The assisted dying debate has been about safety not sanctity – here’s why I think the bill passed the test: KieferPix/Shutterstock British MPs’ approval of the assisted dying bill made history – and revealed a rare kind of parliamentary debate. While the bill must still pass through the House of Lords, it is now widely …
Kenya’s brutal police have been exposed again – why the system fails people: The recent killing in Kenya of a young man in police detention highlights a string of systemic failures to hold the country’s security officers accountable for their actions. Despite public outrage and protests, Kenyan police officers continue to use inhumane, brutal and …
Malaria scorecard: battles have been won and advances made, but the war isn’t over: Sub-Saharan Africa continues to bear the brunt of malaria cases in the world. In this region 11 countries account for two-thirds of the global burden. World Malaria Day is marked on 25 April. What progress has been made against the disease, …
Dinosaur tracks, made 140 million years ago, have been found for the first time in South Africa’s Western Cape: Guy Plint examines one of the dinosaur tracks, which is above his head. Annemarie Plint, CC BY-NC-ND Dinosaurs have captured people’s imagination ever since their bones and teeth were first scientifically described in 1822 by geologist …
Africa’s elephants have been in dramatic decline for 50 years. What can be done to save them – new study: Surveying elephants is hard, risky work. Dedicated biologists have been doing this challenging task across Africa for decades. Systematic surveying started in the late 1960s but has been sporadic, as access to remote areas takes …
‘There has never been a more dangerous time to take drugs’: the rising global threat of nitazenes and synthetic opioids: US Drug Enforcement Administration images accompanying a warning about the emergence of nitazenes in Washington DC, June 2022 USDEA In the early hours of September 14 2021, three men parked in a quiet car park …
9 million Ethiopian children have been forced out of school: what the government must do: More than nine million Ethiopian children are currently out of school. They are caught in the crossfire of armed conflicts, natural disasters, tribal tensions and economic hardships. In 2023, Ethiopia had a total school-aged population of 35,444,482 children, about 52% …
Jean-Marie Le Pen died knowing his extremist far-right politics have been successfully mainstreamed in France: The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of the party once known as the National Front, occurs at a time when the mainstreaming of far-right politics in France seems almost complete. Le Pen was, for most of his career, …
Notre-Dame’s bells have been blessed as the cathedral reopens – a tradition that dates back to the middle ages: Notre-Dame cathedral was devastated by fire in 2019. Oliver Colthart/Shutterstock Ahead of the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, eight of the cathedral’s church bells were renovated and blessed before their re-installation in the north tower. …
How education in the US has been weaponised against Native Americans: Sioux boys as they arrived at the Indian Training School at Carlisle Barracks, 1879. Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons November is National Native American Heritage Month in the US. This should be an opportunity for …
Sudan’s national treasures have been stolen – we spoke with the director of museums: In September, amid the ongoing war in Sudan, reports began to surface of the looting of the Sudan National Museum in the capital, Khartoum. The museum is internationally celebrated for the breadth of its collection. It illustrates powerful and unique African …
Generations of young women have been bombarded with weight loss medications – ‘skinny jabs’ are just the latest: Medics report young girls are ending up in A&E after using weight loss jabs off-label. MillaF/ Shutterstock “I couldn’t stop being sick. My side and my back were hurting and I just felt like my body was …
Namibia’s sodomy laws have been overturned – what that means for LGBTIQ+ rights in the country: Bennian/Getty Images, CC BY The Namibian high court recently invalidated the country’s colonial-era “sodomy law”, which had made consensual sexual acts between men a criminal offence. The court declared that the common law offences of “sodomy” and “unnatural sexual …
Nigeria’s fuel subsidy removal was too sudden: why a gradual approach would have been better: Nigeria removed fuel subsidies entirely in May 2023. This came as a surprise because of the political risks associated with subsidy removal. Previous administrations were reluctant to jettison the subsidies. The subsidies had been in place since the 1970s, when …
Alopecia in art history: the many ways women’s hair loss has been interpreted: Met Museum/National Portrait Gallery At least 40% of women experience hair loss or alopecia over their lifetimes. This could be alopecia areata (patchy hair loss), traction alopecia (strained hair loss) or another form. The different ways that women’s hair loss has been …
Wellingborough and Kingswood byelections: it’s never been this bad for the Conservatives, and it could still get worse: Writing about Conservative byelection calamities has become something of a standard Friday practice for me. But the party’s defeat in Wellingborough in Northamptonshire was particularly brutal. The Tory vote share was a mere 25% and the Conservative …
How long did Neanderthals and modern humans co-exist in Europe? Evidence is growing it may have been at least 10,000 years: A human bone fragment from the new excavations at Ranis in Germany. Tim Schüler TLDA. , CC BY-ND The idea that two different human species, Homo sapiens (us) and Neanderthals, co-existed in western Eurasia …
Sexism permeates every layer of the music industry – new report echoes what research has been saying for years: Gorgev/Shutterstock The landmark Misogyny in Music report from British MPs on the women and equalities committee, published on January 30, shines an unsettling light upon the gender discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse which is rampant across …