insurance and out-of-pocket expenses projected under our current system goes right back into the pockets of America’s working people,” her plan states. “And we make up the difference with targeted spending cuts, new taxes on giant corporations and the richest 1% of Americans and by cracking down on tax evasion and fraud. Not one penny in middle-class tax increases.”(BBC)…[+]