
NAIROBI, Kenya, September 1 (IPS) – Open a can of something fizzy and the reason the sugar doesn’t separate immediately is gum arabic, tapped by hand from acacia trees across the Sahel. Spray on perfume and the reason the scent is still there at dinner is frankincense, a resin cut from Boswellia trees on the dry escarpments of the Horn of Africa. The fat that gives a chocolate bar its snap may well be shea, gathered and pressed by women in the parkland belt of West Africa. The cashmere jumper came from goats that can only be raised on cold, dry rangelands.

The UAE’s Great Leap: Building the City of the Future
‘This is not about politics. This is about people’: UN warns of impact of deadly drone strikes in Sudan
World News in Brief: Children killed in Myanmar strike, new violence flares in Mozambique, an Internet affordability milestone
Married off at 14: In Yemen’s war, women and girls suffer ‘devastating consequences’
U.S. Strikes Iranian Targets Along Strait of Hormuz Ahead of Midterm Elections as Diplomatic Talks Stall
Pacific Scientists Build a Regional Picture of a Changing Ocean
Earwax’s surprisingly slippery but sticky properties deters insects
Food contains thousands of overlooked chemicals. This physicist is mapping them