Italy’s Meloni torn between Trump and European allegiance

WINDHOEK: Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was sworn in as Namibia’s first female president on Friday, reaching the highest office in her land nearly 60 years after she joined the liberation movement fighting for independence from apartheid South Africa.
The 72-year-old Nandi-Ndaitwah won an election in November to become one of just a handful of African female leaders after the likes of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Joyce Banda of Malawi, and Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania.
Sirleaf and Banda, now former leaders of their countries, and current Tanzania President Hassan all attended Nandi-Ndaitwah’s inauguration.
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s swearing-in coincided with the 35th anniversary of Namibia’s independence, but the ceremony was switched from a soccer stadium where thousands were due to attend to the official presidential office because of heavy rain.
The new president made her pledge to defend, uphold, and support the constitution in front of other visiting leaders from South Africa, Zambia, Congo, Botswana, Angola, and Kenya.
Nandi-Ndaitwah succeeds Nangolo Mbumba, who had stood in as Namibia’s president since February 2024 following the death in office of President Hage Geingob. Nandi-Ndaitwah was promoted to vice president following Geingob’s death.
Nandi-Ndaitwah is just the fifth president of Namibia, a sparsely populated nation in southwestern Africa which was a German colony until the end of World War I and then won independence from South Africa in 1990 after decades of struggle and a guerilla war against South African forces that lasted more than 20 years.
“The task facing me as the fifth president of the Republic of Namibia is to preserve the gains of our independence on all fronts and to ensure that the unfinished agenda of economic and social advancement of our people is carried forward with vigor and determination to bring about shared, balanced prosperity for all,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
Nandi-Ndaitwah is a veteran of the South West Africa People’s Organization, or SWAPO, which led Namibia’s fight for independence and has been its ruling party ever since.
She was the ninth of 13 children; her father was an Anglican clergyman, and she attended a mission school that she later taught in.
She joined SWAPO as a teenager in the 1960s and spent time in exile in Zambia, Tanzania, the former Soviet Union, and the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.
She had been a lawmaker in Namibia since 1990 and was the foreign minister before being appointed vice president.
She said she would insist on good governance and high ethical standards in public institutions and promote closer regional cooperation.
She pledged to continue calling for the rights of Palestinians and the people of Western Sahara to self-determination and demanded the lifting of sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
She also said Namibia would continue contributing to efforts to fight climate change, a persistent threat for an arid country of just three million people that regularly experiences droughts.
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s husband is a retired general who once commanded Namibia’s armed forces and was formally given the title “first gentleman.”
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s inauguration came a day after Namibia’s Parliament elected its first female speaker.

LONDON: Muslim Tech Fest 2025 is set to provide a major boost to Muslim entrepreneurs, with a £30,000 investment prize up for grabs in its flagship MTF Pitch competition, it was announced on Friday.

The event, which will take place on June 21 at the Novotel London West hotel, aims to spotlight and support the next wave of Muslim-led tech startups.

The announcement follows the success of sold-out events in London and San Francisco in 2024, which cemented MTF’s reputation as a leading platform for Muslim entrepreneurs.

This year’s edition will feature a high-profile lineup of speakers, including Zubair Junjunia, founder of ZNotes, an education platform with over 6 million users; Ahmed Khalifa, founder of PurpleByte and a specialist in web accessibility; Mai Medhat, an entrepreneur who successfully exited her startup; Mariam Ahmed, co-founder of the YC-backed artificial intelligence startup Menza; and Arda Awais, an award-winning designer and founder of Identity 2.0.

With the launch of MTF Pitch, the festival is looking to support emerging startups that are shaping the future of technology and entrepreneurship.

Arfah Farooq, co-founder of MTF, said: “Muslim entrepreneurs have the talent, vision, and drive to transform industries, and MTF is here to amplify that. With initiatives like MTF Pitch, we are not just talking about change, we are making it happen.”

MTF has brought together some of the most influential Muslim founders, investors, and business leaders over the past few years, creating a space for networking, investment, and the sharing of knowledge.

At last year’s San Francisco event, Haroon Mokhtarzada, CEO of Rocket Money and co-founder of Truebill, spoke about scaling a $1.3 billion personal finance platform and achieving one of the largest exits by a Muslim founder.

Chris Blauvelt, the founder of LaunchGood, discussed the power of community-backed funding, highlighting how the platform had raised over $688 million from 2.1 million donors from 155 countries.

Rama Chakaki and Raed Masri, of Transform VC, a Silicon Valley-based impact-driven investment firm, led a discussion on how Muslim founders were shaping the future of ethical investing.

Attendees at the 2024 London show heard from Ismail Jeilani, co-founder and CEO of LiveLink, who shared his experience securing $3 million in funding from investors including Google and Biz Stone.

There was also a conversation with Ruhul Amin and Husayn Kassai, co-founders of Onfido, who spoke about building their AI-powered identity verification company, which was recently acquired in one of the largest tech exits of the decade in the UK.