South Africa

Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Brics nations if they push for de-dollarisation and introduce a currency that could challenge the US dollar

President-elect Donald Trump's warning that BRICS countries will face 100 per cent tariffs if they choose to move away from the US dollar is unclear to what extent he will carry out his threat, as it remains to be seen if the US law permits such an action, former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said on Monday. He also said even for BRICS, there are internal differences about bringing out an alternative to the US Dollar. The nine-member group that includes India, Russia, China, and Brazil, moving out of the US currency and having a common one remains a non-starter because of both politics and economics. "Donald Trump has threatened to slap 100 per cent tariffs on imports from countries that try to move out of the dollar. His ire was particularly directed at the BRICS bloc which has been actively talking about developing an alternative to the dollar. Trump is known to bark more than he bites," Subbarao told PTI. BRICS, formed in 2009, is the only major international group of which the

India will provide South African parastatal electricity supplier Eskom with a Powerplant Control Room simulator to train locals in Eskom's plans to renew and repurpose its power stations across the country, an official has said. The announcement was made on Friday after representatives of a dozen Indian energy companies met Eskom executives on the sidelines of the Urja Matla Energy Conference. The conference was hosted by the Indian Consulate General and the Wits Business School. Harish Kumar, Commercial Representative and Head of Chancery at the Indian Consulate in Johannesburg, said at the meeting that India was ready to help Eskom in renovation and modernisation, equipping them with efficient systems through supercritical and ultra supercritical sets, emission control, and latest technologies in transmission and distribution. "Also, we would be willing to provide a simulator of Powerplant Control Room to train the local manpower of Eskom in the operation of power plants. This ..

Despite these setbacks, there has been some success in breeding, with 17 cubs born in India and 12 of them surviving, bringing the current cheetah population in Kuno, including cubs, to 24

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced stringent steps to control the increasing number of child deaths due to food poisoning from illegal pesticides across the country. Across the country, there has been a rise in reported cases of food-borne illnesses and deaths. A number of people are becoming severely ill and even dying after eating contaminated food. It has been found that some of the food items would have been purchased from spaza shops and street vendors, Ramaphosa said in a nationally televised address on Thursday. His address followed national outcries and attacks in townships on spaza shops by local residents. Spaza' shops are the name given to small, informal, mostly unlicensed shops, operated by foreign nationals in townships, largely by Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Somali and Ethiopian migrants. Some have been blamed for selling expired foods, with videos widely circulating of how brand name products were also faked by printing labels and packaging them with .

Trishna Ray, a KIIT University student, won the title of Miss Teen Universe 2024 in South Africa. Her institute shared a post about the news of her victory 'making Odisha and India proud'

India, as part of the Like-Minded Developing Countries bloc, stood firm in calling for equitable financial support from developed nations at the ongoing COP29 climate negotiations, multiple sources from the grouping said here. Concerns were also raised that nearly 69 per cent of reported finance came in the form of loans adding burdens on the already vulnerable countries. At the annual climate talks, India negotiates in key groupings such as the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs), G77 and China, and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China), where it aligns with other developing nations to advocate for climate finance, equity, and technology transfer. On Tuesday, G77 and China -- the largest bloc representing around 130 countries at the UN climate talks -- rejected the draft text of a framework for negotiating a new climate finance goal. The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) is the central issue at this year's climate summit, the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to

South Africa is setting its sights on increasing the number of Indian visitors from 16,000 to 100,000 by the end of the year

South Africa has launched an innovative new scheme to increase tourism, especially from India and China, inviting tour operators from those two countries to join their local counterparts in signing up to the scheme. Two months after Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, conceptualised the concept, his Department on Tuesday announced the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS), which is aimed at enhancing job creation that flows from increased tourism. This followed discussion with the tourism ministry and the tourism sector in the country to find ways of eliminating visa inefficiency and red tape which had throttled South Africa's ability to attract more tourists from these two burgeoning source markets. To resolve bottlenecks and reposition Home Affairs as an economic enabler, the Department has today gazetted a call for expression of interest by established tour operators from South Africa and abroad who wish to sign up to the scheme to bring more tourists from China and India

The South African legal team delivered a nearly 5,000-page document to the United Nations' top court on Monday, the latest step in a case the country brought accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The document, which the International Court of Justice will not make public until a later stage in the proceedings, puts forth the main case that Israel has a special intent to commit genocide, according to a statement from South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa. Israel has fiercely denied the allegations. The government called the case blood libel when South Africa launched the complaint in Dec. 2023. On Monday a court official at the ICJ confirmed that they had received the document. The filing takes place as the Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The U.N. said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant

ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) has rejected a 19-billion rand buyout offer by local firm Networth Investments. Networth had planned to transform the country's struggling steel industry with green technology and more profitable stainless-steel production based on models in India. Networth CEO Harold Vermaak told the daily Business Report that his company had put in an offer to buy out ArcelorMittal Group's 60 per cent shareholding in AMSA, and around 2 per cent of AMSA's shares held by other foreign investors, in a leveraged buyout. However, a spokesperson of ArcelorMittal told the daily, "the correspondence (it had received from Networth Investments) does not reflect a firm or a bona fide offer. There is, therefore, no offer to be considered". Vermaak said that the strategy was to convert AMSA over time so that it ceases to produce low-value-priced products, and rather produces higher value products such as stainless steel. He said he had planned to fund the proposed capital ..

Heritable human genome editing has long been hotly contested, in large part because of its societal and eugenic implications

Travelers from many Western nations including the US and UK don't need visas for short visits to South Africa. Tourists from India and China require authorization before they travel

Taiwan has again rejected South Africa's demand that it move its representative office in the country from the capital, Pretoria, to the commercial center of Johannesburg. Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jeff Liu said at a news conference on Tuesday that the demand to move or shut the office entirely violated a 1997 agreement between the sides on the location of their mutual representative offices following the severing of formal diplomatic relations. Facing this kind of unreasonable demand, our side cannot grant our acceptance, Liu said. South Africa maintains a liaison office in Taiwan's capital, Taipei, and the sides have a strong commercial relationship. Liu repeated Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung's avowal at the legislature on Monday that Taiwan was prepared for all eventualities over the issue. The office is Taiwanese property and Taipei retains the right to determine its location and status, Lin and Liu said. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory that must be

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on its BRICS partners to extend assistance in the industrialisation of the countries on the African continent. He said the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACTFA) has been unlocking massive opportunities for trade, investment and industrial growth and the continent seeks partnerships that would unlock the dynamism and potential of its 1.3 billion people. "The success of ACFTA requires a substantial investment in infrastructure. We, therefore, call on fellow BRICS countries to partner with us to build the roads, ports for imports and exports, rail, energy and telecommunications networks that will enable Africa to industrialise and trade with other countries across the world," Ramaphosa said at the BRICS Business Forum in the Russian city of Kazan. Making a plea to the grouping to extend support to women-owned and small businesses, he said, "Africa is home to a population that is young, digitally connected and increasingly ...

More than 140 people, including children, were killed and dozens were injured in Nigeria after an overturned gasoline tanker truck exploded in flames while they were trying to scoop up fuel pouring from the vehicle, emergency services said Wednesday. The accident occurred at midnight in Jigawa state's Majiya town when the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle while travelling on a highway, police spokesperson Lawan Adam said. Residents rushed to the scene and were scooping up fuel, sparking a massive inferno, he said. "Close to 140 people were put in a mass grave apart from people buried in other places," Nura Abdullahi, head of the National Emergency Management Agency in the region, told The Associated Press. Residents of Majiya were in mourning on Wednesday as they held a mass burial for the victims. Most of the bodies were unrecognizable, emergency services said. Deadly tanker accidents are common in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where traffic regulations are not

There is a huge potential for the members of the extended BRICS group to cooperate in ensuring energy security in their countries, South African Minister of Energy and Electricity Kgosientso Ramokgopa said at the 9th BRICS Energy Ministerial Meeting in Moscow earlier this week. "We believe that this BRICS group of like-minded country members has a huge potential and working together will strengthen this resolve through cooperation on energy security, and also provide an opportunity to join efforts to annihilate the challenges diagnosed during the BRICS 2023 Summit held in South Africa, such as addressing the lack or absence of an integrated energy policy framework," Ramokgopa said. The minister said this meeting came at "a critical phase where our countries are grappling with the challenge of balancing developmental goals with energy transition pathways". "We must ensure that these transitions safeguard energy sovereignty and security, promote sustainable economic development, ...

Seventeen people were killed in two mass shootings that took place in close proximity to each other in a rural town in South Africa, police said Saturday. A search was underway for the suspects, national police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe said in a statement. The victims were 15 women and two men, she said. One other person was in critical condition in the hospital. The shootings took place Friday night in the town of Lusikisiki in Eastern Cape province in southeastern South Africa. Video released by police showed that the shootings occurred at two houses in the same neighbourhood. Twelve women and a man were killed in one house and three women and a man were killed in the other house, police said.

During the meeting, the ministers urged collective action against all terrorist individuals and entities designated by the United Nations

A wildlife hospital was inaugurated in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the arrival of cheetahs at the Kuno National Park (KNP) as part of an ambitious reintroduction program. State Forest Minister Ramniwas Rawat inaugurated the hospital for cheetahs in Palpur area, constructed at a cost of Rs 2.29 crore. That 12 cheetah cubs were born on Indian soil over the last two years testifies to the project's success, claimed the minister, speaking at the function at Sesaipura village. However, the project has also seen setbacks with eight adult cheetahs and five cubs dying during the same period. All surviving cheetahs are currently in enclosures. The Indian government is aiming to revive the cheetah population in the country after the species, the fastest land animal, became extinct in the wild decades ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his birthday on September 17, 2022, released eight cheetahs imported from Namibia -- five females and t