UK moves to end early GCSE teaching in Year 7–9 shake-up
The UK government plans to stop secondary schools from routinely teaching the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) content before Year 10, as part of a curriculum overhaul aimed at making the first three years of secondary school more engaging.
DR Congo crisis deepens as president moves to sack government
A political crisis in the perennially restive Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) deepened on Monday as lawmakers trashed parliament after President Felix Tshisekedi moved to scrap the shaky ruling coalition. Tshisekedi’s government has been in tatters with MPs loyal to his powerful predecessor Joseph Kabila, who command more than 300 seats in the 500-member […]
Biden picks first Black Pentagon chief
Lloyd Austin, who led US troops into Baghdad in 2003 and rose to head the US Central Command, has been chosen by President-elect Joe Biden to be the first African-American secretary of defence, US media reported Monday. A veteran of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the retired four-star army general, 67, beat out the favourite […]
Drones, wars, genocide: Tainted legacy of Nobel Peace laureates
A “champion of peace” doesn’t normally threaten to show no mercy before carrying out an attack that sparks a humanitarian crisis. Yet Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is not the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to go to war. Officially, the guns in Tigray have been silenced: On November 28, Abiy, who won the 2019 […]
Iran dismisses Saudi call for inclusion in nuclear talks
Iran on Monday flatly dismissed a call by Saudi Arabia for Gulf states to be consulted on any potential negotiations with the Islamic republic on its nuclear programme. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan had on Saturday sought that the kingdom be “fully consulted” on “what goes on vis a vis the negotiations with […]
China calls for new talks with US after Biden win
China’s top diplomat on Monday called for the resumption of talks with the incoming US administration of president-elect Joe Biden, as relations between the world’s two largest economies continued to nosedive. Beijing and Washington have locked horns over issues from trade and China’s human rights record to its expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea. But […]
