NEWS ANALYSIS

Paris, France | AFP | Facing the biggest test of his presidency, President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday launched a series of public forums inviting voters to express their concerns and hopes after two months of anti-government protests. Here’s how the government plans to carry out its “Great National Debate”, aimed …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  The Al-Shabaab, meaning “youth” in Arabic, is fighting an armed insurrection in Somalia, which has been mired in chaos since 1991. Here is some background on the Islamist group with links to Al-Qaeda. – Al-Qaeda links – The Shabaab stem from Somalia’s Islamic Courts that …

  Berlin, Germany | AFP | Dismissed by some as a mini-Angela Merkel, the new leader of Germany’s centre-right CDU party and likely next chancellor has marked the turn of the year by underlining a change in tone from her mentor. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, known in Germany as AKK after her …

  The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | As prosecutors failed to land the scalp of yet another former national leader accused of crimes against humanity, the question echoed in the hallways of the International Criminal Court: is it fit for purpose? The acquittal on Tuesday of former Ivory Coast president …

Washington, United States | AFP | Explosive allegations that US President Donald Trump concealed conversations with Russia have thrown an unwelcome spotlight on interpreters, whose quick wit is vital to diplomacy and who stay scrupulously in the shadows. Interpreters, whether they are working at high-stakes international summits or in low-level …

Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Since independence in 1960, Gabon has had only three presidents including a father and son from the Bongo family who between them have held power for more than five decades. Here are highlights in the history of the small central African country. – Leon M’Ba to Omar Bongo – Gabon …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | In Nigeria, where religious and ethnic identity often determines support for a candidate, Mudi Bawa might well have been expected to vote for Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. Both are northern Muslims. But the fisherman had another reason to choose Buhari: the hope he could help him return to the home …

COMMENT |  Kristof Titeca | Uganda is a very different country today than it was when President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, not only in terms of development but also in terms of population. Uganda has the world’s second youngest population, seventy-eight percent of whom are under 30 years old. …

Detroit, United States | AFP | A persistent question shadowed all of the shiny new vehicles and highly-produced, glitzy debuts at the Detroit auto show this week: Where are the sedans? Volkswagen was among the few to trumpet a new sedan — those compact and mid-sized cars that shuttled generations …

Paris, France | AFP | In a world where climate change, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, ozone depletion, and other environmental problems overlap, a fix in one arena can cause trouble in another. Here are a few examples of what might be called Earth’s “zero-sum” dilemma in …