Monday, November 2, 2026
Sunday, November 1, 2026
"Africa suffering in 'strongmen' era" - Mo Ibrahim
LONDON, England
Democracy and rights are declining in Africa as leaders take their cues from the rise of strongmen in other parts of the world, the head of a governance monitor told press in London.
Mo Ibrahim, 80, is a Sudanese-British billionaire who made a fortune in telecoms and ploughed it into monitoring and encouraging better governance across Africa.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation's latest report, finds broad progress on economic opportunity and human development over the past decade, but also steep declines in security, human rights and public participation at a time when Africa has suffered multiple military coups and devastating wars.
Ibrahim highlighted elections over the past year in Tanzania, where security forces were accused of killing thousands of protesters, and Uganda, where opposition leader Bobi Wine was "hunted and physically attacked".
"It's just disgraceful," said Ibrahim.
The index found that 30 countries, home to half of Africa's population, had better overall governance scores in 2025 than in 2016 - thanks largely to improved economies -- but 23 countries deteriorated and one was unchanged.
Ibrahim blames declining rights in Africa partly on the decline of liberal democracy around the world - from the United States to Europe and Russia.
"It is a strange era... we can see this phenomenon of the rise of strongmen everywhere," he said.
"If you're an African leader and you see all those strong people rising everywhere...you say, why not me too? I can get away with it," he added.
He highlighted the Trump administration's switch to a more "transactional kind of diplomacy", saying it was "weakening the international order and the rule of law".
The report shows sharp declines among some of the continent's largest countries, often linked to reduced political rights.
Seven of the 10 countries with the biggest declines experienced at least one coup over the decade, including Burkina Faso, which recorded the largest deterioration, while Nigeria, Sudan and Tunisia were also among the worst performers.
The continent faces fresh challenges in the coming years, not least in the wake of Washington's decision last year to suddenly terminate USAID - ending billions of dollars of support to African countries - which Ibrahim described as "brutal".
"Of course, it is a prerogative of US to give aid or not," he said. "But please give notice."
Africa has proved fairly resilient so far to the cuts, and it has forced the continent "to face reality".
"We need to depend more on ourselves. And we need to work with all partners who are willing to work with Africa, whether it is Europe, whether China or India or whoever," said Ibrahim.
His hope lies, as always, in the continent's huge youth population. Already 60 percent of Africans are under 25, and by 2050 one in three young people worldwide will be African.
"They are much better informed, much better educated than the past generation," said Ibrahim. "We wasted Africa, our generation, I must admit that. We really wasted some opportunities."
Arsenal eked out a first victory at Anfield for 14 years
LIVERPOOL, England
Arsenal took advantage of Manchester City's defeat by Brighton as they edged a thrilling encounter at Liverpool to move three points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Back-to-back losses for City handed the Gunners the opportunity to seize control of the title race, but they faced a difficult task against a rapidly improving Reds.
They broke the deadlock in the 16th minute when Declan Rice's ball across the face of goal was turned in by Kai Havertz at the back post.
But after that Arsenal had to withstand wave after wave of Liverpool attacks for the rest of the first half as the home side looked to get back level.
David Raya just got to Virgil van Dijk's flick-on when Alexander Isak was set to pounce and the Reds had two penalty claims waved away before Florian Wirtz crashed a free-kick against the crossbar.
Liverpool maintained their dominance early in the second half but Arsenal's defence had tightened up considerably and left very few opportunities for the Reds to exploit.
The introduction of Myles Lewis-Skelly saw Arsenal regain the momentum in the latter stages and only a brilliant one-handed save by Alisson prevented Christos Tzolis making it 2-0 with a fine first-time strike towards the far corner.
Ultimately, Havertz's early goal was enough for Arsenal to take all three points as they celebrated a first win at Liverpool in the Premier League since 2012.
The loss for Liverpool means they are fifth but nine points behind leaders Arsenal.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
Iranian envoys meet Qatari mediators as threat looms of US strikes after midterms
DUBAI/ATLANTA
Iranian negotiators held talks in Doha with Qatari mediators on Saturday to discuss paths out of war in the Gulf, a source who was briefed on the negotiations told Reuters, as diplomats try to avert new fighting after the US midterm elections this week.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that President Donald Trump has not decided whether to launch new strikes against Iran, but would prefer to resolve the conflict diplomatically.
Trump has held off on strikes on Iran in recent weeks ahead of midterm elections that will determine whether his Republican Party will retain its thin majorities in both houses of the US Congress.
Saturday’s talks in the Qatari capital followed more than 12 hours of discussions on Friday between Iranian and Qatari envoys in Tehran, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source said the talks were being coordinated in regular contacts with Washington.
Countries in the region have been anticipating that Trump could restart attacks once the voting is over. Iran has repeatedly said it would respond to any new attacks by striking at US and Israeli targets in neighboring countries.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued a statement on Saturday ordering the armed forces to be prepared to respond to any attacks. The Iranian military later announced it was taking steps to improve its readiness.
“Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” Khamenei said on Saturday in the statement posted on his official Telegram account. He has not appeared in public since replacing his father, who was slain at the war’s outset.
Khamenei said senior commanders had reported high readiness along the Gulf coast, in and around the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman, and on Iran’s northwestern and southeastern borders.
Iran’s influential security chief Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran was debating whether to lift its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons should hostilities resume, although he said no such decision had been taken. There could be no talks on Iran’s nuclear program unless Washington accepted Iran’s demands, he added.
Rubio, hosting foreign ministers of the G20 major economies in Atlanta, declined to set a timeframe for the talks in Qatar, but said direct and indirect contacts with Iran were under way.
“There are multiple talks. Talks have actually never stopped,” he said.
Trump would “prefer to solve it diplomatically. But I think what the president expresses to you is incredible confidence that if we needed to do something militarily, we would have the ability to do it,” Rubio said.
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