United Kingdom
Jack is chief business correspondent at Al-Monitor, covering the Middle East and North Africa. For nearly a decade, he has worked as a journalist for print and digital publications, reporting on a range of topics from politics and business to psychology and culture.
In May, he returned to the UK after a two-year stint freelancing in South Africa, covering politics, business, development and climate change. As well as writing freelance articles, he worked as a correspondent for Newsweek and regularly wrote technical reports about the aviation industry.
He previously worked in London as digital editor at The National newspaper, where he covered major global stories including the Covid-19 pandemic, the Brexit talks and the 2020 US election. Prior to that, he was an editor at Euromoney, covering the aviation sector for Airfinance Journal magazine.
His freelance writing has appeared in publications including AFP, Al Jazeera, African Business, The Economist, The Guardian, Newsweek, The Observer, The Independent, i newspaper, The Psychologist, Business Insider, The Sun, PopMatters, The Huffington Post, Vice, The Line of Best Fit, MusicOMH, Travel Trade Gazette, Metro, Nature, New Internationalist, Quartz and others. He has been interviewed by the BBC on topics including the 2021 South African riots and the airline industry.
He is experienced in digital publishing, editing, news and feature writing, commissioning content, public speaking, contact building, SEO and social media.
He has an MA in Magazine Journalism from City, University of London, and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Sussex.
Jack has reported from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Jack is available for freelance reporting/editing shifts, copywriting or to be commissioned to write specific features. If you would like to collaborate, please get in touch at jackdutton22@gmail.com.
A few examples of his work can be found below.
The kingdom's energy minister called for more transparency in the market, despite several news organizations being prohibited from reporting on the OPEC conference he was speaking at.
Analysts are sceptical about an announcement made by supporters of Tunisia's populist President Kais Saied that the North African country wants to join BRICS, a group of leading emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
There are many threats to open, free and fair trade in Africa, and few people are better placed to address them than Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The first African director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and former two-term finance minister of Nigeria believes the major threats are deep, structural, and mostly internal to the continent.
While President Vladimir Putin justifies his invasion of Ukraine by saying that Russia must rid its neighbour of neo-Nazis, Zhan Beleniuk paints his home country as one that welcomes all races. "My aim is to show that Ukraine is a tolerant country," Beleniuk, Ukraine's first and only Black MP, told Al Jazeera.
The year-old war in Ukraine has shifted energy dynamics between Europe and the Middle East as Russia, the world's largest natural gas and second-largest oil exporter, continues to face sanctions from the West. Several European leaders have gone on a charm offensive with state visits to energy-rich countries in the Middle East and North Africa region in recent months.
The idyllic white sands of Mont Choisy are some of the most well-known in Mauritius, a country not short of scenic coastline. Beaches like Mont Choisy draw tourists to the African island, which lies on the Indian Ocean and is enveloped by a warm, turquoise lagoon, making it a popular destination for diving and snorkelling.
Africa has been at the back of the queue for COVID-19 vaccines compared to much of the rest of the world, largely because most of the vaccines are made by Western manufacturers. A small biotech company, based in a northern suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, is trying to make a difference.
On Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano on the Ugandan-Kenyan border, Kenneth Barigye grows Arabica beans on his coffee farms. He also grows them on his estates in the Rwenzori mountains and in Kisoro in Uganda, a country that registered its highest coffee exports in three decades last year.
Africa needs time and money to wean itself off fossil fuels in order to achieve net zero without jeopardising its future, its representatives are warning ahead of next month's climate talks.
Gabon has long flaunted its green credentials, enjoying a reputation as a leader in combating climate change and environmental destruction. It recently even received a payout for reducing its carbon emissions. However, extractive industries continue to damage the environment in the name of benefitting the country's economy.
Matthew VanDyke, an American who is training Ukrainian civilians to fight Vladimir Putin's army, began his work helping people in war zones to defend themselves after his journalist friends James Foley and Steven Sotloff were captured by Islamic State militants in Syria and brutally beheaded on camera in 2014.
Cape Town (AFP) - Scientists on Saturday began a five-month mission to study how plastic pollution in Africa's main rivers and climate change stresses are impacting microorganisms in the Atlantic ocean, they announced.
According to legend, the Batwa pygmy forest dwellers of southwestern Uganda have lived in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for more than 300 years, sharing their home with the majority of the world's endangered mountain gorillas, but also being wary of them.
It is little over a year since the first doses of life-saving vaccines were delivered to Africa under the Covid-19 vaccines Global Access Facility ( COVAX), a scheme aimed at helping poorer countries get inoculated.
A sought-after programme takes young people from Cape Town's toughest streets and sets them on a path to employment.
Akinwumi Adesina believes the Russia-Ukraine war will have a ripple effect on food security and energy supply.
On Cape Town's beaches, swimmers shower off sand from their feet. Irrigation pipes water the region's famed vineyards. And Shadrack Mogress fumes as he fills a barrel with water so he can flush his toilet. It's been four years since South Africa's tourist capital nearly ran dry, during a drought that left the city limping towards a "Day Zero" when all the pipes would empty.
As the country faces one of highest jobless rates globally, South African president pledges 'to leave no one behind'.
A South African icebreaker has departed in search of Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance, which sank off the coast of Antarctica in 1915 after being slowly crushed by pack ice. As part of the renowned polar explorer's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition between 1914 and 1917, Shackleton's team were trying to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.
US biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong on Wednesday opened a plant in Cape Town that will be the first in Africa to produce Covid-19 vaccines from start to finish. The factory should churn out its first vials of second-generation coronavirus vaccine "within the year" and produce a billion doses annually by 2025, Soon-Shiong said.
The current generation of COVID vaccines is "not good enough" at blocking viral transmission to bring an end to the pandemic, the chief executive officer of the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) said in an interview with Newsweek.
South Africans living in areas hit hardest by a new wave of coronavirus infections say the Omicron variant has cast a pall over the country and reignited tension between those for and against vaccinations.
In a year where wildfires, cyclones and devastating floods dominated the news cycle, the stakes were particularly high for Cop26, and millions of Africans whose fate depended on its results.
The United States needs a full vaccine mandate to be able to control its COVID-19 epidemic but legal obstacles may prevent that from happening, the former director of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has told Newsweek.
It was a warm winter's day in South Africa and I planned to go surfing at Nahoon Reef. I was 15 and had just finished my first day back at school after the winter break. The reef is famous among surfers for its powerful waves and popularity with sharks.
Staff shortages, widespread mismanagement and poor quality of care has caused medical negligence that has led to inmates dying in Connecticut's prisons, even well after medical workers have been alerted of their illnesses. On July 8, state officials agreed to pay the family of 19-year-old Karon Nealy $1.65 million.
African Business meets Tanguy Gahouma-Bekale in Libreville only hours after he has finalised what he calls Africa's most ambitious climate law yet - far-reaching legislation that helps Gabon on its mission to cut its carbon emissions by at least half by 2025.
With a sprawling jungle covering nearly 90% of the country, Gabon, whose economy has historically been reliant on oil, is looking to harness its rainforest to become a green superpower.
A jazz collective based in Cape Town helps local musicians reclaim a narrative tailored to the upper and middle classes.
As South Africa reels from a week of riots that killed at least 337 people, injured dozens and caused billions of dollars of damage to two of the country's major cities, one town is battling misinformation and ethnic tension as it cleans up.
Former president Jacob Zuma, 79, was given a prison sentence last month after he failed to attend a hearing regarding allegations of abuse of office during his nine years in power.
Whether it's removing oil spills in the Amazon or fighting pandemics, scientists are only at the tip of the iceberg in exploring how these organisms can heal the planet, writes Jack Dutton.
Zimbabwe's miners believe they are underpaid for their gold compared to the international market. Can government reforms improve matters?
Sufo Salimo arrived in the city of Pemba on June 27 after fleeing extremist violence in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province. He had escaped the town of Palma on a boat with 24 others, making the treacherous journey south along the Indian Ocean with his wife and his 10-year-old nephew.
Craig Foster, the South African conservationist, speaks to Jack Dutton about the overwhelming response to his Oscar-winning film, My Octopus Teacher and how he hopes it will encourage people to protect the oceans.
A fund launched by the World Bank and EIB aims to unlock €4bn to support green urban development in low- and middle-income countries.
A photo shared on the social media site Parler appears to show Mike Shirkey, a Republican state senator from Michigan, with one of the men charged over the alleged plot to kidnap the state's governor, Gretchen Whitmer. The photo was posted on the platform, which is popular with conservatives, about one month ago.
In Cape Town students are using the business theory they learn at university to mentor SMEs in deprived areas and help them achieve their full potential.
A tight-knit community in Cape Town's Woodstock district battled to contain one of the region's largest wildfires on Monday as it continued to burn its way around the South African city. Residents of Premier Road in the Walmer Estate, where many Cape Malay Muslims live, set up a fire hose as the flames tore through the shrubland at the foot of Table Mountain.
In the Mayo Tsanaga River Basin area in Cameroon's Far North region, teeth-whitening agents are often in high demand to mitigate the impacts of dental fluorosis. More than 500,000 people there are exposed to this disorder, which can cause irreversible damage to teeth - ranging from permanent discoloration to skeletal deformation.
Democrats have lambasted the Michigan Republican Party for "turning its back" on its supporters by tabling new laws intended to reform the state's voting system, in a move critics have compared to the recent electoral overhaul in Georgia.
Iran must come clean about recent findings of undeclared uranium to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, the director general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has told Newsweek. In an interview, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said "detailed and technical discussions" are needed to ascertain the location of Iran's undeclared uranium and that this issue is "totally connected" to the future of the deal.
Christo Brand was only 19 when he started working at South Africa's highest security prison. Now, 44 years later, he recalls how a job he had little choice in taking brought him face to face with a man then the country's most notorious prisoner and led to a lifelong friendship with Nelson Mandela.
Hundreds of men live at a disused army barracks, where a recent COVID outbreak has added to humanitarian concerns.
A Texas Democrat has criticized the Biden administration's messaging around the migrant crisis at the southern border, saying that promoting "a humane approach" to immigration benefits the gangs illegally trafficking people into the country. In an interview with Newsweek, Rep.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading expert on infectious disease, told Newsweek that Black Americans are not being failed by the coronavirus vaccine rollout, and the Biden administration is taking significant steps to get Black people inoculated. This was in response to questions about a poll which indicates a large number of Black Americans are skeptical about taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
Experts say that former U.S. President Donald Trump may find it difficult to pay back the mountain of debt his empire owes over the next four years, with revenues of some of his key businesses plunging amid the coronavirus pandemic and his reputation bruised by two impeachments.
Members of the far-right Proud Boys group, the Three Percenters militia movement, and someone who has described Black Lives Matter activists as "vile, violent...the black version of the KKK" are among the activists linked to the effort to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Jewish groups have called for the removal of House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress, after she shared a wide-ranging conspiracy theory tinged with anti-Semitic tropes on Facebook. Media Matters on Thursday revealed one of Georgia Rep. Greene's old Facebook posts from 2018, where she made several baseless claims about the cause of California's wildfires that same year.
Interpol and the UN have arrested several suspected terrorists, retrieved more than 40,000 sticks of dynamite and detonator cords for illegal gold mining, the latest source of illicit funding for armed groups in Africa's Sahel region.
It was the sound of centuries of history, evoking the warm waters of the Gulf when boat crews dived for the treasure of the seas on oyster-rich beds long before oil dominated local economies.
It's not every boy who spends his formative years on board a former British Royal Navy minesweeper converted into a marine laboratory, but then few grew up as the grandson of an internationally renowned oceanographic researcher.
We asked Dan Saunders to describe the loophole and his five months of partying.
Charlotte Dennett was only six weeks old when her father died in a plane crash. In her new book she investigates his death and how the oil game influences politics across the Middle East.
Germany and Finland have repatriated five women and 18 children from Syrian camps housing suspected relatives of ISIS fighters.
MEPs are frustrated with the delays and may have to ratify a deal between Christmas and the New Year. Michel Barnier told Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) he is prepared for another four days of last-ditch Brexit negotiations with the UK, while both sides sounded gloomy about striking a trade deal in that time.
One of Martin Luther King III's earliest memories was travelling around the city of St Augustine, Florida, in 1964, as a child on a campaign trip with his father. Although the city's police officers and sheriffs worked in law enforcement by day, by night some would become Ku Klux Klansmen intent on instilling terror in Martin Luther King Jr, his family and followers of the towering American human rights advocate.
The global economy is going through an investment drought mainly brought about by trade uncertainty, which is causing a steep decline in growth, the secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said. The organisation in Paris is due to release its bi-yearly global economic forecast next week.
UK Foreign Office is urging prison officials to test her for the illness
Boris Johnson gives an optimistic but muted address to the British public as rifts remain across the country
Mark Carney finished his final briefing as governor of the Bank of England on Thursday with an eye to the future - his own and that of the planet. After 12 years at the helm of two G7 banks, Mr Carney leaves to become a UN-appointed envoy on climate change in March.
When I call Zach Condon he's in Berlin, and it comes as no surprise to discover he's immersed in a studio in the city that he now calls home. Condon is a consummate musical explorer. He starts our conversation by telling me his day has been spent messing around with modular synths, drum machines and old organs he's bought from Berlin's pawnshops.
Janine, Janine? Where have you been? What have you seen? A child on the run from the killing machine," raps London-based MC Kapoo in the new short film Edek. Edek tells the story of Janine Webber, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor. Webber's story is traumatic, but it carries a powerful message.
A new report released by four Calais-based organisations highlights the increasing police violence and refugee camp evictions in the French port city. Jack Dutton reports.
Despite women tending to have higher life satisfaction than men, the coronavirus pandemic has led to a reversal of this, a leading report has found. Examining the social impacts of the pandemic, Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) took data from November 25 to 29 from more than 6,000 people and compared it to information prior the crisis.
Early on Friday morning, in the middle of a crowded athletics hall at a university on the fringes of West London, tensions ran high but for some there was a quiet air of confidence.
Breshna Musazai says she believes that to achieve peace in Afghanistan, powerful nations such as the US must put pressure on Kabul's neighbours that support and fund terrorism to force them to stop.
Exactly two years ago during the early hours of the morning, Abdurahman Sayed left his home in east London for Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Westbourne Park, on the other side of the city. It was a busy time of year for Abdurahman, who manages the faith centre and its mosque.
In a lab in Basel in April 1943, Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann accidentally touched his hand with his mouth while he was synthesising a chemical intended to stimulate respiration and the nervous system. After ingesting the drug, he realised he had made something far more potent: what we now know as LSD.
Not many people can remember their first birthday, but Rebecca Sharrock has no trouble recalling hers in vivid detail. Her present was a Minnie Mouse toy, coloured bright red and white with pink bows on it. She didn't like its smile. 'It had a distinctive comical face,' she says.
Foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said she was increasingly concerned about the safety of Canadian troops in Iraq Canada has been in discussions with its Nato allies, including the UK and the Netherlands, in London this week about tensions between Iran and the West in the Arabian Gulf.
In April, Cuba began a new chapter in its history. For the first time since the post-revolution government was formed in 1959, the island's leader did not bear the Castro surname. The arrival of Miguel Diaz-Canel as president may have signalled change to some Cubans, but to others, it will be a continuation of the revolutionary legacy.
A couple from Holland is running a food truck that serves horse burgers, muskrat goulash, and geese shot by hunters at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport (to prevent them from flying into jet engines, obviously).
There are a few culprits of such superficiality that spring to mind here, but Erykah Badu has never been one of them. She hasn't had to pretend to be something she's not to sell more records because she is genuine. She's one of the few artists whose onstage persona seems to closely mirror her off-stage persona.
I have never been shy of a challenge. I practise as a priest, but in my spare time I have climbed Mount Everest, sailed around the world and trekked to the North Pole. I first knew I wanted to fly around the world in a hot-air balloon in the early 90s, when the race between Bertrand Piccard, Richard Branson and Steve Fossett began.
Arrogant showoffs who overestimate their own ability crop up in all parts of our lives. These people demonstrate what's known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect, otherwise known as being "smug snakes" - and irritatingly can be rather successful. But is being like this a blessing or a curse - and are you one?
Aki Nawaz has been involved in sieges in Gaza, met with jihadists, and attempted to visit Bin Laden. In the UK, he couldn't go out in public for fear of abuse. Now he's releasing his seventh album as the cult multi-ethnic hip-hop outfit Fun-Da-Mental.
As a boy growing up in London, James Wannerton (below) would travel by the underground to school. He could taste his way along the route. 'Piccadilly Circus tasted of the peanuts and goo you get inside a Picnic bar. Bond Street tasted of a tangy aerosol spray.
Airbus and the Iranian government have been granted one export license covering the sale of 17 Airbus aircraft to Iran Air, leaving one more license to be issued before the whole sale of 118 aircraft can go ahead, Airbus tells Airfinance Journal.
The owner of the phone has spent six hours of his day running, lifting weights, perfecting dance routines, singing and rapping. He has been doing this every day for several weeks and is in good shape, getting ready to take his music on tour for the first time ever.
A UK research team has created one of the first robots capable of handling unfamiliar objects, and it may soon become dexterous enough to load a dishwasher, The Financial Times reported. "Boris 2" was first showcased at the British Science Festival in Birmingham last Thursday.
n all the debate over electronic cigarettes and their health implications, one issue is largely neglected: the implications of e-cigarettes on mental health. Nicotine has a history of being used as treatment for mental health problems and studies have found that it can quell the symptoms of several conditions, including attention-deficit disorder, depression and schizophrenia.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Blur's Parklife, here are 30 questions to test your knowledge of mid-to-late 90s British guitar music
DJ Rashad, one of the pioneering figures in the brand of Chicago dance music known as footwork or juke, has died aged 34. The producer, who was born Rashad Harden, was found dead in his apartment on Saturday evening. According to police, he died of a suspected drug overdose.
The Feeding the World 2014 conference took place in the halls of an 18th-century mansion on 13 February. It saw industry representatives, politicians and NGOs discuss the food security challenges the world faces in the run up to 2050, when the global population is expected to reach 9.6 billion.
Yesterday, some sad news came through. One of reggae's most cherished voices, John Holt, passed away aged 67. It was confirmed via his manager Copeland Forbes that he died early on Sunday morning. The Kingston-born Holt effortlessly crossed the genres of ska, reggae and rocksteady.
We stop at a monastery where monks serve us sticky rice, sweet tofu curry and fried spring rolls. We rest after a heavy lunch. I hear the monks chanting mantras in some distant part of the building. It's hypnotic and I'm almost asleep on the cool tiled floor.
With their much-anticipated seventh studio effort Heartthrob out in the shops this week, we thought it only right we catch up with Tegan Quinn - one half of Canadian twin-sister duo Tegan and Sara - to quiz her on what's evidently become a pretty hectic schedule for them of late.