- A court case filed by a losing bidder in South Africa’s emergency power program threatens to delay the provision of the electricity by months as banks balk at providing funding because of the risk of an adverse judgment. The case filed in South Africa’s High Court by DNG Energy, which alleges corruption by government officials, was earlier this month postponed until 30 November. The deadline for financial close of the projects proposed by the seven preferred bidders has been set at 30 September by the government, already a delay from an initial 31 July requirement. The delays mean there will be little imminent relief from intermittent power cuts imposed by state utility Eskom.
- The US will soon allow entry to most foreign air travellers as long as they’re fully vaccinated against Covid-19 – while adding a testing requirement for unvaccinated Americans and barring entry for foreigners who haven’t gotten shots. The measures announced Monday by the White House mark the most sweeping change to US travel policies in months, and widen the gap in rules between vaccinated people – who will see restrictions relaxed – and the unvaccinated. The new rules will replace existing bans on foreigners’ travel to the US from certain regions, including Europe. The new policy will take effect in “early November,” according to the White House, though the precise date isn’t yet clear.
- The number of white rhinos, the most common of the world’s five rhino species, may have fallen by about a quarter during the past decade mainly because of poaching, the International Rhino Foundation said. Numbers in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, an area the size of New Jersey, plunged by about 67% from 2011 to 2019 to just 3,549 animals due to poaching and a drought. “Some experts have estimated that Kruger’s steep population declines put the continental white rhino population number closer to 15,500 individuals,” the International Rhino Foundation said in a report. “If this is accurate, it would actually represent a 24% decline for this species over the past decade.”
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