Money for Mayhem: Researcher says drones, disinformation and guns-for-hire are redefining African wars
There are the Chinese private security companies, protecting Chinese investments and citizens in Africa. Their rise mirrors Beijing’s deepening footprint, where it is pouring billions into infrastructure and mining projects. In volatile nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan, weak and unreliable local security forces have created a vacuum that’s being filled by Chinese security contractors.
Chinese influence in Equatorial Guinea forces US to ease travel restrictions on President Nguema
The US officials said the decision to move ahead with the waiver was based in part on the fact that China, which is a growing presence in Equatorial Guinea, is seeking to build a naval base there. The proposed base would be China’s second in Africa, after Djibouti, but its first ever on the Atlantic Ocean.
Trump is weaker than he looks as he only bullies weak entities like EU or Africa, not bulwarks like China, India or Russia
Equally, Trump’s victory in jacking up tariffs on imports may push up prices and knock employment. So far, the negative impact is mild. But only 37 per cent of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, something that was his strong suit during his first term in the White House.
Kenya embraces artificial intelligence in defence and military despite inherent risks
National Defence University-Kenya Deputy Vice Chancellor, Centre for Security and Strategic Studies, Maj-Gen Joyce Sitienei, stated that Africa must be an ‘active architect’ in developing ethical frameworks for military AI.
US Navy’s ambitious drone fleet programme ploughs into stormy waters
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has made fielding swarms of drones a top military priority. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed last month included almost $5 billion for maritime autonomous systems
Inside Congo’s killing fields, sickly and exploited artisanal miners slave away for world’s indifferent tech economies
Josaphat Musamba, a Congolese researcher and PhD student at Ghent University in Belgium, said suppressing the militia would be a tall order for the DRC’s military, which is no longer present in large swathes of M23-controlled territory.
‘Enshittification’ of American power: How US hegemony is sustained by network logic that’s difficult and expensive to break away from
So dollar clearing is an expedient. It’s also the chief enforcement mechanism of US financial policy across the globe. If foreign banks don’t implement US financial sanctions and other measures, they risk losing access to US dollar clearing and going under. This threat is so existentially dire that, when Lam was placed under US sanctions
WHO faces uncertain future as US accuses it of being ‘mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest’
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO capitulated to pressure from the Chinese government by promoting “the fiction that Covid originated from bats or pangolins, rather than from Chinese government-sponsored research at a biolab in Wuhan,” Kennedy said, in a reference to the lab-leak theory of Covid-19’s origin.
Alreay rapidly running out of mothers, experts warn China’s new urbanisation policy will thwart its ‘birth-friendly society’ goal
At a twice-a-decade top political gathering last month, China announced plans to build a “birth-friendly society” – pledging to implement measures long-called for by population experts, such as lowering childcare and education costs.
Germ warfare: No animal host of Covid has been pinpointed, China now suspected to have lab engineered coronavirus
A lab leak in Wuhan is still thought to be the most likely origin of Covid because an animal host has not been found after two years of searching, top scientists believe. Dr Alina Chan, a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering at MIT and Harvard, said there was...
