Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Zambia President Hichilema has been reelected for a second term

    Zambia President Hichilema has been reelected for a second term

    In the early hours of Tuesday, Zambia’s Electoral Commission confirmed a decisive outcome for the Southern African nation’s presidential contest, confirming incumbent leader Hakainde Hichilema has won a second five-year term in a landslide victory. Hichilema secured an outright majority in last Thursday’s election, eliminating the need for a runoff, after capturing 61.4 percent of the more than 5 million ballots cast across the copper-rich country.

    Per official commission results, Hichilema amassed 2,965,326 votes, while his closest challenger, opposition leader Brian Mundubile, trailed with 1,856,217 votes. Commission chairperson Mwangala Zaloumis formalized the outcome in a public declaration: “I therefore declare, Hichilema Hakainde S, to be president-elect of the Republic of Zambia this 18th day of August, 2026.”

    The result comes after a turbulent electoral process that captured global attention. Just one day after voting concluded on Thursday, vote counting was abruptly suspended after the commission reported targeted attacks on polling station officials and theft of a number of ballots. Counting resumed several hours later following a deployment of additional security forces across affected sites.

    In the wake of voting, the Zambian government confirmed that several top opposition figures had been taken into custody on election night, with police alleging the figures posed an actionable threat to national security. Mundubile, the main opposition candidate, alleged that police raided his private residence in what he described as an attempt on his life.

    Thursday’s vote was widely framed as a public referendum on Hichilema’s economic recovery agenda. When Hichilema first won office in 2021, Zambia was mired in a crippling sovereign debt crisis that first emerged in 2020. During his first term, the incumbent oversaw a successful restructuring of the nation’s $14.5 billion external debt, brought runaway inflation under control, and stabilized the national kwacha after years of volatile devaluation.

    International observer missions, including a delegation from the European Union, have assessed that the voting process itself was largely peaceful, but raised sharp concerns about structural inequities that marred the broader lead-up to the election. “Late legal changes, legal uncertainty, and unequal campaign conditions distorted the playing field,” explained Michael McNamara, chief of the EU observation mission, noting that the operating environment placed meaningful limits on fundamental democratic freedoms.

    Domestic institutional critics have also raised alarm over security measures during the counting period. The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a formal pastoral statement pushing back on the deployment of the Zambian Army to oversee vote counting, arguing that constitutional and statutory law assigns exclusive responsibility for maintaining election order to the Zambia Police Service.

    The result paves the way for a second term of Hichilema’s market-friendly reform agenda, which has drawn close attention from global powers including the United States and China, both of which hold significant economic and diplomatic interests in Zambia’s key copper mining sector.

  • The goat is now a celebrity – how this graduation gift went viral

    The goat is now a celebrity – how this graduation gift went viral

    For most university students walking out of their final degree exams, graduation day brings familiar joyful traditions: cheering friends, celebratory music, and handwritten messages scrawled all over one another’s white shirts to mark the end of a shared academic journey. But for 23-year-old pharmaceutical technology student Promise Okoro, a recent graduate of Nigeria’s Federal Polytechnic Nekede in Imo state, this already exciting day became a once-in-a-lifetime memory thanks to an unforgettable surprise from his mother.

    As Promise emerged from the exam hall to the noise of his friends’ celebrations, he first assumed the excited screams cutting through the crowd meant someone was about to stage a public marriage proposal. Instead, he spotted his mother Chinyere leading a full-grown goat through the gathered crowd toward him, turning a happy afternoon into an emotional moment he says he will never forget. Far from feeling embarrassed by the unexpected public gesture, Promise says he was overcome with joy, and his classmates joined in loud cheers for the unique graduation gift.

    The candid footage of the surprise quickly spread across social media platforms, where it has garnered thousands of warm reactions from audiences around the world. While a live goat might seem an unusual graduation present to outsiders unfamiliar with southeast Nigerian culture, the gift holds deep cultural meaning among the Igbo people. Goats are considered valuable, meaningful gifts used to express respect, sincere appreciation, and goodwill, and they are a traditional centerpiece of important life events from traditional weddings to family celebrations and ceremonies honoring beloved community members.

    Chinyere, a small-scale consumer goods trader based in the family’s rural farming community of Ubaha-Eze, had originally dreamed of gifting her son a brand new Mercedes-Benz 4Matic SUV to mark his achievement. But strained business conditions put the expensive car far out of her budget. Instead, she stuck to a promise she made to Promise when he first enrolled in university: if he stayed clear of violent gangs and negative influences, and completed his degree, she would reward him for his hard work. She traveled more than an hour with the goat, which she purchased for 120,000 naira (equivalent to roughly $88 USD), to surprise him on graduation day.

    “I did not have money for a 4matic Jeep – I love that car – so I said let me buy this little gift,” Chinyere explained in an interview. “People love my son, I wanted to prove that he is loved. As I walked in and met loud celebrating and shouting, it gladdened my heart knowing that my son will rejoice together with us all when he comes out.”

    For Promise, the goat is far more than a graduation centerpiece: it is now his beloved pet, and he says he has no intention of slaughtering it for meat, as some online commentators have wondered. The young graduate even has future plans: he intends to adopt a female goat to breed with his new companion. For now, the animal roams freely in Promise’s student accommodation, and has already developed an unexpected fondness for a human favorite: fried rice. Promise says the goat devours his leftover fried rice with surprising enthusiasm.

    The goat has even become a minor local celebrity. It has joined Promise on car rides to nearby shopping malls, where crowds of fans have rushed to take photos with the animal, and joins Promise for evening walks around his neighborhood. “It got on a car ride with me from my hostel to the mall… it was calm [even though] it’s now a celebrity – more popular than me,” Promise laughed.

    Beyond the viral moment, the gift reflects the close bond between Promise and his mother, who he says he can talk to about anything, and often turns to for guidance. For Promise, completing his university degree is a major milestone far beyond earning a certificate: Nigeria’s tertiary education completion rate sits at just 11.3 per 100 people, a figure slightly above the sub-Saharan African average of 10.5 but well below the 17.6 average for lower middle-income countries globally.

    As a pharmaceutical technology graduate, Promise says he plans to stay in Nigeria to work to improve the country’s strained healthcare system, even as many local health professionals choose to leave for better opportunities abroad. He is confident in his exam performance, expecting to place among the top 50 students in his cohort when results are released. Now, after his mother’s heartfelt surprise, Promise says he is determined to reciprocate her love and support with a meaningful gift of his own down the line. What that gift will be, it will almost certainly struggle to top the simple, heartfelt gesture of a goat brought from the village with a mother’s pride and love – a moment that has won over thousands of people online across the world.

  • What we learned from Wafcon 2026

    What we learned from Wafcon 2026

    The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), held across Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco, wrapped up Sunday with an unexpected champion, stunning underdog runs, and seismic shifts that are reshaping the landscape of women’s football across the African continent. Cameroon’s Indomitable Lionesses secured their first ever Wafcon crown with a dominant 3-0 victory over debutant finalists Malawi, capping off a remarkable tournament that defied pre-event predictions and delivered on the promise of expanded elite competition for African women’s football. What made Cameroon’s win even more extraordinary is that the side only secured a spot in the expanded 16-team tournament after Confederation of African Football (Caf) made a last-minute format change mid-qualification. Originally planned as a 12-team event, the expansion saw Cameroon – who had been eliminated by Algeria in the initial qualifying round – granted a place based on their global ranking. They made the most of their second chance, cutting through the knockout rounds to lift the trophy, becoming just the fourth nation to claim Wafcon gold after Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, and South Africa. The format shift has already proven its value: by opening the door to more high-stakes matches for emerging sides, the 16-team structure boosted competitive balance across the three-week tournament, delivering far more upsets than the 2024 edition. Cinderella story Malawi, ranked 153rd in the world entering the competition, shocked 10-time defending champions Nigeria 3-2 in their opening match, then defeated Ghana and Algeria to advance all the way to the final. Their run was powered by the iconic attacking performances of the Chawinga sisters, with Temwa Chawinga claiming the tournament golden boot after netting five goals and adding two assists to outpace other top scorers including Marie Ngah Manga of Cameroon and Zambia’s Barbra Banda. Other shock results saw Tanzania, ranked 65 places lower than 2022 champion South Africa, defeat the defending titleholders in the group stage, while South Africa only salvaged a late 99th-minute equalizer against Ivory Coast – another side that reached the finals thanks to the expanded ranking-based invites. Zambia amassed six points in Group C but still missed out on knockout qualification, while Mali was eliminated on goal difference after tying Ghana on points. In total, the tournament recorded 90 goals across 32 matches (excluding inter-confederation World Cup play-offs), averaging 2.81 goals per game, a marked increase from the 2.54 average recorded at the 2024 edition. All four semi-finalists – Algeria, Cameroon, Malawi, and Morocco – earned automatic qualification to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, with Algeria and Malawi set to make their historic debuts at the global tournament. South Africa and Ghana, by contrast, will have to navigate inter-confederation play-offs to secure their spots in the 2027 event. Cameroon’s historic win also made history for women in coaching: head coach Valentine Nguele became just the fifth woman to lead a Wafcon-winning side, emulating the achievements of previous trailblazers Clementine Toure, Eucharia Uche, Florence Omagbemi, and Desiree Ellis. What makes her feat even more remarkable is that she only took charge of the side in June, just two months before the tournament kicked off. “We worked as crazy since two months ago, day and night, and this is the result,” Cameroon technical co-ordinator Dimitri Lipoff told BBC World Service. “We had no team, nothing was ready. We tried to build a kind of bubble. This is an incredible team effort.” The tournament also delivered one of the most shocking results in African women’s football history: perennial powerhouse Nigeria, who entered the tournament targeting an 11th Wafcon title, suffered their worst ever performance and will miss the 2027 Women’s World Cup for the first time in the event’s history. After finishing second in their group and being knocked out by Cameroon in the quarter-finals, the Super Falcons fell 2-1 to South Africa in the World Cup play-off, ending their streak of consecutive World Cup appearances. Analysts point to long-term structural issues in Nigeria’s women’s football program, which has relied on talent developed abroad for years while failing to build a sustainable domestic institutional structure. With Cameroon collecting $2 million in prize money to invest back into the program, and Morocco, Algeria, Ghana, and Malawi all making significant strides in women’s football development, Nigeria’s decades-long hold on the top spot in African women’s football is no longer unchallenged. The Nigeria Football Federation has already established a fact-finding committee to examine the team’s failure, with former star striker Desire Oparanozie calling for a full re-evaluation of the program. Despite the many successes of the expanded 2026 tournament, it was not without its challenges. Attendance at matches not featuring hosts Morocco remained a persistent issue, continuing the trend of largely empty stadiums seen at the 2022 and 2024 editions. Organizers cited the tournament’s last-minute postponement – it was pushed back from its original March start date just 12 days before kickoff – as a contributing factor, while longstanding barriers including high cross-continental travel costs and strict visa requirements also suppressed turnout. VAR review processes also faced criticism, with one pitch-side check during Cameroon’s group stage win over Mali taking nearly four minutes to complete, slowing the pace of play. Host Morocco, who have hosted the last three editions of Wafcon, made the semi-finals but saw several controversial late penalty decisions go their way against Cameroon and Algeria, though the side failed to convert nine of 13 total penalties across the tournament, highlighting a key area for improvement as they pursue their first ever Wafcon title. As of yet, Caf has not announced a host or confirmed dates for the 2028 Wafcon tournament, with organizers needing to avoid a schedule clash with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games – a similar conflict with the Paris Olympics forced the 2024 Wafcon to be delayed until 2025, highlighting the ongoing need to secure a consistent, viable slot for the continental tournament on the global FIFA calendar. Attention now turns to qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic women’s football tournament, which will restart in October and continue across three international match windows next year, with 32 African nations competing for two coveted spots at the global Games.

  • Ipswich sign Strasbourg duo Enciso & Ouattara

    Ipswich sign Strasbourg duo Enciso & Ouattara

    English Premier League newly-promoted side Ipswich Town has continued its aggressive summer recruitment drive, announcing the double signing of 22-year-old Paraguayan international winger Julio Enciso and 20-year-old Ivorian midfielder Abdoul Ouattara from Ligue 1 club Strasbourg. Both new arrivals have committed to five-year contracts with the East Anglian club, nicknamed the Tractor Boys.

    The total transfer value for the pair could climb to £47.3 million, according to unofficial industry reports. What links both players to Ipswich is their existing working relationship with Tractor Boys manager Gary O’Neil, who coached the duo during his time in charge at Strasbourg. For Enciso, the transfer marks a return to Portman Road, having already turned out for the club during the second half of the 2024-25 season on loan, following a three-year spell at Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion. He eventually moved to Strasbourg earlier this year before sealing his permanent move back to Ipswich.

    In a statement following the announcement of the deal, Enciso expressed his delight at returning to the club. “I am so happy to be back at Ipswich Town,” he said. “I really enjoyed my time on loan at the club and I was so happy to see them win promotion back to the Premier League last season. I worked with the manager in France last season and the chance to play for him again at a great club like Ipswich is one I’m very excited for.” Enciso, who has earned 37 senior international caps for Paraguay to date, brings both top-flight English football experience and international pedigree to O’Neil’s attacking options.

    For the younger Ouattara, the transfer marks his first move to a Premier League club, and he is yet to earn his first senior cap for the Ivory Coast national team. The promising young midfielder made 45 appearances for Strasbourg in France’s top division last season, and was a key member of the squad that progressed to the semi-finals of the UEFA Conference League, building a strong resume despite his young age. Ouattara said he was eager to integrate with his new squad and connect with the club’s passionate fanbase: “I am still young but have had some good experiences already and I can’t wait to meet the fans and my team-mates and get started.”

    The double signing pushes Ipswich’s total summer spending past the £150 million mark following their promotion from the Championship last season. Enciso and Ouattara are Ipswich’s 12th major senior signing of the transfer window, highlighting the club’s ambition to establish itself in the top flight after its return. Ipswich is set to kick off its 2025-26 Premier League campaign with a home fixture against Sunderland on 22 August. Fans can access exclusive pre-match, post-match and original analysis content for Ipswich Town via BBC Sounds, with dedicated programming covering all updates from the club.

  • Congo’s fast-moving Ebola outbreak becomes the country’s worst with over 2,300 dead

    Congo’s fast-moving Ebola outbreak becomes the country’s worst with over 2,300 dead

    In the conflict-ravaged eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak fueled by the rare Bundibugyo virus has become the deadliest Ebola event recorded in the Central African nation, new government data confirms. As of early Monday, the outbreak has hit a grim milestone: 4,945 confirmed and probable cases, with 2,325 recorded deaths — a toll that has already outstripped the 2,299 fatalities from Congo’s 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, the previous deadliest event in the country’s history. This marks the 17th Ebola outbreak the country has faced, and by far the most geographically extensive and fast-moving.

    The latest 24-hour reporting period saw 101 new cases and 33 additional deaths, underscoring the relentless spread of the virus. To date, more than 1,000 patients have recovered from infection, while 730 people remain under care in hospitals or isolation facilities. Unlike previous major Ebola outbreaks, there are currently no approved vaccines or specific antiviral treatments for the Bundibugyo variant driving this surge. Clinical trials for experimental vaccines and therapies are currently ongoing in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak that has now spread to six total provinces.

    Responders face a cascading series of obstacles that have allowed the virus to outpace containment efforts. A large share of new infections and fatalities are being detected in community members who were not already under active monitoring, a gap that allows silent transmission to continue. Additional challenges include work stoppages by unpaid frontline health workers, persistent security threats from active rebel groups in the region, deep-seated distrust among communities that have endured decades of conflict and trauma, impassable terrain hampered by poorly maintained roads, and widespread misinformation that denies the existence of Ebola entirely.

    Over the weekend, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the outbreak continues to expand at an “exceptional pace” that outstrips current contact tracing and containment work. Last week alone, the outbreak hit a new weekly record with 579 new cases and 304 deaths. Global health officials have warned that if current trends continue, this outbreak could surpass the 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic, the global deadliest on record which killed more than 11,000 people across three countries.

    In response to the worsening crisis, international actors have begun ramping up support. The WHO confirmed that a major expansion of response activities is currently underway to reverse the outbreak’s momentum. On Friday, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher announced an additional $30.5 million in emergency funding for the response, alongside the deployment of 20 extra specialized personnel to support frontline efforts. Fletcher framed the escalating crisis as a critical warning to the international community, saying, “We need speed, scale and solidarity before this virus gets even further ahead of us.”

  • Is All Blacks’ tour of South Africa a new chapter for rugby union?

    Is All Blacks’ tour of South Africa a new chapter for rugby union?

    It has been three years since South Africa edged out New Zealand by a single point to claim back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles, cementing their place as the first nation ever to lift the Webb Ellis Cup four times. Today, that narrow 2023 final margin sets the stage for one of the most anticipated showings in modern international rugby: a historic four-yearly multi-Test tour between the sport’s two most iconic and successful global powerhouses.

    Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks enter this series as the undisputed dominant force in men’s international rugby, sitting atop the world rankings and having claimed consecutive Rugby Championship titles. For decades, that mantle belonged to the All Blacks, who won back-to-back World Cups of their own in 2011 and 2015. While the pecking order has shifted in recent years, both sides remain the most commercially marketable teams in the sport, and their head-to-head clashes draw unmatched global viewership.

    Against this backdrop, the historic tour is far more than just a series of exhibition matches. To accommodate the All Blacks’ trip to South Africa, 2026’s edition of the Rugby Championship — the southern hemisphere’s flagship international rugby competition — has been called off entirely, leaving Australia and Argentina to arrange independent fixtures for the year. After the three core Test matches in South Africa, the two rivals will cap the tour with a historic first meeting on American soil in Baltimore, a match that hints at long-term plans to grow the sport ahead of the 2031 Rugby World Cup hosted by the United States. This quadrennial tour structure will become a permanent feature going forward, with New Zealand set to host the Springboks for the next iteration in 2030.

    The core driver behind this new tour venture is straightforward: financial sustainability for New Zealand rugby, which has faced mounting economic pressures in recent years. Multiple reports confirm that both rugby unions aim to build a commercial product that can rival the earning power of the British and Irish Lions tours, with projected profits expected to reach millions of dollars for both sides. To put that earning potential in context, the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia generated $35 million in pure profit for Rugby Australia, enough to erase the governing body’s entire $17.9 million debt.

    For New Zealand rugby, the need for new revenue streams is particularly urgent. A 2025 Deloitte report obtained by New Zealand outlet Stuff paints a grim picture of the current Super Rugby Pacific model, noting that the competition is “under strain economically, commercially, and in delivering on its high performance purpose.” Across the past six years, all five New Zealand Super Rugby provinces have operated at a cumulative loss; 2023 champions the Hurricanes posted a $1.4 million loss that year, followed by an even larger $2 million deficit in 2025. The competition, which now includes teams from New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, lost South African sides when the Springboks opted to join the European-based United Rugby Championship in 2021, exacerbating existing financial strains.

    Compounding these challenges is the ongoing exodus of top All Blacks talent to more lucrative club contracts in Japan and Europe. Three starters from the 2023 World Cup final — Richie Mo’unga, Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane — have all recently taken up deals outside New Zealand. While the All Blacks maintain a strict selection policy requiring players to compete domestically to earn a national call-up, the governing body cannot match the inflated wages on offer overseas, putting constant pressure on retention.

    On the pitch, the tour serves as the first major test for new All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie, who took over the role earlier this year after Scott Robertson’s departure in January. Rennie’s side has impressed in pre-tour warm-ups, racking up three comfortable wins over weakened South African franchise sides: a 38-21 victory over the Stormers on 7 August, a dominant 54-0 shutout of the Sharks four days later, and a 50-19 win over the Bulls on 15 August that leaves the All Blacks unbeaten on tour heading into the first official Test. These warm-up results, however, come with a large asterisk, as the franchise fields fielded multiple reserve players. The real test of New Zealand’s form will come on Saturday, when the first Test kicks off at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park.

    History is not on the All Blacks’ side for away success in South Africa: the men in black have only won four Tests on South African soil since 2016, and their last away Test series victory came all the way back in 1996. Key All Blacks stars Will Jordan and Cam Roigard have yet to feature on tour due to minor fitness issues, but both are expected to be fit for selection for the opening Test. The Springboks, by contrast, enter the series in strong form, having held the world number one ranking since November 2024. Erasmus’ side earned comfortable wins over England, Scotland and Wales in July, followed by a victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires, and boasts unrivaled depth across the match day squad.

    Beyond commercial and on-field goals, the tour also signals a potential shift in the structure of international rugby. Talks of a unified global rugby calendar have been ongoing for years, with a proposed launch targeted for 2024 that never materialized. The introduction of the Nations Championship was meant to be a stepping stone toward greater alignment, but a recent incident where France fielded a severely weakened side for a July tour of New Zealand after a lengthy club season highlighted just how difficult scheduling alignment remains. South Africa’s split decision to leave Super Rugby for the URC while continuing to compete in southern hemisphere Test rugby has added another layer of complexity to calendar negotiations.

    For both sides, this series offers unbeatable high-stakes preparation ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup, and will almost certainly draw massive global attention from rugby and casual sports fans alike. The final match in Baltimore, on American soil ahead of the 2031 World Cup, makes clear the end goal: growing the global footprint of the sport while capitalizing on the massive appeal of rugby’s greatest rivalry. While Argentina and Australia, who face each other in a standalone series this year, face the risk of being sidelined further in the future, the commercial appeal of this new venture makes continued growth likely.

    Full 2026 tour schedule:
    – 7 August: Stormers 21-38 New Zealand (warm-up)
    – 11 August: Sharks 0-54 New Zealand (warm-up)
    – 15 August: Bulls 19-50 New Zealand (warm-up)
    – 22 August: South Africa v New Zealand, Ellis Park, Johannesburg (16:10 BST, First Test)
    – 25 August: Lions v All Blacks, Ellis Park, Johannesburg (18:00 BST, Unofficial Tour Match)
    – 29 August: South Africa v New Zealand, DHL Stadium, Cape Town (16:10 BST, Second Test)
    – 5 September: South Africa v New Zealand, FNB Stadium, Johannesburg (16:10 BST, Third Test)
    – 12 September: South Africa v New Zealand, M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore (22:00 BST, Historic American Test)

  • Man City in advanced talks for £85m Bouaddi, 18

    Man City in advanced talks for £85m Bouaddi, 18

    English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City is in the late stages of negotiations with French Ligue 1 side Lille to sign breakout Moroccan midfield talent Ayyoub Bouaddi, senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel has reported. The top-flight club is pushing to finalize the transfer agreement this week, as it nears the completion of a deal to sell long-serving midfield anchor Rodri to Spanish giants Barcelona.

    Lille has placed an £85.6 million ($106.5 million) valuation on the 18-year-old prodigy, who has rapidly risen from a teenage debutant to a global name over the last two seasons. Bouaddi first announced his arrival on the world stage with a standout performance in Lille’s 2024 Champions League upset victory over Real Madrid, before turning heads across the sport during this summer’s World Cup. He started five of Morocco’s six matches as the North African side exceeded all expectations to reach the tournament quarter-finals, cementing his reputation as one of the most exciting young prospects in global football.

    A deep-lying playmaker by trade, Bouaddi is viewed as the ideal tactical complement to City’s summer signing Elliot Anderson. The Newcastle-born England international is comfortable covering both box-to-box midfield duties and the single number six role, creating a flexible combination that would suit City’s system perfectly. Since making his professional debut in October 2023 – just three days after his 16th birthday – Bouaddi has already earned 88 first-team appearances for Lille, helping the club secure a third-place finish in Ligue 1 during the 2024-25 season. Off the pitch, the teenager is also known as a talented mathematics student, adding a unique off-field layer to his rising profile.

    The move comes as Rodri prepares to complete his £65 million transfer to Barcelona, where he will pen a four-year contract. The 30-year-old Spanish midfielder, who claimed the 2024 Ballon d’Or award, has spent seven trophy-filled seasons at the Etihad Stadium, making 298 appearances after joining from Atletico Madrid in 2019 for a then-club-record £62.8 million. His final season at City was disrupted by injuries: a serious knee injury sidelined him for most of the 2024-25 campaign, while recurring hamstring issues limited his playing time through parts of the year. Despite that setback, Rodri returned to elite form at this summer’s World Cup, captaining Spain to their second ever World Cup title and earning the tournament’s Player of the Tournament award.

    It is still unclear whether the successful signing of Bouaddi will alter City’s long-standing interest in Chelsea’s Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez. Sources close to the club have confirmed that current City manager Enzo Maresca still holds a strong interest in bringing the 2022 World Cup winner to the Etihad, leaving the door open for further midfield movement before the transfer window closes.

  • Top Zambian opposition figures arrested days after presidential vote

    Top Zambian opposition figures arrested days after presidential vote

    Zambia has been thrown into political turmoil in the days after its national presidential election, as a raid by security forces in the capital Lusaka has triggered a bitter war of words between the incumbent government and the leading opposition candidate, with vote counting continuing amid lingering disputes over electoral integrity.

    According to senior government official Patrick Kangwa, Zambia’s top civil servant, security forces seized a cache of high-grade military weapons and ammunition during the Friday night operation, and took 11 individuals into custody. Those arrested include multiple senior opposition figures, among them Patrick Mwansa – husband to Tasila Lungu, daughter of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu. Kangwa alleged the group was plotting an armed insurrection against the state, with connections to illegal military training camps and foreign co-conspirators. He confirmed the operation developed into an exchange of gunfire after suspects opened fire on responding law enforcement officers, warning the plot posed a severe, immediate threat to national security.

    The opposition’s presidential candidate, Brian Mundubile, who was present at the raided location, has issued a sharply contrasting account of the incident. The opposition leader called the raid “an attempt on my life”, confirming that several of his colleagues were shot during the operation while he was present. He has also alleged he was assaulted by army officers during interrogation related to two election-related videos he published, a claim that Zambian authorities have outright denied.

    The political friction comes as official vote counting for last Thursday’s presidential election remains ongoing. With results tallied from more than half of all constituencies, Mundubile is currently trailing incumbent president Hakainde Hichilema. Before the latest raid, the opposition candidate had already prematurely claimed victory and leveled widespread allegations of electoral fraud, including claims of military interference at vote tallying centers, tampering with ballot boxes, and systemic voting irregularities. He even went so far as to accuse neighboring Tanzania of deploying individuals to interfere in the election outcome, a claim Tanzanian officials have dismissed as entirely false and baseless.

    Zambian election authorities have rejected all allegations of misconduct, and preliminary assessments from international election observers have characterized election day itself as largely peaceful and well-ordered. Observers have, however, raised several pre-election concerns, including issues around last-minute changes to electoral rules, uneven access to media for opposition candidates, and broader threats to media freedom in the lead-up to the vote.

    The vote counting process hit a brief interruption on Friday, when the Electoral Commission of Zambia suspended tallying and result announcements citing incidents of violence against polling staff and theft of marked ballots. The suspension was lifted the same day after security officials confirmed the surrounding threat had been contained. All 11 suspects arrested in the insurrection plot are currently being held in custody at multiple Lusaka-area police stations as investigations continue.

  • Ebola outbreak in DR Congo becomes deadliest in its history

    Ebola outbreak in DR Congo becomes deadliest in its history

    The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently facing the most devastating Ebola outbreak in the nation’s recorded history, public health authorities have confirmed. As of mid-August 2026, the death toll from the outbreak, first declared on 15 May, has reached 2,325, surpassing the fatalities recorded during the country’s 2018–2020 Ebola epidemic to claim the grim title of the deadliest outbreak in DRC history.

    Just one week ahead of the new death toll announcement, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher described the current outbreak as the fastest-spreading on record. In a stark warning, Fletcher noted that the virus is claiming a human life every 30 minutes on average.

    On 4 August, authorities inaugurated a new Ebola treatment facility in Rwakole, located in the Bunia region of northeastern DRC, to help expand care capacity amid the surging crisis. As of the latest update from the DRC Institute of Public Health released on 10 August, the country has confirmed 4,945 total cases of the virus, with 101 new positive cases recorded in the 24 hours prior to the announcement.

    Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks that have impacted the DRC, the current epidemic is driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which no globally approved vaccine currently exists. That said, multiple vaccine candidates are already in active development, including one candidate built on the same viral vector technology that powered the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has already granted regulatory approval for the first human clinical trials of this Oxford University-developed candidate, with three additional research groups also working on separate Bundibugyo vaccine candidates. The World Health Organization (WHO) is also sponsoring an independent clinical trial based in the DRC to test whether two existing antiviral therapies can improve survival rates for patients infected with the virus.

    Transmission of the virus has outpaced all recent precedents, the WHO has confirmed, noting the spread of the pathogen to six of the DRC’s 26 provinces is moving at an “exceptional” pace. To contextualize the speed: the 2014–2016 West African Ebola outbreak, the deadliest globally in recorded history, took nearly five months to reach 1,000 fatalities. The current DRC outbreak surpassed 2,000 deaths in less than three months since it was declared.

    So far, cross-border spread has been limited. As of 12 August, only 20 confirmed cases have been detected in neighboring Uganda, two patients have received treatment in Germany, and a single case has been reported in France.

    This current outbreak marks the 17th Ebola event the DRC has responded to since the virus was first identified half a century ago. Long-standing systemic challenges, including years of armed conflict in affected regions and a highly mobile population, have compounded the country’s ability to control transmission and slow the outbreak.

    Ebola is a highly lethal viral pathogen that spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit. Initial symptoms, which develop between two and 21 days after infection, are easily mistaken for more common illnesses like malaria or influenza, including sudden onset fever, headache, and fatigue. As the infection progresses, patients often develop severe vomiting and diarrhea that can lead to acute organ failure and death. The Bundibugyo strain responsible for the current outbreak is particularly rare, with only two documented prior outbreaks recorded globally.

    The WHO has outlined an ambitious target to reverse the trend of transmission within three months, though the organization clarifies that this goal focuses on bringing community spread under control, not fully eradicating the outbreak entirely at this stage.

  • The Iran war is forcing families to choose between school for their kids or survival

    The Iran war is forcing families to choose between school for their kids or survival

    In the floating fishing villages clustered along Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, 13-year-old Sou Sreynich holds tight to one quiet dream: to graduate and become a teacher. For children growing up on these volatile waters, however, reaching that goal has grown far harder in the wake of the Iran war, whose hidden economic shocks are stacking on top of decades of systemic and environmental hardship to derail education for the world’s most vulnerable children. Unlike the sudden, widely documented school closures of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war’s impact on global learning is incremental, invisible to most outside observers, and disproportionately borne by low-income families already teetering on the edge of financial collapse.

    Sreynich’s barriers to education began long before the conflict. Her mother delayed enrolling her until she turned 10, years behind most children her age, out of a common fear among Tonle Sap families: the small wooden boat trip to the local school could capsize, and only an older child could swim to safety. Even now, climate change has made lake conditions more unpredictable, with more intense, erratic floods and droughts that raise the risk of fatal travel to school. Teachers at Sreynich’s school confirm 10 students have drowned in transit over the years. Now, the war-driven spike in global gasoline prices has added an overwhelming new burden. For Sreynich’s family, which survives on small earnings from fishing, gutting fish for neighbors, and harvesting chili peppers, higher fuel costs have already cut into their income: they can no longer afford to travel to the deep-water zones of the lake where fish populations are larger and more consistent. When money runs too tight to cover the cost of boat fuel for the daily school commute, Sreynich has no choice but to skip classes to work alongside her parents. Each absence pushes her further behind, and she speaks with quiet urgency about her desire to stay on track: “I want to complete my studies.”

    The crisis playing out on Tonle Sap is not unique. A 2022 UNICEF report warns that if the conflict continues, by the end of the year it could push an additional 23.4 million children like Sreynich into extreme poverty globally, with 80% of those children concentrated across Africa and Asia. For households already struggling to cover basic costs, the ripple effects of the war force an agonizing choice: pay for fuel, food, rent and utilities, or keep every child enrolled in school.

    In Vietnam, along the country’s rocky northern coast, the same pressure has pushed children out of school and into dangerous child labor. Sixteen-year-old Ly and 13-year-old Nhi, two of nine children from a local fishing family, already bounced in and out of school for years as their parents struggled to make ends meet. When the war sent diesel prices soaring, their father’s employer could no longer afford to send fishing boats out to sea, and he lost his job. Buried under existing debt, the family could not cover the cost of feeding all nine children and keeping them in school. The two girls dropped out and moved to Hanoi, where they worked long, dangerous shifts in a local restaurant, handling sharp knives, hot cooking surfaces, and heavy loads. Nhi’s work was even illegal under Vietnamese child protection laws. It was only after intervention from Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, a Hanoi-based nonprofit, that the sisters were able to return to class. Michael Brosowski, founder of the organization, says the war’s impact builds slowly but is catastrophic. When families hit a financial breaking point, he explains, they are forced into a kind of triage: they keep one or two children in school while pulling others out to work to support the household. Children out of school are exponentially more vulnerable to exploitation, human trafficking, and long-term homelessness. “It’s the tipping point for a lot of families,” Brosowski says.

    Higher energy costs have driven up prices across every part of education delivery, from student and teacher commute costs to the price of basic classroom supplies like pencils and chalk. For remote communities where travel is already a major barrier, it is now even more expensive for teachers and aid workers to reach students. Governments across the developing world, meanwhile, are grappling with skyrocketing domestic food and energy costs, crowding out already limited public funding for education. On Tonle Sap, where all supplies must be transported in by boat, every cost is already higher than the national average. Samphors Vorn, who works for the international nonprofit Aide et Action which supports Sreynich’s school, notes that even the cost of electricity to run the school’s computer lab is 10 times higher than it is on the Cambodian mainland.

    Developing countries dependent on imported energy have borne the brunt of the war’s economic shocks, with rising fertilizer costs and falling international remittances adding additional strain to already fragile economies. In Bangladesh, where the economy was already under significant pressure before the conflict, the war threatens to erase decades of slow, steady progress in expanding access to education and reducing childhood poverty. A recent UN Development Programme report warns that pressure on government finances from rising fuel and subsidy costs will leave far less public funding available for both health care and education. Across South Asia, girls are disproportionately affected by these economic shocks, as families facing resource scarcity often prioritize education for sons over daughters. Arshad Malik, of the global nonprofit Save the Children International, says that rising economic hardship can lead to more girls dropping out of school and a surge in child marriage. UNICEF data confirms South Asia accounts for 45% of the world’s child brides, the highest share of any global region.

    Even school meal programs, which serve as a critical lifeline to keep 466 million children in school globally, supporting healthy development and consistent learning, are at risk. Conflict-driven disruptions to fertilizer exports and higher transport costs have put these programs under severe pressure, especially in West and Central African nations that rely heavily on imported food, according to Sabrina Hervey, policy advisor with the Qatar-based Education Above All Foundation. Across northern Nigeria, aid and local health workers already report a growing number of children relapsing into malnutrition as costs rise. “I’m really afraid to see what’s going to happen,” Hervey says.

    This coverage of climate and environmental issues by The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations, with The AP retaining full editorial independence over all content. AP’s standards for working with philanthropic partners, a full list of supporters, and funded coverage areas are available at AP.org.