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Poverty

Portrait photo of a woman

Microfinance was meant to help the world’s poor, but in Cambodia, it’s plunging people deeper into debt

Business, Economics and Jobs

Microfinance was hailed as a way to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people without access to credit. It worked so well that Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus was awarded a Nobel Prize. But then, banks jumped in to get in on the profits. To manage high debt levels, Cambodians are migrating for work, eating less and even pulling their children out of school.

crowd with flags

‘We want democracy’: Lula’s supporters celebrate his victory over Bolsonaro for the presidency in Brazil

Elections
A health worker checks a man's temperature during door to door screening in an attempt to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Jika Joe informal settlement in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, April 16, 2020.

Policymakers rush to stave off economic collapse on the African continent

Economics
Residents of Chicago's Englewood neighborhood gather for a candlelight vigil against gun violence.

This new book looks at all the kids killed by gun violence on a random day in America

Conflict

Was that extreme weather event influenced by climate change?

Technology
Women on the street

These Indian women said they could protect their local forests better than the men in their village. The men agreed.

Environment

Empowered by a law giving them claim to their forests, village women are patrolling to keep poachers out.

Fourteen year-old Nuru Sheha studies at night in the light of solar-powered LED lights at home in the village of Matemwe, on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. He family's first electrical system was installed by one of Zanzibar's 13 "solar mamas," illiter

Zanzibar’s ‘Solar Mamas’ flip the switch on rural homes, gender roles

Environment

On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, hundreds of households too poor and remote to have access to the electrical grid are getting low cost solar power for the first time, from a group of local female engineers trained by and Indian NGO. It’s the first of several “solar mamas” projects planned for parts of rural Africa, and it’s turning some traditional gender roles on their head.

Peace marches have been held to protest against anti-foreigner marches in South Africa.

Journalist discusses witnessing the murder that shocked South Africa

Conflict

The daylight murder of a foreign migrant in front of journalists has shocked South Africa. But Emmanuel Sithole was only one of the victims of South Africa’s xenophobic riots.

The Edmonton Public Library says it will ban library sleepers starting on May 1.

Wake up! There’s no snoozing allowed in this Canadian library

Health

At the Edmonton Public Library in Alberta, Canada, snoozing in the stacks will now be banned. The new rule is part of the library’s effort to redirect homeless library patrons to more appropriate support services.

Clean water a casualty of civil war in South Sudan

Host Hari Sreenivasan talks to Manyang David Mayar about the situation in South Sudan where flooding and unrest has made it extremely difficult to find clean drinking water.Host Hari Sreenivasan talks to Manyang David Mayar about the situation in South Sudan where flooding and unrest has made it extremely difficult to find clean drinking water.