At Wisley Garden in Surrey, among the copper, crimson and violet leaves that have turned the landscape into a living tapestry, one tree stands strangely bare. A silver birch, its slender white trunk rising against the autumn backdrop, has already lost every last leaf. Where there should be a burst of sunny yellow, there is only empty branch and pale bark. Guy Barter, the chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society, explains this quietly: “The birch has lost all its leaves. That’s the effect of drought, so it’ll have no autumn colour this year.” After the hottest summer on record,…

The specter of voter indifference and the poisonous spread of digital misinformation have long haunted Nigeria’s electoral landscape. As the nation looks toward the 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recognized that the greatest threat to democracy is not always violence or fraud—but the quiet resignation of citizens who believe their vote does not matter. Armed with a voter register that now eclipses 103 million registered citizens, INEC has embarked on an ambitious and multi-pronged campaign to reawaken civic duty and restore faith in the electoral process. The commission’s Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser, Adedayo…