By not lip-syncing Amy Winehouse’s songs, actress Marisa Abela confronts impossible expectations in ‘Back to Black’

May 15, 2024 07:53 am UTC| Insights & Views Entertainment

Like Amy Winehouse, Back to Black, the new biopic about the late British singer, has been no stranger to controversy. In the case of the film, opinion has been fiercely split about director Sam Taylor-Johnsons decision...

How German media attention idealises female Ukrainian refugees

May 15, 2024 07:51 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

According to the latest available data, around 3.7 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, while nearly 6.5 million have registered as refugees globally. With 1.13 million, Germany has taken in the largest...

Ghana’s forests are being wiped out: what’s behind this and why attempts to stop it aren’t working

May 15, 2024 07:50 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Ghana has around 7.9 million hectares of forested land (35% of the total land area), according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Around 7.6 million hectares are primary or naturally regenerated forest, and around...

Over 26 million South Africans get a social grant. Fear of losing the payment used to be a reason to vote for the ANC, but no longer – study

May 15, 2024 07:50 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Social grants to reduce poverty feature prominently in the campaign promises of political parties in South Africas 2024 national and provincial general elections, set for 29 May. The countrys social grants system is one...

Global Geopolitics Series

Chinese nationalist groups are launching cyber-attacks

May 15, 2024 07:48 am UTC| Insights & Views

The UKs national security agency, MI5, warned in April that British universities participating in military research are targets for cyber-attacks by foreign states. More recently, news broke of a cyber-attack against the...

Europe is still in short-term crisis mode over Ukraine and lacks a vision for its post-war identity

May 15, 2024 07:47 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

Some believe that the war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed Europe, giving birth to a different kind of European order. That is, it appears to be driving structural shifts in the way Europe is run and organised that...

Global Geopolitics Series

Asylum chaos triggers fresh tensions over how to manage Ireland’s post-Brexit border

May 15, 2024 07:27 am UTC| Insights & Views

Two weeks ago, the Irish police force cleared a Dublin encampment of around 200 tents occupied by asylum seekers. The migrants were bussed to sites on the fringes of the city, where the government said they would be...