Africa to bear brunt of US’ broad freeze on foreign aid as Trump orders review
A USAID official, who requested anonymity, said officers responsible for projects in Ukraine have been told to stop all work. Among the projects that have been frozen are support to schools and health assistance like emergency maternal care and childhood vaccinations, the official said.
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.
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.
Rising gaps in relationships: Why men prefer younger partners and women switch to younger men when they hit 60 years
For women, a similar but less strong effect was observed after the age of 25 years. On average, for every 10 years of age, the preferred age difference at the beginning of a new relationship between a woman and her partner rises by about one additional year.
Smartphones on cusp of becoming ‘old news’ as Big Tech develops easy-to-use smart glasses
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg thinks that within 10 years, smart glasses will overtake smartphones in both popularity and usefulness. By the time we hit the 2030s, he predicts people will be keeping their phones tucked away more than they’re using them.
In new revelations, Meta chief Zuckerberg delves into how White House ‘scream’ and ‘curse’ at Facebook staff to purge Covid content
Mark Zuckerberg said demands from the Biden administration to censor posts grew after the Covid-19 vaccines were rolled out, after which government officials began pressuring Meta “super hard” to remove specific posts.
Turkey President Erdogan wants militant leader abducted from Kenya and jailed in 1999 to renounce his PKK party
After the first meeting with DEM officials, Ocalan was cited as indicating a willingness to call on the PKK to lay down arms. Two DEM sources said last week the party was now set to visit Ocalan again, as soon as January 15.
Zuckerberg in push to recover lost trust by embracing free speech but damage Facebook’s censorship caused persists
Mark Zuckerberg: As we’ve covered before, we didn’t just cross lines – we crossed sacred Rubicons created after humanity’s darkest chapters. The First Amendment, born from the revolution against tyranny and the Nuremberg Code, established after World War II’s horrors, were meant to be unbreakable guardians of human rights.
Billionaires who rule world and space see no threat in Musk-Trump lies as Bezos readies Blue Origin
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, has a $3 billion contract with NASA to land humans on the moon under Artemis, following missions by SpaceX’s Starship, Musk’s fully reusable rocket in development that is designed to put humans and cargo on both the moon and Mars.
Glowing object that landed in Makueni was not debris as claimed by Kenya Space Agency, no one knows where it came from
Some space trackers believe the object may not have come from space at all
