Inflation in South Africa accelerated to its highest level in 13 years in July, pushed mainly by surging food, transport and electricity prices, official data showed Wednesday as workers staged protests over the high cost of living.. For South Africans, it has resulted in rising costs for necessities including food, electricity, fuel and medication, the statistics agency said.
Fighting erupted between government forces and Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia on Wednesday, with the warring sides blaming each other for shattering a five-month-old truce.. The rival claims could not be independently verified as access to northern Ethiopia is restricted, but there were reports of fighting around southern Tigray in areas bordering the Amhara and Afar regions.
An Indian billionaire close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to buy a broadcaster seen as the last major critical voice on television, stoking fears about media freedom in the world's largest democracy.. This includes a majority stake in Network18, one of the biggest media conglomerates in the country, which owns several leading broadcasters.
Record monsoon rains were causing a "catastrophe of epic scale", Pakistan's climate change minister said Wednesday, announcing an international appeal for help in dealing with floods that have killed more than 800 people since June.. "It is a climate catastrophe of epic scale," Rehman said, adding three million people had been affected.
Japan's prime minister on Wednesday called for a push to revive the country's nuclear power industry in a bid to tackle soaring imported energy costs linked to the Ukraine war.. "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has vastly transformed the world's energy landscape" and so "Japan needs to bear in mind potential crisis scenarios", Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at an energy policy meeting.
Sri Lanka tightened import restrictions Wednesday with a ban on more than 300 additional items, as an economic crisis that has created months of shortages and toppled a president refuses to abate.. The new bans come despite the central bank announcing last week that the foreign exchange shortage was easing thanks to better inflows.
"Shisha-abana," exclaims Bilal, a grocer in Mali's capital Bamako, in the national language Bambara: "Shisha is finished.". But it is also a secular nation that tolerates alcohol, even if consumption is limited to certain public places and most shops and restaurants do not serve it.
China's autumn harvest is under "severe threat" from high temperatures and drought, authorities have warned, urging action to protect crops in the face of the country's hottest summer on record.. "The rapid development of drought superimposed with high temperatures and heat damage has caused a severe threat to autumn crop production," the statement said.
Germany on Wednesday will inaugurate a railway line powered entirely by hydrogen, a "world first" and a major step forward for green train transport despite nagging supply challenges.. Europe's enduring reliance on gas from Russia amid massive tensions over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine poses major challenges for the development of hydrogen in rail transport.
China's autumn harvest is under "severe threat" from high temperatures and drought, authorities have warned, urging action to protect crops in the face of the country's hottest summer on record.. "The rapid development of drought superimposed with high temperatures and heat damage has caused a severe threat to autumn crop production," the statement said.
