Once a week, a horse track in Harare invites children born with cerebral palsy, a neuromuscular disorder, to visit. But the children don’t simply watch the horses.     Trish Lillie of the Healing with Horses Therapeutic Centre in Harare says her organization is helping kids who cannot afford the recommended speech and physical therapies. Nov. 21, 2019. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)The charity is supported by donations from companies and individuals with a mission to help heal children and communities. Stanley Dzingai, 37, brings his 4-year-old child for regular sessions.    “At first my son used to refuse horse therapy, but he …

In central Somalia’s Beledweyne district, families still reeling from food shortages and livestock deaths after another year of poor rains were surprised by a new disaster last month: brutal floods that completely submerged homes after the Shabelle River burst its banks.Across the district, 230,000 people were driven from their homes, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR reported, some fleeing through neck-deep water.“The situation was devastating,” Ahmed Omar Ibrahim, an aid worker with Save the Children, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.In the flood’s aftermath, “all the people (were) out from the town, …

Former Vice President Al Gore said that even though President Donald Trump wants to back out of the Paris Climate Agreement, the U.S. cannot legally pull out until the day after next year’s presidential election.“If there’s a new president — pardon me for a minute,” Gore said to laughs and then loud applause, as he stretched out his arms and looked up. “Now don’t you dare interpret that as a partisan gesture. I have freedom of speech and freedom of prayer,” he joked.Gore’s spirited speech Wednesday night kicked off a …

With urban populations surging around the world, cities will struggle to keep residents safe from fast-growing heat risks turbo-charged by climate change, scientists and public health experts warned this week.Heat is already the leading cause of deaths from extreme weather in countries including the United States. The problem is particularly severe in cities, where temperature extremes are rising much faster than the global average, they said.Even today, areas where the world’s population is concentrated, such as in Asia’s cities, are seeing warming of four times the global average temperature increase, …