By Esther Leah Achandi, Post Doctoral Fellow- Gender, International Livestock Research Institute
In some communities in Uganda, women aren’t supposed to work with pigs. This stems from restrictive social and gender norms, some of which are rooted in culture and religious beliefs.
Until recently, eating pork was associated with drunkards because the meat was typically served alongside home-brewed alcohol in local bars. That’s changing, as “pork joints” become popular everyday eating places. What’s more, pigs are unfairly thought of as dirty and therefore some people think the people who work with them must be dirty too. Women, in particular, according to prevailing social norms,…
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By Ivor Chipkin, Associate lecturer, University of Pretoria
Jelena Vidojević, Affiliate Researcher, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria
Protests have become instruments of elite competition. This includes local politicians using professional agitators to contest for control of resources.
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By Rebecca Morgenstern Brenner, Associate Teaching Professor, Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University
Sonny S. Patel, Presidential Fellow, Georgia State University; Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health
Young people in Bo City, Sierra Leone became youth climate leaders after turning a low-cost Climate Science Hub into a space for science-informed action.
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By Raawiyah Rifath, Lecturer in Law, University of Exeter
Alex Powell, Associate Professor in Law, University of Warwick
Calogero Giametta, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Leicester
An undercover investigation by BBC News has found evidence of people falsely claiming to be gay to gain asylum in the UK. The findings are concerning. But rather than assume this means all asylum applicants are lying, it’s worth asking why people might be drawn to this route.
There is good reason for the UK and other countries to offer refuge to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. Extensive evidence from organisations such as Human Rights Watch and UNHCR…
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By Tamara Krawchenko, Associate Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria
Canada helped build local government capacity in Ukraine before the war. The Council of Europe’s Congress has now called on the world to do so again. Canada should answer the call.
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By Thierry Poibeau, DR CNRS, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSL
A new book for scholars, students, and curious readers invites readers to think critically about the promises and perils of language tech and examines AI’s impact on poetic practice.
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By William Barter, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Mark Smith, Research Fellow in Collider Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London
Recent findings from research we have been carrying out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern in Geneva suggest that we might be closing in on signs of undiscovered physics.
If confirmed, these hints would overturn the theory, called the Standard Model, that has dominated particle physics for 50 years. The findings suggest the way that specific sub-atomic particles behave in the LHC disagrees with the Standard Model.
Fundamental particles are the most basic building blocks of…
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By Carsten Eickhoff, Professor, Medical Data Science, University of Tübingen
AI chatbots can sound authoritative on health, but new research shows they often mislead, especially when users must interpret and apply the answers themselves.
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By Nick Dunn, Professor of Urban Design, Lancaster University
In the novel When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift, the Chernobyl disaster and its legacy is extrapolated to a near future where natural habitats are depleted and precarious.
This work of eco-fiction deftly explores issues of possible paths to a future where animals return to a nature depleted area. In the real world, a parallel version of this story has been unfolding as nature is thriving around former nuclear power plants.
This is especially evident at the former Chernobyl plant in Ukraine,…
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By Guest Contributor
The data-labelling industry relies heavily on workers in Kenya and Nigeria to annotate what AI systems learn. Those same workers rarely see their languages reflected in the systems they help train.
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