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It's been a little less than a year since scientists made the stunning announcement that they'd discovered a seventh species of Great Ape. But the Tapanuli Orangutan's story may be over before it's really begun: it is perilously close to extinction, and a massive hydropower dam being built in Sumatra as part of China’s immense Belt and Road Initiative should be the final nail in its coffin. Bill Laurance warns this is just the first of a series of environmental crises that will be sparked by the ambitious Chinese initiative.
Brazil is in the grips of a homelessness crisis, a situation highlighted by the huge fire that struck historic downtown São Paulo this week. It killed one person and razed a building that housed several hundred squatters. Patricia Rodrigues Samora explains what the fire reveals about the rise in urban homelessness Brazil has seen in recent years and the nation's growing squatter movement.
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The imperilled Tapanuli Orangutan in northern Sumatra.
© Maxime Aliaga
Bill Laurance, James Cook University
A US$1.6 billion dollar dam in Sumatra threatens the recently discovered and desperately imperilled Tapanuli Orangutan.
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Firefighters did not expect to find hundreds of homeless families squatting in a São Paulo building that caught fire on May 1.
REUTERS/Leonardo Benassatto
Patricia Rodrigues Samora, Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas
Hundreds of homeless people were living in an abandoned police headquarters in São Paulo when a massive fire broke out on May 1. The residents were part of a scattering nationwide movement in Brazil.
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Arts + Culture
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Meredith Shaw, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The reclusive country’s media is tightly controlled and choreographed. But a close look at the tone and focus of the coverage can shed light on the regime’s priorities and resolve.
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Nick Malherbe, University of South Africa
Social psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró's work reminds us of the urgency to bring all psychology into the orbit of liberation. Doing so allows a necessarily ambitious conception of liberation.
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Nigel Gibson, Emerson College
Thinking with Karl Marx on his 200th birthday means recognising the importance of thought.
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Science + Technology
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Derek Hodgson, University of York; Paul Pettitt, Durham University
Figurative art may derive from Neanderthal hand prints and the hunter's keen eye for perceiving animals.
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Politics + Society
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David J. Wasserstein, Vanderbilt University
A mummy unearthed during construction in Iran may be the body of a former shah. For the Islamic regime, the discovery is an unwelcome reminder of Iran's secular past. For protesters, it holds promise.
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Health + Medicine
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Kendra Coulter, Brock University
Wild animals are hard at work this spring. Here's how their hard labour benefits humans, and why we should be more appreciative.
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