South Africa's president calls Musk to calm Trump land row

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved to defuse a row with the new US administration over a new land law by speaking to Elon Musk.

Mr Musk is a close adviser to US President Donald Trump, who on Sunday threatened to cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and "treating certain classes of people very badly".

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🇨🇳🇺🇸Beijing hits back – can China and US avoid trade war escalation?

Beijing has made its decision. After days of warning of counter measures and urging Washington to enter negotiations and "meet China halfway", it has decided to hit back – or at least threaten to retaliate with its own tariffs.

China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the US from 10 February.

The date is important. It means there is still time for the world's two largest economies to step back from the brink of a trade war.

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🇺🇸🇲🇽US and Mexico reach deal to put tariffs on hold - for now

US President Donald Trump has delayed introducing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico for a month while the two countries hold "negotiations".

Trump said he would "immediately pause the anticipated tariffs", which were due to come into force on Tuesday.

The last-minute breakthrough came after a phone call between Trump and President Claudia Sheinbaum, in which the Mexican leader agreed to send 10,000 members of the National Guard to the US-Mexican border to "prevent the trafficking of drugs, in particular fentanyl, from Mexico to the US".

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🇲🇼Malawi president orders troops to withdraw from DR Congo

Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera has ordered the military to begin preparing to withdraw from their peacekeeping mission in the volatile eastern Democratic of Congo.

The Malawian troops are part of the southern African regional bloc's military mission (SAMIDRC) deployed to DR Congo to help tackle armed groups.

At least 20 peacekeepers, including 14 South Africans and three Malawians, were killed as the M23 rebels captured the key city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, last week.

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🇦🇺Mandatory jail for Nazi salutes under new Australia laws

Hate symbols and terror offences will be punishable with mandatory jail terms ranging from one to six years in Australia, after lawmakers passed a series of amendments to hate crime laws on Thursday.

The new laws were passed on Thursday amid a wave of high profile antisemitic attacks which have become a heated topic of debate in the country.

The amendments have been described by officials as the "toughest laws Australia has ever had against hate crimes".

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🇵🇦🇺🇸Panama denies US claims over free canal passages

Panama has denied making changes to allow US government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free, following White House claims it had agreed to such a move.

The State Department said in a statement on X that its government vessels "can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year".

Responding to the comments, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said it was "empowered to set tolls and other fees for transiting the canal," adding that it had "not made any adjustments to them".

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🇧🇩Protesters torch ex-Bangladesh PM's home

Protesters in Bangladesh have vandalised and set fire to the former family home of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, as well as those of other members of her party.

The unrest was sparked by news that Hasina would address the country via social media from India, where she has been in exile since student-led protests ousted her last year.

Hasina, who had ruled the country for 20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.

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🇺🇸Trump signs order banning transgender women from female sports

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.

The order provides guidance, regulations and legal interpretations, and it will enlist the Department of Education to investigate high schools thought to be non-compliant.

Republicans say it restores fairness to sports but LGBT advocacy and human rights organisations have described the move as discriminatory.

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🇺🇸🇿🇦Trump signs order freezing aid to South Africa over land law

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order freezing financial aid to South Africa, after threatening to do so earlier this week.

Trump said he was bringing in the order because of South Africa's new land law, which he says is violating people's rights, and also because of its international court case accusing Israel of genocide.

It escalates a dispute between the two countries nearly a week after Trump threatened to cut funding without citing evidence, that "South Africa is confiscating land" and "certain classes of people" were being treated "very badly".

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🇺🇸🇨🇳Trump suspends tariffs on small packages from China

US President Donald Trump has suspended tariffs on small packages from China, after his sudden order ending duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than $800 (£645) left the US postal service and other agencies scrambling to comply.

The postal service temporarily stopped accepting packages from China as a result of the order, only to reverse course a day later.

The chaos left many in the US wondering about the fate of packages ordered from companies such as Shein and Temu, which had used the exemption for low-value packages to expand rapidly in the US.

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🇸🇬Jailed Singapore ex-minister moved to house arrest

A former senior minister in Singapore's government, who was jailed following a high-profile trial last year, has been allowed to serve the remainder of his 12-month sentence from home.

Subramaniam Iswaran was imprisoned on 7 October after he pleaded guilty to accepting gifts worth more than S$403,000 ($300,000; £240,000) while in office, as well as obstructing the course of justice.

Iswaran's case gripped Singapore, where a corruption case involving a public official is rare. The island nation that serves as South East Asia's financial hub prides itself with its squeaky clean image.

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🇳🇦First president of Namibia dies aged 95

The first president of independent Namibia, Sam Nujoma, has died at the age of 95 in the capital Windhoek, the country's current leader has announced.

Nujoma led the long fight for independence from South Africa in 1990 after helping found Namibia's liberation movement known as the South West Peoples' Organisation (Swapo) in the 1960s.

After independence, Nujoma became president in 1990 and led the country until 2005.

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🇺🇸Judge blocks Musk team access to Treasury Department records

A federal judge has blocked Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans in Treasury Department records, according to court documents.

US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction on Saturday to prohibit access, ordering Musk and his team to immediately destroy any copies of records.

The move comes after 19 state attorneys general sued the Trump administration after Doge, a cost-cutting initiative led by Musk, was given access to the records.

They argued access for Musk, a "special government employee", and Doge, which is not an official government department, violated federal law.

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🇨🇩African summit urges immediate DR Congo ceasefire

Leaders from east and southern Africa have called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the deadly fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At a crisis summit in Tanzania, the Southern African Development Community and East African Community (EAC) blocs urged all warring parties to hold peace talks within five days, including with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

The rebels - fighting government forces - have seized vast swathes of land in the eastern DR Congo, including the city of Goma. Their push towards Bukavu has raised fears of a wider regional war.

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🇺🇸Trump administration to cut billions from overheads in biomedical research

President Donald Trump's administration has announced it will slash billions of dollars from overheads in grants for biomedical research as a part of broader cost-saving measures, a move some scientists say will stifle scientific advancements.

In a statement on Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would cut grants for "indirect costs" related to research - such as buildings, utilities and equipment.

"The United States should have the best medical research in the world," NIH said in its announcement. "It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead."

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🇸🇩Sudan army plans new government as it advances in capital

The Sudanese military has called for diplomatic support for a new government that it says it wants to form after it recaptures the capital, Khartoum, from rival forces.

The Sudanese army has been regaining control of areas in the city previously held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in recent weeks.

Army leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told a meeting of politicians who back the army over the weekend that he would form a "technocratic" wartime government with a prime minister.

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🇪🇨Ecuador election ends in a 'tie' prompting run-off

Ecuador's presidential election will go to a second round after a closely contested first-round result failed to produce an outright winner.

The electoral authorities called it a "technical tie" after the incumbent centre-right Daniel Noboa and his main left-wing challenger Luisa Gonzalez received nearly identical percentages of the vote.

The pair will now face a run-off in April.

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🇺🇸Trump wants to end birthright citizenship.

President Donald Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship in the US has sparked several legal challenges and some anxiety among immigrant families.

For nearly 160 years, the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution has established the principle that anyone born in the country is a US citizen.

But as part of his crackdown on migrant numbers, Trump is seeking to deny citizenship to children of migrants who are either in the country illegally or on temporary visas.

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🇷🇴Romania president resigns after impeachment pressure over cancelled vote

Romania's President Klaus Iohannis has resigned, a day before he faced an impeachment vote sparked by the cancellation of the country's presidential election last year.

Opponents had been pushing to suspend him over his decision to remain in office until a new vote in May.

Romania's top court in December controversially annulled the election because of Russian state meddling allegations Iohannis had helped raise.

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🇳🇿New Zealand and Cook Islands fall out over China deal

New Zealand has accused the Cook Islands government of a lack of transparency over its plans to strike a partnership deal with China.

The tiny Pacific Island nation's leader, Mark Brown, is this week making his country's first ever state visit to Beijing in order to sign the agreement.

However, New Zealand says it was not properly consulted over the plans, leading to what Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has described as a "dispute".

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🇺🇸Trump says no exemptions with metal tariffs to start in March

President Donald Trump has ordered a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering the US in a major expansion of existing trade barriers.

The tariffs, which will increase the costs of importing the metals into the US, come despite warnings of retaliation from some political leaders in Canada - America's biggest supplier of the metals - as well as other countries.

US businesses dependent on the imports have also raised concerns, but Trump has said his plans will boost domestic production.

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