Opening a cannabis dispensary wasn’t always top of the list of Wassaya Iemvijan’s ambitions. The former lawyer, from the Thai capital Bangkok, first turned to the plant as a form of “alternative care” to cope with stress and settle her mind.

“I struggled with depression for many years,” Iemvijan said. “It was weed that helped me… So when it was decriminalized, we decided to set up a shop.”

On June 9, 2022, – two days after Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to decriminalize cannabis. Iemvijan and her husband Nitikrist Attakrist, also a lawyer, registered for a licence to grow and sell the plant.

“We were under a lot of stress as lawyers,” Attakrist said. “We didn’t plan on setting up a cannabis shop but we did and we wanted to teach people how to get the best benefits as well as the responsibilities that come along with it.”

Over the past 12 months Thailand has seen a green rush, with cannabis dispensaries cropping up in cities and towns across the kingdom.

Access to cannabis has long been easy in the country but it was risky.

Northernmost Thailand sits on the notorious Golden Triangle, one of the world’s most successful drug producing regions. But pot was still illegal, with lengthy jail sentences for those who were caught.

But that changed after cannabis was fully decriminalized. Visitors to Bangkok’s famed Khao San Road, or the bougie districts of Thonglor, were just as likely to encounter the waft of weed as they were spicy smells of street food. Cities like Chiang Mai even organized weed festivals.

But all that could soon be about to change.

Little more than a year after cannabis decriminalization, following an election that saw a more conservative coalition government come into power, there are signs Thailand’s laws on cannabis could be rewritten once again.

Newly appointed Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told Bloomberg TV in a recent interview that his government would seek to “rectify” the law on cannabis within the next six months, suggesting that the plant would remain legal only for medical use.

“The problem of drugs has been widespread lately, especially in the northeastern and northern parts of Thailand. And we don’t need another issue added on top of that,” Thavisin said.

“The law will need to be rewritten. It needs to be rectified. We can have that regulated for medical use only,” he added.

It remains unclear exactly where that will leave Iemvijan and Attakrist, as well as countless other cannabis-themed businesses, weed cafes and dispensaries that have opened over the past year.

But things don’t look good.

“Cannabis has helped many Thais – from farmers to small business owners and workers behind the counter, and any U-turn policy will be the worst decision ever,” noted Attakrist.

“We are strongly against any legislation that could hurt the industry.”

What is the law?

Medical marijuana has been legal in Thailand since 2018, but decriminalization in 2022 took things a step further, making it no longer a crime to grow and trade marijuana and hemp products, or to use any parts of the plant to treat illnesses.

Under the 2022 change, cafes and restaurants were allowed to serve cannabis-infused food and drinks – but only if the products contained less than 0.2% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant’s main psychoactive compound.

Smoking weed in public spaces however, remains illegal and harsh penalties remain in place under Thailand’s Public Health Act, including up to three months in jail and an $800 fine for those caught doing so.

In reality, much of weed that is on sale is much stronger than 0.2% THC in a country where adherence to regulations and the letter of the law can be patchy.

Observers say there has been a noticeable increase in public consumption of the plant, encouraged by the ambiguities in the law.

“There hasn’t been a clear divide between smoking medical marijuana and getting high which has contributed to the rise in recreational smoking,” said Ley Singdam, the owner of a weed shop on the popular tourist island of Phuket.

However, Ley, like many business owners, believes the genie is already out of the bottle.

“The government is wrong if it thinks changing the drug act will stop people from ‘using,’” Ley said.

Businesses to take a hit

But while a crackdown on recreational use, which the government says it is planning, might not stop people from using cannabis, it is still very likely to hit small businesses hard, said Attakrist.

He believes it is ultimately the Thai government that is to blame for the current predicament. Most cannabis dispensaries like his he says, have been responsible and diligent from the start in checking buyers’ IDs and educating customers about cannabis rules.

“Cannabis has fewer negative effects as compared to alcohol and cigarettes but we still make it a point to remind customers about official rules in Thailand,” Attakrist said. “The government should have been better prepared from the start. They were sloppy.”

“They created this legal vacuum and right now they are trying to push the burden to the business owners and cannabis communities.”

“The industry has supported and created a lot of jobs for Thais especially in rural areas,” said Bangkok-based cannabis entrepreneur Kitty Chopaka, adding that she knew of “many parents who were able to send their children to better schools.”

“At the end of the day, the people have to have a say in this. I don’t think any other law in Thailand’s history is as big as this,” Chopaka added.

“We’re talking about an industry that is both medical and recreational, one rooted in Thai tradition and culture that affects livelihoods and will greatly affect the future.”

Michael Zaytsev, a New York-based cannabis business consultant and academic director at LIM College’s cannabis bachelor’s degree program, said that “prioritizing medical marijuana while outlawing adult use was a common starting point for governments, but it would restrict the potential growth of the industry.

“Thousands of cafes, stores, and other cannabis businesses have sprouted and hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent by tourists in a short amount of time,” Zaytsev said.

“Regulatory risk can pose significant and even existential threats to cannabis industries and navigating this complex, high risk and high reward industry is not easy,” he said.

“The challenge is to find a balance between regulation and support.”

A step back?

Thailand is an outlier in Asia, where most countries have strict drug laws. Some countries like Singapore and Indonesia even carry out death sentences against those convicted of trafficking, possession or consumption.

Until recently, harsh penalties were the case in Thailand too, noted Gloria Lai, regional Asia director of the International Drug Policy Consortium, who believes that restricting cannabis to medical purposes only will do more harm than good.

Zaytsev of LIM college added: “Prohibition simply does not work.”

“I sincerely hope Thailand does not go in the direction of Singapore for example, where people are executed for trafficking cannabis… a relatively safe plant that is consumed all over the world by people of all ages and backgrounds,” he said.

How Srettha Thavisin and his coalition government plan to go about changing the law hasn’t been made clear.

While his Pheu Thai party had vowed to roll back the 2022 legislation as part of its campaigning ahead of the general election, it now finds itself in a coalition with the Bhumjaithai Party, led by health minister Anutin Charnvirakul who actively lobbied for decriminalization.

The party has been against reclassifying cannabis as a drug. It has however, vowed to seek tighter monitoring of the industry.

But experts said pushing cannabis businesses back underground, making it harder to police, would likely result in more people getting into trouble with the law – as well as returning the trade from tax-paying businesses to the kind of organized crime cartels that flood Thailand and neighboring countries with huge amounts of methamphetamine and other illegal drugs.

“If criminal penalties like prison sentences are re-introduced… it could lead to people being arrested and forcefully tested for drugs and given criminal records again,” Lai said.

“The Thai government should instead be gathering and presenting data so that decisions made are based on evidence.”

For now, despite the uncertainty, business has been good, Iemvijan said.

The debate comes just as the quality of domestically produced cannabis in the country was improving, she added.

“The quality of Thai cannabis has gotten better and better. It is much cleaner and safer now than in the past,” Iemvijan said.

“The situation in Thailand is complicated… but most small businesses like ours are not opposed to new rules if they are within reasonable frameworks and easy to comply with,” she added.

One man is dead and another in hospital after a boat reportedly struck by a whale capsized in waters off Sydney, Australia, early Saturday morning local time.

Police responded to reports that two people were in the water just outside the headland past Botany Bay around 6 a.m. local time, said New South Wales Water Police Acting Superintendent Siobhan Munro.

“When police arrived, the two male persons from a vessel were rescued,” Munro said, adding that one of them had “been confirmed as deceased.”

“Early reports are that a whale may have breached near the boat or onto the boat,” she said.

The vessel has been recovered and will undergo forensic testing, Munro added.

The incident occurred on the first day of National Safe Boating Week in Australia, which runs from September 30 to October 6. A key focus of the initiative by Australia & New Zealand Safe Boating Education Group is lifejackets.

“It’s a stark reminder about the boating season and how dangerous it can be on our waterways,” Munro said.

She also ensured that police “will be out there on the waterways, including rivers dams, conducting compliance checks, drug and alcohol testing, and all the things that we do to make sure that the community is safe.”

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has warned about an increased number of whales around Australian waters this year and has advised swimmers and boaters to stay 100 meters away from a whale and 300 meters from a whale with a calf, according to Channel 7.

The French government has vowed action to “reassure and protect” the public as its capital Paris reports a “widespread” rise in bedbugs.

French Transport Minister Clement Beaune said Friday he would “bring together transport operators next week” to “undertake further action” to “reassure and protect” the public from the reported surge in the numbers of the blood-sucking insect.

The announcement comes as calls for government action from Paris officials and trade unions mount after several videos of bedbugs spotted in public transport and other locations such as cinemas have surfaced on social media.

Speaking to French TV station LCI on Friday, deputy mayor of Paris Emmanuel Gregoire called the phenomenon “widespread.”

“You have to understand that in reality no one is safe, obviously there are risk factors but in reality, you can catch bedbugs anywhere and bring them home,” he said.

Three years ago, the French government launched an anti-bedbug campaign, which includes a dedicated website and an information hotline, as numbers of the insect surged.

But Gregoire said that despite that plan, “there are 3.6 million people who come into Paris every day, and bedbugs do not stop on the outskirts of the city.”

An expert from France’s national health and sanitary body, Anses, said the problem was “an emerging phenomenon in France and almost everywhere in the world.”

She added there was an “escalation” in numbers because bedbugs were increasingly resistant to insecticides.

“We are observing more and more bedbug populations which are resistant, so there is no miracle treatment to get rid of them,” Fite said.

However, the Paris deputy mayor warned against “hysteria” over the issue, noting there had been an “increase in Parisians who are referring to the town hall’s information services for information on bedbugs”.

“Professional companies which intervene in residential areas are telling us that currently the proportion of interventions for bedbugs is atypical compared to normal and is increasing rapidly,” he said.

The news comes as Paris gets ready to host the 2024 Olympics Games, but officials say they are not worried.

“There is no threat to the Olympic Games,” Gregoire said.

“Bedbugs existed before and they will exist afterward,” he added, saying the games were an “opportunity” for everybody to work together on the issue.

A group of Ukrainian soldiers moves swiftly through a front-line training ground, overcoming obstacles and firing at distant targets. They are fine-tuning their battle skills here as Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces rages just few miles to the south.

One fighter, Danilo, who is only being identified by his first name for security reasons, stands out. He is fast and accurate, but his movements are different.

Another glance reveals the reason for his slight limp – he has a prosthetic limb where his lower right leg used to be.

Danilo lost his lower right leg early in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. He and his unit were on a mission when they came under fire and he stepped on a landmine.

His maiming, and similar injuries to many others, both soldiers and civilians, are just one of the many consequences of Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Moscow’s forces have littered an estimated 170,000 square kilometers (65,637 square miles) of the Ukrainian countryside with landmines – an area the size of Florida – a large portion of them along the southern front, in a bid to halt Kyiv’s counteroffensive. International think tank GLOBSEC found Ukraine to be the most mined country in the world in a report published in April.

As Ukrainian troops grind forward, these hidden explosives are one of the major perils they must navigate, with potentially drastic consequences.

“When we had contact (with the Russian forces), I had to move away from the trail,” Danilo said. “I blew up on the mine… We kept firing, my guys finished the job and evacuated me.”

“There was no leg. And the other leg was broken,” he said, recalling those adrenaline-fueled moments. “I was afraid they would cut off the second leg too. It’s a miracle they didn’t.”

Eight grueling months of rehabilitation followed.

“It was a very, very long recovery. I lost a lot of blood, it was a heavy amputation, heavy bone fracture,” he recalled.

The first part of his recuperation recovery took place was done in Ukraine, but two months later, Danilo and his wife moved to Mexico, where with the help of the Ukrainian diaspora he was able to get a prosthetic limb fitted, as well as psychological support.

“It was hard as my other leg was also injured. I couldn’t step on it for eight months,” he explained. “There were some difficulties at first, but the competent doctors put me back on my feet.”

Injuries ‘worse now’

Vlad, also only identified by his first name, is a Ukrainian combat medic whose unit is always on standby. When a call comes, his group heads straight to the front line to extract the wounded.

Vlad says his job is no less dangerous because of his status as a medic.

“There’s a lot of shelling directed at us,” he said. “Despite us having red crosses on our vehicles the Russians ignore the Geneva Convention. It makes sense – if you kill the medics, many soldiers won’t receive first aid.”

The risks do not discourage Vlad from making his way to the front. Time, he says, is essential in treating injuries such as Danilo’s if the patient is to make a good recovery.

“It depends on how fast medical aid was provided and we provide it fast,” Vlad said.

“Most of the areas are mined. And to advance further we use engineering vehicles and sappers. Most of the those injured by mines in the last few months are sappers,” he added.

“The injuries are worse now than they were six months ago. We have much more work now.”

Kyiv has not publicly acknowledged it is taking more casualties in recent months.

‘Victory or death’

Following his recuperation in Mexico, Danilo is back in the battle, supporting Ukrainian forces as they advance in the south. He joined Ukraine’s counteroffensive shortly after arriving back in the country at the end of July.

“I got back into service two days after returning to Zaporizhzhia. For a month I was an instructor. Then I asked for a transfer to the front,” he said.

“Now I’m the main sergeant in a fire support unit. I’m in charge of mortar, grenade launcher and anti-tank squads,” he explained. “The platoon commander and I choose the right positions, targets, plan the operations.”

His injuries do not slow him down, he swears. “If I wasn’t efficient, I wouldn’t be here, they would send me to an HQ to do paperwork.”

Though quick to return to the front line, Danilo says he hates war and combat. “I don’t like to see my brothers wounded or killed,” he added.

But despite that, and the trauma he’s experienced, he says there’s no way he could have just stayed at home and watched.

“In a country under attack, every man has to stand up from the couch and defend his home,” he said. “I have to do it and I’m good at it. We need people with my experience.

“We don’t have a choice… The counteroffensive can’t fail,” Danilo continued. “We are defending our home. It’s victory or death for us.”

Slovaks are voting in a parliamentary election on Saturday, a knife-edge vote that could radically reshape Slovakia’s approach to Ukraine and create deep rifts within NATO and the European Union.

The frontrunner, former Prime Minister Robert Fico, has made no secret of his affinity for the Kremlin during the election campaign. He has criticized the West for supporting Ukraine and adopted a strong anti-US message, even accusing Slovakia’s President Zuzana Čaputová of being an “American agent.” He has said that if elected, he would stop sending weapons to Ukraine and block Ukraine’s NATO ambitions.

Fico’s left-wing populist SMER party has been leading for months, although opinion polls published earlier this week showed SMER neck-and-neck with the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party.

The liberal PS party, led by the EU Parliament Vice-President Michal Šimečka, is pushing for a completely different future for Slovakia – one that includes a continued strong support for Kyiv and strong links with the West.

Experts said that misinformation and Russian propaganda have become prominent during the election campaign, with social media companies criticized for not doing enough to stop it.

“Slovakia has been chosen (by Russia) as the country where there is fertile soil for success of the Russian pro-Kremlin, pro-war narratives,” Věra Jourová, the European Commission’s top digital affairs official, told a news conference Tuesday.

She said the election was a “test case” on the power of social media and misinformation. “The approach to Russian war in Ukraine is a divisive line (in the election),” she said.

Coalition likely

While either of the two parties could end up winning the election, according to the polls, neither is likely to secure a majority that would allow them to form a government on their own.

With as many as nine parties potentially reaching the 5% threshold needed to enter the parliament, coalition negotiations will almost certainly include multiple players and could be long and messy. It is also far from certain that the leader of the biggest party will become the prime minister.

Hlas, a party that was formed as an offshoot of SMER following an internal dispute between Fico loyalists and the-then Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, was polling third in the last and could turn out to be the kingmaker.

Pellegrini became prime minister in 2018 after Fico resigned following weeks of protests in the wake of the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiance Martina Kušnírová.

But opinion polls suggest that neither Fico nor Šimečka are likely to have enough seats to form a government with just Hlas and will have to bring in more coalition parties.

Fico has also not ruled out working with Republika, an extremist far-right party which claims that the war in Ukraine is a consequence of NATO’s “expansion toward Russia” and Kyiv’s “aggression towards the Russian minority in eastern Ukraine.”

PS, meanwhile, is most likely to court the Christian democratic KDH party, the liberal Freedom and Solidarity Party or a coalition grouping formed around the center-right Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) party. OLaNO won the last election in 2020, but its government collapsed following a series of scandals and infighting.

PS said in its manifesto that Ukraine deserves all the “humanitarian, financial, diplomatic and military help it needs to succeed against the Russian aggression.”

‘Not another round of ammunition’ for Ukraine

Fico is a proven vote winner, a populist with a strong voter base. He has won parliamentary elections three times in the past, including in 2012 when he secured an absolute majority – the first and only time any party has managed that since the 1989 revolution.

His potential return to power could have serious consequences for the region. Slovakia is a member of both NATO and the European Union and has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies. It was among the handful of European countries pushing for tough EU sanctions against Russia and has donated a large amount of military equipment to Ukraine.

But this would likely change under Fico, who has blamed “Ukrainian Nazis and fascists” for provoking Russia’s President Vladimir Putin into launching the invasion, repeating the false narrative Putin has used to justify his invasion.

Fico has called on the Slovak government to stop supplying weapons to Kyiv, and said that if he were to become prime minister, Slovakia would “not send another round of ammunition.” He is also opposed to Ukraine joining NATO.

While in opposition, Fico has also become a close ally of Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban, especially when it comes to criticism of the European Union. If Fico wins, he and Orban could gang up together and create obstacles for Brussels. If Poland’s governing Law and Justice party manages to win a third term in Polish parliamentary elections next month, this bloc of EU troublemakers could become even stronger.

The United Nations is to send a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh this weekend, its first access to the breakaway region in about 30 years, amid reports that more than 80% of the population have been displaced.

The announcement follows Azerbaijan’s lightening victory over the territory, marking the end of long years of fighting.

Concerns over the future of the region – internationally seen as part of Azerbaijan though under the control of separatists for decades – and its residents linger despite a ceasefire brokered by Russia.

By Saturday morning local time, more than 100,000 people had left Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, the Armenian prime minister’s spokeswoman, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, told reporters.

That accounts for more than 80% of the estimated population of 120,000 people in the enclave.

Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said during a press briefing on Friday that the mission’s visit had been agreed by Azerbaijan and would go ahead over the weekend.

“We haven’t had access there in about 30 years. So it’s very important that we will be able to get in,” he said.

“While there, the team will seek to assess the situation on the ground and identify the humanitarian needs for both people remaining and the people that are on the move,” the spokesperson added.

Fears of ‘punitive actions’

Armenian authorities have responded to the outflux of people by asking the International Court of Justice, a judicial arm of the UN, to tell Azerbaijan to withdraw its troops – citing fears of “punitive actions.”

They requested the court order Azerbaijan to “withdraw all military and law-enforcement personnel from all civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh,” while refraining from “taking any actions directly or indirectly” that would have the effect of displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians or preventing those who fled from returning.

Azerbaijan should also allow people to leave the region “without any hindrance” if they wanted to, the Armenian authorities demanded.

Armenia also asked the court to direct Azerbaijan to grant the UN and the Red Cross access to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan should “refrain from taking punitive actions against the current or former political representatives or military personnel of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Armenian authorities said.

Commanders detained

The appeal comes as Azerbaijani state media reported Friday that the security services in the country had detained two former commanders of the self-proclaimed “Republic of Artsakh’s” military.

Loven Mnatsakanyan and Davit Manukyan were intercepted while attempting to cross from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia via the Lachin Corridor, the one road connecting the landlocked enclave to Armenia.

Mnatsakanyan, who reportedly served as defense minister from 2015 to 2018, was arrested Friday and taken to the Azebaijani capital of Baku, according to state media. He was accused of illegally entering its territory.

Manukyan, who reportedly served as the former deputy commander of Nagorno-Karbakh’s armed forces, was detained Wednesday, Azerbaijani state media reported.

He was accused of engaging in terrorism, setting up illegal armed groups, illegal possession of a firearm, and illegally entering Azerbaijan, though no evidence was presented to support the claims.

The announcement of the arrests came after the indictment of prominent Nagorno-Karabakh politician and businessman Ruben Vardanyan on multiple charges in Azerbaijan Thursday after being detained while trying to cross into Armenia the day before, according to state media citing the Azerbaijani State Security Service.

A former Minister of State of the self-proclaimed republic, Vardanyan is accused of financing terrorism, participating in the creation and activities of illegal armed groups, and illegally crossing Azerbaijani borders, according to state media. Azerbaijan has not presented evidence to support its claims.

On Thursday, local politician David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, the president of the self-styled “Republic of Artsakh,” wrote on Telegram that he would hand himself over to Azerbaijan.

“My failure to appear, or worse, my escape, will cause serious harm to our long-suffering nation, to many people, and I, as an honest person, hard worker, patriot and Christian, cannot allow this,” Babayan wrote.

Four occupied regions of Ukraine will be included for the first time in a new round of Russian military conscriptions this fall, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Friday.

Autumn conscription will begin from October 1 in all parts of the Russian Federation, according to the ministry, including in the illegally annexed regions of Ukraine.

Putin announced the annexation of the four areas – Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – last September, following so-called referendums in the regions that were universally dismissed as “shams” by Ukraine and Western nations. Russia had previously annexed Crimea in 2014.

In some regions of Russia’s Far North, the conscription will begin on November 1 due to the climate differences, Rear Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, Deputy Chief of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said during a briefing.

“The autumn conscription will take place from October 1 in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The exception is certain regions of the Far North and certain areas equated to regions of the Far North, where citizens living in these territories are conscripted for military service from November 1 to December 31. This is primarily due to the climatic characteristics of these territories,” Tsimlyansky said.

The departure of conscripts from collection points is scheduled to begin on October 16, he said. “The term of conscription military service, as before, will be 12 months,” Tsimlyansky said.

“Military personnel undergoing military service upon conscription will not be sent to the points of deployment of units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the new regions of the Russian Federation: Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions or to participate there in carrying out the tasks of a special military operation,” he said, using Russia’s euphemistic term for its war in Ukraine.

Conscription for military service in what Moscow describes as Russia’s new regions is regulated by a so-called constitutional law on admission to the Russian Federation, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

According to the law, the autumn 2023 conscription round will include the newly annexed territories for the first time. There was no conscription for military service last year and in the spring of 2023 in these regions, according to TASS.

While regular conscriptions will be carried out, Russia has no plans for further mobilizations, Tsimlyansky said. “I’d like to stress that the General Staff (of Russia’s Armed Forces) has no plans for a further mobilization,” he said.

Conscriptions in Russia happen twice per year. Last fall’s conscription began a month later than usual due to bottlenecks at conscription offices amid a partial mobilization, according to TASS.

The full harvest moon shined in the early morning hours of September 29, also marking the fourth and final supermoon of 2023.

September’s full moon reached peak illumination around 5:58 a.m. ET Friday, but it is expected to appear entirely illuminated through Saturday morning, according to NASA.

Definitions of a supermoon can vary, but the term generally denotes a full moon that is closer to Earth than normal and thus appears larger and brighter in the night sky. The moon is 224,854 miles (361,867 kilometers) away from Earth, about 14,046 miles (22,604 kilometers) closer than its average distance. The closest supermoon of the year occurred on August 30, when the moon was just 221,954 miles (357,200 kilometers) away from Earth.

September’s full moon was expected to appear about 5% bigger and 13% brighter than the average full moon, according to NASA.

Some astronomers say the phenomenon occurs when the moon is within 90% of perigee — its closest approach to Earth in orbit.

The name harvest moon is a nod to the season of gathering because the event occurs close to the beginning of fall, or the autumnal equinox, which fell this year on September 23. Typically, this time of year is when many crops peak in the Northern Hemisphere, and the bright moon once helped farmers work into the evening to harvest their bounty ahead of the first frost, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Other monikers for September’s full moon across different indigenous tribes include the corn maker moon from the Abenaki tribe, the moon of the brown leaves from the Lakota people and autumn moon from the Passamaquoddy tribe.

Other harvest-celebrating traditions around this time include the Korean festival of Chuseok and the Japanese Buddhist holiday of Higan, both of which also celebrate the remembrance of ancestors, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

Many people associate the harvest moon with being orange in color as it begins to rise, but the same could be said of all full moons. The hue is due to the thickness of Earth’s atmosphere near the horizon, which is greater than when the full moon is overhead, according to EarthSky.

Several planets are also currently visible in the night sky, according to The Planetary Society. Gold-tinged Saturn and bright Jupiter rise in the east and appear high in the later hours, while Venus (one of the brightest objects visible in the night sky) shines before dawn. Meanwhile, Mercury dances low along the eastern horizon before dawn.

Full moons and supermoons

Here are the full moons remaining in 2023, according to the Farmers’ Almanac:

● October 28: Hunter’s moon

● November 27: Beaver moon

● December 26: Cold moon

Lunar and solar eclipses

People across North, Central and South America will be able to see an annular solar eclipse on October 14. During the event, also called the “Ring of Fire,” the moon will pass between the sun and Earth at or near its farthest point from Earth. The moon will appear smaller than the sun and encircled by a glowing halo.

To avoid damage to the eyes while looking at the phenomenon, viewers should wear eclipse glasses.

A partial lunar eclipse will also take place on October 28. Only part of the moon will pass into shadow as the sun, Earth and moon will not completely align. This partial eclipse will be viewable in Europe, Asia, Australia, parts of North America and much of South Africa.

Meteor showers

Each of the remaining meteor showers expected to peak this year will be most visible from late evening until dawn in areas without light pollution. Here are the events’ peak dates:

● Draconids: October 8

● Orionids: October 20-21

● Southern Taurids: November 4-5

● Northern Taurids: November 11-12

● Leonids: November 17-18

● Geminids: December 13-14

● Ursids: December 21-22

Almost five months since Arab states extended an olive branch to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, there are signs that some key architects of the initiative may be growing skeptical about his commitment to the agreement.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi this week said that trafficking of the addictive amphetamine Captagon from Syria to Jordan has only increased after normalization talks that led to Assad’s return to the Arab League in May.

Syria was kicked out of the Arab League in 2011, following a brutal crackdown by the regime on opposition forces that sought to unseat Assad.

Jordan was one of the biggest proponents of its rehabilitation, being one of the main victims of Syria’s drug trade, but it feels now that the regime is either unwilling or unable to clamp down on the trade.

“Jordan is fighting on the border to make sure drugs do not get into the country,” the king was cited as saying last week by Al-Monitor. “Bashar (al-Assad) does not want a conflict with Jordan… I don’t know if he is fully in control.”

One of the key demands Arab states made of Syria in exchange for rehabilitation is that Assad help crackdown on trade in Captagon. The vast majority of its global supply in the $57 billion Captagon industry is believed to come from Syria, with neighboring countries and the Gulf region being its primary destination.

The trade has turned Syria into a narco-state that has allowed the Assad regime to replenish its coffers after years of war and sanctions and given it enormous leverage over its neighbors, and has been partly responsible for bringing them to the negotiating table with Assad.

In another possible sign of Arab disgruntlement with Assad, the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported this month that the Arab ministerial committee tasked with overseeing Syria-Arab normalization froze its meetings with Damascus due to a lack of response to the roadmap drawn up to normalize Arab-Syrian ties.

Emile Hokayem, director of regional security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London said it’s no surprise that Syria’s reintegration efforts hit a wall.

In an interview with Sky News Arabia last month, the Syrian leader appeared confident and suggested that he was in no hurry to reconcile with neighbors until they changed. He blamed the lack of progress on normalization with Arab nations on the incompetence of Arab politics. Arabs, he said, are good at “optics” but not “implementation.”

Drug trafficking worsens with war, Assad said, and so the responsibility of the Captagon problem in Syria falls on the “countries that contributed to the chaos in Syria, and not the Syrian state.” He added that it was Syria, and not its Arab neighbors, that proposed to resolve the drug crisis as it is “mutually beneficial” to do so.

Experts have said that the process for Syria’s rehabilitation has been flawed.

“The problem is that there isn’t actually a mechanism for accountability in terms of the normalization initiative,” said HA Hellyer, scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Booming Captagon trade

The Captagon trade is booming, Jordan says, with traffickers using increasingly advanced technology to smuggle the amphetamine out of Syria and into neighboring countries.

“The Syrians promised to work on that challenge with us, but the situation on the ground continues to be extremely challenging,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said. “We see an increase in the number of operations and accordingly, we’re doing what we have to do.”

Safadi described the Captagon trade as a “highly organized operation,” where drug traffickers “have access to very advanced technology” including drones and night vision. For every two or three busts, Safadi said, another two or three make it through the border.

Jordan, which shares a 378-kilometer-long border with Syria, sees instability with its neighbor as detrimental to its own national security.

Gulf states and Jordan routinely report drug busts, with massive amounts of the drug found in everything from building panels to baklava shipments.

This month, the United Arab Emirates said it foiled an attempt to smuggle 13 tons of Captagon – worth more than $1 billion – hidden in a shipment of doors and decorative building panels. Jordan’s armed forces routinely shoot down drones flying in from Syria and carrying amphetamines.

Experts say that both ends of the Arab-Syria normalization pact are failing to meet each other’s expectations. Assad may not have found a powerful enough incentive to give up his lucrative drug trade. And what he wants may prove difficult to deliver.

“What Assad always wanted was not something that the Arab states could or would offer: unconditioned political support, massive financial assistance, as well as Arab pressure to lift Western sanctions,” Hokayem said.

Arab states may now find themselves backed into a corner.

“Their margin of maneuver is limited,” Hokayem said. “Direct, straightforward coercion is off the table, and several countries don’t care enough to spend effort and political capital on Syria,” he said, adding that Assad’s stubborn politics may even lead “some countries to simply cave.”

Suicide bombings ripped through two religious ceremonies in Pakistan Friday, killing at least 56 people and injuring dozens more as worshipers celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, according to police and local officials.

Hours later, a separate blast took place during Friday prayers at a mosque near Peshaway City in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least four people and injuring 11. The explosion caused the roof of the mosque to collapse, but it was not clear how many people remained inside.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for either of the explosions, which struck during a restive period in Pakistan, as it has weathered a surge of militant attacks in the buildup to general elections being held in January.

The first blast, in Mastung, occurred around midday local time. A video shared by a local resident showed dozens of people gathering to mark the birth of the Prophet Mohammad, before a large explosion tore through the procession.

The critically injured were transferred to hospitals in the regional capital of Quetta, while others were treated at the local hospital in Mastung, he said.

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar strongly condemned the blast.

“The Prime Minister expressed his condolences to the families of those who died in the blast,” a statement from his office said. “Prime Minister’s prayers for forgiveness for the deceased and patience for the families.”

The shockwaves from the blast have been felt far from Mastung. Police in Karachi – some 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the site of the first explosion – were put on “high alert” in the wake of the attack, a statement from the inspector general said.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area, has witnessed a spate of attacks in recent months, fueled by a decades-long insurgency by separatists who demand independence from the country, angered by what they say is the state’s monopoly and exploitation of the region’s mineral resources.

Last month, an attack on Chinese engineers in Balochistan was thwarted by Pakistan’s military, leaving two militants dead and the Chinese workers unharmed, according to police.

In March this year, at least nine police officers were killed and 11 others injured in a suspected suicide blast.

The second blast, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, occurred just hours later. Local police said two men on bikes had started shooting at their officers outside the Hangu mosque, before targeting the building with explosives.

The US ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome, condemned the deadly blasts Friday. “The Pakistani people deserve to gather and celebrate their faith without the fear of terror attacks like the ones today in Balochistan and KP,” Blome said in a statement posted by the US embassy on X, formerly known as Twitter.