In a recent enforcement action that highlights how immigration laws apply equally to public figures and professional athletes, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed that 37-year-old former NFL player Daniel Adongo was deported from the United States in June, more than nine years after he overstayed his work visa. A native of Kenya, Adongo spent three seasons as a linebacker with the Indianapolis Colts from 2013 to 2015, a tenure that made national headlines when he made the rare transition from professional rugby to American football despite never having played the sport at any level before.\n\nPer ICE records, Adongo’s visa expired in 2016, the year after his NFL career came to an end, and he remained in the country without legal authorization. After a years-long legal process, a deportation order was issued against him on March 23 of this year, and he was formally removed from U.S. territory on June 20. ICE officials have labeled Adongo a dangerous individual, and emphasized in an official statement that anyone who violates U.S. immigration law faces accountability regardless of their professional background or public profile.\n\n\”Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes,\” Douglas Thompson, assistant field office director for ICE in Chicago, said in the agency’s statement. \”This dangerous individual was clearly a threat to the community, which is now safer since he’s been removed.\”\n\nAccording to ICE documentation, Adongo had been arrested multiple times over the past decade for offenses that include felony intimidation, battery, and disorderly conduct. Local reporting from the Indianapolis Star has shed additional light on Adongo’s struggles following his exit from the NFL: the publication confirmed that after he faced 2017 charges of intimidation and criminal mischief, a court ordered a psychiatric evaluation to assess his competency to stand trial. Evaluators ruled Adongo unfit for trial, and he was committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment. His trial was rescheduled multiple times, after he failed to pass subsequent competency assessments. In 2020, he was ultimately convicted of criminal mischief causing property damage, and sentenced to 364 days in federal prison.\n\nAdongo’s mother and legal representatives have previously stated that the former athlete suffered from mental health conditions and chronic physical injuries, many of which they link to his career as a professional contact sports player. As of press time, Adongo has not issued any public comment responding to the deportation or the allegations against him, and ICE has not confirmed where he was relocated following his removal from the U.S.\n\nThis deportation marks one of the first high-profile enforcement actions carried out under the provisions of the Laken Riley Act, a bill signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump on January 29, 2025, shortly after he began his second presidential term. The legislation, named for a Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant in 2024, mandates that undocumented immigrants arrested for theft or violent offenses must be held in federal custody pending their trial, rather than being released on bond. ICE confirmed that Adongo’s most recent charges fell under the scope of the new law.\n\nU.S. Department of Homeland Security data shows that more than 40 Kenyan citizens have been arrested by ICE for immigration violations in recent months. This case has drawn public attention because of Adongo’s former career as a professional athlete, a rare high-profile example of the consequences of immigration violations for public figures.”,
标签： Africa
非洲
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Diomande agrees Real Madrid terms as PSG step away
One of European football’s most closely watched transfer sagas has reached a major turning point, with 19-year-old Ivorian winger Yan Diomande agreeing personal terms with La Liga giants Real Madrid, following Paris Saint-Germain’s decision to pull out of the bidding race.
Diomande, who featured in all four of Ivory Coast’s matches at this summer’s FIFA World Cup, has been one of the most sought-after young talents in global football this transfer window. Previously, the teenager had attracted firm interest from two other top European sides: Liverpool and PSG. In June, Liverpool tabled an opening offer worth £69 million to current club RB Leipzig, but that bid was rejected, and the Merseyside club ultimately shifted its focus to other transfer targets.
PSG remained in the race for Diomande up until this week, but the French champions confirmed they would not enter into a protracted bidding war with Real Madrid. It is understood PSG’s final offer of £102.5 million for the winger was turned down by Leipzig on Sunday, opening the door for Real to wrap up a preliminary agreement with the player.
According to transfer sources, Diomande’s contract with Real will follow the performance-linked structure of England star Jude Bellingham’s deal at the Santiago Bernabéu. Terms are structured to increase in value year-on-year based on on-pitch results and appearances, and the total transfer fee Real will pay to RB Leipzig will exceed £100 million.
Diomande only joined RB Leipzig from Spanish second-tier side Leganes last summer, signing a five-year contract with the Bundesliga club after an impressive breakout spell in Spanish football. The Ivorian talent enjoyed a historic first season in Germany’s top flight, claiming the 2025-26 Bundesliga Young Player of the Season award after notching 12 goals and 8 assists across all competitions.
What many do not know about Diomande is the long road he has taken to reach elite European football. Born and raised in Ivory Coast, he moved to a youth football academy in the United States in 2025 before earning a move to Leganes, where his rapid progression caught the eye of top scouts across the continent. Insiders close to Real Madrid confirm the club’s key scouting and negotiation leaders Jose Angel and Juni Calafat have tracked Diomande for roughly five years, with the club’s interest long predating his standout performances at this summer’s World Cup.
While RB Leipzig made significant efforts to convince the young winger to extend his stay in Germany, the club has acknowledged that the level of interest from Europe’s most elite clubs, paired with the proposed record-breaking transfer fee, makes retaining Diomande unfeasible.
The transfer is not yet formally finalized, but the agreement on personal terms marks a major step forward for Real Madrid, which has built its recent transfer strategy around targeting top young talent with elite upside. For context, all the latest updates on ongoing European summer transfers can be found on dedicated football transfer news platforms.
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UNESCO adds France’s D-Day landing beaches, Greece’s Mount Olympus to World Heritage List
South Korea’s port city of Busan is playing host this week to a pivotal United Nations educational and cultural committee gathering, where four iconic and ecologically significant sites across three continents have just earned a coveted spot on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Sunday’s announcements capped off the first round of deliberations at the meeting, which runs through Wednesday, bringing global recognition to sites spanning historical battlefields, mythic mountain peaks, ancient political capitals and one of Africa’s most extraordinary wildlife migration corridors.
The most historically resonant addition is the network of Normandy D-Day landing sites in northern France, covering the five famous landing beaches—Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno—alongside the Pointe du Hoc assault location. On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops launched the massive amphibious invasion here, a turning point in World War II that paved the way for the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the independent body that evaluates all World Heritage nominations, noted that the region retains extensive physical evidence of the invasion: intact German defensive fortifications, battle-scarred coastal landscapes, surviving Allied harbor infrastructure and sunken military craft. In its assessment, ICOMOS framed the sites as permanent markers of an event that is globally recognized as opening the door to restored freedom and decades of sustained peace across Europe. Even so, the organization flagged ongoing risks to the sites from over-tourism, coastal erosion driven by climate change and rising sea levels, and planned wind energy development near the coastal sites, calling for enhanced monitoring and preservation measures.
Historian David Edgerton described the Normandy landings to the Associated Press as likely the most consequential amphibious military operation in human history, a milestone that deserves global remembrance regardless of its new heritage status.
Greece’s legendary Mount Olympus also secured its place on the list Sunday, marking the end of a 12-year campaign by the Greek government to earn recognition for the country’s tallest peak as a mixed cultural and natural heritage site. Rising 2,918 meters from a coastal base to its jagged summit, Mount Olympus has occupied a central place in Western cultural imagination as the mythic home of the 12 Olympian gods and the throne of Zeus, the king of the ancient Greek deities. Beyond its cultural legacy, the mountain is a hotspot of unique biodiversity, supporting hundreds of endemic plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth.
Greek officials welcomed the designation while acknowledging that it brings new responsibility to protect the site from the strains of increased visitor numbers. “Inclusion on the World Heritage List places greater obligations on our part to protect this environment,” Evangelos Geroliolios, mayor of the Dion-Olympus municipality at the mountain’s base, told the AP. Georgios Koumoutsakos, Greece’s delegate to UNESCO, reaffirmed the country’s pledge to safeguard the site for current and future generations, adding a playful nod to its mythic heritage: “As Greek mythology wisely reminds us, it is always best to remain on good terms with gods.”
Two additional sites rounded out Sunday’s new inscriptions: the ancient capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara in Japan’s western Nara Prefecture, and South Sudan’s Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape, the first South Sudanese site ever added to the World Heritage List. The Japanese entry encompasses 19 undisturbed archaeological sites from the 6th to 8th centuries, when the two settlements served as Japan’s first centralized imperial capitals, built on political and administrative models imported from China. The buried ruins include royal palaces, government compounds, early Buddhist temples and aristocratic tombs, and the urban design of these early capitals went on to shape the layout of Japan’s later historic capitals of Nara and Kyoto.
Japanese Culture Minister Kobayashi Shigeki thanked the UNESCO committee for the designation and reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to preserving the sites for coming generations. Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister and a native of Nara, posted on social media platform X that she expects the World Heritage status will draw more domestic and international tourism to the region. Yoshiyuki Aihara, an archaeology professor at Nara University who continues excavation work at the sites, noted that most of the ruins lie just one meter below working rice paddies, making their significance less visible to casual visitors but no less important for understanding Japanese state formation. “The sites show how Japan’s ancient state was formed through influences from China and the Korean Peninsula,” Aihara explained to the AP.
For South Sudan, Boma-Badingilo’s inclusion marks a historic milestone for the young nation, which gained independence in 2011. The site stretches across thousands of square kilometers of seasonally flooded wetlands, savanna and floodplains, shaped by annual rain and flood cycles that drive one of the world’s largest terrestrial mammal migrations. An estimated 6 million antelope species—including white-eared kob, tiang and Mongalla gazelles—travel across the landscape each year following water and fresh grazing. The site also provides critical habitat for threatened species including African elephants, lions and cheetahs, and has sustained indigenous ethnic communities that have relied on herding, farming and fishing in the region for centuries.
The Busan UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting will continue deliberations through Wednesday, reviewing dozens of additional nominations from across the globe.
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Whale ‘supergroups’ show numbers are rebounding from hunting. But Iran war holds dangers for them
Off the rugged west coast of South Africa, a seasoned wildlife observer couple encountered a once-in-a-generation marine spectacle last December that has reinforced one of the oceans’ most remarkable conservation success stories — while shining a light on growing new dangers facing recovering whale populations.
Veteran marine photographer Chris Fallows and his wife Monique Fallows, a naturalist and author, set out on a routine excursion familiar to their decades of work documenting ocean life. What they encountered exceeded even their most optimistic expectations: a sprawling “supergroup” of humpback whales, with more than 200 enormous blowhole sprays rising steadily from the water, creating a silhouette Chris Fallows compared to the dense skyline of Manhattan. By the time the pair finished their systematic count, using the global standard practice of identifying individual whales from their unique tail flukes, they documented 299 humpbacks gathered in a single area — the largest such supergroup ever recorded.
For marine scientists, this extraordinary sighting is far more than a thrilling wildlife encounter. It is tangible proof that decades of protection have allowed humpback whale populations in the southern hemisphere to rebound dramatically from the brink of extinction. Following the 1986 international ban on commercial whaling, southern hemisphere humpback numbers have surged from fewer than 10,000 at the peak of industrial whaling to more than 100,000 today, according to data from the International Whaling Commission.
Humpback whales are typically solitary creatures or travel in small, loose pods, only forming massive supergroups in areas with extraordinary concentrations of their primary prey: tiny krill and small schooling fish. Happywhale, a global citizen science project that maintains a massive open database of whale sightings contributed by recreational and professional observers alike, confirmed the Fallows’ count as the largest humpback supergroup ever recorded. Els Vermeulen, chief scientist of the University of Pretoria’s Whale Unit, noted that humpback supergroups began reappearing in southern hemisphere waters around 2012, a trend directly tied to their population recovery after decades of overhunting.
“In general, the moratorium on whaling can be classified as one of the strongest conservation success stories in the marine environment,” said Vermeulen, a zoology expert who has studied southern hemisphere whale populations for years. She explained that once large feeding groups form, the low-frequency underwater sounds humpbacks produce attract more whales to the area, creating the massive gatherings researchers are now observing with increasing frequency.
But even as humpbacks celebrate a rare conservation win, scientists warn that new and growing threats put this hard-won recovery at risk. While humpbacks have bounced back strongly, the World Wildlife Fund notes that recovery remains uneven across all great whale species: seven of the 14 recognized great whale species are still classified as endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, including North Atlantic right whales, whose global population numbers only around 380 individuals today. All whale species face persistent existing threats, including entanglement in commercial fishing gear, ship strikes, and disruptions to feeding and migration patterns caused by climate change.
Most alarmingly, researchers have identified a sudden, rapidly growing threat to South African whale populations tied to geopolitical conflict in the Middle East. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in late 2023 and subsequent attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, coupled with growing security tensions around the Strait of Hormuz linked to ongoing Middle East instability, thousands of commercial ships have diverted their routes around the southern tip of Africa to avoid the Red Sea. Preliminary research co-authored by Vermeulen found that shipping traffic around South Africa’s Cape region has quadrupled since December 2023.
This surge in traffic has drastically increased the risk of fatal ship strikes for whales, a threat that is often undercounted because most whales killed by ships sink to the ocean floor rather than washing ashore. Gregg Oelofse, coastal and environmental manager for the city of Cape Town, confirmed that whale carcasses that do wash ashore regularly show clear evidence of fatal collisions: large, deep cuts from ship propellers that cut through the whales’ bodies.
“More whales and more shipping clearly increase the risk,” Oelofse said. To mitigate this growing danger, Vermeulen and other marine conservation researchers are lobbying South African regulators to implement mandatory speed limits for large commercial vessels traveling near key whale feeding and migration routes off the country’s coast. Slower ship speeds give both crew and whales more time to avoid collisions, drastically reducing the risk of fatal strikes, researchers say.
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The notorious Cameroonian prison with its own record label
Deep inside the overcrowded, crumbling concrete barriers of New Bell Prison in Douala, Cameroon, a self-sustaining parallel world thrives. Inmates operate informal delivery services nicknamed “prison taxis,” self-appointed inmate enforcers assist overstretched security staff, and open-air markets sell homemade fried cassava and beignets to the facility’s population. Now, a gritty, transformative initiative born from this adaptive culture is turning incarcerated artists into global creative voices: Jail Time Records, an in-prison independent music label and documentary project that just earned international acclaim.
Against the harsh backdrop of one of Africa’s most notoriously violent and overcapacity prisons, Jail Time Records offers more than just a recording space. It is a space of catharsis, rehabilitation, and freedom beyond the four concrete walls that hold its artists. The project was born by chance in 2018, when Italian artist Dione Roach volunteered with a non-profit running arts programming inside New Bell. During a casual dance workshop for inmates, a group of aspiring rappers grabbed the microphone to deliver raw, unplanned freestyles. Blown away by their talent and vulnerability, Roach approached prison officials for permission to build a small on-site studio. When authorities approved the request, she partnered with Steve Happi, a former New Bell inmate with first-hand experience of the prison’s injustices, to lead the project as producer and sound engineer.
Happi’s own path to New Bell underscores the arbitrary nature of justice that many incarcerated people face. After a bitter family dispute over his late father’s remains, his aunt—a high-ranking Cameroonian judge—allegedly arranged to have him imprisoned on false charges of patricide. He was ultimately acquitted two years later, and carried a deep understanding of how the carceral system strips people of agency and voice. For Happi, the studio became a tool to push back against that erasure: “It’s this instrument of resistance… where we can really share friendship, love and our voices can be heard,” he told the BBC’s *Talking Movies* program. “We don’t think anymore about the four walls – we find the freedom.”
That freedom has resonated far beyond New Bell’s gates. Today, tracks recorded in the studio’s spartan 100-square-foot booth—where a single desktop computer powers all recording work—have earned fans across South Africa, the United States, and Argentina. One of the label’s biggest stars, Empereur, a longtime gang leader serving a 10-year sentence for multiple violent offenses, has accumulated 24,000 YouTube views for a music video filmed entirely on-location inside the prison. The initiative has grown to include artists from the prison’s women’s wing, where Jeje, the label’s first female signee, debuted her brooding 2022 Afrobeats track *Show Me The Way*, exploring her experience of incarceration after fleeing an abusive uncle. In 2022, the collective released *Jail Time Vol 1*, their first full album, with half of all profits going directly to the incarcerated artists and the rest reinvested into expanding the label.
The story of the project has now been captured in an eponymous feature documentary, co-directed by Happi and Roach over six years of on-site filming. Last month, the film took home three top awards, including Best Documentary Feature, at New York’s prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, with Oscar-winning New Zealand director Taika Waititi and his wife, pop star Rita Ora, signing on as executive producers. Waititi praised the project for the profound role it plays for incarcerated people, many of whom are serving life sentences: “Just in terms of the power of art in relation to redemption and what that can mean to someone who, you know, some of these people are in prison for life. I think having an outlet is an incredibly powerful and humane thing.”
The documentary pulls no punches about the grim realities of life inside New Bell. A 2022 Human Rights Watch report found the facility, originally built to hold just 1,175 people, crammed with 4,700 inmates—four times its intended capacity. Unsaniatry, overcrowded conditions fueled a deadly cholera outbreak in 2020 that killed at least six prisoners, and the prison has a long history of violence: in 2008, guards shot and killed 16 inmates during an attempted uprising. The film itself shows Empereur shaking down a young, newly arrived inmate for his necklace and flip-flops, a raw depiction of the coercive power dynamics that shape daily life inside.
Critics have questioned whether the project risks glorifying incarcerated people who have committed violent offenses, but Roach pushes back on that framing, emphasizing that the initiative is rooted in harm reduction and rehabilitation, not glorification. “The process we’re doing is a rehabilitation process, basically. We enter the prison without any judgment and it’s the only way we can really approach this kind of work,” she explained. “Music, as with any creative process, is also a way of self-discovery… coming to terms with things you’ve done and hopefully changing for the better.”
Prison officials have embraced that approach, with the prison’s warden even attending the label’s 2024 courtyard concert and dancing alongside performing inmates. With official support and growing international attention, the project is expanding: in 2023, Roach and Happi opened a second Jail Time Records studio inside a maximum-security prison in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, 1,600 kilometers from the original New Bell location, with plans to replicate the label, video production, and documentary model there.
For the artists who record at New Bell, the impact goes far beyond streaming numbers or festival awards. The documentary profiles Stone, a former presidential guard serving 10 years for armed robbery (a crime he maintains he did not commit), who raps in his track *Heart of Stone*: “I’m closed and tight like a cell door. No solid ground I slip like a fish.” The film captures his repeated, often unsuccessful attempts to call his young daughter Maira, moments that lay bare the deep pain of separation that incarceration brings. Even for those who will never leave New Bell alive, the film closes with a quiet tribute to six inmates who died during the project’s six years of filming, the project offers something no prison can take away: a sense of purpose.
As Happi puts it, music acts as a “lantern for a brighter future” for men and women who have been written off by society. “Before that, they had the stubborn mentality: it’s them against the world,” he says. “They feel now important – they feel like they have a place in the society.”
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Joshua knocked down twice as dramatic win sets up Fury fight
In one of the most electrifying nights in recent heavyweight boxing history, former world champion Anthony Joshua pulled off a stunning comeback victory over underdog Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, overcoming not just his opponent in the ring but also profound personal tragedy in the months leading up to the fight.
Joshua stepped into the ring for his first competitive bout since a devastating December car crash in Nigeria that killed two of his closest friends, Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele, and left Joshua himself injured. The 36-year-old Briton carried the memory of his late friends into the ring: their names were embroidered on his gear, printed on the ring canvas alongside the phrase ‘My Brother’s Keeper’, and Joshua made clear after the fight that their memory fueled his win.
Few could have predicted the chaos that unfolded in the opening 180 seconds of the contest. Just 20 seconds after the opening bell, an unheralded Prenga landed a massive right uppercut that sent Joshua crashing to the canvas for the first knockdown. As the 35-year-old Albanian underdog – who entered the fight with a perfect 20-0 record, all wins coming by knockout – sensed a historic upset, he landed another uppercut late in the first round that dropped Joshua for a second time. Ringside observers, including promoter Eddie Hearn and former opponent Oleksandr Usyk, watched on in visible concern, with many believing Joshua was on the verge of one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight boxing history. What was meant to be a routine warm-up for the long-awaited Tyson Fury fight looked set to end in disaster.
But Prenga surprisingly shifted to a defensive, back-foot style at the start of the second round, giving the wobbly Joshua time to recover. Capitalizing on the opening, Joshua drew Prenga into range with a measured jab before unleashing a crushing right hand that sent the underdog crashing to the canvas. The referee immediately stepped in to halt the contest, securing a dramatic second-round knockout for Joshua that will go down as one of the most resilient wins of his 14-year professional career.
An emotional Joshua choked back tears in his post-fight interview, saying, ‘It’s more than punch power. That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina, that was the families. It hurts to even talk about it. It has been tough.’ The win extends Joshua’s professional record to 30 wins (27 by stoppage) and four defeats, marking his first victory over a top recognized professional opponent since his 2024 loss to Daniel Dubois.
The main subplot of fight night centered on whether rival British heavyweight Tyson Fury – who secured a warm-up win over former contender Mariusz Wach in Thailand just 24 hours earlier – would make a surprise ringside appearance, despite repeated claims he would not attend. A Fury lookalike briefly fooled reporters on the ground, but the former champion stayed true to his word, remaining absent and letting Joshua claim the full spotlight.
The good news for boxing fans is that the long-rumored showdown between Joshua and Fury is officially moving forward: contracts for the bout, more than a decade in the making, have been fully signed. While an November date is widely expected, a venue has not yet been finalized: British fans are pushing for a UK host location, but Saudi event organizers and broadcast partners are leaning toward a United States venue to maximize global viewership, with the bout set to stream globally on Netflix.
Promoter Eddie Hearn emphasized that the night was always about Joshua’s resilience through personal trauma, regardless of what comes next. ‘No-one knows what he’s been through over the last seven months. When he went down in the first round, I thought he’d come back too soon,’ Hearn said. ‘But tonight wasn’t about Tyson Fury. It was about the strength Anthony Joshua has shown just to be here.’
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More health workers strike as Ebola cases in Congo near 3,000, including over 1,300 deaths
BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo – A fresh setback has hit the country’s spiraling Ebola outbreak response, as frontline health workers at a key treatment center in eastern Ituri province launched a strike Saturday over unpaid performance bonuses, halting nearly all care for patients in the outbreak’s geographic epicenter.
Official government data released Friday puts the total number of confirmed Ebola cases at 2,973, with 1,309 deaths recorded to date – marking this outbreak as the fastest-growing the country has ever seen, according to national health authorities. As of the latest update, 766 patients are currently in isolation or receiving hospital care, while 540 people have successfully recovered from infection.
The industrial action has completely paralyzed operations at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri, which bears nearly 90% of the outbreak’s confirmed caseload. Doctors, nurses, and security staff all walked off the job, with around 100 protesting outside the facility Saturday to demand action on delayed pay. Workers say two months of unpaid performance bonuses have gutted staff morale and directly compromised care for infected patients, and they will not return to their posts until Congolese authorities clear the outstanding arrears. The strike followed a formal vote held by staff Friday, which resulted in a unanimous decision to launch the work stoppage until “concrete solutions” are delivered.
This walkout is not an isolated incident: just last week, employees at Bunia General Hospital, the largest medical facility in the entire region, also staged a strike over unpaid salaries. Some workers told the Associated Press they have not received any compensation since they joined the outbreak response when it first began.
Congo has been fighting this outbreak of Ebola caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus strain since May 15. Unlike the more common Zaire Ebola strain – which sparked 16 of Congo’s previous outbreaks and has a licensed vaccine available – no approved vaccines or specific treatments exist for Bundibugyo, creating a major additional hurdle for response teams. A clinical trial for two promising potential treatments recently launched in Ituri, however, giving researchers and health officials a small measure of hope for improved outcomes.
Beyond payment issues, the response effort has faced a cascade of systemic challenges that have allowed the outbreak to outpace containment efforts. Authorities have yet to identify the index case (patient zero) that sparked the current outbreak, while widespread population displacement from ongoing armed conflict in eastern Congo and frequent movement of artisanal miners have made contact tracing of thousands of exposed people extremely difficult. Additional barriers include a major global funding gap for the response, repeated attacks on health facilities in the volatile region, and lingering mistrust of medical authorities among local communities.
More than 100 frontline healthcare workers have already contracted Ebola since the outbreak began, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). The global health body has assessed that the overall risk of the outbreak spreading beyond Central Africa remains low, noting that Ebola transmits through direct contact with infected bodily fluids rather than via airborne spread, a characteristic that makes far less transmissible than common respiratory viruses.
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African para-athletes praise Commonwealth Games inclusivity
The 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow has emerged as a landmark moment for inclusive global sport, with top African para-athletes crediting the Games’ fully integrated competition structure for driving long-overdue shifts in public perceptions of disability across the continent. Unlike the Paralympic Games, which hosts para-sport competition as a separate, parallel event, the Commonwealth Games embeds para-athletic events directly into its main schedule, meaning every medal won by disabled competitors counts equally toward a nation’s overall medal table alongside medals earned by able-bodied athletes. This groundbreaking inclusive model was first introduced at the 2002 Manchester Games, making the Commonwealth Games the first fully integrated major international multi-sport event in history.
Originally, the 2026 Games were scheduled to be hosted by the Australian state of Victoria, but the state pulled out of hosting duties in July 2023 citing unmanageable cost overruns and funding gaps. Glasgow stepped in at the last minute to host a scaled-back edition of the Games, cutting 10 full sports from the original program. Even with this reduction, the 2026 Games will feature a record 47 para-sport events across six of the 10 remaining sports, marking a historic high for para-athlete participation.
For African athletes, this integrated structure has already delivered tangible social change, breaking down long-standing stigma surrounding disability and creating new opportunities for future generations of disabled competitors. “Sport really is a huge pusher for change,” Husnah Kukundakwe, the 19-year-old captain of Uganda’s Commonwealth Games team, told BBC World Service. “It shows that para-swimming and para-sport just deserve the same kind of recognition, funding, and sponsorship that able-bodied sport gets.”
Kukundakwe is no stranger to making history: at 14, she became the youngest competitor at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, a milestone that opened the door for para-sport growth in her home country. Born without a lower right arm, Kukundakwe went on to compete at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and carried Uganda’s flag at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. She says her athletic career has not only transformed her own life, but changed how Ugandans see para-athletes. “It was a huge deal when we went back home after Tokyo, and it kind of opened up the world of para-sport to Ugandan people, and it made big changes in terms of the support that para-sport gets from the government,” she explained.
Before she took up competitive swimming, Kukundakwe says she hid her limb difference by wearing long sleeves even on the hottest days. Today, she competes in the 100m freestyle S9 and 100m breaststroke SB8 categories, and says the sport has helped her embrace her identity. “Swimming really built up my confidence. But ever since I started swimming, a sport which requires you to pretty much be open, I started to feel more comfortable with myself. And eventually I found out that it doesn’t really matter what I look like. It’s all about what I can do.”
Kukundakwe is targeting Uganda’s first ever Commonwealth Games swimming medal on her home nation’s behalf, aiming for the podium in the 100m breaststroke. Before her Tokyo debut, no Ugandan swimmer had ever qualified for either the Olympic or Paralympic Games; today, Uganda has sent nine swimmers to Glasgow, including two para-athletes. Kukundakwe says increased public attention on her career has led to broader changes beyond sport, including better accessibility in new public buildings and increased government funding for disability initiatives. “It doesn’t make sense for me to open up doors and only I am able to walk through them. I want there to be more para-swimmers,” she said. “The perceptions of people with disabilities and the funding towards para-sport in Uganda really has changed.”
Similar stories of shifting attitudes are shared by other top African para-athletes at the Games. Mauritian wheelchair racer Noemie Alphonse, who will compete in the 400m and 1500m T54 events as she chases her first Commonwealth medal, says her 2023 World Championship silver medal in Paris inspired a new wave of young disabled athletes to take up sport in her home country. “When I won that medal, the mindset completely changed in Mauritius. Many youngsters with disability and parents also were really inspired through what I did. My team-mates now are those who saw me on TV,” Alphonse said. The integrated structure of the Commonwealth Games, she added, has helped the public see para-athletes as equals. “We are able to showcase what we are able to do, and we are seen as on the same level. Everyone follows us on TV, sending good comments, good messages and encouraging us. We are really happy that the mindset changed and they are seeing that we are able to contribute to our country.”
Ghanaian powerlifter Tahiru Haruna, who switched to the sport from arm wrestling in 2017, echoed that sentiment, even after finishing seventh in the men’s heavyweight para-powerlifting event, narrowly missing out on Ghana’s second ever para-sport Commonwealth medal. “In Ghana, I always go to schools and on streets teaching about sports, against stigma, trying to tell them that you can play sports,” Haruna said. “Back in schools in Ghana they don’t allow the physically challenged to partake in sports, so we try to teach PE teachers to get them involved. Everything is inclusion, we don’t need to separate us.”
In a historic marker for inclusion, the first gold medal awarded at the 2026 Games went to a para-athlete: England’s Mark Swan took top honors in the men’s lightweight para-powerlifting, with Nigeria’s Roland Ezuruike claiming silver. Later in day one, Nigeria’s Esther Nworgu won Africa’s first gold medal of the entire Games, also in women’s lightweight para-powerlifting, as part of a dominant opening day for the West African nation that saw Nigeria claim three golds and three silvers in para-powerlifting overall. For many African nations, para-sport has already become a consistent path to medal success at the Commonwealth Games, demonstrating the impact of the integrated model on elevating disabled talent across the continent.
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Chinese literature attracts readers at Egyptian book fair
Egypt’s iconic Bibliotheca Alexandrina International Book Fair, one of the most prominent cultural gatherings in the Middle East and North Africa, has wrapped up its 2026 edition with Chinese publications emerging as an unexpected highlight, drawing broad attention from Arabic-speaking readers across academic and general audiences alike.
Hosted by Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt’s leading national library and cultural hub located in the coastal city of Alexandria, this year’s fair brought together nearly 100 Egyptian and Arab publishing houses and welcomed around 1,000 registered participants before organizers extended its run by three extra days to accommodate higher-than-expected visitor turnout. Curated alongside major Arabic and global literary titles, Chinese works occupied a dedicated space at the fair, reflecting the event’s commitment to fostering cross-cultural dialogue and encouraging readers to engage with diverse intellectual and civilizational traditions.
The curated selection of Chinese titles spanned a range of topics designed to resonate with local reader interests, including deep dives into traditional Chinese arts such as ceramics and tea culture, alongside scholarly works examining centuries of historical interaction between Chinese, Arab and Islamic civilizations — content that highlights the long-standing, deep-rooted people-to-people and cultural ties connecting the two regions.
For Chinese language students in Egypt, the presence of these publications at one of the country’s biggest international book fairs represents far more than a simple literary display: it is a critical platform for strengthening bilateral cultural exchange and breaking down outdated stereotypes about China. Salma Sameh, a Chinese language student and visitor to the fair, explained that the collection fills a key gap for both students and the general Egyptian public.
“For students, the fair provides access to up-to-date academic references that are hard to find through other local channels,” Sameh said. “For the general public, it is an opportunity to discover China through Chinese voices rather than secondhand stereotypes, helping to build genuine, nuanced cultural awareness.”
Sameh emphasized that high-quality translation plays an irreplaceable role in bridging civilizational gaps. “A translator does more than transfer words — they convey the spirit of the text and its underlying culture to Arab readers. Translation is therefore a fundamental bridge connecting the two civilizations,” she added. Echoing the sentiment of many local readers, Sameh called for more Arabic translations of Chinese works, particularly contemporary Chinese novels, as well as titles covering history, science, arts and technology.
“Contemporary Chinese literature offers vivid, first-hand insights into modern Chinese society and everyday life,” she noted. “It can attract a much broader audience, especially young readers, making Chinese culture accessible far beyond academic circles.”
Hager Rizk, another Chinese language student attending the fair, shared that access to authentic Chinese publications marks an important milestone in expanding Arab readers’ understanding of China through reliable, diverse source material. “Books remain one of the best ways to understand Chinese civilization, history, and philosophy. Specialized titles on Chinese ceramics and the historical exchanges between China and the Islamic world provide valuable academic resources for researchers and Chinese language students like me,” Rizk said.
Like Sameh, Rizk highlighted the growing demand for more high-quality, accurate Arabic translations of Chinese works that can paint a comprehensive picture of Chinese civilization, including its most distinctive cultural heritage elements such as traditional arts, tea culture and porcelain craftsmanship.
Rizk stressed that these Chinese publications do more than expand the collections of Egyptian and Arab libraries: they deepen overall cultural exchange between Egypt and China. “These books provide researchers, students, and the general public with a clear window into Chinese civilization, contributing to mutual learning between civilizations and strengthening knowledge exchange between the two peoples,” she said.
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Seven stars to watch at Wafcon 2026 and why
The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), one of the most anticipated women’s football events on the continent, is set to kick off this Sunday in Morocco – marking the third consecutive time the North African nation has hosted the continental championship. With defending champions Nigeria arriving to extend their decades-long dominance, hosts Morocco gunning for a historic first title after two consecutive heartbreaking final losses, and 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification on the line, this year’s tournament promises unprecedented stakes. The top four semi-finalists will earn direct tickets to the 2027 World Cup hosted by Brazil, adding extra pressure and motivation for every competing side. BBC Sport Africa has highlighted seven standout players set to capture global attention across the course of the competition.
First up is Nigeria’s Esther Okoronkwo, the AFC Toronto forward who was the driving force behind the Super Falcons’ record-extending 10th continental title run last year. Stepping into the starting lineup from the quarter-finals onward, Okoronkwo delivered a masterclass in attacking balance, combining creative playmaking with clinical finishing to crucial effect. In the final against hosts Morocco, with Nigeria trailing 2-0, the 29-year-old calmly converted a penalty to spark the Super Falcons’ comeback. She followed that up by assisting Folashade Ijamilusi’s equalizer and Jennifer Echegini’s late game-winning goal, securing an extraordinary come-from-behind victory. Despite her match-winning impact, Okoronkwo was infamously overlooked at the 2025 Confederation of African Football awards, a snub that is widely expected to add extra fire to her performance at this year’s tournament.
Next is Malawi’s Tabitha Chawinga, the star striker who leads one of Wafcon’s two debutant sides – and the lowest-ranked nation at the finals. The 30-year-old Lyon forward just helped her French club claim a fifth consecutive domestic league title, notching 11 goals along the way, and in 2023 became the first Malawian woman to both play and score in the UEFA Women’s Champions League during her time at Paris Saint-Germain. Chawinga is set to line up in attack alongside her younger sister Temwa as Malawi faces a challenging group stage against Nigeria, Zambia and Egypt. Chawinga, who has spent years waiting for this moment, has embraced the underdog role. “I’ve been playing big games in Europe, but I like to tell the girls ‘don’t be shy, don’t be scared’,” she said. “We can’t wait to start and see what we can do.”
Morocco’s captain Ghizlane Chebbak enters the 2026 tournament with history on her mind – and a chance to end years of near-misses. The 35-year-old, named African Women’s Footballer of the Year in November 2025, opened the scoring for the Atlas Lionesses in last year’s final against Nigeria, only for Morocco to fall to a comeback defeat and claim another silver medal. Chebbak already has two continental golden boots to her name: she finished with five goals this year, and was joint top scorer in the 2022 tournament, where Morocco lost the final to South Africa. This year, Chebbak is also chasing a unique family and continental double: her father Larbi was part of Morocco’s 1976 men’s Africa Cup of Nations winning squad, and the Al-Hilal forward will hope it is third time lucky for her to lift the Wafcon trophy on home soil.
Kenyan goalkeeper Lilian Awuor will be the difference-maker for the Harambee Starlets, who are returning to Wafcon for the first time in a decade. Awuor cemented her status as a national hero during qualifying, saving two penalties in the away second leg of Kenya’s first-round tie against Tunisia in February 2025 to secure their place in the finals. The 27-year-old has raised her game significantly since moving to Romanian side Farul Constanta two years ago, helping the club win back-to-back league titles and gaining invaluable top-flight experience. Ranked 128th in the world – the second-lowest at the tournament – Kenya faces a tough Group A test against Morocco, Algeria and Senegal, and Awuor’s form between the sticks will be critical if the East African side is to pull off upsets and reach the knockout stage.
Egyptian midfielder Nadine Ghazi has come a long way since the Cleopatras’ last Wafcon appearance in 2016, when she was just 14 years old and did not get off the bench. Now, a decade later, the Al Ahly star is ready to lead her side, after overcoming a devastating anterior cruciate ligament rupture three years ago to return to peak form. Ghazi says the performance of Egypt’s men’s side, who reached the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, has given her and her teammates extra motivation. “This is the best motivation we could ever get for our women’s team,” Ghazi said. “They’ve filled our hearts with so much joy. We have a big responsibility to inspire and keep moving the legacy of Egyptian women’s football, especially on the African stage.”
Refiloe Jane, captain of 2022 champions South Africa, is aiming to lead the Banyana Banyana back to continental glory and secure a third consecutive World Cup spot. The 33-year-old midfielder recently earned her 150th cap, joining an elite group of African women’s footballers to hit the milestone, and is under no illusions about how tough this year’s tournament will be. “When you look at the number of teams in this year’s edition, I think this will be one of the most challenging tournaments we’ve ever had in the history of Wafcon,” she said. South Africa reached the last 16 at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, and a semi-final finish at Wafcon would guarantee them a spot at the 2027 tournament. With experience of both winning and falling short at the continental level, Jane says her side has what it takes to succeed. “[The coaching staff] have experienced the team winning the Wafcon and not doing so well. We’ve got the recipe that you need in order to succeed,” Jane added. South Africa will begin their campaign against Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso in Group B.
The final standout name is Varsenia da Luz, captain of Wafcon’s other debutant Cape Verde. Cape Verde’s women’s national team only played its first international match in 2018, making their qualification for the 2026 finals all the more remarkable. Da Luz, a left-back who holds a degree in systems and computer engineering, has been with the national squad since its earliest days and has served as captain since 2020. She leads an entirely part-time squad, but that has not stopped the side from pulling off upsets: da Luz scored two critical goals in qualifying, finding the net in both legs of a 6-3 aggregate first-round win over Guinea, before Cape Verde upset Mali in Bamako to secure their spot at the finals. A multiple-title winner with Praia-based club Seven Stars, da Luz will lead her side against Ghana, Cameroon and Mali in Group D as the tiny island nation makes its Wafcon debut.