Cubans struggling with blackouts, fuel shortages and soaring prices voiced frustration after the United States extended its decades-old trade embargo on the island for another year.

The two are expected to exchange views on bilateral ties and ⁠international ​and regional issues of ​common concern.

Finance and water emerge as defining issues at COP17. PHOTO/UNCCD. By PATRICK MAYOYO ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia Negotiators, ministers, scientists and civil society leaders have entered a decisive phase of global talks aimed at tackling desertification, land degradation and drought, as the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)  moves into its final week in the Mongolian capital. With only days remaining before the conference closes on 28 August, delegates from the UNCCD’s 197 Parties are intensifying negotiations on some of the most politically sensitive and technically complex issues confronting the international community, including land restoration financing, drought resilience, water security, migration, private sector engagement and scientific cooperation. The summit, being held under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.”, is widely viewed as a critical test of the world’s commitment to re...

INFOGRAPHIC/EYEWITNESS MEDIA. By PATRICK MAYOYO The tragic events in Homa Bay, which left two people dead, including a police officer, and injured 54 others, have once again exposed the persistent challenge of goonism, criminal gangs and political violence in Kenya. Beyond the immediate loss of life and destruction, the incident raises uncomfortable but necessary questions about the effectiveness of the country’s security leadership and the implementation of presidential directives aimed at restoring law and order. If the Inspector-General of Police, Douglas Kanja, and the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, had acted decisively and consistently on President William Ruto’s directive to crack down on goonism, criminal gangs and lawlessness, could this tragedy have been prevented? While no security agency can guarantee the complete elimination of violence, Kenyans are entitled to ask whether enough was done to avert a situation that many viewed as predictable. On 21 Ju...

In tonight's programme: Muslims celebrate Mawlid across Africa but festivities are cancelled in Tigray because of recent drone attacks. But first: the United States calls for beefed-up UN sanctions against the warring parties in Sudan. Finally, in the Kenyan village of Cheporor, a recent discovery of gold sends thousands of amateur prospectors rushing to the area.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday ordered security agencies to conduct a rescue operation after the mass kidnapping of worshippers during an attack on a mosque in the north-central Niger State last week. Local authorities were still trying to verify the number of missing people, but local residents said roughly 600 women, children and elderly people had been abducted. 

The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service saved its Members more than R7.44 billion in potential fraud losses in 2025, as rising vishing, identity theft, document forgery and money mule networks highlight the growing threat of organised financial fraud across Southern Africa.

Kenya has made remarkable progress in financial inclusion, but access to financial services is not the same as financial understanding. Christine Wachira examines why financial literacy, consumer protection and practical money skills must keep pace with the country’s rapidly digitising financial system, particularly for young people.

By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze The Book That Was Standardized How the Recitation Was Collected, and What Was Burned to Make It One Sahih al-Bukhari is the most trusted book in Sunni Islam after the Qur’an itself, and at hadith 4987 it tells the following story. During campaigns in Armenia and Azerbaijan, a companion named Hudhayfa […]

By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze The Older Kaaba What Was Already Standing in Mecca When the Revelation Came Sometime around the year 819, a Muslim scholar of Kufa named Hisham ibn al-Kalbi finished a short book cataloguing the gods of Arabia before Islam. He listed them by name, tribe, and shrine: Wadd and Suwa, Yaghuth and […]