🎬Micro-spaghetti

CURRENCIES

POLITICS
Namibia is looking for a custodian for their newfound money

In Namibia, the only thing more stark than the desert-ocean borderline is the gap between the rich and the poor. Namibian voters will bear this in mind when they report to the polls today to elect a new president and parliament in what could be a tough election for the ruling SWAPO party, which is seeking to extend its 34-year rule.

How bad is it? In 2019, SWAPO won the elections with 65.5% of votes, a sharp dip from 80% five years prior. Many critics believed the results reflected the Namibian people’s disgruntlement with the government. Since then, things have only gotten worse.

• Namibia’s unemployment rate stands at 43%, census data shows almost a third of households are accommodated in shacks

• Over the past year, a crippling drought has further depleted water resources in the region’s driest country.

An Afrobarometer survey published in July showed 76% of Namibians felt the country was heading in the wrong direction, with joblessness and corruption among the top concerns.

And SWAPO should be worried

Ruling parties in neighboring countries haven’t fared too well in their respective election seasons. In Botswana, the party that held power for almost six decades finished fourth in a vote last month. In South Africa, the African National Congress lost its national majority in May for the first time since apartheid ended in 1994, forcing it into a coalition with smaller rivals.

A scramble for oil. In case any more motivation was needed, the presidential candidates’ hopes will be fueled -literally- by the promise of controlling the country’s hydrocarbon boom following recent offshore discoveries by companies including TotalEnergies and Shell. Commercial production is set to begin as early as 2029.

Zooming out: SWAPO’s flagbearer, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah would become only the continent’s third-ever female president if elected. -BO

DIGITS
The world’s thinnest spaghetti

372 nanometers wide. Much thinner than human hair, the microscopic strand could go from al dente to overcooked in less than a second. Why was it created though? Starches have medicinal applications, such as in bandages where they can keep bacteria out but allow in moisture. Since pasta is a starch, researchers made nanofiber strands by using electricity to pull flour and liquid through small metal holes, much like how you’d make spaghetti, per Engadget.

Could you still eat it? Probably not.

SHOWER THOUGHTS

NEWS
Round the continent

• Sixteen people are missing after a tourist boat sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, while 28 have been rescued.

• Mali’s military junta cut a TV news station's signal over a broadcast criticizing neighboring Burkina Faso's ruling junta.

• Zimbabwe has laid out economic, governance, and land management policies to its creditors hoping it will pave the way for a return to international capital markets.

• Telecom group MTN rolled out 5G in Benin and Congo Brazzaville, raising the number of countries in which it has launched the technology to six since debuting in South Africa in 2020.