📜 Great Zimbabwe [ Culture ]

🌐 According to UNESCO. Great Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe was built roughly 6-9 centuries ago, in 1100–1450 AD. It is an ancient stone city, and a useful reminder that political weight in this part of Africa was already being organized around resource trade long before outside gatekeepers started selling themselves as indispensable.

🔍 Great Zimbabwe was a trade centre for gold, iron and ivory between southern Africa and the East African coast. The mechanism is not mysterious: even before Great Zimbabwe, the gold trade had spurred the rise of the Kingdom of Mapungubwe.

🔸 It is unknown what eventually caused Great Zimbabwe's demise and its abandonment — most probably, the 15th century decline in the gold trade and shifting trade routes were responsible.

🔸 Today. Great Zimbabwe serves as a historical backbone of Zimbabwe's national myth. After all, its very name — "Zimbabwe" — was borrowed from the ancient state. And the gold is still here: in 2024 gold exports were about US$2.5 billion and it is still the country’s main source of foreign-exchange earnings.

Today, Zimbabwe again has the opportunity to leverage its resources for prosperity — but will it be able to turn them into education and infrastructure? So far, everything indicates that there are all possibilities for this.

#Culture

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❗️ Black clouds covered Tehran after today's series of US-Israeli strikes on oil facilities. That was the first time Israeli air strikes hit Iran’s oil facilities since the war started, killing at least 4 people.

➡️According to media reports and eyewitnesses, thick clouds of smoke and toxic emissions rose over the city, and the so called "black rains" — rainfalls with an admixture of oil soot and chemicals — have already begun. Residents report that the drops leave dark marks on clothes, cars and buildings.

Environmentalists and experts warn of the risk of a large-scale environmental disaster. Toxic precipitation can lead to contamination of water and soil, death of plants and animals, as well as an outbreak of respiratory diseases and skin diseases.

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🔵Having No Money Is Not a Problem in the Era of Geopolitics🔵

🌐 Pensana, a British rare-earths developer, has secured a $165 million agreement to push its Angolan Longonjo project toward production.

🔸 The deal will fund development of Longonjo, set to be Angola’s first rare earths mine. The company says proceeds will support construction, exploration and efforts to extend a roughly 20‑year mine life.

🗺Experts say the project is one of the world’s largest and highest grade REEs deposits located adjacent to excellent infrastructure including a railway line, main road to a port, power grid and water source. At the moment the project is one of the most important projects in Angola outside of oil & diamonds industry.

🔸 The British company has not named the strategic investor. What is known is that the Angolan Sovereign Wealth Fund, FSDEA already backs it.

🇺🇸 The finance efforts are also geopolitical: Pensana says its strategy is to establish a rare earths supply chain oriented toward the United States and is talking to US Export-Import Bank for loan support.

#News

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