Dubai company’s staggering land deals in Africa raise fears about risks to Indigenous livelihoods
A raft of agreements between at least five African countries and Blue Carbon could give the company control over large swaths of land on the continent. In Kenya, Indigenous populations already have been evicted to make way for other carbon credits projects, according to rights groups like Amnesty International and Survival International.
In a season of three very good teams, rather than one or two sides, final 90 minutes will decide EPL champions
Liverpool and Arsenal are, as Guardiola says, “very good”. But exceptional? Exceptional in the way that City and Liverpool have been at their best in the Guardiola-Klopp era? Perhaps not.
After Arsenal and Liverpool test Man City to the hilt, doubts linger if they can holdoff ‘Cityzens’ late charge
But to talk of “firing on all cylinders” means the type of performance level City reached in the final months of last season, when they scaled extraordinary heights not just in terms of results but the manner in which they swept aside opponents like RB Leipzig (7-0), Liverpool (4-1), Bayern Munich (3-0), Arsenal (4-1) and Real Madrid (4-0) in high-stakes matches between mid-March and mid-May.
While abortion is now legal in much of Africa, few women know and providers don’t publicise it
More than 20 countries across Africa have loosened restrictions on abortion in recent years, but experts say that like Efua, many women probably don’t realise they are entitled to a legal abortion. And despite the expanded legality of the procedure in places like Ghana, Congo, Ethiopia and Mozambique, some doctors and nurses say they’ve become increasingly wary of openly providing abortions.
US abolishes centuries-old biased test that kept thousands of Blacks from getting kidney transplant
At issue is a once widely used test that overestimated how well Black people’s kidneys were functioning, making them look healthier than they really were – all because of an automated formula that calculated results for Black and non-Black patients differently. That race-based equation could delay diagnosis of organ failure and evaluation for a transplant, exacerbating other disparities that already make Black patients more at risk of needing a new kidney but less likely to get one.
PEPFAR: Pioneer of embattled global HIV programme recalls the hope after years of despair
Opponents say the HIV/Aids funding could be indirectly supporting abortion abroad, although the Biden administration and PEPFAR’s defenders say there is no evidence that it does. After a handful of conservative lawmakers threatened for months to block the funding unless restrictions were attached, a compromise was struck in late March that extends the funding for a year.
European football grapples with irony of Black players dominating the game, but can’t be hired to coach
Racism has long permeated the world’s most popular sport, with players subjected to racist chants and taunts online. While soccer governing bodies such as Fifa and UEFA have taken steps to combat the abuse of players, the lack of diversity in the upper ranks at major clubs remains an unsolved problem.
Pop star Shakira revisits how she turned pain into ‘tears of triumph and tears of self-recognition’ in new album
In reality, the last few years haven’t been kind to Shakira. In 2022, after 11 years and two children together, she separated from soccer player Gerard Piqué, leading to what she’s called the “dissolution of my family.” She faced charges of tax evasion in Spain; in November 2023, she received a suspended three-year sentence and paid a fine of €7.3 million ($8 million) in addition to previously unpaid taxes and interest.
A cycle of extreme weather, drought in southern Africa leaves some 20 million facing hunger
The drought in Zimbabwe, neighbouring Zambia and Malawi has reached crisis levels. Zambia and Malawi have declared national disasters. Zimbabwe could be on the brink of doing the same. The drought has reached Botswana and Angola to the west and Mozambique and Madagascar to the east.
Living off Ethiopia’s social safety net programme is ‘not like dying, but it’s not like living either’
Audited accounts from the finance ministry, which declined to comment for this story, show that the government’s contribution remained fairly constant at just over four billion birr ($70 million) a year between 2020-2021 and 2022-2023, a steep drop in real terms because of inflation. That money accounted for about 18 per cent of the total programme funding.
