Fake academic papers are on the rise: why they’re a danger and how to stop them

Fake academic papers are on the rise: why they’re a danger and how to stop them

Fake academic articles can cause significant harm. Nora Carol Photography Lex Bouter, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam In the 1800s, British colonists in India set about trying to reduce the cobra population, which was making life and trade very difficult in Delhi. They began to pay a bounty for dead cobras. The strategy very quickly resulted in the widespread breeding of cobras for cash. This danger of unintended consequences is sometimes referred […]

March 7, 2024 44

Africa

African Games 2024: is it really worth it for Ghana to host the mega sport event?

By Kamilla Swart, Hamad Bin Khalifa University The African Games, formerly the All-African Games, is taking place from 8-23 March in Ghana. Scheduled for 2023, they were postponed due to a regional impasse over marketing rights, delays in getting facilities ready and Ghana’s growing economic crisis. Kamilla Swart researches and teaches sport mega-events. We asked her about the African Games’ potential for sport tourism and about the […]

March 7, 2024 15

Africa

US Christian right has taken aim at LGBTIQ+ rights, sex education and abortion in Africa – new book

By Haley McEwen, University of Gothenburg A new book – The US Christian Right and Pro-Family Politics in 21st Century Africa – reveals the role played by some right wing US Christian groups in trying to spread their social and moral influence in African countries. Sociologist Haley McEwen, who specialises in the subject, answers five questions about her book. What do you want readers to take […]

March 7, 2024 20

Namibia

Spotlighting employment opportunities in the agricultural sector

By Josef Kefas Sheehama Namibia still desperately needs to improve agricultural production systems and tackle the threats of climate change and uncertainty. Agriculture remains the backbone for sustained economic growth, to provide quality livelihoods, and high living standards for the population. The Agriculture, Land Reform, and Water Ministry have been allocated N$1.9 billion which is not sufficient. This includes N$50 million dedicated for land purchase to address the plight of […]

March 6, 2024 33

Health / Medical

Scientists create ‘mini-organs’ for the first time from human stem cells taken from wombs

Researchers have successfully grown organoids from stem cells taken in late and active pregnancies for the first time. "Mini-organs," also called organoids, are tiny structures that can be used to test new medical treatments or study how the real organs they resemble work when healthy or diseased. "Those cells are very important because in that little organoid is contained all the functions of the epithelium, so of the inner layer […]

March 6, 2024 24

South Africa

Public Works to investigate mismanagement of police headquarters

One of the bathrooms at the building used by SAPS at the Telkom Tower complex in Pretoria. Photo supplied The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has launched an internal investigation into the mismanagement of the Telkom Towers complex, the headquarters of the South African Police Service (SAPS), as well as other properties owned by the department in Pretoria’s city centre. This was revealed by the newly appointed head of […]

March 6, 2024 10

South Africa

Joburg residents march over water outages and unreliable electricity

Protesters march past an illegal dump in Kensington, complaining about poor services and a lack of bylaw enforcement. Photo: Masego Mafata By Masego Mafata via GroundUp About 80 fed-up residents of the east of Johannesburg marched from Rhodes Park to Darras Centre in Kensington on Tuesday morning, demanding better services and the enforcement of bylaws. The residents came from Bellevue, Bruma, Bertrams, Cyrildene, De Wetshof, Bezuidenhout Valley, Kensington Observatory and Troyville. […]

March 6, 2024 9

World

NGO Approvals by a UN Committee Could Finally See ‘Long-Overdue’ Reform

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, a little-known but powerful body that approves NGOs’ accreditation to the UN, is mired in politics and nearly dysfunctional. One organization, for example, promoting the rights of Dalits globally, took 15 years to get its acceptance. Now, a reform proposal by Costa Rica and the United Kingdom could upend the process for the better. Here, Dalit women taking part in a campaign preventing violence against […]

March 6, 2024 6

Business / Economics

Stalemate: WTO talks again fail to end overfishing subsidies

A crewmember working the net on a research trawl vessel. Image by Jennifer Gilden/Pacific Fishery Management Council via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed). By Elizabeth Fitt via Mongabay Ambitions to finalize a two-part treaty to equitably stop governments from funding overfishing were dashed again at the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi, which ended in the early hours of March 2. “This outcome is not just disappointing; it’s a dire blow […]

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