Forever war: US pledge of $15 billion to Ukraine, $8 trillion spent in Iraq keeps war industry on the roll
Ukraine is obviously a powder keg. With each passing day, in fact, the war there poses new threats to the world order. Only recently, Vladimir Putin’s Russia intensified its attacks on civilian targets in that beleaguered land, while threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons and adding Ukraine’s neighbour Belarus to...
A modern customer is tricky and too impatient, so shrewd businesses owners tap them and flow with them
The rise of the internet and information technology have greatly contributed to revolutionising customer experience from what we knew of it in the past. Today’s customer is quite different. He is in control of when, where and how they want to interact with a brand and brands don’t have many...
How Middle East uses earnings from oil exports to buyers choking in carbon emissions to invest in clean energy
The world’s green spotlight is tilting towards the Middle East as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) prepare to host the next two major world summits on climate change. Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh resort will be the site of the next United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27),...
Reprogramming age: Soon, it’ll be normal to get prescription for medicine that reverses your age by 10 years
A little over 15 years ago, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan made a remarkable discovery. When they added just four proteins to a skin cell and waited about two weeks, some of the cells underwent an unexpected and astounding transformation: they became young again. They turned into stem cells...
Why are Black women not on the upper deck of the tech industry in the United Kingdom?
Up to 20,000 black women are “missing” from the tech industry in the UK, according to a joint report by campaigners and a representative body. The report says the proportion of black women in IT is two-and-a-half times smaller than that of the UK workforce as a whole. Campaigning group...
Opportunity gain: With a wiki you can get you can fix any problem in record time, at low cost
Seeing someone’s face while talking with them is nice, and all, but the best part about a video phone call is that I can see whether the person I’m talking with is checking their email during the call instead of paying attention to our conversation. Oh, admit it, we all...
Bringing a knife to a gunfight: How tech-inspired wikis created an ‘organic’ global village, plus satellites
In early December last year, I attended a conference called the Programme for the Future in honour of Doug Engelbart – best known as the inventor of the computer mouse, but more accurately described as a champion of technology and tools that increase our collective intelligence. Years in the corporate...
How after centuries of systemic imperialism British institutions are grappling with purging racism from science, research
In February, the nineteenth-century naturalist Thomas Henry Huxley, escaped – in the eyes of some – from ‘cancellation’ at one of London’s most prestigious academic institutions. Huxley, a prominent advocate of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, promoted the racist view that Black people had inferior capabilities compared with white people....
Nigerian youths look for a political messiah to end police crimes, but presidential candidates won’t discuss reforms
Two years ago, Nigerian youths were taking to the streets in huge demonstrations against police brutality, triggered by the repeated deaths of young men at the hands of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) – a notoriously brutal and lawless unit. What became known as #EndSARS was groundbreaking, reverberating throughout southern...
Food situation in South Sudan’s worsened by topography and government’s weak capacity to respond
Seasonal flooding is normal in South Sudan as its topography funnels in water from neighbouring countries, but the scale of the issue since 2019 has no recent precedent. Experts say it is linked to climate change and the government’s weak capacity to respond. The flooding has disrupted household production and...
