
3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive
Celebrated Kenyan writer and decolonial scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo passed away on 28 May at the age of 87. Many tributes and obituaries have appeared across the world, but we wanted to know more about Thiongo the man and his...

Development finance in a post-aid world: the case for country platforms
With the Trump administration slashing US Agency for International Development budgets and European nations shifting overseas development aid budgets to bolster defence spending, the world has entered a post-aid era. But...

From sovereignty to sustainability: a brief history of ocean governance
The United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3) will open in Nice, France, on June 9, 2025. It is the third conference of its kind, following events in New York in 2017 and Lisbon in 2022. Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica,...

The atmosphere is getting thirstier and it’s making droughts worse – new study
Droughts are becoming more severe and widespread across the globe. But its not just changing rainfall patterns that are to blame. The atmosphere is also getting thirstier. In a new study published in Nature, my colleagues...
For Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, ‘reproduction is like a death sentence’
On May 9, Lourdia Jean-Pierre, a 32-year-old Haitian migrant woman, died after giving birth in her rural home in El Ceibo, Dominican Republic. The cause of death was a postpartum hemorrhage, according to a news report in...

How did humans evolve such rotten genetics?
To Shakespeares Hamlet we humans are the paragon of animals. But recent advances in genetics are suggesting that humans are far from being evolutions greatest achievement. For example, humans have an exceptionally high...

Trump’s Middle East pivot aims to counter China’s rising influence
The US president, Donald Trump, claimed he was able to secure deals totalling more than US$2 trillion (1.5 trillion) for the US on his tour of the Gulf states in May. Trump said there has never been anything like the...