One of two surgeons who treated victims on the streets in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Krakow, Poland said his colleague “undoubtedly” saved the life of a gravely injured police officer. The pair were eating near the city’s Main Market Square on Saturday when a gunman began firing at random, killing six people…
The African Union is seeking to make democracy a continuous part of public life, with media, civic education and citizen participation central to the effort. A two-day Roundtable in Addis Ababa focused on turning that goal into practical action ahead of the continent’s 2026-2027 electoral cycle. The African Union Commission’s Department of Political Affairs, Peace…
With violations against children caught in armed conflict reaching an unprecedented level this year, the Security Council is marking 30 years since it took on the mandate to protect young people caught up in war. What you need to know: Violations against children in armed conflict reached unprecedented levels in 2025, with 38,558 cases affecting…
The coastline near the southern tip of Africa looked vastly different between about 400,000 years ago and 70,000 years ago, compared with today. At times it lay as much as 100km south of its present location, exposing the vast Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, which contained an extensive habitat for large mammals. At other times the sea level…
There is a long-running myth that Africans did not have clothes until the arrival of Arabs and later, colonisation. In fact, Africa has a long tradition of making its own unique clothing since time immemorial. From Malian mud cloths, which they say are made of the earth, the river and the sun, to the famous…
Smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been eradicated worldwide. Researchers have now recovered fragments of ancient DNA belonging to variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox, from the naturally mummified remains of two Indigenous people buried in northern Chile. For centuries, smallpox caused devastating epidemics. Its severe form, variola major, killed around…
A television game show in Nigeria’s commercial hub of Lagos has an unforgiving rule: Speak English and you lose. For a U.S.-born millennial in the audience and a student of her parents’ mother tongue, the high-stakes setting is a perfect classroom. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Canadian speaks to a teacher about 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away…
The first five years of life lay an important foundation for children’s future schooling, health and earnings. Yet over 77% (table 2) of children in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have access to early childhood care and education. This places them at risk of not reaching their development potential. In response, governments across Africa are increasingly committing…
Climate change could cause life insurers to rethink how they assess and price risk. According to the World Health Organisation, climate change contributes to humanitarian emergencies, from heatwaves and wildfires to floods and tropical storms. In recent years, these events have become more frequent, more intense and increasingly severe. Research shows that 3.6 billion people…
Ratko Mladic, a war criminal convicted for his role in orchestrating the Srebrenica Genocide in 1995 – the first genocide on European soil since the second world war – died in prison in The Hague at the age of 84. He had been serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity…
