Aided racism: Workers say equality in humanitarian agencies doesn’t go beyond colourful rhetoric
Several aid agencies have reported taking action to improve diversity, equity and inclusion since last year’s renewed push for racial justice, but aid workers say they haven’t felt the effects, according to two questionnaires circulated by The New Humanitarian. The questionnaires assessed changes made within aid agencies since the Black...
British government, scientists made ‘fatalistic’ decisions that led to many Covid deaths – parliament
The British government and scientists made a fatalistic decision by backing a strategy that amounted to “herd immunity” in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, costing many thousands of lives in “one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”, a parliamentary inquiry has...
Electric cars: Consumers main worry about losing power or being unable to recharge on a long trip
Driving range is important for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Most consumers buy cars on the basis of reach because they worry about losing power or being unable to recharge on a long trip. Yet, most car journeys are short – to the shops or school. In the United...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Should the world use number of children a woman has at 50 years to foretell population growth?
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) team has done its study on population growth quite differently. Instead of basing its model on fertility rates, and how they would change, the group used a variable called completed cohort fertility at 50 years (CC50). This counts the number of children...
Demographers say Covid will slow down fertility in richer nations, fertility surge in poor countries
Predictions of population in both the near and long-term future typically come down to estimates of how quickly fertility will change. And that means demographers have to make some educated guesses about how people will behave as their circumstances alter. In high-income countries, these behavioural changes are usually driven by...
