Editor's note

The messaging and media sharing platform WhatsApp is ubiquitous in most African countries, Nigeria among them. So it makes sense that WhatsApp was a huge part of that country’s recent elections and the campaigns that preceded it. As Nic Cheeseman explains, there were both pros and cons to the platform’s extensive use.

A number of countries are moving to provide universal health coverage. But South Africa’s proposed National Health Insurance Scheme appears to be on shaky ground. A recent report revealed huge problems in districts where it’s been piloted. There’s another glaring weakness, argue Sasha Frade and Jo Vearey: it excludes care for migrants.

Caroline Southey

Editor

Top Stories

Supporters of Nigeria’s All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, at a rally earlier this year. EPA-EFE/Stringer

WhatsApp played a big role in the Nigerian election. Not all of it was bad

Nic Cheeseman, University of Birmingham

In the recent Nigerian election WhatsApp was used to mislead voters in increasingly sophisticated ways. But it also strengthened democracy in other areas.

Politics + Society

Migrants must be part of South Africa’s universal health plan. Here’s why

Sasha Frade, University of the Witwatersrand; Jo Vearey, University of the Witwatersrand

Excluding international migrants from the public health care system can result in a population wide risk.

How data science in and for Africa can blaze new trails

Wim Delva, Stellenbosch University

Data science, led by Africa-based scientists, could play a key role in addressing all of the continent's crucial needs.

Business + Economy

The way that minerals are mined affects conflict in eastern Congo

Marijke Verpoorten, University of Antwerp; Nik Stoop, KU Leuven; Peter van der Windt, New York University

Artisanal and industrial mining have a different impact on local conflict in eastern Congo.

How Liquefied Natural Gas could change South Africa’s fortunes

Marie Blanche Ting, University of Sussex

South Africa's policymakers see a greater role for liquefied natural gas in the country's energy mix, reduce the country's over-reliance on coal and drive re-industrialisation.

From our international editions

‘Time travel’ as dementia care is spreading, but the future may be more powerful than the past

Kellie Morrissey, Newcastle University; James Hodge, Newcastle University

Dementia villages and care homes that try and recreate the past are unsustainable.

Earth’s ‘boring billion’ years of stagnant, stinking oceans might actually have been rather dynamic

Simon Poulton, University of Leeds

Oxygen flooded the atmosphere for the first time and then ... nothing. Or so we thought.

Curious Kids: How does the stuff in a fire extinguisher stop a fire?

Joseph Lanzafame, Rochester Institute of Technology

What exactly is inside those red fire extinguisher canisters, and does it work better than water?

Why Facebook’s new ‘privacy cop’ is doomed to fail

Bhaskar Chakravorti, Tufts University

There's no way an independent assessor will be able to actually monitor how Facebook might violate or abuse users' privacy in key ways.

 
 
 
 

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