Category: Semafor

US stocks dipped and oil prices surged Monday after President Donald Trump escalated his threats against Tehran. Even as Trump hailed “great progress” in talks, he warned that the US would “obliterate” Iran’s oil wells, power plants, and offshore terminal at Kharg Island if Tehran did not reopen the Strait ...

South Africa appointed a career diplomat as the acting head of its Washington embassy, as it stalls on naming a new official ambassador. Thabo Thage’s appointment as the de facto head of mission allows him to negotiate and sign agreements at a time of heightened diplomatic tension between the countries. ...

Sun King, the world’s largest off-grid solar company, plans to invest $150 million to bring solar power to Ethiopia by 2030, according to a deal with the Ethiopian Investment Commission. The Kenya-based firm, which already operates in 14 African countries, aims to reach 2 million Ethiopian households and businesses by ...

The resignation of a top executive at Africa’s football governing body raised questions about the organization’s integrity following a controversial ruling that stripped Senegal of its African Cup of Nations title. Veron Mosengo-Omba, a Congolese official who in 2021 rose to second-in-command at the Confederation of African Football, said he ...

A promised cure for sickle cell disease could be revolutionary for populations in Africa, where around 80% of the globe’s cases are found. While treatment options for the inherited blood disease have long been available, scientists now believe that a cure for sickle cell may lie in gene-editing, a process ...

China is doubling down on DR Congo just as Washington tries to up its own bets on one of the world’s most lucrative critical minerals hubs. Kinshasa and Beijing inked a new deal covering geological data sharing, investment protections, and local processing, after the Trump administration struck a minerals-for-security partnership ...

The crew of NASA’s Artemis spacecraft entered quarantine ahead of a planned launch as soon as Wednesday. All going well, the four crewmembers will be in space for 10 days, traveling around the moon — the first crewed trip there, and the first time humans have left low Earth orbit, ...

Missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthis against Israel over the weekend underscored how the war is likely to further escalate before any near-term truce is reached, analysts warned. The head of a Washington, DC, think tank noted that the group’s entry into the conflict was just one of a number of ...

The News South African miner Sibanye-Stillwater has warned that the European Union’s “strategic project” label for its $870 million lithium operation falls short of necessary protections to survive global price shocks leaving Europe’s nascent lithium supply chain exposed to aggressive competition from low-cost Chinese refiners. Sibanye, a global top three ...

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz is driving a return to coal — the dirtiest of the fossil fuels — with many countries rushing to secure supplies. Shares of Yancoal, one of Australia’s biggest coal producers, have surged by 40% since the start of the war, while ​​Pennsylvania-based Core ...