Category: Analysis
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Africa’s borrowing costs are too high: the G20’s missed opportunity to reform rating agencies
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Misheck Mutize, Post Doctoral Researcher, Graduate School of Business (GSB), University of Cape Town One of the commitments the South African presidency of the G20 made in its policy priorities document at the beginning of 2025 was to push for fairer, more transparent sovereign credit ratings.…
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What’s still needed after the Pope’s residential schools apology? Sustained action, humility and heart
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tiffany Dionne Prete, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, University of Lethbridge As we observe National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it is relevant to remember the late Pope Francis. As the first Latin American and Jesuit Pope, his leadership was marked by efforts to face difficult issues,…
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How to identify animal tracks, burrows and other signs of wildlife in your neighborhood
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Steven Sullivan, Director of the Hefner Museum of Natural History, Miami University A paw print in baked mud at Joshua Tree National Park, likely from a coyote. Brad Sutton/National Park Service Your neighborhood is home to all sorts of amazing animals, from racoons, squirrels and…
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Chickenpox: why the UK has approved the MMRV vaccine in under-fours but the US is preparing to restrict it
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Helen McDonald, Senior Lecturer, Life Sciences, University of Bath Two countries, two different approaches to protecting children from chickenpox. While the UK prepares to introduce a combined vaccine covering measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) in a single jab, the US is moving in the opposite…
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From ‘refrigerator mothers’ to paracetamol: why harmful autism myths are so common
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lindsay O’Dell, Professor of critical developmental psychology, The Open University Nicoleta Ionescu/Shutterstock US president Donald Trump’s claim that pregnant women should avoid paracetamol – a statement that is both harmful and not backed by the science – fits into a long and damaging tradition of blaming…
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Prediabetes remission possible without dropping pounds, our new study finds
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andreas L. Birkenfeld, Professor, Diabetology, Endocrinology and Nephrology, University of Tübingen New Africa/Shutterstock.com There’s a long-held belief in diabetes prevention that weight loss is the main way to lower disease risk. Our new study challenges this. For decades, people diagnosed with prediabetes – a condition affecting…
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Ending taxes on home sales would benefit the wealthiest households most – part of a larger pattern in Trump tax plans
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Beverly Moran, Professor Emerita of Law, Vanderbilt University Not long after U.S. housing prices reached a record high this summer – the median existing home went for US$435,000 in June – President Donald Trump said that he was considering a plan to make home sales…
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Who invented the light bulb?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ernest Freeberg, Professor of History, University of Tennessee Eureka, what an idea! TU IS/iStock/Getty Images Plus Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Who invented the light bulb?…
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A billion-dollar drug was found in Easter Island soil – what scientists and companies owe the Indigenous people they studied
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ted Powers, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis The Rapa Nui people are mostly invisible in the origin story of rapamycin. Posnov/Moment via Getty Images An antibiotic discovered on Easter Island in 1964 sparked a billion-dollar pharmaceutical success story. Yet the history…
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How Dorothea Tanning’s ‘Birthday’ painting challenged male-dominated surrealism
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Sally Jane Brown, Curator, West Virginia University Do the seemingly endless doorways represent a woman trapped in domesticity or infinite ways out? Philadelphia Museum of Art When American artist Dorothea Tanning painted “Birthday” in 1942, she announced her arrival – an artistic birth, as she…