Category: Semafor

Intra-African commerce could reach 53% if the African Continental Free Trade Area was fully implemented, up from 18% currently. The AfCFTA, which aims to create the world’s largest single market by progressively eliminating tariffs on most goods, came into force in May 2019. But major mobility and connectivity hurdles remain, ...

Yinka’s view The debate about who controls Africa’s resources has expanded considerably in recent years, from critical minerals to domestic capital to the terms on which foreign investors operate. But one frontier remains underweighted in that conversation, despite being among the most consequential: digital public infrastructure. Control of digital infrastructure ...

A UK government adviser said too many young people were being pushed toward university, part of a wider global backlash against the turn-of-the-millennium drive to expand college education. Britain set, and met, a target of 50% of school graduates attending university. But Alan Milburn said thousands are not finding work, ...

A leading candidate to be Britain’s next prime minister called for the country to rejoin the EU. Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary last week to challenge Keir Starmer after disastrous election results this month, said Brexit had been a “catastrophic mistake.” The UK is facing systemic challenges; inflation ...

Venezuela extradited a financial adviser of former President Nicolás Maduro to the US, a major escalation in Caracas’ purge of Maduro loyalists. Colombia-born Alex Saab is accused of overseeing efforts to pilfer and launder billions of dollars on behalf of Maduro, whom the US arrested in a January military operation, ...

Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, making it nearly a decade since a US-born athlete has won the award in the US-dominated professional basketball league. Gilgeous-Alexander — whose Oklahoma City Thunder are vying to defend their NBA championship — won the award for a second year ...

As healthcare enters the age of artificial intelligence, data is becoming as strategically important as physical infrastructure. For Africa, this shift is profound. The continent holds some of the world’s most diverse and underrepresented health data — critical for building robust global health systems — yet much of the infrastructure ...

The Scoop A new culture magazine overseen by veteran journalists is launching with aspirations of demystifying the creative process. On Monday, a group of digital media veterans, led by former Pitchfork and Spin editor-in-chief Puja Patel, is launching Totei, a publication dedicated to “craft and craftsmanship.” The online magazine will ...

A Republican senator who voted to convict President Donald Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial lost his primary Saturday, reflecting Trump’s tightening grip on the party despite his waning popularity with voters. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy’s defeat, which Trump celebrated as comeuppance for Cassidy’s “disloyalty,” underscores how the president’s “sagging ...

The World Health Organization on Sunday declared a global health emergency over an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Around 80 deaths and more than 200 suspected infections have been reported, with cases in the capitals of Kinshasa and Kampala raising concerns over wider spread. The ...