Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been forced out of office after 30 years in power. His resignation comes after days of sustained protest that saw hundreds of thousands of Sudanese stage a sit-in at the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum. Andrew Edward Tchie examines the factors that led to Bashir’s ouster and looks ahead to what might lie ahead for a country that hasn’t had democratic leadership in decades.

But who was Omar al-Bashir, and how did he stay in power for three decades? Martin Plaut outlines the autocrat’s rise from the son of a peasant family from North Sudan, through the ranks of the army - and through skillful maneuvering to the seat of power in Sudan.

Not even light can escape black holes, which makes taking photos of them pretty difficult. So much so, in fact, that it’s never been done before – until now. In an unprecedented global collaboration, which included two South Africans, researchers turned the Earth into one giant telescope to measure the dark heart of a galaxy far, far away. 500 billion billion kilometres away, to be precise. Kevin Pimbblet explains how the project put Einstein’s theory of gravity to its most extreme test yet.