‘Hell is coming’: How Ugandan soldiers arrest and detain Karimojong herders, extort money and kill civilians
e than 300 men sat in a sunbaked sports field here in Moroto – shoeless, shirtless and surrounded by soldiers. Some were builders from a construction site, others staff from a tourist hotel. Ten were community health workers who had come to town for a training session with an international...
New medical study recommends switching from ordinary sugars to raw honey for healthy hearts
Consider replacing the sugar you consume with honey, says a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto. For people on a healthy diet in which no more than 10 per cent of daily calories come from sugar, honey actually provides cardiometabolic benefits. The study is a review and...
Racism in academia: Foreign PhD students wish supervisors could be made to account for their bias
Anecdotally, Black scholars in United Kingdom universities told UK Royal Society researchers that they were the only Black people in their department or institution and sometimes in their field. Kevin Lala, an evolutionary biologist at the University of St Andrew’s, UK, says that those who are members of under-represented groups...
Report: Forget talk of equality in education and workplace, racism is as rife as ever in academia
Science is often portrayed as a meritocracy in which one’s ideas and abilities matter more than anything else. But Nature’s 2022 survey of PhD and master’s students points to an unpleasant reality: those who identify as members of minority ethnic groups face a greater share of discrimination and indignities than...
Caste India: Dalit Christians complain relief for Untouchables and Brahmins in care centres is caste-based
In Narsinghpatana, India, a village in the Puri district of Odisha, Bijoy and fellow Dalit families managed to enter the cyclone relief shelter after they were stopped by neighbours from the dominant caste. They “allowed us to enter the shelter on the condition that we would stay in a specific...
Caste curse: How untouchable Dalits need Hindus mercy before they can access humanitarian relief
When devastating floods hit India’s western state of Kerala in 2018, Seena’s family had nowhere to go. After water submerged their home, Seena, her parents and her brother walked three kilometres to the nearest relief centre at a temple, only to be told they weren’t allowed to enter. In 2019,...
Blue economy: African countries with dense coastal populations projected to lose up to $87 billion
African countries where large proportions of the population live on the coast – such as Senegal (41 per cent), Benin (35 per cent) and Liberia (29 per cent) – face the highest risk oof being submerged by sea level rise. Without adaptation, damages from sea level rise and extreme sea...
Study: Mombasa, Dar es Salaam among Africa’s booming coastal cities to be underwater as sea levels rise
Rising ocean levels threaten dozens of Africa’s rapidly expanding coastal metropolises, resulting in shrinking land area, coastal flooding, more powerful storm surges and the need for better mitigation. African coastlines have experienced a steady rise in sea levels for four decades. At the current pace, sea levels are projected to...
UNEP landmark decision to create legally binding treaty will cut plastic pollution once ratified
Plastic is one of the fastest growing materials and production is on course to double to more than one billion tonnes a year by 2050. With that, will come more pollution. This week, delegates from more than 150 countries are expected to meet in Uruguay to begin negotiations for a...
With highest number of remandees awaiting trial, Nigeria’s criminal justice system is in itself ‘criminal’
Nigeria’s prison population is more than 76,000, housed in 240 correctional centres. About 70 per cent of these inmates are still awaiting trial. They have been arrested and charged, but not yet convicted or cleared. This is the highest percentage of awaiting-trial prisoners in Africa. World Prison Brief’s latest report...
