The Hit List – Old Girls’ Weekend
I’m off this weekend for a blissful three days with two of my favorite gals….
The Hit List – Old Girls’ Weekend
I’m off this weekend for a blissful three days with two of my favorite gals. I’ve never attended a “slumber party” before, so it’s a first. (The recent weekend with my lil sis doesn’t count.) It’s hard to tear me away from the office, but this was long overdue. What are our plans? I’m not…
Renewables, Farmer Aggregation Offer Solutions to Africa’s Post-Harvest Losses
At the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, experts explored how renewable energy can ease the burden on farmers. Here Shifra Ainomugisha poses beside a solar-powered irrigation system in Uganda. She was named the 2026 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year for the development of AI and solar-powered agricultural technologies. Credit: Solar Farm Uganda…
For Pakistan Rising Fistula Cases Make SDG 3 Goal Elusive
Shehnaz Ali from Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, has been living with a fistula for 16 years. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS By Zofeen EbrahimKARACHI, Pakistan, Oct 2 2026 (IPS) “You’re living a life drained of joy,” is how Shehnaz Sher Ali describes her “perpetually wet and stinky” existence. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,”…
SUDAN: ‘It’s Shocking to Be Forced into Silence Simply Because You Are a Refugee’
By CIVICUSOct 2 2026 (IPS) CIVICUS discusses life as a refugee with an exiled Sudanese civil society activist who has asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. Over three years into Sudan’s war, millions of people have been displaced, both within the country and beyond its borders, and the numbers keep rising. Fighting continues…
The Ingenuity Trap
Mariam Daher preparing for her Tawjihi examinations in the temporary learning spaces in Gaza. Credit: Education Above All Foundation By Hani ShehadaDOHA, Qatar, Oct 2 2026 (IPS) In the 21st century, getting a pencil into Gaza became international news. In January, after more than two years of restrictions, UNICEF finally brought in learning kits with…
If We Can Start an Epoch, We Can Start a Farming Revolution
Members of Smallholder Farmer Alliance in Haiti with first harvest of regenerative cotton. Credit: Thomas Norielle/SFA By Hugh LockeNEW YORK, Oct 2 2026 (IPS) In November 1952, the United States detonated the world’s first thermonuclear device at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The test, code-named Ivy Mike, erased the island of Elugelab and scattered…
Scientists recreate the universe’s first moments and find something they didn’t expect
Physicists smashed gold nuclei together at nearly the speed of light and found an unexpected pattern in the particles these collisions sprayed out. If confirmed, that pattern could help reveal how the hot soup of quarks and gluons that filled the universe in the first few microseconds after the Big Bang cooled and condensed into…
First photos from Smile spacecraft show Earth like you’ve never seen it before
Earth glows like a half moon while a giant aurora writhes over the North Pole in this ultraviolet image from the new Smile spacecraft. (Image credit: ESA & CAS/Smile/UVI CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) Quick facts What it is: An aurora on the sunlit side of Earth Where it is: Over the North Pole, as seen…
Do animals experience schadenfreude?
In 2023, an African gray parrot named Jack went viral for When cats make trouble for their owners, they may not be experiencing schadenfreude but rather just want attention. (Image credit: Zhenny-zhenny via Shutterstock) To truly experience a complicated emotion like schadenfreude, an animal needs to understand the emotional states of both itself and others…
1 in 8 cancer cases are caused by infections, underscoring the importance of vaccines, experts say
About 1 in 8 cancer cases are caused by infections with viruses, bacteria or parasites, a new study finds, suggesting that one of the most effective ways to reduce cancer rates might be to prevent common infections. In a new analysis published Sept. 28 in the journal As with HPV, there is a highly effective…
