Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Eleven killed in mass shooting at house in South Africa

    Eleven killed in mass shooting at house in South Africa

    South Africa, a nation long grappling with one of the globe’s highest homicide rates, is reeling from another devastating act of gang-linked violence that has left 11 people dead following a mass shooting in a coastal province residential area.

    On Tuesday evening, three armed gunmen stormed a private residence in KwaMakhutha, a township located just outside the major port city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, opening fire on a group of people gathered inside the home. Initial police accounts confirm that 10 people were killed instantly at the scene, while four surviving victims were rushed to nearby medical facilities for emergency treatment. Tragically, one of those injured later succumbed to her wounds, bringing the total death toll to 11.

    According to official statements from the South African Police Service (SAPS), the group targeted in the attack included 13 men and one woman, who was reported to be pregnant. The pregnant woman was counted among the fatalities. Police have not yet released a confirmed motive for the attack, but investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the shooting stemmed from a long-simmering feud between competing criminal groups. Investigators also noted that some of the victims were being monitored by law enforcement in connection with unspecified illegal activities, adding that details cannot be released publicly at this stage to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation.

    Local reporting from eNCA, a prominent South African television news network, confirms that before fleeing the scene, the attackers set fire to a vehicle registered to one of the victims. Footage from the site shows the charred, burned-out remains of the car abandoned by the gunmen. In the wake of the attack, SAPS has launched a large-scale manhunt to track down and apprehend the three suspects still at large.

    This latest mass shooting comes as South Africa continues to face a persistent national crisis of violent crime. Official police data puts the country’s daily murder average at more than 60 killings per day, one of the highest per-capita homicide rates on the planet. In recent weeks alone, the grim discovery of at least nine murdered women—many of whose bodies were dumped along public roadways—has stoked widespread public anxiety over the country’s growing violent crime epidemic. High-profile mass shootings have also shaken communities across the nation in recent years: just last year, a mass shooting at a tavern in Johannesburg left nine people dead.

    Law enforcement and policy analysts have repeatedly linked the surge in brutal violent crime to systemic issues including ongoing turf wars between rival criminal gangs, illicit drug trafficking networks, and the proliferation of unregulated illegal mining operations across the country. These activities have become deeply embedded in many communities, fueling frequent cycles of retaliatory violence.

    Back in February, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa publicly identified organized criminal activity as “the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development.” In response to the growing crisis, Ramaphosa announced a plan to deploy members of the South African National Defence Force to assist overstretched local police forces in combating rising violent crime.

  • How Ceuta, football and Israel are shaping Morocco’s election

    How Ceuta, football and Israel are shaping Morocco’s election

    As Morocco prepares to hold its parliamentary elections this Wednesday, 27 political parties are competing for 395 seats in the country’s House of Representatives, with disillusioned young voters emerging as the central demographic all campaigns are scrambling to win over. In a political system structured as a constitutional monarchy, where King Mohammed VI holds ultimate executive authority—appointing the prime minister from the top-performing party and presiding over the kingdom’s highest policy-making body, the Council of Ministers—this election comes against a backdrop of growing youth frustration over systemic economic stagnation and political disconnect. Just weeks before voting day, a historic mass migration event laid bare the depth of this discontent: roughly 60,000 people, most of them young Moroccans desperate for better opportunities, risked their lives crossing from northern Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, a surge that left at least 100 dead in the deadliest crossing event the enclave has seen in modern history. This moment of crisis followed a nationwide wave of Gen Z-led protests that erupted in September 2025, when thousands took to the streets to decry sky-high youth unemployment, failing public healthcare, and soaring living costs. Demonstrators chanted calls for “freedom, dignity, and social justice,” before their demands escalated to targeted calls for current Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch to step down. The government’s crackdown on the unrest resulted in more than 2,400 protesters facing criminal prosecution, but the movement has nonetheless pushed a small cohort of young activists to run for office themselves, seeking to channel grassroots anger into institutional change. Among these new candidates is 29-year-old Hamza El Kharroubi, a former protester who was briefly detained during last year’s demonstrations. Running for a parliamentary seat with the small, green-aligned Environment and Sustainable Development Party, El Kharroubi represents the small but growing number of young people choosing to enter politics despite deep systemic skepticism. A native of Tetouan, just 21 miles from the Fnideq beach where the Ceuta migration surge began, he has made accountability for the crossing victims a core part of his platform, calling for financial compensation for the families of those who died. El Kharroubi frames the mass crossing as a direct consequence of Morocco’s long-running economic crisis: IMF data puts national unemployment at 13% for last year, with youth unemployment (for 15 to 24-year-olds) reaching a staggering 37.3%. Rather than aiming to defeat the country’s established political heavyweights this cycle, he says his goal is to claim a parliamentary seat to lay groundwork for a stronger youth-led political bloc by 2031. “As young people, we have to enter the parliament so by 2031 we have strong young politicians who can compete for a seat in the government,” he explained. Not all young activists share his belief in institutional change, however. Siham Azeroual, a 32-year-old environmental activist from the Atlas region, says she sees the current political landscape as little more than performative spectacle. “I have no hope for this election. I’m ashamed of our political scene. It’s a complete circus,” she told the BBC. Azeroual, who has taken part in both the 2011 February 20 movement that rewrote Morocco’s constitution and last year’s Gen Z protests, argues that meaningful change must start at the grassroots community level rather than inside parliament. Still, she says she plans to cast a ballot on Wednesday, seeing even incremental participation as a necessary step toward progress. While many young voters remain deeply skeptical of traditional parties, one political outsider has emerged as a surprise breakout star of the 2026 campaign: Fouzi Lekjaa, the wildly popular head of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, who is also a senior finance ministry official. Credited with driving the success of the Moroccan men’s national team, the Atlas Lions, which became the first Arab and African squad to reach a World Cup semi-final in 2022, Lekjaa joined the centrist Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) back in July. With Morocco set to co-host the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, the football-mad nation has latched onto Lekjaa’s campaign, with videos of his rallies going viral online and crowds chanting the iconic “Sir” (meaning “Go” in Moroccan Arabic) catchphrase that defined the 2022 World Cup run. Lekjaa has leaned into this popularity, promising to lift Morocco to a top-six global ranking in education and healthcare—matching the current FIFA ranking of his national team. The ruling National Rally of Independents (RNI), led by incumbent Prime Minister Akhannouch, is seeking a second term, and has renewed its core campaign pledge to create one million new jobs by 2030, a promise that echoes across previous election cycles. Political analyst Rachid Aourraz, of the Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis, says such promises are hollow. “The slogan ‘one million jobs’ has become an overused electoral slogan. There is also talk of raising the minimum wage, but what is proposed cannot withstand a structural inability to create stable net jobs,” Aourraz noted, adding that Morocco’s major parties do not compete over alternative governing models—only over how to implement policies already outlined by the royal palace. Alongside economic promises, foreign policy has also become a key dividing line in the campaign, with the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) seeking a political comeback by weaponizing widespread public anger over Israel’s actions in Gaza. Morocco normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, a deal negotiated when the PJD held power. Now led by populist former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane, the party is running on a promise to fully cut diplomatic ties with Israel, calling the 2020 normalization a historic mistake. Widespread pro-Palestinian protests have rocked Morocco throughout the Gaza war, with tens of thousands demonstrating weekly in the capital Rabat, leading to the closure of Israel’s liaison office and the suspension of direct flights between the two countries. Despite this public outcry, Morocco and Israel announced earlier this month an agreement to reopen full reciprocal embassies, following talks between their top diplomats and the US ambassador to the United Nations. Benkirane has seized on the announcement to rally supporters, telling a Marrakesh campaign rally: “If we work hard, the king will close the Israeli embassy. The king does not like going against his own people.” For all the focus on winning youth votes, demographic data shows young people remain drastically underrepresented among the electorate: while more than half of Morocco’s 38.8 million population is under 35, just 4% of the 15.8 million registered voters are between 18 and 24. Many young Moroccans in the diaspora have also been shut out of participation, despite being at the forefront of last year’s protest movement. Hiba, a 27-year-old Moroccan living in Montreal, Canada—home to a community of more than 100,000 Moroccan expats—co-organized multiple pro-protest events for Gen Z in the city, where activists could speak freely without fear of prosecution that they would face at home. She says she would have voted via proxy, the only option for diaspora voters, but was unable to arrange for a representative in Morocco. Even so, she sees the protest movement as having already delivered small wins: “Gen Z protests didn’t go in vain. We achieved something. At least now we see more debates with young people on state TV,” she said. As polling stations open across the kingdom on Wednesday, the election will not only determine the makeup of the next government—it will also serve as a critical test of whether Morocco’s political establishment can address the deep-seated frustrations that have pushed a generation of young people to protest, risk dangerous migration, and question the status quo.

  • Top South African policeman charged with sexual offences

    Top South African policeman charged with sexual offences

    A high-ranking suspended South African law enforcement leader has appeared in court to face multiple serious sexual and human trafficking charges, in a case that adds to mounting pressure on the country’s crisis-hit national police force amid an ongoing public corruption inquiry.

    Lt Gen Shadrack Sibiya, 59, who currently holds the post of suspended deputy national police commissioner, made his first brief court appearance on Tuesday at a courthouse located northwest of Johannesburg. The seasoned police officer, who has previously been central to high-profile investigations, has declined to issue any public comment or enter a formal plea following his arrest on Monday.

    The charges against Sibiya are severe: he stands accused of sexually grooming a minor aged 16 and raping an 18-year-old woman, alongside a single count of human trafficking. Prosecutors have indicated that the trafficking charge could open the door to additional arrests as the investigation unfolds, meaning Sibiya is unlikely to be the only person facing action over the alleged offences.

    His next court appearance is scheduled for 29 September, when he will formally submit a bail application. Prosecutors have confirmed they will mount a formal opposition to his release on bail, raising significant concerns over the risk he poses. According to South Africa’s national public broadcaster SABC, state legal representatives have also requested the court to transfer Sibiya to an alternative detention facility ahead of his bail hearing, after intelligence uncovered indications of a planned potential escape.

    This latest legal action against one of the police service’s most senior officers comes at a moment when South Africa’s law enforcement institutions are already under intense public scrutiny. For more than a year, a wide-ranging public judicial inquiry, known as the Madlanga Commission, has been investigating systemic allegations of widespread corruption and collusion between senior police figures and organised criminal networks.

    During the commission’s hearings, Sibiya has already faced separate accusations of misconduct: witnesses have claimed he accepted a large bribe consisting of 20 impala antelopes from a reputed organised crime kingpin, in exchange for awarding the individual a lucrative police service contract. Sibiya has forcefully denied all the corruption allegations brought against him during the inquiry’s proceedings. Legal and political analysts say the new sexual offence charges against Sibiya are likely to deepen public mistrust in South Africa’s police institutions, which have long faced criticism for high levels of graft and poor accountability.

    BBC Africa, which first reported this case, continues to follow developments for ongoing updates from across the African continent.

  • ‘I have never felt heat like that’ – a survivor on watching 33 cellmates die in Nigeria

    ‘I have never felt heat like that’ – a survivor on watching 33 cellmates die in Nigeria

    Usman Muhammad, a 20-something artisanal miner and the sole survivor of a catastrophic mass death incident in a Nigerian detention cell, stands frozen at the cramped cell’s entrance, pressing his forehead to the concrete wall in grief too heavy for words. Just one day prior, he had been locked inside this 18-square-meter stifling space alongside more than 50 other detained miners, in conditions that would ultimately claim 37 lives: 33 died inside the cell, and four more succumbed to their injuries after being transferred to hospital.

    The tragedy, which unfolded at a detention facility run by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, capital of Niger State, has sparked nationwide public outcry and widespread protests, including targeted attacks on government buildings. Grieving relatives and angry local residents are demanding full transparency and accountability for the deaths that could have been prevented.

    Initially, federal authorities attempted to attribute the mass fatalities to an outbreak of diphtheria, but the exact cause and sequence of events are now the subject of an official government investigation. In his first on-the-record interview with the BBC, Muhammad recounted the unrelenting horror of his 24 hours trapped inside the cell. “I have never felt heat like that in my life. When we touched each other’s bodies, it felt like fire burning,” he said, after gathering the strength to speak.

    When Muhammad and the other detainees were locked in, overcrowding was so extreme that no one could sit or lie down — there was standing room only. Humidity in the windowless (save for a tiny high opening) room climbed above 90%, while outdoor temperatures hovered above 25°C. High humidity blocks the body’s natural cooling process, where sweat evaporates from the skin, creating a potentially lethal environment even at moderately warm temperatures. The only ventilation the group had came from a small window set high on the cell’s wall, far out of reach for any of the detainees.

    According to Muhammad’s account, the first crisis struck when one detainee lost consciousness from the heat. The group banged on the cell door frantically to alert guards, begging for water and medical help. “When a guard came we asked him for water. He looked at the guy that fainted and closed the door. That’s how they started dying one after the other,” he explained.

    All of the detainees arrested by the NSCDC were artisanal miners, who scrape together a meager living panning for precious metals across Nigeria. The federal government has recently ramped up a crackdown on informal small-scale mining, labeling the activity illegal, claiming it siphons billions in lost government revenue, causes widespread environmental damage, and is linked to organized criminal networks. NSCDC officers carried out mass arrests of miners near Minna earlier that week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, detaining the entire group at their Minna facility. To date, the NSCDC has not released any public list of detainees or confirmed the total number of people it held in the facility the night of the deaths.

    As the hours dragged on and temperatures and desperation climbed, dehydration became crippling. Multiple survivors confirmed that with no access to water, some detainees resorted to drinking their own urine and collecting sweat from their own bodies in a desperate bid to stay hydrated. Muhammad described seeing detainees grow increasingly distressed, gasping for breath as their bodies shut down from heatstroke. “People were calling for help, some were already very weak,” he said. But despite repeated calls for assistance, no guards responded to the detainees’ cries.

    Another survivor, Adamu Isah, shared his account with Reuters, confirming the repeated failures of security staff to intervene. “While in the cell, we were shouting and telling them that people were dying,” Isah said. “We tried to break down the door when they refused to open it… At one point, a security officer came to the door. We were shouting and telling him that people were dying, but he said it wasn’t his problem if people died.”

    Guards finally opened the cell door on Thursday morning, revealing the full scale of the tragedy, littered with the bodies of dead detainees. The NSCDC has not issued any formal response to the survivors’ accusations of neglect and cruel mistreatment, but it has confirmed that 24 of its personnel, including Suberu Aniviye, the suspended Niger State commandant of the force, are currently in police custody in connection with the deaths.

    Niger State Governor Umaru Bago told the BBC that the gravity of the incident demands a full unobstructed probe. “The people who were killed are not flies. How can this go unlooked? We will get to the bottom of this,” he said. Because the NSCDC is a federal agency rather than a state-level force under the governor’s jurisdiction, Bago cannot direct the investigation directly, but he has publicly backed the federal probe ordered from the national capital Abuja.

    Federal authorities have assembled a 10-member independent investigative committee to uncover the exact circumstances of the deaths, identify responsible parties, and recommend possible legal action against anyone found culpable. The committee has been given two weeks to complete its work and submit its findings. Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has publicly stated that no officer, regardless of their rank, will be granted immunity from investigation or prosecution, and any attempt to obstruct the probe will be treated as a serious offense.

    As Muhammad left the cell after speaking with the BBC, he said he chose to speak out publicly to push for justice for the dead, and to bring a measure of closure for the families of the victims and other survivors who lived through the unthinkable ordeal.

  • Veteran BBC Africa correspondent Mark Doyle dies

    Veteran BBC Africa correspondent Mark Doyle dies

    Mark Doyle, the pioneering British journalist whose groundbreaking on-the-ground reporting of African conflicts through the 1990s and 2000s cemented his reputation as one of the most respected foreign correspondents of his generation, has passed away following a brief illness.

    Doyle’s journalistic career was deeply rooted in the African continent, where he lived for years before officially joining the BBC’s global news team in 1986. Just seven years later, he was appointed the broadcaster’s East Africa correspondent, and it was his courageous coverage of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that first catapulted him to industry-wide acclaim, setting a new standard for frontline war reporting.

    In 1997, Doyle shifted his base to become West Africa correspondent, a post he held through 2002. During this tenure, he documented the extreme violence of Sierra Leone’s civil war and the chaotic aftermath of armed conflict in Liberia, bringing unseen human suffering and political upheaval to global audiences.

    In the wake of Doyle’s death, BBC Foreign Editor Paul Danahar paid tribute to the reporter, describing him as a “legendary figure” who stood out as a “brilliant, brave, empathetic reporter” whose work left an indelible mark on the organization and the broader industry.

    Years before his passing, colleagues already celebrated Doyle’s legacy ahead of his retirement from the public broadcaster in 2015, when a tribute article featured reflections from those who had worked alongside him. Fellow veteran BBC Africa correspondent Fergal Keane recalled their shared time covering the Rwandan genocide in 1994, noting that Doyle remained in the crisis zone longer than any other international reporter. “Those who were in that awful place at that awful time will know what Mark Doyle gave for the cause of truth and for the BBC,” Keane said.

    The same tribute also included praise from Sir David Richards, who led British military intervention efforts to end Sierra Leone’s civil war in 2000. Richards emphasized that Doyle’s unflinching on-the-ground reporting was critical to persuading the UK government that a forceful intervention was necessary. “Hence the saving of thousands of Sierra Leonean lives that would otherwise have been at huge risk,” he explained.

    Doyle’s work earned widespread recognition beyond the BBC, including a first-place win at the 2004 UN Correspondents Association/UN Foundation Awards for his incisive coverage of post-conflict Liberia. After decades of frontline reporting, he rose to the role of BBC World Affairs correspondent before retiring from the broadcaster in 2015.

  • Doctor in court to face Rwanda genocide charges

    Doctor in court to face Rwanda genocide charges

    For the first time in United Kingdom legal history, a 65-year-old former Rwandan doctor has appeared before a British court to face charges connected to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

    Previously known as Vincent Bajinya, Dr. Vincent Brown entered a not guilty plea through his legal representation during his initial hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Held in custody since his arrest, Brown confirmed his identity and current address from the dock, marking the conclusion of a seven-year long investigation carried out by British law enforcement into his alleged role in the 100-day massacre.

    Brown faces one count of conduct ancillary to genocide, plus six additional counts of conduct ancillary to murder as crimes against humanity. The charges stem from allegations that between April 6 and April 13 1994, Brown participated in the mass killing of Tutsi civilians in the Rugenge district of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Prosecutors allege that Brown personally took part in, directed, and encouraged the killing of six named Tutsi victims, including a mother and her young child, and that he acted with the explicit intent to destroy the Tutsi ethnic group, in whole or in part. The charges are brought under the UK’s 2001 International Criminal Court Act, which allows British courts to prosecute individuals for genocide committed overseas, noting that the alleged killings formed part of a widespread, systematic attack against a civilian population that Brown was aware of.

    Background to the case traces back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when a Hutu extremist government orchestrated a 100-day campaign of mass violence that left an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. After qualifying as a medical doctor in Rwanda in the 1980s, Brown rose through the ranks to lead Rwanda’s Department of Family Health in Kigali before relocating to the UK. He went on to work at Praxis, a London-based charity supporting refugees, and served on the UK government’s Refugee Nurses Task Force from 2003 onward.

    Sam Blom-Cooper, barrister for the defendant, told reporters outside court that Brown has vigorously denied all allegations and has long awaited his day in court to clear his name before a jury. “For the best part of 20 years, my client has hoped for, longed for, and prayed for this day,” Blom-Cooper said. “While the crimes alleged are appalling and the 1994 murders are unthinkable, this hearing marks the beginning of the end for Dr. Brown, who looks forward to proving his innocence.”

    The case was transferred to London’s Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing scheduled for October 9. A decision on Brown’s bail application will be made later Tuesday. British senior law enforcement officials have emphasized for years that the UK will not act as a safe haven for accused war criminals, and investigators on the case have received specialized training in international war crimes legislation. Investigations into other Rwandan genocide suspects currently residing in the UK are ongoing.

  • ‘I lost my love for swimming’ – Smith comes out of retirement

    ‘I lost my love for swimming’ – Smith comes out of retirement

    South Africa’s most decorated Olympian Tatjana Smith has opened up about the burnout and systemic challenges that pushed her to retire from competitive swimming immediately after claiming the nation’s only gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games — and why she has reversed that decision to chase a new goal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

    Smith, 29, captured her second individual Olympic gold in Paris with a win in the women’s 200m breaststroke, adding to her 100m breaststroke title from the 2020 Tokyo Games. She also took home silver in both Tokyo and Paris, bringing her total Olympic medal count to four — a mark matched only by South African swimming star Chad le Clos, who earned one gold and three silvers across the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games. But her sudden retirement right after Paris shocked many, given her continued dominant performance at the sport’s highest level.

    Looking back, Smith says she had long lost her passion for the sport that shaped her entire life. After stepping away from competition for two years between Tokyo and Paris, a break that included months where she did not swim at all, Smith said she finally felt free from the pressures that turned her love of swimming into a chore. “My whole life, I was kind of a robot towards swimming,” she shared in an interview with BBC World Service’s Newsday. “You’re so zoned in, you’re obsessed with something, so there isn’t actually time for you to think about things outside of the pool that you potentially have a passion for.”

    While many argued her retirement timing was poor, Smith said she remains convinced the decision was right for her at the time. Beyond burnout, financial instability and a misaligned national sports system also drove her exit. Smith recalled relying on her parents for financial support until she broke a world record at the Tokyo Olympics, when sponsorship interest finally picked up. But she noted that most athlete sponsorships are tied directly to performance, creating constant pressure to deliver results to earn a living. Combined with a dispute with Swimming South Africa over prize money and a system she says does not prioritize athlete well-being, the burden became too heavy to bear.

    Smith, who changed her surname from Schoenmaker after marrying sports agent Joel Smith in 2023, added that shifting life priorities also factored into her choice to step away. As a woman considering starting a family, athletic career planning requires careful timing, she explained: “if you’re pregnant, it’s not like you can still compete.”

    The post-retirement transition was far from smooth, Smith admitted. Having built her entire daily routine around swimming for decades, she experienced the common “post-Olympic emptiness” that many retired athletes describe. “It was such an emptiness in my life, because my whole life revolved around swimming,” she said. “The world is so overwhelming. It’s like, in which direction to go? It was definitely the toughest season that I had to go through.” She initially took on public speaking engagements to cover expenses, but quickly learned the work was not for her: “I hate public speaking. I hate being in front of people.”

    What began as a casual return to the pool for fitness eventually sparked an unexpected change of heart. After a short-lived experiment with triathlon — which she abandoned because the intense training made her realize she missed swimming more — Smith gradually reconnected with the joy of the sport. Over a year and a half away from competitive pressure, she rediscovered the feeling that drew her to swimming as a child.

    Now, Smith is coming out of retirement to pursue a new challenge: the 50m breaststroke, an event added to the Olympic program for the first time for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Calling the move a chance to reinvent herself, Smith explained that the sprint event requires a completely different physical and training approach than the 100m and 200m distances she dominated for years. “It’s like a 400m runner and a 100m runner. It’s two different body types, two different trainings, and that’s where I’m going,” she said.

    To protect her renewed love for the sport and maintain a balanced lifestyle, Smith has cut her training volume dramatically: from eight swimming sessions a day with 12 kilometers of distance daily to just three sessions a week, totaling 12 kilometers for the entire week, with a new focus on explosive power rather than endurance. Though she already has 20 years of endurance training behind her, she is working to build the fast-twitch muscle fibers required for sprint swimming, a whole new challenge for her body.

    After two decades of competing under external pressure and expectations, Smith says this return is entirely on her own terms. “Swimming was an opportunity given to me by my parents and I believe I took it on full heartedly. But, for the first time, it’s my decision whether I want to come back. I’m choosing swimming. I’ve achieved way more than I ever dreamed in my whole life, so I have nothing to prove.”

  • Olympic champion Smith to come out of retirement

    Olympic champion Smith to come out of retirement

    One of South Africa’s most legendary competitive swimmers and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, Tatjana Smith, has announced she is coming out of retirement to chase a new dream: qualifying for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. At 29 years old, Smith already holds the status of South Africa’s most decorated Olympian, holding an unmatched medal haul from the previous two Games. She walked away from competitive swimming shortly after wrapping up her participation at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but a persistent pull back to the pool has changed her plans. In an emotional statement shared with media, Smith opened up about her decision, explaining that she has found herself missing the routine, competition and connection to the water that defined her career for more than a decade. “This return feels a little crazy, a little scary and very exciting all at once,” she said. Smith’s decorated Olympic resume already speaks for itself: at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, she claimed gold in the 200m breaststroke and silver in the 100m breaststroke, then followed that historic performance with another outstanding showing in Paris, taking home gold in the 100m breaststroke and silver in the 200m breaststroke, bringing her total Olympic medal count to two gold and two silver. For her upcoming comeback attempt, Smith is stepping into uncharted territory: she will target the newly added 50m breaststroke event, an Olympic distance she has never raced before at the Games. Framing the comeback as a fresh start both for her athletic career and personal relationship with the sport, Smith noted that this time around, the choice to compete is entirely her own. “It’s definitely a new challenge, a new event, a new race, but also a new me,” she said. “For the first time, I am choosing swimming and I am choosing the event and I am choosing a new event, that has no history but to try and write some new history.” While Smith has named the 2028 Los Angeles Games as her clear end goal, she was quick to emphasize that nothing is guaranteed. She will need to rebuild her race strategy, regain top competitive form, and earn her spot on South Africa’s Olympic team through qualifying events before she can step onto the starting blocks again. A former world record holder in the 200m breaststroke, Smith previously opened up about losing her passion for competitive swimming in the lead-up to her retirement, making her voluntary return to the sport all the more notable for fans across the globe.

  • Singing lemurs use opera technique, study finds

    Singing lemurs use opera technique, study finds

    For years, an international team of researchers spanning the United Kingdom, Italy, and Madagascar has worked to unlock the mysteries of one of nature’s most unique vocalists: the singing indri lemur. Now, their long-running investigation has yielded a surprising discovery that blurs the line between human trained performance and wild animal communication: the endangered Madagascan primate uses the same core vocal technique that professional opera singers rely on to project their voices across large concert halls.

    Led by researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK and the University of Turin in Italy, in collaboration with local partners in the lemurs’ native Madagascar, the new study marks the first time scientists have ever documented this specific level of vocal tract coordination in a non-human primate. To collect their data, the team captured 83 high-resolution video recordings of 19 wild indri individuals, then deployed precision motion-tracking technology to map subtle changes in the primates’ lip and jaw position as they sang. Frame-by-frame analysis confirmed a clear, consistent pattern: every time an indri shifted to a higher pitch, it widened its mouth opening in lockstep, just as a trained human soprano adjusts her vocal tract to hit high notes.

    This coordinated adjustment is called formant tuning, a technique well-known among professional vocalists that amplifies sound frequencies to boost projection and power. For indri lemurs, which live in Madagascar’s dense, thickly forested canopies, this adaptation serves the same core purpose it does for human singers: helping their loud, distinctive songs travel farther across dense vegetation to communicate with other lemur groups across large distances.

    Dr. Chiara De Gregorio, an honorary research fellow at the University of Warwick and a lead member of the study team, emphasized how unexpected the finding was. “We typically associate this fine-tuned coordination between vocal output and body movement with trained human singers, not wild lemurs calling from the forest canopy,” De Gregorio explained. “But frame by frame, we could clearly see that every rise in pitch was matched by a wider mouth opening — it was completely consistent across all the individuals we studied.”

    The research builds on years of work into indri lemur singing behavior that aims to shed new light on the evolutionary origins of human music. A 2025 study from the same research group already revealed that young indri lemurs learn to sing through practice and social learning, a developmental pattern that mirrors how human children acquire language and musical skill.

    While humans and indri lemurs share a distant common ancestor that lived roughly 74 million years ago, the research team notes that the similar formant tuning technique evolved independently in both lineages, a striking example of convergent evolution for effective long-distance communication.

    This discovery not only deepens scientific understanding of primate communication but also opens new avenues of research into the deep evolutionary roots of musical ability across species.

  • First UK charges brought over 1994 Rwanda genocide

    First UK charges brought over 1994 Rwanda genocide

    For the first time in United Kingdom legal history, a Rwandan man who has resided in north London for years has been formally charged with crimes connected to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has confirmed.

    The accused, 65-year-old Dr. Vincent Brown, who previously went by the name Dr. Vincent Bajinya, faces seven criminal counts in total: one charge of aiding genocide, and six additional charges of assisting murder, which prosecutors classify as a crime against humanity.

    According to Frank Ferguson, who leads the CPS’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, Brown is accused of organizing and encouraging other actors to carry out acts of murder and genocide during the 1994 violence. The defendant is scheduled to make his first court appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this coming Tuesday.

    Ferguson explained that the decision to pursue charges came after a thorough review of evidence compiled by the Metropolitan Police’s specialized War Crimes Team. “We concluded that our legal test for bringing criminal charges had been met,” he stated in an official press statement.

    The investigation traces its origins back to September 2019, when the Rwandan government formally submitted a request to UK authorities to investigate individuals suspected of participating in atrocities in Rwanda’s Rugenge district of Kigali that took place in April 1994.

    In a statement released by the Metropolitan Police, the current charges cap off what the department describes as “a complex and extensive seven-year investigation”. Commander Helen Flanagan, who leads Counter Terrorism Policing London, emphasized that this case sends a clear message that the United Kingdom will not serve as a safe refuge for people suspected of perpetrating severe international crimes.

    “The War Crimes Team remains committed to ensuring those suspected of involvement in genocide and other atrocity crimes are held accountable through due legal process,” Flanagan said. She also added that multiple other active investigations are still ongoing targeting other individuals currently located in the UK who are suspected of involvement in similar crimes connected to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.