The death of former Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe provides a moment to reflect on leadership succession in the last three countries to achieve independence and black majority rule in southern Africa: Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. Henning Melber sets out how in all three countries – which remain led by liberation struggle heroes decades after the end of white minority rule – young people and women have hardly made significant inroads into the meritocratic, male-dominated core structures of power.

For the past few months the world has watched, aghast, as fires have swept large swathes of the Amazon. Detractors have laid the blame for these fires squarely at the feet of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro. Many of the fires have been set by farmers, who support Bolsanaro, to clear rainforest for cattle grazing. Some have suggested that what's happening in the Amazon amounts to a crime against humanity. Tara Smith unpacks the legal issues at play when declaring any action a crime against humanity.