Category: Semafor

More than half of all households in South Africa face systematic water shortages, new data showed, offering the pro-business Democratic Alliance political leverage ahead of key local elections this year. National utility breakdowns have sparked a so-called dry-tap reality across Africa’s most industrialized economy; in the ANC-held Mpumalanga province, the ...

DR Congo added lithium to a list of strategic minerals that are subject to increased royalties, the country’s latest bid to boost revenues from its natural resources. Niobium, tantalum, tungsten, and uranium were also added to the list of minerals in the higher 10% tax bracket, according to a video ...

A musical adaptation of Malawian engineer William Kamkwamba’s celebrated memoir opened on London’s West End last month. The play, produced by The Royal Shakespeare Company, tells the story of 13-year-old Kamkwamba’s plan to build a windmill during Malawi’s famine in 2001. Using scrap metal, old physics textbooks, and his own ...

Alexis’s view The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo is a reminder of the challenges created when informal economies collide with global supply chains and weak governance. The epidemic has so far been concentrated in eastern DR Congo, a region whose economy relies heavily on artisanal and small‑scale mining. Once smelted, ...

The News With the Supreme Court shattering the district lines that created majority-Black seats in the American South and legislators scrambling to stay in office, the Congressional Black Caucus is wrestling over its identity. The Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act in its decision leaves the Black Caucus, ...

Democrats and Republicans see the Montana Senate race as down to favored Republican Kurt Alme and independent Seth Bodnar. Yet the whole race may hinge on Tuesday’s Democratic primary, which attracted more than $5 million in outside spending. The More Jobs, Less Government PAC, aligned with retiring Sen. Steve Daines, ...

Washington and Tehran again traded blows, driving oil higher and raising questions over the viability of peace talks that had seemed near the finish line. The US hit Iranian radar and drone installations, while the Islamic Republic targeted an American military base in Kuwait — though US President Donald Trump ...

The Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain is spreading in one of the most volatile and underserved regions of the DR Congo, where conditions are ripe for the virus’ spread: Armed conflict, displacement, and irregular migration due to artisanal mining all combine. By the time Congolese authorities publicly confirmed ...

The Scoop In her first four months on the job, the new CEO of New York Public Radio has swiftly eliminated many of its seniormost figures, surprising the organization’s staff and unsettling some of its remaining leaders. Christy Tanner, a veteran of CBS News, took the helm at NYPR in ...

The US Defense secretary urged Washington’s Asian allies to spend more on defense if they want to buy more American arms, in a speech that was notably softer on China. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Pete Hegseth cast the relationship with Asia “in more transactional terms,” Politico wrote, ...