America’s sky-high rate of incarceration has not reined in crime, evidence now shows prison raises likelihood of breaking law

America’s sky-high rate of incarceration has not reined in crime, evidence now shows prison raises likelihood of breaking law

In the spring of 1968, with crime rising at alarming rates across the United States of America, Republican candidate for president Richard Nixon gave a speech in New York City outlining his solutions for America’s lawlessness. “A society that is lenient and permissive for criminals,” he said, “is a society...

Read more
Nowhere left to turn: Hit hard by Covid, South American countries no longer welcome Venezuelan migrants

Nowhere left to turn: Hit hard by Covid, South American countries no longer welcome Venezuelan migrants

The vast majority of the six million Venezuelans who have escaped poverty, insecurity, and economic collapse in their homeland since 2015 have tried to start new lives in South America. But two years after Covid-19 led governments to close borders and enforce quarantines, many are discovering that the region is...

Read more

America will never forsake you, President Biden assures Arab leaders as he ends Middle East tour

President Joe Biden laid out his vision for the United States’ role in the Middle East at a summit in Saudi Arabia with Gulf state leaders on Saturday, the final day of his four-day trip through the region. The vision includes increasing regional food security, addressing the effect of the...

Read more
‘We’re joined at the hip’, Kenya and Somalia presidents say as they rejig turbulent diplomatic ties

‘We’re joined at the hip’, Kenya and Somalia presidents say as they rejig turbulent diplomatic ties

Somalia’s newly-elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has recommitted to peaceful co-existence with neighbouring Kenya, telling his host, President Uhuru Kenyatta, that the two countries were joined at the hip, hence the need to put behind them recent diplomatic turbulence. During Friday meeting in Nairobi, which may as well be the...

Read more
In some parts of Myanmar teachers and students regularly hide in the forest for days to attend school

In some parts of Myanmar teachers and students regularly hide in the forest for days to attend school

The Myanmar military has since last May retaliated against rising armed resistance in Karenni state with airstrikes and artillery fire, repeatedly targeting civilians and their homes and at times bombing displacement camps. More than 170,000 people, or half of the state’s population, are now internally displaced, according to civil society...

Read more
How Myanmar children are defying bombs to attend schools run by striking civil servants and volunteers

How Myanmar children are defying bombs to attend schools run by striking civil servants and volunteers

When Biak* walked into a classroom on June 1, the first day of Myanmar’s school year, it bore no resemblance to the one he had last set foot in more than two years prior, when he was in fourth grade. Then, he wore a green-and-white uniform and sat at a...

Read more
Man United’s Marcus Rashford tells American basketball icon LeBron racism is rife in English football

Man United’s Marcus Rashford tells American basketball icon LeBron racism is rife in English football

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford believes England stars would not have received abuse after the Euro 2020 final if three white players missed penalties against Italy last summer. Rashford was targeted by trolls with vile racist messages on social media after he failed with his spot kick at Wembley Stadium,...

Read more
Kenya’s online warriors: Why protesters are mobilising on social media, trigger-happy police are helpless

Kenya’s online warriors: Why protesters are mobilising on social media, trigger-happy police are helpless

When 1,700 Kenyans took to the streets of Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa last week, they had one main demand of the government: to bring down the skyrocketing cost of living. Commemorating Saba Saba Day (Seven-Seven in Swahili, when protesters on July 7, 1990 called for democracy under President Daniel arap...

Read more
South Africa’s fractured ruling party ANC has created room for social media to stoke fear

South Africa’s fractured ruling party ANC has created room for social media to stoke fear

Last July South Africa was hit by a wave of devastating violence that left over 350 people dead and caused massive economic damage. Different people have used different terms to describe what happened: civil unrest, looting, food riots, uprising, rebellion or counter-revolution. Even government ministers were initially divided about what...

Read more
Too young to kill: New UN report singles out African countries for recruitment of child soldiers  

Too young to kill: New UN report singles out African countries for recruitment of child soldiers  

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia are the two African countries singled out by a United Nations (UN) report on children and armed conflict where there is “devastating impact” on the younger generation. Dangers outlined in the annual report on children and armed conflict range from conflict escalation,...

Read more