Day after billionaire Bezos’s space company launched giant New Glenn rocket, his rival Musk’s SpaceX Starship explodes in flight test
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates private launch activities, said it had briefly slowed and diverted planes around the area where space debris was falling, but normal operations had since resumed.
Cracks emerge in South Africa’s ruling coalition as President Ramaphosa is told to take responsibility for death of 87 miners
The tragedy at the abandoned gold mine near the town of Stilfontein began to unfold in August, when police cut off food supplies for a period of time to the miners working illegally in the mine’s tunnels.
Africa’s invisible wars, visible suffering: Conflicts are compounded by vulnerabilities, mass displacement and lack of political attention
Despite the grim realities, Patrick Youssef conveyed a note of optimism. He highlighted a MOU recently signed by the ICRC with the African Development Bank as a beacon of hope, and a positive step toward addressing these challenges collectively, in 2025.
Burundi’s pull out of soldiers from Somalia worries Bujumbura about how it’ll raise salaries for the military
As funding sources dried up in response to state repression, AMISOM participation became an increasingly important financial lifeline for Burundi’s government, which needed the revenue to pay its troops. Engaging in peacekeeping abroad had become vital to keeping peace at home.
Misfiring Nigerian military comes under searing criticism after its airstrikes kill 400 civilians
Since 2017, the military has killed about 400 civilians, according to SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based research firm that gathered reports and data from affected villages regarding the airstrikes. Rights groups and citizens have expressed concern over the military’s actions in Africa’s most populous country, which has been battling violent security crises on multiple fronts for many years.
Kenya, capital of abductions: Ex-attorney general provides rare peek into how the rich reach out to president for release of kin in police custody
In public statements since June, President William Ruto had expressed concern about allegations by human rights groups of abductions by state agents, in which unidentified individuals have detained people and held them for days without charge in undisclosed locations.
Biden: Under Trump free press will crumble because of ‘tech industrial complex’, avalanche of misinformation, disinformation, abuse of power
Biden hands over power to Trump at noon (1700 GMT) on Monday. Trump has enlisted billionaire Elon Musk, who helped his election efforts, as a special adviser charged with cutting costs from the federal government.
South African police end mine rescue operation with at least 78 dead and 246 survivors
Authorities launched the rescue effort on Monday in response to a court order last week ordering them to do so. A specialist mining rescue company had been dropping a small cage thousands of meters down a shaft to retrieve survivors and bodies. But no personnel from the company went down because they considered it too dangerous – instead two community volunteers were in the cage to help the miners out.
Five days before Trump is sworn in, Israel and Hamas agree to end Gaza war, free hostages and prisoners
If successful, the planned phased ceasefire could halt fighting that has left much of Gaza in ruins, displaced most of the enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million, and killed tens of thousands of people. The toll is still rising daily.
Trade unions in South Africa accuse state of ‘horrific’ crackdown as 78 corpses pulled from illegal mine
Mametlwe Sebei, a trade union leader who has been trying to help the miners, said police had begun attempting to force the miners up to the surface in August by removing a pulley system used to deliver food and water supplies to them. Sebei said some miners had died crawling through flooded tunnels in an attempt to reach shafts that would have allowed them to climb out.
