SpaceX will begin building an eight mile natural gas pipeline in Texas next month, shortly after its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange on June 12.
The pipeline, named Starpipe, will end at the company’s Starbase launch complex in South Texas and is expected to be operational by January 26, according to a filing with the Texas Railroad Commission by SpaceX affiliate Lone Star Mineral Development.
The project tackles a fundamental bottleneck in Starship operations. Each launch of the world’s largest rocket consumes approximately 630,000 gallons of liquid methane, currently delivered by hundreds of tanker trucks in a process that takes several hours and is incompatible with the launch rates SpaceX is targeting.
Engineering plans SpaceX filed with the United States Army Corps of Engineers show the company intends to build a liquefaction facility at Starbase to convert piped natural gas into liquid methane on site. William Farrar, a Texas oil and gas lawyer and geoscientist, said the approach would make “the most efficient sense.”
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC on June 12, when the company went public, that SpaceX planned to build pipelines, produce its own propellant and investigate drilling for its own natural gas. Cameron County land records show the company has signed more than 100 oil and gas leases with Texas property owners since 2023.
However, Stan Lindsey, an oil and gas consultant in Texas, said extracting natural gas would be a challenging pursuit for a company with no oil and gas experience, and described Starpipe as a practical fallback if the drilling ambitions prove out of reach.
Starpipe will begin on an 83 acre parcel at the Port of Brownsville that SpaceX is negotiating to lease from the city for 50 years, according to a port official who spoke anonymously because the talks are private.
The push into fuel infrastructure reflects Starship’s expanding role. The rocket is central to SpaceX’s drive to expand the Starlink broadband network, deploy orbital artificial intelligence data centre satellites and eventually carry astronauts to the Moon and Mars.
President Mahama urged African nations to fund and lead their own development at a civil society forum in Accra on Thursday, saying elections alone do not make a democracy.
Speaking as guest of honour at the 4th Annual Ghana Civil Society Forum, the President said democracy’s value lies not in the mechanics of voting but in whether citizens are heard, institutions are accountable and development reaches every community. The forum, organised by STAR-Ghana Foundation and partners under the theme “Reimagining Partnerships for Democratic Consolidation and Inclusive Development,” brought together more than 800 participants from civil society, government, academia, the private sector and development agencies.
“The true test of democracy lies in whether citizens feel heard,” Mahama said.
He called on African governments to build development models rooted in domestic capacity, innovation and enterprise rather than reliance on external funding. The call came at a forum whose own organising partners have publicly stated that traditional donor funding continues to decline and global development priorities are shifting, leaving local organisations seeking greater ownership and leadership over their work.
Mahama said this thinking is driving his administration’s current policy priorities: stronger domestic revenue collection, economic diversification, export promotion and targeted investment attraction.
He credited Ghana’s Fourth Republic with delivering peaceful transfers of power, a free media and growing citizen engagement, but said those gains must now translate into outcomes that reach every community in the country. He praised civil society organisations for advancing many of Ghana’s governance milestones through decades of advocacy and described continued partnership between government and civil society as central to his reform agenda.
Ghana has enrolled nearly 500 nurses in its first post basic specialist degrees in cardiology, nephrology, endocrinology and oncology nursing as chronic disease accounts for nearly half of all deaths nationally.
The nurses were admitted at a joint matriculation ceremony for the 2025/2026 academic year under the Mahama Care Initiative, which draws from the Ghana Medical Trust Fund. The programme introduces those four new specialisms at post basic level for the first time while expanding existing training in emergency and critical care nursing across five selected institutions.
Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said non communicable diseases now account for about 45% of all deaths in Ghana, a figure consistent with data from the World Health Organization, which describes NCDs as responsible for nearly half of all deaths in the country. He said the rollout is a pioneering step toward building a workforce capable of treating conditions that were previously handled inadequately within Ghana’s public health system.
The five institutions delivering the new programmes are the Nursing and Midwifery Training Colleges in Tamale, Kumasi and Korle-Bu, the Ear, Nose and Throat Nursing School in Kumasi, and the Perioperative and Critical Care Nursing School at Korle-Bu.
Deputy Health Minister Dr Grace Ayensu Danquah said the NCD burden, centred on diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease and cancer, is rising because of late diagnosis and lifestyle changes. She called for stronger preventive care and early screening to reduce pressure on specialist facilities.
Mrs Faustina Excel Adipa, Principal of the Perioperative and Critical Care Nursing School, urged the students to remain disciplined throughout their training and described the programmes as a generational stake in Ghana’s health workforce.
France’s development agency has met Ghana’s national planning body in Accra to explore cooperation in financial governance and climate planning as the country finalises a new national development framework.
A delegation from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) held an exploratory meeting with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to identify potential new areas for collaboration, including sustainable development, public financial governance and climate resilience.
AFD currently runs 16 active projects in Ghana totalling more than €202 million, focused primarily on urban and rural development. The agency has operated in the country since 1985, when it opened its first representation in an English-speaking African country. The visit signals a potential expansion into governance and policy planning.
NDPC Director-General Dr Audrey Smock Amoah noted that Ghana has attempted multiple development frameworks over the years, among them Vision 2020, the 40-Year Development Plan, Ghana Beyond Aid, Ghana at 100 and Vision 2057, but that implementation has repeatedly proved difficult. The new consolidated plan, she said, is being built to outlast political cycles, with priorities reviewable every four years while keeping the broader national direction stable. The Commission conducted consultations across all 16 regions before finalising the plan.
The Commission is in the final stages of developing the results framework for Ghana’s current national development policy framework.
“Development indicators are identified and agreed upon before the results framework is finalised,” said Dr Amoah.
NDPC Director of Research Richard Tweneboah Koduah told the delegation that climate concerns are now woven into budget planning through the Ministry of Finance and that recent flooding and shifting rainfall patterns have made climate responsive infrastructure and disaster preparedness more pressing. The Commission is working with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to strengthen climate risk modelling and adaptation planning.
AFD Country Director Clémentine Dardy said the agency’s financing instruments, including technical assistance, feasibility studies, grants and non sovereign financing arrangements, were available to support Ghana’s development agenda, though she acknowledged that global constraints on grant funding would shape the choice of mechanisms going forward.
IBM has announced the world’s first chip technology below the 1 nanometre threshold, using a transistor design arranged in three dimensions that nearly doubles computing density against its 2021 standard.
The company introduced the 0.7 nanometre node, also referred to as the 7 angstrom chip, on June 25, as rivals TSMC brought its own 2 nanometre process into volume production in the fourth quarter of 2025, with Samsung doing the same through its own foundry process.
The advance matters because traditional chip scaling, which has driven five decades of computing gains by shrinking transistors on a flat surface, is approaching silicon’s physical limits. IBM’s new approach, branded nanostack, stacks transistors vertically in three dimensions rather than shrinking them sideways, a method the company believes will sustain chip innovation for at least another decade.
IBM says the chip fits nearly 100 billion transistors onto a surface the size of a fingernail, nearly double the density of the company’s prior 2 nanometre chip announced in 2021, and can deliver up to 50% more performance or cut energy consumption by up to 70%.
Research presented at the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) 2026 conference showed the nanostack design achieves more than 40% scaling in static random access memory (SRAM), the memory layer within the chip, which Semiconductor Digest described as the largest SRAM scaling improvement in more than a decade. IBM’s vice president of semiconductors, Huiming Bu, called it “something that we haven’t seen in decades.”
“We’re not just making smaller transistors, we’re reinventing how chips are built,” said Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research.
IBM does not manufacture commercial logic chips at volume. The company pioneers architectures and licenses the technology to foundries including Samsung and Japan’s Rapidus, which is using IBM-derived technology in its effort to produce 2 nanometre chips. IBM has not disclosed which manufacturing partner will produce the nanostack node.
Commercial production is targeted within five years. The 2 nanometre chip IBM introduced in 2021 is only now approaching volume production, five years later.
IBM shares rose more than 6% before trading opened following the announcement, though the stock remains down roughly 11% since January.
A son of late Nollywood comic actor John Okafor has accused his widow of selling a Lagos property for N60 million while excluding the actor’s other children from his estate.
Somtochukwu Okafor, who describes himself as Mr Ibu’s third son and fourth child, made the accusations in a video that went viral Thursday, days after Stella Maris Okafor publicly appealed for financial help to cover rent arrears and school fees.
Mr Ibu, one of Nigeria’s most recognisable comic actors with more than 200 film credits, died on March 2, 2024, after prolonged illness that included the amputation of his leg.
In an interview with content creator Mukoro “King Mitchy” Michelle, Stella Maris said the family had gone without electricity for two months, relied on a well for water, and that her children’s schooling had been interrupted. She asked the public for support.
Somtochukwu alleged the plea masked a different reality. He claimed his father left behind multiple properties for all his children but that the widow had taken control of the assets and kept the proceeds for herself and her own children.
“She sold my father’s house in Lagos for N60 million,” he alleged.
He further claimed Stella Maris blocked him from accessing examination results because she failed to clear his school fees arrears, despite an alleged deathbed instruction from Mr Ibu to do so.
Stella Maris did not immediately respond to Somtochukwu’s accusations. NewsGhana could not independently verify the claims made in the video at the time of publication.
This is not the first time disputes over Mr Ibu’s finances have played out in public. During the final months of his illness in 2023, separate allegations surfaced over the handling of public donations raised for his medical treatment.
Ghana need goals as well as a win against Croatia in Philadelphia on Saturday if they are to top Group L and secure the more favourable round of 32 path.
The Black Stars sit on four points, level with England but behind on goal difference. England hold a plus-four goal difference against Ghana’s plus one. Both teams play simultaneously at 5 p.m. ET, with England facing already-eliminated Panama at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and Ghana taking on Croatia at Lincoln Financial Field. A Ghana win that does not match or better England’s margin against Panama will leave Carlos Queiroz’s side as Group L runners-up rather than winners.
That distinction carries real weight in the draw. Current bracket projections have Portugal, as Group K runner-up, meeting Ghana as Group L runner-up in Toronto on July 2. The Group L winner, by contrast, would face a third place team from one of five other groups in Atlanta on July 1.
Croatia arrive needing a win to be certain of advancing. Their captain, Luka Modrić, reached 200 international appearances against Panama on June 23, becoming the fourth player in history to reach that landmark at a fifth World Cup. At 39, Modrić remains Zlatko Dalić’s most influential presence. Croatia’s only goal of the tournament came from Ante Budimir, who finished at the back post from five yards out after a low cross from Josip Stanišić.
Ghana have looked resilient rather than incisive. The goal in stoppage time that beat Panama in Toronto on June 17 showed resolve but not the cutting edge a group top demands. The goalless draw in Foxborough against England on June 23 was tightly contested. Goalkeeper Benjamin Asare denied Bukayo Saka with a crucial dive, a penalty appeal for a challenge on Prince Kwabena Adu went unawarded in the 78th minute, and Nico O’Reilly struck the bar in the 86th minute before the match ended 0-0.
The burden of finding goals will fall on Antoine Semenyo, Iñaki Williams, and captain Jordan Ayew, with Abdul Fatawu Issahaku and Thomas Partey expected to push the play forward from midfield. Ghana’s defensive record — one goal conceded in two matches, through a back line of Gideon Mensah, Jerome Opoku, Jonas Adjetey, and Marvin Senaya has been one of the group’s steadier performances.
A draw will almost certainly be enough for both Ghana and Croatia to progress, with Ghana advancing as runners-up and Croatia claiming one of the eight best third place slots. With four points already banked, Ghana would likely survive even a defeat. But qualifying as a third place team removes control over the knockout path entirely. Only topping the group and doing so with goals — gives Queiroz’s side a clear route of their own choosing.
A coalition of 75 civil groups and political parties demanded a presidential probe Wednesday into unverified claims of Nigerian fuel being routed through Togo and returned as imports.
The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and the Coalition of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs), in a joint statement signed in Abuja by the CNPP’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade James Ezema, and the CNCSOs National Secretary, Alhaji Ali Abacha, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to establish a presidential judicial inquiry. The organisations described the allegations as serious enough to threaten Nigeria’s energy security objectives and the economic expectations of millions of citizens.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery rejected the allegations in a statement issued June 23, describing the claims as false, misleading, and lacking any commercial or operational basis. The refinery argued that the cost of transporting products from its facility to Lomé and back into Nigeria would amount to between $80 and $90 per metric tonne, significantly increasing costs and making the transactions commercially unattractive. The company added that its sales contracts and tender terms expressly prohibit buyers from reselling or reimporting its products into Nigeria, and that its systems track all liftings, including vessels, buyers, and stated destinations.
The CNPP and CNCSOs said that a firm corporate denial cannot substitute for independent verification. “Only an independent investigation can establish the facts beyond reasonable doubt,” their joint statement said.
The coalition said the allegations did not originate from social media speculation but from trade and shipping analyses attributed to international energy market observers, supported by official foreign trade data showing a substantial rise in petroleum product exports to Togo. The statement did not identify any named analyst, institution, or published report by name.
If the claims were accurate, the coalition warned, consumers would bear the cost. Each additional stage in moving petroleum products, from export handling through offshore storage to insurance and reimportation, adds expenses that would ordinarily not exist if products were supplied directly to the domestic market. The coalition also pointed to foreign exchange implications, noting that one of the principal economic arguments for domestic refining was the elimination of import-related pressure on the naira. If locally refined products were eventually classified and processed as imports upon their return, that benefit would be undermined.
Dangote Refinery operated at 99.1% utilisation in April 2026, producing an average of 53.6 million litres of petrol daily, with some volumes exported. Nigeria’s average daily petrol consumption in the same period stood at about 51.1 million litres, meaning export volumes form a real and auditable part of the refinery’s commercial activity.
The coalition’s proposed terms of reference for the inquiry would cover a review of pricing structures across the petroleum value chain, a forensic audit of vessel manifests and customs documentation, an assessment of regulatory oversight by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and the Nigerian Customs Service, identification of any collusion or economic sabotage, and long-term reform recommendations.
The CNPP and CNCSOs stressed that the demand was not a presumption of guilt. They said a transparent investigation would either expose wrongdoing or offer the Dangote Refinery a vindication grounded in verifiable evidence rather than competing claims.
Health experts, policymakers, civil society organizations, development partners, and people living with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) from across Africa have renewed commitments to accelerate action against severe chronic diseases and strengthen access to quality care at all levels of the health system.
Meeting in Dar es Salaam from 23–25 June 2026 for the 3rd International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa (ICPPA 2026), participants called for stronger political leadership, increased domestic investment, and expanded access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and long-term care for people living with severe NCDs, particularly childhood-onset conditions.
The renewed commitments come at a critical time. More than 100 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with severe chronic diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatic and congenital heart disease, sickle cell disease, and cancer. Yet access to basic specialized care remains limited, with services largely concentrated in major urban centres, leaving millions of people in low-resource rural areas without access to proper diagnostics—much less the life-saving care they need—and facing even greater financial hardships in their search for both.
Against this backdrop, participants highlighted the importance of scaling up PEN-Plus, an innovative African-led model that brings advanced diagnostics and treatment closer to home for those millions by decentralizing care for severe NCDs to first-level referral hospitals and integrating clinical services available to people living with severe NCDs. Currently, twenty countries in the WHO African Region are either initiating or implementing PEN-Plus.
Hosted by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Africa and the NCDI Poverty Network, and with support from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the conference provided a platform to review progress, share lessons, and reinforce commitments towards achieving 2030 NCD targets.
“The PEN-Plus strategy is an African response to an African reality and this conference presents a valuable opportunity to speak with one voice on health investment and the future of noncommunicable disease services,” said H.E. Mohamed Omary Mchengerwa, Minister of Health of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Participants discussed practical strategies to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage by integrating severe NCD services into primary health systems and expanding access to quality care closer to communities.
“Africa must invest more now in addressing noncommunicable diseases with adequate and sustained resources. By strengthening the implementation of integrated approaches such as PEN-Plus, we can ensure that people living with severe NCDs receive the life-saving care they deserve,” said Dr. Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
Partners also emphasized the importance of sustained collaboration and country ownership in driving progress.
“PEN-Plus demonstrates what is possible when countries and partners work together to design systems around people. Scaling up these efforts will save lives, strengthen health systems, and bring care within reach of communities that need it most,” said James Reid, Program Officer for the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) Program.
Participants agreed that achieving meaningful progress towards 2030 will require stronger health financing, multisectoral collaboration, and intensified action on major NCD risk factors, including tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and air pollution. Leaders further committed to increasing domestic investment in NCD prevention and care, recognizing the growing burden these conditions place on individuals, families, health systems, and economies.
As the conference concluded, participants delivered a clear message: the time to act is now. By strengthening health systems, increasing investment and scaling up innovative approaches such as PEN-Plus, African countries can accelerate progress towards the 2030 targets and ensure that millions of people living with severe chronic diseases receive the quality care they need to lead healthy and productive lives.
“PEN-Plus has shown us this important promise: that integrated health care delivery, strengthened by coordinated social movements, can improve health care for everyone and bring us closer to global health equity,” said Dr Gene Bukhman, Professor at Harvard Medical School and Co-Chair of the NCDI Poverty Network.
US inflation hit 4.1% in May, its highest in three years, leaving investors to price in a Federal Reserve rate hike as soon as September.
Data released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, rising from 3.8% in April to 4.1% annually in May, the highest since April 2023. Core PCE, which excludes food and energy, came in at 3.4% annually, while consumer spending remained firm.
The Iran war, which began in late February, has driven inflation to its highest point in three years. Oil prices climbed to a peak of roughly $114 a barrel before a ceasefire and hopes for a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that handles 20% of global oil flows, eased the pressure. Brent crude sat near $73 a barrel on Thursday, down more than 35% from its most recent peak. But analysts said the drop arrived too late to cool May’s data, and that higher energy costs were still feeding through to services, food, and transport prices.
The Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate at 3.5% to 3.75% at its June 17 meeting, the first chaired by new chairman Kevin Warsh, appointed by President Donald Trump. Quarterly projections showed nine of nineteen officials now favour higher rates, a sharp reversal from the March forecast in which no policymaker pencilled in a hike. Interest rate futures quickly priced in a roughly 70% probability of a hike at the September meeting.
Nigel Green, chief executive of financial advisory firm deVere Group, said the data had forced a complete reset in investor thinking. “Inflation above 4% is uncomfortable for any central bank,” he said.
Green argued that resilient consumer spending and a stable labour market left the Fed no reason to ease. The US economy expanded at a 2.1% annual rate in the first three months of the year, an upward revision from a previous estimate of 1.6%, and jobless claims fell last week.
Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic said inflation had probably peaked and would trend lower in the second half of the year, provided the Strait of Hormuz remained open.
The Fed last cut rates in December 2025 and has held steady throughout 2026. A return to lower borrowing costs now looks distant. If inflation stays sticky through June, the central bank’s next move may be in the opposite direction.
