Scientists don’t call it the “Great Dying” for nothing. About 252 million years ago, upward of 80% of all marine species vanished during the end-Permian mass extinction – the most extreme event of its kind in Earth’s history. What followed was a mysterious, multimillion-year span that could be called the “Great Dulling,” when marine animal...
A new book called The Two Princes of Mpfumo tells the fascinating story of a pair of royals from Mozambique in southern Africa whose lives were thrown into chaos by the transatlantic slave trade. We asked historian Lindsay O’Neill three questions about her book. What is the story of the princes? Prince James and Prince...
More than 305 million people require lifesaving humanitarian aid today. Most of them live in areas wracked by conflict, such as Sudan, Gaza, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. By many estimates, there is more need than ever for this assistance – and the need is growing. But humanitarian funding, which is primarily provided...
Salvadoran emigration dropped following that country’s roundup of suspected gang members, according to researchers with The Bush School of Government and Public Service When El Salvador President Nayib Bukele implemented a controversial crime crackdown three years ago, he inadvertently helped answer one of the key questions in U.S. immigration policy: How much do crime and...
EU leaders will have to learn how to stand up to the bully in the White House. Editor’s Note: Trump’s demands that Denmark surrender control of Greenland to the United States is one of his more surprising moves, even by the standards of the new administration. The Carnegie Endowment’s Sophia Besch and European Council on Foreign...
Militaries that have taken power in Africa’s Sahel region – notably Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – have put pressure on western mining firms for a fairer distribution of revenue from the lucrative mining sector. Gold is one of the resources at the heart of these tensions. West Africa has been a renowned gold mining...
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long been a key player in global development, offering assistance in health, education, economic growth, and governance. While its mission is well-intended, USAID has faced growing criticism over inefficiencies, waste, unintended consequences, and the political nature of foreign aid. Given these concerns, dismantling USAID and reimagining...
The transatlantic slave trade was one of the most devastating and inhumane processes in human history. It is the subject of many studies, but the individual life histories of the arrival and survival of enslaved people in foreign lands remain largely untold. A lawsuit filed against a slaver in 1589 in Antioquia (a province in...
In a once-sleepy Ukrainian village north of Kyiv, Mykola Moroz, nicknamed Kolia, answered his doorbell in the early months after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion to find two Russian soldiers and their commander ready to take him into custody. As Kolia’s wife watched in horror, they put a bag over her husband’s head and dragged him...
Handcuffed and squatting on the floor, Abdullah Zahra saw smoke rising from his cellmate’s flesh as his torturers gave him electric shocks. Then it was Zahra’s turn. They hanged the 20-year-old university student from his wrists until his toes barely touched the floor and electrocuted and beat him for two hours. They made his father watch...
