By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image A class at Wampewo Ntakke Secondary School in Kawempe tula village, Kampala, Uganda, November 4, 2024. © 2024 AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda A new United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report delivers a sobering message: the number of children out of school has risen for the seventh consecutive year, reaching 273 million worldwide.While nearly 90 percent of children globally complete primary school, the greatest gaps are in early learning and secondary education. Most out-of-school children—194 million—are of secondary school…
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By Adi Imsirovic, Lecturer in Energy Systems, University of Oxford
Before the temporary ceasefire in the Gulf, the world had been experiencing the biggest oil price shock ever, surpassing even the crises of the 1970s. The scale and speed of movements were comparable to some of the most disruptive episodes in modern energy markets.
At the centre of the disruption was the US-Israel conflict with Iran and the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz. The strait is a choke-point through which roughly one fifth of the global oil supply typically flows. Under the terms…
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By Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, announced that a two-week ceasefire had been agreed between the US and Iran in the early hours of April 8. Delegates from both sides are expected to attend further talks in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Friday.
This comes less than two weeks after Pakistan hosted talks with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey in which the four countries called for an end to hostilities in the Gulf. The meeting established the quartet as the primary negotiating channel between Tehran and Washington, and may signal…
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By Sepideh Borzoo, Postdoctoral Fellow, Toronto Metropolitan University
Atefeh (Atty) Mashatan, Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
Rupa Banerjee, Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor of Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour, Toronto Metropolitan University
Canada’s cybersecurity labour shortage cannot be solved simply by recruiting skilled immigrants, because systemic barriers — especially for racialized immigrant women — limit their integration, advancement and retention.
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By Gemma Marfany Nadal, Profesora Catedrática de Genética, Universitat de Barcelona
One night, Tomás realised something was seriously wrong. He went for a stroll, along the same paths near his village that he had walked along countless times with his friends, their cheerful voices echoing in the still of the night.
There were no streetlights, and the paths were illuminated solely by moonlight. This had never been a problem before, but all of a sudden Tomás realised that he couldn’t clearly make out the edges of the path. He stopped, hesitated, and tried to find a reference point, but the edges of his vision blurred. Without realising it, Tomás had just experienced…
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By Rowan O. Martin, Research Associate, Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town
Astrid A. Andersson, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Hong Kong
Caroline Dingle, Instructor, Biology; Coordinator, Bachelor of Environment and Society, Capilano University
Birds have, for centuries, been captured from the wild to be kept in cages – valued for their looks, songs and ability to imitate sounds. Data compiled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the global agreement that regulates trade in threatened animals and plants, indicate that in the 1990s and early 2000s Africa was a leading supplier of live birds to global markets. Most were captured from the wild and sold to western European countries.
This trade…
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By Misheck Mutize, Post Doctoral Researcher, Graduate School of Business (GSB), University of Cape Town
The rating agency S&P Global’s Africa Credit Rating Trends 2025 reviews the past year’s rating activities and analyses the continent’s prospects for 2026. It is an important document because it interprets underlying drivers of creditworthiness. It shapes how global investors and policymakers understand risk, opportunity and reform dynamics across the continent.
But the document had some…
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By Daniel Cash, Senior Fellow, United Nations University; Aston University
Some developing country governments spend years making the reforms that international financial institutions want – only to find that their efforts are not rewarded.
They may make budgets more transparent, publish their debt obligations, set up independent bodies to monitor government spending, and complete an International Monetary Fund programme, but still receive the same ratings from credit agencies. Borrowing costs remain high.
The gap between what countries have built and how that progress is reflected in credit ratings and market pricing is persistent…
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By Pia Lindberg, PhD Candidate, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet
Artur Fedorowski, Professor, Cardiology, Karolinska Institutet; Lund University
Axel Carl Carlsson, Researcher, Department of Neurobiology, Karolinska Institutet
As the number of people living with long COVID continues to grow, understanding its broader health consequences will be essential.
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By Debra Ferreday, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Lancaster University
The Testaments, now streaming on Disney+, has big shoes to fill. It arrives in a post-MeToo media landscape still shaped by the seismic impact of Margaret Atwood’s previous adaptation, The Handmaid’s Tale. Released in 2017, The Handmaid’s Tale quickly transcended its source material to become a feminist touchstone, inspiring a vivid visual and cultural language of resistance across politics, performance, music and the arts.
In Atwood’s world of Gilead, women are reduced to archetypes within a patriarchal…
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