Ghana

US consumers have plenty of reasons to snap up electric vehicles. They are helping the US meet its climate goals, and new owners may qualify for a tax credit. But some of their old cars end up on roads across Africa. These vehicles provide vital transportation in poor countries, but they also cause pollution and are unsafe.

Waste pickers play an important role in the recycling process. But for waste pickers working in a landfill in Accra, Ghana, it’s dangerous work.

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed about 7 million people worldwide, ravaging health care systems and economies. Dr. Atul Gawande, head of global health at the US Agency for International Development, spoke with The World’s Carolyn Beeler about how pandemic recovery “will require as much focus and attention as it did when it first started.”

Uganda recently passed a law that criminalizes homosexuality, punishable by death. LGBTQ people and human rights advocates fear that the Ugandan law may empower anti-LGBTQ movements elsewhere on the continent.

US Vice President Kamala Harris began her weeklong visit to the African continent this week in Ghana. She plans to focus on youth entrepreneurship, and to make a claim for supporting some African countries, as China and Russia have made diplomatic and financial inroads.