Nobel-winning ‘natural’ tests: People who study for longer periods might have underlying drives
The ‘natural experiments’ approach to economics that won three researchers the 2021 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences has helped to make the field more robust, say economists. Joshua Angrist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Guido Imbens at Stanford University in California and David Card at...
US President Biden meets Kenya’s President Kenyatta as conflicts in Horn of Africa set to persist
President Joe Biden is set to hold his first one-on-one, in-person talks as president with an African leader on Thursday, hosting Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as war and a humanitarian crisis roil neighbouring Ethiopia, according to the White House. The meeting takes place two days after the United Nations International...
Detained for ‘terrorism’, released Congo journalist now to face ‘culpable abstention’ probe
A journalist arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last month for possessing a video showing the assassination of two UN sanctions monitors in 2017 was granted provisional release on Tuesday pending further investigation, his lawyer said. Sosthene Kambidi, who works for Congolese news site Actualite.cd and at times...
Somalia maritime dispute: Kenya reduced to a sitting duck as all five neighbours claim its territory
Kenya is paying a heavy price for its weak, ambiguous and even non-existent foreign policy, that has seen chunks of its territory “annexed” or claimed by all its neighbours, experts say. Tuesday ruling by the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) that could alter the maritime border between Kenya...
No end in sight to conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region as rebels reject negotiations
Ethiopia’s national army’s offensive launched on Monday has focused on rebel positions in Amhara, where government officials say half a million people have been uprooted in recent months. Aid agencies were already struggling to reach parts of the region, particularly those under rebel occupation. Although rebels said their forces are...
International Court of Justice rules in favour of Somalia over contested maritime land with Kenya
The United Nations’ top court has awarded Somalia control of most of a potentially oil- and gas-rich chunk of the Indian Ocean after a bitter legal battle with neighbouring Kenya over their sea border. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Tuesday (October 12) that there was “no agreed...
Ethiopia launches fresh attacks against Tigray rebels as malnutrition and starvation kill dozens
Ethiopia’s government has launched a new offensive against rebel forces from the blockaded Tigray region, where malnutrition and starvation deaths are rising while UN officials coordinating the humanitarian response have been deported from the country. Major air and ground operations against rebel positions in the neighbouring Amhara region reportedly commenced...
‘Democracy’ and Dictatorship: Choice between accepting people’s will and facing a violent revolution
‘________________________________________ Written: December 23, 1918 First Published: January 3, 1919 in Pravda No. 2 Source: Lenin Collected Works, Volume 28 (p. 368-72) Transcription\Markup: Brian Baggins Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000 ________________________________________ A few numbers of the Berlin Red Banner and the Vienna Call (Weckruf) , organ of the...
Dignity therapy: Why dying patients crave dignity, not ‘rest in eternal peace’ when it’s all over
In the mid-1990s, psychiatrist Harvey Max Chochinov and his colleagues were researching depression and anxiety in patients approaching the end of their lives when they became curious about this question: Why do some dying people wish for death and contemplate suicide while others, burdened with similar symptoms, experience serenity and...
Afghanistan’s aid-dependent economy strains under donor funding freezes, currency shortages
Hunger is rising in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and the clearest sign may be who’s now struggling to afford food: the educated, urban, and middle-class. Weeks after the Taliban’s mid-August takeover, Afghanistan’s aid-dependent economy is straining under donor funding freezes and currency shortages. Food and commodity prices are soaring, work and income...