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Riding high: Biniam Girmay of Eritrea celebrates at the finish line as stage winner during the 111th Tour de France 2024. (Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

Biniam Girmay’s amazing race

Never before in its 121-year history had a stage in the Tour de France been won by a black African, until the Eritrean did it

The ‘Lady R’ at Simon’s Town naval base, Cape Town, in December.  Photo: Jaco Marais/Gallo Images

Has Ramaphosa’s administration passed the ‘Lady R’ test?

In a polarised world, Ramaphosa’s administration dodged some fatal bullets in the past five months that carried some hard long-term risks

Luxury timepieces are ticking … watch this space

South Africans are buying Rolexes at the same rate as Europeans and Americans. Is it time for a shake-up in luxury watches?

A Ukrainian girl is seeng sleeping in the arms of a UNHCR team member, inside the MoldEXPO, area reconverted in shelter for refugees in Chisinau, Moldova on 2022-03-26
 (Matteo Placucci/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Three reasons the United Nations cannot intervene in Russia’s war on Ukraine

These are the veto power of the Security Council, major powers ignore the UN and the UN secretary general cannot favour either side in the war

Revealed: The Suisse Secrets investigation exposed how Swiss bank Credit Suisse abused the country’s banking laws to offer criminals and the corrupt a safe haven for their ill-gotten gains. (Sebastien Bozon/AFP)

Initiative to blacklist Switzerland gains traction in European Union

Support is growing in the European Parliament against Swiss banks’ role in money laundering

(Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What the historic leak of Swiss Banking records reveal

Despite pledges by Credit Suisse to crack down on illegitimate funds, leaked data shows the bank catered to dozens of criminals, dictators, sanctioned parties and political…

A factory of the National Moroccan phosphates company (OCP/public) in Marca, near Laayoune, the capTial of Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. As a global leader in the market for phosphate and its derivatives, OCP has been a key player in the international market since its founding in 1920, the world’s largest exporter of phosphate rock and phosphoric acid and one of the world’s largest fertiliser producers.  (Photo by Fadel Senna/AFP)

Morocco drives a war in Western Sahara for its phosphates

Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara is about the presence of resources, especially phosphates that make up 72% of the world’s reserves. Phosphate is used in fertiliser, a key…

Hotspot: In search of work, Kenya’s beach boys, who sell jewellery and other wares, are drawn into sex tourism and trade. Photo: Dan Baciu

Kenya’s beach boys fall into sex tourism, trafficking

In the face of their families’ poverty, young men, persuaded by the prospect of wealth or education, travel to Europe with their older female sponsors only to be trafficked for sex

The dispute between ABB and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority centres on $13.4-million in payments allegedly owed to the country, which is in the middle of a crippling economic crisis.

Swiss company accused of tax dodging in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s tax authority said ABB, one of Switzerland’s most profitable companies, avoided paying millions of dollars to the economically crippled country

US President Donald Trump’s land-for-peace formula feeds into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revanchism. Photo: Dominick Reuter/Reuters

Trump trial opens with fiery clashes over witnesses

The two sides squared off in fiery exchanges that circled around the procedures for the trial and gave the Democrats an opportunity to spell out their arguments for Trump’s guilt…

Greta Thunberg was in the audience in the Swiss Alps to hear a typically bullish speech by US President Doanld Trump, delivered just before the start of his Senate impeachment trial in Washington.

Trump rejects climate ‘prophets of doom’ as Thunberg warns Davos

The 50th meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) got under way in the ski resort with an avowed focus on climate change but with starkly different visions over global warming…

Niki Lauda won the Formula One drivers’ world championship three times, in 1975 and 1977 for Ferrari and in 1984 with McLaren. (Getty)

Sporting world mourns death of ‘true legend’ Niki Lauda

The legendary formula one driver died at the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland on Monday night surrounded by his closest family members

(Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

Ready or not? Britain’s ‘no deal’ planning

Ahead of April 12, Britain has begun to put plans into place to cushion their potential push out of the European Union

The UN has warned that stagnant water in many areas, decomposing bodies and the lack of good sanitation in overcrowded shelters in Mozambique could be breeding grounds for diseases. (Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo)

Red Cross: Cyclone Idai survivors face ‘ticking bomb’ of disease

While aid workers have been rushing to bring emergency aid to the hundreds of thousands of affected people, there is a need to focus on sanitation

Denise Bertschi uses archive material and visual storytelling  to question the image of neutrality held up by Switzerland. (Photo: Renata Larroyd)

Lens turns on Swiss neutrality

An artist questions the relationship between Switzerland and apartheid South Africa

A gas flare on an oil production platform (Raheb Homavandi/Reuters)

Switzerland challenges US tariffs at WTO

The Swiss economic affairs ministry says it has formally asked the US for "consultations" over tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium

Rwanda’s Genocide Memorial burial site.

Rwanda can’t achieve reconciliation without fixing its democracy

As Rwanda marks the 24th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, much more needs to be done to unite the country

Battle of the bands: Jonas Gwangwa

These five countries are conduits for the world’s biggest tax havens

These countries funnel major corporate money into secret offshore tax shelters, according to a new study.

Apple on Thursday removed an app criticised by China for allowing protesters in Hong Kong to track police. (AFP)

​The world delelas Africa at its own peril

‘I did not see a future, as viewed from a Global North perspective, that exists outside the capitalist paradigm’s devouring of human lives.’

Dark days: Asylum seekers and the refugees at a railway station in Italy

​Switzerland shuts border as asylum seekers say their pleas have been ignored

Several hundred refugees have slept on towels and blankets in the park near Como’s train station since the Swiss clampdown began in mid-July.