What’s really at stake in the US moves to target TikTok? | Social Media

What’s really at stake in the US moves to target TikTok? | Social Media

Who owns the narrative? If United States lawmakers are to be believed, it is currently at risk of being hijacked by China, disseminated on de-facto spyware by impressionable youth swiping short-form videos in their bedrooms. Official tutting at TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is nothing new. The prospect of a…

Israel flattened my home, killed my family. But I lit a candle for Gaza | Israel War on Gaza

Israel flattened my home, killed my family. But I lit a candle for Gaza | Israel War on Gaza

Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip — As we bid farewell to 2023 and welcome 2024, the tragic scenes of ongoing war persist in Gaza. Who could have anticipated such widespread devastation, loss of life, pain and tears? Who could have foreseen the displacement, expulsion, intimidation and suffering? Who could have predicted…

Kenyan farmers battle toxic legacy of locust plague three years on | Agriculture

Kenyan farmers battle toxic legacy of locust plague three years on | Agriculture

Garissa, Kenya – In January 2020, one of the biggest locust plagues to hit the Horn of Africa in 70 years landed in Garissa, a remote town in northeastern Kenya near the Somali border. The region is honeycombed with small-scale croplands growing mostly maize and an array of produce –…

‘Turbulence’ hits India-US ties after Sikh separatist murder plot | Politics News

‘Turbulence’ hits India-US ties after Sikh separatist murder plot | Politics News

New Delhi, India — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not known to give interviews to the media. In late December he made an exception and spoke to the London-based Financial Times, which had first reported on how the United States government had thwarted an alleged plot hatched by an…

Peace and potato chips: Dreams big and small as 2024 approaches in Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict

Peace and potato chips: Dreams big and small as 2024 approaches in Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict

Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – It is bitterly cold, and people are trying to build adequate shelter to protect themselves in a new refugee camp set up in Deir el-Balah to cope with the overwhelming numbers of people fleeing in search of safety. In the camp, which is close to…

‘Outraged’: Brazilian Muslims face growing Islamophobia over Gaza war | Islamophobia News

‘Outraged’: Brazilian Muslims face growing Islamophobia over Gaza war | Islamophobia News

Sao Paulo, Brazil – It wasn’t unusual for patients to arrive in a foul temper at the hospital emergency room in São Paulo, Brazil, where physician Batull Sleiman worked. After all, every day brought new medical crises, new requests for urgent care. Sleiman had seen it all. But she was…

A library of the ‘future’: Can it make the world a better place? | Features

A library of the ‘future’: Can it make the world a better place? | Features

Oslo, Norway — Every May, literature lovers from all over the world walk 40 minutes through the hilly Nordmarka Forest outside of Norway’s capital Oslo and stop at a place where 1,000 Norwegian spruce, planted in 2014, are slowly growing. Here, the foresters make coffee on a fire and people…

Analysis: Has Israel weakened Hamas enough to win the war on Gaza? | Gaza

Analysis: Has Israel weakened Hamas enough to win the war on Gaza? | Gaza

Almost 23,000 people – the vast majority Palestinian – have been killed since the unprecedented Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7, which launched the Israeli assault on Gaza. As the end of 2023 approaches, the Israeli offensive is showing no signs of any let-up and the death toll…

Photos: Romania’s annual Dancing Bears Festival to ‘ward off evil spirits’ | In Pictures

Photos: Romania’s annual Dancing Bears Festival to ‘ward off evil spirits’ | In Pictures

Centuries ago, people in what is now northeastern Romania donned bear skins and danced to fend off evil spirits. That custom is today known as the Dancing Bears Festival, drawing crowds of tourists every December. Hundreds of people of all ages, clad in bear costumes, dance every year around Christmas to the…