While many people are still celebrating the new year farmers are dealing with a lot of stress because the water level has dropped drastically these past few days thereby making it very difficult to pump water to their fields. The farmers assembled on Tuesday morning to discuss the water issue. They made it clear that they urgently need water for their crops. The farmers were told that the Wakay pumps are offline which is why there is no water. They disapproved of the fact that the Ministry of Agriculture, Stock Breeding and Fisheries (LVV) has not addressed the situation. Nobody from the ministry is reportedly willing to talk. The farmers explained that the people who operate the Wakay pumps but home to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve which is why the pumps are offline. They slept on their fields to pump water. “We can’t party because we are facing huge problems”

ZIMBABWE – Zimbabwe abolishes death penalty almost 20-years after the last capital punishment was carried out. Zimbabwe has officially abolished the death penalty after President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law a bill on Tuesday which will commute sentences of around 60 prisoners on death row to jail time. The last execution was carried out almost two-decades ago in 2005, partly because at one point no one was willing to take up the job of state executioner. President Mnangagwa faced the death penalty himself in the 1960s during Zimbabwe’s war of independence. Amnesty International hailed the new law on Tuesday. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the human rights organisation labelled the move as great progress for the country, and a major milestone in ending “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment”. They also described it as a “beacon of hope for the abolitionist movement in the region”. (Euronews)

NEW ORLEANS – It was the early hours of New Year’s Day and Bourbon Street, in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, was bustling. Revellers were spilling out from bars and clubs in the neon-lit street, having rung in 2025, when a white pickup truck ploughed into a large crowd, killing 10 and injuring dozens. Whit Davis and his friends were in a bar in Bourbon Street when the attack unfolded. “People started running and getting under tables like it was an active shooter drill,” he told the BBC. Jim and Nicole Mowrer watched the truck slam through a barrier as it sped down Bourbon Street. The pair hid in an alcove and heard gunshots ring out as police ran towards the suspect.

A hotel worker nearby told the BBC’s US partner CBS news he had been closing down for the night when he heard the commotion outside. “When we looked out the window we noticed there was a lot of bodies lying on the ground,” he said. “The truck was speeding away.” “I immediately ran downstairs to see if there were some people I can help out. “There were some people we put into the hotel for assistance and it was just you know… the scene was just horrific.”

The truck crashed further up the street before the driver began shooting at officers, the police said. Two officers were shot but are in a “stable” condition, officials said. The FBI confirmed the driver of the truck was dead. The police held Whit Davis and his friends in the bar while the scene was secured.

“When we were finally allowed to leave, we were walking past dead and injured bodies all over the street,” Mr Davis said. “Everyone was just completely in shock.” When Nicole and Jim Mowrer left the alcove they had hidden in, they saw “several people who had been hit”. The pair tried to help them but realised they were dead. (BBC)

JAPAN – The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its efforts “to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.” The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the group “for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”

Nihon Hidankyo, also known as Hibakusha, was formed by witnesses to the only two nuclear bombs ever to be used in war. The survivors have dedicated their lives to trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons. “The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” the committee said, announcing its decision in the Norwegian capital of Oslo on Friday. Dan Smith, the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told CNN he was “delighted” that the Hibakusha had been awarded this year’s prize.

“As the Soviet and US leaders Gorbachev and Reagan said in 1985, nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought. The Hibakusha remind us of that every day,” Smith said. “The bomb on Nagasaki was the second time a nuclear weapon was used in war: Let it be the last!”

Around 80,000 people died instantly when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. As he watched the mushroom cloud balloon into the sky, Robert Lewis – co-pilot of the Enola Gay, which dropped the bomb – reportedly said: “My God, what have we done?” Three days later, the US dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, further killing some 70,000 people. In the years that followed, tens of thousands were killed in both cities by the radiation from the blast.

The thousands of survivors, many of whom suffered severe injuries and radiation sickness, became known as “hibakusha,” which translates to “bomb-affected people.” There is even a term – “niju hibakusha” – to refer to the more than 160 people who were present at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “The fates of those who survived the infernos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were long concealed and neglected,” the committee said. (CNN)

Photo: Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki, who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, at a news conference in the city after his organization won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. (Reuters)

Photo: A photo taken about six miles from the scene of the Nagasaki explosion. According to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, photographer Hiromichi Matsuda took this 15 minutes after the attack. (Getty Images)