When floods struck the Kurdistan region of Iraq earlier this month, it was a deluge that demonstrated how fragmented governance and weak state capacity can transform climate hazards into humanitarian and security crises.

Ford’s CEO was so impressed by the Xiaomi SU7 that he now uses it as his daily driver. The Chinese-made electric vehicle (EV) has a 345 mile driving range on a single charge and costs just $30,000. There is nothing like it in the U.S.

A majority of Americans now say they are more concerned than excited about encountering AI in their daily lives. The implications of this sentiment are beginning to dawn on Wall Street investors, who are starting to worry about a potential mismatch between investor enthusiasm and consumer reality.

The latest poll in a series of Afrobarometer surveys reveals just where Africans unite on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)—and where they diverge. There is strong support for women’s autonomy in marriage and reproductive decisions, but clear divisions on contraceptive access. 

The numbers are staggering. A third of the food produced in the world is lost or wasted—from farms and food processing factories to grocery stores, restaurants, and homes. This growing mountain of rotting food is a major methane emitter, accounting for 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, with the United States and China as leading food wasters. 

Pakistan’s summer sun is relentless, but its golden rays may hold a promising clean energy solution. 

During my visit to that country last summer, an energy sector expert I met expressed amazement that Pakistan had imported 13 gigawatts of solar modules from China in the first six months of 2024. Media reports celebrated how even remote villages were adopting rooftop solar systems. International observers lauded Pakistan’s “stunning solar boom.”

For decades, China has been the dominant force in hydropower development across the Mekong subregion, financing, and constructing massive dam projects that have transformed Southeast Asia’s economic and environmental landscape. Many analysts have framed this expansion as a meticulously orchestrated strategy to extend Beijing’s economic and geopolitical influence. But this narrative obscures a more complex reality—one in which China’s dam-building in the Mekong has been shaped by trial and error, reactive policy shifts driven by external shocks, local resistance, and intensifying geopolitical competition.

In a rural, hard-to-reach area of Blantyre district in southern Malawi, Ephraim Louis cannot imagine where his life would be without the solar panel on the roof of his house. “I am not a captive of darkness anymore,” says Louis, 42. “It’s been more than 10 years since I installed this [solar panel] system. We still don’t have the main grid anywhere near us and no one here thinks it will ever come.”