Investigations lay bare how dangerous mining conditions plague Congo – world’s largest supplier of cobalt
A man in a pinstripe suit with a red pocket square walked around the edge of a giant pit one April afternoon where hundreds of workers often toil in flip-flops, burrowing deep into the ground with shovels and pickaxes. His polished leather shoes crunched on dust the miners had spilled...
The Impossible Burger: Inside the strange science of the synthetic meat that ‘bleeds’
The cook, complete with hair net, lays the red patty down on the grill and gives it a press with a spatula. And there, that unmistakable sizzle and smell. She flips the patty and gives it another press, lets it sit, presses it, and pulls it off the grill and...
Rumours of ‘dead’ Taliban cleric appearing in a Quranic school stir excitement in Afghanistan
Whether the elderly cleric, Akhundzada, is alive or dead is something many Afghans are uncertain about, and even the most dedicated analysts have doubts about who is really leading the group. On October 30 – two months after a Taliban spokesman insisted Akhundzada was alive and well in Kandahar –...
Media blackouts: Atrocities in Ethiopia are taking place in the dark because no one can document them
Armed with placards that read “Stop BBC,” “Stop CNN” and “Stop FAKE” news on Ethiopia,” supporters of Ethiopia’s government are protesting in cities across the world. Their demand: an end to what they see as biased coverage of the war in Ethiopia. Many blame international media outlets for what Prime...
How US sanctions compromised Iran’s cyberdefence, touched off hacking spree that spills out into physical world
In April 2020 hackers infiltrated the systems of an Israeli water-pumping station and tampered with equipment. Individual pumps started malfunctioning as officials scrambled to keep water supplies flowing for millions of people. After the incident, which has been linked to Iran, officials said the damage could have been much worse:...
How conflict between Yemeni government and Houthi rebels crushed the dreams of four million refugees
As fighting intensifies around the central Yemeni city of Marib, thousands of people are being forced to flee the violence each week. But for many, this is just the latest upheaval in more than six and a half long years of war. Sixty-five-year-old Salih al-Asoudi and his 14-member family have...
Why is Africa increasingly resorting to foreign militaries and mercenaries to provide security?
The African continent is in a situation where governments and states are increasingly turning to private military and security companies, and mercenaries for protection. Recent reports indicate the presence of the Russian Wagner Group in Africa, particularly in the Central African Republic (CAR), and its alleged imminent arrival in Mali....
Dutch health institute says Omicron variant was already in Europe before South African scientists flagged it
Dutch health authorities announced have that they found the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus in cases dating back as long as 11 days, indicating that it was already spreading in western Europe before the first cases were identified in southern Africa. The RIVM health institute said it found Omicron...
China’s minerals-for-infrastructure policy oiled former DR Congo president’s gravy train – Sentry report
When the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government handed a no-bid contract to a subsidiary of China Railway to rebuild and maintain the road from the mining hub of Lubumbashi to the border with Zambia, with tolls charged to fund the work, it opened further taps for free flow of...
As Western firms give DR Congo’s minerals wide berth, China’s rivers of dollars fill ex-president’s accounts
A leak of 3.5 million documents shows how a Chinese-run company moved millions of dollars to former Congo President Joseph Kabila’s family and allies. The Chinese businessman had walked out of a bank in Kinshasa with 13,624 hundred-dollar bills, 10,001 fifties and 43,000 smaller US notes, despite explicit instructions to...
