insert_link Africa 2024 Senegal election crisis points to deeper issues with Macky Sall and his preferred successor By Amy Niang, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa The botched attempt by Senegalese president Macky Sall to postpone the presidential election has stirred unnecessary tension in an already strained electoral process. The move reflected deeper governance problems in the country. Sall’s decree, subsequently annulled by the Constitutional Council, was the latest in a range of government interventions that exceeded the scope of […] todayMarch 18, 2024 8
insert_link Local Bank Windhoek celebrates central estate agents The annual Bank Windhoek Central Estate Agents Awards ceremony took place in Windhoek on Friday, 15 March 2024. The event was hosted to award real estate agents for their dedication to the development of the property market in Namibia. Awarded as the top three central agencies were Aqua Real Estate Trust in first place, Rightmove Properties Windhoek in second place, and Just Property Group in third place. Recognised […] todayMarch 18, 2024 15
insert_link Business / Economics Narendra Modi’s economy isn’t booming for India’s unemployed youth. So, why is his party favoured to win another election? By Ian Hall, Griffith University India will soon hold the biggest election ever conducted, starting on April 19 and running through early June. Almost 950 million registered voters will be able to cast ballots to elect the 543 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. The result is not a foregone conclusion, but most analysts expect Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win another […] todayMarch 18, 2024 8
insert_link World Ukraine war: ten years after Putin annexed Crimea, Russia’s grip on the peninsula looks shaky By Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham It is ten years since Russia illegally annexed Crimea on March 18 2014. Subsequent efforts to firmly integrate the peninsula into the Russian Federation, however, have been far from the success story that the Kremlin often likes to portray. In fact, comparing the increasingly shaky grip that Moscow has on the peninsula today with the situation before the annexation would suggest […] todayMarch 18, 2024 7
insert_link Science & Technology Is TikTok’s parent company an agent of the Chinese state? In China Inc., it’s a little more complicated Some U.S. lawmakers have grown concerned about TikTok. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images. By Shaomin Li, Old Dominion University Does the Chinese government have officials inside TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, pulling the strings? And does the storing of data from the popular social media app outside of China protect Americans? These questions appear to dominate the current thinking in the U.S. over whether to ban TikTok if its […] todayMarch 18, 2024 14
insert_link Business / Economics Private trains to ply South African rail network in commercial revamp By Seth Onyango, bird story agency South Africa is opening its rail network to private train operators in a commercial pivot to revitalise a key component of its transport and logistics infrastructure. It is part of the state-run logistics firm, Transnet SOC Ltd to inject dynamism into the sector, plagued by inefficiencies and maintenance challenges. On Friday, March 15, Transnet published a document laying the groundwork for […] todayMarch 18, 2024 19
insert_link Environment Snakebites: we thought we’d created a winning new antivenom but then it flopped. Why that turned out to be a good thing A Bothrops asper is prepared for its venom to be milked to use in making antivenom. Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Universal Images Group By Christoffer Vinther Sørensen, Technical University of Denmark; Andreas Hougaard Laustsen, Technical University of Denmark; Bruno Lomonte, Universidad de Costa Rica, and Julián Fernández, Universidad de Costa Rica Snakebites kill over 100,000 people each year, and hundreds of thousands of survivors are left with long-term disabilities such […] todayMarch 18, 2024 46
insert_link Africa Cameroon’s rebels may not achieve their goal of creating the Ambazonian state – but they’re still a threat to stability By Manu Lekunze, University of Aberdeen Cameroon’s separatist insurgency is an armed conflict in the country’s North West (NW) and South West (SW) regions that began in 2017. It pits government forces against several non-state armed groups, locally known as “Amba rebels”. The rebels seek to create a state called Ambazonia out of Cameroon’s English-speaking regions. The conflict has killed over 6,000 people and displaced 765,000. Over […] todayMarch 18, 2024 3
Health / Medical Almost 50% of adult South Africans are overweight or obese. Poverty and poor nutrition are largely to blame By Thokozani Simelane, Human Sciences Research Council Malnutrition, in all its forms, includes undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight), inadequate vitamins or minerals, overweight and obesity. South Africa has undergone a nutritional transition over the past 30 years characterised by the triple burden of malnutrition: households are simultaneously experiencing undernutrition, hidden hunger, and overweight or obesity due to nutrient-poor diets. Results of the first in-depth, nationwide study into food […] todayMarch 18, 2024 23