With eyes on China's once in a 400 year flood event ruining the years grain production, we should be looking at Ethiopia's new Renaissance Dam and the implications for food production up the Nile River.
Historically Ethiopia was home to great kingdoms that flourished, controlled trade routes and had the premium weight and measure for gold and silver coinage in the Axum era 300 A.D. China and the western powers are in a match to control that Red Sea access point for new grain growing areas in N. Africa coming on line.
Who controls the water controls food production in N.E Africa for the next 100 years.
More torrential rain has caused flooding and mudslides in Japan following the disaster in southern prefectures that left over 50 dead or missing earlier this month.
Heavy rain has been falling in northern area of the country since 27 July. Several locations in Yamagata recorded more than 200mm of rain in 24 hours on 28 July, including Tsuruoka, Nishimura, Oguni and Nagai, according to Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
Okura village in Yamagata recorded 95.5 mm of rain in 3 hours on 28 July, triggering landslides and rivers to overflow. As many as 540 people were left isolated due to landslides in the area, according to a government spokesman.
About 36 people are reported to have died after torrential rain triggered flash floods and urban flooding in Pakistan.
An emergency has been imposed at hospitals across Karachi, where paramilitary forces are helping traffic police in rescuing commuters amid traffic jams, flooding of roads and destruction of infrastructure.
"We were stuck in homes this Sunday as people shared videos of motorcycles and even cars being swept away in strong floods. Several people were injured by tiles falling from high buildings," Mansha Noor, executive secretary of Caritas Pakistan Karachi, told UCA News.
"The frontline volunteers of our disaster management committees (DMCs) continued rescue efforts during heavy rains and helped in saving people and their belongings in low-lying areas."
Two brothers were killed when they were struck by lightning in a village in Chhattisgarhs Jashpur district on Tuesday, police said.
The incident took place around 11 am when the victims, identified as Janku Sai (29) and his brother Janak Sai (25), were sowing paddy saplings in their field in Dumariya village under the Farsabahar police station area, a local police official said.
While they were working in the field, heavy rainfall started following which they took shelter under a nearby tree where lightning struck, killing the duo on the spot, he said.
A case has been registered and compensation will be provided to the family of the deceased as per government norms, the official added.
A women's soccer league match in Mexico ended in tragedy as two players were killed by lightning, while three others required treatment for severe burns and other injuries.
The game, which took place in Mexico's Tlahuac municipality on Monday, was interrupted by heavy rainfall after halftime.
The players were ordered to leave the field, but five footballers returned to retrieve the ball. Tragically, lightning struck the pitch just as they stepped onto the grass.
The five women were immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where two of them died. The three others suffered second-degree burns, and were reported to be in a stable condition.
At least 11 people died and four others injured in lightning strikes in West Bengal's Bankura, Purba Bardhaman and Howrah districts on Monday, as thunderstorms affected parts of the southern areas of the state, official sources said.
Five people each died in Bankura and Purba Bardhaman, and one person in Howrah district.
In Bankura, two persons, including a woman, died in Onda and Bankura Sadar police station areas when lightning struck the fields where they were working, sources said.
Two others also died in Onda area, and another one in Gangajalghati.
A German tourist died after being struck by lightning while hiking in Romania's Rodnei Mountains, Stiri.tvr.ro reported.
He was part of a larger group of German tourists, who descended from the mountains this morning, July 28.
Mountain rescuers from two counties were dispatched to help save the tourists, who were caught in a storm, in an area without any shelters. They had set out on a hike on Saturday, July 25.
A doctor who was part of the group tried to help the 32-year old German tourist hit by lightning but could not save him.
The body of the victim was brought to the Bistrița morgue.
Powerful thunderstorms consolidated over the D.C. area Thursday evening, releasing a dramatic and memorable outburst of thunder and lightning while also dispensing tremendous rainfall. Energized by stifling heat and humidity, it was the fourth day in a row of vigorous summer storms in some locations.
On social media, eyewitnesses described the jarring claps of thunder and the strobe-light-like lightning display as among the most extreme they had seen:
"[T]hat was some of the loudest, sustained thunder and lightning I've ever been through," tweeted Jim Groves in Hyattsville.
"I've never seen an electrical storm like this," tweeted The Weather Channel's Justin Michaels.
"I'm not prone to hyperbole but this takes the cake for the most intense lightning event since the derecho," tweeted WTOP's Dave Dildine.
Streets in Monterrey in northern Mexico were flooded by heavy rains from tropical depression Hanna on Sunday.
The US National Hurricane Center has warned that continued rains could trigger flash flooding and mudslides in the the northern states of Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas on Monday.
Hanna became the first hurricane of the North Atlantic hurricane season before it was downgraded to a tropical storm.
State power has its own limits defined by the fact that it is authority that reaches people from outside. State power cannot oversee and dictate the creative states of the soul and mind, the inner states of love, freedom and goodwill. The state cannot demand from its citizens faith, prayer, love, goodness and conviction. It cannot regulate scientific, religious and artistic creation. It should not intervene in moral, family and daily private life, and only when extremely necessary should it impinge on people's economic initiative and creativity.
- Ivan Ilyin
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Comment: Meanwhile from earlier this week: Symbolism: Dramatic video shows moment lightning strikes behind Statue of Liberty