The US has launched strikes against Iran after Donald Trump blamed Tehran for downing a US army helicopter near the strait of Hormuz, imperilling a shaky ceasefire that was announced by the two countries in April.
The attacks triggered a wave of retaliatory strikes from Iran on Wednesday morning, with Tehran saying it had targeted Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
Israel has bombed the city of Tyre, killing eight and injuring at least 32 people, and struck dozens of other villages in south Lebanon as it issued forced evacuation orders for the historic Christian quarter of the ancient city for the first time.
Israel struck the al-Masaken neighbourhood without warning on Tuesday morning, sending smoke plumes high above the city’s buildings and igniting fires. Further airstrikes were carried out across the city and a series of bombings hit Abbasieh, a village north of Tyre.
MTN Group Fintech signed a deal with Ant International to collaborate on a so-called super-app platform covering a range of lifestyle and commerce services based around the operator’s mobile money platform.
The MTN unit hailed the agreement with the financial technology specialist as a major step in its attempts to build a more resilient and future-ready digital ecosystem across its markets.
Nigeria will be first country to see the results of the pact with a “super-app” platform set to be launched there in Q3 intended to deepen digital inclusion and provide the basis for a range of mobile money-linked services.
It is expected to significantly enhance MTN customers’ mobile money experience in Nigeria, delivering faster transactions, improving reliability, and providing greater integration with other financial and commerce services.
The operator unit explained using Ant’s technology provides the means for it to evolve its product by means including fraud prevention measures and “richer engagement features for consumers and merchants”.
MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita (pictured) said the “partnership aligns” with the company’s “ambition of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress by leveraging scale, technology and strong global partnerships”.
He added it aims to deliver a “more seamless, secure and intuitive MoMo platform that advances digital inclusion and expands economic participation”.
Police dispersed demonstrators in Nanyuki, 120 miles from Nairobi, amid rising anger at US plans
Kenyan police have shot dead a man during a protest against a proposed Ebola quarantine facility for US citizens.
Patrick Wahome, who has organised protests in Nanyuki against the centre, told Reuters on Tuesday the man died from a gunshot wound to the head. Reporters from the agency saw his body lying motionless in a police van with a large head wound.
“I had the right papers and everything,” Omar Abdulkadir Artan said in his first interview since he was turned back. He would have been the first Somali to referee a game in the tournament.
A inflação em Angola recuou para 10,88% em maio, numa comparação homóloga, mantendo a trajetória descendente iniciada na segunda metade de 2024, ano encerrado com uma taxa média anual de 27,5%.
De acordo com o boletim mensal do Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE), a variação de quase 10,9% do Índice de Preços no Consumidor Nacional (IPCN) em maio representa uma desaceleração de 0,70% ponto percentual (p.p.) em cadeia – a taxa fixou-se nos 11,58% em abril – e de 9,86 p.p. relativamente ao mesmo mês de 2025 (20,74%).
Os dados divulgados por classe de despesa mostram que nos transportes, habitação e alimentação os preços cresceram acima da média nacional. Na classe dos “transportes”, que registou o maior crescimento do índice de preços, a variação foi de 15,73% em relação a maio do ano passado. Na “habitação, água, eletricidade e combustíveis” o índice foi de 14,32%, na “educação” de 13,40% e na “alimentação e bebidas não alcoólicas” de 11,33%. Esta foi a classe que, em maio, mais contribuiu para a subida do nível geral de preços, com 6,90 p.p.
Por província, Luanda encontra-se no meio da tabela, tendo registado uma variação homóloga de 10,61%. Nos extremos, Cabinda teve a maior variação (16,56%) e Huambo a menor (7,72%). Além desta última, nas províncias do Namibe, Cuanza Norte, Lunda Norte e Cunene a taxa já passou para um dígito.
Em maio, o governador do BNA Manuel António Tiago Dias comunicou que o Comité de Política Monetária do Banco Nacional de Angola (BNA) “reviu em baixa projeção da taxa de inflação para 11,5% em 2026”, considerando a trajetória registada até abril e “não se vislumbrando pressões inflacionistas preocupantes nos próximos meses”.
É o 22.º mês consecutivo de desaceleração, com a taxa a aproximar-se de um dígito.
CHIRADZULU, Malawi — In Chiradzulu district in southern Malawi, 60 women who are members of the Rural Women’s Assembly grow fruits and vegetables alongside their staple crop, maize. In recent years, there’s been growing demand for their organically produced crops from buyers in the nearby city of Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial capital. The assembly’s chair in Chiradzulu, Diana Sitima, runs a 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) organic farm here. She says when she started the farm in 1993, she used to take the produce to consumers in Blantyre. “Now they are coming to us. They say our produce has a good taste,” Sitima says. According to the women, the biggest obstacles they face as farmers is that they lack land titles and capital to invest in their farming. As members of the RWA, these are the issues they discuss at their meetings and bring to their local council and central government for solutions. Ester Samuel spreads maize to dry in Balaka, Malawi. Image by CIMMYT via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) In 1998, not long after she got married, RWA member Lonely Kholowa’s parents gave her a piece of land to cultivate. But after her father passed away in 2009 — her mother had died seven years earlier — her father’s older brother grabbed the land, arguing that according to their culture, she belonged to the family of her mother who came from Machinga district in the east of the country. Today, Kholowa farms land in her husband’s village elsewhere in Chiradzulu. “I don’t have…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya now in cell barely big enough to sit in, says son, after UN experts demanded his release in March
The son of a prominent Palestinian doctor who was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2024 and held for more than 500 days without formal charges has spoken of his deep concern for his father’s wellbeing after he was transferred without explanation to solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, was detained at work on 27 December 2024. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said last week it had received information indicating that the 53-year-old had been transferred from Ketziot prison to Ramon prison, part of the Ganot prison complex, where he had been put in solitary confinement. PHRI said it had not been told the reasons for the transfer.
Thirty-nine people taken near Magamin Diddi village in Maradun municipality, north-west Zamfara state, police say
Armed bandits in north-west Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security.
According to local police, 39 people were seized on Sunday during a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of north-west Zamfara state. But some residents and officials believe the number of those abducted could be as high as 50.
Ancient fire use. Credit: Steven Miller / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
Researchers studying a cave in South Africa have found evidence that could push the record of ancient fire use back hundreds of thousands of years.
The findings come from Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, a site that has produced some of the oldest known evidence of human activity. The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
Researchers uncover evidence in a deeper cave layer
Previous excavations at Wonderwerk Cave revealed signs of fire use about one million years ago. Researchers based that conclusion on burnt animal bones, heat-altered stone tools, and burned sediments found in a layer known as Stratum 10.
In the new study, archaeologists examined an older layer called Stratum 11. There, they found small mammal bones that showed signs of exposure to heat.
To determine the age of the deposits, researchers analyzed cave sediments using magnetostratigraphy and cosmogenic burial dating. Together, the two methods indicated that the remains were deposited between 1.07 million and 1.79 million years ago.
If confirmed, the discovery could represent the oldest evidence yet found for the use of fire by early humans.
New technique helps identify burned bones
Researchers used a method known as bone luminescence to confirm that the fossils had been exposed to fire.
The technique involves shining high-energy blue light onto fossilized bones under a microscope. Burned bones respond by glowing bright red when viewed through a specialized filter. This allows scientists to detect evidence of heating that may not be visible through traditional examination methods.
Researchers at South Africa's Wonderwerk Cave have uncovered burned animal bones dating between 1.07 and 1.79 million years ago. If confirmed, the discovery could represent the oldest known evidence of fire use by early humans.#Archaeology#HumanEvolution#Anthropology#Sciencepic.twitter.com/PJX3doqUVa
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) June 8, 2026
The analysis showed that several of the bones from Stratum 11 had been subjected to high temperatures.
Researchers also ruled out wildfires as the likely source of the burning. The fossils were discovered about 30 meters (98 feet) from the cave entrance, deep inside the cave, and beyond the reach of flames from natural fires outside.
Findings suggest repeated fire use
The study does not show that early humans could make fire whenever they wanted. It also does not provide evidence for routine cooking. Instead, the findings suggest that groups occupying the cave may have repeatedly carried fire into the site and managed it there.
Researchers said the pattern and distribution of burned bones in both Stratum 10 and Stratum 11 point to multiple combustion events rather than a single accidental fire.
Because evidence of ancient fire use is often difficult to distinguish from natural burning, the question of when humans first controlled fire remains one of archaeology’s most debated topics. The new findings add important evidence to that discussion and provide a deeper look into the behavior of some of humanity’s earliest ancestors.
Login
