Sudan’s Military is Making Advances to Retake the Capital. What’s Changing in the Nearly 2-year War?

By FATMA KHALED and SAMY MAGDY

7:44 AM EST, February 26, 2025

CAIRO (AP) — The war in Sudan appears to be reaching a critical juncture after nearly two years of fighting that has killed tens of thousands, driven millions from their homes and seen bloody atrocities.

For the first time, the military has been making steady advances against its rival, the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, and it could soon wrest back control of the capital, Khartoum.

The RSF responded by announcing at a gathering in Kenya that it and its allies will establish a parallel government.

Few think the war will end any time soon, but here is a look at what the developments could mean.

What’s happening on the ground?

The war erupted in April 2023 between the military and the RSF with battles in Khartoum and around the country. The leaders of the two forces had been allies who were meant to have overseen the democratic transition after a popular uprising in 2019, but instead worked together to thwart a return to civilian rule.

However, tensions exploded into a bloody fight for power.

Since then, at least 20,000 people have been killed, though the number is likely far higher. The war has driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine.

In recent weeks, the military has pushed deeper into the Greater Khartoum area, which includes the capital and its two sister cities, Omdurman and Khartoum North. Its forces are aiming to retake districts still held by the RSF, including the presidential palace and key ministries.

The military has also taken back much of White Nile and Gezira provinces, bordering the capital. In nearby North Kordofan province, troops broke a long RSF siege of the provincial capital, el-Obeid.

The advances are “the first time that SAF has reversed RSF momentum for any major period of time since the start of the war,” said Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group, a research consultancy, using an acronym of the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Will the war end if the military retakes Khartoum?

A military victory in Khartoum would likely just move the war into a new chapter, creating a de facto partition of Sudan into military- and RSF-run zones.

That partition would not be “stable or durable,” Boswell said, meaning more fighting would ensue.

Military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan has shown no sign of engaging in serious peace talks. The RSF, headed by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has seemed to be determined to keep fighting.

The RSF still holds much of western Sudan, particularly most of the Darfur region. On Monday, the RSF announced a new assault on El- Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, held by the military. Heavy fighting in North Darfur this week forced the international medical aid group Doctors Without Borders to halt aid to the Zamzam camp, where some 500,000 displaced people are living and where authorities have declared a famine is taking place.

Boswell said a victory in Khartoum could also cause strains to break open in the military’s coalition. The military has been backed by a collection of armed factions – including former Darfur rebels and Islamist brigades — that are historic rivals united only by the goal of fighting the RSF.

What is the significance of the RSF’s ‘parallel government’?

The RSF and its allies signed a charter over the weekend in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, establishing a parallel government.

“They are trying to achieve a victory politically that they cannot achieve militarily,” Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AP.

Burhan has also spoken of setting up a transitional government, raising the potential for two rival administrations jockeying for support as their forces battle — entrenching Sudan’s effective partition.

“Once again, Sudan is heading towards fragmentation and disintegration, a stage more dangerous than mere division leading to two stable states,” Khalid Omar, a pro-democracy activist and former minister, said in a Facebook post Sunday.

The RSF’s 16-page government charter, seen by the AP, calls for “a secular, democratic and decentralized state,” maintaining what it called Sudan’s “voluntary integrity of its territory and peoples” — a nod to Sudan’s many communities demanding autonomy from Khartoum.

The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by then-president Omar al-Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur. The Janjaweed were accused of mass killings, rapes and other atrocities. Before the latest war erupted, the RSF joined with the military to overthrow civilian leaders, and RSF fighters attacked pro-democracy protests, killing and raping activists.

In the current war, the RSF – which is backed the United Arab Emirates -- has been accused of numerous atrocities. The Biden administration slapped Dagalo with sanctions, saying the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide. The military has also been accused of atrocities, though on a smaller scale.

Sen. Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed Kenya for hosting the RSF conference, saying in a posting on X that it was “helping the RSF legitimize their genocidal rule in Sudan under the guise of peacemaking.”

But some in Sudan’s political factions support the RSF, mistrusting the military for its ties to Islamists who backed al-Bashir’s autocratic rule.

The civilian pro-democracy movement has split between pro- and anti-Dagalo factions. A leader from the Umma Party, traditionally the main political party, signed the charter at the Nairobi meeting. The party responded by throwing him out.

The most notable participant in Nairobi was the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu. The group, which fought the military in the past, is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, South Sudan’s ruling party.

The growing ties with the RSF could broaden the war into the SPLM-N’s stronghold, the Nuba Mountains, spared fighting since a 2016 ceasefire deal with the military.

Are things changing for Sudanese?

The military’s capture of new areas has opened the way for some displaced Sudanese to return. Those who fled to Egypt have been returning home at a rate of around 500 a day, the Sudanese crossings authority said last month.

Khalid Abdelsalam, a Sudanese doctor in Khartoum, told the AP some people have returned to homes in Omdurman, Khartoum North and parts of Gezira state, as well as back to villages that “had been completely abandoned.”

An aid worker in North Darfur, an area contested between the military and RSF, said some people had felt safe to return to army-held areas. But the RSF continues to attack gatherings of civilians, said the worker, who spoke on the condition that he and his organization not be named for security reasons.

He said the area he is in lacks water, food and medical services, adding that the situation is “catastrophic.”

Death Toll in Sudan Military Plane Crash Rises to 46

This is a locator map for Sudan with its capital, Khartoum. (AP Photo)

By SAMY MAGDY

9:18 AM EST, February 26, 2025

CAIRO (AP) — The death toll from a Sudanese military aircraft crash in the city of Omdurman increased to at least 46 people, including women and children, officials said Wednesday, one of the deadliest plane crashes in the northeastern African nation in the past two decades.

The Antonov aircraft crashed on Tuesday over a populated district in Omdurman, also injuring at least 10 people, according to the government-run Khartoum Media Office. An initial death toll of 19 was provided by the health ministry.

The military said in a statement that the plane crashed while taking off from the Wadi Sayidna air base north of Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum.

The crash also damaged a number of houses in the Karrari district of Omdurman, the media office said.

The military earlier said that armed forces personnel and civilians were killed in the crash, but didn’t provide figures. It didn’t say what caused the crash.

The health ministry said some bodies were transferred to the Nau hospital in Omdurman.

Among the dead were senior military officers, including Maj. Gen. Bahr Ahmed Bahr and Lt. Col. Awad Ayoub, and the aircraft crew, according to a military official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said the dead include women and children, among them five siblings.

Local media reported that the aircraft was on the way to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, the seat of the military-backed government, when it crashed over the Al-Thawra neighborhood in the Karrari district. Residents reported loud explosions from the crash, which sent thick clouds of smoke and dust over Omdurman.

Aircraft crashes are common in Sudan, which has a poor aviation safety record. In 2020, at least 16 people were killed when a military plane, a Russian Antonov An-12, crashed in the western region of Darfur.

In 2003, a civilian Sudan Airways plane crashed into a hillside while trying to make an emergency landing, killing 116 people, including eight foreigners. Only a boy survived the crash.

Over 1,400 died from cholera in recent months

Sudan is also battling a cholera outbreak that has killed 1,472 people across a dozen provinces in recent months, the Health Ministry said. The disease has sickened around 56,000 since it was detected in July last year.

The dead included over 70 people who died in two cities in the White Nile province earlier this month, the ministry said. More than 2,000 others were diagnosed with the disease in the cities of Kosti and Rabak, it said.

The outbreak was detected last year during the rainy season between July and October. Heavy rainfall and floods especially hit the country’s eastern areas where millions of war displaced people sheltered.

The outbreak added further burdens on the country, which has suffered from nearly two years of devastating war.

Sudan has been in a state of civil war since 2023 when tensions between the military and a notorious paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open warfare.

The fighting has wrecked urban areas and has been marked by atrocities, including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.

The war has intensified in recent months, with the military making steady advances against the RSF in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The RSF, which controls most of Darfur, said that it downed a military aircraft on Monday in Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur province.

What We Know About the Illnesses that Have Sickened over 400 People and Killed More than 50 in DR Congo

By CHINEDU ASADU and JEAN-YVES KAMALE

3:41 PM EST, February 26, 2025

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Unidentified illnesses in northwestern Congo have killed more than 50 people over the past five weeks, nearly half of them within hours after they felt sick.

The outbreaks in two distant villages in Congo’s Equateur province began on Jan. 21 and include 419 cases and 53 deaths. Health officials still do not know the cause, or whether the cases in the two villages, which are separated by more than 120 miles (190 kilometers), are related. It’s also unclear how the diseases are spreading, including whether they are spreading between people.

The first victims in one of the villages were children who ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organization said this week. More infections were found in the other village, where at least some of the patients have malaria.

Outbreaks in two remote villages

Illnesses have been clustered in two remote villages in different health zones of Equateur province, which is 400 miles (640 kilometers) from Kinshasa.

The first outbreak began in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours. More than two weeks later a second and larger outbreak was recorded in the village of Bomate, where more than 400 people have been sickened. According to WHO’s Africa office, no links have been established between the cases in the two villages.

Dr. Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, and one of the government experts deployed to respond to the outbreak, says the situations in the two villages are somewhat different.

“The first one with a lot of deaths, that we continue to investigate because it’s an unusual situation, (and) in the second episode that we’re dealing with, we see a lot of the cases of malaria,” said Dr. Ngalebato.

The WHO Africa office said the quick progression from sickness to death in Boloko is a key concern, along with the high number of deaths in Bomate.

What are the symptoms?

Congo’s Ministry of Health said about 80% of the patients share similar symptoms including fever, chills, body aches and diarrhea.

While these symptoms can be caused by many common infections, health officials initially feared the symptoms and the quick deaths of some of the victims could also be a sign of a hemorrhagic fever such as Ebola, which was also linked to an infected animal.

However, Ebola and similar diseases including Marburg have been ruled out after more than a dozen samples were collected and tested in the capital of Kinshasa.

The WHO said it is investigating a number of possible causes, including malaria, viral hemorrhagic fever, food or water poisoning, typhoid fever and meningitis.

What is being done in response?

Congo’s government says experts have been sent to the villages since Feb. 14, mainly to help investigate the cases and slow the spread.

Ngalebato said patients have been responding to treatments that target the different symptoms.

The remote location of the villages has hindered access to patients while the weak health care infrastructure has made it difficult to carry out surveillance and manage patients. Such challenges are common in disease outbreaks in Congo. In December, an unknown illness killed dozens.

In the latest outbreaks, several victims died even before experts could even reach them, Ngalebato said.

There needs to be an urgent action “to accelerate laboratory investigations, improve case management and isolation capacities, and strengthen surveillance and risk communication,” the WHO Africa office has said.

The U.S. has been the largest bilateral donor to Congo’s health sector and has supported the training of hundreds of field epidemiologists to help detect and control diseases across the vast country. The outbreaks were detected as the Trump administration put a freeze on foreign aid during a 90-day review.

Is there a link to Congo’s forests?

There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where people regularly eat wild animals. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022.

Experts say this might be what is happening in Congo, which is home to about 60% of the forests in the Congo Basin, home to the largest expanse of tropical forest on earth.

“All these viruses are viruses that have reservoirs in the forest. And so, as long as we have these forests, we will always have a few epidemics with viruses which will mutate,” said Gabriel Nsakala, a professor of public health at Congo’s National Pedagogical University, who previously worked at the Congolese health ministry on Ebola and coronavirus response programs.

More than 100 Firefighters Battle Blazes on South Africa’s Table Mountain in Cape Town

People watch a fire on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

12:35 PM EST, February 26, 2025

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — More than 100 firefighters battled two blazes on the slopes of South Africa’s Table Mountain on Wednesday, and national parks authorities said they were starting to bring them under control after the fires threatened to move toward nearby Cape Town.

South African National Parks, which manages the mountain, said 115 firefighters, four helicopters and two planes had been deployed and there had been “significant progress.”

The fires have burned since at least Sunday on the flat-topped mountain that overlooks Cape Town. A meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from Group of 20 countries began Wednesday in the city and was due to continue Thursday. There was no danger to the gathering.

Fires are common in the Cape Town region in the hot, dry summer months between December and April, when they are often fed by strong coastal winds.

A fire on Table Mountain in 2021 was the worst in recent years and burned down historic buildings at the University of Cape Town and forced neighborhoods to be evacuated.

No injuries have been reported in the latest fires. National Parks said firefighters would remain on Table Mountain through the night as fires could revive if the wind picks up.

UK Suspends Some Financial Aid to Rwanda Over Violence in Eastern DR Congo as Rebels Dig In

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA

3:27 PM EST, February 25, 2025

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — U.K. authorities said Tuesday that they were punishing Rwanda over its alleged support of the rebels who now control two major cities in eastern Congo.

The measures include pausing direct financial aid that doesn’t include support to the poorest Rwandans. The United Kingdom also will stop “high-level attendance at events hosted by” Rwanda’s government, in addition to limiting trade promotion activities with the east African country, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement.

The U.K. government will also coordinate with others “on potential new sanctions designations,” the statement said. Other measures include the suspension of future defense training assistance and a review of export licenses for the Rwandan army.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much the U.K. gives Rwanda in direct financial aid.

The measures will pile pressure on Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who previously has been defiant over his country’s efforts to secure its border with a largely lawless part of eastern Congo.

Kagame faces growing charges of aggression in neighboring Congo. About 4,000 Rwandan troops are fighting alongside M23 rebels in eastern Congo, where the rebels now control the capitals of the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, according to a report by U.N. experts.

M23 is the most powerful of the many armed groups vying for a foothold in Congo’s east, a region possessing trillions of dollars in largely untapped mineral resources crucial for global technology.

Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi has ruled out peace talks with M23 rebels even as they acquire more territory, accusing them of being a proxy army for Rwanda in a plot to illegally exploit his country’s natural wealth.

Rwandan authorities described the U.K. measures as punitive and regrettable.

“It is unreasonable to expect Rwanda to compromise its national security and the safety of Rwandans,” the government said in a statement posted on X. “The measures do nothing to help (Congo), nor do they contribute to achieving a sustainable political solution to the conflict in eastern (Congo).”

The U.S. has sanctioned a key member of Kagame’s government for his alleged role in the M23 rebellion.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, this week called Congo’s territorial integrity “non-negotiable.” She said EU defense consultations with Rwanda have been suspended and that their memorandum of understanding regarding critical raw materials, signed a year ago, will be under review.

The EU and Rwanda also cooperate on peacekeeping missions in Mozambique and elsewhere.

The U.N. has warned that fighting in eastern Congo poses a wider threat to the region, which has seen decades of simmering conflict that has displaced millions.

Critically Injured South African Soldiers are Evacuated from Congo Amid Rebel Offensive

By GERALD IMRAY

8:24 AM EST, February 25, 2025

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A group of critically injured South African peacekeepers who were hurt in fighting in eastern Congo a month ago have been evacuated by the United Nations, the South African armed forces said Tuesday.

South African National Defense Force spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini told The Associated Press that the soldiers had returned to South Africa, but did not say how many had been repatriated. He said they had been receiving treatment in a hospital in the rebel-controlled city of Goma in eastern Congo.

The city of 2 million people was seized by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in January as part of a continuing offensive in Congo’s mineral-rich east that has alarmed some in the international community. The U.N. had pushed for the Goma airport to be operational again.

The M23 rebels are supported by around 4,000 troops from Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and now occupy Goma and Bukavu, the two biggest cities in eastern Congo. Their rapid offensive has killed around 7,000 people, Congo says.

Another group of South African soldiers were due to return home later this week, the SANDF said.

An official from the union that represents members of the armed forces told South African media that more than 100 South African sick and injured soldiers were being evacuated, with three needing urgent medical attention.

Pikkie Greef, the national secretary of the South African National Defense Union, also said two female soldiers who were pregnant were among those being repatriated, according to a report by Eyewitness News.

Dlamini declined to comment on that report.

Greef said the soldiers had been evacuated through neighboring Rwanda.

Fourteen South African peacekeepers were killed in January in the fighting between Congolese government forces and the M23 rebels.

The South African defense minister said at the time that they had been caught in crossfire as the rebels advanced towards Goma. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa later said they were killed in rebel attacks on peacekeepers. Those 14 bodies had already been repatriated.

An M23 spokesperson said Monday that up to 300 soldiers of different nationalities left eastern Congo this week, among them the injured South African troops.

South Africa’s leading role in a southern African peacekeeping force in Congo has come under scrutiny at home, with political parties and the national armed forces union questioning if the soldiers had been properly equipped and prepared.

South African troops’ discipline has also come under question. A group of soldiers were recalled to South Africa in 2023 after being accused of serious acts of ill-discipline and misconduct in a U.N. report.

The southern African force also includes Malawian and Tanzanian soldiers and was meant to replace a U.N. peacekeeping force in eastern Congo. The planned withdrawal of the U.N. force, knowns as MONUSCO, has been put on hold.

At least three Malawian soldiers were killed in fighting in eastern Congo in January, and Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has said his country is preparing to withdraw its troops.

Security Conditions in a Famine-hit Camp in Sudan are ‘Unbearable,’ an Aid Group Says

3:00 PM EST, February 25, 2025

CAIRO (AP) — All roads around Sudan’s famine-stricken Zamzam camp in North Darfur are blocked and the security situation has become “unbearable,” an international aid worker told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, has suspended its activities in the camp of a half-million people because of safety concerns caused by fighting between the Sudanese army and the rival paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

“There is no more MSF activities since a couple of days now in Zamzam because the security was unbearable for our team,” said Marion Ramstein, MSF’s project coordinator for North Darfur.

That leaves few organizations on the ground to help in the remote area, Ramstein said, calling it “a heartbreaking decision. We know that we left the population with no other support.”

Sudan plunged into civil war in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the military and the RSF. The conflict has killed at least 20,000 people, forced more than 14 million from their homes and created famine in some areas.

MSF has said two of its ambulances in December and January were shot at while carrying patients from Zamzam camp to the regional hub of El Fasher.

Ramstein said that in one shooting, a woman accompanying her sister was killed, prompting the group to suspend its ambulance movements between the camp and El Fasher in January.

MSF will return to Zamzam, but teams currently can’t work in a high-risk environment, Ramstein said.

Zamzam is in famine. A report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an international collection of experts tracking hunger, found last year that the camp and some other parts of North Darfur are experiencing “the worst form of hunger” known as IPC Phase 5.

Ramstein said MSF had received many cases of young children in Zamzam suffering from anemia. In September, MSF screened 29,300 children during a vaccination campaign there and found that 34% had acute malnutrition.

Zamzam camp has seen displaced families arrive from the areas of Abu Zerega, Shagra, and Saluma. They have told MSF teams of abuses in villages and on roads in El Fasher that include killings, sexual violence, looting and beatings.

The Main Ingredients in Sierra Leone’s Kush are Synthetic Opioids and Cannabinoids, Report Finds

A young man smokes Kush, a derivative of cannabis mixed with synthetic drugs like fentanyl and tramadol and chemicals like formaldehyde, at a hideout in Freetown, Sierra Leone, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu, File)

By WILSON MCMAKIN

11:43 AM EST, February 25, 2025

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A new report released Tuesday by an anti-transnational crime group has identified the core chemical components of kush, a synthetic drug that has swept through Sierra Leone and the region in the past few years.

The report by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime conducted the first known testing of the most common varieties of kush available in Sierra Leone and neighboring West African countries and found that it contained either nitazenes or synthetic cannabinoids.

“Nitazenes are potent and often deadly synthetic opioids that have spread rapidly across global retail drug markets, including European countries, particularly since 2022,” the report reads. “Illustratively, in 2023 in Estonia and Latvia, 48% and 28% of drug deaths, respectively, were attributable to nitazenes. One of the nitazenes detected in kush is 25 times more potent than fentanyl.”

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio last year declared a war on kush, calling it an epidemic and a national threat. He launched a task force on drug and substance abuse, promising to lead a government approach focused on prevention and treatment involving law enforcement and community engagement. 

“We believe kush is the first case of nitazenes penetrating West Africa’s drug markets. This reflects global trends, which show nitazenes and associated fatalities surging globally since late 2022,” the report stated.

When contacted by phone, one of the authors of the report, Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, described the path that kush is taking to arrive in West Africa.

Originally shipped as a finished product, increasingly precursor chemicals are ordered from China via online sites like Alibaba and then combined in labs in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown. Once combined, the now psychoactive liquid is sprayed onto plant material intended to be smoked and sold as kush.

There are persistent rumors about the ingredients in kush ranging from tramadol, a common pain reliever, to human bones. However, the report is careful to state that researchers uncovered no evidence of either while testing various samples.

Since its introduction into the retail drug market of West Africa, kush has soared in popularity as deaths associated with it have also soared, according to the report. The synthetic opioids and cannabinoids within the drugs are highly addictive and have ravaged Sierra Leone in recent years.

The drug has inspired local corruption, which has become endemic within some neighborhoods of Freetown, with ‘cartels’ the local name for kush smoking bars, sometimes popping up within meters (yards) of police stations and the police tasking bar owners with community policing of their own patrons.

As demand for the addictive components of kush has increased, the report describes how overdose rates have increased as a result of new recipes and increased usage.

“Nitazenes started being linked to a material number of overdose deaths in the US, and were first detected by the EU early warning system in 2019,” the report said. “Since then, their presence has expanded to South America, Asia and Oceania, with global detections and overdose incidents rising sharply.”

Botswana, the Country with the Biggest Diamonds, Gets an Improved 10-year Deal with Miner De Beers

By SELLO MOTSETA

7:56 PM EST, February 25, 2025

GABORONE, Botswana (AP) — The Botswana government signed a new diamond sales agreement crucial to its economy with the De Beers mining company on Tuesday after seven years of negotiations.

The deal gives the government an increasing share of diamond sales through the Debswana company — its joint venture with De Beers, a subsidiary of Anglo American.

Botswana, a sparsely populated and arid country in southern Africa, is the biggest producer of diamonds by value and the second biggest by volume behind Russia. Diamonds account for around 80% of Botswana’s exports and a quarter of its GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund.

But a decline in the price and demand for mined diamonds has badly hampered the Botswana economy and was a central issue in a national election last year. The party that had ruled for 58 years since independence from the British was voted out in a stunning result that was largely a reaction to new economic hardships related to the downturn in the diamond industry.

The new 10-year sales agreement gives the government a 30% share of Debswana’s sales up from 25% for the first five years and a 40% share for the following five years. There is an option for a five-year extension to the agreement, the two parties said, when the share of sales will be 50-50.

In return, De Beers was awarded a 25-year extension to its mining licenses in Botswana from 2029 until 2054.

The two parties had broadly agreed terms for the deal in 2023 but had yet to sign. Finalizing the agreement was a priority for new Botswana President Duma Boko, who came into office after the October election.

“We are people of durable relationships,” Boko said at a contract signing ceremony. “We have us a good deal and we trust that it will carry us into the future.”

Botswana has unearthed all of the world’s largest rough diamonds over the last decade, including a 2,492-carat stone discovered last year that was the second-biggest diamond ever dug out of a mine and the biggest in more than a century. That gem was found by Canadian mining firm Lucara.

But Debswana’s total sales in the first nine months of 2024 were $1.53 billion, according to the Botswana central bank, down more than 50% from $3.19 billion during the same period in 2023. The World Bank says that Botswana’s reliance on diamonds has made its economy vulnerable.

Lavrov Arrives in Tehran for Working Visit

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the top diplomats of Russia and Iran are expected to thoroughly discuss the agenda of bilateral relations, which have officially reached the level of comprehensive strategic partnership

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/TASS

TEHRAN, February 25. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Iran for a working visit. His plane landed at Tehran’s airport, a TASS correspondent reported.

Earlier, the top Russian diplomat traveled to Turkey, where he held talks with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan and was also received by the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the top diplomats of Russia and Iran are expected to thoroughly discuss the agenda of bilateral relations, which have officially reached the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. "A special focus will be on further efforts to boost mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation with regard to the implementation of key joint projects in the fields of energy and transport," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.

In addition, the parties will exchange views on a number of pressing international issues, including the situation in Syria, the South Caucasus, Afghanistan, Yemen, and the Persian Gulf area, as well as on the Middle East crisis, issues related to the Caspian Sea and the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for Iran’s nuclear program.

Lavrov last visited Tehran in October 2023 to take part in a ministerial meeting of the 3+3 platform on the South Caucasus.

Cooperation based on equality

The Russian Foreign Ministry points out that political dialogue between Moscow and Tehran is based on the fact that the two countries have similar or coinciding positions on most regional and global issues.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Moscow places great importance on strengthening friendly and good-neighborly relations with Iran. "These relations are based on the principles of equality, respect, consideration for each other's interests, mutual assistance and support, which are consistently translated into tangible steps," Putin stated at a press conference following talks with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in January. "Our multifaceted bilateral partnership has been steadily expanding year after year," he added.

Pezeshkian, in turn, stressed that Russia plays a key role for Iran based on Tehran’s policy of good-neighborliness. "I can say that in past years, we have seen a significant increase in delegation exchanges between our countries, and this process continues, for which we are very grateful to our colleagues in Russia," he said at the same press conference.

Russia and Iran signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation o the same day, January 17.

UK to Increase Defense Spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, PM Says

Keir Starmer said that London would fund the increase in defense spending by cutting funding for overseas aid from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3% by 2027

© Claudia Greco-WPA Pool/ Getty Images

LONDON, February 25. /TASS/. The United Kingdom will increase its defense spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of GDP, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced, addressing the House of Commons.

"Starting today, I can announce this Government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War. We will deliver our commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defense but we will bring it forward so that we reach that level in 2027," he stated.

"Let me spell that out, that means spending 13.4 billion pounds more on defense every year from 2027," he added. Starmer noted that the goal was to raise defense spending to 3% of GDP after the next parliamentary election, which is expected to be held no later than in August 2029.

The prime minister said that London would fund the increase in defense spending by cutting funding for overseas aid from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3% by 2027. "That is not an announcement I am happy to make," Starmer admitted.

On Ukraine and NATO

Speaking about the prospects for resolving the conflict in Ukraine, Starmer said that London believed in the power of democracy, adding that no one wanted bloodshed to continue. Still, he highlighted the need to achieve peace through strength and continue supporting Ukraine. Starmer also claimed that "Russia is a menace in our waters, in our airspace and on our streets."

He reiterated that NATO would remain the "bedrock" of European security, and called for rejecting "any false choice between our allies, between one side of the Atlantic or the other." Still, Starmer said that the UK would boost bilateral partnership with the US. He also said that European countries needed a new defense alliance.

Starmer Confirms UK to Host Ukraine Summit This Weekend

"I am hosting a number of countries at the weekend for us to continue to discuss how we go forward together as allies in light of the situation that we face," the UK prime minister said

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Leon Neal/ Pool photo via AP

LONDON, February 25. /TASS/. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed that the UK will host a meeting of European leaders to discuss the conflict in Ukraine over the coming weekend.

"I am hosting a number of countries at the weekend for us to continue to discuss how we go forward together as allies in light of the situation that we face," he told reporters.

Bloomberg earlier reported that European leaders could hold a meeting on Ukraine on March 2. The event will take place after Starmer's visit to Washington, where he is scheduled to hold talks with US President Donald Trump on February 27.

On Monday, the American leader received French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House. Starmer said he had a phone conversation with Macron on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the outcome of the French president’s trip to Washington.

Russian Forces Pound Ukrainian Military Airfields in Precision Strike

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted roughly 35 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy artillery gun in its area of responsibility in the Kharkov Region over the past day, the ministry reported

© Alexey Konovalov/TASS

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. Russian forces struck Ukrainian military airfields by precision weapons over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.

"The Russian Armed Forces delivered a strike by air-launched high-precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles on the infrastructure of Ukrainian military airfields. The goals of the strike were achieved," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicts 35 casualties on Ukrainian army in Kharkov Region

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted roughly 35 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy artillery gun in its area of responsibility in the Kharkov Region over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup North units operating in the Kharkov direction inflicted losses on formations of a motorized infantry brigade of the Ukrainian army and a territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Volchansk and Liptsy in the Kharkov Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 35 personnel, two motor vehicles and an artillery gun in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicts 190 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicted roughly 190 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed eight enemy artillery weapons in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup West units improved their tactical position and inflicted losses among manpower and equipment of two mechanized brigades, an assault brigade of the Ukrainian army and a territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Kamenka and Lozovaya in the Kharkov Region and Makeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours amounted to 190 personnel, five motor vehicles and eight artillery guns, including two NATO weapons, it specified.

In addition, Russian forces destroyed a Kvertus electronic warfare station and an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army, it said.

Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicts 140 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicted roughly 140 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed four enemy armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup South units gained better lines and positions and inflicted losses on formations of three mechanized brigades and an airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian army in areas near the settlements of Seversk, Stupochki, Chervonoye and Konstantinovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 140 personnel, four armored combat vehicles and two motor vehicles in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

In addition, Russian forces destroyed two ammunition depots of the Ukrainian army, it said.

Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicts 305 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicted roughly 305 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed seven enemy armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup Center units improved their tactical position and inflicted losses among manpower and equipment of four mechanized brigades, an assault brigade of the Ukrainian army and a National Guard brigade in areas near the settlements of Zverevo, Sergeyevka, Udachnoye, Shevchenko, Andreyevka and Uspenovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 305 personnel, seven armored combat vehicles, a motor vehicle and three artillery guns in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup East inflicts over 150 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup East inflicted more than 150 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed three enemy artillery guns in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup East units continued advancing deep into the enemy’s defenses and inflicted casualties on formations of two mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian army and three territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Burlatskoye, Skudnoye and Volnoye Pole in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Gulyaipole in the Zaporozhye Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost more than 150 personnel, two armored combat vehicles, three motor vehicles and three field artillery guns in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr inflicts 85 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr inflicted roughly 85 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy ammunition depot in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup Dnepr units inflicted damage on manpower and equipment of two mechanized brigades and a coastal defense brigade of the Ukrainian army in areas near the settlements of Shcherbaki in the Zaporozhye Region, Tokarevka and Pridneprovskoye in the Kherson Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours amounted to 85 personnel, an armored combat vehicle and a motor vehicle, the ministry specified.

In addition, Russian forces destroyed an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army, it said.

Russian forces strike Ukrainian UAV assembly workshops over past day

Russian forces struck Ukrainian attack UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) assembly workshops over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Operational/tactical aircraft, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groups of forces struck the sites for the production of attack unmanned aerial vehicles and temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian armed formations in 144 locations," the ministry said.

Russian air defenses down 97 Ukrainian UAVs, five JDAM smart bombs over past day

Russian air defense forces shot down 97 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and five JDAM smart bombs over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Air defense capabilities shot down five US-made JDAM guided aerial bombs, 23 rockets of the Czech-made Vampire multiple launch rocket system and 97 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said.

Overall, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 656 Ukrainian warplanes, 283 helicopters, 44,431 unmanned aerial vehicles, 596 surface-to-air missile systems, 21,734 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,521 multiple rocket launchers, 22,007 field artillery guns and mortars and 32,099 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation, the ministry reported.

Alvin F. Poussaint, Who Probed Racism’s Grip on Black Psyche, Dies at 90

Dr. Poussaint helped widen debate about Black culture and identity in books and essays and as adviser for the popular sitcom “The Cosby Show.”

February 25, 2025 at 2:32 p.m. EST

Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry Alvin F. Poussaint in Washington in 2007. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

By Brian Murphy

Alvin F. Poussaint, a psychiatrist and author who helped expand perceptions of the Black experience in America with research into the effects of racism on mental health and as script adviser for the popular sitcom “The Cosby Show,” died Feb. 24 at his home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He was 90.

The death was confirmed by wife, Tina Young Poussaint, but no specific cause was noted.

Soon after finishing medical school, Dr. Poussaint (pronounced poo-SAHNT) was in the heart of the 1960s civil rights movement as a field director in Jackson, Mississippi, with the Medical Committee for Human Rights, which advocated for desegregation of medical facilities.

Dr. Poussaint carried first aid supplies during the landmark march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after an initial attempt ended in a bloody attack against the marchers at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. Dr. Poussaint said police threatened to arrest him when he insisted on being addressed as “Doctor.”

After joining the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1969 — with the civil rights struggle in flux after the assassination of King a year earlier — Dr. Poussaint began to interpret racism as a pathology that couldn’t be swept away by laws or protests alone.

“It was part of the way the country saw itself,” he told the Boston Globe, “the way people behaved and established their own sense of worth, using Blacks and some other groups as scapegoats.”

Beginning in the early 1970s, Dr. Poussaint’s writings and speeches often spilled beyond traditional academic circles and entered public debate with ideas that combined social psychology, political theory and community activism.

He argued, in books such as “Why Blacks Kill Blacks” (1972), that racism and prejudice confronted by Black Americans were akin to trauma that can leave profound imprints on self-esteem and identity as well as fostering anger and possible violence. “Much of Black self-hatred is in reality repressed rage and a manifestation of being conditioned by fear,” he wrote.

He also appealed for a more aggressive therapeutic approach to deal with systemic racism. In an essay in Clinical Psychiatry News in 2015, after a White gunman killed nine Black churchgoers at a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, Dr. Poussaint called on the American Psychiatric Association to clearly define “extreme racism” as a mental health disorder. (That distinction was not made by the association, but some defense lawyers have tried to introduce a mental health-linked defense for alleged hate crimes.)

“It’s time for mental health professionals to examine their resistance to accepting extreme racism as a symptom of serious mental illness. Such a focus in the future may prevent tragedies like the Charleston massacre,” wrote Dr. Poussaint, whose roles at Harvard Medical School over five decades included founding director of the Office of Recruitment & Multicultural Affairs.

Even as Dr. Poussaint gained attention for his scholarship, his ideas for remedies were at times polarizing. Some activists and academics questioned whether his description of deep-seated racism as a mental health malady would give a blame-shifting pass to White supremacists and others.

Meanwhile, Dr. Poussaint’s call for Black men to take greater responsibly in family life and their communities was met with complaints as being too rooted in stereotypes.

“I think a lot of these males kind of have a father hunger and actually grieve that they don’t have a father,” Dr. Poussaint told New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in 2007. “And I think later a lot of that turns into anger. ‘Why aren’t you with me? Why don’t you care about me?’”

Dr. Poussaint responded that he knew firsthand some of the dilemmas facing families dealing with crime and drugs. His older brother, Kenneth, was jailed several times for theft and abused drugs such as heroin. Dr. Poussaint once described lifting his drug-addled brother off the floor with a needle in his arm. Kenneth died of meningitis in 1975.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, writing in the introduction for “Why Blacks Kill Blacks,” portrayed Dr. Poussaint as “no armchair academician espousing theories and reaching conclusions from afar.” Dr. Poussaint later served as co-chairman in Massachusetts for Jackson’s unsuccessful presidential run in 1984.

That same year, Dr. Poussaint began as consultant for “The Cosby Show,” starring comedian Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable, the father in an upper-middle class Black family in Brooklyn that included his wife (played by Phylicia Rashad) as a successful lawyer. The NBC show, which ran until 1992, earned Cosby the moniker of “America’s Dad” at the time.

Dr. Poussaint said his main duty on the show was helping the writers capture the right mood and tone for plot points such as bigotry and Black empowerment. Dr. Poussaint did similar work for a “The Cosby Show” spin-off, “A Different World” (1987 to 1993), and he and Cosby co-authored a 2007 book, “Come On, People: On the Path From Victims to Victors,” about stories of Black people overcoming hardship.

Some reviewers lauded the uplifting accounts, while others called the message overly simplistic. (Cosby was found guilty in 2018 of three counts of aggravated indecent assault and served two years in prison before the conviction was overturned in 2021. Dr. Poussaint had no connection to the case.)

Dr. Poussaint often said the cultural significance of “The Cosby Show” should not be overshadowed by the accusations against Cosby. The show, he told Ebony magazine, “dramatically altered the image of blacks as poor, downtrodden, yet happy-go-lucky clowns. The Huxtable family help[ed] to dispel old stereotypes and to move its audience toward more realistic perceptions. Like Whites, Blacks on television should be portrayed in a full spectrum of roles and cultural styles.”

Alvin Francis Poussaint was born in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood on May 15, 1934. His father was a printer, and his mother managed the household that grew to eight children.

At age 9, Alvin contracted rheumatic fever and spent three months in a hospital and then two months in a convalescent home. He said his interactions with the doctors and nurses sparked his interest in medicine.

He received a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology from Columbia University in 1956 and earned his medical degree from Cornell University in 1960. He also received a master’s degree in pharmacology in 1964 during his medical residency at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Dr. Poussaint joined Tufts University School of Medicine faculty in 1967 and moved to Harvard two years later. In 1976, he became the health consultant for the Congressional Black Caucus. At Harvard, his roles included associate dean for student affairs. He retired in 2019.

From 1994 to 2010, he was director of the Media Center at the Judge Baker Children’s Center (now the Baker Center for Children and Families), a Boston-based group affiliated with Harvard Medical School that studies innovations in childhood education.

His other books included “Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans” (2000), written with journalist Amy Alexander, and “Black Child Care” (1975), co-authored with fellow psychiatrist James P. Comer.

Dr. Poussaint’s marriage to Ann Ashmore ended in divorce. In 1992, he married Young, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. Other survivors include their daughter; a son from his first marriage; and a sister.

Dr. Poussaint said he was often frustrated by listening to his Black patients define racism in narrow terms, such as only occurring with a physical assault or racial insult.

“When that happens, something is severely wrong,” he told the group Science for the People in 1982. “I have to help them deal with the pain of the experience of denying racism. Racism is always there. It’s always an issue.”

How Roberta Flack Helped Lori Lieberman Finally Stake Her Claim to ‘Killing Me Softly’

One singer made the song iconic, while the other was left out of its history. Later in life, they came together.

February 24, 2025 at 7:14 p.m.

Washington Post

Lori Lieberman meets Roberta Flack for the first time in October 2019. (Barbara Bordnick)

By Geoff Edgers

For decades, nobody really knew Lori Lieberman’s secret. Sure, the singer was the first to record “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in 1972, but it wasn’t until Roberta Flack covered it a year later that the song hit No. 1. Which is when the men credited with writing the song began to write Lieberman out of its history.

On Monday, Lieberman, now 73, heard of Flack’s death at the age of 88 and talked of how much she had meant to her. Late in life, Flack offered her support.

In 2020, already struggling with the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that would take her life Monday, Flack sent The Washington Post an email saying that she cried when she heard what had happened to Lieberman.

“I hope that Lori knows that I am forever grateful for her part in the writing of the song,” Flack wrote.

Lieberman knew. The two met in 2019 and embraced. While she remains uncredited for writing the song, Lieberman is at peace. This despite the fact that “Killing Me Softly” has made millions both from Flack’s Grammy-winning version and the 1996 redo by the Fugees that went to No. 2.

“I’ve got a good life,” Lieberman said from her home in California on Monday. “I don’t need any more money. But what I needed more than all of it was her validation and the credit from her. It meant so much to me and has emboldened me.”

The story of the song’s creation — which The Post reported on five years ago — began in 1971 when Lieberman, then 20, saw “American Pie” singer Don McLean perform at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles. She was so inspired that she wrote a poem on a napkin and handed it to her manager, Norman Gimbel. Things were complicated. Gimbel was 44 and married. He was also having an affair with Lieberman, less than half his age. She and Gimbel worked on the lyric and then went to see composer Charles Fox, who helped them finish “Killing Me Softly,” she said Monday.

The napkin disappeared somewhere along the way.

Gimbel and Fox are the lone writers credited. But McLean, who believed Lieberman’s story, began telling it in concert and wrote about it in his memoir. At one point, Gimbel, who died in 2018 at 91, threatened to sue McLean for referencing Lieberman’s role. Fox, who did not respond to a request Monday, has called her account an “urban legend.”

When Gimbel died, McLean referred to him as “abusive and obnoxious” on his Facebook page and also slammed Fox. “I don’t need any ‘Love Boat’ theme song writer to enhance my reputation,” he posted, referencing the pair’s TV theme writing.

Lieberman recorded four more albums in the 1970s but eventually gave up on her career. In the mid-'90s, she made a comeback, recording again and performing regularly, including at Carnegie Hall. But she didn’t always feel comfortable or happy singing “Killing Me Softly” — until McLean and Flack acknowledged her role.

On Monday, Lieberman praised not only Flack’s generosity but her artistic creation.

“I mean, mine was a small, little folk song in a way,” Lieberman said. “It had a back beat and it had strings and it was guitar-based. And what she made it into was something I never could have imagined.”

Flack also created the wordless bridge after the fourth chorus “that opened up the song and exposed this new sound that hadn’t been heard before,” Lieberman said.

For decades, Lieberman fought to be recognized for her contribution to the song’s construction. On Monday, she said she remembers asking Flack’s management why the later singer didn’t, in fact, ask for writing credit for that bridge.

“She created it,” Lieberman said. “She wrote that. Today, if a singer-songwriter writes a word, a note, they ask for credit. I know why I didn’t. But why didn’t she ask for credit? The management said she didn’t want to make waves. And it’s so interesting to me that here was this brilliant superstar. But still, as a woman in the business, she also didn’t want to rock the boat.”

Roberta Flack, Grammy-winning ‘Killing Me Softly’ Singer with an Intimate Style, Dies at 88

By Hillel Italie

11:58 AM EST, February 24, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning singer and pianist whose intimate vocal and musical style made her one of the top recordings artists of the 1970s and an influential performer long after, died Monday. She was 88.

She died at home surrounded by her family, publicist Elaine Schock said in a statement. Flack announced in 2022 she had ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and could no longer sing,

Little known before her early 30s, Flack became an overnight star after Clint Eastwood used “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” as the soundtrack for one of cinema’s more memorable and explicit love scenes, between the actor and Donna Mills in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.” The hushed, hymn-like ballad, with Flack’s graceful soprano afloat on a bed of soft strings and piano, topped the Billboard pop chart in 1972 and received a Grammy for record of the year.

“The record label wanted to have it re-recorded with a faster tempo, but he said he wanted it exactly as it was,” Flack told The Associated Press in 2018. “With the song as a theme song for his movie, it gained a lot of popularity and then took off.”

In 1973, she matched both achievements with “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” becoming the first artist to win consecutive Grammys for best record.

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports Grammy-winning singer Roberta Flack dies at 88.

A classically trained pianist so gifted she received a full scholarship at age 15 to Howard, the historically Black university, Flack was discovered in the late 1960s by jazz musician Les McCann, who later wrote that “her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known.” Flack was versatile enough to summon the up-tempo gospel passion of Aretha Franklin, but she favored a more measured and reflective approach, as if curating a song word by word.

For Flack’s many admirers, she was a sophisticated and bold new presence in the music world and in the social and civil rights movements of the time, her friends including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Angela Davis, whom Flack visited in prison while Davis faced charges — for which she was acquitted — for murder and kidnapping. Flack sang at the funeral of Jackie Robinson, major league baseball’s first Black player, and was among the many guest performers on the feminist children’s entertainment project created by Marlo Thomas, “Free to Be ... You and Me.”

Flack’s other hits from the 1970s included the cozy “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and two duets with her close friend and former Howard classmate Donny Hathaway, “Where Is the Love” and ”The Closer I Get to You” — a partnership that ended in tragedy. In 1979, she and Hathaway were working on an album of duets when he suffered a breakdown during recording and later that night fell to his death from his hotel room in Manhattan.

“We were deeply connected creatively,” Flack told Vibe in 2022, upon the 50th anniversary of the million-selling “Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway” album. “He could play anything, sing anything. Our musical synergy was unlike (anything) I’d had before or since.”

She never matched her first run of success, although she did have a hit in the 1980s with the Peabo Bryson duet “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” and in the 1990s with the Maxi Priest duet “Set the Night to Music.” In the mid-90s, Flack received new attention after the Fugees recorded a Grammy-winning cover of “Killing Me Softly,” which she eventually performed on stage with the hip-hop group.

Overall, she won five Grammys (three for “Killing Me Softly”), was nominated eight other times and was given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2020, with John Legend and Ariana Grande among those praising her.

“I love that connection to other artists because we understand music, we live music, it’s our language,” Flack told songwriteruniverse.com in 2020. “Through music we understand what we are thinking and feeling. No matter what challenge life presents, I am at home with my piano, on a stage, with my band, in the studio, listening to music. I can find my way when I hear music.”

In 2022, Beyoncé placed Flack, Franklin and Diana Ross among others in a special pantheon of heroines name-checked in the Grammy-nominated “Queens Remix” of “Break My Soul.”

Flack was briefly married to Stephen Novosel, an interracial relationship that led to tension with each of their families, and earlier had a son, the singer and keyboardist Bernard Wright. For years, she lived in Manhattan’s Dakota apartment building, on the same floor as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who became a close friend and provided liner notes for a Flack album of Beatles covers, “Let It Be Roberta.” She also devoted extensive time to the Roberta Flack School of Music, based in New York and attended mostly by students between ages 6 to 14.

Roberta Cleopatra Flack, the daughter of musicians, was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and raised in Arlington, Virginia. After graduating from Howard, she taught music in D.C.-area junior high schools for several years in her 20s, while performing after hours in clubs.

She sometimes backed other singers, but her own shows at Washington’s renowned Mr. Henry’s attracted such celebrity patrons as Burt Bacharach, Ramsey Lewis and Johnny Mathis. The club’s owner, Henry Yaffe, converted an apartment directly above into a private studio, the Roberta Flack Room.

“I wanted to be successful, a serious all-round musician,” she told The Telegraph in 2015. “I listened to a lot of Aretha, the Drifters, trying to do some of that myself, playing, teaching.”

Flack was signed to Atlantic Records and her debut album, “First Take,” a blend of gospel, soul, flamenco and jazz, came out in 1969. One track was a love song by the English folk artist Ewan MacColl: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” written in 1957 for his future wife, singer Peggy Seeger. Flack not only knew of the ballad, but used it while working with a glee club during her years as an educator.

“I was teaching at Banneker Junior High in Washington, D.C. It was part of the city where kids weren’t that privileged, but they were privileged enough to have music education. I really wanted them to read music. First, I’d get their attention. (Flack starts singing a Supremes hit) ‘Stop, in the name of love.’ Then I could teach them!” she told the Tampa Bay Times in 2012.

“You have to do all sorts of things when you’re dealing with kids in the inner-city,” she said. “I knew they’d like the part where (‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’) goes ‘The first time ever I kissed your mouth.’ Ooh, ‘Kissed your mouth!’ Once the kids got past the giggles, we were good.”

Come ‘Beyond the Gates’ for the First Black-led Soap Opera — the First New Network Soap in Decades

By MARK KENNEDY

9:52 AM EST, February 24, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — The first thing viewers of “Beyond the Gates” see is a black Mercedes gliding past manicured lawns and stately estates. The sedan pulls up at an elegant country club and the valets come out. The Emotions’ funky tune “Best of My Love” is playing.

That car and the glamorous woman behind the wheel are driving into TV history on Monday as CBS begins airing the first Black-led daytime soap opera — and the first new network soap since “Passions” premiered in 1999.

“I think that not only will it change daytime, but it’ll also change the landscape of TV,” said Sheila Ducksworth, president of CBS Studios/NAACP Venture and an executive producer. “I think it really will be something that will have far-reaching effects, and I look forward to it.”

Set in an affluent, gated Maryland community, “Beyond the Gates” has drama, joy and heartbreak played by very attractive people with a strong pocket-square vibe. But even the rich can lose it: The first episode ends with a roundhouse punch. A later episode has a golf club raised in anger.

“We want people to be entertained. We want people to have fun with it,” said Ducksworth. “There’s a lot of unpredictable stuff that’s going to be happening, a lot of juicy storylines. We have a lot of scandal and secrets and lies embedded in this world of power and prestige.”

Four generations represented

Actor Daphnée Duplaix, a veteran of “Passions” and “One Life to Live,” is the driver of the Mercedes and therefore won the distinction of being the audience’s first glimpse of life in upscale Fairmont Crest.

“It was pretty awesome when I realized that I am the opening scene into this new world that we’re creating. I was like, ‘Oh, that is fun and exciting,’” she said. “That meant a lot. It really did.”

This is normal. It’s not a fluke. It’s not a one-off. Black excellence is everywhere. So I’m so excited for that to be normalized Monday through Friday on television.

Daphnée Duplaix, ‘Beyond the Gates’ star

The premiere episode airs after “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” capping a three-hour block of CBS soaps. NAACP has partnered with the network, and Procter & Gamble, connected with soaps for decades, is a sponsor. It will stream on Paramount+, giving it a global reach.

The show is centered around four generations of the Dupree family, from a grandfather who is a civil rights icon to grandchildren who are social influencers. Unlike NBC’s “Generations,” the short-lived soap that made history in 1989 for featuring a Black family from the start, the main cast of “Beyond the Gates” is predominantly Black.

“We just wanted something that felt fresh, new, different, really glossy, fun and really epic,” said Ducksworth.

Characters born on index cards

Michele Val Jean, an Emmy-winning veteran daytime writer, is the creator, executive producer and showrunner. She created the characters in her mind on morning walks, jotting down ideas on index cards.

“By the time I was ready to start writing, I had this big stack of index cards. And once I sorted everything out, the characters were there,” she said. “It’s hard to describe. It’s almost like I’m a stenographer and the stuff just sort of came through me.”

Val Jean wanted to create soap characters viewers hadn’t seen before and describes one pairing — played by Tamara Tunie and Clifton Davis — as if Diana Ross married the late Rep. John Lewis. One of their daughters — played by Karla Cheatham Mosley — has no filter and holds a fearsome grudge against her ex-husband.

“I love the characters that come into your house five days a week and sort of get inside you,” she said. “That’s what I want this show to do. I can think of many times I would have loved to have taken a golf club to somebody’s desk.”

Another thing that differentiates “Beyond the Gates” is the music. Tunie, who has a degree in musical theater from Carnegie Mellon, is one of a few cast members who will sing.

“The writers told me, ‘We’re going to have you singing on the show,’” she said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, OK. Didn’t know that, but OK. Let me let me dust off my cords.’”

Black excellence on screen

“Beyond the Gates” is the long-gestating dream of Ducksworth, who has been watching soap operas since she was 10 but yearned for more representation: “I have to say, for many years it’s been very few and far between having real diversity on soaps.”

The show is grounded in real Black excellence. Ducksworth points out there are pockets of affluent Black families in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

“It’s something right here in our backyard that many people may not be aware of,” she said.

Duplaix said Black wealth is often only portrayed as enjoyed by athletes or entertainers, so to be able to show Black doctors, psychologists and lawyers is important.

“This is normal. It’s not a fluke. It’s not a one-off. Black excellence is everywhere. So I’m so excited for that to be normalized Monday through Friday on television,” she said.

The series is filmed in Georgia on 27 sets over 35,000 square feet with a cast and crew of some 200 people. They’ve been working long hours since the end of October.

Val Jean recalls watching the first episode and gasping at the moment it all became real: A scene when all the Duprees gather as their grandfather tells a story. “My God, there they are — my babies,” she recalled with a laugh.

Inclusivity with intention

Ducksworth points out there’s something for everyone — from people who have money inside the gates to those with less outside, lawyers and entrepreneurs as well as nurses and firemen. All races and sexual orientations are depicted.

“While it is primarily a Black cast, we intentionally wanted to include everybody,” she said. “What was important to me was what I felt was missing in so many of these soaps, which is real inclusivity.”

The cast and crew will be working to create more episodes on Monday, so they won’t be able to tune in and see TV history being made. But there’s a screening party planned at the end of the day for the first two episodes.

“Then we’ll pop some Champagne and have some food and fellowship together and celebrate our accomplishment,” said Tunie. “We need a moment to mark the moment and celebrate what we’re doing.”

MARK KENNEDY

Kennedy is a theater, TV, music, food and obit writer and editor for The Associated Press, as well as a critic for theater, movies and music. He is based in New York City.

More Pressure on Rwanda as DR Congo Says Rebels Have Killed over 7,000 People This Year

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE and WILSON MCMAKIN

11:17 AM EST, February 24, 2025

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — More than 7,000 people have died this year as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have captured unprecedented amounts of territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo, Congo’s prime minister said Monday, as the European Union announced it would review an agreement with Rwanda on critical raw materials.

Judith Suminwa Tuluka told the U.N. Human Rights Council that the security and humanitarian situation in the region “has reached alarming levels.”

The conflict has accelerated in recent weeks, with the rebels taking the key city of Goma in January and Bukavu, another provincial capital, this month. M23 is the most potent of the many armed groups vying for a foothold in Congo’s east, which has trillions of dollars of mostly untapped mineral wealth crucial to the world’s technology.

Pressure grew on Rwanda. The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called Congo’s territorial integrity “non-negotiable” and said EU defense consultations with Rwanda have been suspended — they cooperate on missions in Mozambique and elsewhere — and their memorandum of understanding regarding critical raw materials will be under review.

The EU and Rwanda a year ago signed the memorandum of understanding to “nurture sustainable and resilient value chains for critical raw materials,” noting that Rwanda “produces tin, tungsten, gold and niobium, and has potential for lithium and rare earth elements.”

The EU announcement comes as the government of Congo, far richer in minerals, has accused Rwanda of looting its resources, and after the United States last week urged an “immediate cessation of sourcing of minerals from areas controlled by M23.”

There was no immediate comment from Rwanda on what could be a blow to its economy.

The U.N. has warned that the fighting poses a wider threat to the region, which has seen decades of simmering conflict that has displaced millions.

The M23 has spoken of unseating the government of Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi in distant Kinshasa, which has long had a tenuous grip on the east. The rebels are attempting to gain more ground despite calls for a ceasefire, bolstered by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, a short drive from Goma.

M23 leaders have vowed to “cleanse” cities of alleged bad governance and insecurity. They now threaten the city of Uriva, where gunfire was reported over the weekend.

M23 says it’s fighting to protect ethnic Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo from a failed state to a modern one.

Analysts have called those pretexts for Rwanda’s involvement.

Witnesses in Goma have asserted that the M23’s intelligence branch is searching for former Congolese soldiers and criminals but some people are misidentified. They asserted that 11 young people were killed Sunday while waiting for a weightlifting class in the city after being misidentified as thieves.

___

McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal.

They Told Her Women Shouldn’t Box Now She’s Ghana’s First Woman World Champion

When teenage Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey decided to become a professional boxer – an unlikely choice for a young woman in a working class neighborhood in Ghana – her family begged her to stop training. But Quartey persisted. And last year, at 27, she became Ghana’s first female world boxing champion and the first woman to travel the world as a member of the West African nation’s national team.

By NAA ADORKOR CUDJOE and ANNIE RISEMBERG

6:38 AM EST, February 24, 2025

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — When Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey decided as a teenager to become a professional boxer – an unusual choice for a young woman in a working-class neighborhood of Ghana’s capital of Accra – her family begged her to stop training.

Boxing is the pride of Jamestown, which is based around the fishing industry and also known for being home to many boxing stars. But like most sports in Ghana, boxing has often been seen as for men only, and women are discouraged from taking part.

But Quartey persisted.

And last year, at age 27, she became Ghana’s first female world boxing champion and the first woman to travel the world as a member of the West African nation’s national team.

“My aunts and siblings didn’t like it when I started boxing. They would come here to beg my coach not to let me become a boxer,” she said at the Jamestown neighborhood’s Black Panthers Gym where Quartey has been training since her teenage years.

But when last November Quartey defeated British boxer Sangeeta Birdi in Jamestown’s main boxing area, winning the WIBF World Super Bantamweight title, crowds of friends and supporters from the neighborhood celebrated wildly, seemingly forgetting about the prejudice against female boxers.

Triumph after challenges

Ghanaian media pronounced her win “history,” but Quartey is quick to point out that she is by no means the first female boxer in Ghana.

“There were women in boxing before I ventured into boxing,” she said. But they weren’t allowed to travel outside the country, she added.

Quartey’s long road to this spectacular victory highlights the many challenges that female athletes in African countries face in their careers.

Quartey grew up in Jamestown and, as a teenager, sold rice with her aunt to help the family make ends meet. The only people who supported her boxing dream were her brother, a fellow boxer, and her coach.

In 2017, she stopped boxing and started selling lottery tickets to earn money. It took a lot of convincing from her coach to get her back into the ring in 2021. She could not afford a manager, and feared she would not make it without one.

In Ghana, she said, “female boxers do not receive much support and it is difficult to keep training.”

‘Big deal’ for everyone

Sarah Lotus Asare, a boxing coach and the project lead for the Girls Box Tournament, said Quartey’s world title meant a lot for all boxers in Ghana.

“Even for the male boxers, when they fight with non-Africans, it’s very difficult for them to win, because they have a lot more facilities and equipment than we do,” she said.

Ebenezer Adjei, right, Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey's coach, helps her in an evening training 

Quartey’s title is “a big deal for her, the gym, the community, Ghana, Africa and the world at large,” said her coach, Ebenezer “Coach Killer” Adjei, as he watched her train during an afternoon session at the Black Panthers Gym.

But for Quartey, what counts the most is the impact on young women from her neighborhood.

She wants more women to become professional athletes.

“I am a world title holder and that confirms that what a man can do, a woman can also do,” she said.

Training next to her was 18-year-old Perpetual Okaijah, who said her family had also tried to dissuade her from going to the gym, arguing that it was for men only. But she has kept on coming anyway.

A Witchcraft Case Involving Zambia’s President Brings Scrutiny of a Colonial-era Law and Traditions

Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema speaks during the Lobito Corridor Trans-Africa Summit at the Carrinho food processing factory near Lobito, Angola, on Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, file)

By JACOB ZIMBA

9:34 AM EST, February 24, 2025

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Two men are on trial in Zambia on charges of practicing witchcraft and possessing charms intended to harm the country’s president, in a case that has become a source of fascination in the southern African nation.

The interest reflects a belief in forms of magic and supernatural phenomena that remains in parts of southern Africa — and some irritation at a colonial-era law that brands it witchcraft and criminalizes it in Zambia.

“I hate that colonial piece of legislation that attempts to outlaw a practice that it does not understand,” said Gankhanani Moyo, a cultural heritage lecturer at the University of Zambia. He said it fails to consider the nuances of traditional African beliefs.

“Traditional Zambian societies and individuals believe in a strong relationship between the human world and the supernatural,” Moyo said.

The trial also has a heavy dose of political intrigue. Prosecutors allege the two men were hired by a brother of Emmanuel Banda — a former lawmaker who is now on the run — to curse President Hakainde Hichilema.

Some have dismissed it as a stunt by Hichilema, who faces an election next year. The president hasn’t commented on the case.

“Will the court allow witch doctors and other alleged witches to testify as expert witnesses?” a column in the Lusaka Times newspaper asked with scorn.

But some politicians and other public figures in Zambia have said they believe in witchcraft, seeking out supernatural help to make them stronger or more popular.

Hichilema himself was accused of using witchcraft as an opposition leader by the late President Michael Sata, who asserted that the magic from his home region was stronger. Hichilema didn’t respond to that accusation more than a decade ago.

Police say the men in the current case were arrested in a hotel room in the capital, Lusaka, in December after a cleaner reported hearing strange noises. They were found in possession of a bottled chameleon and other items including a mysterious white powder, a red cloth and an unidentified animal’s tail. The men also face charges of cruelty to animals.

Police said one man confessed they had been hired for a curse to kill Hichilema. He testified in court they were promised more than $1 million.

The case has captured attention because many Zambians take witchcraft seriously, said Enoch Ngoma, a journalist for more than 30 years who has covered many such trials.

Zambia’s judiciary had said it would allow this trial to be broadcast live on television, which would have been just the second time that’s happened for a trial. But it reversed the decision, citing “stakeholders.” Zambia’s influential Council of Churches had said it was opposed to a live broadcast.

When the trial opened last week, the courtroom was packed.

Many traditional beliefs have survived in Zambia alongside its official Christian religion. A study by the Zambia Law Development Commission, which has a mandate to reform laws, found that 79% of Zambians believed in the existence of witchcraft as of 2018.

The study was conducted because the Witchcraft Act has been questioned.

It was passed in 1914 when Zambia was part of the British “sphere of influence.” The act defines practicing witchcraft as pretending to exercise any kind of supernatural power, witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment calculated to cause fear, annoyance or injury.

Witchcraft cases have been difficult to prosecute in Zambia, with evidence tricky to collect. The cases are normally heard in traditional courts, and this is a rare one to reach the magistrates court in Lusaka. The penalty for practicing witchcraft is a fine or up to two years in jail, with the possibility of hard labor.

Meanwhile, protecting against witchcraft can be good business.

Rodwell Vongo, who goes by the name Dr. Vongo, is a traditional healer and president of the Zambian Traditional Healers Association. He said he would be referred to as a witch doctor under the law but calls that term derogatory.

He lives in a plush suburb of Lusaka and said he has a long list of middle-class clients, rejecting the presumption that such beliefs are only held by rural folk.

The majority of his customers are women who seek charms and spells for happy marriages, he said, but many others come looking for protection against witchcraft.

Wisdom Kaunda, a teacher, said he was closely following the witchcraft trial and believes it can help determine how his country treats the subject in the future.

“Personally, I feel people should be punished for planning to cause harm to someone,” he said, but added: “It is so difficult to prove witchcraft in the courts of law.”