“Do you think the fact that the British and the Irish speak English,” scoffs a sceptical Tigrayan, “is enough to make them one country?” www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Can't disagree with Gavin Barwell. It's high time the right in this country cleaned house. They won't though, because this is what the right have become. The likes of Barwell are very much a minority.

Also in this week's issue of @economist.com, I look at how cybernationalism is booming in the Sahel, and particularly when it comes to one man: Africa's most viral leader, Ibrahim Traoré (by miles): www.economist.com/middle-east-...

"Numbers matter... Yet Michael Spagat of Royal Holloway University of London fears the continent is now on the cusp of a new 'data dark age'." My latest 👇 www.economist.com/middle-east-...

THREAD: this investigation took up over half my year, but it's here in @thecontinent.org: A Djiboutian drone strike in January was depicted as a army operation targeting rebels. It was actually a massacre of civilians. The bloodshed & coverup implicating Ethiopia, Djibouti, France & Turkiye. #OSINT

In many African armed conflicts, estimates of fatalities differ widely, including in #Sudan and regarding the war in Northern #Ethiopia 2020-22. While numbers matter, it is important not to present sometimes mere guesses at the same level as mortality studies. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Fantastic piece

I’ve been struck by how the British far right is using deepfake technology — less to deceive about specific events, more to tap into fascistic affects & desires. This is really frightening. My dispatch from grim corners of the Internet, for @lrb.co.uk online. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

What on Earth is this? An "in depth" BBC article about free speech in the UK that only cites examples of right-wing/ 'anti-woke' speech being suppressed. How can you mention Lucy Connolly but completely ignore Palestine Action / Just Stop Oil? Gob-smacking. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wikipedia is what the internet was meant to be and one of the few online places that hasn’t got worse. It’s a miracle

Reform are now coming after people with permanent residency. It'll be citizens next. No one is safe from authoritarian governments.

think if you're broadly a centrist and were suuuuuper concerned about attacks on free speech from the left and so you decided to give the right a hearing then you need to realise you were taken for QUITE the ride (and don't really have anyone to blame but yourself)

Obama weighs in on the firing of Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah

Official UN finding: #Israel has committed #genocide in the #Gaza Strip www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Can almost smell the Reichstag fire from thousands of miles away www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

“This project means the end of Ethiopia’s geopolitical insignificance,” Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, declared on September 1st. “I have nothing more to say than to thank the Creator.” www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Autocrats without borders -- my latest in this week's @economist.com, with reporting from Uganda. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

You know that classic Edward Hopper painting evoking isolation and despair? We used AI to make it look terrible for no reason

the shredding of international liberal order's legitimacy is because everyone knows the answer to @edwardluce.bsky.social thought experiment www.ft.com/content/6176...

In @economist.com this week I profiled Digitel, South Sudan's first locally-owned telecoms provider, in its bid to topple big multinational rivals in exceptionally challenging circumstances www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Earlier this month I travelled to Bosaso and Garowe in Puntland, the strongest of Somalia's five federal states, to report on the intense debate underway about one of the world's oldest state-building projects. (My photo from the road from Garowe to Bosaso) www.economist.com/middle-east-...

And here is this week's leader: on the risks Ruto poses to Kenya, its democracy, its economy and its fraying social contract t.co/0maJ0yXJkT

My latest—on how Ruto may do more damage to the Kenyan state, and underlying social contract, than any of his predecessors since the restoration of democracy in the 1990s 👇 www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Jaw-dropping reporting by Haaretz www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

What a picture from #Kenya 🇰🇪

My newsletter this week is on the march of Africa's Christian right, their allies in Washington, and why their political ascendance is unlikely to be brief flash in the pan 👇 view.e.economist.com?qs=8be6d9793...

Control of the so-called "triangle" between Libya, Egypt and Sudan could let the RSF threaten the Northern region, one of few parts of Sudan largely untouched by war. My latest on a war which is far from dying down 👇 www.economist.com/middle-east-...

When in Burkina Faso I met and interviewed the Pritzker-prize winning architect Francis Keré—the best known of a cohort of African architects whose ideas are at the profession’s cutting edge 👇 (I also toured his latest project: a memorial for Thomas Sankara) economist.com/culture/2025...

This week's piece is about a drone factory in Russia staffed primarily - and very strangely - by African women aged between 18 and 22. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

"The anarchy allows Abiy to divide & discredit his enemies, arguably strengthening his hand. But it also erodes the authority of the Ethiopian state, potentially threatening his grip on power. Abiy may see method in the madness. Ethiopians are paying the price." www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Africa’s Christian right sees itself as a plucky, righteous David struggling against a godless, liberal Goliath. That is wildly misleading today. Thanks to their ties to right-wingers in America, Christian conservatives in Africa now wield huge clout👇 www.economist.com/middle-east-...

📣 ANNOUNCING THE 2025 ESSAY PRIZE SHORTLIST 📣 TESSERAE by Phoebe Braithwaite MY GREAT NOVEL by Cassandre Greenberg ON REFUSAL by Sarai Kirshner CRAPES by Hana Loftus GULLY CRICKET by Abhinav Ullal SHOW US THE BODY by Claire Wilmot For more information: fitzcarraldoeditions.com/prizes/essay...

This week's piece is a short one on what an endangered Portuegese chapel in Malindi, on the Kenyan coast, reveals about the past--and future--of Catholicism in Africa: www.economist.com/middle-east-...

The drone attacks on Port #Sudan seem to have more lasting impact. The closure of oil exports, less than two weeks after they had been fully restored from #SouthSudan, threatens the political economy there further. The sea port is also not functional. sudantribune.com/article300736/

“No place is safe any more,” says Suliman Baldo of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, a conflict-monitoring group. A war that has forced 12m of Sudan’s 50m people from their homes and caused one of the world’s worst famines has shifted to the skies. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

And two recent pieces on the Wagner Group in Africa, starting with my review this week of two great new books on the mercenary outfit - one by @johnalechner.bsky.social, and the other by @jackmargolin.bsky.social www.economist.com/culture/2025...

"Nobody is quite sure how the ferry sank...Whatever the reason, the its husk still sits in the river near the city centre, a rusting symbol of the country’s disappointing trajectory since independence." My piece this week is about S Sudan's lost river trade 👇 www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Since facing workers' rights lawsuits in Kenya, #Meta moved its moderation operations to a secret new location. We found them, in Ghana, where conditions appear to be even worse. Our joint investigation from @tbij.bsky.social and @theguardian.com out today 👇

And The Guardian reports that lawyers and content moderators are preparing to sue Meta and its multinational contractor — the fourth case (following three in Kenya) against Meta in Africa: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Really important exposé revealing where Meta has shifted its content moderation work in Africa (Ghana); the appalling labour conditions there, and the astonishing extents the tech giant has gone to keep it all secret: www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

In 2022, backing Ukraine might have been a way to curry favour with the West. Few African govts thought it was worth it then. It is even harder to see why they would think it worthwhile now. My latest 👇 economist.com/middle-east-...

‘The politics of counting those killed in the war became so distasteful to the government that officials resorted to making dubious legal arguments against collecting data at all.’ Claire Wilmot on counting the civilians killed by British forces, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...

Chuffed to see that the brilliant @kopalo.bsky.social has reviewed my book, "The Abiy Project", in this latest issue of @foreignaffairs.com. He calls it "essential reading": www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/abiy...

Should be required reading for all policymakers engaged on the Horn of Africa, in particular #Sudan, as well as those persuing ever-deeper relations with the #UAE.

Last week I was in Djibouti, which is useful vantage point for looking at disorder in the Red Sea. This week my piece is about how competition for ports and bases is getting dangerously overheated. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

A profile of Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso’s military ruler, the world’s youngest head of state, and arguably Africa’s most popular leader (abroad, at least) economist.com/middle-east-...

Today, in a landmark judgement, Kenya's high court ruled that the country can hear a $2.3bn case against Meta which alleges that Facebook’s algorithms amplified hateful speech which directly led to real-world harm, including murder. My primer from Jan: www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Nearly two years after being forced out, the army is now in charge in Khartoum again. The question now is whether it decides to halt the war or expand it. My latest economist.com/middle-east-...

"De-escalation may be on the cards. The PM has held discreet talks in Addis with both Tigrayan factions and appears to have offered concessions to Debretsion." I think this is where we're at now. But what has been agreed is unclear + risks remain high. www.economist.com/middle-east-...