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This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week. Lani Adeoye is a globe-straddler. The designer moves between teaching design at her alma mater, Parsons School of Design in New York City, and managing projects at her company, Studio-Lani, in her hometown, Lagos, Nigeria. This week, Ms. Adeoye, 35, will be … Read more

When Nigeria’s third most powerful politician was accused of sexual harassment on national television this year, a fierce backlash ensued — against his accuser. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of four women in Nigeria’s 109-seat Senate, was suspended for six months without pay in February. She said the suspension was punishment for speaking out against Godswill Akpabio, … Read more

Selestine Kemoli fled to the Kenyan Embassy in Riyadh in 2020, terrified and desperate. Ms. Kemoli had been working in Saudi Arabia as a maid. Like many East Africans in her situation, she said, she was being abused. She told the embassy’s labor attaché that her boss slashed her breasts with a paring knife, forced … Read more

Selestine Kemoli fled to the Kenyan Embassy in Riyadh in 2020, terrified and desperate. Ms. Kemoli had been working in Saudi Arabia as a maid. Like many East Africans in her situation, she said, she was being abused. She told the embassy’s labor attaché that her boss slashed her breasts with a paring knife, forced … Read more

After listening to hundreds of hours of ape calls, a team of scientists say they have detected a hallmark of human language: the ability to put together strings of sounds to create new meanings. The provocative finding, published Thursday in the journal Science, drew praise from some scholars and skepticism from others. Federica Amici, a … Read more

Three American citizens who were sentenced to death over a failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, according to a spokeswoman for the Central African country’s president. The three Americans were among 37 people condemned to death last September after taking part in a May … Read more

An 800-mile rail corridor stretching from Angola’s northern border to the Atlantic Ocean was former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s signature project in Africa, meant to counter Chinese influence and reshape America’s engagement with the continent. When President Trump came into office this year, he quickly moved to dismantle decades of American aid to Africa, … Read more

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats overseas to scrutinize the social media content of some applicants for student and other types of visas, in an effort to ban those suspected of criticizing the United States and Israel from entering the country, U.S. officials say. Mr. Rubio laid out the instructions in a long … Read more

Battling a yearslong economic crisis and persistent accusations of corruption, Zimbabwe’s president faces the greatest threat to his power since taking office in a coup nearly eight years ago, with members of his own party calling for mass demonstrations in the streets on Monday to unseat him. The president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has vowed to crack … Read more