Spain calls for urgent global intervention to shield Africa from severe impact of climate crisis
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called on global leaders to prioritise solutions to the climate change crisis threatening food security in African countries and the effects on the continent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During an official visit to South Africa, Sanchez met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa...
UN peacekeepers: Why are the missions coming up against stiff resistance in Africa?
In the past few months, two United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in Africa have encountered violent protests from the local populations they’re meant to protect. Protesters in Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) demanded the immediate withdrawal of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of...
Bolsonaro red card: As human rights activists, we cannot vote for someone who supports torture of Brazilians
Eight years after Brazil dropped off of the World Food Programme’s Hunger Map, food insecurity is again becoming a problem. A post-pandemic survey conducted by the Brazilian Research Network on Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security shows that 58.7 per cent of Brazilians are facing some level of hunger. People...
Brazil poll: Indigenous neglect, hunger and police violence to determine if hated Bolsonaro retains power
As she waited her turn to vote earlier this month, Gleyniane Trajano couldn’t help but smile. Aged 17, it was the first time she had ever voted in a national election, where citizens are eligible to cast ballots as young as 16 and obligated to do so from 18. Trajano...
Revelations: US Africom runs a network of drone bases integral to American assassination programmes in Africa
I had begun requesting information in May 2012, so called in additional questions in June and July, and then (as requested) put them in writing. I followed up on the July 9, mentioning my looming deadline and was told that Africom headquarters might have some answers for me on the...
Against backdrop of Russia’s Wagner Group’s atrocities in Africa, same concerns are also being raised over US Africom
What’s the US military doing in Africa? It’s an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, straitjacketed in secrecy and hogtied by red tape. Or at least it would be if it were up to the Pentagon. Ten years ago, I embarked on a quest to answer that question at TomDispatch, chronicling...
Age reprogramming milestones achieved so far raise more questions than offer solutions in medical research
All the unknowns in epigenetic rejuvenation are part of what makes the reprogramming phenomenon so attractive. Richard Klausner, the organiser and chief scientist of Altos Labs, a new research company, admits that the details of why reprogramming works remain a “complete mystery,” but that too helps explain the sudden rush...
Why without conceptual clarity, the fuzziness in social sciences can drive a news reporter to despair
US millennials are rejecting suburbia and moving back to the city. That was a prevailing idea in 2019, when I started as the social sciences reporter at Science News. But when I began digging into a possible story on the phenomenon, I encountered an incoherent mess. Some research showed that...
Rising violence in internally displaced persons camps in DR Congo’s North Kivu province alarms UN
An upsurge in violence in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu has seen at least 30 people wounded with an estimated 23,000 Congolese people displaced Senior United Nations (UN) spokesman Stephane Dujarric said during a media briefing at UN headquarters in New York this week. The increased levels of...
Social media companies in Ethiopia told to rein in hate mongers during peace talks in South Africa
With talks under way in South Africa to end the two-year Tigray civil war in Ethiopia, there are calls for social media platforms to control hate speech that could stir tempers between the two warring parties. Since the beginning of hostilities in November 2020, social media, mostly Twitter, has become...
