November 30, 2023
Ghana: Ghana's Shea Industry Is Not Taking Care of the Women Behind Its Growth
Ghana's shea industry has a rich history. Shea - nkuto, karite, galam in some west African languages - is deeply embedded in the culture and tradition of the country's northern… Read more »
Africa: Building African Cities That Cope With Climate Shocks - Experts Outline What It Will Take
The international climate change negotiations began almost three decades ago when many were still hesitant to accept that human activities were changing the planet. Now the… Read more »
Africa: COP28 Climate Summit Just Approved a 'Loss and Damage' Fund. What Does This Mean?
Day one of the COP28 climate summit saw the first big breakthrough: agreement on a "loss and damage" fund to compensate poor states for the effects of climate change. Read more »
Africa: COP28 - Why We Need to Break Our Addiction to Combustion
Headlines across the world this year focused on fires, including both wildfires and the use of military firepower, in various places. Read more »
November 29, 2023
Africa: COP28 - How 7 Policies Could Help Save a Billion Lives By 2100
In a recent review of more than 180 peer-reviewed articles -- which I conducted with fellow researcher Richard Parncutt -- we found that a scientific consensus has formed around… Read more »
Africa: How AI Could Reveal Secrets of Thousands of Handwritten Documents
Have you ever struggled to read what that scrawl between "carrots" and "potatoes" is on your shopping list? Soon, artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to help. Read more »
Africa: ChatGPT Turns 1 - AI Chatbot's Success Says As Much About Humans As Technology
ChatGPT was launched on Nov. 30, 2022, ushering in what many have called artificial intelligence's breakout year. Within days of its release, ChatGPT went viral. Screenshots of… Read more »
Africa: COP28 - How Bad Is Climate Change Already and What Do We Need to Do Next to Tackle It?
As the latest UN climate change summit (COP28) gets underway in Dubai, conversations around limiting global warming to 1.5°C will confront a harsh reality. Global temperatures… Read more »
Nigeria: Climate Change - 3 Key Goals Nigeria Must Focus On At COP28
Global environmental stakeholders will converge in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, from 30 November to 12 December 2023 for the UN Climate conference known as COP28. The… Read more »
Africa: Climate Action for Africa in 2023 - Three Big Developments
2023 is highly likely to be the hottest year ever recorded. And climate change is to blame for one-quarter of the global population being exposed to dangerous levels of extreme… Read more »
South Africa: Opera in Cape Town - Critics Trace How a Colonial Art Form Was Reinvented As African
Many people thought that classical opera in South Africa - regarded as a western, colonial art form that was the preserve of white people during apartheid - would die with… Read more »
Ghana: Ghana Wants to Restrict Imports On 22 Products - An Economist Explains How, Why and What Else Must Be Done
Ghana's Ministry of Trade and Industry has tabled in parliament a proposed ban or restrictions on imports of certain goods, including rice, sugar, poultry, fruit juices and animal… Read more »
Africa: Low Emissions and Economic Survival - Countries in the Global South Aren't Getting a Fair Deal
In 2015, more than 140 countries signed up to the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. For countries in the global south this is a huge task. On the one hand they have… Read more »
November 28, 2023
South Africa: Sharpeville - New Research On 1960 South African Massacre Shows the Number of Dead and Injured Was Massively Undercounted
On 21 March 1960 at 1.40 in the afternoon, apartheid South Africa's police opened fire on a peaceful crowd of about 4,000 residents of Sharpeville, who were protesting against… Read more »
Zambia: Zambia's Foreign Debt Tragedy - What Needs to Happen to Resolve the Crisis
Three years after defaulting on its foreign debt, Zambia is still trying to reach agreement with all its creditors on how to manage this situation. This has left the southern… Read more »
Africa: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year - Authentic - Reflects Growing Concerns Over AI's Ability to Deceive and Dehumanize
When Merriam-Webster announced that its word of the year for 2023 was "authentic," it did so with over a month to go in the calendar year. Read more »
Africa: As Seas Get Warmer, Tropical Species Are Moving Further From the Equator
Climate change is causing tropical species in the ocean to move from the equator towards the poles, while temperate species recede. This mass movement of marine life, termed… Read more »
Africa: As Disasters and Heat Intensify, Can the World Meet the Urgency of the Moment At the COP28 Climate Talks?
Eight years ago, the world agreed to an ambitious target in the Paris Agreement: hold warming to 1.5°C to limit further dangerous levels of climate change. Read more »
Africa: Umaru Shehu - Nigerian Public Health Giant Who Played a Major Role in Polio Eradication
Professor Emeritus Umaru Shehu, who died on 2 October 2023, was born in Yerwa (Maiduguri), Nigeria, in 1930. Widely regarded as one of the country's early leaders in public health… Read more »
Africa: Faith Communities Are Rallying to Check Climate Change - Their Size and Influence Counts
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), more than 80% of the global population are motivated by a faith or spirituality. Faced with the triple planetary… Read more »
November 27, 2023
Africa: Earth's Magnetic Field Protects Life On Earth From Radiation, but It Can Move, and the Magnetic Poles Can Even Flip
The Earth's magnetic field plays a big role in protecting people from hazardous radiation and geomagnetic activity that could affect satellite communication and the operation of… Read more »
Mozambique: Rwanda's Troops in Mozambique Have Done Well to Protect Civilians - The Factors At Play
Rwanda's involvement in peacekeeping operations for the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) has increased since 2004. Read more »
Africa: Online Foreign Exchange System Aims to Enable Cross-Border Payments in Local Currencies - What You Need to Know
The high cost of making cross border payments on the African continent has driven governments on the continent to seek options of settling trade and other transactions in local… Read more »
Africa: Stones Inside Fish Ears Mark Time Like Tree Rings - And Now They're Helping Us Learn About Climate Change
As a marine biologist, I've always found it fascinating to learn about how animals adapt to their habitat. But climate change has made it more important than ever - wild animals'… Read more »
Africa: COP28 - Inside the United Arab Emirates, the Oil Giant Hosting 2023 Climate Change Summit
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the world's seventh largest oil producer, will host the 28th UN climate change summit (COP28) in Dubai from November 30 to December 12. Presiding… Read more »