Uganda has become the 26th nation to join the Invictus Community, marking a significant milestone in the country’s support for the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded, injured and sick military personnel through sport.

The development was revealed in a statement published on the LinkedIn page of Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following an announcement by the Invictus Games Foundation during the IGF Conversation: From Policy to Practice held in London. The statement also confirmed that Uganda will make its debut at the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027.

Uganda is only the second African country to join the global movement founded to use adaptive sport as a tool for physical recovery, mental wellbeing and social reintegration of serving personnel and military veterans.

The country’s admission follows an exploratory visit by the Invictus Games Foundation in 2025, during which officials assessed Uganda’s capacity to implement recovery programmes built around sport. A subsequent visit by a Ugandan delegation to the United Kingdom in November 2025 enabled officials to study Britain’s model of integrating sport into rehabilitation services for wounded service personnel.

To support Uganda’s entry into the programme, the Foundation has awarded an initial development grant of £15,000. The funding will be used to procure sports equipment and establish Uganda’s first organised recovery activities for wounded, injured and sick members of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

Invictus Games Foundation Chief Executive Officer Rob Owen OBE said Uganda’s admission reflects the organisation’s commitment to extending recovery opportunities to more countries.

He said expanding the Invictus Community enables more wounded service personnel and veterans to benefit from programmes that use sport to rebuild confidence, resilience and purpose beyond military service.

Uganda’s Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Kiryowa-Kiwanuka, described the partnership as an important step towards strengthening rehabilitation and reintegration services for military personnel.

He said joining the Invictus Community demonstrates Uganda’s commitment to supporting wounded service members while creating opportunities for them to rebuild their lives through competitive sport and international engagement.

The Minister added that Uganda looks forward to participating in the Birmingham 2027 Games and becoming an active member of the global network.

Invictus Games Birmingham 2027 Chief Executive Officer Helen Helliwell welcomed Uganda’s participation, noting that the next edition is expected to be the largest in the event’s history.

Beyond the sporting arena, Uganda’s admission reflects a growing recognition across defence institutions worldwide that recovery from physical and psychological injuries extends beyond medical treatment. Increasingly, adaptive sport is being integrated into veteran support programmes as governments seek to improve long-term wellbeing, social inclusion and post-service reintegration.

For Uganda, participation in the Invictus Community also presents an opportunity to strengthen rehabilitation systems for military personnel while showcasing the resilience of its servicemen and women on an international platform.

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Ukraine is turning increasingly to foreign recruits with the promise of some of the world’s highest infantry salaries as it struggles to sustain troop numbers in one of the longest and deadliest conventional wars in Europe since the Second World War.

The new recruitment strategy, reported by Business Insider, comes as Kyiv seeks to address mounting manpower shortages after more than four years of attritional fighting against Russia. The policy offers foreign infantry and assault troops fixed-term contracts ranging from six to 14 months, alongside monthly earnings averaging 300,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (about US$7,000) and rising to 460,000 hryvnia (more than US$10,000) for those spending extended periods on the front lines.

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has described the package as offering the world’s highest salaries for infantry soldiers, saying the government hopes foreigners could eventually fill between 30 and 50 percent of the country’s most dangerous front-line positions.

The move reflects a growing reality that modern conflicts are increasingly competing for skilled military personnel in an international labour market rather than relying solely on patriotic volunteers.

Foreign fighters interviewed by Business Insider said financial incentives have become increasingly important as the conflict has evolved. While many early volunteers joined Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 out of ideological conviction, today’s recruits are more likely to weigh compensation against the risks involved.

“If you want guys, you need to pay,” one foreign infantry fighter told the publication, arguing that Ukraine is competing with other global conflict zones for experienced combat veterans.

Military commanders, however, caution that higher salaries alone may not solve Kyiv’s manpower challenge.

Ryan O’Leary, commander of the volunteer unit Chosen, said improved pay would likely attract more recruits but warned that Ukraine still faces a “revolving door” problem, with many foreign fighters departing once they complete the minimum six-month contract.

According to O’Leary, by the time recruits complete basic training and join operational units, relatively little time may remain for active front-line service, reducing the military’s return on the investment made in training and equipping them.

The introduction of contracts extending up to 14 months is therefore intended not only to recruit more personnel but also to improve retention.

Other serving Ukrainian officers described the foreign recruitment programme as a practical response to battlefield realities. Many of the country’s earliest volunteers have either been killed, wounded or exhausted after years of continuous combat, while newer recruits may be less willing to undertake high-risk assault operations.

Beyond pay, foreign soldiers argue that longer-term retention will depend on broader reforms, including equal access to military administrative systems, improved welfare benefits and clearer pathways to permanent residency and citizenship.

Analysts say Ukraine’s latest recruitment package underscores the growing economic dimension of modern warfare, where governments are increasingly forced to compete globally for specialised military talent as prolonged conflicts strain domestic recruitment pools.

Whether generous financial incentives translate into sustained battlefield strength will likely depend less on attracting new recruits than on convincing experienced foreign fighters that Ukraine offers a worthwhile long-term commitment rather than a short-term contract.

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As African countries accelerate investments in aviation infrastructure and digital economies, attention is increasingly shifting from aircraft and airports to the workforce needed to sustain them.

That transition is driving greater investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, with global aerospace companies partnering with education organisations to build the continent’s future aviation talent pipeline.

The latest initiative comes in Senegal, where ThinkYoung, in partnership with Boeing, has launched its ThinkYoung STEM School, introducing young learners to digital technologies and careers in aviation, engineering and emerging technologies.

The three-day programme, held in Dakar from June 23–25, brought together 49 students aged between 12 and 18 years, including 30 girls, in what organisers describe as an effort to prepare young Africans for careers in rapidly evolving technology-driven industries.

Delivered alongside Steamtastic, the Senegal Drone Academy and D-Hub, the curriculum combines practical learning in coding, aviation, drone technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and the metaverse, while also developing problem-solving, teamwork and critical thinking skills.

The expansion comes at a time when many African economies are confronting a growing mismatch between rising demand for technical skills and the supply of qualified professionals capable of supporting industrialisation, digital transformation and aviation growth.

For the aviation industry in particular, the challenge extends beyond pilots and engineers to software developers, drone specialists, maintenance technicians and data professionals needed to support increasingly digital aircraft and airport operations.

According to Henok Teferra Shawl, Boeing Africa Managing Director, Senegal’s aviation ambitions make investment in future talent as important as investment in physical infrastructure.

“With the development of Blaise Diagne International Airport and Air Sénégal’s commitment to renew its fleet with nine Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, Senegal has an opportunity to become one of West Africa’s major gateways to global markets,” he said.

“That growth will create high-value jobs across aviation, logistics and related industries. The ThinkYoung STEM School helps raise awareness of these career opportunities while equipping young people with future-ready skills.”

The programme aligns with Senegal’s broader national strategy to strengthen STEM education through specialised science and technology streams in secondary schools, expanded digital skills training and practical extracurricular learning.

For Boeing, the initiative also reflects a long-term industry strategy increasingly focused on workforce development alongside aircraft sales.

Aircraft deliveries alone cannot sustain aviation growth if countries lack engineers, technicians, software specialists and maintenance professionals to operate increasingly sophisticated fleets.

ThinkYoung founder Andrea Gerosa said the programme has now trained nearly 2,000 young people across Africa, West Asia and Europe, helping expose students to careers that may otherwise appear inaccessible.

“As technology and innovation reshape economies, it is essential to equip young people with the skills to think critically, solve complex problems and adapt to change,” Gerosa said.

“By investing in STEM education today, we are helping build stronger futures for young people and the industries that will depend on them tomorrow.”

Over the past decade, the Boeing-ThinkYoung partnership has reached more than 950 young people in Africa, with approximately 60 percent of participants being girls and young women, reflecting a deliberate effort to improve gender representation in STEM and aviation careers.

The programme also signals a wider shift taking place across the continent, where governments, educational institutions and private industry are increasingly recognising that Africa’s competitiveness will depend not only on infrastructure investment but also on developing the skilled workforce capable of powering innovation-led economic growth.

For African economies pursuing industrialisation, digital transformation and expanded air connectivity, the race to build airports is increasingly becoming a race to build talent.

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Africa’s business aviation industry is set to undergo its most comprehensive assessment yet after the African Business Aviation Association (AfBAA) launched a major research initiative aimed at generating reliable data on a sector long hampered by limited information and widespread misconceptions.

The study, which has already entered its first phase, seeks to create a detailed picture of business aviation activity across the continent, providing operators, investors, regulators and policymakers with insights into fleet composition, operational trends and the sector’s broader economic impact.

Initial findings are expected to be unveiled at the Aviation Africa conference scheduled for September 9-10 in Nairobi, Kenya.

AfBAA said the multi-phase project is being conducted by independent behavioural economics and strategic marketing consultancy Seefeld Group and is expected to deliver the most comprehensive data-driven assessment of African business aviation undertaken to date.

The initiative comes at a time when business aviation is increasingly recognised as a critical enabler of investment, trade and connectivity in regions where commercial airline networks remain limited or underserved.

According to AfBAA Chairperson Dawit Lemma, the research is intended to provide a factual foundation for investment decisions, industry advocacy and operational planning.

“This type of research is long overdue for our members and those seeking to operate effectively in Africa. We anticipate that the data will provide foundations for smarter investment, create platforms from which to increase advocacy, enhance safety, and enable more resilient operations and business longevity,” Lemma said.

Business aviation in Africa encompasses a broad range of activities beyond private jets, including corporate aircraft, charter operations, helicopters, turboprops and increasingly unmanned aerial vehicles. Despite its growing role in supporting sectors such as mining, energy, humanitarian operations and executive travel, the industry has often lacked reliable continent-wide data.

AfBAA believes the new research will help address that challenge by aggregating and analysing operational information from multiple sources to create a clearer understanding of how business aviation is used and where growth opportunities exist.

“The initiative will aggregate and analyze raw data to avoid bias and negative perception and will contest existing information that is often fragmented, nominally anecdotal, and frequently based on perception, not reality,” Lemma said.

“The holistic approach will look not just at which types of aircraft are flying which routes, but also at what they are doing and how business aviation activity affects economies. This is the type of information members can use to make informed decisions about future operational activity.”

The first phase will focus on fleet analysis, maintenance activity, economic trends and media perceptions of the industry. The resulting database is expected to help AfBAA better understand the sector, strengthen engagement with policymakers and provide greater value to its members.

Charles Porteous, President of Seefeld Group, said the study would help fill one of the largest information gaps in global aviation.

“Africa represents one of the most dynamic yet least understood business aviation markets in the world,” Porteous said.

“Seefeld Group is honoured to be selected to provide AfBAA, operators, and policymakers with credible, data-driven insight that supports better decision-making, stronger advocacy, and long-term sector growth through a deeper understanding of fleet composition, operational activity, and how business aviation is utilized across the continent.”

For Africa’s aviation sector, the initiative could mark an important step toward evidence-based policymaking and investment planning. Reliable industry data has become increasingly valuable as governments seek to improve connectivity, attract investment and integrate emerging aviation technologies such as drones into national transport and logistics ecosystems.

AfBAA said the research forms part of its broader strategy to raise the visibility of business aviation across Africa, strengthen industry representation and build stronger links with global aviation stakeholders.

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After another year of fast-paced innovation, media managers, experts and academics posed a few tough questions at this year’s Nordic AI in Media Summit (NAMS), hosted at the JP/Politikens former printing press. Both the ink-stained walls and the lyrics of Video Killed the Radio Star served as reminders that the news industry has survived previous rounds of technological changes. But Canadian AI expert Nikita Roy warned the audiences that survival is not a given: “Awareness is not immunity.”

The fourth edition of the summit, hosted in Copenhagen by the Nordic AI Journalism Network, shifted the focus from tools and experiments to some of the more fundamental issues AI is surfacing for the news industry. What will the news economy look like? What (and who) will be automated? What will journalism mean in the age of AI? Speakers and attendees agreed the jury is out for all of these questions. Or at least, no one has definitive answers for them yet.

NAMS is led by Olle Zachrison, head of news AI for BBC News, Kasper Lindskow and Sara Inkeri Vardar from JP/Politikens Media Group, and Agnes Stenbom Swedling from Schibsted, who until recently was a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute.

The summit included keynote lectures by experts such as Ezra Eeman from NPO, Nikita Roy from Newsroom Robots and our senior research associate Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, now at the University of Copenhagen. There were also presentations of AI projects and tools from many organisations, and breakout sessions targeting specific issues, with most of the latter held under Chatham House rules.

If you couldn’t be in Copenhagen this week, here are five key takeaways from the summit, ranging from broad questions on how AI will change the future of journalism to more practical takeaways from newsrooms navigating these changes. You will soon be able to catch up with the conference programme in full here.

1. It’s time for a radical reimagining of the news economy

The impact of AI will bring a fundamental restructuring of both the supply and demand side of the news economy, said Shuwei Fang, a Shorenstein Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. As she explained in this powerful essay we published in March, she predicts four paradigm shifts: scarcity to abundance, a human audience to a machine audience, attention to intention, and artefacts to liquid content.

She believes these shifts will result in significant changes for the news ecosystem. For example, news production could shift from a “stock model,” where a news product is first produced and subsequently consumed by users, to a “flow model” where content is crafted at the moment of consumption specifically for a particular user.

Another shift could be news going from a B2C product to B2A2C (business to agent to consumer). Here, the “A” layer includes multiple agents with different needs in their own right, depending on their purpose.

The ecosystem emerging can produce answers to extremely niche, detailed questions addressing individuals’ needs, Fang said. While this presents opportunities, the distance that AI creates between audiences and news organisations could alienate publishers from important information about what audiences need from them.

Fang also predicted that the market for news could start to bifurcate between luxury and commodity, with extremes at either end and a hollowed-out middle. The luxury end would be defined by intangible qualities like brand identity and trust, with offerings like member communities and shared live experiences. The commodity end will be defined by infrastructure and integration.

There would be AI and human presence across both ends of the spectrum. The middle, where most news organisations sit today, would be dangerous ground, Fang said.

Despite the risks inherent to the scenarios she painted, Fang is not a pessimist. “The market for knowledge could get much bigger,” she said, with possible expansion both on the supply and demand side. Opportunities include lower production costs and the possibility to use AI to reach underserved audiences.

However, the value brought by AI may not be evenly distributed, and power could concentrate in a handful of players. For news organisations thinking about how to position themselves for the future, Fang heeded a warning: “Be suspicious of solutions that require the least amount of change.”

2. It’s also time to rethink what journalism is

If the news industry is to reorient itself in light of AI, it will need to redefine itself. “People don’t want news, as in facts, but they might want sensemaking,” said Florent Daudens, CEO and co-founder of Mizal AI, a startup offering production agents for media companies. This is why Substack is growing even as other forms of media struggle, he said.

Facts might not be a great bet in a news ecosystem increasingly mediated by AI either, Daudens said, as tech companies could get them by striking a deal with a single newswire.

This thought was echoed by Fang: there’s so much free information online such as research and press releases that AI companies could draw from, and that, for some, may be indistinguishable from journalism by news organisations.

Nikita Roy suggested we are at a turning point that, if missed, could spell disaster for the news industry. “We are in our Nokia and Kodak moment, where we are looking at a new product but thinking with the metrics of an old product,” she warned. Instead of worrying about how to recover lost web traffic and otherwise defend the status quo, we need to leave behind old assumptions.

AI is disrupting something more fundamental, Roy said: how information moves, how value is captured, what it means to be a media company.

This is a bigger shift than the one from print to digital, as then the role of the publisher remained largely the same. To Roy, publishers may be approaching this from a loss perspective, feeling their losses but not considering what they could gain.

Echoing Fang, she also asked those present to consider the people they could reach that it had not been possible to serve before. “We mistake the container for journalism,” she said, referring to an article, a podcast episode or a newsletter issue. And then she asked a fundamental question: “If you knew nothing about websites, but you knew people still needed verified information to navigate their lives, what would you build?”

A slide from Nikita Roy’s presentation. Image courtesy of NAMS.

3. Agents might be the future

Agents took centre stage at this year’s summit. In a future when many people navigate the web with their own personal agent, as David Caswell outlined in an essay we published last year, publishers’ relationships with audiences would be mediated through this middle layer.

Florent Daudens described how agents would surf the web on behalf of the humans they serve, visiting websites, extracting and repackaging information according to their person’s wants and needs. They may even be authorised to pay for news, in a sort of micropayment system as suggested by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a recent conversation with the Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson.

For news publishers, this would mean learning how to embed instructions for agents on their websites, instructing them on how to use their content, and working out how to serve information to agents in a way that would preserve the organisation’s tone and identity.

Key to this is keeping your data in order, which isn’t something many news organisations have prioritised until now. “Very few news organisations structure their data properly, and that’s a huge problem,” said consultant Madhav Chinnappa, until recently a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute.

Roy described how this kind of future might work. In this new world, “you no longer need to be found, you need to be worth monitoring,” she said. Publishers would find themselves creating for two audiences: humans and agents. The latter wouldn’t only be the personal agents Daudens suggested, but also platform agents, newsroom agents, and even adversarial agents.

“By the time agents are reliable enough, it will be too late. We can’t wait and see. We need to experiment now, as much as we can,” Roy warned.

This might still seem far-fetched to some, but agents have already improved substantially over the last year, with the biggest impact on coding.

Agents also began playing a role in newsroom AI tools. Norwegian local media network Polaris Media Vest uses agentic as well as vibe coding for a range of journalistic tools and widgets, some of which non-coding reporters built, said Kaja Distad, head of editorial development.

In Schibsted, video experts taught an agent to work like them to develop a tool now used to convert any content from its subsidiary VG into a social-ready video. Football World Cup-focused chatbots developed by Swedish tabloid rivals Aftonbladet and Expressen both use agentic workflows. Danish publisher Bonnier’s new internal tool Flows allows journalists to set up their own agentic systems, combining research, extraction and planning, decision and writing. This tool is used, for example, to monitor, summarise and notify them of a story they may want to cover. In some ways, agents are already here.

4. Large legacy newsrooms send out nimble explorers

Characterised both as speedboats sailing ahead of a large ship and as light drones compared to heavy tanks, legacy newsrooms shared how they are using relatively small and fast-moving AI experiments to test out new ideas while protecting their core brand.

The military analogy was shared by Amalie Kestler, editor-in-chief of Politiken, the Danish newspaper in whose former printing press the meeting was held. Newsrooms can be run like tanks, heavy and slow with a centralised hierarchy, she explained. Or they can be run like drones, light and quick. The tank model has its place, but in some cases newsrooms should opt for the drone approach.

For Politiken, AI experimentation has expanded beyond data journalism and its multiuse tool Magna into the quick-paced vibe coding, leading to interactive widgets to encourage audiences to engage with news stories.

An eye-catching example was the “death machine”, which asks users to input information about their lifestyle and uses statistics to predict when they will die. At the same time, Politiken is also highlighting the human aspects to its journalism with video podcasts and live debates.

Gard Steiro, editor-in-chief and CEO of Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG), built upon past NAMS presentations to make the case for moving on from experimentation to scaling. For him, this also means doubling down on the human touch that AI cannot replace in journalism. “There are people out there who need to be met at eye level and tell their stories, and rest assured that Sam Altman doesn’t give a damn about them,” he said.

Steiro also sees a great need for change to make the most of the opportunities afforded by AI. “If we don’t make an effort to change, the untapped potential will be so great that any startup will overtake us,” he said.

Legacy newsrooms are slow like large ships, so VG is sending out speedboats to test the waters. These include VG X, a new app-based news service that replaces articles with summarised information updated around the clock and managed almost entirely by AI, using a clustering algorithm to group together VG articles and videos into stories. As there is no CMS, editors can request changes directly in the product, akin to talking to it.

Another of these speedboats is VG Lab, an internal tool to quickly test ideas and get an assessment of whether VG could execute it, whether there’s a market for it, how much it would cost, and what similar offerings exist around the world. This is led by two people and a team of agents, and led to the creation of Norway’s fastest growing app last autumn, Steiro said.

Gard Steiro’s presentation. Image courtesy of NAMS.

5. What do audiences want?

An underlying motif pervaded the summit: the idea that AI could be used by publishers to get a better idea of what their audiences want and need through a new ability to ask direct questions.

Daudens mentioned this as an advantage of personal agents: by looking at what agents are seeking out from websites, publishers may figure out areas that require further reporting. Also by analysing how audiences use AI chatbots and the kinds of questions they ask, news organisations can know what kinds of stories they want more of.

In a panel discussion moderated by our researcher Felix Simon, the conversation turned to the importance of building relationships with the audience. “We can create as much journalism as we want, but if people don’t want to be sources, or don’t want to read us, there’s no point,” said Stine Thorsgaard Kjær, head of innovation and development at TV2 Østjylland.

There is a potential problem for journalists who use AI. In a closing keynote, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen asked a key question posed by the Reuters Institute’s survey data: audiences tend to be sceptical of AI in journalism.

It could be that journalists who want to use AI and be explicit about their use aren’t making a good case for this to the public, he suggested. If we want to both use AI and foster trust, there are many factors that contribute to trust that have very little if anything to do with technology. As our Trust in News Project found, it’s about brand, presentation, language, bias, factual accuracy.

“It remains really important that you, as a professional community of practice, continue to judge your own work by your own standards” when it comes to AI use, Nielsen said. But that’s only one leg of value and trust, and probably not the most important one. The second, he added, is a public test: the need to convince members of the public, “what is in it for us?”

Marina Adami writes articles on the future of journalism worldwide and occasionally works with the Reuters Institute’s research team. 

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The Kingdom of Cambodia has moved to dismiss reports that it had ordered Africans with expired immigration waivers to leave the country by May 31, 2026, describing the information circulating online as false.

In a press clarification issued by Cambodia’s General Department of Immigration under the Ministry of Interior, authorities said reports published by some websites claiming that “Cambodia Orders Africans with Expired Immigration Waivers to Leave by May 31, 2026” were “completely untrue.”

The clarification appears to mark a retreat from earlier reports that had sparked concern among African communities and travellers following claims that immigration authorities were tightening enforcement against foreigners whose waivers or permits had expired.

“The General Department of Immigration of the Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Cambodia wishes to clarify that the information published on those websites is completely untrue,” the statement reads.

The immigration department specifically referenced reports carried by websites including Campaigner Online and News Ghana, both of which had published stories alleging that Africans living in Cambodia under expired immigration waivers had been ordered to leave the country before the end of May.

Cambodian authorities urged the public to rely only on official communication channels for immigration-related information, directing citizens and foreigners to the department’s official website and hotline for clarification.

The statement comes amid growing scrutiny globally over immigration enforcement, visa compliance and residency regulations as countries tighten border management systems following years of post-pandemic migration shifts.

For African travellers, students and businesspeople operating in Southeast Asia, the earlier reports had raised fears of possible deportations or stricter visa enforcement measures in Cambodia, a country that has increasingly attracted foreign entrepreneurs, digital workers and investors because of its relatively open business environment.

At the same time, 256BN has seen multiple TikTok video clips showing Africans detained in Cambodia claiming they had been trafficked into the country by Chinese-linked syndicates before allegedly being drawn into illegal online activities and cybercrime operations.

The videos, which have circulated widely on social media in recent months, have added to growing concerns about human trafficking, online scam networks and the exploitation of vulnerable migrants across parts of Southeast Asia. Several regional governments have in recent years intensified crackdowns on cybercrime compounds allegedly operated by transnational criminal networks.

While Cambodian authorities did not explain how the reports emerged or whether any internal immigration review had prompted the confusion, the clarification is likely to calm immediate concerns among affected foreign nationals.

The development also highlights the growing sensitivity around immigration-related misinformation, especially at a time when governments worldwide are balancing border security concerns with the need to remain attractive to international investors, tourists and skilled workers.

Cambodia has in recent years sought to deepen trade and investment links with African countries while positioning itself as a growing destination for tourism, hospitality and small-scale foreign enterprise.

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The death of genocide mastermind Félicien Kabuga in The Hague has brought a dramatic and symbolic end to one of the longest-running manhunts in modern international criminal justice.

The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) confirmed on Friday that Kabuga died while hospitalized in The Hague, where he had been under UN detention following his arrest in France in 2020 after more than two decades on the run.

In a statement issued from Arusha and The Hague, the UN tribunal said Dutch authorities had commenced standard investigations into the circumstances surrounding his death, while Mechanism President Judge Graciela Gatti Santana ordered a full inquiry led by Judge Alphons Orie.

Kabuga, a wealthy Rwandan businessman once regarded as one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, had been charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Prosecutors accused him of financing extremist militias, facilitating hate propaganda and supplying resources used during the massacres that killed more than 800,000 people in approximately 100 days.

For decades, Kabuga’s name occupied a near-mythical place in international justice circles.

An arrest warrant was first issued by the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but Kabuga managed to evade capture across several countries for over 25 years before French authorities arrested him near Paris in May 2020.

His capture was hailed globally as a breakthrough moment for accountability over the Rwanda genocide — particularly because many believed age and time might permanently shield senior suspects from prosecution.

Yet the legal process that followed revealed the growing challenges confronting international war crimes tribunals.

Kabuga’s trial formally began in September 2022, but proceedings soon became overshadowed by concerns about his health and mental fitness. In 2023, judges indefinitely stayed the case after finding he was no longer fit to stand trial because of severe cognitive decline.

At the time of his death, he remained in detention while awaiting provisional release to a country willing to receive him.

That unresolved status leaves behind a deeply complicated legacy.

For survivors of the genocide, Kabuga’s death may represent the final disappearance of one of the men they viewed as central to organizing and enabling the killings. But it also means one of the most anticipated genocide trials of recent decades will never reach a verdict.

The development therefore carries implications far beyond Rwanda.

Kabuga’s case had increasingly become a measure of whether international justice institutions established after the atrocities of the 1990s could still deliver meaningful accountability decades later. Instead, his death before judgment highlights a recurring dilemma: justice mechanisms often move more slowly than history itself.

The case also revives broader questions about the effectiveness and future of international criminal tribunals.

Supporters argue that Kabuga’s eventual arrest demonstrated that genocide suspects can never fully escape accountability, regardless of how much time passes. Critics, however, contend that delayed prosecutions risk depriving victims of closure while consuming enormous institutional resources.

For Rwanda, the symbolism is especially powerful. The genocide remains the defining event in the country’s modern political identity, shaping everything from governance and national reconciliation to regional security policy and diplomatic relations across Africa and beyond.

Kabuga’s alleged role was particularly significant because prosecutors portrayed him not as a battlefield commander, but as part of the financial and ideological machinery that enabled mass violence. His prosecution was expected to deepen historical understanding of how economic elites, media structures and political networks helped fuel genocide.

Now, that judicial process ends without a final courtroom reckoning.

Still, Kabuga’s death is unlikely to diminish the historical consensus surrounding the atrocities of 1994 or the global legal precedents established in their aftermath.

The institutions created after Rwanda and the Balkans transformed international law, expanding the principle that individuals — including financiers, propagandists and political actors — can be held personally accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide.

Even so, the conclusion of Kabuga’s case without a verdict may reinforce calls for faster, more adaptive systems of international justice capable of handling aging suspects and prolonged conflicts more effectively.

More than three decades after the genocide, the world is once again reminded that while history can pursue fugitives for decades, time itself often remains the ultimate adversary of justice.

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The devastating 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 that claimed the life of senior Ugandan police officer Christine Alalo has returned to the global spotlight after a US jury awarded nearly USD50 million in damages to the family of one of the victims.

A jury in Chicago this week awarded USD49.5 million to the relatives of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American development worker who died aboard the ill-fated Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft on March 10, 2019.

The ruling is among the most significant courtroom verdicts linked to the crash, which killed all 157 passengers and crew shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

For Uganda, the tragedy is remembered because it claimed the life of Christine Alalo, a Commissioner of Police in the Uganda Police Force and Acting Police Commissioner for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Alalo was travelling from Italy through Addis Ababa en route to Mogadishu, Somalia, where she was due to resume her peacekeeping duties. She was survived by two sons.

Her death triggered national mourning at the time, with leaders across Uganda and the African Union paying tribute to her service in regional peacekeeping and policing.

The Ethiopian Airlines disaster became one of the defining crises in modern aviation history because it followed another fatal Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash involving Indonesia’s Lion Air less than five months earlier.

Investigators later focused attention on the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a flight-control feature implicated in both crashes.

The twin disasters led to the worldwide grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX fleet for nearly two years, forcing the American aerospace giant into sweeping safety reviews, regulatory scrutiny and billions of dollars in compensation claims.

According to reports by CBS and AFP carried by AOL, Boeing had attempted to settle most civil lawsuits related to the crash outside court. However, the Stumo family proceeded to trial after negotiations reportedly failed to produce an agreement.

Boeing said in a statement that it remained “deeply sorry” to families who lost loved ones in both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.

The manufacturer has since agreed to pay more than USD1.1 billion in fines and compensation connected to the disasters, including an additional $445 million earmarked for victims’ families, while also committing to stronger safety and quality controls.

The crashes severely damaged Boeing’s global reputation and triggered renewed debate over aircraft certification processes, corporate accountability and aviation oversight standards.

For many Ugandans, however, the renewed attention surrounding the court ruling also reopens memories of Alalo’s sacrifice and the broader human cost behind one of aviation’s darkest chapters.

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Uganda has restated its commitment to agricultural transformation and climate resilience following the accreditation of a new country representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization, signalling a fresh phase in cooperation with the UN agency.

Ezana Getahun Kassa presented his letters of credence to Foreign Affairs Minister Odongo Jeje Abubakhar in Kampala on May 6, with both sides underscoring shared priorities of food security, agricultural productivity and sustainable development.

During the engagement, Odongo Jeje positioned agriculture as central to Uganda’s economy, noting that the sector remains the backbone of livelihoods while also serving as a key driver of growth in the broader development agenda.

He said the government is pursuing a dual approach—modernising agriculture while safeguarding indigenous knowledge systems that have historically supported rural communities.

The minister also highlighted the growing urgency of climate adaptation, pointing to shifting weather patterns that are increasingly affecting production cycles and food security.

He called for balanced policy approaches that integrate innovation with cultural and socio-economic realities, particularly in sensitive areas such as biotechnology.

While acknowledging the potential of modern tools, including genetically modified organisms, to boost productivity, Odongo Jeje cautioned that adoption must be carefully calibrated.

“Uganda seeks to improve productivity while safeguarding what is uniquely ours,” he said, adding that partnerships with institutions such as FAO are critical in managing the transition.

Uganda’s equatorial climate, he noted, remains a strategic advantage for year-round agricultural production, although climate variability is beginning to test that resilience.

In response, Getahun described Uganda as a strategic partner in advancing regional food security, citing its agricultural potential and favourable natural conditions.

He reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to supporting the country’s development priorities, particularly through technical assistance and cross-sector collaboration.

Getahun also emphasised the multi-sectoral nature of agriculture, calling for broader engagement across government institutions beyond the agriculture ministry to drive more coordinated outcomes.

The minister welcomed the proposal, while stressing the importance of maintaining structured engagement through established diplomatic channels.

The meeting concluded with both sides committing to deepen cooperation, expand technical partnerships and support Uganda’s efforts to build a more resilient and sustainable agricultural sector.

The engagement comes at a time when Uganda is intensifying efforts to strengthen food systems, improve productivity and adapt to climate pressures, with international partnerships expected to play a pivotal role in delivering long-term transformation.

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LUANDA — ThinkYoung and Boeing have launched the first edition of their STEM School in Angola, targeting young learners with hands-on training in science, technology, and aviation-related fields.

The free programme, held in Luanda, brought together 52 participants aged between 12 and 18, with girls accounting for nearly 60 percent of the cohort. The initiative was delivered in partnership with the American Schools of Angola and Global Shapers Luanda.

Organisers say the programme is designed to expose young people to emerging technologies while building foundational skills in problem-solving, teamwork, and critical thinking—competencies increasingly seen as essential for future employment.

The latest curriculum marks an expansion from earlier editions, moving beyond coding to include modules in artificial intelligence, robotics, and the metaverse. Participants were also introduced to career pathways in aviation and advanced technologies.

Boeing’s Africa managing director Henok Teferra Shawl said the initiative aligns with Angola’s broader push to invest in science and technology education.

“By giving students hands-on experience in robotics, AI and aviation technologies, we create opportunities and build a pipeline of tech-savvy, skilled talent,” he said.

ThinkYoung founder Andrea Gerosa said the expansion of the programme reflects growing urgency around equipping young people with future-ready skills amid rapid technological change.

“In a time of global uncertainty and rapid advances in AI, STEM skills are more important than ever. They equip young people to think critically and solve complex problems while opening doors to successful careers,” he said.

The Angola rollout marks the latest step in a broader expansion strategy by ThinkYoung and Boeing across Africa, Europe, and West Asia. The next edition of the STEM School is scheduled to take place in Dakar, Senegal, later this year.

Over the past decade, the partnership has reached nearly 1,900 young people globally, including about 850 in Africa, with a strong emphasis on gender inclusion. Organisers say around 60 percent of participants have been girls and young women.

The initiative comes as African economies increasingly prioritise digital skills development to support industrialisation, innovation, and job creation. Governments across the continent are investing in STEM education as part of long-term strategies to build competitive, knowledge-based economies.

For Angola, the programme adds to ongoing efforts to strengthen human capital in science and technology, positioning young people to participate in a rapidly evolving global economy.

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