Mpumelelo Buthelezi wins the 2026 Africa Soft Power Climate storytelling fellowship & photo essay prize

How China turned automated factories and humanoid robots into a single industrial machine — and where the opportunities are opening.

Sulfuric acid is the hidden chemical linking energy, fertiliser, food security, copper, nickel, batteries, semiconductors and water. As sulfur supply tightens, executives must track the industrial connections shaping clean technology, agriculture and global resilience.

The dollar still dominates global finance. But sanctions, frozen reserves, tariffs, gold repatriation, BRICS payment plans and rising geopolitical tension are forcing governments to ask a harder question: how much national security should depend on another country’s financial system?