We should call it the “Neom factor”: the force that transforms reasonable aggressive ambition into hallucinogenic fantasyland. It glared out at me last week in a Financial Times headline: “Three ‘Heathrows’ of growth: the unstoppable rise of Middle East airports”. In short, Dubai, Istanbul, Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi in aggregate have airport expansion plans…
Nearly 300 pets have been rescued from the deadly inferno that engulfed a Hong Kong housing estate last week, including fish, parrots and turtles, with a charity leader saying the recovery efforts have “strengthened her belief in humanity”. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said in a social media post that…
South Africa is looking to new export markets in Asia – particularly China – and Europe to diversify away from the United States, as its relations with Washington rapidly deteriorate. America boycotted last weekend’s Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg after Washington accused Pretoria of persecuting Afrikaner farmers, labelling the situation “white genocide” – a…
Military officials in the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau have announced a new leader one day after seizing power in a military coup. General Horta Nta Na Man was named as the head of a one-year transitional government at about noon (12:00 GMT) on Thursday. In a statement, he justified the seizure of power…
The race to develop artificial intelligence has pushed governments and technology giants to build new electricity plants and upgrade their decades-old grid networks, creating significant opportunities for Chinese power equipment companies, according to analysts. Chinese firms have been benefiting from the spillover of a US order boom, which was driven by US President Donald Trump’s…
Three years ago, Chinese Premier Li Qiang took on a role largely stripped of its former glory. Now, in a surprise twist, he’s becoming President Xi Jinping’s top emissary on the world stage. When China’s No. 2 official steps out in Johannesburg at the first Group of Twenty leaders’ meeting ever held in Africa this…
Entity called Al-Majd Europe taking families on buses out of Gaza to Israel’s Ramon Airport – and then to unknown destinations. A Palestinian man who says he left Gaza through a shadowy organisation that has landed 153 people in South Africa without documentation describes the process set up to encourage more Palestinians to leave the…
President Ramaphosa says, ‘The United States needs to think again whether boycott politics actually works because in my experience it doesn’t work.’ South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says United States President Donald Trump’s decision to boycott the Group of 20 (G20) summit next weekend in Johannesburg is “their loss”. The US has ratcheted up tensions…
Lagos, Nigeria — When Lawrence Zhongo and his wife got married in 2023, relatives and friends from across their region in central Nigeria attended the ceremony. But in the years since, he has been left distraught time and again with each new report of a deadly attack that has claimed the lives of people who…
Chinese businesses should pivot their attention to the “rising” Global South such as Africa and the Middle East while minimising foreign investment risks through localisation, according to a former senior diplomat. Le Yucheng, who was a Chinese foreign vice-minister from 2018 to 2022, offered the assessment on Wednesday at the Hongqiao International Economic Forum in…