An unborn baby in Rio de Janeiro was killed recently when a stray bullet pierced his mother’s belly. Little Arthur was one of hundreds of people injured or killed by crossfire this year, as heavily armed gangs and police do battle in this city’s poorest neighbourhoods. Rob Muggah, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, reports from the city and explains why Rio’s stray bullets are the predictable result of aggressive law enforcement tactics that prioritise confrontation over crime prevention.
Plus, we bring you reports and analysis of Kenya’s annulled election, South Africa’s chronic unemployment crisis, and Scandinavia’s lurch to the radical right.
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Aggressive police patrolling of Rio’s poor favela neighbourhoods has turned streets into battlegrounds, with innocent bystanders in the middle.
Reuters/Bruno Domingos
Robert Muggah, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
In Rio de Janeiro, a stray bullet kills or injures one person every seven hours.
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Politics + Society
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Nick Bisley, La Trobe University
North Korea wants the security and prestige of nuclear weapons. It won't give them up.
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Mette Wiggen, University of Leeds
It's not just the US which is seeing a rise in support for neo-Nazi organisations and right-wing politics. In Scandinavia it's infiltrating the mainstream.
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Dominic Burbidge, University of Oxford
By failing to provide details on what invalidated Kenya's election, the country's Supreme Court has created an impossible timeline for organising re-elections within 60 days.
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Business + Economy
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Derek Yu, University of the Western Cape
A deeper analysis of South Africa's joblessness reveals a scarier picture of large sections of the population suffering, especially the country's youth.
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Science + Technology
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Constantino de Jesús Macías García, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); MIchael Ritchie, University of St Andrews
Parents' DNA try to manipulate one another in a bid to shape junior in their mould.
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Christian Matthews, Liverpool John Moores University
It's not all plain sailing when it comes to autonomous ships – they could make accidents at sea more severe and even end up being more expensive to run.
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