By Sarah Kihika Kasande
KAMPALA – In late May, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, a new law that institutionalizes the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people and, more broadly, promotes a culture of hate.
By Daniel Gros
SOFIA/MILAN – Economists have long argued that regulation alone cannot bring about the reduction in global greenhouse-gas emissions that is needed to curb climate change; a carbon price is also essential.
By Nate D.F. Allen and Nanjira Sambuli
WASHINGTON, DC/NAIROBI – Last year, Google’s Equiano undersea cable began conveying terabytes of data per second to and from African shores.
By Ralph Gonsalves, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, and Wavel Ramkalawan
KINGSTOWN/APIA/VICTORIA – It is too early to tell whether all the talk about reforming development finance at this year’s International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings will translate into meaningful policy action for the Global South.
By William Ruto
NAIROBI – Last year in Berlin, the great Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge broke the world marathon record, clocking 02:01:09 and beating his previous time by 30 seconds.
By Florence Gyembuzie Wongnaah
STOCKHOLM – When Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was found to be safe and effective in 1955, following a successful trial involving nearly two million American children, it marked a turning point in the fight against a highly infectious disease causing incurable paralysis or even death.
By Cédric O
PARIS – On March 22, the Future of Life Institute published an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of generative artificial intelligence systems, citing the potential dangers to humanity.
By Hippolyte Fofack
CAIRO – The US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates by 475 basis points over the course of 12 months, in a bid to curb inflation, was bound to be perilous.
By Richard Black
BERLIN – Judging by the growing number of companies vowing to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions to zero these days, it may seem like the corporate world is finally taking the climate crisis seriously.
By Cristina Donini and Doreen Akiyo Yomoah
GENEVA – Over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated headlines and spurred scientific research, with experts around the world focusing resources and any potentially useful technology on the problem.
By Chris Patten
LONDON – The Communist Party of China has a way of flattering foreign leaders into supporting its policies, or at least remaining mum about them.
By Robert Skidelsky
LONDON – In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, scientist Victor Frankenstein famously uses dead body parts to create a hyperintelligent “superhuman” monster that – driven mad by human cruelty and isolation – ultimately turns on its creator.
By Masatsugu Asakawa
MANILA – We live in a world assailed by crisis, with war, disease, and economic hardship taking a terrible toll on human welfare in recent years.
By Shashi Tharoor
NEW DELHI – The sentencing of Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Indian National Congress, to two years in prison, and his disqualification as a lawmaker in the Lok Sabha (the lower house), has sent shockwaves through India’s political system.