According to a new study, many African nations struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic may find themselves defaulting on debt repayments, DW reports. Weak currencies, higher interest rates, and reduced oil prices could result in African governments losing an estimated US$45 billion in revenue this year alone, the study found.
As governments around the world battle the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a further grim forecast, predicting a 4.9% contraction in global GDP (gross domestic product) for 2020, a lower figure than the 3% forecast in April, CNBC reports. The IMF also downgraded its GDP prediction for 2021, lowering it to 5.4% from the 5.8% forecast in April.
A massive cloud of Saharan dust darkened much of Cuba on Wednesday and began to affect air quality in Florida, sparking warnings to people with respiratory illnesses to stay home.
Legislators in the South Carolina state city of Charleston voted Tuesday unanimously to remove a statue of former vice president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun from a downtown square, amid widening anti-racism protests.
Hope but also frustration and uncertainty marked the world’s efforts Sunday to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Turkey and Libya’s internationally recognized government are discussing possible Turkish use of two military bases in the North African country, a Turkish source said on June 15, with a view to a lasting Turkish presence in the south Mediterranean.
Thousands of Christians in Nigeria have been murdered by Muslim militants in recent years, and now a UK parliamentary report has warned of an “unfolding genocide” in the African state, Christian Today reports. The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG-FoRB) said in its report that armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen have caused “untold human and economic devastation” for Christian farming communities.
While much of the world focuses on the coronavirus pandemic, many migrants continue to die in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to reach Europe. In the latest incident, authorities say that the bodies of 46 people have been recovered off the coast of Tunisia. The tragedy happened after their boat capsized near the city of Sfax at the weekend.
Russia is reportedly stepping up its involvement in the Libyan civil war, which has in recent years has become a heated proxy conflict drawing in numerous foreign players, driven by a range of motives.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern Wednesday about ongoing beheadings and other abuses of Christians and other faith groups in several nations.
The United States military confirmed Saturday that one of the terror group al-Qaida’s longest-serving commanders in Africa had been killed in Mali during an operation led by France.
Popular Christian author Max Lucado took part in a prayer vigil in Texas Wednesday night amid the societal unrest in response to the killing of African American George Floyd.
Amid nationwide waves of extreme violence and looting that erupted following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, 77-year-old retired African American Police Captain David Dorn was fatally shot while checking on Lee’s Pawn Shop and Jewelry, a business that belonged to a friend of his, CBN reported. No arrests have been made.
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, reports that Bible translators and their families in remote and poverty-stricken areas are facing starvation due to food shortages resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thousands of demonstrators ignored social distancing rules across Europe on Wednesday to protest against police violence and racial injustice.
As the Democratic Republic of the Congo neared declaring an Ebola outbreak in its eastern provinces over, health officials on Monday announced a new cluster has emerged on the other side of the African nation.
Tony Dungy, the first African American coach to win the NFL Super Bowl, said Saturday that healing for a deeply divided US “has to start with those of us who claim to be Christian.” In a Twitter post about the police killing of George Floyd and the widespread protests and rioting that followed, Dungy said Christians “can’t be silent.” Most important, Dungy said, is for Christians to follow the Apostle Paul in his exhortation: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Global outrage over the unarmed black man who died in U.S. police custody last week spread to the streets of Paris Tuesday where protesters clashed with riot police.
Heavily armed suspected Islamic jihadists on motorcycles targeted mainly Christian Dogon farming villages in central Mali, killing at least 27 people, aid workers said Tuesday.
The governors of 23 American states and the District of Columbia have activated 17,000 National Guard soldiers to help manage ongoing rioting in cities across the country, the Washington Examiner reported Monday. The US has been devastated by extreme – including deadly – violence, looting, and destruction of property since unarmed African American George Floyd was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25.