Hey, I Just Met You, And This
Is Crazy. He's My Husband...

Nan Levinson, 06/28/12

Boston-based journalist

Victim is one of the two roles we allow our soldiers and veterans (the other is, of course, hero), but most don't have PTSD, and this isn't one of those stories.

Elisabeth Braw, 06/28/12

Senior Reporter, Metro International

For the first time ever, a woman could win Mexico's presidential election. Recently Vázquez Mota added an unexpected twist to the campaign by asking her female followers to withhold "hanky panky" until their husbands agree to vote.

Lisa Schirch, 06/28/12

Director, 3P Human Security

The seduction of drones' short-term impacts loses its appeal alongside the significant long-term strategic and moral costs of this tactic.

Seema Jalan, 06/28/12

Global Development Policy Director, Women Thrive Worldwide

The crisis in the Sahel has gone on for far too long, with far too little coverage from media around the world. This means that women and their families have been suffering silently while the situation continues to worsen.

Louis Belanger, 06/28/12

Spokesperson, Oxfam

Yesterday Oxfam and Amnesty drove a tank around central London, startling passers-by and even getting stopped by the police for a documentation check.

James Thornton, 06/28/12

CEO, ClientEarth

In the U.K. and the rest of Europe, when it comes to the environment, judges often don't know the law. And they can be wilful in remaining ignorant.

Robert Walker, 06/28/12

President, Population Institute

While Rio 20 did not produce any major environmental breakthroughs, there is hope on another front: population. An international family planning summit will take place in London on July 11, World Population Day.

David Tereshchuk, 06/28/12

Print, broadcasting & web journalist; Author, 'The Media Beat'

Many British papers and news broadcasts have dwelt insistently on the personal poignancy of this moment for the Queen -- considering the IRA's assassination in 1979 of her relative, Lord Louis Mountbatten, whom she used to call "Uncle Dickie".

Rachael Akidi, 06/28/12

Senior Producer, BBC World Service (Africa)

When the people of South Sudan went to a referendum in January last year to decide on whether to split from Sudan, the result was decisive. Nearly 99% voted in favour of independence. After decades of instability, many Southern Sudanese hoped that separation from Sudan would end the country's troubles and pave the way for democratisation and essential development.

Beatrix Richards, 06/28/12

Head of Forest Policy and Trade, WWF

The air is acrid and the flames are scorching the grass around this huge bonfire. I am in Gabon, central Africa, watching tonnes of elephant ivory go up in smoke. There are 1,293 elephant tusks and a huge amount of confiscated ivory that has been carved into a myriad of products fuelling the fire.

Alex MacDonald, 06/27/12

Feelance journalist and filmmaker

In two weeks the arms fair Farnborough is coming to the UK with its official welcome reception to be held in the Natural History Museum. Masquerading as an airshow, the fair will bring together 37 buyer countries including Algeria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Libya. People need to take greater awareness of the dark nature of the international arms trade. Nonsense about how it's our only manufacturing base left need to be dismissed (only around 55,000 people work in arms exports today) and we need to realise the incredible harm that is caused around the world by an unregulated arms trade.

Bianca Jagger, 06/27/12

Founder and Chair, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation

What Rio+20 has demonstrated is that we can no longer stand by and wait for world leaders to provide solutions to prevent us from reaching the tipping point, or point of no return.

Jeffrey Laurenti, 06/27/12

Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation

There are still some patriotic citizens willing to join the cabinet of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; he swore in new ministers Tuesday. But if any of them still imagined that the unrest gripping the country could be safely contained, they now have heard differently.

Dr. Reese Halter, 06/27/12

Broadcaster, conservation biologist

When humans brutally massacre sharks for their fins (finning them alive and throwing them back into the sea) food webs unravel.

Endy Zemenides, 06/27/12

Executive Director, Hellenic American Leadership Council

Europe's economic crisis has exposed not only the institutional weaknesses of the EU, but also its lack of solidarity.

Matthias Krug, 06/27/12

Writer, journalist; Author, 'Selfishness'

The final of the Euro (the football tournament) takes place this Sunday in the midst of the ongoing crisis of the euro (the currency). Unfortunately and perhaps inevitably, sport has been invaded by political and financial metaphors these days.

Ned Colt, 06/27/12

Asia and Middle East communications manager, The International Rescue Committee

They cross the open desert in a single file, sometimes well over a hundred Syrians in a single group. The darker the night, the safer they are from Assad's border guards. For more than a year, it's been a fluctuating but constant flow.