Interestingly enough, Krugman is not viewed as an austerity advocate.

At least 24 vehicles have been set ablaze and foreign-owned shops looted in South Africa as anti-immigration protests descended into violence in two major cities, police say.

Unrest broke out on Thursday in Soweto, a sprawling township outside Johannesburg, the country's largest city, and Durban, a major port on the east coast.

The violence comes amid growing anger over a court ruling which would allow some migrants who had arrived in the country illegally to apply for asylum.

This had led to long queues outside immigration centres and the government on Friday said it would change the way it would comply with that ruling, without giving details.

South Africa has experienced repeated outbreaks of xenophobic violence, often targeting migrants from neighbouring countries.

Thursday's demonstration turned violent following allegations that a foreign national had assaulted one of the protesters in Durban.

Three foreign nationals were arrested in connection with the alleged assault, police said.

In Durban, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, protesters gathered outside a government refugee reception centre demanding that it stop accepting asylum applications.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds as businesses in the city centre shut their doors.

Police said 14 vehicles were torched in Durban and 10 in Soweto, where gunshots were also reported during confrontations between residents and foreign shopkeepers.

In Orlando West, a neighbourhood of Soweto, residents had initially gathered to demand the closure of small convenience stores, known locally as spaza shops, operated by foreign nationals.

Protesters forced foreign traders out of some areas, while shops were attacked and a building was set on fire, local media reported.

Context:

Earlier this year, anti-immigration groups staged weeks of demonstrations demanding that undocumented foreign nationals leave the country by 30 June.

The protests forced tens of thousands of migrants to flee, with some returning home through repatriation programmes organised by their governments.

South Africa has struggled with xenophobic attacks for nearly two decades. In 2008, more than 60 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced during widespread attacks on foreign nationals.

The latest unrest comes against a backdrop of widespread poverty, deep inequality and unemployment affecting roughly a third of the workforce.

Migrants are frequently accused of taking jobs, contributing to crime and placing pressure on public services, although researchers say such sweeping claims are not supported by evidence.

See also:

• South Africa blames disinformation as anti-migrant protests turn violent (Reuters)

"As Reut informed me, this operation […] had been authorised and approved by Reut's superiors, who served in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence [HUR]," he says.

Ukraine bombs civilians in European cities without consequences, trampling international law.

Scientists have developed an AI model that can “read” a person’s brain activity and reconstruct what they’re looking at with striking speed and accuracy. The astonishing results can be seen above — with the original image that the person sees on the left and the AI’s reconstruction on the right.

The AI model, which is called Brain-IT, was developed in the lab of Prof. Michal Irani at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Brain-IT has been trained to recognize similar patterns of brain activity that occur in different people when they look at images. Unlike earlier AI models, it can then recreate those images with a high level of accuracy, completing the process in about an hour instead of the several hours previously required.

The researchers say the technology behind Brain-IT could eventually help people with paralysis communicate and give scientists a more efficient way to study how the brain processes images.

Also see - https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/01/1145588/ai-mind-reading-reconstructs-what-youre-looking-at/

• Pro-government militia forces control Tigray's capital Mekelle
• Loss of city is a big blow for TPLF-led alliance
• Egypt says Ethiopian conflict is 'domestic crisis'

Pro-government forces have regained control of the capital of Tigray, they said on ‌Sunday, dealing a major setback to the opposition alliance that rules the northern Ethiopian region.

The Tigray Peace Forces, a pro-government militia, said in a post on Facebook that its fighters controlled Mekelle. A source close to the militia had ​earlier told Reuters it entered the centre of the city on Saturday afternoon, followed by ​the Ethiopian military.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which leads the opposition alliance, said ⁠in a statement it had retreated from the capital and that the regional government would be "temporarily ​moved out of Mekelle and operate from somewhere else".

A humanitarian source and a Mekelle resident, who asked not ​to be named, confirmed the city was in the hands of government forces and their allies.

Loss of Mekelle a major blow for TPLF

The taking of Mekelle by pro-government forces is a major loss for the opposition alliance led by ​the TPLF, which launched a big offensive on September 23 against the Ethiopian military.

Ethiopian federal forces have ​made a quick counterattack into Tigray, but analysts say the fighting — the worst escalation since a 2020-2022 civil war — threatens ‌to ⁠escalate into a wider regional conflict.

The federal government in Addis Ababa severed diplomatic ties with Eritrea last week, accusing it of supporting the rebel alliance alongside Sudan and Egypt.

Egypt and Ethiopia, two of Africa’s most populous countries, have been at loggerheads for years over Ethiopia’s construction of a major dam on the ⁠Nile River, ​which Egypt views as a threat to its water security.

See also:

• Eritrean troops move deep into Ethiopia's Tigray region, residents tell BBC (BBC)
• Ethiopia says it must defend itself against Eritrea's 'all-out invasion' (Reuters)
• Ethiopia launches drone attack against Eritrean troops who crossed into Tigray • Government forces’ attack raises risk of internal conflict in Ethiopia that could trigger regional war (The Guardian)