Mesdames Secretaries

"I think it's really important to speak up & say what you think. Women especially," said digital pioneer Sue Gardner, in conversation with author Margaret Atwood Friday on Twitter. The two women, both special guests at next week's 6 Degrees event on inclusion in Toronto, joined OpenCanada online to discuss the state of the world, the role of technology and the citizen, and their reasons for optimism. Read the highlights here.

A panel of United Nations experts has found that North Korea is evading international sanctions with "seeming impunity," and has said as much in an independent report. So why hasn't it seen the light of day? Foreign Policy's Colum Lynch digs into the "bitter behind-the-scenes battle between Russia and the United States" preventing the report's publication. 

This week marks a decade since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the implosion of Wall Street and the beginning of the global financial crisis — the effects of which the world is still feeling today. In this beautifully-crafted Reuters interactive, five reporters examine what has — and hasn't — changed in the last 10 years, with respect to politics, markets, wealth distribution, and more. 

Earlier this year, it was widely predicted that Cape Town's dams and reservoirs would soon dry up, resulting in a lack of water. "Day Zero" has yet to arrive, and while some in South Africa see it as a manufactured crisis, as Vann R. Newkirk II writes in The Atlantic, "Cape Town’s reality will soon impact many global cities, where water will become a constant concern, and democracy will become contingent upon the taps."