King Charles Visits Melanoma Clinic in Sydney and Meets Cancer Survivorshttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5073544-king-charles-visits-melanoma-clinic-sydney-and-meets-cancer-survivors
King Charles Visits Melanoma Clinic in Sydney and Meets Cancer Survivors
Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla pose for pictures in front of the Sydney Opera House in Sydney on October 22, 2024, as the Sydney Harbor Bridge is seen in the background. (AFP)
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King Charles Visits Melanoma Clinic in Sydney and Meets Cancer Survivors
Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla pose for pictures in front of the Sydney Opera House in Sydney on October 22, 2024, as the Sydney Harbor Bridge is seen in the background. (AFP)
King Charles visited a skin cancer clinic in Sydney on Tuesday where he met cancer survivors and researchers working on cures for the disease.
The visit to the Melanoma Institute Australia was one of the final public appearances Charles made on his 16th official visit to the country, his first major overseas trip since being diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer.
There was no mention of the King's own diagnosis during the visit, where Charles met melanoma survivor Adam Brown and his family. Brown was given 12 months to live when he was diagnosed in 2015.
Brown, along with wife Kristy, introduced their children as their “two miracles”.
The King offered his congratulations to Brown although jokingly wondered why the children were meeting him during school hours.
Charles also met renowned melanoma researcher and brain cancer survivor Richard Scolyer. Diagnosed with brain cancer last year, Scolyer underwent world-first surgery and his tumor is in remission.
Scolyer was joined on Tuesday by fellow researcher Georgina Long. Both were named Australians of the Year in January for their research into melanomas.
"That was an amazing opportunity for us to tell the king about what we're doing here trying to deal with Australia's national cancer, and to talk about how we're trying to get to zero deaths from melanoma," Scolyer said.
Earlier in the day Charles met Indigenous elders in inner-city Redfern, the home of the urban Aboriginal civil rights movement, and was embraced by elder Michael Welsh
The moment was in sharp contrast to Monday when Charles was heckled at Parliament House in Canberra by independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe who shouted that she did not accept his sovereignty over Australia.
The Royal couple will close the day with a fleet review of the Royal Australian Navy in Sydney Harbor.
Rare Sahara Floods Bring Morocco’s Dried-up South Back to Lifehttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5075299-rare-sahara-floods-bring-morocco%E2%80%99s-dried-south-back-life
Tourists camp on the shores of Erg Znaigui, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
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Rare Sahara Floods Bring Morocco’s Dried-up South Back to Life
Tourists camp on the shores of Erg Znaigui, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
In Morocco's southeastern desert, a rare downpour has brought lakes and ponds back to life, with locals -- and tourists -- hailing it as a gift from the heavens.
In Merzouga, an attractive tourist town some 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of the capital Rabat, the once-parched golden dunes are now dotted with replenished ponds and lakes.
"We're incredibly happy about the recent rains," said Youssef Ait Chiga, a local tour guide leading a group of German tourists to Yasmina Lake nestled amidst Merzouga's dunes.
Khalid Skandouli, another tour guide, said the rain has drawn even more visitors to the tourist area, now particularly eager to witness this odd transformation.
With him, Laetitia Chevallier, a French tourist and regular visitor to the region, said the rainfall has proved a "blessing from the sky".
"The desert became green again, the animals have food again, and the plants and palm trees came back to life," she said.
Locals told AFP the basin had been barren for nearly 20 years.
A man leads his camels along the shores of Yasmina lake, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
Last year was Morocco's driest in 80 years, with a 48 percent drop in rainfall, according to an October report from the General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM).
But in September, torrential rains triggered floods in southern parts of Morocco, killing at least 28 people, according to authorities.
The rare heavy rains come as the North African kingdom grapples with its worst drought in nearly 40 years, threatening its economically crucial agriculture sector.
Neighboring Algeria saw similar rain and flooding in early September, killing six people.
North African countries currently rank among the world's most water-stressed, according to the World Resources Institute, a non-profit research organization.
The kingdom's meteorological agency described the recent massive rainfall as "exceptional".
It attributed it to an unusual shift of the intertropical convergence zone -- the equatorial region where winds from the northern and southern hemispheres meet, causing thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.
The sun sets behind the dunes at Yasmina lake, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
- 'Climate change' -
"Everything suggests that this is a sign of climate change," Fatima Driouech, a Moroccan climate scientist, told AFP. "But it's too early to say definitively without thorough studies."
Driouech emphasized the importance of further research to attribute this event to broader climate trends.
Experts say climate change is making extreme weather events, such as storms and droughts, more frequent and intense.
In Morocco's south, the rains have helped partially fill some reservoirs and replenish groundwater aquifers.
But for those levels to significantly rise, experts say the rains would need to continue over a longer period of time.
The rest of the country is still grappling with drought, now in its sixth consecutive year, jeopardizing the agricultural sector that employs over a third of Morocco's workforce.
Tourists take pictures at Yasmina lake, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
Jean Marc Berhocoirigoin, a 68-year-old French tourist, said he was surprised to find Yasmina Lake replenished. "I hadn't seen these views for 15 years," he said.
Water has also returned to other desert areas such as Erg Znaigui, about 40 kilometers south of Merzouga, AFP reporters saw.
While the rains have breathed life into Morocco's arid southeast, Driouech warns that "a single extreme event can't bring lasting change".
But last week, Morocco's meteorological agency said such downpours could become increasingly frequent, "driven partly by climate change as the intertropical convergence zone shifts further north".
