
France’s military withdrawal presents opportunities and risks to West African states
Jan 29, 2025 12:15 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
In early January, Cte dIvoire announced that French troops would be withdrawing from the country and the military base of Port-Bout would be handed over to Cte dIvoires army. The announcement is part of a seismic shift in...

Cameroon could do with some foreign help to solve anglophone crisis – but the state doesn’t want it
Jan 29, 2025 12:15 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
What began in late 2016 as a peaceful protest by lawyers and teachers in Cameroons North West and South West regions quickly turned violent and developed into whats become known as Cameroons anglophone crisis. The protest...
Rereading Rembrandt: how the slave trade helped establish the golden age of Dutch painting
Jan 29, 2025 12:15 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Detail from Rembrandt van Rijns painting Two African Men. Sailko/The Mauritshuis/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY The so-called golden age of Dutch painting in the 1600s coincided with an economic boom that had a lot to do with...

Peace in Sudan: a fresh mediation effort is needed – how it could work
Jan 29, 2025 12:15 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life Politics
Intense fighting has ravaged Sudan since 15 April 2023. The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and its erstwhile comrades-in-arms, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has created one of the worst humanitarian crises...

Jan 29, 2025 12:14 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology Politics
The images of President Donald Trump at his inauguration surrounded by the titans of the global tech industry is a warning of what could come: a global digital oligarchy dominated by a tiny tech elite. Companies like Meta,...
Skin-to-skin contact is good for your baby and you – and not just straight after birth
Jan 29, 2025 12:14 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health
SvetlanaFedoseyeva/Shutterstock In the 1950s, the American psychologist Harry Harlow provided a stark demonstration of the importance of a mothers touch. He famously and controversially showed that rhesus monkeys would...
How people will be ringing in the year of the snake
Jan 29, 2025 12:13 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
SeventyFour/Shutterstock Lunar new year is the most important traditional festival for the Chinese people, symbolising unity, prosperity and hope for the future. It is, however, celebrated all over Asia and in the...