As the euphoria surrounding the inclusion of these ten athletes from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo fizzles out, several questions linger. What does the creation of Team ROA mean, and whom does this team actually represent? What are the legacies of this move? We argue that the creation of Team ROA should be celebrated as a call for more awareness of the world’s refugees. 

American linguistics professors and students assisting an effort by members of a tribe in Kenya in creating teaching materials for their language. We at The World in Words podcast wanted to find out more about this. Is it worth the effort? The Americans are from universities that receive federal and state support. They have sent their people to rural Kenya to assist language activist Kennedy Bosire and others. 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry didn’t comment on President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory on Friday while visiting Antarctica, but did say that citizens who care about limiting emissions might have to march in the streets to push for more aggressive action. Kerry became the highest-ranking American official to visit Antarctica when he landed for a two-day trip. 

Transparency International chapters in the Caribbean plan to work together to share their expertise and experience across the region and form the Transparency International Caribbean Network. This network will bring together Transparency International chapters in Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago, one partner organisation in Guyana and one in Bahamas that recently joined plus experienced regional anti-corruption activists in St. Kitts and the Cayman Islands.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington has sent its small ensemble, Potomac Fever, on a State Department-sponsored diplomacy tour to promote LGBTQ rights in Ukraine. This tour came about due to the success of our Cuba concert tour last summer. Earlier this year, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine called us up and said they loved what we did in Cuba, and would like us to bring that kind of diplomacy to Ukraine — a country that is deeply in need of unity on LGBTQ and other issues.

Google said its grant would help to raise awareness, reduce mosquito populations and support the development of vaccines. "Today we have Google engineers working with Unicef to analyse data, to determine how to map and anticipate the virus," the company said in a blog post. [...] The company is also working with popular YouTube channels in Latin America to produce information videos about the virus.