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When media company NZME proposed the closure of 14 community newspapers last week, the so-called “news desert” encroached a little further into the local information landscape.

The term refers to those many regions in both town and country where newspapers that for generations have kept their citizens informed – and local politicians and planners (mostly) honest – have been shut down.

As a metaphor, the desert evokes a sense of arid emptiness and silence. But it also suggests a featureless place where we lose a sense of direction. Many of these papers were their community’s central or only source of verified local news.

Research from the United States has shown the death of a local newspaper leaves citizens struggling for information about community events, and feeling more isolated. People worry about a loss of community pride and identity. Volunteers struggle to fill the void.

Among the NZME titles facing closure for being unprofitable is the Te Awamutu Courier, which has been publishing for more than a century. It and its stablemates may well soon join the 28 local papers Stuff sold or closed in 2018.

Between those two headline events many other little papers have gone, financial burdens on their owners in an age of online advertising and shifting consumption habits. Those that still exist, at least the ones owned by major news publishers, are often shadows of their former selves.

The power of a local press

The effect of this trend, of course, is to remove a kind of media town square. Affected communities are left to the perils of community social media, which are not professionally moderated, can be defamatory, and which post largely unverified content.

The Te Awamutu Courier has survived more than a century.

For all the faults that come with local newspapers – and most journalists can tell you about an editor who was too vulnerable to influence, or a publisher who meddled in the newsroom – these news organisations connect their communities to their cultural, physical and human geographies.

Good ones – and there have been many – identify the social issues that unite and divide their communities, and then represent and champion their readers or play the role of moderator.

Authorities are put on notice when local coverage amplifies the complaints and demands of residents and ratepayers. When enough pressure on politicians and officials is exerted in this way, things have even been known to change.

The papers that survive now are often the ones which reinforce a strongly-felt community identity in places as diverse as the West Coast of the South Island, Waiheke Island and Mahurangi.

Readers will rally behind a paper that gets behind them, and a collective voice of sorts emerges. A community’s struggles – be they over housing, employment or the environment – help define its identity, building knowledge and resilience.

A training ground for good journalism

In telling these stories, young journalists (many of whom are destined for metropolitan newsrooms later in their careers) learn how government is meant to work – and how it actually works in practice.

It’s where they learn how to report without fear or favour, how to find reliable sources, and where official information can be accessed – the nuts and bolts of journalism, in other words.

It’s also often where journalists first experience the powers of the bureaucracy and the executive. There’s nothing like a bully on a local board or a vindictive council official to help a young reporter up their game.

Of course, local politics are now often conveyed via social media in disordered, fragmented and incendiary ways. Politicians and other powerful players can reach voters directly, telling their own stories, effectively unchallenged.

Yet this persuasive power, and the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation, only underscore the need for political information to be ordered and moderated by accountable community journalists.

Digital solutions struggle

Newspapers do seem anomalous today, it’s true. Growing pine forests to share news is, frankly, quite ridiculous.

But online-only ventures in community news have largely struggled. Crux, a Central Otago site for robust community journalism since 2018, was proposed as a model for a network of regional news sites, but it has recently gone into hibernation.

According to its founder, journalist Peter Newport, Crux had “tried, tested and implemented every single type of digital publishing innovation”. Newport has instead taken to Substack, where freelancers can build paying newsletter audiences, to publish his brand of investigative community journalism.

With Google now threatening to stop promoting New Zealand news content if the government goes ahead with the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, the plight of local papers is in danger of being overshadowed by a wider crisis. Whole television news networks have closed, and others are being hugely downsized.

Elsewhere, philanthropists such as the American Journalism Project are recognising the risk to democracy and social unity from the loss of local news sources, and are funding attempts to restore it. As yet, however, a sustainable model has yet to rise.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, there are now calls from local councils themselves to strengthen existing government support for local-democracy reporting. This and more should be done. The longer we wait, the closer the news desert creeps every day. Läs mer…

When leaders visibly champion diversity and equality in the workplace, they send a clear message that such values are not only encouraged, but integral to their organization’s culture. Allyship can significantly improve workplace experiences for marginalized employees by amplifying their voices and addressing injustice.

One critical focus of allyship is tackling gender disparities in the workplace. Women face many challenges in the workplace, including being under-representated in leadership positions and experiencing higher rates of harassment. Given the workplace barriers women continue to face, gender allyship from leaders is especially needed.

But how do male employees respond when they witness acts of gender allyship from their leaders? Do they follow suit or react in ways that undercut these efforts? This question is particularly important because male employees typically outnumber allyship-focused leaders in organizations. As a result, their reactions to allyship can greatly affect its efficacy.

How male employees respond to allyship

To better understand this issue, our research explored how male employees respond to leader allyship across three studies. A total of 946 male employees from various industries took part in our research.

We used experimental designs to systematically explore the factors shaping male employees’ responses to leader allyship. This approach allowed us to isolate the influence of contextual and individual factors on their reactions.

To study gender allyship, we exposed participants to scenarios where a leader made statements supporting gender equality and then measured their reactions. The scenario featured a statement from Marc De Belsunce, an executive at French bank BNP Paribas, that explicitly expresses support for gender equality.

We found that a critical factor that shapes how male employees respond to allyship is the sense of connection they feel with their leaders. This sense of connection is, in turn, influenced by the context and authenticity of their leader’s allyship efforts. This connection can either amplify or weaken a leader’s impact, underscoring the ripple effect of allyship.

Allyship can spread — or backfire

Our research shows that male employees’ sense of connection with their workplace leaders determine whether they react positively to leader allyship. Employees who feel connected to their leaders tend to trust and respect them and are more likely to emulate their behaviours. In this way, a leader’s allyship can inspire male employees to act as allies to their female colleagues.

However, the opposite effect can also occur. When male employees feel disconnected from ally leaders, this allyship can backfire, reducing male employees’ support for female coworkers.

The context where allyship takes place matters. In male-dominated industries or teams, allyship can seem out of place or disingenuous. For example, in a tech company with few women engineers, allyship initiatives might appear forced, leading to skepticism and even backlash against women colleagues.

When male employees feel a personal connection to an ally leader, they’re more likely to adopt that leader’s behaviours.
(Shutterstock)

Our results show that in workplaces with few women, male employees are more likely to feel disconnected from ally leaders, which can trigger behaviours that undermine allyship, like excluding women from work-related projects.

The authenticity of allyship also plays a key role. Leaders who back up their allyship statements with concrete actions to promote gender equality foster strong connections with male employees, inspiring them to become allies themselves.

Yet, even authentic allyship often fails to inspire male employees in male-dominated contexts, where allyship efforts may still be perceived as disingenuous or out of place. This highlights a paradox: allyship is most needed in male-dominated settings, yet is most likely to backfire there.

Ensuring allyship doesn’t backfire

To encourage male employees to become allies without risking backfire, our research offers three practical strategies for workplace leaders.

1. Fostering connections. Leaders should prioritize building genuine relationships with their teams. When male employees feel connected to an ally leader, they’re more likely to emulate their behaviours.

Leaders can foster connection by listening to employees’ concerns, showing humility and seeking input from them on workplace issues. Involving employees in decisions around diversity can build a sense of unity and purpose.

Ultimately, employees are more inclined to follow leaders they see as both relatable and committed to their well-being. Our research suggests that leaders who already have strong connections with employees are best positioned to encourage allyship.

Authenticity in allyship demonstrates that diversity and equality are true organizational priorities rather than superficial gestures.
(Shutterstock)

2. Modelling authenticity. Authentic allyship is marked by consistent actions, not just words. Leaders who take tangible steps — such as mentoring women, supporting flexible work policies and addressing bias — are seen as trustworthy and inspire connection. This connection is key to promoting allyship among male employees.

Authenticity not only fosters connection but also reinforces organizational values, making allyship a visible priority rather than a superficial gesture. However, in male-dominated settings, even authentic allyship can be challenging.

Performative allyship, on the other hand, where leaders speak about allyship but fail to act consistently, can backfire, eliciting reduced support for female colleagues. As such, it is critical for leaders to align their actions with their declarations of support.

3. Leveraging storytelling. In settings where employees are resistant to allyship, storytelling can be an effective tool to make it seem more relatable.

Organizations like Microsoft have featured stories about allyship on their websites. Our research supports this approach: by sharing relatable stories about male employees engaging in allyship, leaders can normalize allyship behaviours.

A leader might share a story about a male employee speaking up about a biased promotion process, for instance. This approach is especially impactful when the story features a peer, making allyship more accessible and encouraging others to mirror this behaviour. Such stories can bridge the gap between ideals and daily practice, illustrating how allyship can unfold in everyday scenarios.

Advancing equality at work

Leader allyship holds promise for advancing workplace gender equality, but its success depends on how well leaders connect with their employees, the authenticity of their actions and the context in which these efforts are made.

By fostering genuine connections, acting consistently and using storytelling to normalize allyship, leaders can help ensure their allyship efforts spread rather than backfire. Läs mer…

Walking through the delegation pavilion at the UN climate summit, Cop29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Moana blue Pacific pavilion grabbed my attention more than any other.

This pavilion is named after the spirited young girl from the animated film Moana. She embodies the courage and determination of Pacific islanders and younger generations as she goes on a voyage to save her island from environmental harm.

There’s a similar fight happening in the real world as small island developing states and youth activists push for climate action – I call this the “Moana effect”.

At the pavilion, one delegate from Vanuatu poignantly told me “we’re tired” of the negotiations so far. Those two words encapsulate the exhaustion of nations on the frontline of climate change. The challenge is real, and action is urgently needed. The voices of small island developing states and youth must be amplified across the globe in order to make substantial progress.

The first Moana movie, released a year after the Paris agreement for climate change in 2015, evokes a sense of advocacy for the environment. Moana 2 will be released on November 29, a week after Cop29 ends. This sequel embodies a sense of belonging and global solidarity which is a central theme to this year’s global climate negotiations.

As Azerbaijan’s Cop29 president, H.E. Mukhtar Babayev, has said, “this can be when we empower everyone to move forward in solidarity for a green world”.

Susan Ann Samuel (centre) at the Moana pavilion during Cop29, with members of the Secretariat Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

Here in Baku, I have been noticing an increasing push by small island developing states and youth activists and liken this to Moana’s own mission. Small island developing states bear a disproportionate brunt of climate consequences.

They face existential threats and vulnerabilities from rising sea levels to extreme weather and biodiversity loss, among other challenges, despite their minimal contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.

This paradox, coupled with their extensive advocacy and insufficient global support, has led to growing frustration among these nations. This is why Papua New Guinea delegates are not attending Cop29 – a silent yet powerful statement of discontent with the slow pace of international negotiations. This is especially since the re-election of Donald Trump, with a risk that the US – and perhaps other countries – might pull away from their climate commitments again.

Voices from each and every small island developing state need to be listened to, and heard. The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, recently called for a face-to-face discussion about climate with Trump, to seek a “common ground in saving planet and saving livelihoods”.

As a researcher on UN climate negotiations, I worry that won’t happen.

Moana heads off on another voyage in the film Moana 2.
Disney

Listening to young voices

On December 2, the International Court of Justice will begin its public hearings on the request for advisory opinion on climate change. An advisory opinion is a legal interpretation offered by a court or tribunal when an authorised body or nation seeks its insight. These opinions aren’t legally enforceable but serve to unpack legal questions and offer guidance.

This initiative was started by 27 law students from Vanuatu in 2019 who spearheaded a movement from a classroom. This court decision could change how the world prioritises the rights of small island developing states, thanks to youth activists.

This is part of the socio-political and legal push by small island developing states and youth activists that I call the Moana effect.

These people are inspiring courage among other young people, students, researchers, Indigenous peoples, women and civil society organisations to reimagine a more resilient future. The Moana effect is not just about raising awareness. It’s about enhancing the agency of these people to drive meaningful change.

Moana is a story of a young activist fighting for change in the face of environmental threats.

As we edge closer to the 1.5°C threshold, action is more urgently needed than ever before. Cop29’s central focus is to bolster climate finance.

Youth activists, young negotiators and small island developing nations play a crucial role as the world decides on how best to do this. The UN approach to “leave none behind” starts with inclusivity, at Cop29 and beyond.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far. Läs mer…

British TV presenter Davina McCall has undergone neurosurgery to remove a colloid cyst – a type of benign brain tumour.

McCall was diagnosed with the tumour by chance. In an Instagram video posted in November 2024, she explained:

A few months ago, I did a menopause talk for a company and they offered me a health scan in return, which I thought I was going to ace. But it turned out I had a benign brain tumour called a colloid cyst, which is very rare – three in a million.

Colloid cysts are rare examples of fluid-filled cerebral tumours, which account for less than 1% of diagnosed brain tumours.

They develop in the ventricles – the fluid containing chamber system inside the brain – which produce cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). CSF is ultra-filtered blood which allows nutrients and important chemicals to circulate in and around the brain, and provides additional protection.

Normally, CSF passes back into the bloodstream, but different conditions – including tumours – can affect this. A growing tumour can obstruct CSF, so, instead of being able to pass back into the bloodstream, the fluid can start to accumulate inside the brain. This is called hydrocephalus – otherwise known as “water on the brain”.

Since the skull is like an immovable protective box, the build up of fluid raises the pressure inside the head. It’s this pressure increase that causes symptoms like headaches, nausea and vomiting.

But colloid cysts are not the only condition that can cause these symptoms. Other types of brain tumour can develop from neurones (nerve cells). Glial cells, which support and insulate neurones, can form more common brain tumours known as gliomas.

Even cells which aren’t part of the brain, but wrap around it for further protection, can transform into tumours. The layers of tissue known as the meninges (which get inflamed in meningitis) can turn into meningiomas. These can grow to significant sizes. They are considered “giant” if more than 5cm in diameter.

The largest brain tumour on record was 570g in mass, removed from a four year old boy in India in 2000.

Cerebral tumours are classified according to whether they are benign – growing, but not spreading – or malignant (cancerous), and capable of moving to other parts of the body. Some brain tumours can develop from the spread (metastasis) of cancers from other parts of the body. This occurs more commonly from the breast, lung, kidney, colon and skin.

Symptoms

It seems that McCall was symptom free; however, brain tumours can trigger noticeable symptoms – and recognising them early is critical.

Like all cancers, brain tumour prognoses vary according to the type of tumour – but also how much it has grown or spread when diagnosed. It’s important, then, to recognise cancers of any type as soon as possible to prevent progression.

Unfortunately, the symptoms associated with brain tumours are often non-specific. Nausea, vomiting and headaches are all commonplace symptoms. They can also be caused by many other conditions.

The most suspicious headaches are those that suggest increased pressure in the brain. These headaches tend to be worse when waking in the morning, changing posture, or when accompanied by vomiting. If you notice a headache like this – or one which is persistent, worsening or changing – and any of the other symptoms I’ve mentioned, then do contact your GP. Be reassured, though, that fewer than 1% of patients with a headache will actually have a brain tumour.

Brain tumours can cause other general symptoms, too, such as changes in vision, dizziness and new-onset seizures. In fact,
one of the indicators for an urgent CT head scan is a first time epileptic seizure to check whether a tumour is the underlying cause for the fit.

Other symptoms depend on where a tumour is located – since it will interfere with the normal function of that brain region. For instance, if a tumour is located within the cerebellum at the back of the brain, the patient may find it difficult to walk steadily, or notice a tremor. This is because the cerebellum is responsible for controlling balance and fine tuning body movements. If a tumour develops in the temporal lobe, which processes sounds and stores memories, a patient might experience hearing or memory loss.

A brain tumour diagnosis can trigger fear and uncertainty. McCall’s experience shows that tumours can be hidden and silent and might only be found by chance. But there is growing hope in existing and evolving treatment options for different tumour types.

The ultimate take-home message: always see your GP if you experience any of the above symptoms. Läs mer…

Video games have always been a showcase for new technologies. They help create new audiences and new markets. In the 1990s, computer parts manufacturers advertised the speed of their video cards in terms of the frames they could render per second of popular video games like Quake.

Developing and playing video games takes up a lot of computing power, but relatively little consideration is given to the rising cost to the environment. Big-budget video games come with big energy costs. Advanced graphics, immersive technology and artificial intelligence are consuming unprecedented amounts of power, locking the game industry and high-performance computing in a climate death spiral.

But video games can still help us imagine new ways to use new technologies, and great gaming does not have to be carbon intense.

At Concordia University’s Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, our research group — the Minecraft Bloc — is designing low-power, low-carbon Minecraft experiences that are still fun to play.

As the COP29 summit gets underway and zero-emissions goals seem further away than ever, we must find new pathways for people to imagine plausible low-carbon futures.

Minecraft is one of the most popular games around the world.
(Shutterstock)

SunBlock One

Minecraft is one of the most played video games on the planet. It’s what is called a sandbox game. Players are able to navigate, build and alter their worlds in a variety of ways.

Despite its kid-friendly esthetics, the average age of Minecraft players is around 23. The carbon emissions related to any one gaming console or PC are minimal, but as an unchecked aggregate, the global long-term carbon cost of many millions of game hours starts to be significant.

In the Minecraft Bloc, we aren’t just interested in making games with a message about energy transition. We want to make energy transition part of our games. Our group has been thinking about ways to get video game players to consider the systems that power their game worlds. We are asking this question: What happens when we put players into direct contact with the nuts and volts of computing?

The solar panel used to power the SunBlock One server.
(Minecraft Bloc), Author provided (no reuse)

SunBlock One is a solar-powered Minecraft server that lives on the roof of a downtown building at Concordia University in Montréal.

SunBlock One runs on an inexpensive mini-PC connected to a 12V 50Ah lithium ion battery powered by a 100 Watt solar panel. To make software development easier for ourselves and others, we use a Java-based Forge-modded version of Minecraft, which is supported by one of the largest game-modding communities in the world.

To connect our server’s power system directly to the game world, we designed a simple data logger and in-game heads-up display (HUD). The HUD tells our players the real-time status of the battery, the power draw of the CPU and system, and the power being produced by the solar panel, along with details about the local time and weather in Montréal, all visible in real time. With a full battery charge from a sunny day, we can run SunBlock One on idle at very respectable 10-12 watts for nearly 48 hours.

This is already significantly less power than the average commercial Minecraft servers most players use, but we are not doing this to save energy. Instead, what we want to show is the direct relationship between playing video games and energy use.

Gameplay with SunBlock One

One interesting discovery we made early is that flying in Minecraft consumes more power than walking. Minecraft players everywhere know that finding an Elytra (a set of wings for the player to use) is one of the great rewards of the game. In our world, though, too much flight will deplete the battery faster and shorten the uptime of the server.

This tradeoff becomes even more interesting in multiplayer games, where the actions of one player have serious consequences for the experiences of others. Will some players work out ways of co-ordinating their play to maximize energy efficiency and server uptime? Will others essentially drain power by flying around indiscriminately?

These are the same difficult questions we must ask ourselves as our societies move to deploy alternative energy technologies, then discover that there is no quick technological fix for the climate crisis.

The use of energy has always been a social problem related to equity and distribution, not just a technical one, but our ignorance of this crucial difference comes from our ability to take energy for granted.

Minecraft gameplay from the SunBlock One server.
(Minecraft Bloc), Author provided (no reuse)

Just the beginning

The next part of the story could get interesting. Imagine a global network of Sunblock servers sharing a single game world powered across time zones, creating a solar-powered metaverse.

Imagine integrating client computers into our multiplayer server prompting players to compete with one another to create the lowest powered game system. Imagine a worldwide community of players turning carbon-neutral gaming into a cultural phenomenon, like carbon-intensive gaming is now, but with something urgent and real to gain.

SunBlock One matters because it allows players’ experience of alternative energy infrastructure to be visible to them, while still being entertaining and playful. By making the systems that power the game part of the game itself, we point out the direct relationship between power usage and game play at the same time that we are opening up a whole new genre of gaming. Läs mer…

Mention the word “fossils” to people and most will probably think of bones. Of course, body fossils make up a large part of the global fossil record. But humans and other species leave their mark in other ways too – for instance, their tracks. The study of these fossil tracks and traces is called ichnology.

I am an ichnologist. In 2008 my colleagues and I launched the Cape South Coast Ichnology Project to study a 350km stretch of South Africa’s coastline. We’ve since identified more than 350 vertebrate tracksites, most of them in cemented dunes called aeolianites that date back to the Pleistocene Epoch (also known as the Ice Age), which began about 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago.

At a global level it is rare to find fossilised hominin tracks. There is something very special about them: a fossil trackway looks as if it could have been created yesterday, and the fact that our own ancestors would have created such tracks fills them with extra meaning. It’s always a thrill for researchers to find them.

We knew from the region’s extensive archaeological record that ancestral humans inhabited the region during the Pleistocene. And Homo sapiens tracks had been identified elsewhere in South Africa, on the Cape east coast in the 1960s and the Cape west coast in the 1990s. But, given their rarity, we weren’t banking on hominin tracks being among our finds.

We were fortunate. In 2016 we found 40 hominin tracks on the ceiling and side walls of a cave at Brenton-on-Sea, near the town of Knysna on the Cape south coast. In subsequent years we have been privileged to find more hominin tracksites, all on aeolianite surfaces on the Cape coast. One discovery, in the Garden Route National Park, even included the oldest Homo sapiens footprint identified anywhere in the world – it dates back about 153,000 years.

Read more:
World’s oldest _Homo sapiens_ footprint identified on South Africa’s Cape south coast

Now we’ve documented a cluster of nine hominin trace fossil sites at Brenton-on-Sea: seven tracksites, and two open-air archaeological sites containing tools, shells and bone (which help us understand the diet of our ancestors). One of the tracksites is the original site found in 2016. Our analysis shows that it contains the oldest known evidence of a human running. Another site shows evidence of toddler tracks alongside those of adults.

A cluster of nine sites

Each site within this 1,200 metre stretch of coastline is from a different rock unit and they appear to span a considerable time interval. Adjacent rocks have been dated using a technique known as optically stimulated luminescence to a range of between 113,000 and 76,000 years (that is a measure of how long ago grains deep within the rocks were exposed to light).

The nine sites are not easy to find: some were only briefly exposed following storm surges, and are now again covered by metres of sand, while others can only be safely accessed using ladders. At one site, the space between the track-bearing layer on the ceiling and the surface below it was so tiny that we had to bring in our caving colleagues – who love working in confined spaces – to properly document it. The rest of us struggled to fit into the narrow gap.

This cave, in rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old, is situated close to the cluster of tracksites, and may have been habitable at the time the tracks were made.
Charles Helm, Author provided (no reuse)

The Cape south coast hominin tracks are unusual at a global level. With most hominin tracksites across the world, it is usually the layer in which the tracks were made that is preserved. However, on the Cape south coast the tracks are mostly preserved as natural casts, formed by sediment that filled the tracks. This is why our team often finds tracks on the undersides of overhangs and cave ceilings: show us an overhang from the right age and type of rock and within a few seconds we will have crawled under it and started looking up at the ceiling.

In two cases, we have found both the infill layer on the ceiling, and a fallen slab beneath it containing the track-bearing layer, a phenomenon that as far as we know has not been described from anywhere else in the world. And globally, hominin tracks found in aeolianites (made on sandy dune surfaces) are exceedingly rare.

Close to the cluster of nine sites are caves containing unexcavated archaeological material beside much older Paleozoic rocks. These caves might well have been exposed and habitable at the time that all these tracks were registered. In addition, for most of this time period, the shoreline would have been not too distant, about 2km-3km seaward of the modern coastline, which would have allowed for coastal foraging. These factors may help to explain why there are so many tracks in one relatively small area.

Unfortunately, one site could not be interpreted because it was defaced by graffiti before we could get to it.

Read more:
Graffiti threatens precious evidence of ancient life on South Africa’s coast

The oldest evidence of humans using sticks

Three of the Brenton-on-Sea sites also contain some of the oldest known evidence of humans using sticks. The organic matter from which such sticks were composed would long since have decayed, and the ichnology (trace fossil) record therefore provides what is probably the only viable means of identifying such stick use.

Sticks could potentially have been used as walking or running aids, to cope with ambulating with an injury, in foraging techniques, for messaging, or for what might be aesthetic purposes, such as inscribing patterns in the sand.

An ancestral ‘home base’

Together, the sites containing these hominin tracks and traces provide complementary evidence not just of a human presence through footprints, but also of the behaviour of our ancestors, providing details of their activities, their tools and their diet.

They confirm the importance of the Cape coast as a region of great importance in the evolution of Homo sapiens prior to the subsequent diaspora out of Africa. The great preponderance of hominin tracksites older than 50,000 years has now been documented from South Africa’s Cape coast, and a cluster of seven tracksites, like the one we have described, is extremely unusual globally.

We now know where and how to look for such tracks and traces, and our eyes are trained on finding further evidence that tells us more about one of humanity’s ancestral “home bases” and the activities of those who inhabited it. Läs mer…

Ghanaian elections have become much more challenging for politicians. In the past they have often been characterised as nothing more than an ethnic headcount. But since the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, there’s been a growing share of swing voters.

We discovered this trend in a study, which corroborates others.

We define a swing voter as someone who has voted for a different party in the previous four presidential elections or one who has cast a split-ticket ballot during that period.

As researchers of democratic developments on the African continent, we were interested in the increasing power swings on the continent, especially Ghana.

Ghana, which held its last elections in 2020, is scheduled to go to the polls in December 2024.

We surveyed over 3,000 voters randomly selected from 33 of Ghana’s 275 constituencies. We also sampled different regions. We included the Greater Accra region for its demographic diversity and status as the national capital.

From our data, 29.69% of respondents reported they had voted across party lines before in presidential or parliamentary elections since the 2008 elections. That is, almost three in 10 of the Ghanaians in our study had cast a swing vote before. In 2000, only 13% of Ghanaian voters were swing voters.

The data showed that clientelism (the practice of distributing material benefits in return for political allegiance) fails to explain this change. Perceptions of party performance have become more important.

We found that those most likely to change support between elections were men, older voters and people with more schooling. The least likely swing voters according to ethnic group were Ashantis and Ewes. However, Ewes were more likely than other groups to cast a split-ticket vote.

The rising share of swing voters in the country’s elections may be good for the country. It creates uncertainty in electoral outcomes, which should encourage more political accountability and responsiveness to voters’ needs. It also creates more competitive and issue-focused electoral environments.

Clientelism’s role

Clientelism is publicly frowned upon in Ghana, but it has been widespread in the past. Even in the Fourth Republic, which began in 1992, major political parties like the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party continue to engage in patronage, often using state resources to win voter support. This practice has contributed to socio-economic inequalities. It has enabled the political elite to reinforce power structures by focusing limited resources on voters whose loyalties are most easily swayed by modest material inducements.

There are two forms of clientelism: positive and negative. Positive clientelism is the use of gifts or promises of gifts to buy electoral support. Negative clientelism refers to threats of violence or losing gifts if voters fail to vote as expected.

In our study, core voters (individuals who have voted for the same party in the last four presidential and parliamentary elections) were more likely to report that they received gifts or promises of favours from their party. They also reported that those gifts were important to their vote choices. Specifically, voters who reported receiving gifts from a political party before elections were 23% less likely to vote for the other party.

However, for voters who reported experiencing threats of violence or forfeiture of benefits, the likelihood of swing voting was higher. That is, when voters are threatened, they were found to be 24% more likely to revolt by casting swing votes.

This implies that positive clientelism might still help maintain party loyalties, but negative clientelism might turn people into swing voters. This dynamic might also imply a backlash against coercive tactics, a trend that fuels the growing tendency for voters to take political parties’ gifts but vote against them anyway.

Read more:
Why members of parliament in Ghana can get away with ignoring voters

Political party performance

One of the strongest determinants of swing voting was found to be voters’ perceptions of party performance. Voters who prioritised the performance records of political parties, particularly in terms of public goods provision and governance, were 48% more likely to report having cast a swing vote before.

This suggests that a growing number of voters in Ghana are moving away from clientelist-driven voting and are instead evaluating political parties based on their ability to deliver on campaign promises and improve national welfare.

Demographic factors

The analysis also highlighted certain demographic factors that influence swing voting. For instance, older voters, urban residents, and those with higher levels of education were more likely to be swing voters. These groups of voters are more likely to have greater access to political information and a higher political awareness, allowing them to focus more on policies than on partisan ideologies.

Gender differences were also noted, with females being less likely to swing their vote compared to males. Ethnic factors were significant as well, with certain ethnic groups, such as the Ashanti and the Ewe, being less likely to swing their vote. The Ashanti have historically rallied around the New Patriotic Party while the Ewe rallied around the National Democratic Congress because these parties were seen as representing the interests of their ethnic groups.

The Ewe were one of the leading split-ticket voting groups in the country, however – mainly in regions outside of their home Volta Region.

The findings of our study suggest that the traditional models of Ghanaian electoral behaviour, which emphasise clientelism and ethnic loyalty, don’t explain the dynamics of contemporary elections.

The shift towards performance-based voting could have significant implications for political parties. Those that fail to deliver on their promises or that rely too heavily on clientelist strategies may find it difficult to maintain their electoral base. Läs mer…

Zimbabwe’s government undertook a survey in 2023 to ascertain how many children were living on the streets of the country’s second biggest city, Bulawayo. The most recent numbers were from a similar 2015 survey, the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Welfare told reporters – and, in the intervening eight years, it was clear that many more children had ended up on Bulawayo’s streets. The situation is similar in the capital city, Harare; in July 2024 it was reported that some “rowdy street kids” were robbing people in the city centre.

The phenomenon of children living and working on the streets is not a uniquely Zimbabwean problem.

Accurate figures are hard to come by: in 1989 Unicef put the estimated global population of street children at 100 million; it gave the same estimate in 2002 and 2005. More recent figures suggest that as many as one in five of the world’s children are living or working on the streets. (There are about 2 billion children aged between 0 and 14 in the world.) The lack of reliable figures shows that this is a hidden population. They are mobile and often unnoticed by others.

There are many reasons that children choose to leave their homes and attempt to eke out a living on the streets. These include their basic needs, like adequate food and shelter, not being met, neglect by their families and a desire to support themselves or their families.

But the situation has been made worse in Zimbabwe by several factors. The country’s decades-long economic crisis saw the national poverty rate hit 72% in 2019. Millions of Zimbabweans go hungry each day, a situation worsened by climate-induced shocks.

Read more:
Zimbabwe: El Niño drought causes major drop in Lake Kariba levels – a disaster for people and wildlife

Life on the streets leaves children vulnerable to extreme weather, like cold spells and heat waves, as well as violence and diseases. Since most children drop out of school either before or when they leave home, they also lose out on opportunities to learn, develop and ultimately better their circumstances. Schooling is a sort of social vaccine against a number of ills.

Many scholars consider family reunification the best way to help vulnerable children such as those living on the streets. Researchers argue that it’s necessary to identify and solve the problems that lead to separation, and provide proper support to the family. Studies have shown that children are more likely to return to the streets if the family hasn’t been supported.

However, many governments across Africa take the view that family reunification involves nothing more than returning children to their homes.

I am a psychology scholar with a focus on child development. With several colleagues, NGOs and government representatives, I set out to test a different approach to family reunification. We worked with children, parents and guardians who were going through a reunification process to help them build resilience. The process strengthened family bonds, provided children with both livelihood and schooling opportunities – and, ultimately, means there’s less chance that they’ll return to life on the streets.

Giving children agency

The study, which took place over a period of two years (2022 to 2024) in Harare, involved 24 children (aged between 9 and 18) and their families. Some children had spent as few as two days on the streets; others had been living on the streets for months. The longer a child has lived on the streets, the lower the chances of a successful reunification as they may have adapted or feel there’s no need to return home.

Officials from the Department of Social Development and Volunteers for Vulnerable Children, an organisation that provides reunification support in Harare, helped me to identify participants.

Many of the children cited parental neglect and abuse, poverty, peer pressure, and divorce as reasons for leaving their homes and staying on the streets. A few had been orphaned. Some of them left their homes looking for employment in the city and ended up on the streets having failed to secure jobs.

One of the most important aspects of this study was that it centred the children and their voices. Children are often considered too vulnerable and immature to have the agency to suggest solutions to the problems they face at home. This view neglects the fact that these children leave their homes to stay on the streets and then voluntarily decide to return – a solid sign of their agency.

Once the children had outlined the challenges they experienced at home, we brought them together with their families and community leaders, such as village heads and community care workers, to talk about strategies to strengthen their family bonds, build their collective resilience and keep the children at home.

The project provided livelihood support and parental training and linked the children with government support for education and communities for food support. One family that that had become homeless was helped by their community to find a shelter while two homeless children were reintegrated with foster parents.

All 24 of the children, in consultation with their guardians and community participants, decided that they wanted to return to school. They also wanted the chance to run their own small businesses, such as buying and selling goats or chickens, or buying and reselling other goods.

There was a clear commitment from all parties to making the reunification process work. One of the children’s fathers said:

I thank you for this initiative, I hope that my daughter passes her school and reaches her full potential. I promise to do anything in my power to do my best in supporting her education beyond what you have done.

And one of the children told us: “I am very thankful for this project, I am now back in school and have my goats for use in the future.”

We followed up by visiting the children and their families at their homes together with officials from our partner NGOs, social development officials from government, community care workers or a combination of these groups. As of August 2024 all 24 children were still living at home with their families and 22 were back at school.

Looking forward

This initiative is similar to a model that’s been successfully tested in many Latin American countries, combining therapeutic approaches, livelihood support and educational support to ensure that family reunification is sustainable.

Our results suggest that this kind of intervention can work in Zimbabwe. We hope that the method can be scaled up and used elsewhere in the country to help children get off the streets, back to their families and education – and to ensure that their best interests are kept at the heart of all reunification programmes. Läs mer…

Home insurance rates are rising in the United States, not only in Florida, which saw tens of billions of dollars in losses from hurricanes Helene and Milton, but across the country.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, homeowners insurance increased an average of 11.3% nationwide in 2023, with some states, including Texas, Arizona and Utah, seeing nearly double that increase. Some analysts predict an average increase of about 6% in 2024.

These increases are driven by a potent mix of rising insurance payouts coupled with rising costs of construction as people build increasingly expensive homes and other assets in harm’s way.

When home insurance averages $2,377 a year nationally, and $11,000 per year in Florida, this is a blow to many people. Despite these rising rates, Jacques de Vaucleroy, chairman of the board of reinsurance giant Swiss Re, believes U.S. insurance is still priced too low to fully cover the risks.

It isn’t just that premiums are changing. Insurers now often reduce coverage limits, cap payouts, increase deductibles and impose new conditions or even exclusions on some common perils, such as protection for wind, hail or water damage. Some require certain preventive measures or apply risk-based pricing – charging more for homes in flood plains, wildfire-prone zones, or coastal areas at risk of hurricanes.

Homeowners watching their prices rise faster than inflation might think something sinister is at play. Insurance companies are facing rapidly evolving risks, however, and trying to price their policies low enough to remain competitive but high enough to cover future payouts and remain solvent in a stormier climate. This is not an easy task. In 2021 and 2022, seven property insurers filed for bankruptcy in Florida alone. In 2023, insurers lost money on homeowners coverage in 18 states.

But these changes are raising alarm bells. Some industry insiders worry that insurance may be losing its relevance and value – real or perceived – for policyholders as coverage shrinks, premiums rise and exclusions increase.

How insurers assess risk

Insurance companies use complex models to estimate the likelihood of current risks based on past events. They aggregate historical data – such as event frequency, scale, losses and contributing factors – to calculate price and coverage.

However, the increase in disasters makes the past an unreliable measure. What was once considered a 100-year event may now be better understood as a 30- or 50-year event in some locations.

What many people do not realize is that the rise of so-called “secondary perils” – an insurance industry term for floods, hailstorms, strong winds, lightning strikes, tornadoes and wildfires that generate small to mid-size damage – is becoming the main driver of the insurability challenge, particularly as these events become more intense, frequent and cumulative, eroding insurers’ profitability over time.

A tornado tore the roof off a home in Madison, Tenn., in 2023. The 2024 tornado season was one of the busiest on record.
Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Climate change plays a role in these rising risks. As the climate warms, air can hold more moisture – about 7% more with every degree Celsius of warming. That leads to stronger downpours, more thunderstorms, larger hail events and a higher risk of flooding in some regions. The U.S. was on average 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer in 2022 than in 1970.

Insurance companies are revising their models to keep up with these changes, much as they did when smoking-related illnesses became a significant cost burden in life and health insurance. Some companies use climate modeling to augment their standard actuarial risk modeling. But some states have been hesitant to allow climate modeling, which can leave companies systematically underrepresenting the risks they face.

Each company develops its own assessment and geographic strategy to reach a different conclusion. For example, Progressive Insurance has raised its homeowner rates by 55% between 2018 and 2023, while State Farm has raised them only 13.7%.

While a homeowner who chooses to make home improvements, such as installing a luxury kitchen, can expect an increase in premiums to account for the added replacement value, this effect is typically small and predictable. Generally, the more substantial premium hikes are due to the ever-increasing risk of severe weather and natural disasters.

Insurance for insurers

When risks become too unpredictable or volatile, insurers can turn to reinsurance for help.

Reinsurance companies are essentially insurance companies that insure insurance companies. But in recent years, reinsurers have recognized that their risk models are also no longer accurate and have raised their rates accordingly. Property reinsurance alone increased by 35% in 2023.

Reinsurance is also not very well suited to covering secondary perils. The traditional reinsurance model is focused on large, rare catastrophes, such as devastating hurricanes and earthquakes.

Maps illustrate the average loss from flooding alone and expected increases by mid-century. About 90% of catastrophes in the U.S. involve flooding, but just 6% of U.S. homeowners have flood insurance.
Fifth National Climate Assessment

As an alternative, some insurers are moving toward parametric insurance, which provides a predefined payment if an event meets or exceeds a predefined intensity threshold. These policies are less expensive for consumers because the payouts are capped and cover events such as a magnitude 7 earthquake, excessive rain within a 24-hour period or a Category 3 hurricane in a defined geographical area. The limits allow insurers to provide a less expensive form of insurance that is less likely to severely disrupt their finances.

Protecting the consumer

Of course, insurers don’t operate in an entirely free market. State insurance regulators evaluate insurance companies’ proposals to raise rates and either approve or deny them.

The insurance industry in North Carolina, for example, where Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage, is arguing for a homeowner premium increase of more than 42% on average, ranging from 4% in parts of the mountains to 99% in some waterfront areas.

If a rate increase is denied, it could force an insurer to simply withdraw from certain market sectors, cancel existing policies or refuse to write new ones when their “loss ratio” – the ratio of claims paid to premiums collected – becomes too high for too long.

Since 2022, seven of the top 12 insurance carriers have either cut existing homeowners policies or stopped selling new ones in the wildfire-prone California homeowner market, and an equal number have pulled back from the Florida market due to the increasing cost of hurricanes.

To stem this tide, California is reforming its regulations to speed up the rate increase approval process and allow insurers to make their case using climate models to judge wildfire risk more accurately.

Florida has instituted regulatory reforms that have reduced litigation and associated costs and has removed 400,000 policies from the state-run insurance program. As a result, eight insurance carriers have entered the market there since 2022.

Looking ahead

Solutions to the mounting insurance crisis also involve how and where people build. Building codes can require more resilient homes, akin to how fire safety standards increased the effectiveness of insurance many decades ago.

By one estimate, investing $3.5 billion in making the two-thirds of U.S. homes not currently up to code more resilient to storms could save insurers as much as $37 billion by 2030.

In the end, if affordability and relevance of insurance continue to degrade, real estate prices will start to decline in exposed locations. This will be the most tangible sign that climate change is driving an insurability crisis that disrupts wider financial stability.

Justin D’Atri, Climate Coach at the education platform Adaptify U and Sustainability Transformation Lead at Zurich Insurance Group, contributed to this article. Läs mer…