Manchester, United Kingdom | AFP | Four years of planning will be put on the line for England when they face holders Australia in a blockbuster Cricket World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston on Thursday. England’s woeful first-round exit at the 2015 edition prompted a complete rethink of their approach to one-day …
Read More »Grief-struck families of Sudan’s revolution seek justice
Al-Rimela, Sudan | AFP | Amidst mounds of sand capped by hand-written signs naming the dead, Khadom embraces the tomb of her son, one of the more than 200 killed in Sudan’s months-long turmoil. It was an April morning when a freshly-shaven Al-Moez drank his tea before heading out to the …
Read More »Kinshasa governor campaigns against rowdy nights and ‘filth’
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The long, loud nights of Kinshasa’s street life are set to be shortened by the new governor of DR Congo’s unruly capital, as part of a city-wide crusade against “dirtiness”. In less than a month, the bars spilling out on to the city’s highways and …
Read More »EU killing African immigrants
Africans quiet as the EU builds an invisible but vicious wall of torture, slavery and blood in the deserts of North Africa | Hussein Lumumba Amin | Many African refugees, including women and toddlers, drowned recently after their boat capsized in the vast Mediterranean Sea. They were attempting to migrate …
Read More »Sweden rejects Chinese embezzlement extradition request
Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | Sweden’s top court on Tuesday rejected a Beijing extradition request for a Chinese man accused of economic crimes because of risks of persecution and the death penalty in China. Qiao Jianjun, a former official of the Chinese state grain administration, is wanted by Beijing under a …
Read More »A waste of good wine? Non! Spitting is essential to tasting
Paris, France | AFP | Spitting is frowned upon in polite society — unless of course the spitter is engaged in tasting wines. “It’s by spitting out the wine that you will be even more distinguished in society,” pleads Pierre-Jules Peyrat, a Paris sommelier. Holding forth before a rapt crowd at …
Read More »Calls for unity in Ethiopia’s Tigray as anti-Abiy sentiment swells
Mekele, Ethiopia | AFP | In his cramped studio, Ethiopian reggae singer Solomon Yikunoamlak plucks his guitar and reads over his latest ballad, a strident call for unity in his native Tigray during a time of national upheaval. It is unusual material for an artist who rose to fame singing love …
Read More »Nigeria’s ‘Computer Village’
And lessons on what it takes to help small firms thrive | Oluseye Jegede | Nigeria’s Otigba Computer Village is arguably the biggest information, communications technology (ICT) market in Africa. It started off as a one-man business on a street called “Otigba” in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State. Within …
Read More »National health insurance scheme
Is it targeting the wrong people? Kampala, Uganda | PATRICIA AKANKWATSA | Falling ill and having to visit a healthcare facility is a frightening experience for most people. Feeling anxious, uncertain and maybe even helpless is common even among people living in countries with highly developed care. In Uganda, a …
Read More »How conspiracy theories followed man to the Moon
Paris, France | AFP | It was the biggest piece of supposed fake news before the term “fake news” was even invented. Millions of people across the world still believe that no one has ever walked on the Moon, and that the images that NASA broadcast in July 1969 were shot …
Read More »