Global

Cloudflare outage briefly knocked a host of websites and monitoring tools offline Tuesday morning, including DownDetector, the real-time service that tracks online outages, the company said. Cloudflare said shortly after 9 a.m. that it "is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs (application programming interfaces)." The company said minutes later it had implemented a potential fix and was monitoring results, but multiple sites and platforms nevertheless experienced interruptions. DownDetector —…

LUANDA, Angola — European leaders descended on Luanda this week for the EU-African Union summit with a clear, urgent goal: secure access to Africa’s critical minerals and shore up fragile supply chains as global geopolitical tensions rise. "Africa and Europe are partners of choice, bound by common interests and priorities and shared values," EU Council President António Costa wrote on social media as the summit began. "In a turbulent world, our commitment to build a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future — and to…

UNAIDS Warns of Deteriorating HIV Services Amid Funding Crisis Abrupt funding cuts and deteriorating human rights conditions have disrupted HIV prevention and treatment services across dozens of countries, UNAIDS has warned. In a stark report released to mark World AIDS Day, the UN agency highlighted a troubling trend: international assistance for HIV programs has sharply declined, with projections indicating that external health funding could plummet by 30-40% by 2025 compared to 2023 levels. The agency's Executive…

MOGADISHU — Somalia has acceded to the Convention on the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO), a step the federal government says will upgrade the country’s maritime safety, search-and-rescue capacity and technological integration across its busy coastline. Ports and Marine Transport Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nor deposited Somalia’s instrument of accession during a meeting with International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez on the sidelines of the IMO Assembly’s 34th regular…

Somali Teacher’s Day is a moment to honor lecturers whose reach stretches far beyond classrooms — educators who guide, inspire and shape generations. For me, this year carries a deeply personal weight: it marks 10 years since I first stood at a chalkboard and began the work that would define my voice, my discipline and my purpose. My path into education began as a teenage girl helping young learners and unfolded across primary schools, secondary schools, universities and, eventually, a graduate program in Japan. A decade…

Negotiations at the U.N. COP30 climate summit in Belém intensified Thursday as countries clashed over how explicitly the final text should require a phaseout of fossil fuels, even as a surge of delegations pushed for a roadmap and Brazil’s president flew in to press for an early deal. Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and a member of the Elders, said the summit has “momentum and energy” but warned a firm decision has not yet been reached. Robinson noted about 85 countries, including Ireland, have joined a coalition…

UN Warns of Growing Terrorism Threat in the Sahel In a stark warning to the international community, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has highlighted the urgent need for a consolidated global response to the rising tide of terrorism in the Sahel region of Africa. With terrorism accounting for nearly 19% of global attacks and over half of related casualties occurring in this area, Guterres emphasized that the proliferation of terrorist groups is not merely a regional issue but a pressing global concern. A Call for…

G20 in Johannesburg: A test of multilateralism as Africa’s priorities meet fracturing diplomacy The historic 2025 G20 Summit in Johannesburg (November 22–23) arrives with symbolic weight — the first time the grouping meets on African soil — and with urgent expectations. Under South Africa’s presidency theme, “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability,” hosts have signalled a push to center issues that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries: debt sustainability, climate finance, and rising inequality. Yet the…

Overview: Global emissions climb as 1.5C window narrows The latest Global Carbon Budget warns that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is poised to reach a fresh peak in 2025, and that the remaining CO2 allowance to keep warming below 1.5C is vanishing fast. Scientists say current levels of emissions make meeting the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious goal effectively out of reach without unprecedented rapid action. Fossil CO2 emissions are projected to be about 1.1% higher in 2025 than in 2024, despite rapid deployment of…

‘Bloodstains from space’: El-Fasher exposes the world’s capacity to watch — and not act When United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk told delegates in Geneva that "bloodstains on the ground in El-Fasher have been photographed from space," he was describing more than a grisly image. He was pointing to a painful paradox of modern conflict: the ability of cameras and satellites to record horrors in near real time, and the chronic inability of the international system to do much about them. Türk’s blunt address to the UN…