Owners of Brad Pitt’s disaster-relief homes built following Hurricane Katrina have tears of joy today after a legal settlement was finally reached

Brad Pitt fronted a campaign following the natural disaster, promising to build a large number of environmentally-sustainable homes at the epicentre of the storm, and then sell them to the flood victims below cost.

The bold concept was met with fanfare from right around the world, with Pitt himself labelling the scheme as “a proof-of-concept for low-income green building”.

However, the properties began to deteriorate almost immediately after the owners moved in.

13-years later, the construction company has agreed to pay over $20 million in compensation to those affected.

Pitt has long denied any responsibility for the failures.

A Saudi Women’s rights campaigner, has been sentenced to 34 years in jail for tweeting

33 year old Salma al-Shehab has been charged with disrupting “public order” and undermining “the safety of the general public and stability of the state.”

According to some reports, she did not make her own tweet, but was following & retweeting accounts critical of Saudi Arabia.

She has been sentenced to 34 years in prison, followed by a 34 year travel ban.

The United States is now studying the case to determine its validity and fairness.

Al-Shehab was a student at Leeds University in the UK, when she was arrested in 2021.

She says she has been subject to solitary confinement and the investigation has kept her from contact with her two young children.

Her sister, an activist as well, says this is a “mockery of the Saudi authorities claims of reforms for women”, adding “they remain hellbent on harshly punishing anyone who expresses their opinions.”

In a fight against the effects of climate change, China has begun cloud seeding

China is seeding clouds in its famous Yangtze River, in an attempt to fight the drought.

Planes have been shooting silver iodide rods into the sky, to trigger more rainfall.

Because of crippling climate change, and record heatwaves, the river had completely dried up in parts.

The Ministry of Water resources says the dry spell in the river is “adversely affecting drinking water security of rural people,” livestock and crops.

The pen-sized rods work by forming ice crystals in existing clouds to produce more rain.

Cloud seeding is a common practice in the country but some experts are concerned about its unnatural impact on the earths atmosphere.