As her contractual negotiations with the South African Football Association continue, coach Desiree Ellis was once again missing from the bench as Banyana Banyana sealed their place at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

China “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media this week that pledged benign rule if the island comes over to Beijing.

Dutch voters cast their ballots on Wednesday to choose between doubling down on the anti-immigration nationalism of populist Geert Wilders, who sank the last conservative coalition after a fractious two years, or a return to the centre.

Tanzanians went to the polls on Wednesday in an election that President Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to win after candidates from the two leading opposition parties were barred from standing.

Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, has appealed last week’s decision by the International Criminal Court to continue its case against him and is seeking his release, court documents showed on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s defence minister threatened on Wednesday to “obliterate” the ruling Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, a dramatic escalation of rhetoric after the collapse of talks towards a lasting peace between the South Asian nations.

Albanese’s work is so important at this critical period, given the danger that an unchecked Israel will still be provided with Western-made arms, under cover of a hollow ceasefire, to continue its campaign of genocide.

There are few books that quietly rearrange the way one sees a landscape. Fading Footprints is one of them.