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Roughly 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint now under strain.

World war of economics

An interconnected world has rendered us interdependent but also vulnerable to shock across economic geographies, forcing distinct national responses

Two elephants: The trade war headed by US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping
could be the blessing in disguise that Africa sorely needs, according to the writer.

The US-Sino tiff, boon for Africa

There are already promising indications that economic competition at various levels between the United States and China is benefitting the African continent

Memories: A scene from Dreamscape, a play about the life and death of
teenager Tyisha Miller, who was shot by police in California.

Play moves between dreaming and escaping

American play Dreamscape finds parallels in South Africa

Smallholder farming the surest route to African growth

SA to prioritise EU agricultural trade over the US, Russia

Agriculture is an export-oriented sector, making it necessary to maintain trade relations with the country’s most important markets

Diamond miners are seeing increased demand for their gems but are scared they might not be able to keep up with the demand. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Demand for Southern African diamonds increases as Russian stones banned

Diamond miners are seeing increased demand for their gems but are scared they might not be able to keep up with the demand

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…

Mexican farmworkers harvest lettuce in a field outside of Brawley, California, in the Imperial Valley. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images)

US makes a mockery of international law

The US’s claims of ‘rules-based order’ is the camouflage behind which American exceptionalism flourishes.

Diego Maradona head coach of Mandiyú gestures during a match between River Plate and Mandiyú as part of Torneo Apertura 1994 on November 20, 1994 at Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by El Grafico/Getty Images)

The political life of Diego Maradona

The icon who died on 25 November 2020 was more than just the greatest footballer of all time. From Argentina to Palestine he represented the experiences of the outsider, the…

US President elect Donald Trump.   (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/AFP)

Trump unlikely to settle for golf

A narrow victory will mean that the election results won’t be settled anytime soon

Cardboard cutout: Whatever his limitations, Joe Biden is preferable as a leader to his rival. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP)

A Biden win isn’t necessarily a win for the rest of us

Much like there was an overwhelming euphoria that gripped many Zimbabweans when they finally said asante sana to Robert Mugabe, Trump’s removal won’t change the colour of…

DETROIT, MI – NOVEMBER 04: Election workers and Election observers and challengers at the Detroit Department of Elections Central Counting Board Voting at TCF Center, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020 in Detroit, MI. With the surge in vote by mail/absentee ballots, analysts cautioned it could take days to count all the ballots, leading some states to initially look like victories for President Trump only to later shift towards democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden.  (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Diary of an elections spotter

Fear and loathing in Trump’s America, where every bit of news can be worse than no news at all

Kaley McCarty of Brighton, Massachusetts, center,  joined protesters who gathered on Boston Common on Nov. 4, 2020 to demand that every vote be counted a day after presidential elections were held in the US. (Photo by Jodi Hilton/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A Q&A with a historian of presidential polls

W. Joseph Campbell provides a critical perspective on 2020’s election polling

The United States left the Paris accord on Wednesday, becoming the first country to ever withdraw from an international climate change pact as the fate of its presidential election hangs in the balance.

US formally quits Paris agreement as election hangs in balance

Environmentalists say Trump’s announcement that he would withdraw from the Paris agreement three years ago made it easier for countries such Australia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil to…

LANSING, MICHIGAN – NOVEMBER 02: A voter waits to cast his ballot on the last day of early voting at the Lansing City Clerk’s office on November 02, 2020 in Lansing, Michigan. In 2016 U.S. President Donald Trump narrowly won Michigan, which is now a main battleground state. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

As concerns mount over integrity of US elections, so does support for international poll monitors

The pandemic will challenge international observation missions, but ensuring fair elections in an essential component of American democracy

Waves from the storm surge from Hurricane Laura began to come ashore at Sea Rim State Park on August 26, 2020 in Sabine Pass, Texas. Laura rapidly strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane during the day, prompting the National Hurricane Center to describe the accompanying storm surge as “unsurvivable” and noted that it could penetrate up to 30 miles inland from the immediate coastline.  (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Laura makes landfall in US

The Atlantic storm season, which runs through November, could be one of the busiest ever this year, with the NHC predicting as many as 25 named storms. Laura is the 12th so far.

A Lebanese army helicopter flies close to the damaged wheat silos at the Port of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. A massive explosion at Lebanons main port rocked Beirut, overwhelming hospitals dealing with the injured and dying. (Hasan Shaaban/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Two huge Beirut explosions kill 78, injure thousands

The second blast sent an enormous orange fireball into the sky, immediately followed by a tornado-like shockwave that flattened the port and shattered windows across the city

United States president Donald Trump.  (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump gives TikTok 6 weeks to sell itself to US company

China’s foreign ministry pushed back, calling Washington hypocritical for demanding TikTok be sold

Blood stains are seen at a detention centre for mainly African migrants that was hit by an airstrike in the Tajoura suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, Libya. (Reuters/Ismail Zitouny)
Video

Time is not on our side in Libya

Simmering tensions could see the country partitioned between east and west

The McKinsey dossier part 6 – five strikes and you’re IN

How McKinsey is making $100m and counting) advising the US government’s coronavirus response

For the world’s best-known corporate-management consultants, helping tackle the pandemic has been a bonanza. It’s not clear what the US government has gotten in return

Fundamental injustice: The white majority of the working class in the US is by and large protected from capitalism’s instability, because African Americans bear the brunt of its effects. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)

How racism is an essential capitalist tool

In the United States, the African American minority is capitalism’s ‘business cycle shock-absorber’