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(John McCann)

OPINION | The catalytic prospects of hopelessness

Perhaps if we stop cleaving to hope and choose our dissatisfaction; realise the awful truth that the only saviour is individual and collective agency, then a different outcome…

Still running: The high-speed rail network is being saved from financial difficulty by a confidential patronage guarantee agreement Bombela struck with the Gauteng government. Photo: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty

Covid-19’s work-from-home plans hit Gautrain

Bombela says a rebound hinges on vaccine and return-to-work developments and that money from government to cover the shortfall is capped

Firestorms tend to produce very little rain

Firestorms: How Australia’s bushfires created their own weather

During Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, lightning strikes caused new fires up to 100 kilometres away from the original blaze

Bobi Wine announced last year he would challenge President Yoweri Museveni in the 2021 elections

Uganda police arrest pop-star MP Bobi Wine, teargas supporters

Having already been detained a number of times, the singer who looks set to challenge President Museveni in the 2021 elections has been arrested

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Iraq parliament demands US troop ouster after Soleimani killing

Ties have deteriorated after an American precision drone strike killed Iran’s Major General Qasem Soleimani

A Sudanese court on Saturday sentenced former President Omar al-Bashir to two years in a rehabilitation center over charges of money laundering and corruption. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Sudan sentences Omar al-Bashir to two years for corruption

The former president is also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide linked to the Darfur conflict

The Dignity foundation, set up by the Catholic Church in Belgium to combat the sexual abuse of minors, demanded in a statement on June 26 that Father Luk Delft return home immediately. (Screenshot via CNN)
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UN suspends ties with Caritas in CAR over sex abuse probe

Caritas has been operating in the strife-torn country since 1991, mainly coordinating programmes to protect children and assist displaced people

In the last few weeks, as Bale’s behaviour has wavered and the criticism increased, Zidane has become his staunchest defender. (Reuters/Javier Barbancho)

Defiant Bale down but not out at Real Madrid

Two seasons on he remains but Madrid face PSG again at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday, with the Welshman’s future still in doubt

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob was elected in 2014 after serving as prime minister for a total of 14 years. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via Reuters)

Who’s who in Namibia’s presidential elections?

Namibia votes in a general election on Wednesday. Here are the four frontrunners

Newly appointed Australia coach Dave Rennie. (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Rennie: All Blacks left it too late to offer me coach job

New Zealand has said its new coaching team will be named before Christmas, but it has now missed out on at least three high-profile candidates

Former minister Bongani Bongo was accused of trying to to bribe advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara, the evidence leader in the parliamentary inquiry into state capture at Eskom, in October 2017. (David Harrison/M&G)

Former minister Bongani Bongo arrested on corruption charges

The arrest is a big statement of intent by the justice system, but his defence has already said it wants to make “representations”

Social media platforms have been challenged by US President Donald Trump’s campaign and its use of ads that contain claims which critics say have been debunked by independent fact-checkers. (Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu Agency)

Snapchat checks for deception in political ads

The strategy seems to be a middle ground between Facebook’s controversial tolerance of proven lies in ads and Twitter’s decision to ban them

Crowded out: The population of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, is about 3.25-million, putting  facilities under pressure. (Marco Longari/AFP)

Paddy farmers rise up against Madagascar’s ‘new city’

Farmers in Ambohitrimanjaka village are facing off with the authorities over a scheme that threatens to engulf a thousand hectares of rice fields

Africans can lead the charge to decolonise the profit-driven biomedical system by challenging European and American claims to prioritised access to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Second Ebola vaccine introduced in the DRC

It said the new vaccine, produced by a Belgian subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, is aimed at protecting 50 000 people over a period of four months

Social media platforms have been challenged by US President Donald Trump’s campaign and its use of ads that contain claims which critics say have been debunked by independent fact-checkers. (Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu Agency)

Hashtag Saudi Arabia: Chasing critics on Twitter

Here is a look at how Saudi Arabia has cracked down on dissent and criticism on social media

A masked and armed special police officer stands guard outside the Venezuela’s Central Bank building in Caracas, Venezuela. (Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlin)

In Venezuela, special police force wreaks havoc in slums

Hundreds of residents who have been killed by the Special Action Forces (FAES) in what their loved ones and advocacy groups said were "executions"

On October 1, more than 1000 people take to the streets in Baghdad and cities in southern Iraq to protest corruption, unemployment and poor public services. (Wissmal Okilli/Reuters)

Iraq: more than a month of anti-regime protests

Demands for the government to resign have led to deadly clashes since October 1

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer won his first away game in the Premier League in eight months after beating Norwich City on Sunday. (Phil Noble/Reuters)

United’s results have hurt, admits Solskjaer

The 46-year-old Norwegian has enjoyed a rare week of good results after an abysmal start to the season

Droughts and floods also displace more people, who seek shelter in camps which then serve as recruitment grounds for radical groups like al-Shabaab. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Climate change amplifies conflicts, hinders peacebuilding

Researches have looked at how climate change has affected the UN mission in Somalia and how it has strengthened radical groups

Only 9% of plastics is recycled once and less than 1% is recycled twice

A handful of multinational corporations is responsible for the world’s plastic waste

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle were responsible for the most pieces of plastic collected according to an environmental pressure group