Gang tattoos were once a vital currency in El Salvador, just a few years ago when it was known as the “murder capital of the world.”

Some designs confirmed membership of MS-13 or 18th Street —ultra-violent street organizations that ruled with machetes and intimidation — and commemorated slain gang members while issuing warnings to the living.

Now, under the strict rule of President Nayib Bukele, suspected gang tattoos can be used as evidence of membership in an illegal organization, and lead to detention. Intelligence on those tattoos has also been shared by El Salvador with European countries dealing with gangs, and with the United States, where on Monday Bukele is set for a White House meeting with President Donald Trump.

Tattoos have been used as evidence to deport people from the US and while there are accusations the designs have been misread, El Salvador’s Security and Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro said he could identify very specific meanings.

“In the past, they had to kill someone, kidnap someone, extort someone to be brought to trial. Now, having tattoos for these organizations is a crime,” García explained.

Evidence of that crime is all around him, in the communal cells where convicted men and those still going through the court process are held.

Cecot was built and opened after Bukele suspended some constitutional rights as he vowed to restore security to El Salvador. Critics say human rights have been forgotten in the mass roundup of men said to be gangsters, with innocents swept up in the dragnet, but the streets are undoubtedly more secure, and many residents say they have new freedom.

The men taken off those streets and put in Cecot — officially named the Terrorism Confinement Center — now stare at visitors from behind bars, meekly obeying orders from armed guards.

Both times we have seen former sworn enemies from MS-13 and 18^th Street placed together in cells. In former times, their tattoos would have been enough for a turf war, now they are bunkmates.

“We’re mixed up, and that’s the hardest thing,” Hector Hernandez, a prisoner, told us. “It used to be different, but today the government has taken control.”

His tattoos showed him to be an active member of MS-13, a status he said was still valid, even inside Cecot. He said each design had to be earned, mainly through murder.

“The main thing is to kill and deserve to be a gang member.”

The ink covers some faces, necks, arms and torsos, but García says law enforcement knows there are “very specific” marks that point to gang affiliation and not something innocent.

He had two men remove their prison-issue plain white T-shirts as he explained the new regulations.

“This isn’t a hunt just because a person has tattoos,” he said. “Authorities are searching for members of terrorist organizations who have specific tattoos that identify them with that type of organization.”

The clearest are the letters and numbers from the gang names: MS with 13 in regular or Roman numerals, or 18 for their rivals in the 18^th Street gang.

García pointed to the body of a man he said was a clique leader of MS-13 who had been convicted for aggravated homicide.

“He has various tattoos on his body related to MS-13. He is an active member,” García said.

On the man’s back was a large design of Santa Muerte, a female Grim Reaper that became a symbol of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico before becoming adopted by MS-13.

García said the other man was an assassin for 18^th Street. He had X, V, III running down one side of his torso. Both inmates confirmed their associations with various cliques and areas where they operated.

García said some symbols he had seen warned people to see nothing, hear nothing and do nothing against the gangs, while others commemorated dead comrades or other personal connections: “Women they love, women who’ve betrayed them.”

Tattoos honoring Real Madrid and depicting a hummingbird

Once Bukele’s regime started retaking control of the streets and locking up people with tattoos, the gangs stopped requiring inked bodies as proof of loyalty, García said, so law enforcement focused on other ways to identify criminals.

But elsewhere, tattoos are still seen as evidence of guilt.

Authorities in the United States have deported hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang, as well as Salvadorans alleged to be MS-13, to El Salvador, where they are now being held in Cecot.

“My brother has tattoos because he’s an artist but that doesn’t make him a criminal,” Nelson said.

From gang allegiance to art

Alejandra Angel, a tattooist in the capital San Salvador, explained: “Never in the history of this country would you see a guy with tattoos working in a restaurant or in a Walmart, never.

“After they ‘cleaned up’ the country everything has changed (with) the visibility of tattoos.”

Angel said she had been a little nervous when the ongoing “temporary” state of emergency was first imposed in March 2022. One of her arms is blacked out, she says to cover designs she no longer liked, but it could appear suspicious to police.

Another artist, Camilo Rodriguez, from a different salon, said he had been questioned twice by police about his tattoos at the beginning of the crackdown. But once he explained their significance he said he was free to go.

They said the gangs used to have their own tattooists or coerced people to ink designs.

But now people are free to choose, the artists said, and are no longer afraid of having something on their arm.

“Tattoos are for everyone,” said Rodriguez, who added his clients now included doctors and lawyers. “It’s a very personal language, and you can do whatever you want with it.”

“I was told they made a mistake.” This is the way US President Donald Trump characterized Russia’s “horrific” double-tap missile strike on central Sumy, Ukraine, on Saturday, which allegedly used cluster munitions to maximize casualties.

The Iskander missiles reportedly utilized are accurate, and the use of two of them could suggest a degree of purpose and malice, aimed at hitting first responders too as they rush in. It is unlikely the Kremlin saw the error of its ways – this tactic being now so common – and perhaps a sympathizer is instead excusing Russia to the US president.

The weekend’s strike was, to Ukraine’s allies, a gruesome reminder of Moscow’s true intent in its invasion: to terrify Ukrainians into submission. The target, Sumy, is also in Russia’s immediate crosshairs, as President Vladimir Putin claims to seek a buffer zone inside of Ukraine by pounding this thriving border city.

The attack also placed unwelcome emphasis on just how little fruit the White House’s relentless pursuit of diplomacy has borne. Trump said Friday on social media that Russia had to “get moving,” but provided no deadlines or explicit consequences if it did not, although secondary tariffs on its oil purchasers have been floated.

Trump has made similar comments before – admonishing Moscow for its onslaught on Ukraine’s civilians, while also expressing broader grief at the tragedy of war in general, rather than fury at the Kremlin’s specific massacres, say of nine children at a Kryvyi Rih playground days earlier.

The truth Trump may be reluctant to post about is that Russia’s diplomacy has predictably dissolved into a dizzying Catherine wheel of tangents. It generates the requisite light and noise, but is of little consequence, bar Moscow continuing to buy time and prosecute the war on its own terms.

American and Russian diplomats are now on a carousel of Moscow’s apparent design, with multiple tracks leaving scant chance of real progress. Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff intermittently flies to Russia, to presumably hear demands direct from the Kremlin, whose official called his Friday visit to St Petersburg “productive.” Higher-level American and Russian diplomats meet in Saudi Arabia to float ceasefire ideas and a wider detente, while lower-level diplomatic meetings began in the new venue of Turkey last week to address the technical details of embassies reopening.

And there is a separate diplomatic US-Ukraine track over peace, also in Saudi Arabia, that has so far proposed a wide-ranging ceasefire that Russia has yet to agree to. Instead, a limited 30-day energy infrastructure ceasefire – chaotically birthed and barely adhered to – ends on Friday. This first test of diplomacy, seemingly dead on arrival, is somehow yet to cast future endeavors as problematic.

The above flow chart, or lapsed Venn diagram, has the singular unifying thread of the Trump administration seeking progress from multiple different dialogues it hopes will eventually congeal into a singular lasting peace. Five different, current conversations, and that is even if you don’t count the mostly silent role of Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Gen. Keith Kellogg, or the intermittent but overarching influence that Putin-Trump phone calls take.

This disparate and confusing interface is, Moscow’s critics say, a standard Russian tactic to buy time while appearing engaged. The Trump administration brimmed with 24-hour to 100-day deadlines about peace prior to the rubber hitting the road. Now there is no deadline – or end to the metastasizing talks – in sight.

Why does Putin seek time? Because he believes Trump has been proven to be easily distracted and is interested in an easy win, but not a complex compromise. Putin also clearly believes this summer he can win a tangible victory on the front lines that will change the dynamic in talks.

His onslaught on Sumy is intended to buy Russia space on the border, but also drag Ukraine’s forces in. Russia is making slow yet discomforting progress to the south of Zaporizhzhia, an area where nearly two years ago its counteroffensive was meant to have broken through. One Ukrainian intelligence officer recently moved to near the city of Kharkiv described a front line quieter than expected, and anxiety as to what lies ahead.

Concerns are growing that Russia is amassing reinforcements, waiting for the ground to dry in May to escalate a spring offensive that Ukrainian officials say has already partially begun. Kyiv has hinted at an artillery ammunition shortage in the weeks ahead, and recent pledges by its allies may not have headed off that imminent crisis. It is going to be a very difficult summer for Ukraine.

This is the real rubber hitting the road. Moscow has invested all in a war in which it simply cannot afford anything less than victory. It does not see gain in forging a deal over frozen front lines now. The momentum – with a White House tearing up economic and security norms by the sheaf, and Ukraine struggling to meet manpower and resource needs – is day by day more in its favor. The Russians are stalling for time as they believe it is on their side.

Their European allies are disconcertingly readying for two unpleasant potential futures. The first is the possibility of a Ukrainian collapse and the need for NATO’s European members to hold back the Russians without American assistance. This is a more remote likelihood, but the undertone of preparations across the continent. The second possibility is more feasible and public: the British and French are spearheading preparations for a “reassurance force” to protect any ceasefire. The noise, and planning, serves two purposes: it allows Kyiv to agree to diplomacy knowing it has some security guarantees in place. And it partially embarrasses Moscow into stonewalling a peace plan that is increasingly ready to roll.

But with each rotation of the diplomatic Catherine wheel, the terms of actual peace become more dizzying. Putin seems less willing to offer even a partial pause as he believes ultimately Trump is toothless and will not punish him effectively for refusing this détente.

Trump said of US talks with Russia and Ukraine at the weekend: “You know, there’s a point at which you have to either put up or shut up.” His problem is that both he and the Kremlin are happy to keep talking. And neither wants to put up either: Trump is reluctant to impose harsh sanctions and disrupt his relationship with Moscow, and the Kremlin seems to have no desire to stop the war.

Trump added: “We’ll see what happens, but I think it’s going fine.” Ukraine must be left hoping he does not mean simply that the country’s fate will be permanently eclipsed by another crisis.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was recovering in an intensive care unit on Monday after a tricky 12-hour surgery due to recurring intestinal issues since he was stabbed while campaigning in 2018.

The 70-year-old conservative firebrand was awake and doing “very well” in the intensive care unit, where he will remain during a slow recovery, doctors at the DF Star Hospital told journalists. It was his fifth surgery since the 2018 stabbing.

The former president was hospitalized on Friday after strong abdominal pains during an event with supporters in northeastern Brazil, forcing him to break off a regional tour aimed at drumming up support ahead of a trial before the Supreme Court.

Bolsonaro was transferred to the nation’s capital, Brasilia, where he lives, on Saturday night.

The surgery was difficult due to Bolsonaro’s prior surgeries and stab wound, but Sunday’s procedure did not have unexpected complications and the result was satisfactory, doctors said, adding that hospital visits for now should be limited to family.

A British man has died after falling from a viewing platform at a famed Roman aqueduct in the Spanish city of Segovia.

Emergency services were called after the 63-year-old man suffered a fall at around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) on Saturday, according to a statement from the Castile and León regional government.

Attempts to resuscitate the man were unsuccessful and he was declared dead at the scene, according to the statement.

“We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities,” said a spokesperson.

Segovia is located around 40 miles northwest of the Spanish capital Madrid, in the center of the country.

It is a popular tourist destination that draws visitors keen to see the Roman aqueduct, which was built under Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98–117.

Still in use to this day, the aqueduct carries water from the Frío River to the city of Segovia.

The central section has two layers of arches that stand 28.5 metres (93.5 feet) above the ground.

Hungary’s parliament on Monday passed an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities, a decision that legal scholars and critics call another step toward authoritarianism by the populist government.

The amendment, which required a two-thirds vote, passed along party lines with 140 votes for and 21 against. It was proposed by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Ahead of the vote — the final step for the amendment — opposition politicians and other protesters attempted to blockade the entrance to a parliament parking garage. Police physically removed demonstrators, who had used zip ties to bind themselves together.

The amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, including that to peacefully assemble. Hungary’s contentious “child protection” legislation prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors aged under 18.

The amendment codifies a law fast-tracked through parliament in March that bans public events held by LGBTQ+ communities, including the popular Pride event in Budapest that draws thousands annually.

That law also allows authorities to use facial recognition tools to identify people who attend prohibited events — such as Budapest Pride — and can come with fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546).

Dávid Bedő, a lawmaker with the opposition Momentum party who participated in the attempted blockade, said before the vote that Orbán and Fidesz for the past 15 years “have been dismantling democracy and the rule of law, and in the past two or three months, we see that this process has been sped up.”

He said as elections approach in 2026 and Orbán’s party lags in the polls behind a popular new challenger from the opposition, “they will do everything in their power to stay in power.”

Opposition lawmakers used air horns to disrupt the vote, which continued after a few moments.

Hungary’s government has campaigned against LGBTQ+ communities in recent years, and argues its “child protection” policies, which forbid the availability to minors of any material that mentions homosexuality, are needed to protect children from what it calls “woke ideology” and “gender madness.”

Critics say the measures do little to protect children and are being used to distract from more serious problems facing the country and mobilize Orbán’s right-wing base ahead of elections.

“This whole endeavor which we see launched by the government, it has nothing to do with children’s rights,” said Dánel Döbrentey, a lawyer with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, calling it “pure propaganda.”

Constitution recognizes two sexes

The new amendment also states that the constitution recognizes two sexes, male and female, an expansion of an earlier amendment that prohibits same-sex adoption by stating that a mother is a woman and a father is a man.

The declaration provides a constitutional basis for denying the gender identities of transgender people, as well as ignoring the existence of intersex individuals who are born with sexual characteristics that do not align with binary conceptions of male and female.

In a statement on Monday, government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács wrote that the change is “not an attack on individual self-expression, but a clarification that legal norms are based on biological reality.”

Döbrentey, the lawyer, said it was “a clear message” for transgender and intersex people: “It is definitely and purely and strictly about humiliating people and excluding them, not just from the national community, but even from the community of human beings.”

The amendment is the 15th to Hungary’s constitution since Orbán’s party unilaterally authored and approved it in 2011.

Facial recognition to identify demonstrators

Ádám Remport, a lawyer with the HCLU, said that while Hungary has used facial recognition tools since 2015 to assist police in criminal investigations and finding missing persons, the recent law banning Pride allows the technology to be used in a much broader and problematic manner. That includes for monitoring and deterring political protests.

“One of the most fundamental problems is its invasiveness, just the sheer scale of the intrusion that happens when you apply mass surveillance to a crowd,” Remport said.

“More salient in this case is the effect on the freedom of assembly, specifically the chilling effect that arises when people are scared to go out and show their political or ideological beliefs for fear of being persecuted,” he added.

Suspension of citizenship

The amendment passed Monday also allows for Hungarians who hold dual citizenship in a non-European Economic Area country to have their citizenship suspended for up to 10 years if they are deemed to pose a threat to public order, public security or national security.

Hungary has taken steps in recent months to protect its national sovereignty from what it claims are foreign efforts to influence its politics or even topple Orbán’s government.

The self-described “illiberal” leader has accelerated his longstanding efforts to crack down on critics such as media outlets and groups devoted to civil rights and anti-corruption, which he says have undermined Hungary’s sovereignty by receiving financial assistance from international donors.

In a speech laden with conspiracy theories in March, Orbán compared people who work for such groups to insects, and pledged to “eliminate the entire shadow army” of foreign-funded “politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists.”

Between 60,000 and 80,000 households – or up to 400,000 people – have been displaced from Sudan’s Zamzam camp in North Darfur after it was taken over by the Rapid Support Forces, according to data from the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

The RSF seized control of the camp on Sunday after a four-day assault that the government and aid groups have said left hundreds dead or wounded.

The United Nations said on Monday that preliminary figures from local sources show more than 300 civilians were killed in fighting on Friday and Saturday around the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps and the town of al-Fashir in North Darfur.

This includes 10 humanitarian personnel from Relief International, who were killed while operating one of the last functioning health centers in Zamzam camp, said a UN spokesperson.

Rights groups have long warned of possible atrocities should the RSF succeed in its months-long siege of the famine-stricken camp, neighbor to the army’s only remaining stronghold in the Darfur region, al-Fashir.

Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed burning buildings and smoke in Zamzam on Friday, echoing prior RSF attacks.

The RSF has dismissed such allegations, and says the Zamzam camp was being used as a base for army-aligned groups.

At the start of the war, the camp was home to about half a million people, a number that is thought to have doubled.

In a video shared by the paramilitary force, RSF second in command Abdelrahim Dagalo is seen speaking to a small group of displaced people, promising them food, water, medical care and a return to their homes.

The RSF accelerated its assault on the camp after the army regained control of the capital Khartoum, cementing its retaking of the center of the country.

It has also accelerated drone attacks into army-controlled territory, including an attack on the Atbara power station in the north of the country on Monday according to the national electricity company, cutting off power to the wartime capital of Port Sudan.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and the RSF, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule. The conflict has since displaced millions and devastated wide swathes of the country, spreading famine in several locations.

One of Russia’s most outspoken generals, sacked and detained after a withering attack on the Defense Ministry two years ago, is returning to the front, according to his lawyer.

But according to Russian state media, he’s been handed a poisoned chalice: front-line command of a notorious battalion of ex-prisoners that has suffered massive casualties in Ukraine.

Two years ago, Major General Ivan Popov was the decorated commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army in southern Ukraine, receiving plaudits for his leadership.

Then he made a mistake – sending a voice note to colleagues excoriating the leadership of the Defense Ministry, and saying he’d been fired for complaining.

“The armed forces of Ukraine could not break through our army from the front, (but) our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment,” Popov said in the message, sent in July 2023.

Most of his ire was reserved for the Russian military’s chief-of-staff, Valery Gerasimov.

Popov said that when he complained about a lack of artillery support and other issues, “the senior commanders felt the danger in me and swiftly, in one day, concocted an order for the Minister of Defense, removed me from the order, and got rid of me.”

Kateryna Stepanenko, at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, says that Popov’s dismissal “outraged Russian ultranationalists, officers, and veterans, who accused the Russian MoD of removing Popov to mask problems in the Russian military.”

The military establishment was especially sensitive to criticism at the time – less than a month after the abortive revolt by Wagner mercenary group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Life for Popov was soon to get worse. At first, he was sent to Syria to be deputy commander of the Russian contingent there, but in May last year he was arrested for alleged fraud, a charge he has consistently denied.

Prosecutors sought a six-year jail sentence if convicted, and Popov was dismissed from the armed forces. But his supporters continued to speak up for him.

Stepanenko believes the Kremlin “largely failed to convince the Russian ultranationalists, officers, and veterans of Popov’s alleged involvement in the embezzlement case, resulting in persistent backlash online.”

Popov wrote an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was published in state media in late March, appealing to be allowed to return to the battlefield. He described Putin as his “moral guide and role model” whose example “made me finally understand what the legendary words mean: ‘a cool head, a warm heart and clean hands.’”

Popov’s wish has now been granted, after a fashion.

Last week, Russian state media reported that his lawyer and the Ministry of Defense had agreed to Popov’s request to return to active duty rather than face the prospect of a prison sentence.

Popov’s lawyer, Sergei Buinovsky, was quoted on TASS as saying: “We, together with the Ministry of Defense, have a motion to suspend on the case… with the positive decision to send Ivan Ivanovich to the SVO (The Special Military Operation.)” Moscow continues to use this term to refer to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine it launched in 2022.

It’s yet to be confirmed that the military court has agreed to the deal, but Popov’s supporters among Russian military bloggers rejoiced.

“The legendary combat general returned to the front!” wrote Vladimir Rogov, a popular blogger.

But there was a sting in the tail. Popov would not be returning to his beloved 58^th Army.

On Thursday, Russian business daily newspaper Kommersant reported that Popov would “be sent to the SVO not as a regular stormtrooper, but as the commander of one of the Storm Z units,” citing a source in the security forces.

That same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on a call with journalists “on the intention of General Popov, accused of embezzlement, to take up a special operation.”

But Stepanenko describes Popov’s assignment as “effectively a death sentence because the Russian military command primarily uses ‘Storm Z’ penal detachments in suicidal frontal assaults.”

The Kremlin has continued to support the use of prisoners in combat. Putin recently promised to get members of Storm Z veteran status.

“We will definitely fix this. I don’t see any problems here,” Putin said at a meeting last month. “I have great connections, I will come to an agreement with both the government and the deputies,” he added.

As the Russian military seeks to bolster the number of experienced officers in Ukraine, it’s increasingly turning to those who have fallen out of favor.

“Putin appears to have set up a new redemption system in which disgraced officials and commanders have a chance at regaining Putin’s favor, provided they publicly plead guilty to their charges and then volunteer to fight in Ukraine,” says Stepanenko.

Popov has denied the charges against him and a military court is yet to green-light the deal between his lawyer and the Defense Ministry.

But he is certainly familiar with Russia’s notorious units of ex-convicts, which played an outsize role in the assault on Bakhmut in 2023, suffering immense casualties in the process.

When in charge of the 58th Army, Popov was affiliated with a battalion of former prisoners known as “Storm Gladiator,” a special assault unit within Storm Z.

It had “hundreds of convicts with prior military experience who received training from former Wagner Group and Chechen ‘Akhmat’ forces,” says Stepanenko. But it suffered significant losses in what became known as “meat grinder assaults,” frontal infantry assaults on well-defended positions. Detachments of Storm Gladiator had a survival rate of 40%, according to some investigations.

As and when he returns to the battlefield, Popov is likely to need all his military prowess to keep his ex-prisoners’ battalion, and himself, alive.

For hundreds of millions of people living in India and Pakistan the early arrival of summer heatwaves has become a terrifying reality that’s testing survivability limits and putting enormous strain on energy supplies, vital crops and livelihoods.

Both countries experience heatwaves during the summer months of May and June, but this year’s heatwave season has arrived sooner than usual and is predicted to last longer too.

Temperatures are expected to climb to dangerous levels in both countries this week.

Parts of Pakistan are likely to experience heat up to 8 degrees Celsius above normal between April 14-18, according to the country’s meteorological department. Maximum temperatures in Balochistan, in country’s southwest, could reach up to 49 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit).

That’s like living in Death Valley – the hottest and driest place in North America – where summer daytime temperatures often climb to similar levels.

Ayoub Khosa, who lives in Balochistan’s Dera Murad Jamali city, said the heatwave had arrived with an “intensity that caught many off guard,” creating severe challenges for its residents.

“This has intensified the impact of the heat, making it harder for people to cope,” he said.

Neighboring India has also been experiencing extreme heat that arrived earlier than usual and its metrological department warned people in parts of the country to brace for an “above-normal number of heatwave days” in April.

Maximum temperatures in capital Delhi, a city of more than 16 million, have already crossed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) at least three times this month – up to 5 degrees above the seasonal average – the meteorological department said.

The searing heat is being faced in several neighboring states too, including Rajasthan in the northwest, where laborers and farmers are struggling to cope and reports of illness are beginning to emerge.

Maximum recorded temperatures in parts of Rajasthan reached 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) on Monday, according to the meteorological department.

Anita Soni, from the women’s group Thar Mahila Sansthan, said the heat is much worse than other years and she is worried about how it will impact children and women in the state.

When the laborers or farmers head out, there is an instant lack of drinking water, people often feel like vomiting, they fall sick, or they feel dizzy, she said.

Farmer Balu Lal said people are already falling sick due to working in it. “We cannot even stand to work in it,” he said. “When I am out, I feel that people would burn due to the heat outside.”

Lal said he worries about his work and how he will earn money for his family. “We have nowhere else to go,” he said.

Testing survivability limits

Experts say the rising temperatures are testing human limits.

Extreme heat has killed tens of thousands of people in India and Pakistan in recent decades and climate experts have warned that by 2050 India will be among the first places where temperatures will cross survivability limits.

Under heatwave conditions, pregnant women and their unborn children are particularly at risk. “There is unexplained pregnancy loss and early babies,” said Neha Mankani, an advisor at the International Confederation of Midwives in Karachi.

“In the summers, 80% of babies are born preterm with respiratory issues because of the weather. We also see an increase in pregnancy induced hypertension, (which could) lead to preeclampsia – the leading cause of maternal mortality.”

India and Pakistan, both countries with glaring disparities in development, are expected to be among the nations worst affected by the climate crisis – with more than 1 billion people predicted to be impacted on the subcontinent.

The cascading effects will be devastating. Likely consequences range from a lack of food and drought to flash floods from melting ice caps, according to Mehrunissa Malik, a climate change and sustainability expert from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Communities without access to cooling measures, adequate housing and those who rely on the elements for their livelihoods will feel the effects much more acutely, said Malik.

“For farmers, the weather is erratic and difficult to predict,” she said. “The main challenge is the fact that temperatures (are) rising at a time when crops aren’t at the stage to be harvested. They start getting ready earlier, yields get lower, and in this dry heat they need more water… If your plants are still young, severe heat causes little chance of them making it.”

Tofiq Pasha, a farmer and environmental activist from Karachi, said summers begin much earlier now.

His home province, Sindh, which, along with Balochistan, has recorded some of the hottest global temperatures in recent years, suffered a major drought during the winter months and the little rainfall has led to water shortages, he said.

“This is going to be a major livelihood issue among farmers,” Pasha said, explaining how temperatures also affect the arrival of pests. “Flowers don’t set, they fall, fruits don’t set, they fall, you have pest attacks, they decimate the crop, sometimes it gets too hot… the cycles are messed. Food production is extremely affected.”

Heatwaves have in the past have increased demand for electricity, leading to coal shortages while leaving millions without power. Trains have been cancelled to conserve energy, and schools have been forced shut, impacting learning.