Hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray face starvation after suspension of relief agencies – report
The suspension of two major international relief organisations in Ethiopia could further worsen the humanitarian situation in Tigray, where an aid blockade is still effectively in place, even as conflict spreads into neighbouring regions and hundreds of thousands of people face famine. The blockade, and a cash crunch caused by...
US universities lose billions in revenue, strain financially as foreign students stay away
The Biden administration is hoping to attract tens of thousands of international students who stayed away from US campuses during the coronavirus pandemic. Foreign enrolment plummeted by 20 per cent last year costing nearly $10 billion in lost revenue. Though some students are starting to return, recovery might not be...
You’ll still see me around, Eliud Kipchoge assures athletics world as he wins Tokyo Olympics marathon gold
Moments after romping home to take the Tokyo Olympic Games marathon gold, Kenyan’s marathon king Eliud Kipchoge assured the athletics world that “You will see me around.” For a high-achieving man who took the world by storm with the mantra “No human is limited,” the words implied he was not...
Why menopause crisis and sex discrimination have become serious labour warfronts in the UK
Growing numbers of women are taking their employers to court citing the menopause as proof of unfair dismissal and direct sex discrimination, researchers have said. According to the latest UK data, there were five employment tribunals referencing the claimant’s menopause in 2018, six in 2019 and 16 in 2020. There...
Report: G7 Financial Action Task Force idea promotes intolerance in weak democracies
Maja Stojanovic, director of Serbian non-profit Civic Initiatives, which was named in the letter, told Reuters she believes the government is using the data for smear campaigns to undermine NGOs’ work. A report on Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established by the G7 group of advanced economies to protect the...
Rohingya refugees dread ‘government of the night’ run by rival criminal gangs
Before she fled Myanmar as a refugee, Rozina had worked for an NGO for seven years. Now, fear has gradually taken hold of her every evening, when the sun sets and the last aid worker jeep has rumbled out of the vast refugee camps. The refugees’ security, especially, is considered...
Rohingya crisis: Outspoken women are abused, intimidated for being educated
A climate of fear has spread across Bangladesh’s sprawling Rohingya camps as militant groups and criminal gangs compete for control, refugees and humanitarians warn. Community leaders and female Rohingya in particular are threatened and intimidated for being educated or outspoken about women’s rights, stretching conservative norms to a level of...
Ethiopian army accused of mass killings, bodies washed downstream Tigray rivers into Sudan
Ethiopia’s nine-month-old war in Tigray is spilling across regional boundaries to new parts of the country, triggering growing fears of starvation and atrocities as fresh reports emerge of another possible massacre. Tigrayan forces have advanced deeper into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions in recent days, passing through the outskirts...
Biden terms social media public enemies that kill people, subvert democracy and invade privacy
The federal government’s campaign to reform internet platforms dramatically escalated this week. The Surgeon General cited disinformation as a public health menace. The White House press secretary called on Facebook to remove 12 accounts that may be responsible for as much as 65 per cent of the Covid disinformation on...
Unplayed Kenyan derby in 100 years turns searchlight on deep-seated rot in country’s football
The graft-infested Federation Kenya Football has worked itself into an intractable strait after its president Nick Mwendwa slapped hefty punishments on the East African nation’s most successful clubs – AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia – for boycotting a league match to protest non-settlement or delayed payment of prize money. Hours...
