insert_link Lifestyle Time to choose a career? A psychologist offers tips on the journey after high school By Kobus Maree, University of Pretoria Pivotal decisions loom large for high school graduates and those with responsibility over them. The trajectory has been a fairly straightforward line until now – learning and more learning. Having completed high school, will the journey now lead directly to university? If so, what field of study? Will it be the technical training route? Or will it be perhaps a direct leap into […] todayJanuary 10, 2024 10
insert_link Opinion Pieces South Africa’s genocide case against Israel: expert sets out what to expect from the International Court of Justice By Magnus Killander, University of Pretoria The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will be holding public hearings on 11-12 January at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the court, in a case brought by South Africa against Israel. South Africa has accused Israel of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in its military bombardment and siege of Gaza, which started after the deadly 7 October Hamas attack […] todayJanuary 9, 2024 18
insert_link Opinion Pieces Indonesia is one of the world’s largest democracies, but it’s weaponising defamation laws to smother dissent Tim Mann, The University of Melbourne Two former coordinators of one of Indonesia’s most prominent human rights organisations have escaped conviction in a defamation case brought by a powerful government minister. While their astonishing acquittal is welcome, the case marked a bleak new low for freedom of expression in one of the world’s largest democracies. Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti, who had coordinated the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims […] todayJanuary 9, 2024 19
insert_link Opinion Pieces Australia is still reckoning with a shameful legacy: the resettlement of suspected war criminals after WWII By Jayne Persian, University of Southern Queensland In the Canadian parliament last year, an outcry erupted after 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian Yaroslav Hunka was presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a hero of the second world war. It turned out Hunka had fought against the Allies as a voluntary member of the Nazi German Waffen-SS Galizien division. The incident was deeply embarrassing for Canada; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to […] todayJanuary 9, 2024 16
insert_link Africa How will we know when local communities benefit from carbon offset schemes? (commentary) By Beth Allgood/John Waugh/Craig A. Talmage/Laura Musikanski/Dehara Weeraman on 5 January 2024 Carbon credit schemes face a crisis of legitimacy and often struggle to demonstrate the support of communities who must forgo land uses not compatible with the production and retention of carbon. At the very least, such projects should not negatively impact affected communities, but community support is also not a simple matter of just obtaining free prior and informed […] todayJanuary 9, 2024 10
insert_link Environment Why is the universe ripping itself apart? A new study of exploding stars shows dark energy may be more complicated than we thought The remains of a Type Ia supernova – a kind of exploding star used to measure distances in the universe. NASA / CXC / U.Texas, CC BY Brad E Tucker, Australian National University What is the universe made of? This question has driven astronomers for hundreds of years. For the past quarter of a century, scientists have believed “normal” stuff like atoms and molecules that make up you, me, Earth, […] todayJanuary 9, 2024 28
insert_link Africa Scramble for the Sahel – why France, Russia, China and the United States are interested in the region By Olayinka Ajala, Leeds Beckett University The Sahel, a region 3,860km wide located south of the Sahara Desert and stretching east-west across the African continent, has been a focus of attention around the world recently. In the last decade, issues such as terrorism, insecurity and trafficking have characterised the region. Military takeovers have been a major source of concern in the region and beyond in the last few years. […] todayJanuary 9, 2024 3
insert_link Africa Senegal’s small scale gold miners still use poisonous mercury: how to reduce the harm By Jacqueline Gerson, Michigan State University “Do not fish in these waters.” “Contains high levels of mercury.” These warnings are shown at thousands of lakes and rivers globally, as well as on numerous fish products. But eating mercury-laden fish is not the only source of mercury exposure. Even more dangerous is the inhalation of mercury vapours, which are released as mercury is used in the extraction of another trace […] todayJanuary 8, 2024 11
insert_link Africa Africans discovered dinosaur fossils long before the term ‘palaeontology’ existed By Julien Benoit, University of the Witwatersrand; Cameron Penn-Clarke, University of the Witwatersrand, and Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University Credit for discovering the first dinosaur bones usually goes to British gentlemen for their finds between the 17th and 19th centuries in England. Robert Plot, an English natural history scholar, was the first of these to describe a dinosaur bone, in his 1676 book The Natural History of Oxfordshire. Over […] todayJanuary 8, 2024 20