Heavy rains over the past week have compounded the already dire living conditions of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, UN agencies say. Unicef spokesman Jonathan Crickx told the BBC that the weather overnight had been “horrendous”, with the rain so intense that he had seen up to 15cm (6in)…
Technology in 2025 was shaped less by breakthrough products than by power – who holds it, how it is exercised and where its limits lie. From trade wars and tariffs to artificial intelligence and global connectivity, decisions taken in boardrooms and political offices rippled across markets, supply chains and societies. This year’s list of TechCentral’s…
Washington — House Democrats plan to force votes Wednesday on two war powers resolutions amid escalating tensions with Venezuela as President Trump has warned that land strikes against the country could commence “soon.” Mr. Trump’s threats come amid a monthslong military campaign against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean…
Global services grounded to a halt in 2025. In 2025, digital services proved both indispensable and fragile, with Amazon Web Services (AWS), PlayStation Network, Snapchat and Cloudflare leading the largest outages of the year. This is according to a report compiled by research firm Ookla. Using Downdetector data from 2025 to analyse millions of user…
Abuja, Nigeria — West African leaders meeting in Abuja have issued a sweeping communiqué that hardens the regional bloc’s stance against coups, revives momentum for a single currency, and lays out a far-reaching reform agenda ahead of a Special Summit on the future of ECOWAS. At the 68th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of…
People with no religious affiliation are least likely to express tolerance of religious differences. Abstract While scholarship on religious tolerance has grown, little is known about how (non)religious identity shapes prejudice in highly religious societies, particularly in the Global South. This exploratory study addresses that gap using Afrobarometer survey data from 39 African countries (N≈147,000)…
NewsFeed Fears are growing in Latin America over a US military build-up in the Caribbean, as Washington expands airstrikes and designates alleged drug networks as terrorist groups. Al Jazeera’s Hassan Massoud reports from Bogota, Colombia, where tensions are rising over the largest US show of force in the region in decades. Published On 17 Dec…
Image: Reuters Warner Bros Discovery’s board has rejected Paramount Skydance’s US$108.4-billion hostile bid on Wednesday, saying it failed to provide adequate financing assurances. In a letter to shareholders, disclosed in a regulatory filing, the board wrote that Paramount had “consistently misled” Warner Bros shareholders that its $30/share cash offer was fully guaranteed, or “backstopped”, by…
Public pressure has forced Fifa to introduce a cheaper ticket tier for the fast-approaching 2026 soccer World Cup. This revision will see a selected number of supporters from various qualified countries pay just $60 (approximately) for matches at the tournament. About three years ago, Fifa president Gianni Infantino delivered a moving monologue on the importance…
Viruses, as we all know, are invisibly small things that make us sick. But is that the whole story? Zoom in close enough and you’ll discover the complex, unseen world of viruses. Some do make us sick, but many others simply exist alongside us as part of the natural world. Most are very beautiful and…
