In international politics, it is often assumed that wars end when the fighting becomes unbearable and the parties turn to diplomacy. But diplomacy requires interlocutors — figures with the standing to negotiate and the authority to deliver. Remove them, and a war loses not only its potential mediators but the very possibility of a settlement….

A ninth woman has been found dead in South Africa’s Ekurhuleni municipality in about two months, intensifying concerns over violence against women and prompting renewed scrutiny of the government’s response to the country’s femicide crisis. The latest victim was found on Thursday morning in Dawn Park, a residential area of Boksburg, east of Johannesburg. The…

Boko Haram fighters are using the artificial intelligence chatbots of Big Tech companies to help build more powerful bombs, plan attacks and solve problems during combat, according to research by the University of Cambridge. Researchers interviewed 27 former members of Boko Haram’s two factions – the ISIL affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jama’at…