Alannah Travers

The real impact of politics? At today's Free Yezidi Foundation and Sinjar Academy event in Khanke, family members and officials mourned for the lives destroyed by the Yazidi genocide, eight years ago. Down the hill, 20,000 survivors live in sweltering tents, still; just one camp housing the hundreds of thousands of displaced. For them, life goes on.

Some images and a Baghdad rooftop report for TRT World, on yesterday's chaotic events in the green zone... Until about 30 mins before we went live I had been inside the stormed parliament (mainly trying to hide from rowdy men), but security forces finally cracked down and we were forced to leave the building along with hundreds of Sadrist supporters.

A seven-ish month update.

Eight hundred metres away from one of the largest oil wells in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Ali Hassan can’t sleep - the oil flares lighting up the sky outside his window keep him bed bound. A nasty smell is spreading through Khabat, on the road to Mosul, as the flaring intensifies, and some residents are struggling to breathe.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - After five years of scouting, planning, and collaborating, the final leg of the two-week Zagros Mountain Trail (ZMT) thru-hike was completed earlier this month by an intrepid team including the legendary co-founders of the path Leon McCarron, an Irish explorer and writer, and Lawin Mohammad, a Kurd from northeast Syria (Rojava) with an equal thirst for adventure. The success of the route, which its advocates hope could one day be on-par with world-class hikes such as the Camino de Santiago, Appalachian and Jordan trails, rests with the local community. Constructed through conversations and built on partnerships, the trail is for them and through them, and a treat for visitors to the Region fortunate enough to set foot on the cross-cultural journey.

A few shots from the final leg of the thru-hike of the groundbreaking 220 km long-distance hiking trail in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq...

Eid, Umm Kulthum, Sheikh Zayed

I'm on from 50 mins, dialling in from Iraq to shed some light on the drought, linked to the heating climate, dams in other countries + general poor water management. I also discuss what local environmental activists are up to, and why British investors are looking at getting gas from Iraq to the UK, while scientists say we should be moving away from fossil fuels.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior adviser at the Iraqi water resources ministry warned on Thursday that the country’s water reserves have decreased by half since last year, due to a combination of drought, lack of rainfall and declining river levels, as officials continue to caution a deeply concerning environmental and humanitarian situation in Iraq.

Wonderful to have my amazing mother visit over the Easter weekend, to see the Kurdistan Region through her eyes, and to introduce her to the people and places I love.