Trump terms USAID ‘incompetent and corrupt’ as agency’s watchdog is fired for criticising new administration
Hundreds of USAID programmes across the globe representing billions of dollars of US assistance came to a halt after US President Donald Trump on January 20 ordered a freeze on most US foreign aid, saying he wanted to ensure it was aligned with his “America First” policy.
Reintegrating knowledge and truth: Science, religion and politics are not strange bedfellows
Domains such as ethics, aesthetics, and religion fundamentally influence human societies and how those societies interact with science. Topics like aesthetics, morality and theology are actively studied by philosophers, historians and other scholars. However, questions that arise within these domains generally cannot be resolved by science, although they can be informed by science.
As more countries as sucked into conflict in eastern Congo, fears of a regional war rise
Troops from Burundi, with its own tense relations with Rwanda, were sent to fight alongside Congolese forces. Troops from Tanzania, which hosted the weekend summit, were deployed in Congo under the banner of a regional bloc. And Uganda, on poor terms with Rwanda, had already deployed hundreds of troops to fight a different rebel group in eastern Congo.
South African currency holds firm stable as Trump promises more tariffs on minerals
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker, with the yield up 3.5 basis points to 9.1 per cent. On the stock market, the Top-40 index closed up about 0.4 per cent.
Revealed: WikiLeaks lays bare how USAID bankrolled Internews Network, with regional headquarters Kenya, to suppress media freedom
WikiLeaks is a multinational organisation founded by Julian Assange that specialises “in the analysis and publication of large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying and corruption.”
In the fog of season’s end: Fears rise Kenya’s largest political party and corruption bulwark, ODM, is in self-termination mode
During the party’s meeting in Kakamega, the long-suppressed ethnic tensions boiled over as Luhyias accused Luos of marginalising them and utter disrespect despite the community contributing immensely to Raila Odinga’s vote basket in four successive presidential elections he failed to win. Instead of harmony, dissatisfaction and grumbling took centre-stage as the party prepares to celebrate 20 years since formation in the wake of the 2005 constitution referendum outcome.
US President Trump says he expects Musk to find billions in Pentagon spending on defence, education
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz suggested in a separate interview on Sunday that the Pentagon’s shipbuilding processes could be an area of particular interest for the Department of Government Efficiency, and he characterized the Pentagon in general as full of unnecessary bloat.
Racist undertones: Why Trump, world’s richest man Elon Musk oppose South Africa’s new land law
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Councillor Malefetsane Mokoena meets with a family residing on Meyerskop farm, owned by a wealthy white farmer, with whom they are quarrelling over grazing rights in Free State province, South Africa, on February 6, 2025. Credit: Reuters
Trump’s foreign funding freeze exposes how USAID bribed leading media houses to censor news, peddle smear campaigns
Ji said this is concerning given that BBC has expanded its influence through projects like the Trusted News Initiative (TNI), a self-described “industry partnership” that worked with Big Tech forms to identify “misinformation” and “disinformation” on their platforms.
Remembering Sam Nujoma: First born in a family of 11, how Namibia’s fiery freedom fighter steered his country to freedom in 1990
Sam Nujoma built ties with North Korea, Cuba, Russia and China, some of which had supported Namibia’s liberation movement by providing arms and training. But he balanced that with outreach to the West, and Nujoma was the first African leader to be hosted at the White House by former US President Bill Clinton in 1993. Clinton called Nujoma “the George Washington of his country” and “a genuine hero of the world’s movement toward democracy.”
