James' World 2

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On November 10, 2023, Kristín Jónsdóttir, head of the Icelandic Meteorological Office’s department of volcano research, was having a rare day off. “It was my 50th birthday,” she said. Then everything began to shake. She would spend the day staring at her phone, watching the earthquakes bloom across maps of Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula.

The peninsula experiences fissure eruptions, where the ground splits open and lava pours out. Since late October, attention had been focused on the peninsula’s Svartsengi region — home to the popular Blue Lagoon spa, a geothermal power plant, and the coastal town of Grindavík. The peninsula’s last three fissure eruptions had flooded isolated valleys with fire. Now, though, the town was under threat.

The maelstrom of temblors on November 10 revealed that a buried magmatic river had snaked its way toward Grindavík and its 3,600 inhabitants. More distressingly, a dike — a vertical magma body akin to a curtain of liquid fire — had fountained up from that subterranean river, stopping just shy of the surface.

Quickly, the authorities evacuated the town. And then everyone waited.

On December 18, a volcanic fissure cleaved the ground to the town’s northeast and painted the wintry soil with molten rock. The intense eruption lasted a few days and stayed outside Grindavík.

Then at 3 a.m. on January 14, the few residents who had returned to their homes were awakened by klaxons and text messages telling them to flee. Another eruption had invaded the town. By the time it ended 60 or so hours later, several houses had been engulfed, but no one had died.

Grindavík’s residents owe their lives to proactive local authorities, emergency managers, and the study of Earth’s interior. Scientists had been tracking the movement of magma by decoding seismic waves and distortions in the planet’s crust. By mapping the peninsula’s volcanic plumbing, they’re building a better understanding of how volcanism works in general, while also aiming to provide even more precise local forecasts in the future.

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A 3-kilometer-long fissure opened up and sent a river of lava flowing over a road in southwest Iceland on February 8, 2024 — right on schedule. Hilmar Bragi Bárðarson

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Another replacement: ‘Oh my gosh’, rather than ‘Oh my G-D’!

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Swearing is awfully good fun, and in some ways, it’s even good for you. However, it’s not always proper in the presence of polite company, and as we all know, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. So if you’re trying to cut back on cussing, here are a few tactics you can try.

1. Ask a friend for help.

We’re often blind to our own bad habits, so you may want to enlist a friend, spouse, or family member to hold you accountable. Any time you let a curse word fly, have them point it out to you. They could clap, call out a code word, or make a sound any time you utter a profanity. The more you start to recognize your patterns of speech, the easier it will be to change them.

2. Find some replacement words.

Consider this a fun challenge to boost your vocabulary. Sure, you could say “fudge” or “frick” instead of the other f-word, but you don’t have to limit your speech to such unimaginative niceties. Try on some of these old-fashioned swears for size, like “Well, dad-sizzle it,” “What in thunderation,” and “Great horn spoon!” You’ll sound like Ron Burgundy from Anchorman and might even get a few laughs in the process. Plus, the more ridiculous you sound, the more incentive you’ll have for nixing your need to swear altogether.

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After a 15-month bad patch, business is finally on the up for Zambian car dealer Dingani Banda.

The 29-year-old, who imports used cars from Japan to sell in the capital, Lusaka, has seen his monthly sales jump by 50% over the past year, largely due to a strengthening of the country’s kwacha currency.

Banda said that had been a godsend for him and other businesses in the southern African nation that rely on imported supplies, and had boosted sales.

“The fluctuating kwacha in the last few years was a nightmare, and so to be able to enjoy its stability and appreciation in recent months has been relieving,” Banda told Context.

“We have had an increase in clients being able to afford purchasing vehicles now because of the appreciated value of the currency.”

President Hakainde Hichilema, dubbed “calculator boy” for his background in finance, has been credited with ushering in such economic improvements since taking office in August 2021.

Hichilema has swiftly moved to renegotiate the country’s defaulted debt, put a lid on brisk inflation – bucking the global trend – and signed a $1.3-billion three-year loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But while financial markets have celebrated such steps, many poor Zambians say they have yet to see the benefits, and some fear the IMF deal will mean austerity measures in a nation where about half of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

Tax justice and anti-poverty campaigners said the agreement had already led to the abrupt removal of fuel and electricity subsidies, leaving the poorest Zambians vulnerable to higher prices linked to the war in Ukraine.

“This program is based on the traditional IMF austerity package – but delivered on steroids,” said Nalucha Nganga Ziba, a social justice advocate and former head of the charity Action Aid Zambia.

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Yvonne Mwansa (R) and her daughter Mirriam Mwansa pose for a picture at their kiosk in Ng’ombe, Lusaka. October 21, 2022. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Zanji Sinkala

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