South Africa's spaza shops: how regulatory avoidance harms informal workers
Feb 25, 2020 12:52 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Small informal retailers are ubiquitous feature of any developing country urban landscape. Known as spaza shops in South Africa, they are an important, even vital, component in the townships. Numbering over 100,000 across...

The ancient Greeks had alternative facts too – they were just more chill about it
Feb 25, 2020 12:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views
In an age of deepfakes and alternative facts, it can be tricky getting at the truth. But persuading others or even yourself what is true is not a challenge unique to the modern era. Even the ancient Greeks had to...
Albania's plan against disinformation lets Facebook and powerful politicians off the hook
Feb 25, 2020 12:40 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology Politics
A new set of laws in Albania empowers a government agency to review citizen complaints about online news websites. If a site is found to have published untrue information, official regulators can fine the sites owners and...
Trump White House goes 300+ days without a press briefing – why that's unprecedented
Feb 25, 2020 12:38 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Journalists learn to adapt to current conditions, be they storms or tantrums, vagaries of nature or whims of officials. White House correspondents these days should be well past their withdrawal symptoms from the daily...
Mine waste dams threaten the environment, even when they don't fail
Feb 25, 2020 12:34 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Scars from large mining operations are permanently etched across the landscapes of the world. The environmental damage and human health hazards that these activities create may be both severe and irreversible. Many...
Blacks are at higher risk for Alzheimer's, but why?
Feb 25, 2020 12:31 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health
Blacks are at higher risk for several health conditions in the U.S. This is true for heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and stroke, which are often chronic diseases. And it is also for Alzheimers disease, in...
The hunt for a coronavirus cure is showing how science can change for the better
Feb 25, 2020 12:30 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared an international public health emergency over the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus. One day later, the Wellcome Trust research charity called for researchers,...