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Africa’s early mobile money success is finally set to go global
Since launching in 2007, Kenya’s homegrown mobile money system M-Pesa has enabled millions of people to pay for everyday goods and services, access loans, and send money all over the world. In fact, over $28 billion flowed through it in 2015, equivalent to around 44 percent of Kenya’s GDP that Read More...
Could artificial intelligence lead to world peace?
An audience of international peace brokers have gathered inside a room in the historic House of Estates. They have come from South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Ukraine, Colombia and elsewhere to hear a scientist speak. That scientist is Timo Honkela, and his keynote speech on the second day Read More...
Finland's basic income experiment is already lowering stress levels
Four months after Finland's social-security institution Kela launched a two-year experiment in basic income, a system of wealth distribution in which people receive a salary just for being alive, some of the 2,000 recipients are already reporting lower levels of stress. The $600 they receive each Read More...
Universal basic income is gaining support across Europe
The digital economy could make for a very unstable economic future as the Internet is transforming and reducing whole classes of jobs. That’s why the idea of universal basic income is gaining more and more support. With a basic income, every citizen, regardless of employment status, would receive Read More...
Colombia government, ELN rebels to resume peace talks
Colombia's government and the country's last active rebel force, the ELN, will resume peace talks in just over a week, the lead state negotiator confirmed Saturday. The return to the table was meant to have happened last Wednesday but was put off because of an information-sharing meeting in Cuba Read More...
Cities provide paths from poverty to sustainability
New international agreements commit all UN member nations to solving humanity's greatest challenges over the next few decades, from eliminating extreme poverty and unhealthy living conditions to addressing climate change and arresting environmental degradation. But how we'll achieve these Read More...
United Nations: Repealing Obamacare may violate international law
Just when we thought attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act were dead, the GOP tried it again. The latest attempt, which was previously shelved, would grant states “sweeping power” to opt out of key ACA provisions, Politico reported last week. It would leave millions of Read More...
The liberation of the chimpanzee? Legal personhood could be around the corner
For the past three years, an attorney has been filing lawsuits in New York state on behalf of four chimpanzees. They are intelligent and self-aware, he argues. That’s why they should be treated as “persons” for legal purposes, and they should not be kept in cages. The lawsuits are based on Read More...
Notorious Afghan warlord calls for peace in first public speech
MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan In his first public speech since signing a peace deal with the Afghan government, one of Afghanistan's most notorious warlords on Saturday called for the Taliban to stop fighting and begin negotiations. "I invite you to join the peace caravan and stop the pointless, Read More...
Tech alone won’t be enough to reboot progressive politics
Ravi Gupta is standing with both hands resting on the lip of a lucite podium. Some 600 audience members, including his mother, are staring intently back at him. Few of them have ever worked in politics before, but they’re all here to hear the former Obama administration staffer tell them how they Read More...