How Project 2025 became the blueprint for Donald Trump’s second term: Throughout the 2024 presidential election campaign, Donald Trump denied claims he intended to shape his second administration’s policies around Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a renewed conservative America. But despite his repeated denials, Trump 2.0 has adopted much of Project 2025 into …
Joe Biden in Africa: US president has ignored the continent for his entire term – why he’s visiting Angola: US president Joe Biden chose to visit Africa in the final weeks of his presidency. It would be his first trip to the continent since taking office in January 2021. The trip was postponed at the …
Africans discovered dinosaur fossils long before the term ‘palaeontology’ existed: Credit for discovering the first dinosaur bones usually goes to British gentlemen for their finds between the 17th and 19th centuries in England. Robert Plot, an English natural history scholar, was the first of these to describe a dinosaur bone, in his 1676 book The …
DRC elections: three factors that have shaped Tshisekedi’s bumpy first term as president: Africa’s second-largest country by land mass, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is scheduled to go to the polls on 20 December 2023. President Felix Tshisekedi will be seeking re-election. However, his first tenure has been decidedly mixed. Tshisekedi’s first term has …
Why ‘toxic masculinity’ isn’t a useful term for understanding all of the ways to be a man: Masculinity is complex, diverse and can be expressed in multiple ways. yanik88/Shutterstock There seem to be as many interpretations of what “toxic masculinity” means as there are uses of the term. Some believe it’s a way to criticise …
Zimbabwe’s president was security minister when genocidal rape was state policy in 1983-4. Now he seeks another term: Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images Trigger warning: this article contains accounts of sexual violence. Zimbabwe will hold its elections on 23 August. The current president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is running for re-election. This is …
Traditional masculinity is a vague, unhelpful term we should abandon – here’s why: Most of us think we know what we mean when we talk about “traditional masculinity”. A term commonly used to describe a broad range of men’s traits and behaviour, it includes things like violence and aggression, emotional restraint, and hunger for power …
Jimmy Carter: the American president whose commitment to Africa went beyond his term: Former American President Jimmy Carter. Drew Angerer/Getty Images The office of former US president Jimmy Carter (98), who has been frail for some time, has announced that he will no longer seek hospital treatment for his ailments. He has instead opted for …
The ICC upholds 25-year jail term for Ongwen – why it matters for Africa: Dominic Ongwen is the first LRA commander to be found guilty of war crimes committed in Northern Uganda. Isaac Kasamani/AFP via Getty Images The International Criminal Court (ICC) has upheld its 25-year jail term against former Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen. …
Presidential term limits will be hard to scrap in Kenya — here’s what it would take: President William Ruto inspects a guard of honour in Nairobi, Kenya in September 2022. Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images A member of parliament in Kenyan president William Ruto’s governing coalition created a firestorm by suggesting that there was a …
China: Xi Jinping poised for a third term with no plans to relinquish power any time soon: It is a certainty that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will be confirmed in office at the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, currently being held in Beijing. At 69, Xi is also tipped to become the …
Is it embarrassing to be an expat? Brits living abroad are distancing themselves from the term after Brexit: The Art of Pics / Shutterstock Of the 5.5 million British people living outside of the UK, many have long considered themselves expatriates – people living outside their country of birth, often with plans to return home. …
COVID in South Africa: what to expect in the short and long term: Photo by Veronique Durruty/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images In light of the approaching winter months combined with the recent lifting of the national disaster act, South Africans have anxiously been watching an increase in COVID infections. The Conversation Africa spoke to infectious disease …
Emmanuel Macron reelected: four key themes for his second term as president: Emmanuel Macron has fended off the challenge from Marine Le Pen to secure a second term as president of France after taking 58.2% of the vote in the second round of the national election. He is one of only a very small number …
Viktor Orbán: Hungary’s controversial authoritarian prime minister secures yet another term in national election: Having held power continuously since 2010, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is the longest serving prime minister in Europe. Now, as the dust settles on the latest election, he is beginning yet another four-year term. Orbán faced down a challenge from a six …
April will be cruel to UK households, but the economy’s problems are much longer term: Shutterstock/Jane Rix The poet TS Eliot famously proclaimed April to be the “cruellest month”. Writing after surviving a pandemic – the Spanish flu of 1918 – he was referring to the familiar (often misguided) sense of hope that traditionally accompanies …
Ghana’s Cedi is under stress: some long, medium, and short term solutions: The Ghanaian currency is facing its worst run of depreciation in years MaxpIxel/Wikimedia Commons An economy with strong fundamentals is one that is resilient, has a well-developed exports base, is industrialised, and creates jobs. That kind of economy can mobilise resources domestically, without …
The term ‘Anthropocene’ isn’t perfect – but it shows us the scale of the environmental crisis we’ve caused: Humans are shaping the environment and geology of the planet for the first time in history. Xtrodinary/Pixabay Earlier this year, scientists identified early warning signs of the collapse of the Gulf Stream, an ocean current that influences …