PUBLICATIONS

Author: Kaira Ray Villanueva September 4, 2026 [Image credit: Gilles Lambert/Unsplash] Introduction Mark Zuckerberg released a whitepaper that reads like a manifesto declaring that connectivity should be a human right. The paper concluded with a proposal to expand internet access, especially in remote areas, through Free Basics, one of Meta’s standalone applications originally launched in 2013. Access to Free Basics is region-dependent. More than fifty-five countries across A

Author: Paul Gould September 3, 2026 [Image credit: Pexels] The second Trump administration and its approach to scientific research have been defined by efforts to undermine trust in established national and international institutions of research and policy. In seeking to upend international norms for how research is conducted, scrutinized, and verified, the administration is simultaneously reducing the number of opportunities for conducting research by universities, governm

Author: Violet Nyirongo September 2, 2026 [Image credit: Nikita Pishchugin/Unsplash] Introduction An older person is one of 60 years or older (Malawi National Policy for Older Persons, 2016). Old age is the last stage in the life process of an individual, usually accompanied by cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes (Luis & Anabela, 2023). Globally, population aging is occurring at a much faster rate than in the past, and all countries face a major challenge in ensurin

Author: Mathilde Guenin, MS September 1, 2026 View the interactive report on Tableau This research highlights the human rights consequences of unsafe migration pathways by examining the prominence of different migration routes taken over time, who is taking them, and their consequences. As illustrated in Chart 1, since 2014, deaths and disappearances along migration routes globally have reached two major peaks: around 8,300 people were recorded dead or missing in 2016, and ap

Authors: Mariyam Yumna Azeez, LLM and Pradanya Nagru, MS Design and Layout: Deanna Wilken, MA August 28, 2026 Iranian missiles [Image credit: Moslem Daneshzadeh via Unsplash] Introduction Wars are rarely felt equally. The missiles, the sanctions, the closed straits and collapsed supply chains do not land with the same weight in Washington as they do in Kano, in Karachi, in Colombo, in Nairobi. The architecture of global conflict is built by a handful of powerful states, and i

Author: Sabrina Ochoa, JD August 27, 2026 Protest march in Manila, Philippines [Image credit: Mico Medel/Pexels] Introduction On April 24, 2026, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) found substantial grounds to believe that Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, had committed the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder in the context of his administration’s “war on drugs.” As Duterte faces trial before the ICC for h

Author: Darius Smith August 26, 2026 [Image credit: Tosin James/Unsplash] Introduction Jamaica regularly finds itself with one of the highest murder rates in the world. Like most other Caribbean countries, Jamaica has a small population, just under 3 million people. Small populations mean that even a few murders can greatly impact the overall murder rate. Most of the murders in Jamaica occur in the inner cities in gang-controlled areas that have faced a lack of economic oppor

Author: Suyash Pasi August 25, 2026 Workers wearing head-mounted cameras for AI and robotic training. [Image credit: R Satish Babu/AFP] India is emerging as an important hub for egocentric data, where workers use head-mounted cameras to shoot footage of their physical movements and interactions for AI and robotics training. A variety of established and new companies have begun collecting this data, but gaps in India’s current data privacy laws, along with reported concerns a

Author: Javeria Ali August 21, 2026 [Image credit: Steve A Johnson/Unsplash] Introduction Traditionally accepted domains of military strategy — namely air, land, sea, space, and cyber — have been joined by a new domain: the human brain. Popularly recognized as a form of ‘cognitive warfare’, the term’s definition varies widely, which is pivotal to the context in which it is used, as there is no consensus on its meaning. NATO’s Research, for example, in reporting its cognizance

Author: Olivia Weninger August 20, 2026 Colombian President-Elect, Abelardo de la Espriella [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons] On Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026, Colombia’s President-Elect and political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella officially won the election by the narrowest presidential margin in Colombian history, with only 250,830 votes separating the two candidates (Al Jazeera, 2026). While de la Espriella was barely victorious, the messages and themes in his campaign are