Africa

St. Petersburg – October 29, 2026 -- Travelers are booking pricier trips: policies covering trips insured for $30,000 or more rose 27.2% in Q3 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to travel insurance marketplace Squaremouth.

That is more than twice the 12.9% growth in insured trips overall. Trips insured for under $10,000 fell 2.3%, per Squaremouth's Q3 2026 Travel Insurance Trends Report.

The shift was foreseeable. In April, Squaremouth surveyed more than 3,000 travelers, and 23% said they planned to spend more on premium or bucket-list trips in 2026.

Safari bookings in Rwanda grew 33.3% in the peak Q3 window

Q3 is the peak booking window for luxury safaris. The most popular destinations all grew:

Hong Kong – October 19, 2026 -- TECNO and BBC StoryWorks have released a new film about "100 Portraits of Becoming," a two-year portrait project that will collect 100 portraits and personal stories across five countries, starting in Kenya.

TECNO co-created the project with visual artist Angélica Dass. It pairs Dass's approach to portraiture with TECNO's Universal Tone imaging technology, which is designed to represent different skin tones fairly. The countries involved are Kenya, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Brazil.

Three Kenyans tell their stories on camera

The film introduces some of the people behind the Kenyan portraits, the project's first chapter.

Agripreneur Alex Mutua Muli connects local farmers to wider markets, building a future in the community where he grew up.

Canada – October 11, 2026 -- Anyone researching Canadian silver stocks should check the exchange first, because the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) host very different kinds of companies. The listing venue shows a company's stage, but it says nothing about whether its project is any good.

The TSX-V is built for earlier-stage companies that need public capital

The TSX-V is Canada's public venture-capital market for emerging companies. Mining is a major part of it, but technology, energy and life sciences businesses also trade there. Exploration costs money long before a project earns revenue, covering geologists, drilling contractors, technical studies, environmental work and land payments.

Hong Kong – September 28, 2026 -- Smartphone maker TECNO and visual artist Angélica Dass have unveiled "100 Portraits of Becoming," a two-year photography project that will document 100 people across five countries, starting with 20 individuals from Kenya.

The project pairs camera technology with personal storytelling

The Kenya chapter, now live, features participants reflecting on identity, opportunity and self-definition. The initiative builds on TECNO's Universal Tone imaging work, which focuses on rendering diverse skin tones accurately, and extends that effort into a broader look at the individuals behind the images.

New York – September 23, 2026 -- World Animal Protection, working with Collective Fashion Justice, has released a new investigation called Blood Feathers, documenting undercover footage of ostrich feather farms in South Africa cutting feathers above the bloodline and later pulling them out with pliers.

South Africa produces 75% of the world's ostrich products, including feathers, meat and skin. In the 2024-25 season, 150,000 ostriches were slaughtered there for these trades, and more than 150 tonnes of feathers were exported globally.

Farms confirmed supplying feathers to YSL, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel and Shein

Investigators identified farms and processing facilities in the region that confirmed supplying feathers to these luxury houses and to fast-fashion retailer Shein. At one farm, birds were live-plucked every six months, a practice the industry itself refers to as producing 'blood feathers' because of the bleeding it causes.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING – April 14, 2026 – Cora, the organic period and body care brand, has expanded its product lineup with redesigned period pads, a new tampon applicator, and a novelty Cora Bag Charm that holds a real tampon inside a wearable accessory. The brand's full range — spanning tampons, pads, liners, menstrual discs, cups, and bladder care — is available via one-time purchase or a flexible, customizable subscription. Every order triggers a donation of period products and body literacy resources to people who would otherwise go without. Since launching in 2016, Cora says it has donated more than 10 million pads and reached roughly 15,000 girls in Kenya and India with reproductive health education.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING – April 12, 2026 – TeamViewer, the German remote connectivity software company, continues to position its platform as a comprehensive solution for enterprise IT management, offering remote desktop access, AI-driven device management, augmented reality support for logistics and production, and next-generation cybersecurity — all within a single platform that scales from individual private users at no cost to large organizations managing tens of thousands of endpoints. The platform integrates directly with widely used enterprise tools including Microsoft Intune, ServiceNow, Freshworks, Jira, Salesforce, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zendesk, reducing the friction of adding remote management capabilities to existing workflows.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING – November 25, 2025 – Lonely Planet has named Botswana a top trend destination for 2026, and for safari lovers who crave both wilderness and comfort, the country’s quiet southern corner—the Tuli Block—might just be the most exciting place to start.

Botswana in Lonely Planet’s Spotlight
Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel list is one of the most trusted signals in the travel world, and Botswana’s appearance in the 2026 edition will surprise few seasoned Africa fans. From the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta to the vast Kalahari Desert, the country has long been known for spectacular, low-impact safari experiences.