By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image A session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland, February 26, 2024. © 2024 Hannes P Albert/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo Today the UN Human Rights Council firmly rejected Eritrea’s attempt to end scrutiny of its human rights situation. Council members decisively voted down the Eritrean government’s resolution to end the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea and instead renewed the mandate for another year.This vote – with 25 states voting against the resolution and only 4 in favor – sends an important…
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By Arzu Geybullayeva
The news of two Azerbaijani brothers, Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, getting killed following raids in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on June 27, took tensions to another level.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Participants in the vigil in memory of the students who died in the explosion on June 25 at Barthélémy Boganda High School, on June 27, 2025, in Bangui, Central African Republic. © 2025 Private (Nairobi) – Central African Republic authorities arrested activists holding a memorial event for students who died in a high school explosion, Human Rights Watch said today.On June 27, 2025, civil society activists organized a vigil in memory of the students who died in the explosion on June 25 at Barthelemy Boganda High School in Bangui, the capital, where they were taking…
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By Ali A. Abdi, Professor, University of British Columbia
Somalia ranks among the lowest scoring countries in the United Nations Human Development Index. The index of 195 countries is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, years of schooling, and access to a decent standard of living. Ali A. Abdi, a scholar of social development education, examines Somalia’s failure to…
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By George Newth, Lecturer in Politics and member of Reactionary Politics Research Network, University of Bath
The new Labour government is pitching “change” to “working people” but it needs to update its idea of who these people are.
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By Rohan McWilliam, Professor of Modern British History, Anglia Ruskin University
In the build-up to the 2024 election, Keir Starmer worked hard to show that his party could run Britain better than the Tories. He promised his government would offer stability after years of chaos – but also change. He stood for honesty but also a technocratic approach that resisted the easy answers of the populist right. The grown ups would be back in charge.
A year on, as he marks his first year in office, we might ask: how much difference did Labour’s 2024 election win make in the longer trajectory of British life? Are historians in future likely to say (as they often do about the…
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By Glenn Fosbraey, Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester
The trend for naming summers has become something of a cultural phenomenon. Think for example of 2019, which was branded a “hot girl summer”, inspired by rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s song.
In 2021 there was the much-ridiculed “white boy summer” (named after a song of the same name by Tom Hanks’s son, Chet). Then 2022 was “feral girl summer” and 2024, of…
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By King-Ho Leung, Lecturer in Theology, Philosophy and the Arts, King's College London
Speaking to Myspace as an upcoming artist in 2013, Lana Dey Rey said that the “vision of making [her] life a work of art” was what inspired her to create her music video for her breakthrough single, Video Games (2011).
The self-made video, featuring old movies clips and webcam footage of Del Rey singing, went viral. It eventually led her to sign with a major record label. For many, the video conveyed a sense of authenticity. However, upon…
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By Jennifer Mathers, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Aberystwyth University
In some parts of Russia, schoolgirls who become pregnant are being paid more than 100,000 roubles (nearly £900) for giving birth and raising their babies.
This new measure, introduced in the past few months across ten regions, is part of Russia’s new demographic strategy, widening the policy adopted…
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By Rob Kingsley, Professor, Microbiology, Quadram Institute
Salmonella cases in England are the highest they’ve been in a decade, according to recent UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data. There was a 17% increase in cases observed from 2023 to 2024 – culminating in 10,388 detected infections last year. Children and older adults accounted for around a fifth of cases.
Although the number of infections caused by foodborne diseases such as Salmonella had broadly decreased over the last 25 years, this recent…
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