News & Current Affairs

By Siddharth Chatterjee — Poverty is a blight, and one that disproportionately affects sub-Saharan Africa. It is a vast and complex issue whose tentacles reach into many areas, including climate change, sustainable development and–crucially–global security. The link between poverty and violent extremism is compelling, and means that if we want to address extremism, we must…

By Jessica Faieta — This month the world marks two key International Days: for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October and for Disaster Reduction, four days earlier. It is no coincidence that they are profoundly connected. Reducing risks related to disasters has never been so urgent—and the Latin America and the Caribbean region bears witness to this. Seven hurricanes have hit the Caribbean…

By Rebekah Barber, Facing South — As a child growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, Cassandra Welchlin witnessed the struggles her mother endured working as a maid. She also learned the importance of serving those in need from her foster grandmother, who instilled in her the importance of taking care of the community’s elderly and disadvantaged. Welchlin took those lessons…

By J. Gabriel Ware, Yes Magazine — A decade ago, researchers reported that more than half of Detroit residents live in a food desert — an area where access to fresh and affordable healthy foods is limited because grocery stores are too far away. Efforts since then to bring more grocery stores — and food security — to predominantly Black neighborhoods haven’t worked.

This weekend, a series of taunting messages from the president led to a widescale protest among players in the NFL, and beyond. Terrell Suggs took a knee. Leonard Fournette took a knee. At a game played in London on Sunday afternoon, many of their fellow Ravens and Jaguars took a knee. Before the Lions met the Falcons in Detroit on Sunday, Rico LaVelle sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And then he took a knee. They were replicating the gesture of Colin Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback who, starting in 2016, had been kneeling…