African tech startups raised US$4.1 billion in 2025, up 25% from a year earlier, marking the strongest funding year since 2022, according to Partech’s annual Africa Tech Venture Capital Report released January 22, 2026. Equity funding reached US$2.4 billion, an 8% increase year on year, across 462 deals. Debt financing climbed to a record US$1.6…
Spain began three days of national mourning on Tuesday for 41 people killed after two high-speed trains collided in the country’s deadliest rail disaster in over a decade. The collision took place late Sunday when a high-speed train operated by rail company Iryo, travelling from Malaga to Madrid, derailed near Adamuz in the southern Andalusia region….
Wider use of new tools against malaria, including dual-ingredient nets and WHO-recommended vaccines helped to prevent an estimated 170 million cases and 1 million deaths in 2024, according to WHO’s annual World malaria report. WHO-recommended tools are increasingly being integrated into broader health systems. Since WHO approved the world’s first malaria vaccines in 2021, 24…
‘Solemn scenes’: BBC reports from outside Hong Kong’s scorched buildings At least 128 people have died in a devastating fire that engulfed multiple high-rise buildings in Hong Kong. A further 79 people have been injured in the city’s deadliest blaze in more than 70 years, which occurred in the northerly suburb of Tai Po, while…
Friday’s earthquake was felt in the capital Dhaka and neighbouring districts, causing destruction and panic. A low-magnitude tremor shook Bangladesh, the national meteorological service has said, a day after a powerful earthquake struck near the capital, Dhaka, killing at least 10 people. Updating earlier tolls from Friday’s magnitude 5.5 earthquake, disaster management official Ishtiaqe Ahmed…
Oil prices have climbed as fresh U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s energy exports tightened global supply, lifting Brent crude futures to their highest level in weeks. Brent crude rose 1.8% to $65.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 1.7% to $61.16, as traders assessed the impact of new American measures restricting Russian oil…
As the globe shifts, Africa has seen a marked increase in the adoption of Bitcoin. Increasing volumes of trade, investments from leading institutions, and new policies are changing the continent’s cryptocurrency environment. As of August 2025, the total cryptocurrency market had a market capitalization dip of 1.7 per cent. This was due to the PPI…
Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent in Kyiv Paul Kirby Europe digital editor in London Watch: Explosions seen in Kyiv during Russian attack At least 28 people have died after a barrage of Russian drones and missiles struck several districts of Kyiv on Thursday morning. Three children, aged three, six, and 17, were among the dead, Ukraine’s…
Investment in digital and telecoms infrastructure could help improve service delivery, according to the IRMSA Risk Report. Out of South Africa’s key network industries, the telecommunications industry remains as the one that is “still functional”. As a result, improving the energy, transport/logistics and water industries is paramount, as there is a risk of them becoming…
This year’s The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report also examines the causes and consequences of recent food inflation Addis Ababa — An estimated 8.2 percent of the global population, or about 673 million people, experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023 and 8.7 percent in 2022. However,…
