🎬 The promised land

January 09, 2025

Good morning. It’s one thing to make a New Year’s resolution, and another to see it through. It’s another thing entirely when your New Year’s resolution is to run one marathon per day, but that’s what 55-year-old Belgian runner Hilde Dosogne accomplished in 2024. Now, she’s submitting evidence to Guinness World Records to be officially designated as the first woman to run a marathon every single day of the year.

Dosogne said the hardest part of it was mentally starting over again each day. You know what makes starting over mentally each day easier? Not running a marathon. Excited for your 2025.

— Chu Chu Sulley.

CURRENCIES

Currency exchange rates against the US dollar as of market close. Here’s what these numbers mean

GEOEXPLORATION
Namibia’s oil hopes take first round of hits

Jojo Jenkins/AP

While you had your rude awakening to the year when you resumed work earlier this week, Namibia is having its own ‘welcome to the Oil Big Boys League moment’. Yesterday, British exploration company Shell decided to write down the value of PEL39, one of Namibia’s oil blocks by $400 million.

According to CEO, Wael Sawan, mining oil in the country is proving tougher than they initially thought:

  • Despite first discovering oil in 1974, the country has yet to put out a single drop as most deposits are deemed not commercially viable.

  • Namibia’s topography is very challenging with the lower permeability of the rock making extraction harder.

  • The high gas content in its oil deposits has left it with only very few fans.

Analysts have shown concern as PEL39 is one of the country’s major oil blocks and it could seriously cripple the country’s oil ambitions.

It’s still the promised land. Despite the development, Namibia still boasts huge oil reserves which are currently under exploration and mapping. Shell has drilled nine wells over the past three years, discovering more oil blocks in the process. Other companies like Total and Galp have also made discoveries and plan to stick around. Especially as,

  • Namibia's offshore oil reserves are estimated at 12 billion barrels, one of the largest in Africa.

  • Mining one barrel of oil costs between $25 - $35, one of the cheapest rates globally.

Beyond oil. This past Monday, Namibia secured $161 million in funding from China to build dams supplying its uranium mines. It boasts the 2nd and 6th largest uranium deposits worldwide. -CCS

TRENDING
More speech, Fewer mistakes

Max Schrems/Meta

In a blog post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of third-party fact-checking on its platforms with a move toward a community notes model (like X’s). The company is also making changes to its content moderation policies around political topics, lifting restrictions that limit the amount of political content on users’ feeds. Meta said the changes will “allow more speech” and “take a more personalized approach to political content.” The changes will be implemented across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, starting in the US.

SHOWER THOUGHTS

“Telephone or transmission poles are trees that cleaned up and got a job.”

NEWS
Round the continent

Leibish/Getty Images

  • Zambia has introduced (or re-introduced) an emerald tax on its gemstone exports. It has the second-largest deposits globally.

  • Gold miner, Barrick Gold has threatened to exit Mali, following weeks of unresolved dispute with the junta government.

  • Azerbaijan has lodged a protest with Eritrea over the detention of three Azerbaijani-flagged vessels and their crews that have been held since November 2024

  • Ex-Malian footballer, Eric Chelle has been named as head coach of Nigeria’s football team.

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