Around 9:40 pm on Friday the 11th of December, gunmen stormed a boys’ boarding school in Katsina State, Nigeria, and kidnapped hundreds of schoolboys. A long shootout between police and the gunmen followed, during which many boys fled home. Still, local residents fear that half of the school’s 800 students
U.S. elections are never a quiet affair. Yet the unprecedented circumstances in which this year’s takes place has generated a new kind of noise. Postal voting has grown in prevalence, and Trump is determined to delegitimize it. Postal voting has long been possible. During the American Civil War, U.S. soldiers
Students at U.K. universities are returning to start the academic year. With coronavirus circulating, courses online, and clubs closed, they enter a year like no other. But some are opting to party as if it’s 1999 and nothing has changed. At what price? Their urge to socialize is understandable. Between
Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of the Russian establishment, is in intensive care in Berlin after being poisoned with nerve agent Novichok. German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared this at a press conference on Wednesday the 2nd of September: ‘Alexei Navalny was the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve
Charged with inciting public violence, prominent Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was captured by security services at his home on July 20th – a moment he caught on film – and he now awaits a verdict. His three requests for bail have been denied. A prison sentence of up to 5
Boko Haram, an organisation of Jihadi terrorists operating in West Africa, re-surfaced last week with an attack on a camp near Nguetchewe village, Cameroon. Two assailants forced entry to the camp and launched explosive devices at 11:30pm on August 1st, killing themselves and 17 civilians. The camp is a temporary refuge
Three furled Somali flags played backdrop to a dispassionate Hassan Ali Khaire, as he resigned from his post as Prime Minister on Saturday the 25th of July. Not that he had much choice. Mr Khaire had been under pressure since a majority of Somali MPs (170 of 178) voted
After failing to win a majority in the Polish Presidential election – June 28th – Andrzej Duda went head-to-head in the second round with Rafal Trzaskowski this Monday. He won by a narrow margin (51.1% to 48.9%), to the despair of partisans of LGBT rights. Duda, the incumbent President, hails
Libraries across Hong Kong have begun clearing their shelves of pro-democracy books. So far, nine titles have been culled from public libraries in the region, including books by young activist Joshua Wong and pro-democracy politician Tanya Chan. The books are under review, to determine whether they comply with Hong Kong’s
On Saturday, June 27th, London was abuzz with calls for change. Thousands of non-violent protesters from three different movements took to the streets to shout their grievances, placards and megaphones in hand. They represented Black Lives Matter (BLM), the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), and Justice for Shukri Abdi. At first
Islamophobia has surged in India since the coronavirus outbreak. Now, its northern neighbour Nepal must contend with rippling religious tensions. India has an influence on Nepal which is hard to exaggerate. Many Nepali citizens speak Hindi – existing data suggests 5%, but surveys suggest that the proportion is greater –
As coronavirus spread, so did the comparisons to war. ‘Stock-piling’, ‘the front-line’ and ‘fighting the virus’ have entered our everyday conversations about covid. World leaders have propagated this comparison: The Queen hailed the United Kingdom’s wartime spirit in her May address to the country, whilst New York’s Mayor Andrew Cuomo
Sunday evening saw the murder of another promising Somali journalist. 25 year-old Cali-Abdiwali was shot multiple times by a pair of assailants in Afgooye, 30 km South of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. His death came days after Amnesty International published a report highlighting the dangers facing Somali journalists. Mr Cali-Abdiwali’s
