Human rights: Denmark strips Syrian refugees of residency permits, orders them to return home
Denmark is the first European country to tell large numbers of Syrian refugees to go home. While it hasn’t begun deportations, nearly 400 Syrians from in and around the capital, Damascus, have been stripped of their residency permits and the right to work since 2019. Few of those affected have...
African giraffe populations grow reversing ‘a silent extinction’ of the gorgeous species in the wild
Giraffe numbers have increased across Africa, new research shows, a rare spot of good news in the conservation world. According to a recent analysis of survey data from across the African continent, the total giraffe population is now around 117,000, approximately 20 per cent higher than it was thought to...
There is growing volume of data that shows Covid vaccines safely protect pregnant women
Covid-19 can strike hard and fast – especially when you are pregnant. Alison Cahill, a specialist in maternal-foetal medicine at the Dell Medical School in Austin, Texas, vividly remembers a patient from the first wave of the pandemic who was 26 weeks pregnant and woke up one morning with a...
Technology: British takes Internet blimps to Zanzibar in a fragile market where Google flopped, pulled out
The Tanzanian islands of Zanzibar and Pemba are about to become a test site for a mobile internet network its creators hope will not just revolutionise lives there, but possibly across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Only around 20 per cent of Tanzanians use the internet, according to the World Bank....
US federal agencies consider creation of integrity council to shield science from political meddling after Trump missteps
US federal agencies need to strengthen the policies that protect science used in government decision-making. They should also create a scientific-integrity council spanning many agencies, to help address political meddling by government officials. Those are some of the top conclusions of a long-awaited report from a taskforce convened by US...
Human rights: The minute the word gender enters dialogue, some regions get up and leave conference room
Since the beginning of the war in Tigray in November last year, more than 1,300 incidents of rape have been reported, while many argue that more cases went unreported due to societal stigma surrounding the topic. A high number of cases of gender-based violence including gang-rape and other atrocities were...
NASA’s outer space engineering wonder flawlessly unfurls its mirrors, sunshield to formally become a telescope
After several tense days of unfurling and clicking its various parts into place, the biggest and most sophisticated space telescope ever launched is now complete. On January 8, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope slowly swung the last three of its 18 hexagonal mirror segments into position, locking them together into...
By 2080, millions of species will need to migrate to new regions, even new continents to survive
There are laws of nature that relate to the ways in which we, as humans, behave. As laws of human behaviour, they are both narrower and messier than the broader laws of biology; they are as much tendencies as laws. Yet they are tendencies repeated across times and cultures, tendencies...
The dangers of the future: Nature is an afterthought in our contemplation of what comes next
When we humans imagine the future, it is common to picture ourselves nested within an ecosystem populated by robots, devices and virtual realities. The future is shining and technological. The future is digital, ones and zeros, electricity and invisible connections. The dangers of the future – automation and artificial intelligence...
Prevailing uncertainty in South Sudan makes it difficult to resettle millions of returning refugees, IDPs
Political divides are at the root of the displacement of the Shilluk and must be resolved before sustainable and equitable returns can take place. Yet, if returns are to occur – in the run-up to next year’s polls – various electoral processes will likely lead to violent contestations over administrative...
