Scientists from Ghana and Kenya are among 19 members from a host of nations who are launching the new “Earth Commission,” a project that draws from both the natural and social sciences to combat climate change. The group will begin immediately, with plans to complete by 2021 what they describe…
The Mail & Guardian is one of South Africa’s most widely respected news organizations, but now it’s reporting that it’s been censored following a June 2019 investigation into an oil deal involving South Sudan and the man who arranged it. The publication was taken offline on Friday by Internet service…
Pilots for British Airways are planning a second day of strikes Tuesday, after nearly all flights were canceled Monday as nearly 100 percent of union pilots participated in the action over pay and benefits. BALPA, the pilot union organization, said its members felt the action was a wakeup call for…
Thousands of passengers were reported to be stranded on Saturday because of the Aigle Azur airline bankruptcy, as the company suspended operations on Friday night because of its financial woes. The French airline serving Algeria, Mali and Senegal issued a statement saying it could not assure any flights beyond that…
Two leaders who share a vision for African agriculture from opposite sides of the continent have been named the winners of the 2019 African Food Prize, awarded this week at the African Green Revolution Forum in Ghana. Dr. Emma Naluyima of Uganda, a smallholder farmer and veterinarian, and Baba Dioum…
Uganda’s Winnie Byanyima will serve as the new executive director for UNAIDS, overseeing the efforts of some 11 different United Nations agencies and their global partners united in the fight to end HIV/AIDS. Byanyima said she’s pleased to accept the position at such a critical time for UNAIDS. “The end…
Social media giant Facebook says it has added new African language capabilities in its effort to curb misinformation and “fake news” on political issues. That means that posts shared on Facebook can now be checked for accuracy in Yoruba and Igbo in Nigeria, where Hausa fact-checking already exists. It also…
Germany’s Clemens Tönnies, board chairman of the FC Schalke 04 team in the popular Bundesliga football league, will step down from his role for three months as part of the response to allegations of racism following remarks he made about Africans last week. The club announced the decision after a…
Two African leaders were among those to receive the new International Religious Freedom Awards from the United States Department of State, at a ceremony hosted by department secretary Mike Pompeo, above, on Wednesday. Mohamed Yosaif Abdalrahan of Sudan, a human rights lawyer at the Sudanese Human Rights Initiative (SHRI), has…
Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah has won the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “Skinned.” Arimah’s £10,000 prize was awarded by Kenyan author and poet Dr. Peter Kimani, the chairman of the judging panel, in London on Monday night. “The winner of this year’s Caine Prize…
International aviation giant Boeing says there’s a new glitch in getting its 737 MAX series aircraft back in the air, as industry analysts note it will likely be the end of the year before the grounded planes are back in service. An unrelated problem arose during the United States Federal…
Investigative journalists whose work focused on what really happened to United Nations experts Zaida Catalán of Sweden and American Michael Sharp in the Democratic Republic of Congo have won top honors from the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) organization for their work. The “Deceptive Diplomacy” reporting, which won in the…
Karen Attiah, the Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post and a Ghanaian American writer, has received the 2019 Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in the United States. She coordinates and edits commentary on global issues from a variety of international writers…
The Dutch founder of a global seed company that’s helped to transform agriculture for smallholder farmers across the globe has been awarded the 2019 World Food Prize. Simon N. Groot of the Netherlands is the founder of East-West Seed, which now has a presence in 60 countries across Africa, Asia…
A two-day conference on the legacy of Kofi Annan of Ghana, the former United Nations secretary general who died last year, promises to place African affairs at the center of the conversation. The sessions begin Monday at Chatham House in the UK, with prominent leaders including Kenyan Raila Odinga, representing…