1 in 5 UK women can’t afford period products
The extent of period poverty in the UK has been highlighted in recent reports by WaterAid and Plan International. Everyone’s been feeling the squeeze lately. Gas and electric bills are through the roof, food prices (and shortages) are increasing, and the countdown to pay-day seems to stretch on for months. People...
Current in People
What’s wrong with the commercialisation of Juneteenth?
You can already celebrate Juneteenth – a federal holiday marking the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans – with paper plates and party hats, thanks to a swathe of US supermarkets. It’s commercialisation reflects the sanitised version of America’s history that the holiday sought to re-write. Many were elated when Juneteenth was...
Why this is the worst time for Britain to halve its foreign aid
Despite warnings from the UN that one fifth of the global population could be forced into poverty, destitution, and hunger by multiple ongoing crises, the UK is cutting its global aid budget. Again. You may be tired of hearing about the terrible things the British government has been up to...
Somalia faces devastating famine amid ongoing drought
The UN has warned that only a ‘massive’ and immediate scaling-up of funds and humanitarian relief will avert rapidly escalating levels of malnutrition across the country. Following reports that Somali children are starving to death in front of aid workers, the UN has issued a warning that only a ‘massive’...
Understanding Africa’s Gen Z activism on climate change
How are Africa’s Gen Z climate activists using social media to boost climate education and awareness with world leaders? Climate change effects can be felt across the globe. Africa is most vulnerable despite emitting the least greenhouse gases, only contributing 2-3% of all global emissions. This year, there was little...
Protestors in Ecuador defy state of emergency
Occasionally violent demonstrations against the government’s economic policies are ongoing, led by Indigenous groups now looking to overthrow President Guillermo Lasso. Amid rising inflation and unemployment, Indigenous groups in Ecuador have defied a state of national emergency imposed in three provinces as they continue to protest the government’s economic...
UK has considered fifty new fossil fuel projects since COP26
At least three projects have received government approval and are to be carried out over the next three years. Fifty more are known to be in the works. While I’m privy to dishing out good news on Fridays, it’s pretty hard to ignore the revelation that the UK government has considered at least 50 new fossil fuel schemes since hosting COP26 last November. As world leaders spent a week making false...
Measles outbreak hits Zimbabwe killing more than 24 children
The Ministry of Health and Child Care is battling a measles outbreak by administering vaccines to children in Manicaland Province, Mutasa District, and the rest of the country’s regions. The government has rolled out a mass vaccination in Mutasa District with an aim to vaccinate all children aged between six months to fifteen years - regardless of their vaccination status. According to the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, the Covid-19 pandemic...
Colombia elects former guerrilla as first left-wing president
After one of the most contested campaigns in the country’s recent history, ex-rebel Gustavo Petro has won the election with 50.47 per cent of the vote. Gustavo Petro, long-time legislator, and a former fighter in the M-19 militia who’s promised profound social and economic change, has won Colombia’s presidential election with 50.47 per cent of the vote. The victory makes him the South American country’s first leftist head of state and...
What is causing the USA’s worst baby formula shortage in decades?
As lawmakers inch closer to overturning Roe v Wade, America is experiencing the worst baby formula shortage it has seen in decades. The ongoing crisis is disproportionately affecting lower-income families. It’s a situation that sounds like it belongs in a dystopian TV show, but just as reproductive rights are being snatched from millions of American women, parents are finding themselves unable to attain food to feed to their children. Wrapping your...
