This sick joke of Qatar World Cup born out of corruption and stadiums were built by modern-day slaves
Dear President and Secretary-General, The FIFA World Cup in Qatar is now just around the corner and excitement about the world’s premier football festival should be building globally as we count down the days to kick-off in Doha on Sunday, November 20. I would like to commend you both on...
Why without conceptual clarity, the fuzziness in social sciences can drive a news reporter to despair
US millennials are rejecting suburbia and moving back to the city. That was a prevailing idea in 2019, when I started as the social sciences reporter at Science News. But when I began digging into a possible story on the phenomenon, I encountered an incoherent mess. Some research showed that...
Why Liz Truss’s 44-day stint as UK premier has been branded a ‘globalist coup’ in financial markets
The shortest-serving prime minister in British history. She went after days of absolute mayhem at Westminster. Everywhere people are lining up to say that this represents some kind of democratic collapse. And everywhere, those people are wrong. At worst we see the conspiracy theorists of the right branding this a...
Uproot cobwebs: Women consultants should bear in mind that when you focus on struggle, you grow it
Women consultants, I want to share a piece of advice I often share with my clients. The subject of the advice is: What I focus on expands. And it is in the mind – the longer it dwells in the mind, it becomes etched into it and also deeply rooted...
We should abandon the illusion that politicians will come to the rescue of planet Earth
We are living in a state of emergency: the climate, ecological and sustainability crisis is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. For too long, we have ignored the effects, and now we are living through the consequences. Twenty of the 21 hottest years since records began in 1850 have...
US midterms: Why are pollsters getting the stick after years of seeming to hold elections trump card?
It’s said to be wrong to kick a person when he or she is down. If Monday’s New York Times/Siena poll were a person, it’s been stomped so severely that a compassionate observer would step in to stop the fight. But even though the poll that launched a thousand headlines...
Tigray insurgency: Neither Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders nor Tigrayans accept principles of compromise
The conflict in Ethiopia ‘s Tigray looks set to drag on for a long time with the international community and regional bodies seemingly out of their depth to work put peace between the actors in insurgency that has already claimed thousands of lives. The African Union attempts to bring the...
How on October 10 Russia rained bombs on Ukrainian capital Kyiv, but its stoic residents defied Judgement Day
In the past, when you found yourself being interviewed on a rooftop in some benighted, war-torn place, a news presenter in London would always ask you, “What’s the mood in the streets?” They seem to have given that up now, fortunately, although it’s a perfectly valid question. It’s just that,...
Given the great peril posed by Russia in Ukraine, it’s time the world pushed for nuclear abolition
As the world faces an unprecedented level of nuclear threat following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all countries must heed the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and join the movement to ban their use. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons have only escalated over the course of the...
Why aid industry has to review its Somalia strategy: Beyond funding, it’s to relook at how the system works
Famine once again threatens Somalia. In the rush to respond, we risk missing a bigger lesson – the need to reform an aid system that prioritises short-term relief over protecting people’s livelihoods and restoring their dignity. Right now, more than seven million people are going hungry, with over 365,000 children...
