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What can be achieved by a fact-finding mission of the `Africa six’ that is misrepresented as mediation? COMMENT | GILBERT M. KHADIAGALA | South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa led an initiative of six African heads of state to explore an end to the year-long Russia-Ukraine war. Announcement of the initiative followed his …

A parliamentary space should help citizens comprehend who stands for what in political conflicts COMMENT | JAN- WERNER MUELLER | Is there an ideal design for parliament buildings and legislative chambers? The question seems abstract, but it comes up surprisingly often as a very concrete challenge. It arose in the 1990s, …

Achieving a truly inclusive society requires Ugandans to reject discriminatory ideology COMMENT | SARAH KIHIKA KASANDE | In late May, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, a new law that institutionalises the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people and, more broadly, promotes a culture …

There are straightforward ways to improve engagement toward shared climate and nature goals COMMENT | SIMON ZADEK | From Russia’s war against Ukraine to America’s rivalry with China, tectonic geopolitical shifts have shaken multilateralism in recent years. While many of the consequences from surging food and energy prices to the rising …

COMMENT | NORMAN SOLOMON | On the first day of March 2022, visitors to the New York Times homepage saw a headline across the top of their screens in huge capital letters: ROCKET BARRAGE KILLS CIVILIANS It was the kind of breaking-news banner headline that could have referred to countless …

In many parts of the world, mental health and mental illness are not a priority as is physical health COMMENT | RAYMOND N MGENI | Mental health is an important issue that should be on the national agenda given its importance at the moment. A mental health policy is aimed at …

COMMENT | HASSAN SHIRE |  On 31 May 2023, talks aimed at resolving the crisis in Sudan – now in its tenth week, broke down in Jedah, Saudi Arabia, after the government side suspended its participation, accusing its rival – the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of violating an earlier agreed-upon …

Saving the world from artificial intelligence, climate change, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine COMMENT | GEORGE SOROS | We are living in troubled times. Too much is happening too fast. People are confused. The Columbia University economic historian Adam Tooze has, indeed, popularised a word for it. He calls it …

Islamic nations dismisses skepticism over its development of weapon that could reach Israel in seven minutes COMMENT | MAZIAR MOTAMEDI | Iran has unveiled Fattah, a hypersonic ballistic missile it says is capable of breaching defence systems, which could cause further concerns for the West and Israel. So, what are hypersonic …

The law is a response by patriarchal societies to increased freedoms for previously marginalised groups COMMENT | AWINO OKECH | Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni assented to the anti-homosexuality bill on May 26, 2023. The new law legislates, among other things, a ten-year jail term for “attempted homosexuality”, a 20-year jail term …