Recent graduates from across West Africa complete their five-week Young Africa Leadership Initiative training, Accra, Ghana, Sept. 3, 2015 (U.S. Embassy Ghana photo via Flickr).

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and host Peter Dörrie discuss global violence and discrimination against women, the political crisis in Guinea-Bissau, and the need to give Syrian refugees the right to work. For the Report, Ernest Nti Acheampong joins us to talk about how young entrepreneurs are driving economic growth in Africa. Listen: Download: MP3Subscribe: iTunes | RSS Relevant Articles on WPR: The World Needs a Peace Treaty Between Men and Women WPR Global Insider Interview Series on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Deal to End Guinea-Bissau’s Deadlock Instead Stokes Risk of Another Coup Many […]

This photo released on Feb. 2, 2015 by the Iranian Defense Ministry, claims to show the launching Safir-e Fajr, or Ambassador of Dawn, satellite carrier in an undisclosed location in Iran (AP photo by the Iranian Defense Ministry).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on a range of countries’ space priorities and programs. The head of Iran’s space agency announced plans last month to launch three satellites into orbit within the next year: the Doutsi earth-observation satellite, the Tolou remote sensing satellite and the Aat Sat telecommunications satellite. In an email interview, John B. Sheldon, the chairman and president of ThorGroup GmbH, a Swiss-based consulting company, and publisher and editor of SpaceWatch Middle East, discusses Iran’s space program. WPR: What are Iran’s space capabilities, in terms of its space-industrial complex, and what are […]

President Barack Obama at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Nairobi, July 25, 2015 (AP photo by Evan Vucci).

NAIROBI, Kenya—When U.S. President Barack Obama attended the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2015, it helped place Africa in the global limelight as an emerging entrepreneurship hub. At the event, global leaders, business executives, mentors, young entrepreneurs and high-level government officials reiterated the crucial role of entrepreneurship in economic development, creating new jobs, driving technological innovations and enhancing economic growth. Many speakers specifically called for African governments to put in place strategies to support the growth of enterprises. Africa is already taking advantage of its youth demographic dividend to push young entrepreneurs to contribute to the continent’s […]

A soldier during exercise Immediate Response 16, Slunj, Croatia, Sept. 12, 2016 (Army photo by Staff Sgt. Opal Vaughn).

Technology that will have a profound, potentially revolutionary impact on the U.S. military is on the way. Some innovations—like new materials, new fuels, automation, autonomy, new manufacturing methods, 3-D printing and better energy storage—will simply make military machines faster, lighter, smarter, cheaper and more accurate. But other technologies have the potential to change and enhance humans themselves. “We want our warfighters to be made stronger, more aware, more durable, more maneuverable in different environments,” ethicist Patrick Lin wrote in the Atlantic in 2012. Neuroscience, biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence and new drugs may pave the way for dramatic human enhancements, […]

Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi prior to the launch of the Soyuz MS space ship, Kazakhstan, July 7, 2016 (AP photo by Dmitri Lovetsky).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on a range of countries’ space priorities and programs. Last month, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced plans for a network of radar and optical telescopes that will track foreign satellites as well as space debris, which it hopes will be fully functional by 2022. In an email interview, Yuichiro Nagai, a researcher at the Policy Alternatives Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, discusses Japan’s space policy. WPR: What are Japan’s space capabilities, in terms of its space-industrial complex, and who are its major international partners, in terms […]

European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager gives a press conference on a case against Apple, Brussels, August 29, 2016 (EU Commission photo by Georges Boulougouris).

In late August, the European Union ordered Ireland to collect more than $14 billion in unpaid taxes from Apple. The move followed an investigation by the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, which found that Apple’s effective corporate tax rate on its European profits had fallen from 1 percent in 2003 to just 0.005 percent by 2014. At a press conference announcing the move, the EU commissioner responsible for competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said that “member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies—this is illegal under EU state aid rules.” EU member states are allowed to set […]

Demonstrators protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, Hannover, Germany, April 23, 2016 (AP photo by Markus Schreiber).

Trade is essential to every economy in the world. But policies to further liberalize trade are under attack. Both U.S. presidential candidates oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiated by President Barack Obama with 11 other Pacific Rim countries, though Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has supported it in the past. The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organization and impose steep tariffs on imports from China and Mexico if they do not comply with his demands. In June, a majority in the United Kingdom—albeit a slim one—voted to leave the European Union, the world’s […]

An Emirati man walks by a photovoltaic plant at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 16, 2011 (AP photo by Kamran Jebreili).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on countries’ risk exposure, contribution and response to climate change. An epic heat wave engulfed the Middle East this summer, with temperatures reaching as high as 129 degrees Fahrenheit in Kuwait in July, and climate experts warn the region could become too hot for human survival. In an email interview, Mohamed Abdel Raouf, a research fellow at the Gulf Research Center, discusses climate change’s impact on the Gulf. WPR: What are the Gulf countries’ risk exposure to climate change, what effects of climate change are already apparent, and what […]