World Economic Forum Global Risks Report Highlights Weather

Leaders and experts across the globe believe extreme weather events and natural disasters pose the likeliest threats to the world, according to a new report, and the likelihood of their occurrence makes them even more concerning than weapons of mass destruction.

While the World Economic Forum‘s annual Global Risks Report for 2018 found that weapons of mass destruction were ranked as the most impactful threat, they were ranked as less likely to occur than extreme weather events, food and water crises, large-scale involuntary migration, or ecosystem collapse. Other threats that especially concern the roughly 1,000 experts in government, policy and business surveyed include cyberattacks, terrorist attacks and data fraud or theft.

Almost all respondents, 93%, predict that “political or economic confrontations/frictions between major powers” will increase in 2018, and 80% expect “state-on-state military conflict or incursion” and “regional conflicts drawing in major power(s)” to heighten this. https://goo.gl/vxdhTj

Sardinia hit by deadly cyclone and flooding

At least 14 people have been killed after a cyclone, accompanied by heavy rains, tore through the Italian island of Sardinia.

A number of people are believed to be missing after rivers burst their banks, sweeping cars away and causing bridges to collapse.

The worst-hit area appears to be in and around the north-eastern city of Olbia.

Hundreds of people across the Mediterranean island were moved from their homes.

"We're at maximum alert," Giorgio Cicalo, an official from Sardinia's civil protection authority, told Italy's Rai TV.

"We haven't seen a situation as extreme as this, perhaps for decades. Especially because it's been across the whole island."

Sardinian Governor Ugo Cappellacci told Italian TV that Cyclone Cleopatra had claimed the lives of at least 14 people.

A Brazilian family of four died in Arzachena, in the far north-east of the island, the Nuova Sardegna newspaper reported.

Three people died when a road bridge collapsed on to their car near Olbia, according to local media.

In a separate incident, a mother and her daughter were found dead in their car after it was swept away by floods.

Among the victims was a police officer who died after a bridge collapsed.

Olbia Mayor Gianni Giovanelli was quoted by Sky TG24 as saying that the city had been hit by an "apocalyptic"' storm.

Meanwhile Governor Cappellacci told La Stampa newspaper that thousands of people had been affected.

"Unfortunately the situation is tragic," he said.

Cyclones are extremely rare in the Mediterranean.

Some city residents used social media to offer shelter to those forced out of their homes.

The storms also caused extensive damage to farms on the island and disrupted a number of flights to and from mainland Italy. More