Discovering planets is now routine: From 1992, over 5200 have been found and 9,000 pending confirmation
Over 300 years ago, the German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued that ours was the best of all possible worlds. The word “world” comes from Old English, originally meaning Earth, and later extending to the physical world in the broadest sense, or the universe. Leibniz was trying to address the...
Financing violent extremism: How terror groups in Africa prey on local businesses to deliver brutal justice
Moustapha was running out of hope. The Nigerien man had a family to feed but little means to do so. Like scores of people around the continent, he was persuaded to join and fight for a violent extremist organisation. “I joined because I felt frustrated with the conditions of everyday...
Risking democracy: Power-sharing may soon become Kenya’s default mode after every election
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga and his coalition party, Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya called for mass protests across the country on March 20, marking the beginning of violent expression of disconcert with the government failure or inability to rein in high cost and galloping inflation. Odinga and his team have...
New report says stable South Sudan depends on ‘breaking the grip of impunity’ by authorities
The latest report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan details how perpetrators of the most serious crimes – including widespread attacks against civilians and extrajudicial killings – go unpunished, with senior government officials and military implicated in serious violations. “Over several years, our findings have consistently...
Man United sale in limbo after Bank of England flagged Qatari bankers for possible financial fiddling
The Manchester United ownership saga took a huge twist as it emerged there is serious government concern about Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani. Nearly five months after United was put on the market, bidders remain in the dark over whether the Glazers really want to sell the club....
Why health experts in US want physical exercise dropped from long Covid recovery regimen
Patients and patient advocates are calling on the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to reconsider its decision to include exercise trials in its RECOVER initiative, which aims to study and find treatments for long Covid. They argue that a large proportion of people with long Covid have reported experiencing...
Diverse culture of people who lived along East African coast point to strong bias in ancestry for African women
One thousand years ago, East Africa’s Swahili coast was a key node in a trade network that linked merchants from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, propelled by the monsoon winds. Out of this melting pot emerged hints of a new culture, as prosperous ‘stone towns’, with mosques and...
In countries where men migrate abroad for jobs, parents view them as ideal matches for their daughters
In several of the countries The New Humanitarian reported from – including among Adivasi Indigenous communities in southern Rajasthan, India – parents often view men who have migrated as favourable matches for their daughters. Many Adivasi men go to work in the Indian state of Gujarat. “My father met my...
Reporters’ diary: Walking in steps of women who stay when husbands migrate in search of livelihoods
Most of the time, to write about migration means telling the stories of people who move: those forced from their homes by natural disasters, conflict, violence or the effects of climate change, or so fed up with limited economic opportunities, corruption and bad governance that the faint glint of possibility...
