In late 2025, the United States shocked the world by suspending global health aid, leading experts to predict 700,000 additional deaths annually, primarily among children. This prompted the US to propose unusual bilateral health agreements with developing countries, which have drawn criticism for being exploitative.
"The specific barrier is capital," says Lisa George, global head of the Macquarie Group Foundation. "Without access to capital, it's very hard to get social mobility and educational mobility in life."
The avocado seedlings enabled him to grow his farm income to close to 2m Kenyan shillings, with each mature avocado tree yielding 70kg annually. Improving farming methods and conserving the watershed has helped me to feed and educate my six children.
The inaugural edition is organized around the central theme "Shifting the Center: From Fragility to Resilience," reclaiming African architecture's place as a site of spatial intelligence and cultural memory.
Multinational firms are under rising pressure-from investors, regulators, and employees-to demonstrate positive societal impact in the places where they do business. With ESG-focused institutional investments projected to reach nearly $34 trillion this year and roughly 90% of large U.S. companies now disclosing ESG reports, these pressures are now a central part of corporate strategy.
We are told that the country is rich in oil. But I don't see that wealth in my daily life. Look at Pointe-Noire, formerly nicknamed as Ponton la Belle [Beautiful Pointe-Noire]. Today, the city is unrecognisable. Around the Grand Marche, the main roads are potholed, and when it rains, the streets get flooded, making it almost impossible to drive.
Several Nigerian financial institutions are significantly expanding their UK presence, with the banking sector expected to be a major driver of new employment. Zenith Bank has opened a new branch in Manchester, creating up to 30 direct jobs and providing a boost to the North West economy. The bank is also exploring a potential listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2027 as it seeks to deepen its presence in British financial markets and strengthen investment flows between the UK and Africa.
Moses Chrispus Okello, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, states that there is a high risk of escalation in Somaliland, where Israel and the UAE have interests. He emphasizes that tensions could also rise in neighboring Djibouti, where the US and other powers are active.
Shortages of medicine in Botswana forced me to declare a public health emergency last year. Patients went without treatment not because health workers failed them, but because the system did. For a nation committed to universal healthcare, free at the point of use, it was a moment of hard truth. Even outwardly strong public health systems can be fragile. As donor assistance bites across the continent, governments cannot afford to delay building resilience.
Just one month after raising $11.75 million in a round led by Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, African defensetech Terra Industries announced that it's raised an additional $22 million in funding, led by Lux Capital. Nathan Nwachuku, 22, and Maxwell Maduka, 24, launched Terra Industries in 2024 to design infrastructure and autonomous systems to help African nations monitor and respond to threats.
Across this week's broader architecture news landscape, a central theme emerges around the advancement of civic architecture conceived as open, publicly engaged infrastructure, with cultural and institutional projects increasingly designed to strengthen their relationship with the city and everyday urban life. At the same time, renewed global attention turns toward Africa, where large-scale transport infrastructure and the conservation of modernist landmarks reflect interests in the region and the reassessment of the continent's architectural heritage.
Deere & Co. ( NYSE: DE) ranks sixth for its positioning in India's agricultural mechanization drive, where significant productivity gaps represent a substantial equipment opportunity. Deere reported Q4 2025 revenue of $12.39 billion, up 14% year-over-year. Its Construction & Forestry segment surged 27% to $3.38 billion, demonstrating strength in infrastructure-related markets. CEO John May stated, "We believe 2026 will mark the bottom of the large ag cycle," positioning the company for recovery as emerging markets drive demand.
Expanding your startup into Africa is one of the most ambitious and potentially rewarding moves you can make as a founder. With a rapidly digitalising economy and a booming young population, the continent offers a growth trajectory that is hard to find elsewhere. However, as you begin to scale, you will quickly realise that the financial landscape is not a monolith. Navigating 54 different countries means managing dozens of volatile currencies and banking systems.
There is little doubt that this is what African countries need if they are serious about universal health coverage - ensuring that every member of their populations has access to this fundamental human right. But such an approach has never been implemented in Africa. Some of the reasons for this are outlined in a report on health financing by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the continent's public-health agency based in Addis Ababa, published last week (see go.nature.com/3o9wxfc).
Trump's historic cuts to foreign aid, his overhaul of US trade policy, and his sweeping changes to immigration admissions have all had an outsized impact on Africa, though he gave the continent only slight mention in his wider global agenda. Amid the upheaval, the Trump administration has sought to forge new, bilateral agreements with African countries, focused on resources and security gains.
For the first time in our history, more than 70% of Africans are under the age of 30. This, along with entrenched inequalities, poverty, unemployment and socioeconomic fault lines, is reshaping how our societies interact with one another and the world. This is Africa's most consequential decade. Leaders who take office over the next 10 years will have to deliver on difficult mandates within a political, economic and social landscape that has been fundamentally altered.
Bilateral ties between Egypt and Somalia continue to deepen. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi assured his Somali counterpart, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Sunday in Cairothat Egypt stands firmly behind "Somalia's unity and territorial integrity." On Wednesday, Cairo then followed up on an agreement from January 2025 and deployed 1,091 troops to Somalia's capital Mogadishu. The deployment of Egyptian forces to Somalia the first such deployment in their decades-old bilateral history marks a significant shift.
The 39th African Union (AU) summit is set to be dominated by pressing security concerns across Africa, as the continent continues to face escalating conflicts. However, there are mounting questions on whether the pan-African body can actually deliver on peace and security strategies: A study conducted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in 2023 revealed that a staggering 90% of the decisions made by the AU's Peace and Security Council (PSC) have not been implemented since the inception of the PSC in 2004.