New studies pour cold water on existence of potentially livable lakes under Mars
Maybe hold off on that Martian ice fishing trip. Two new studies splash cold water on the idea that potentially habitable lakes of liquid water exist deep under the Red Planet’s southern polar ice cap. The possibility of a lake roughly 20 kilometres across was first raised in 2018, when...
Pro-democracy violence deepens economic crisis in Africa’s absolute monarchy
The pro-democracy demonstrations and deadly violence that erupted in Eswatini last month and continued into July have deepened the southern African nation’s economic and humanitarian crisis, but without forcing any reform of the royal establishment. The people of Eswatini have never lived under a democratic system of government. King Mswati...
Historians making permanent digital copies of every document of United Nations predecessor
Rising populism, fake news, and the ending of a global pandemic – the international challenges of almost 100 years ago uncannily echo the present, a unique archival project in Geneva reveals. Archivists and historians are making a permanent digital copy of almost every document, letter, memo, photo and map from...
China: Farming having become more mechanised, ecotourism inspires people to live in villages
Terry Townshend, a wildlife conservationist and biodiversity adviser to Beijing’s government, has since 2017 been training yak herders in Qinghai in the kinds of skills that ecologists hope could be a model for sustainable development. In 2016, he met the official responsible for Zaduo, a county in Qinghai Province where...
Asylum seekers: Ignored by international community, we’re left with the only option – to cross the sea
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says people released from Zintan refugee detention centre in Libya were given emergency cash assistance and other support from UN partners, including cash cards that can be used at over 4,000 shops in Tripoli, but did not specify when the support was provided....
Donors question UN aid in Tigray, which ‘appears to put rocket fuel into the agency engines’
A series of donor letters that question how international support in conflict-weary Tigray, Ethiopia, is managed lay the blame more squarely on UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which they accuse of having failed to ensure the presence of experienced, senior staff members in the camps and transit sites. The...
Q&A: Humanitarian crises have triggered increased South-South migration
South-South migration basically means migration movement between and among developing countries. If you take West Africa, migration movement within West Africa or even between West Africa and Asia, or between West Africa and Latin America would constitute South-South migration. It has not really been discussed in the mainstream literature for...
South-South migration is often overlooked and South-North given prominence, why?
Why do dominant media and political narratives about migration tend to focus on the relatively small number of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants attempting to reach the Global North irregularly and overlook the important role of South-South migration in development, inequality, and humanitarian crises? Because narratives about migration are dominated...
Media: Unionisation protects editorial independence, draws clear line between sponsored content and news
Successful unionisation campaigns among journalists in the US have seen record numbers of media workers win new rights in newsrooms across the industry over recent. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) congratulates US unions on the wave of new union agreements won and the formation of dozens of new workplace...
Sun sets on scientist who despised use of biology to justify racist ideology on IQ
Richard Lewontin was a ground-breaking geneticist, best known for bringing molecular tools into evolutionary biology and for his advocacy against the use of science to rationalise structural inequity. Lewontin and his collaborators revealed how natural selection acts to shape variation, exploring its effect on genes, groups and individuals. Moving between...
