South Africa

Thousands of people gathered at the Zulu royal palace in South Africa on Aug. 20 to witness the crowning of a new king in the country's richest and most influential traditional monarchy.

Misuzulu Zulu, 47, ascended to the throne once held by his late father, Goodwill Zwelithini, during traditional ceremonies that were partially overshadowed by a bitter succession dispute.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn said that he does not believe in the military victory of the West in Ukraine, adding that the sanctions are already beginning to fall into disrepair.

The complete ban on the purchase of Russian coal comes into force today. The measure was approved as part of the fourth package of sanctions adopted in April against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Another ban on imports from Russia is due to be implemented later this year: a partial oil embargo.

Toyota's profit fell nearly 18 percent in the April-June quarter from the year before, as a semiconductor shortage that has slammed the auto industry dented production at Japan's top automaker.

Toyota Motor Corp. reported yesterday a quarterly profit of 736.8 billion yen ($5.5 billion), down from 897.8 billion yen the previous year.

Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati is attending the gathering of G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs in Indonesia where they seek strategies to counter the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine, inflation and other global crises.

Türkiye is seeking to increase its exports to the world's largest economies with a specially tailored "distant countries strategy," Trade Minister Mehmet Muş has said.

The war in Ukraine goes painfully on. After 4 months, the Russians show slow gains and have taken much of the Donbas, E Ukraine. In fact, if we count Crimea and the land along the south coast as well, Russia has grabbed almost 20% of Ukraine's land, and most of it is the most valuable, including where the wheat is grown.

A Mozambican park welcomed its first white rhinos last week in 40 years after 19 of the threatened animals completed a 1,600-kilometer truck ride from South Africa, conservationists said.

The rhinos were reintroduced to Zinave National Park in southern Mozambique under an initiative to restore wildlife and boost the local economy.

"In 2050, the world will be multipolar, with many influential states, including Russia, pursuing their own interests, and the main task of the West will be to ensure that such an order works", explained Olaf Scholz on Sunday, in an interview with the American CBS network.

The fossils of our earliest ancestors found in South Africa are a million years older than previously thought, meaning they walked the Earth around the same time as their East African relatives like the famous "Lucy," according to new research.