Bird’s code: Just as with humans, songbirds have dialects that’re learned and passed down generations
In our quest to find what makes humans unique, we often compare ourselves with our closest relatives: the great apes. But when it comes to understanding the quintessentially human capacity for language, scientists are finding that the most tantalising clues lay farther afield. An explosion of research is finding that...
How Uganda’s despised ‘mini-Musevenis’ are the ‘eyes and ears’ that sustain ruling clique in power
Kampala, Uganda – When Ugandans next head to the polls in 2026, President Yoweri Museveni will have been at the helm for exactly 40 years. In the capital Kampala, renewed talk of a political transition is a now trending. For years, there have even been multiple reports about a succession...
South Sudan crisis: Kiir remains deeply suspicious of his deputy, even refusing to allow him to leave the country
In April, President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Vice President Riek Machar re-committed to the peace deal they signed in 2018 that ended five years of civil war. For that deal to work, efforts must be speeded up to unify the country’s security forces. Unfortunately, the political dynamics that stalled security...
Technology: Double-edged knife that’s depriving workers of rights, pumping pork to others
Rarely has such a robust labour market been so thoroughly scoured for signs of impending doom. Many workers landed their dream situation in the exceptionally tight labour market, which gave them uncommon leverage to gain flexibility, seniority and higher wages. Unemployment remains just above the half-century low reached in early...
Waves of near-daily inter-ethnic killings in South Sudan threaten 2018 truce and planned elections
An explosion of violence in South Sudan is raising fears that the country’s fragile peace agreement will unravel before elections the international community hopes can be held next year. The wave of near-daily killings across this East African country is often blamed on marauding militias whose attacks threaten the 2018...
Kenyan sexist bullies running short of ammo as number of women seeking elective seats soar
Wavinya Ndeti has defied bullying, attempts to discredit her academic achievements and xenophobic slurs over her marriage to emerge as a front-runner for the powerful post of governor of a key county in Kenya’s forthcoming general election. The 54-year old mother of four says she has had to “toughen up”...
Rejected and shunned by top teams in Europe, Ronaldo’s manic ego is becoming an eyesore of the beautiful game
Despite Will Ford’s willingness to piggy-back him to Saudi Arabia, Cristiano Ronaldo won’t be taking up the offer of nearly a quarter of a billion quid to spend two years in Western Asia. So what now? Ronaldo has asked to leave Manchester United but, most likely to his surprise, there...
How destitute Venezuelan migrants fall in hands of criminal gangs and abusive employers when they arrive in Brazil
Roughly 7,000 Indigenous Warao people have migrated to Brazil from Venezuela, often arrive malnourished and destitute. Language is major hurdle as the migrants have limited knowledge of Spanish, let alone Portuguese. Last year, in neighbouring Guyana also International Organization for Migration (IOM) and NGOs, the initiative was set up to...
Why Venezuelan migrants have become an economic and humanitarian nightmare for South America
After travelling more than 3,000 kilometres from Venezuela, most migrants arrive in the northern border region of Tumbes, Peru, often malnourished and with urgent medical needs, according to aid groups at the border. Due to recent restrictions on entry into Peru, most now use clandestine border crossings, where they are...
Recidivism in US: Retrial detention encourages suspects to commit – rather than prevent – crimes after release
Charles Loeffler, a criminologist at the University of Pennsylvania and Daniel Nagin, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University, who co-authored 2022 Annual Review have revealed that specific situation where incarceration was consistently linked to an increased likelihood of committing a crime in the future: pretrial detention. This is when people...
