International

International News
Tanzania Launches Regional Criminal Panel to Probe Deadly Election Violence as Lissu Remains Jailed

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania  

Ten months after Tanzania's October 2025 general election set off the deadliest unrest in the country's recent history, President Samia Suluhu Hassan this past week inaugurated a new criminal commission — staffed in part by judges from Namibia and Uganda — with a mandate to identify…
International News
Congo Bans Copper and Cobalt Concentrate Exports, Betting Mineral Leverage Can Do What Peace Deals Haven't

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo 

The Democratic Republic of Congo has banned exports of copper and cobalt concentrate, a government order made public this week that marks the sharpest escalation yet in President Félix Tshisekedi's drive to force foreign mining companies to process…
International News
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan Sign Landmark Mutual Defense Pact in Mecca

Background

On August 7, 2026, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan gathered at Al-Safa Palace in the holy city of Mecca to sign what officials are calling the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, a trilateral mutual-defense treaty that commits each of the three states to treat an armed attack on any one of them as…
International News
Iraq's Reckoning: Iran-Backed Militias Defy September 30 Disarmament Deadline as PM al-Zaidi Heads to Washington

Background

Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, known in Arabic as the Hashd al-Shaabi, trace their origins to the summer of 2014, when a fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on Iraqis to take up arms against the advancing Islamic State after the collapse of the Iraqi army in Mosul. Tens of thousands…
International News
Zambia Heads to the Polls With Hichilema's Economic Turnaround on Trial

Lusaka, Zambia 

Zambians vote Aug. 13 in a presidential and parliamentary election that has narrowed, in its final stretch, into a two-way referendum on President Hakainde Hichilema's five years of economic stewardship — a record its architects call a turnaround story and its critics call a recovery most…
BUSINESS NEWS
Libya's Oil Windfall Meets a Frozen Political Map

Economic & Social Transformation 

Libya's economy is in the middle of its strongest run in more than a decade, powered almost entirely by a rebound in oil output. Real GDP grew 12.4% in 2025 after contracting 0.4% in 2024, and the World Bank and African Development Bank both expect growth to stay…