This photo taken on April 21, 2025 by The Vatican Media shows Pope Francis in his open coffin during the rite of the Confirmation of the Death of the Pontiff at the Chapel of Santa Marta in The Vatican. [AFP] Cardinals will meet Tuesday to decide the date for Pope Francis’s funeral, starting a process that will culminate in the election of a new Catholic leader within three weeks. Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday, aged 88, after suffering a stroke. He had been recovering from double pneumonia…
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US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before signing a proclamation renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America aboard Air Force One enroute to New Orleans, Louisiana on Febrary 09, 2025. [AFP] With lawsuits and tirades about “the enemy of the people” Donald Trump has launched a frontal assault on the mainstream media, while empowering conservative bloggers and podcasters to get his radical agenda across. The president has stepped up his long-established hostility towards TV news channels like CNN and newspapers such as The New York Times, but even the respected Associated Press news agency…
A demonstrator holds a sing in Harvard Square after a rally was held against President Donald Trump’s attacks on Harvard University at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 17, 2025. [AFP] Harvard sued US President Donald Trump’s administration Monday in a sharp escalation of the fight between the prestigious university and the Republican, who has threatened its funding and sought to impose outside political supervision. Trump has sought to bring several prestigious universities to heel over claims they tolerated campus anti-Semitism, threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and the enrollment of foreign students, but Harvard has refused to bow.…
Aerial view of the obelisk illuminated with the image of late Pope Francis in Buenos Aires on April 21, 2025. [AFP] At the school in Buenos Aires where he started his religious journey at the young age of 5, the nuns remember the boy who would later become Pope Francis as “mischievous.” A boisterous child, he played football with his friends in the courtyard and sprinted up and down the marble stairs. “They say he was rather mischievous,” recounted Teresa Rovira, a teacher at the Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia kindergarten where then-Jorge Bergoglio enrolled in the early 1940s.…
This photo taken on April 21, 2025 by The Vatican Media shows Pope Francis in his open coffin during the rite of the Confirmation of the Death of the Pontiff at the Chapel of Santa Marta in The Vatican. [AFP] Cardinals will meet Tuesday to decide the date for Pope Francis’s funeral, starting a process that will culminate in the election of a new Catholic leader within three weeks. Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday, aged 88, after suffering a stroke. He had been recovering from double pneumonia…
A general view shows St Peter’s basilica a day after the death of Pope Francis, in The Vatican on April 22, 2025.[AFP] The Vatican, headquarters of the Catholic Church, is the smallest state in the world, with its own newspaper, national anthem in Latin and supreme leader — the pope. Some 900 people live within its ancient walls, from the pontiff himself to red-hatted cardinals, nuns, priests, diplomats, and lay people such as gardeners, cooks and cleaners. At its gates stand Swiss Guards, members of the oldest army in the world — famous for its blue, red and yellow striped…
Bishop of Dallas Kevin Joseph Farrell walks after kneeling before Pope Francis to pledge allegiance and become cardinal, on November 19, 2016 during a consistory at Peter’s basilica. [AFP] With Pope Francis’s death, the immediate running of the Vatican is now in the hands of one cardinal, Dublin-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell. Known as the Camerlengo, and appointed by the pope, it is he who will lead meetings to determine the date of Francis’s funeral, and supervise other organisational tasks, culminating in the Conclave to elect the next pope. On Monday evening, Farrell was due to preside over the rite that…
Aerial view of the obelisk illuminated with the image of late Pope Francis in Buenos Aires on April 21, 2025. [AFP] At the school in Buenos Aires where he started his religious journey at the young age of 5, the nuns remember the boy who would later become Pope Francis as “mischievous.” A boisterous child, he played football with his friends in the courtyard and sprinted up and down the marble stairs. “They say he was rather mischievous,” recounted Teresa Rovira, a teacher at the Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia kindergarten where then-Jorge Bergoglio enrolled in the early 1940s.…
Cathedral staff set up an image of Pope Francis inside The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, informally known as Westminster Cathedral, in central London on April 21, 2025, following the news of his death. [AFP] African leaders praised the “legacy of compassion” and “commitment to inclusivity” of Pope Francis as they joined global mourning over his death on Monday. Francis, an energetic reformer who inspired widespread devotion from Catholics but riled traditionalists, died aged 88. The chairman of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, praised “the Pope’s courageous engagement with the African continent, amplifying the voices of…
More than a million people have been forced from their homes in South Sudan in more than three months of fighting. [AFP] South Sudanese government forces have retaken the town of Nasir which had been a flashpoint in a deepening political crisis, an army spokesman said on Sunday. Clashes around Nasir in the northeastern Upper Nile State have helped unravel a power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Vice-President Riek Machar. The violence has threatened to plunge South Sudan, which became the world’s youngest country after gaining independence in 2011, back into civil war. Kiir’s allies…
A damaged building is pictured in Sudan’s Tuti island, nearly deserted after two years of war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF),on April 19, 2025. [AFP] Paramilitary shelling on Sudan’s besieged city of El-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, killed more than 30 civilians and wounded dozens more, activists said on Monday. The attack, which took place on Sunday, involved “heavy artillery shelling” and targeted the city’s residential neighbourhoods, said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan. Since April 2023, the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support…
Pope Francis waves at the crowd from the popemobile in Ajaccio, as part of his trip on the French island of Corsica, on December 15, 2024. Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025 aged 88, a day after making a much hoped-for appearance at Saint Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday. [AFP] The April 21 death of Pope Francis triggered a period of mourning in the Catholic Church, but also kick-started the race for his successor. Whether diplomats, theologians, mediators or Vatican insiders, here are 15 cardinals who are among the potential favourites to become the next pope, known as the…
Pope Francis greets the crowd during an audience to the Padre Pio Prayer Groups, in Vatican on February 6, 2016. Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025. [AFP] Here are some key dates in the life of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American pope, who died on Monday aged 88: – December 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires to an accountant and a housewife from an Italian emigrant family. – September 21, 1953: Receives his calling to become a priest. He later described being moved to go to church while heading to a school…
Pope Francis censes as he leads mass at Nicosia’s main football stadium, in the Cypriot capital Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital, on December 3, 2021. Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025. [AFP] Pope Francis, who died Monday aged 88, will go down in history as a radical pontiff, a champion of underdogs who forged a more compassionate Catholic Church while stopping short of overhauling centuries-old dogma. Dubbed “the people’s Pope”, the Argentine pontiff loved being among his flock and was popular with the faithful, though he faced bitter opposition from traditionalists within the Church. The first pope from the…
Pope Francis greets the crowd from the popemobile after the Easter mass at St Peter s square in the Vatican on April 20, 2025. [AFP] The late Pope Francis is likely going to be buried outside the Vatican. In a 2023 interview with Mexican Televisa broadcaster N+, Pope Francis had said that he would be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome, not in the grottoes underneath St Peter’s Basilica, where most popes are buried. His desire to be buried at Santa Maria Maggiore reflects his veneration of an icon of the Virgin Mary that is located there, the Salus…
Former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila addresses the media after a private bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the US Department of State, on August 4, 2014. [AFP] The Democratic Republic of Congo government said it has suspended the political party of former President Joseph Kabila, days after his properties were raided by security services. “This decision follows the overt activism” of Kabila, who was president for 18 years up to 2019 and who remains head of his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), the interior ministry said in a statement…
Cardinal Angelo Comastri presides over the Easter Mass as part of the Holy Week celebrations, at St Peter’s Square in the Vatican on April 20, 2025. [AFP] Catholic faithful gathered Easter Sunday in St Peter’s Square on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, hoping Pope Francis would make an appearance despite his frail health that has kept him from most Holy Week events. The 88-year-old pontiff traditionally delivers his “Urbi et Orbi” benediction from a balcony overlooking the square following mass to mark the holiday. But given his delicate health following treatment for pneumonia, it is still unknown whether…
Paramedics help a freed Ukrainian prisoner exit an ambulance upon his arrival after a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on April 19, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [AFP] Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Russian forces were continuing their shelling and assaults along the front line despite Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a surprise but brief Easter truce. The 30-hour truce starting Saturday evening would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict. But on Sunday Zelensky accused Russia of having maintained its attacks on the front line after the truce…
Protesters outside a Tunisia court. [Courtesy] A Tunisian court handed down jail sentences of up to 66 years to multiple defendants, including prominent opposition figures, for national security offences, defence lawyers said on Saturday. The trial, criticised by rights groups and decried by a defence lawyer as a “masquerade”, is of unprecedented scale with around 40 defendants, including vocal critics of President Kais Saied. A prosecutor cited by local media announced sentences ranging from 13 to 66 years for the defendants, accused of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group.” However, a list communicated to AFP by…
Over 100 inmates escape from a Chad prison during a shoot-out that killed three and injured a visiting state governor, officials confirm. [iStockPhotos] More than 100 inmates escaped a Chad prison during a shoot-out that left three people dead, and wounded a state governor visiting the facility, officials told AFP on Saturday. The break-out occurred late Friday when an uprising happened in the high-security penitentiary five kilometres (three miles) from the town of Mongo, in the centre of the country. “There are around 100 who escaped, three dead and three wounded,” Hassan Souleymane Adam, secretary general of the Guera province…
Screengrab. [AFP] At least 143 people died and dozens more went missing after a boat carrying fuel caught fire and capsized in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Friday. Hundreds of passengers were crowded onto a wooden boat on the Congo River in northwest DRC on Tuesday when the blaze broke out, according to Josephine-Pacifique Lokumu, head of a delegation of national deputies from the region. The disaster occurred near Mbandaka, capital of Equateur Province, at the confluence of the Ruki and the vast Congo river — the world’s deepest. “A first group of 131 bodies were found on…
Shipping containers parked at the Union Pacific Railroad intermodal facility which specializes in rail services for freight and passengers on April 16, 2025 in Commerce, California. [AFP] The United States unveiled new port fees on Chinese-built and operated ships Thursday, in a bid to boost the domestic shipbuilding industry and curb China’s dominance in the sector. The move — which stems from a probe launched under the prior administration — comes as the United States and China are locked in a major trade war over President Donald Trump’s tariffs and could further ratchet up tensions. “Ships and shipping are vital…
This illustration picture shows a video circulating on social media about humorous campaign online taken in Beijing on April 18, 2025. [AFP] While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end”, its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. The US president’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years…
Employees work on an assembly line of lights at a factory of LED lighting manufacturer WOSEN in Zhongshan, in southern China’s Guangdong province on April 17, 2025. [AFP] The new US ambassador to Japan said Friday he was “extremely optimistic” that the two countries will agree a trade deal, after Tokyo’s tariffs envoy visited Washington. Ryosei Akazawa met President Donald Trump on Wednesday and held talks with senior US officials as Japan looks to pare back stiff levies announced by the White House. While there was no immediate breakthrough, the next round of negotiations is scheduled before the end of…
A worker checks a machine at a factory which produces silk cloth in Fuyang, in China’s eastern Anhui province, on April 16, 2025. [AFP] Sky-high tariffs imposed on China by US President Donald Trump have triggered a slump in factory orders, manufacturers told AFP this week — with some fearing business may never return. China’s vast southern province of Guangdong, crisscrossed with factories making everything from clothing to electronics, has long been the country’s biggest manufacturing hub. For decades, it has churned out products for the insatiable American consumer base, offering low prices few can compete with and serving as a…
Wits Sterkfontein caves tour guide, Keneth Mawete enters the caves located within the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site in Krugersdorp near Johannesburg on April 15, 2025. [AFP] Seated on sandbags in South Africa’s Sterkfontein caves, where one of our earliest ancestors was found, Itumeleng Molefe swept ancient soil into a blue dustpan, each brushstroke hunting for hidden clues. Nearby, visitors marvelled at the weathered limestone rocks hanging from the ceiling of the caves, millions of years old. Located 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, the caves closed nearly three years ago due to flooding and reopened…
Supporters of the Sudanese armed popular resistance, which backs the army, ride on trucks in Gedaref in eastern Sudan on March 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries. [AFP] Clashes between Sudanese paramilitaries and the regular army have killed at least 57 civilians in the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher, a medical source and a volunteer aid group said Thursday. The local resistance committee, a grassroots aid group, said the civilians were killed on Wednesday in clashes and shelling of the city by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the army since…
A soldier holds position as the damage is assessed after Al Shabaab hit a European Union armored convoy in Mogadishu, Somalia. [FILE] Somali and US forces carried out an air strike on an area under attack from the Al-Shabaab Islamist group and killed 12 militants, the Somali government said on Thursday. The strike on Adan Yabaal, 220 kilometres (140 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu came as Al-Shabaab fighters raided the key town used as a base by Somali military commanders. Growing attacks by the Al-Qaeda-linked group, including one on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s convoy, are fuelling worries of a…
Nigeria and Niger held talks Wednesday on cross-border security, terrorism and economic cooperation, despite tensions between the two neighbours since the July 2023 coup in Niger. [AFP] The foreign ministers of Nigeria and Niger held talks Wednesday on cross-border security, terrorism and economic cooperation, despite tensions between the two neighbours since the July 2023 coup in Niger. It comes after Nigeria this month renewed calls for the release of Niger’s deposed president Mohamed Bazoum, who is being held at the presidential palace in Niamey in strict detention. Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar travelled to Niamey for talks with Niger’s…
Tanzanian main opposition chief Tundu Lissu waves from his wheelchair on January 5, 2018 in Nairobi, after being discharged from hospital in September 2017. [AFP] Tanzania’s main opposition party on Thursday called on its supporters to demonstrate at a courthouse where its leader is set to appear next week on treason charges, despite police warnings against the protest. The east African nation’s authorities have increasingly cracked down on its opposition and last week Chadema leader Tundu Lissu was detained along with other party members. Speaking at a rally, Chadema deputy chairman John Heche urged supporters to gather in court on…
People gather around the John Harvard Statue on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachussetts, on April 15, 2025. [AFP] US President Donald Trump called Harvard a “joke” Wednesday and said it should lose its government research contracts after the prestigious university refused demands that it accept outside political supervision. Trump’s administration also threatened to ban the famed seat of learning from admitting foreign students unless it bows to the requirements, as US media reported that officials were considering revoking the university’s tax-exempt status. “Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be…
A worker checks a machine at a factory which produces silk cloth in Fuyang, in China’s eastern Anhui province, on April 16, 2025. [AFP] Concern over the economic fallout from US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs mounted Wednesday, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s warning of higher inflation sending stock markets tumbling. Trump remained upbeat, posting on social media that there’d been “Big Progress!” in talks with Japan on a trade deal. He is banking that his strategy, in which tariffs are meant to lead to multiple individual country agreements, will lower barriers to US products and shift global manufacturing…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg listens during a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. [AFP] Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday denied in court that his company bought rival services Instagram and WhatsApp to neutralise them, as his testimony in a landmark antitrust case came to a close. The case could see the Facebook owner forced to divest itself of the two apps, which have grown into global powerhouses since their buyouts. During his third and final day on the stand in…
People shout slogans and protest during the funeral and burial of Elvino Dias, the lawyer for the presidential candidate of the opposition Party Optimist for the Development of Mozambique (PODEMOS) Venancio Mondlane, at a church in Michafutene, near Maputo, on October 23, 2024. [AFP] Mozambican police were involved in the killing of almost 400 people during three months of violent crackdown on opposition protests, Amnesty International said Wednesday, denouncing excessive force and a lack of accountability. The gas-rich southern African nation descended into post-election turmoil following the disputed victory of President Daniel Chapo in October last year. The vote, which several…
In this image grab taken from handout video footage released by the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 23, 2023, fighters ride in the back of a technical vehicle (pickup truck mounted with a turret) in the East Nile district of greater Khartoum. [AFP] Two years into a war that has left tens of thousands dead, Sudan’s RSF paramilitary force announced its own government on Tuesday to rival the army-backed administration it is battling. The United Nations says the conflict that erupted on April 15, 2023, is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 13 million people displaced-…
Social media juggernaut Meta stands trial on April 14, 2025, facing serious US government allegations that it abused its market power to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp. [AFP] Social media titan Mark Zuckerberg testified for a second day Tuesday in a landmark US antitrust trial, defending his conglomerate Meta against accusations it took over Instagram and WhatsApp to devour budding competitors. The federal court trial in Washington has dashed Zuckerberg’s hopes that the return of President Donald Trump to the White House would see the government let up on the enforcement of antitrust law against Big Tech. Federal Trade Commission…
A mother watches a child suffering malnutrition undergoing intensive care in a clinic set up by health authorities in collaboraion with Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Katsina State, northwest Nigeria, on July 20, 2022. [AFP] Attacks in Nigeria’s troubled north-central state of Plateau have killed more than more than 100 people in just under two weeks. Plateau, on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, has historically been a flashpoint for intercommunal violence. Analysts say the situation in the region — the so-called Middle Belt — is complex. Here is what…
A man shows signs of despair holding his head in his hands inside a tent in a temporary shelter after heavy rains affected the city of Port-au-Price, in Haiti, on April 13, 2025. [AFP] Britain and France on Wednesday pledged to maintain pressure on criminal gangs in Haiti via sanctions. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is politically unstable and swaths of the country, including parts of the capital, are under the control of rival armed gangs. “The UK and France are concerned by reports of criminal gangs coordinating to further destabilise Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council,” Britain and…
Palestinians check the damage following overnight Israeli strikes on a residential neighbourhood in Jabalia’s southwestern district of Nazla in the northern Gaza Strip on April 16, 2025. [AFP] Israel said Wednesday it would keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, where a relentless military offensive has turned the Palestinian territory into a “mass grave”, a medical charity reported. Air and ground attacks resumed across the Gaza Strip from March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas that had largely halted hostilities in the territory. However, Israel has halted the entry of aid into Gaza since March 2, as the humanitarian…
The flag of the European Union flies at the EU headquarters during the Special European Council to discuss continued support for Ukraine and European defence, in Brussels on March 6, 2025. [AFP] The European Union on Wednesday published a list of seven countries it considers “safe”, in a bid to speed up migrant returns by making it harder for citizens of those nations to claim asylum in the bloc. The European Commission said it was proposing to designate Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia as “safe countries of origin”. The move is set to allow EU governments to process…
A robot performs traditional “fist and palm” salute at the 5th China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, April 14, 2025.[AFP] South Korean actor Simon Lee was stunned when he saw his likeness — at times as a gynaecologist or a surgeon — being used to promote questionable health cures on TikTok and Instagram. He is one of scores of people who have licensed their image to AI marketing companies, and then ended up with the unpleasant surprise of seeing themselves feature in deepfakes, dubious adverts or even political propaganda. “If it was a nice…
Penitents bear a sculpture of Christ lying on the cross during the Holy Monday procession of the ‘Christ of the Good Death’ brotherhood in Zamora, northwestern Spain, on April 15, 2025. [AFP] Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians on Sunday will celebrate Easter, the most important holiday in the Christian calendar, which commemorates Christ’s death and his believed resurrection through centuries-old traditions. The date of Easter is not fixed, as it is celebrated on the first Sunday following the spring full moon. It follows Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and prayer in reference to Jesus’s time in the desert. Holy…
Peru’s former President (2011-2016), Ollanta Humala, speaks on the phone as he leaves his sentence hearing at a court in Lima on April 15, 2025. [AFP] A Peruvian court on Tuesday sentenced ex-president Ollanta Humala and his wife to 15 years in prison for graft linked to a globe-spanning corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction group Odebrecht paying bribes to politicians. The court found the 62-year-old and his wife, Nadine Heredia, guilty of money laundering for receiving illegal contributions from Odebrecht and the Venezuelan government in two presidential campaigns. Humala was taken into custody in the courtroom after the ruling,…
Jana Maradona, daughter of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, arrives at the court for a trial hearing on her father’s death in San Isidro, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, on April 15, 2025. [AFP] Argentine football legend Diego Maradona’s daughter told a court Tuesday his death “would have been avoided” if doctors caring for him after surgery had done their jobs. Maradona died on November 25, 2020, aged 60, while recovering at home from brain surgery for a blood clot. He had battled cocaine and alcohol addiction for decades. His seven-person medical team is on trial for what prosecutors…
A young Sudanese refugee wait to be examined by a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical team at the MSF mobile hospital at the Touloum refugee camp in the Wadi Fira province, Chad, on April 8, 2025. [AFP] The United Nations said Tuesday that it expected more than two million people displaced in war-ravaged Sudan to return to Khartoum within the next six months, if security conditions allow. Fighting erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, between the army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, headed by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. As the world…
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy (C) chairs the London Sudan Conference 2025 at Lancaster House in London on April 15, 2025. [AFP] The UK led international calls Tuesday for a swift end to the devastating war in Sudan, hosting a gathering of world officials with fresh pledges of humanitarian aid as the conflict which has cost thousands of lives entered its third year. The war erupted on April 15, 2023 in a bitter power struggle between rival generals leading Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — neither of whom were present at the conference. More than…
Supporters of the Sudanese armed popular resistance, which backs the army, ride on trucks in Gedaref in eastern Sudan on March 3, 2024. [AFP] Sudan on Tuesday marked two years of a war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with no signs of peace. Fighting erupted on April 15, 2023 between the army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. Khartoum quickly became a battleground. Bodies lined the streets. Hundreds of thousands fled. Those left behind struggled to…
Families gather by the shallow waters of the Nile River at the Tuti island where the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet in Khartoum on May 1, 2019. [AFP] An island in the middle of Sudan’s capital that used to draw crowds to its Nile River farms now stands nearly deserted after two years of war, its homes ransacked and once-lush fields left fallow. Nestled at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, Tuti Island has been devastated by two years of war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with residents subjected…
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy (C) chairs the London Sudan Conference 2025 at Lancaster House in London on April 15, 2025. [AFP] Senior international officials gather in London on Tuesday aiming to chart a pathway to peace for Sudan on the second anniversary of its brutal civil conflict, but without the presence of the warring parties. Dubbed the “forgotten war”, the conflict which erupted on April 15, 2023 between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a bitter power struggle between rival generals has created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst hunger and…
A muddied road past tent shelters erected near the rubble of collapsed buildings in Nasr, western Gaza City on April 15, 2025. [AFP] Nearly a month after Israel resumed its aerial and ground assaults across Gaza to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages in the territory, the Palestinian militant group says it had received a new ceasefire proposal from Israel. A senior Hamas official told AFP that the group would “most likely” respond within 48 hours. The proposal was delivered to the group’s delegation in Cairo over the weekend by Egyptian officials, who are mediating in the ceasefire talks.…
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meeting with Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud during the 4th edition of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF2025) in Antalya, on April 12, 2025. [AFP] Somalia on Tuesday launched voter registration in the capital Mogadishu for the first time in over 50 years, a step towards universal suffrage ahead of presidential elections scheduled for 2026 in the volatile nation. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pledged last year to end the complex clan-based indirect voting system that had been in place since 1969, enacting legislation approved by parliament. An AFP correspondent observed dozens of people queuing to register…
A Boeing 737 Max aircraft during a display at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, Britain, July 20, 2022. [Reuters] China has told its airlines to stop taking deliveries of jets from American aviation giant Boeing, a report said Tuesday, as a trade war between Beijing and the United States deepens. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the world’s two biggest economies have been locked in a tit-for-tat tariff war, with the US now charging levies of up to 145 percent on imports from China. Beijing has reacted furiously to what it calls unlawful “bullying” by Washington and…
People walk past a kiosk where a poster giving information on how to prevent Cholera is displayed in Kibera, Nairobi, on May 20, 2015. [AFP] As clouds gather and humidity rises across west Africa, whose annual rains bring an uptick of deadly, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, Musa Adamu Ibrahim, a nurse, is sitting at home, unemployed. In Nigeria — home to 30 percent of the world’s annual 600,000 malaria deaths — clinics that once served 300 people a day in the conflict-hit Borno state have abruptly shut down, Ibrahim and other laid-off workers told AFP, following the withdrawal of American funding by…
Chinese President Xi Jinping waves as he arrives for a two-day state visit at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport on April 14, 2025. [AFP] Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned that protectionism “leads nowhere” and that a trade war would have “no winners”, state media said, as he arrived in Vietnam on Monday on the first leg of a Southeast Asia tour. Xi will visit Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia on his first overseas trip of the year as Beijing seeks to tighten regional trade ties and offset the impact of huge tariffs unleashed by his US counterpart, Donald Trump. A line…
Tanzania’s main opposition leader Tundu Lissu (C) gestures as he arrives at the magistrate’s court in Dar es Salaam on April 10, 2025. Tanzania’s main opposition leader Tundu Lissu was charged with treason on April 10, 2025 a day after being detained following a rally in the country’s south, one of his lawyers told AFP. (Photo by ERICKY BONIPHACE / AFP) Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu has survived an assassination attempt that left him riddled with bullets, multiple arrests, and long years in exile — all in pursuit of democracy in the east African nation. But the 57-year-old lawyer may…
The Trump administration has exempted smartphones, computers, and other electronics from its punishing “reciprocal” tariffs. April 11, 2025. [AFP] Stock markets on Monday welcomed US tariff exemptions for electronics, but President Donald Trump signalled the reprieve would be temporary and warned no country would get “off the hook” in his trade war — especially China. The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a fast-moving game of brinkmanship since Trump launched a global tariff assault that particularly targeted Chinese imports. Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145 percent, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125 percent…
Ukrainian rescuers at the site of a missile attack in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. April 13, 2025. [AFP] Russia said Monday its missiles hit a meeting of Ukrainian army commanders in Sumy, accusing Ukraine of using civilians as a “human shield” after Kyiv reported the Sunday attack killed at least 34 people. The strike was one of the deadliest for months and drew condemnation from leaders around the world, while US President Donald Trump called it a “horrible thing” and suggested Russia had “made a mistake”. Russia’s defence ministry said its army launched two ballistic…
An electronic board showing the numbers of morning trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. April 14, 2025. [AFP] Japan’s envoy for upcoming tariff talks with the United States said on Monday that Japanese company profits were falling “day by day” as he called for a swift solution. Economic Revitalisation Minister Ryosei Akazawa will visit Washington for the negotiations this week, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told lawmakers on Monday. The government has so far failed in attempts to secure exemptions from the US tariffs, including 25 percent on the global auto sector that took effect in early April. US President Donald…
Gabon Transitional President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema gestures while at the podium at the Stade de l’Amitie in Libreville on March 29, 2025 during the opening rally of his electoral campaign. [AFP] Gabon’s junta chief Brice Oligui Nguema has won the presidential election with 90.35 percent of the vote, according to provisional results released Sunday by the interior ministry. Oligui, who ended more than five decades of corruption-plagued rule by the Bongo family in August 2023, assuming the role of transitional president, had promised to return the country to democratic rule. Earlier Sunday, Gabon 24 television had reported that he…
Gabon Transitional President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema gestures while at the podium at the Stade de l’Amitie in Libreville on March 29, 2025 during the opening rally of his electoral campaign. [AFP] Gabon’s junta chief Brice Oligui Nguema looked set to romp his way to victory in the first presidential election since he took power in a 2023 coup, state media reported on Sunday. Nguema, who ended more than five decades of corruption-plagued rule by the Bongo family in August 2023, was “well ahead” in several of the central African country’s provinces, Gabon 24 television said on Sunday morning. Any…
People walk past a Bank of China New York branch on April 11, 2025 in New York City.[AFP] China said Friday it would raise its tariffs on US goods to 125 percent in a further escalation of a trade war that threatens to bring exports to a halt between the world’s two biggest economies. Beijing’s retaliation sparked fresh market volatility, with stocks seesawing, gold prices surging and US government bonds under pressure. In a message on social media on Friday morning, US President Donald Trump continued to insist that “we are doing really well on our tariff policy.” “Very exciting…
Farm workers labor in the fields south of Bakersfield, in Kern County, California’s breadbasket, on April 9, 2025. As President Donald Trump’s global tariffs took effect, US farmers hoping for profit instead found themselves facing lower crop prices. [AFP] The EU paused plans for retaliatory tariffs on US goods Thursday after President Donald Trump abruptly suspended higher US duties on the bloc and other countries, leaving China in the crosshairs of his trade war. Trump’s about-face on Wednesday triggered a massive market rebound but Wall Street’s rally fizzled on Thursday and the dollar slumped, as investors remain on edge over…
Aerial view shows rescue teams working at the Jet Set nightclub a day after the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo on April 9, 2025. (Photo by Alfred DAVIES / AFP) The death toll after a roof collapsed at a crowded nightclub in the Dominican Republic has climbed to 218, the head of rescue operations said Thursday, in the Caribbean nation’s worst disaster in decades. Rescuers had worked frantically since the collapse in the early hours of Tuesday to dig out survivors from the rubble of the popular Jet Set club in Santo Domingo. Among the dead were famed…
Prada, Versace logos outside the fashion house and luxury goods Prada in Paris on December 19, 2017. [AFP] Italian fashion house Prada announced Thursday it had reached a deal with US group Capri Holdings to buy its flashy rival Versace for 1.25 billion euros ($1.38 billion). The acquisition will create a luxury group with revenues of over six billion euros that could better compete with industry giants such as the French conglomerates LVMH and Gucci owner Kering, amid a slowdown in the sector worldwide. “We are delighted to welcome Versace to the Prada Group and to build a new chapter…
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in the Oval Office of the White House on April 09, 2025. [AFP] US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina was on a plane back to the United States on Thursday after being released in a prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington, her lawyer and America’s top diplomat said. She spent more than a year in Russian prison after being charged with “treason” for donating to a pro-Ukrainian charity. The prisoner swap was the second between Moscow and Washington since US President Donald Trump took office. Here are some of the most high-profile instances of…
Container trucks head north and south on the Interstate 5 highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, passing through the central California valleys and San Joaquin, the state’s agricultural breadbasket, on April 9, 2025. [AFP] Several US senators have called for an investigation into whether President Donald Trump engaged in insider trading or market manipulation by encouraging people to buy stocks just before his dramatic reversal on global tariffs. “Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip-flop ahead of time? Did anyone buy or sell stocks and profit at the public’s expense?” California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff posted…
Newspaper clippings and an image of US President Donald Trump are displayed on a desk as traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on April 9, 2025, in New York City. [AFP] EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s decision to pause planned tariff increases as an “important step towards stabilising the global economy”. “Clear, predictable conditions are essential for trade and supply chains to function,” the European Commission president said in a statement. “The European Union remains committed to constructive negotiations with the United States,” she said, reiterating…
A cargo ship unloads a container at Kwai Chung Container Terminal in Hong Kong on April 10, 2025. [AFP] US President Donald Trump has ramped up his trade war against China, further raising import tariffs on Beijing to 125 percent despite pausing them for other countries. The move came hours after China announced reciprocal action against the United States in response to a previous levy hike. AFP looks at how the escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies is playing out and what impact it might have: What actions has Trump taken so far? Trump said Wednesday that…
Britain’s Queen Camilla and King Charles III meet with well-wishers as they have a walk in the streets close to the Italian Parliament in Rome on April 9, 2025. [AFP] The Vatican on Thursday published a photograph of Pope Francis meeting King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla the day before during the British monarch’s state visit to Italy. Wednesday’s meeting was a surprise, as Buckingham Palace had cancelled the planned audience due to the 88-year-old pope’s poor health. Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, is recovering from five weeks in the hospital with life-threatening pneumonia.…
Samsung electronics factory in Bac Ninh province, photo taken on April 8, 2025. [AFP] Sipping tea on her break outside a Samsung Electronics factory in northern Vietnam, worker Nguyen Thi Mai said she had heard about US President Donald Trump’s tariffs but hoped they would not affect business. Samsung, the world’s second-largest phone maker, produces around half of its handsets in Vietnam, and Trump’s threat to impose a 46-percent tariff on the country sent shockwaves through the South Korean giant’s supply chains. “We don’t understand much about macro issues,” 27-year-old Mai told AFP, adding that daily life inside the factory…
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order on April 09, 2025, in Washington, DC. [AFP] US President Donald Trump abruptly paused tariffs on most countries, sparking euphoria on global markets Thursday, but upped the ante on a brutal trade war with superpower rival China. After days of turmoil, stocks on Wall Street and across Asia saw huge surges in reaction to Trump’s announcement that he was halting a levy hike for almost all nations for 90 days. But Trump also said he was raising tariffs on China to 125 percent because of a “lack of respect.” Beijing hit back…
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on April 09, 2025, in Washington, DC. [AFP] US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order lifting water-pressure restrictions on showerheads, a move the White House said would “make America’s showers great again”. Trump has long complained about inadequate water pressure in American bathrooms, which he blames on federal water conservation regulations. “In my case I like to take a nice shower, to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office on Wednesday.…
Children cool themselves in a makeshift pool along the banks of the Yamuna river on a hot summer day in New Delhi on April 8, 2025. [AFP] Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, the EU agency that monitors climate change said on Tuesday, prolonging an unprecedented heat streak that has pushed the bounds of scientific explanation. In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service. That drove rainfall extremes across a continent warming faster than any other as planet-heating fossil fuel emissions keep rising. Meanwhile, the world…
Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, waves as he arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice, Britain’s High Court, in central London, on April 8, 2025. [AFP] Lawyers for the UK government on Wednesday defended a decision to cut back Prince Harry’s security after he stepped back from royal life, during the second day of his high-profile appeal. Harry was back in the courtroom in London as the interior ministry’s legal team responded to his challenge of its decision to downgrade his publicly funded police protection during trips to the UK. The 40-year-old prince has been fighting to have his…
France’s President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on April 9, 2025. [AFP] Russia said Wednesday that it was waiting for “explanations” from France after a Russian government employee was detained for hours at a Paris airport in what it called a “shameful spectacle”. The employee, whom Russia did not name, worked for the foreign ministry and had arrived in France on Sunday as part of an official delegation, Moscow said. It said French border police confiscated her phone and computer upon landing and kept her waiting in border control for hours,…
Dominican President Luis Abinader (L) gesturing in front of the Jet Set nightclub following the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo on April 8, 2025. [AFP] The Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader said Sunday he was deploying more troops to the country’s border with Haiti, which is suffering a grave security crisis. Abinader added that he had approved the construction of a new section of a wall between the two countries, which share the second-largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba. Abinader, who was first elected in 2020 and secured a second term last year, has made battling immigration…
Rescue teams evacuate a body from the Jet Set nightclub following the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo on April 8, 2025. [AFP] Rubby Perez dreamed of becoming a baseball player as a child in the Dominican Republic, but a traffic accident led him to become one of merengue music’s most recognizable voices. The singer, known for hits such as “Volvere” and “Enamorado de Ella”, died at the age of 69 on Tuesday after the roof of the Santo Domingo nightclub where he was performing collapsed, his manager said. The disaster left dozens of people dead and prompted the…
Rescue teams at the Jet Set nightclub following the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo on April 8, 2025. [AFP] The roof of a Santo Domingo nightclub collapsed on Tuesday as merengue legend Rubby Perez sang on stage, killing the Dominican star along with nearly a hundred other people Here is what we know about the disaster. – How it unfolded – The roof of the Jet Set club collapsed after midnight on Tuesday (0400 GMT) Social media videos show the moment everything went dark while Perez sang. Authorities sent 370 rescue personnel to the nightclub where aerial images…
A trader works in front of a board displaying the chart of Germany’s share index in Frankfurt western Germany on April 7, 2025. [AFP] European stock markets were expected to open deep in the red on Wednesday as futures contracts fell after US President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on dozens of countries took effect. Around 40 minutes before markets were due to open, futures contracts — essentially bets on what the price of a stock will be at a later date — were down more than three percent in Paris and Frankfurt, and 2.5 percent in London. A trader works…
U.S. President Donald Trump listens as coal miner Jeff Crowe speaks during an executive order signing ceremony in the White House on April 08, 2025 in Washington, DC. [AFP] India’s central bank cut interest rates in the world’s fifth-largest economy on Wednesday as Donald Trump’s tariffs kicked in and policymakers warned of “challenging global economic conditions”. The cut, the second this year, aims to boost a slowing economy grappling with the impact US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the benchmark repo rate, the level at which it lends to commercial banks, would…
This photo illustration shows Chinese 100 yuan notes (red) and US 100 dollar notes, in Beijing on April 8, 2025. [AFP] US President Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs on dozens of economies came into force Wednesday, including over 100 percent in levies against Chinese goods, sending markets into a tailspin again as the devastating global trade war intensified. Following the sweeping 10 percent tariffs that took effect over the weekend, rates on imports to the United States from exporters like the European Union or Japan rose further at 12.01 am (0401 GMT) Wednesday. China — Washington’s top economic rival but also…
A Palestinian man walks in a burnt building after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the village of Sadya near the West Bank city of Salfit on April 8, 2025. [AFP] The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli troops killed a 30-year-old woman near the West Bank city of Salfit on Tuesday after what the army described as an attempted stabbing. The ministry reported the death of Amana Ibrahim Mohammed Yaqub, 30, “who was shot by (Israeli) forces near Salfit”, south of Nablus. The Israeli military said it had “neutralised a terrorist who hurled rocks and attempted to stab soldiers…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during joint press conference with Belgium Prime Minister in Kyiv on April 8, 2025. [AFP] Moscow and Beijing have deepened political, military and economic cooperation since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “Our military captured two Chinese citizens who fought in the Russian army. This happened on the territory of Ukraine — in the Donetsk region,” Zelensky said in a post on social media. “We have the documents of these prisoners, bank cards, and personal data,” Zelensky said in a post that included a video of one of the alleged Chinese prisoners. There was no…
Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella and Pope Francis during a surprise appearance at the end of a mass for the sick and healthcare workers as part of the Jubilee Year in The Vatican, on April 4, 2025. [AFP] Pope Francis’s voice and mobility continue to improve, the Vatican said Tuesday as the 88-year-old Catholic leader recovers from life-threatening pneumonia. The Argentine pontiff spent five weeks in Rome’s Gemelli hospital before returning home to the Vatican on March 23 for what doctors said would be at least two months of convalescence. Despite being told to take it easy, Francis made a surprise…
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after inspection of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Yokosuka Base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture on April 8, 2025. [AFP] China’s expansion of its armed forces is “staggering”, NATO’s chief said on a visit to Japan beginning Tuesday aimed at “projecting” the alliance’s power in the Asia-Pacific region. “Let us not be naive about China,” Secretary General Mark Rutte told the Japan Times. “The build-up of their armed forces and investments in their defence industry, and in their defence capabilities, is staggering,” Rutte said in the interview published on Monday. The comment came as he visited…
Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex arrives at the the Royal Courts of Justice, Britain’s High Court, in central London, on April 8, 2025. [AFP] Prince Harry was in a UK court on Tuesday for the latest stage of his legal challenge against a government decision to downgrade his personal security when he visits Britain. The self-exiled royal entered the Royal Courts of Justice in central London around 9:30 am (0830 GMT), AFP reporters saw, where judges at the complex’s Court of Appeal were to begin considering his case. Following Harry’s dramatic split with the royal family in 2020 and…
United Nations peacekeepers drive in vehicles of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) past destroyed buildings on April 6, 2025. [AFP] An Israeli strike Monday on southern Lebanon killed one person, according to the health ministry, with Israel’s military saying it had “eliminated” a Hezbollah commander in the latest raid despite a truce. Israel has continued to launch strikes on Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire that largely halted more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, including two months of all-out war. The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that an “Israeli enemy” strike…
A man walks past a screen showing Chinese stock market movements in Beijing on April 7, 2025. [AFP] US President Donald Trump lashed out at China on Monday as a stock market rout deepened after Beijing retaliated against his global tariffs offensive. European equities were deep in the red but Asia fared worse, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index crashing 13.2 percent, its biggest drop since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 falling an eye-watering 7.8 percent. A 10-percent “baseline” tariff on imports from around the world took effect on Saturday but a slew of countries will…
US President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order after delivering remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled “Make America Wealthy Again” at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2025. [AFP] Note: This article was first published in February 2025. President Donald Trump’s plan for “reciprocal tariffs” on US trading partners are set to spark a flurry of negotiations that could bring reductions in levies- but analysts warn that it also risks painful retaliation. “This is every country, and essentially, when they treat us fairly, we treat them fairly,” Trump told reporters.…
Photo illustration shows an image generated by artificial-intelligence (AI) in the style of Studio Ghibli animation. [AFP] Artificial intelligence risks taking Japanese anime artists’ jobs but nothing can replicate Hayao Miyazaki, the creative lifeblood of the studio behind classics such as “Spirited Away”, his son told AFP. Thanks to ChatGPT’s new image generator, the internet is awash with pictures imitating Studio Ghibli’s whimsical style, raising fresh debate over potential copyright infringements. Movies such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” are famous for their lush nature and fantastical machinery, painstakingly drawn by hand. While the studio has not commented…
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during a so-called Fireside-Chat with the CEO of German carmaker Volkswagen (unseen) where they unveiled their cooperation for the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud developed with Microsoft, on February 27, 2019 in Berlin. [AFP] Microsoft has been at the heart of computing for half a century, becoming a tech stalwart almost taken for granted as lifestyles embraced the internet. As the company, founded with a vision of putting computers in every home and office, celebrates its 50th anniversary on Friday, it is looking to boost its fortunes by being a leader in the fast-developing field of…
A crew from Voice of America make a live report as they stand in a causeway leading to US President-elect Donald Trump’s estate in Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach on December 13, 2024. [AFP] President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday put journalists at Voice of America and other US-funded broadcasters on leave, abruptly freezing decades-old outlets long seen as critical to countering Russian and Chinese information offensives. Hundreds of staffers at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other outlets received a weekend email saying they will be barred from their offices and should surrender press passes and office-issued…