Sports/Entertainment
Morocco beat the Netherlands 3-2 on penalties in Monterrey to reach the 2026 World Cup last 16, coming from behind to keep African hopes alive in the tournament.
Local
Zambia's Ministry of Education has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kenyan organisation Food 4 Education to provide technical support and strengthen the national school feeding programme.
Health
The Democratic Republic of Congo has banned mass gatherings in its capital to curb an Ebola outbreak, a move that raises the regional health alert and that the opposition says doubles as a way to block a protest.
Technology
Yango Zambia and the Zambia Road Safety Trust have expanded their Safer Journeys to School scheme, which now reaches 32,000 children in Lusaka with road-safety training and safer crossings.
Markets
Trading in Zambian government bonds stayed active in late June, with K479.3 million in nominal value changing hands on the secondary market on Friday alone, as yields held in the mid-teens.
Business & Economy
Zambia has scored 81 out of 100 and earned a 'very good' rating in its third validation under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the global standard for openness in mining revenues.
Politics
The Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development has rejected as misplaced a claim by opposition figure Brian Mundubile that the government is deploying soldiers to intimidate miners.
Politics
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has begun printing ballot papers in Dubai for the 13 August 2026 general election, starting with presidential papers, and has taken stakeholders to verify the process.
Sports/Entertainment
South Africa, Egypt and Cape Verde lead Africa's surviving nations into the 2026 World Cup round of 32, with knockout fixtures now set across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Business & Economy
ATIDI marks 25 years and convenes its 2026 Annual General Meeting in Nairobi from 30 June to 3 July, drawing African leaders, investors and development financiers — a body whose risk cover touches Zambia's trade and energy plans.
Technology
Zambia is drafting an Innovators and Inventors Bill to protect inventions and intellectual property and support the growth of its artificial intelligence and technology sector, the Ministry of Technology and Science says.
Politics
Opposition presidential candidate Brian Mundubile has pledged to retain Zambia's free-education policy if he wins the 13 August 2026 general election, signalling continuity on a flagship UPND reform.
Courts
The High Court has set aside an Electoral Commission of Zambia decision barring the Candle symbol from 2026 ballots, resolving a dispute Kwacha News earlier reported when a court stayed the order.
Politics
President Hakainde Hichilema has launched his re-election campaign for the 13 August 2026 general election, standing as the UPND candidate with Vice-President Mutale Nalumango as running mate.
Technology
US President Donald Trump has vowed a 100% tariff on any European country that taxes American technology giants — a precedent African revenue authorities, including Zambia’s, will watch as they weigh their own digital-services taxes.
Africa/World
Tanzania’s government has suspended political rallies nationwide until further notice, citing security threats, three years after President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifted a six-year ban — a reversal opposition parties call unlawful, set against Zambia’s open campaign before its 13 August 2026 election.
Business & Economy
A new Transition Minerals Tracker from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre finds human-rights abuses linked to mining copper, cobalt and other transition minerals are rising sharply across Africa — a governance test for Zambia’s copper-led, responsible-supplier strategy.
Sports/Entertainment
Cape Verde, a nation of just over 500,000 people, has become the tiniest country ever to reach a World Cup knockout and is drawn to face holders Argentina in Miami on 3 July, while Egypt also advanced as the Round of 32 line-up was confirmed.
Politics
Vice-President Mutale Nalumango said the government has stabilised Zambia’s economy and is now shifting focus to growth and jobs, a message delivered seven weeks before the 13 August general election and set against first-quarter GDP growth of 7.7 percent, easing debt and cooling inflation.
Technology
Africa holds under 1% of global data-centre capacity. As artificial-intelligence compute spreads across the continent, Zambia must decide whether to host it or import it.
Politics
Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane and opposition candidate Mundubile have clashed over the value of Zambia's forex reserves, with the economy now the campaign's battleground.
Markets
The Bank of Zambia has retired the cheque, with 26 June 2026 the final day for interbank clearing as the regulator pushes households and firms onto electronic payments.
Business & Economy
Zambia's gross domestic product grew 7.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, the Zambia Statistics Agency said, up from 4.5% a year earlier.
Markets
Zambia's annual inflation slowed to 6.5% in June 2026 from 6.6% in May, the lowest since February 2018, the Zambia Statistics Agency said.
Courts
South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has set aside an order that would have let Zambia repatriate Edgar Lungu for a state funeral, ruling that the burial decision rests with his family. The government says it disagrees but will not appeal, ending a year-long dispute.
Technology
Anthropic has accused China's Alibaba of an illicit attempt to copy its Claude AI models, in a letter to US senators that calls it the largest known distillation attack on the company to date. Alibaba did not immediately respond.
Business & Economy
Dubai-based Spiro has closed a $270m equity round, capped by a $55m investment from Chinese fund NewTrails Capital. The electric-motorcycle and battery-swap operator is heading for DR Congo and Malawi, bringing the wave to Zambia's doorstep and to its copper and cobalt.
Business & Economy
Public debt has fallen to 94% of GDP from a 2021 peak near 129%, reserves have rebuilt to US$5.5bn and bond yields have eased, according to Ministry of Finance data. The recovery is real but unfinished.
Sports/Entertainment
Zambia coach Nora Häuptle has named a 28-player provisional squad for a home-based WAFCON 2026 training camp, recalling Saudi-based midfielder Hellen Chanda as the Copper Queens build towards Morocco and a 2027 Women's World Cup place.
Health
Africa CDC has reinforced cross-border surveillance against Ebola after an imported Bundibugyo case in France, with DR Congo reporting 1,048 confirmed cases and 267 deaths. Zambia, which shares a long border with DR Congo, sits among the countries the agency lists as at risk.
Politics
The European Union will deploy more than 70 observers to scrutinise Zambia's 13 August general election, its sixth such mission and a marker of deepening EU interest in the Copperbelt.
Sports/Entertainment
South Africa beat South Korea 1-0 in Guadalupe on 24 June 2026 to reach the World Cup knockout rounds for the first time, setting up a round-of-32 tie with co-hosts Canada in Los Angeles on 28 June.
Local
Zambia’s Road Transport and Safety Agency and the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Arts have signed a memorandum of understanding to license young motorcyclists, teach road safety and curb unregistered machines, against a road toll the WHO puts above 3,000 deaths a year.
Courts
Zambia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that a statutory residence-permit requirement is invalid where it narrows the constitutional definition of “ordinarily resident” under Article 266, reaffirming that an ordinary Act cannot amend the Constitution.
Africa/World
Ethiopia's National Election Board says Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party won 438 of 501 House of Representatives seats in the 1 June 2026 election — a vote marred by insecurity that shut 143 polling stations and by the exclusion of Tigray.
Sports/Entertainment
Egypt beat New Zealand 3-1 in Vancouver on 21 June 2026 for the country’s first-ever World Cup win in 92 years, with Mohamed Salah scoring and assisting, while debutants Cape Verde fought back to draw 2-2 with Uruguay in Miami.
Health
Zambia’s Ministry of Health has launched a national STEPS survey, gathering behavioural, physical and biochemical data from about 5,762 adults across all ten provinces to measure the risk factors behind noncommunicable diseases.
Business & Economy
The Workers’ Compensation Fund Control Board has rebranded, with Vice-President Mutale Nalumango touting a fund that grew from K2.5 billion to K6.6 billion in three years and now eyes K10 billion on the back of roads, fertiliser and energy bets.
Politics
Fourteen presidential candidates have been validly nominated for Zambia's 13 August 2026 general election, run under the 50%-plus-one rule with a run-off if nobody clears the threshold. An explainer on the field, the law and the campaign period.
Business & Economy
Zambia’s pension fund has defended its US$300 million stake in the Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway as a commercial call backed by due diligence, not a government directive, as the US$650 million PPP road to the Copperbelt pushes past a third complete.
Technology
Northern Province has commended ZICTA for upgrading communication towers from 2G to 4G to widen rural internet access, as the regulator tours Universal Access and Service Fund projects across northern Zambia and presses a national rollout of solar-powered 4G towers.
Markets
SEC Zambia’s daily trade summaries show GRZ bond turnover easing from K830m to K592m between 17 and 18 June 2026, with yields spanning 8.6% to 20%, even as year-to-date secondary trading crossed K64bn across more than 3,900 trades.
Technology
MTN Zambia and Huawei have unveiled in Lusaka what they call the world’s first commercial deployment of a five-band LampSite indoor 5G unit, positioning Zambia as a global reference site for indoor connectivity.
Courts
Zambia’s Supreme Court has dismissed Lumwana Mining Company’s appeal, affirming that an employer must consult and negotiate with workers before a redundancy and upholding twelve months’ salary in damages for ten workers made redundant in 2019.
Courts
On 11 May 2026 Zambia’s Constitutional Court declared Sections 56 and 57 of the Local Government Act unconstitutional, ruling that the Minister of Local Government cannot suspend elected councils and install an unelected administrator in their place.
Business & Economy
KoBold Metals broke ground on shaft construction at the Mingomba copper project in Chililabombwe on 29 April 2026, an investment exceeding US$2 billion billed as Zambia’s largest-ever private investment.
Business & Economy
Zambia has launched a debt-for-energy conversion, using a US$600 million African Development Bank loan to buy back its US$1.36 billion 2053 Eurobond and channelling up to US$275 million into a national grid resilience programme.
Health
Zambia vaccinated more than 3.8 million children under five against polio from 2 to 5 June 2026, in a second-round drive across six provinces that responded to vaccine-derived poliovirus found in Lusaka wastewater, with no paralysis cases recorded.
Markets
The Bank of Zambia cut its policy rate by 25 basis points to 13.25% on 13 May 2026, its third consecutive cut, citing a favourable maize harvest and a strong kwacha, with inflation inside the 6–8% target band.
Local
Western Province’s Tapo-Lulambo feeder road in Mongu has reached about 9km of a 40km target, part of a 150km rural-roads push that officials say will improve access to markets and government services.
Local
Water minister Collins Nzovu toured the WARMA-hosted regional water-quality laboratory under construction in Lusaka’s Ibex Hill on 6 May 2026, finding it about 50% complete and rebuking the contractor over materials and progress.
Local
The Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company is doubling the Chunga treatment plant and building a new 54-million-litre plant at Ngwerere under the US$300 million Lusaka Sanitation Programme, backed by German and European Investment Bank finance.
Politics
President Hakainde Hichilema has assured the nation that Zambia’s tradition of peaceful, fair and credible elections will hold for the 13 August 2026 general election, speaking at a Seventh-day Adventist Church fellowship in Lusaka.
Africa/World
South Africa’s intensifying crackdown on undocumented employment is dividing Johannesburg’s inner city, with proposed fines, thousands of new inspectors and vigilante raids falling hardest on informal trade and migrant workers, Al Jazeera reported.
Sports/Entertainment
Africa’s 2026 World Cup hopes narrowed at the weekend as Tunisia and Ivory Coast were eliminated in the group stage and South Africa lost their opener, while Egypt and Mohamed Salah fought to keep their campaign alive.
Politics
An Electoral Commission of Zambia advisory requiring presidential candidates to campaign by an official timetable has drawn a legal caution from the Law Association of Zambia and defiance from the Tonse Pamodzi Alliance, whose Chipata rally was blocked by police.
Health
Washington warned Zambia it must grant American firms expanded minerals access or lose remaining US support for an HIV programme that underpins treatment for about 1.3 million people, with a reported 30 April 2026 deadline as services contracted.
Health
Zambia logged 987 cumulative cholera cases and 16 deaths from 1 January to 10 May 2026, roughly double the 2025 burden, with Northern Province the epicentre and an oral cholera vaccine response under way.
Local
On World Refugee Day, Zambia is home to more than 113,000 refugees — most from the DR Congo and the Great Lakes — and is trying to turn its settlements from camps into economic hubs by folding refugees into national services.
Health
Washington is phasing out the roughly $400 million a year it gives South Africa for HIV through PEPFAR — a withdrawal modelling suggests could cause up to 295,000 extra infections, and a warning for other aid-reliant African countries including Zambia.
Sports/Entertainment
Hosts Mexico and the United States are the first teams through to the round of 32 as the expanded 48-nation World Cup builds toward its first knockout stage, with a record nine African teams chasing places.
Africa/World
UNHCR says 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2025 — a fall of nearly 5% and the first decline in a decade, driven by the largest wave of returns in its history, though many return to fragile conditions.
Africa/World
The African Union and Caribbean states have merged their reparations machinery and pressed former slave-trading powers for formal apologies, debt relief and compensation at a High-Level Consultative Conference in Accra.
Technology
A study of 112 prompts across four leading AI chatbots — ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Copilot — found they gave men plans and futures while handing women emotions and caregiving, a bias the authors trace to training data.
Business & Economy
Zambia has signed about $1.8 billion in power-related financing since April — a $1.5 billion CMEC deal for 900 megawatts and a €290 million Globeleq solar project — as it borrows again to fix the power shortage behind its load-shedding.
Markets
A copper rally has rebuilt Zambia’s reserves, steadied the kwacha and kept the government’s bond market trading — clear signs the country is pulling clear of the debt crisis, even as commercial-creditor talks and copper-price risk remain.
Politics
The Lusaka High Court has stayed an Electoral Commission of Zambia directive ordering five independent candidates to drop the ‘Candle’ symbol, granting them leave to seek judicial review and keep the mark until the case is heard.
Politics
Zambia’s Constitutional Court has dismissed a petition challenging President Hakainde Hichilema’s eligibility to contest the 13 August general election, ruling it lacked merit and keeping him on the ballot as the UPND’s candidate.
Politics
Zambia votes on 13 August 2026. An honest scorecard of Hakainde Hichilema’s first term: he pulled the country out of debt default and back to growth, but the cost of living and the lights tell a harder story.
Local
The Zambia Revenue Authority and the High Commission in London held their first tax webinar for Zambians in the UK — covering registration, tax clearance and investment incentives, with a 30 June revenue-strategy deadline flagged.
Sports/Entertainment
South Africa drew 1-1 with Czechia in Atlanta to keep their World Cup knockout hopes alive — but a suspension for goalscorer Teboho Mokoena and a must-win finale against South Korea now stand in the way.
Health
Tuberculosis killed 1.23 million people in 2024 and Zambia carries one of the world’s heaviest burdens — just as the foreign aid that props up TB and HIV care across southern Africa is being pulled back.
Africa/World
Cuba’s National Assembly has approved roughly 175 market reforms — admitting private banks, foreign property buyers and bigger private firms — its deepest break with the socialist model in decades, forced on by a US sanctions squeeze.
Africa/World
Mission 300, the World Bank–African Development Bank drive to end energy poverty, has connected more than 50 million people across 40 countries — with Zambia among the governments signed up to connect their own unlit households.
Technology
Apple chief executive Tim Cook says device price rises are unavoidable as the AI boom drives memory-chip costs to unsustainable levels — a squeeze that lands twice over on import-dependent markets like Zambia.
Business & Economy
Zambia’s trade surplus widened to K3.5 billion in April 2026, up from K0.9 billion in March, the Zambia Statistics Agency said — but a 9.3 percent fall in imports, not an export boom, did most of the work.
Politics
A call to publish the per-MP voting record on Bill 7 gathered force after President Hichilema said four of his own MPs opposed a constitutional amendment the official tally recorded as passing without a single “No”.
Business & Economy
The Bank of Zambia’s 2025 annual report shows external debt service fell $90.9m to $575.1m, driven by lower payments on restructured Eurobonds — but the debt stock kept rising.
Politics
Zambia’s Constitutional Court has cleared Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe and running mate Dolika Banda to contest the 13 August 2026 election, dismissing a petition over her school qualifications.
Markets
Airtel Networks Zambia became the fourth company to cross a $1 billion market value on the Lusaka Securities Exchange, a milestone tied to economic reform and $107m of network investment.
Sports/Entertainment
Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 in Kansas City, becoming the first player at six World Cups and the oldest hat-trick scorer in tournament history at age 38.
Health
Seven Ebola patients have recovered in the DR Congo, but viral misinformation claiming the outbreak is a hoax is undermining the response as cases climb to 837 with 196 deaths.
Africa/World
Anti-migrant groups in South Africa have set 30 June 2026 as a deadline for undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country, driving thousands to flee as threats of xenophobic violence escalate across provinces and repatriation flights begin.
Politics
Former ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba says the 13 August general election is increasingly a direct contest between President Hakainde Hichilema and Tonse Pamodzi candidate Brian Mundubile, as polls show UPND leading and the opposition consolidating behind a single challenger.
Business & Economy
A 15-year Grid Resilience Programme worth up to $275 million will channel sovereign debt savings into Zambia’s electricity distribution network, targeting the outages that have plagued homes and businesses.
Politics
The UPND has suspended 13 members in Mazabuka District for supporting independent candidate Gary Nkombo ahead of the August 2026 general election, with expulsion to follow within seven days if they do not renounce his campaign.
Sports/Entertainment
The pianist and composer once known as Dollar Brand, whose music carried the sound of South Africa through apartheid and into freedom, has died in Germany at 91.
Sports/Entertainment
In its first match at a World Cup, Cape Verde held favourite Spain to a goalless draw, with 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha making seven saves to seal one of the islands’ greatest sporting nights.
Africa/World
A framework to end the war with Iran has sent oil prices tumbling from wartime highs — good news for a country that imports every litre of fuel, but relief that will arrive with a lag.
Politics
Brian Mundubile took the Tonse Pamodzi alliance to a mass rally in Kitwe, sharpening the opposition’s challenge to President Hakainde Hichilema two months before the 13 August vote.
Business & Economy
The Lobito Atlantic Railway has resumed copper shipments after flood repairs — and a planned 800km extension to Chingola could make it Zambia’s fastest route to the Atlantic.
Technology
African startups raised more in early 2026 than a year earlier, but the money is flowing to fewer, larger deals — and increasingly as debt rather than equity. What the rebound means for smaller markets like Zambia.
Health
DR Congo has confirmed 782 Ebola cases and 178 deaths as the outbreak reaches two more health zones, keeping Zambia’s northern border on watch amid a WHO high-risk rating for neighbours.
Africa/World
A proposed 12.5-percentage-point US tariff would hit Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa over forced-labour rules — a list that leaves Zambia out but redraws the trade map across the continent.
Markets
Zambia’s local-currency debt has handed investors the best returns of any government bond market this year, lifted by a firming kwacha — lowering the state’s borrowing costs but leaning on the currency holding its gains.
Politics
On a two-province swing through Chinsali and Kitwe, President Hakainde Hichilema directed UPND officials and adopted candidates to settle internal disputes and campaign as one team ahead of the 13 August general election.
Business & Economy
The National Pension Scheme Authority says its US$300 million stake in the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway was a commercial decision protected by escrow and toll revenues — not a project forced on it by the government. The money comes from Zambian workers’ pensions.
Politics
President Hakainde Hichilema, declared the UPND’s unopposed candidate for the 12 August general election, is urging his party to unite — against the backdrop of the newly enacted Bill 7 constitutional changes that introduce a mixed electoral system.
Markets
SpaceX shares jumped about 18% on their Nasdaq debut, valuing the rocket and satellite company near $2 trillion and making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Its Starlink unit, which sells internet in Zambia, now has fresh capital to expand.
Technology
A United States export-control directive orders Anthropic, the company behind Claude, to bar all foreign nationals worldwide from its AI models Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security — a category that includes Zambian and other African users of the tools.
Africa/World
A joint ILO and UNICEF estimate puts 138 million children in child labour worldwide — about one in 17 — with sub-Saharan Africa carrying 87 million, more than the rest of the world combined. Agriculture and mining are among the sectors that draw children in.
Sports/Entertainment
Mexico opened the 2026 World Cup with a 2-0 win over South Africa at the Estadio Azteca in a bad-tempered match that produced three red cards, while South Korea came from behind to beat Czechia 2-1.
Markets
SpaceX has raised $75bn at a $1.75 trillion valuation in the largest stock-market listing in history, trading on the Nasdaq as SPCX. The engine behind the value is Starlink, the satellite-internet network now expanding across Africa, including Zambia.
Business & Economy
The Bank of Zambia is pushing lenders to tighten credit checks after its April 2026 Financial Stability Report found loan delinquency among civil servants at 16.2%, well above the 10% prudential threshold, blaming over-indebtedness and borrowers stacking loans across institutions.
Politics
The governing UPND Alliance has grown to 15 parties after admitting five more, chairperson Charles Milupi announced, framing the expansion as confidence in President Hakainde Hichilema as the opposition stays fragmented ahead of the 13 August general election.
Africa/World
Somalia’s football federation says the United States’ refusal to admit referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan has deprived the country of a historic World Cup debut, a day after he was turned back at the border despite holding a valid visa.
Technology
Anthropic has released Claude Fable 5, a Mythos-class artificial intelligence model and its most capable public model yet, with safeguards that route high-risk queries to an earlier model. Access is free until 22 June, then requires usage credits.
Africa/World
Multiple attackers killed 12 people and wounded nine more in a late-night mass shooting at the Jumpers informal settlement in Cleveland, east of Johannesburg, and a large manhunt is under way for suspects who remain at large.
Health
The DRC says confirmed Ebola cases have risen to 598 with 115 deaths across three eastern provinces, a Bundibugyo-strain outbreak with no approved treatment that puts neighbours, including Zambia, on watch at the border.
Markets
Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia are piloting instant cross-border payments over PAPSS that settle directly in local currencies — cedi, franc and kwacha — without routing through the US dollar, in a bid to cut the cost of intra-African trade.
Politics
A year after Edgar Lungu died in South Africa, President Hakainde Hichilema has renewed his call for the former president to be buried in Zambia with full military honours, as the family’s legal fight to bury him privately in Johannesburg continues.
Africa/World
The United States has denied entry to Somali referee Omar Artan, who was set to be the first Somali to officiate at a World Cup, citing vetting concerns. FIFA has dropped him from the roster, in a case that underlines US entry risk for African travellers to the co-hosted tournament.
Technology
OpenAI, the US company behind ChatGPT, has filed for a public share sale in the United States about a week after Anthropic, deepening an artificial-intelligence funding race whose capital and infrastructure sit almost entirely outside Africa.
Politics
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has urged citizens to verify information before sharing it, citing rising misinformation ahead of the 13 August general election. The commission positioned itself as the authoritative source for the voter roll, the process and results.
Business & Economy
President Hakainde Hichilema has reaffirmed a commitment to local-content regulations in mining, framing them as the route to Zambians benefiting directly from the country's copper and other resources. State House tied the rules to responsible resource use and economic growth.
Politics
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has suspended all political campaigns in Mazabuka Central Constituency until further notice, citing an unstable security situation and condemning violence in the Kabwe and Chawama campaigns ahead of the 13 August general election.
Politics
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has ordered independent candidates assigned the Candle campaign symbol to choose replacements by 10 June 2026, after finding it resembled a registered party symbol. Candidates who miss the deadline will have a symbol allocated under Regulation 8(6). The directive affects multiple constituencies ahead of the 13 August general elections.
Health
Three Ebola vaccine candidates are in development for the Bundibugyo strain driving the DRC outbreak that has reached Uganda, with Zambia screening at its northern border.
Technology
AI-powered agricultural technology is growing across Africa but more than 70% of investors are based outside the continent, raising questions about technological sovereignty.
Africa/World
The Zambian Embassy in Pretoria repatriated 40 nationals after xenophobic threats forced families to flee KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, and Gauteng.
Markets
The Zambian kwacha is trading in the K17 bracket against the US dollar for the first time since 2023, driven by copper earnings, a bumper harvest, and debt reform.
Politics
The Ministry of Information and Media has warned the public against sharing an AI-generated video purportedly showing former President Edgar Lungu undergoing a post-mortem examination.
Politics
Free education is now law in Zambia after President Hakainde Hichilema signed five bills that also raise the minimum pension from K1,861 to K2,327 a month.
Politics
The Zambia Police Service is investigating 10 aspiring parliamentary candidates for submitting forged grade 12 certificates to the Examinations Council of Zambia ahead of the 13 August general election.
Business & Economy
A handful of outsourcing firms — led by Blackstone-owned VFS Global — now run the front desk of global migration. Their profits have quadrupled on fees and add-ons that African travellers, Zambians among them, pay whether or not they are ever let in, while the EU raised visa fees 12.5% despite high African rejection rates.
Health
At a US anniversary event in Lusaka, Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick Kangwa thanked Washington for a five-year, $1.5 billion health package for HIV, TB and malaria; Information PS Thabo Kawana then clarified the deal is not yet signed. The correction is small, but with US funds underwriting core disease programmes through PEPFAR, the distinction between a welcome and a signature matters.
Technology
The African fintechs that last design for the basic phone, the thin data bundle and the cash that people already use — not a premium market that has not arrived. With WhatsApp near-universal and lenders like Optasia clearing $30m a day in tiny loans, the lesson lands on Zambia’s USSD-based mobile-money market more usefully than any Silicon Valley template.
Africa/World
A 31-member committee of South Africa’s parliament has opened the first impeachment inquiry into a sitting president, examining whether Cyril Ramaphosa should be removed over the 2020 Phala Phala theft. Convened on a Constitutional Court order, the inquiry will run for months — and Zambia, a major trading partner, is watching the rand and the region.
Politics
The New Congress Party, led by Peter Chanda, has endorsed President Hakainde Hichilema for Zambia’s 13 August election, joining a run of small parties backing the incumbent. The declarations matter in a system where the presidency is won only with more than half the vote — a contrast the governing UPND wants voters to see.
Politics
A Lusaka High Court petition by activist Isaac Mwanza and a civil-society consortium asks the court to disqualify more than 100 independent candidates for the 13 August election, arguing Article 51 bars party members from standing as independents. Named candidates include Garry Nkombo and Miles Sampa. No hearing date has been set.
Politics
Zambia's Constitutional Court will hear on 17 June a petition seeking to bar the Socialist Party ticket of Fred M'membe and running mate Dolika Banda from the 13 August ballot, over whether Banda holds a Grade 12 certificate or a proven equivalent. A full bench is listed to determine the matter. The Socialist Party disputes the claim.
Sports/Entertainment
Three football rule changes arrive for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada: an eight-second limit on goalkeepers holding the ball, red cards for players who cover the mouth, and broader VAR review. The Laws are set by the IFAB and applied by FIFA — and they reach Zambian football over time.
Business & Economy
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism prices the carbon embedded in selected imports. Zambia's hydro-heavy grid is a low-carbon advantage over coal-reliant rivals — but drought-driven load-shedding and diesel back-up erode it, and the live question for copper is scope expansion rather than present coverage.
Africa/World
Nigerian police have warned against reprisal attacks on South Africans after weeks of anti-migrant protests in South Africa, the BBC reported on 1 June 2026. For Zambia and the wider continent, the episode raises the safety of African migrants and the SADC free-movement agenda.
Africa/World
The United States will cut by more than half its embassies in Africa that process visas, the Associated Press reported on 1 June 2026. Fewer processing points mean longer journeys and waits for students, businesses, families and the diaspora — Zambians among them.
Technology
Anthropic, the US company behind the Claude assistant, plans a public share sale this year at a valuation approaching $1 trillion. For Zambia and Africa, the story is about access — the capital, infrastructure and policy terms behind a dependence on foreign frontier-AI providers.
Technology
Alphabet said it will sell about $80bn in stock to fund artificial-intelligence plans, including a $10bn slice to Berkshire Hathaway. For Zambia the read is physical: data centres are copper-intensive, and a build-out at this scale feeds the long-run copper-demand thesis behind the mining strategy.
Health
Zambia faces a dual squeeze: rising debt service and falling donor health funding. Health taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks offer a double dividend — more domestic revenue and fewer non-communicable diseases — but the design choices and enforcement decide how much of the promise lands.
Local
Former Information Minister Chishimba Kambwili pleaded guilty before the Lusaka Magistrates' Court to departing Zambia without passing through immigration, a charge tied to a 2024 Zimbabwe crossing. The plea change sends the matter to sentencing on 4 June 2026.
Local
A 36-year-old Chingola man, Kelvin Musebo, died in a tunnel collapse at the OB 13 KCM dumpsite while allegedly engaged in illegal mining, the police said. Separately, the Ministry of Mines says the state will no longer fund rescues of people engaged in illegal mining on the Copperbelt.
Business & Economy
Velos Mining Limited is weighing a copper processing plant in the Bunda Bunda chiefdom of Rufunsa District. The Bunda Bunda Royal Establishment has welcomed the prospect, and the plan tests Zambia’s push to add value to copper closer to source. The investment remains at a consideration stage.
Politics
President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND administration have pledged to recruit more than 40,000 additional health workers in a second term if re-elected on 13 August — a promise that turns on the public-sector wage bill.
Politics
Garry Nkombo, the former Mazabuka Central MP now standing as an independent, has been charged with two counts of assault after an altercation during UPND nominations, Southern Province police said. The case lands weeks into the 13 August election campaign.
Technology
A data centre is a building full of servers that store and process digital information. Here is why Zambia wants a national one, and what reliable power and connectivity it would need.
Politics
Candidate withdrawals have become an election-year talking point in Zambia. Here is how withdrawal works under the rules the ECZ administers, and why it has become an issue before 13 August.
Markets
A Eurobond buyback is when a government repurchases its dollar bonds before they mature. Here is how Zambia's $1.36bn tender works and what it means for the economy.
Africa/World
Gold has hit records above $5,500 an ounce as war and fiscal risk drive safe-haven demand. For Zambia, building gold reserves and a young gold-mining sector, it is an opening as much as a warning.
Africa/World
Illegal mining is collapsing Johannesburg into sinkholes, costing the city billions. For Zambia's Copperbelt, with its own abandoned shafts and informal miners, it is a warning.
Local
Zambia's Drug Enforcement Commission seized cannabis and codeine syrup hidden in the fuel tank of a Copperbelt-bound bus in Kabwe and arrested five people, in its latest trafficking interception.
Health
Nearly a year after it began in Mpulungu, Zambia's cholera outbreak is contained but persistent, centred on Northern Province. The response leans on oral vaccine and clean water.
Business & Economy
The $600m African Development Bank loan financing Zambia's bond buyback is tied to a 15-year National Grid Resilience Program, coordinated by GreenCo and aimed at ending load-shedding.
Africa/World
The Iran war has pushed Brent crude up more than 55% and choked the Strait of Hormuz. For fuel-importing Zambia, the global oil shock tests the kwacha, inflation and a fragile recovery.
Africa/World
Guinea mines more bauxite than anywhere on earth yet ranks 179th on the Human Development Index. For copper-dependent Zambia, the resource-curse warning is about local linkages.
Politics
Zambia's IBA denied banning campaign songs but ordered Hot FM to stop airing an inflammatory track and issued election content guidance ahead of the 13 August general election.
Health
Zambia's malaria cases fell to an estimated 9.5 million in 2024 from 11.5 million in 2023, with deaths down 40%, according to Ministry of Health data — even as the country battles a separate cholera outbreak.
Technology
Zambia cancelled RightsCon 2026 days before it opened in Lusaka. Host Access Now blamed Chinese pressure over Taiwanese delegates; rights groups warn of shrinking civic space before the August election.
Business & Economy
Zambia's Energy Regulation Board cut diesel, kerosene and jet A-1 prices for June 2026 while holding petrol at K27.15 a litre, citing cheaper imports and a stronger kwacha.
Local
Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV, the Ngoni traditional ruler of Zambia's Eastern Province, has died at 75 after a 44-year reign. Government has begun engaging the Royal Establishment on succession.
Markets
Zambia opened a cash tender offer for its $1.36bn 2053 Eurobond, part-financed by a $600m African Development Bank loan tied to a 15-year grid plan.