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Africa
Malawi soldiers part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) military mission for eastern Congo, wait for the ceremony to repatriate the two bodies of South African soldiers killed in the ongoing war between M23 rebels and the Congolese army in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo February 20, 2024.
Fighters from the M23 rebel group in northeastern Congo have been targeting civilians in violation of a July ceasefire agreement, according to the Southern African Development Community, whose peacekeeping mandate there will expire on Dec. 15.
Background: For two years now, M23 forces backed by neighboring Rwanda have been fighting to establish control over mineral rich provinces in the region. The conflict has so far displaced at least 7 million people, and killed unknown thousands.
The SADC forces haven’t been able to push back the M23, but have at least managed to hold on to the key city of Goma, where hundreds of thousands of refugees are sheltering. Leaders from SADC countries are meeting in Zimbabwe on Thursday to discuss extending the mission, but should they fail to agree, M23 will have the upper hand.
UN Peacekeepers in the region are widely scorned by locals for their inability to keep ordinary people safe, while the DRC’s own army is poorly trained and deeply corrupt. Without SADC troops, Goma will likely fall, and Rwanda’s proxies will consolidate their hold on the region.
What does the Trump administration mean for the DRC? President Félix Tshisekedi has expressed excitement about working with Trump to deepen US-DRC relations, amid hopes the US will provide greater resources to help stabilize the country. However, what scant attention Trump gave to Congo on the campaign trail was overwhelmingly negative: Axios found that he cited Congolese migrants as criminals at least 29 times between Sept. 2023 and Oct. 2024, and accused the DRC of emptying prisons to send violent criminals to the US.
Hard Numbers: Russia’s oil slump, South Africa mine rescue, Somaliland opposition wins election, Japan buys out workers
Oil tanker SCF Primorye, owned by Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot, transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey, April 29, 2024.
3.28 million: Russian exports of crude oil fell to an average of 3.28 million barrels per day in the four weeks leading up to Nov. 17, with shipments from western ports mostly serving Turkey and India falling by nearly 30%. Russia has been trying to restrict flows of oil in coordination with OPEC standards to buoy prices and has pledged further production cuts between March and September of next year.
350: South African authorities are mulling whether to try rescuing at least 350 illegal miners who are hiding in underground shafts at the Stilfontein mine to the southwest of Johannesburg. The miners have remained underground to avoid arrest amid a crackdown on artisanal mining, which is often controlled by gangs. A court order on Monday instructed police to allow those within the mine to leave. Locals say there may be as many as 4,000 miners in the shaft, and authorities are not sure it is safe to send a mission. Some miners have emerged looking frail and malnourished.
63.92: The opposition leader of Somaliland, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahu — better known as “Irro” — won the presidency of the quasi-independent state with 63.92% of the vote, a clear mandate over incumbent Muse Bihi. Irro is promising to boost economic opportunities in Somaliland, especially for women, and hopes to persuade incoming US President Donald Trump to recognize his government independently of Somalia.
9,219: Over four dozen of Japan’s largest companies have paid out 9,219 employees with early retirement and voluntary severance in 2024, roughly triple last year’s numbers. Japanese corporations are historically very reluctant to fire workers, but the yen’s weakness and sluggish growth are forcing companies to streamline with buyouts.
How worried should we be about falling birth rates around the world? For years, experts have been sounding the alarm about overpopulation and the strain on global resources, so why is population decline necessarily a bad thing? On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, demographic expert Jennifer Sciubba, President & CEO of the Population Reference Bureau, warns governments are “decades behind” in preparing for a future that’s certain to come: one where the global population starts decreasing and societies, on average, are much older.
Sciubba says that government policies are too focused on trying to get people to have more babies instead of adjusting their social and economic systems for an aging, smaller population. “If we're thinking geopolitically, who's likely to come out on top,” Sciubba predicts, “It'll be the countries who realize the fastest that they're not going to reverse these population trends and they instead build to deal with it.”
Watch full episode: Why the world is facing a population crisis
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
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How worried should we be about population collapse? Two-thirds of the people on Earth live in countries with fertility rates below replacement levels of 2.1 children per woman. Experts warn the global population will start falling within 60 years, dramatically impacting the future of work and social security. In the US, Vice President-Elect JD Vance has repeatedly expressed alarm over falling birth rates. Elon Musk has called population decline “a much bigger risk” to civilization than global warming. Places like Japan and Italy are already grappling with shrinking workforces, skyrocketing retirement costs, and healthcare systems stretched to their limits. So, we are heading toward demographic catastrophe, and can governments do anything about it? On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sits with Jennifer Sciubba, president and CEO of the Population Reference Bureau, to discuss population decline, the global fertility crisis, and why now is the time to reorient our economic and social welfare systems for an aging future.
“The governments that do not adjust their systems to deal with what you actually have, which is an aging smaller population in the future,” Sciubba warns, “They will have a problem."
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Senegal's Presidential Bassirou Diomaye Faye casts his ballot during the early legislative election, at a polling station in Ndiaganiao, Mbour, Senegal on Nov. 17, 2024.
Back in March, Faye secured 54% of the vote in the presidential election, making him Africa’s youngest elected leader at the age of 44. His victory came less than two weeks after being released from prison. Both Faye and his mentor Ousmane Sonko had been jailed onpolitically motivated charges, spurring months of protests in which dozens of people were killed and about 1,000 people were incarcerated.
Faye now faces the Takku Wallu opposition party led by former President Macky Sall, as well as 39 other registered parties and coalitions. Analysts expect Faye’s party, PASTEF, to secure the 83 seats required for a parliamentary majority. Faye and Sonko campaigned on a left-wing pan-African vision, promising to diversify partnerships and reassess hydrocarbon and fishing deals. He will also have to tackle a debt crisis, as a $1.9 billion IMF program is on hold pending a government audit.
Provisional results are expected Monday morning, with a final count to be published later in the week.
Displaced Sudanese women prepare tea at a Medecin Sans Frontiere hospital at Golo, west Darfur, in October.
242,000,000: Russia’s state-owned Gazprom is cutting off natural gas supplies to Austria. The move comes in response to Austrian oil company OMV’s announcement that it would stop paying for the gas to offset a $242 million arbitration award it won due to an earlier energy cut-off to its German subsidiary. Gazprom responded that it would halt gas delivery starting on Saturday. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer reassured citizens the country has enough gas reserves to last the winter.
70: Israeli airstrikes reportedly killed 70 people in northern Gaza early Sunday, and dozens more remained trapped in the rubble. This coincides with comments by Pope Francis suggesting that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “has the characteristics of a genocide.” The comments were included in excerpts from an upcoming book published on Sunday.
60,000,000: If you tuned in for the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Friday, you had lots of company. Netflix says a “record-breaking” 60 million households watched Iron Mike’s first fight in nearly 20 years. While Paul beat Tyson, neither boxer was knocked out, and they both made a killing: Paul is expected to have raked in around $40 million to Tyson’s $20 million.
2,039: History was made in Scotland’s Stornoway, the largest town in the Hebrides, on Sunday. Despite 2,039 of the town’s roughly 7,000 residents signing an online petition against a local Tesco store opening on Sundays – critics wanted to “keep Sunday special” and shopping-free – the United Kingdom's largest grocer opened its doors to “allow customers more flexibility.”
Listen: The world is on the brink of one of the most fundamental demographic shifts in modern human history: populations are getting older, and birth rates are plummeting. By 2050, one in six people on Earth will be over 65, which will have a huge impact on the future of work, healthcare, and social security. On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Jennifer Sciubba, President & CEO of the Population Reference Bureau, to discuss declining fertility, the aging crisis, and why government efforts all over the world to get people to have more babies don’t seem to be working. Is a slow-moving crisis inevitable? What does all this mean for the future of immigration, women's rights, and global power? Most importantly, is it even possible to turn back the demographic clock, or is it time to start adapting to support the populations we already have?
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.
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