The Ivory Coast’s political opposition, an alliance of parties known as the Coalition for a Peaceful Alternation, called on Saturday for political dialogue with the ruling party, Rally of the Republicans (RDR), five months ahead of the presidential election.

Opposition leaders denounced President Alassane Ouattara’s potential candidacy, as well as the exclusion of several political figures from the electoral list, including banker Tidjane Thiam, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Swiss bank Credit Suisse. To allow the candidacy of all political leaders, the country’s former First Lady, Simone Gbagbo asked President Alassane Ouattara “to take his pen to write an amnesty law that will erase everything”.

In Paris, Tidjane Thiam, president of the coalition and the PDCI, the main opposition party, projected a video onto big screens. In the video, he said that “justice must not be instrumentalized” and called for a revision of the electoral lists before the election.

The coalition strongly criticizes the Independent Electoral Commission, considering it biased. The presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire is scheduled for October 25, 2025. The Coalition for a Peaceful Alternation (known as CAP) in Ivory Coast was formed on March 10, 2025, to confront the presidential majority bloc. It brings together a number of opposition figures, including former political figures such as Pascal Affi N’Guessan, Charles Blé Goudé, and former First Lady Simone Gbagbo.

Alassane Ouattara became president of Côte d’Ivoire in May 2011 following the 2010 presidential election. That election was marked by a violent post-election crisis that pitted Ouattara’s supporters against those of outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo.

Since taking power, Ouattara has served three presidential terms, and his potential candidacy for a fourth term has drawn fierce criticism from the opposition. However, his supporters argue that the new constitution, passed in 2016, resets the clock.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, pressure is mounting on Justice Minister Constant Mutamba after explosive allegations over a multi-million dollar no-bid contract and suspicious fund transfers.

On Tuesday, lawmakers grilled the Attorney General for six hours and Mutamba for five. The focus: a $29 million deal awarded without competition, and a $19 million payment to Zion Construction—wired just one day after the company opened its bank account.

The funds didn’t come from the state treasury, but from FRIVAO, the agency managing $325 million in war reparations from Uganda. That agency falls under Mutamba’s direct authority. Defending himself, the minister admitted to “errors” and asked for forgiveness—but claimed he’s the target of political revenge.

He also blamed tensions with Prime Minister Judith Suminwa for a toxic work climate. Lawmakers say the accusations are serious, and the judiciary must be allowed to act. Mutamba’s future in government now hangs in the balance.

Four billion people, about half the world’s population, experienced at least one extra month of extreme heat due to human-caused climate change from May 2024 to May 2025, scientists say. The extreme heat caused illness, death, crop losses, and strained energy and healthcare systems, according to the analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central and the Red Cross. “Although floods and cyclones often dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event,” the report said.

Many heat-related deaths are unreported or are mislabeled by comorbid conditions like heart disease or kidney failure. Heat waves are silent killers, said Friederike Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London, one of the report’s authors. “People don’t fall dead on the street in a heat wave … people either die in hospitals or in poorly insulated homes and therefore are just not seen.” Low income communities and vulnerable populations, such as older adults and people with medical conditions, suffer the most from extreme heat.

The scientists used peer-reviewed methods to study how much climate change boosted temperatures in a heat wave and calculated how much more likely its occurrence was due to climate change. In almost all countries in the world, the number of extreme heat days has at least doubled. The report says strategies to prepare for heat waves include monitoring and reporting systems for extreme temperatures, providing emergency health services, cooling shelters, updated building codes, enforcing heat safety rules at work, and designing cities to be more heat-resilient.

While these strategies help people adapt to the increasingly frequent and severe heat waves, “only comprehensive mitigation, through phasing out of fossil fuels, will limit the severity of future heat-related harms,” the study said.