Understanding the history of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws
Pakistan is one of the very few countries in the world to offer the death penalty for blasphemy. Being a highly controversial issue, will the state be able to curb the misuse or amend the provisions of the law? You’d be forgiven for thinking blasphemy laws are archaic, forgotten technicalities...
Current in Change
Alena Wicker is the youngest student accepted to medical school
After completing two degrees – yes, two – 13-year-old Alena Wicker is off to medical school, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Most of us will remember being 13. For Gen-Z, it was a time filled with Tamagotchi and Justin Bieber. Our proudest accomplishments probably involved a particularly...
Opinion – removing abortion rights is fatal for diabetics
The moment you strip a diabetic of their choice to have an abortion is the moment you put their life in grave danger. Last month, the US Supreme Court handed down a controversial judgment, effectively changing the course of history as we know it. It shook the ground under millions...
Modern pesticides are getting bees ‘drunk’
Scientists have warned that exposure to neonicotinoids – the worlds’ most commonly used insecticide – is damaging the vital pollinators’ brains, preventing them from walking in a straight line. As we know, the world’s insects are hurtling towards extinction. Among them – most alarming of all – are a species integral...
Organised crime is a hidden yet major contributor to deforestation
When someone mentions deforestation, you probably think of beef production or the wood industry as being most culpable. A key driver that often goes under the radar, however, is organised crime like drug trafficking and illegal logging. Almost a year on from COP26, there’s definitely work to be done to...
Afghanistan’s opioid crisis is only getting worse
Years of persistent poverty and war have turned thousands of Afghan men to drug use. Addiction has been fuelled by the country’s prolific poppy industry. Now, under Taliban rule, the crisis shows no signs of improving. Ebraham Noroozi’s recent look at Afghanistan’s drug crisis paints a morbid picture. Men dying...
Brain-computer interfaces are no longer a thing of science fiction
Endovascular BCI company Synchron has implanted its device in a US patient for the first time, bringing the ground-breaking technology a noteworthy step closer to distribution. With our reality feeling more and more like Black Mirror incarnate every day, it’s not often that I’m taken aback by news of the latest technological advances. From the enigmatic growth of the metaverse and wising up of existing Artificial Intelligences to the various...
California beach returned to Black owners’ family in landmark move
Los Angeles County Officials have returned the deed of Manhattan Beach to the property owners’ great-grandson almost 100 years after it was stolen in a racially motivated seizure. Bruce’s Beach in California – known to most people today as Manhattan Beach – has a history that most people who visit it today know little about. The beachfront property was owned by an African American couple, Charles and Willa Bruce, who purchased...
Gen Z stage peace walk ahead of Kenyan elections
In celebration of World Day for International Justice, young people from Nairobi held a peace walk campaign to stress the importance of non-violence ahead of Kenya’s general elections in August. On Sunday,17th July, youths from Nairobi’s Dandora slums took part in celebrating the World Day for International Justice through a peace walk campaign. It was planned by Dandora Seed Foundation, a community-based organization whose objective is to provide children with...
Greenpeace drops boulders in the ocean to prevent bottom trawling
In an effort to prevent the destructive industrial fishing method of bottom trawling, Greenpeace has planted 18 large boulders on a seabed off the UK coast. Plans to continue the act of ‘protest’ today, however, have been blocked. It’s safe to say that ocean conservationists are in the ‘last resort’ phase when it comes to dealing with perpetrators. If you haven’t heard of ocean trawling before, it refers to arguably the...
