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Source: Police Launch Nationwide Blitz On Serious Crime And Traffic Offences ⋆ Pindula News

Police have launched a nationwide operation targeting serious crime and traffic offences as part of efforts to maintain law and order, protect lives and property, and improve road safety.

Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed on Wednesday that the operation began on 13 July 2026.

He said it seeks to curb offences such as murder, attempted murder, robbery, unlawful entry, theft, stock theft, rape, kidnapping, smuggling, assault, and drug and substance abuse.

Commissioner Nyathi said the operation is also targeting traffic violations, including pirate taxis or mushikashika, unregistered or plateless vehicles, drink-driving, unlicensed driving, dangerous overtaking, failure to obey traffic signals and other forms of reckless driving.

“To complement the operation, the Zimbabwe Republic Police has intensified patrols, roadblocks, stop and search blitz, compliance inspections and public awareness campaigns across the country,” said Comm Nyathi.

“The public is therefore encouraged to observe the law, be responsible citizens and support police efforts in the fight against crime.”

He said 1,809 arrests were made across the country on 14 July 2026 alone. These include 26 for theft, 63 for unlawful possession of dangerous drugs, three for robbery, one for murder, seven for unlawful entry and theft, and one for stock theft, among other offences. The total number of arrests since the operation began now stands at 2,069.

Commissioner Nyathi urged members of the public to continue cooperating with the police by reporting criminal activities and traffic violations at their nearest police station or through the National Complaints Desk on (0242) 703631 or WhatsApp 0712 800 197.

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Bindura – The recent sentencing of Peter Muza, a 40-year-old cashier at Metro Hypermarket, to an effective four years in prison for the theft of nearly US$50,000 has cast a harsh spotlight on the insidious grip of online gambling and the vulnerabilities within corporate financial systems across Zimbabwe. Muza’s case, which saw him squander the […]

The post Metro Hypermarket employee in US$49,000 Cash Heist… blows all of it on Kandege Gambling first appeared on My Zimbabwe News.

In a powerful and unprecedented move, Gwanda Magistrate Wayne Moyo has cast a stark light on the shadowy figures allegedly orchestrating Zimbabwe’s burgeoning drug trade. His recent pronouncements suggest that politically-connected individuals, colloquially known as ‘Zvigananda’, are operating with alarming impunity, while the legal system disproportionately targets vulnerable drug users. This revelation, made during the […]

The post Gwanda Magistrate Exposes ‘Zvigananda’ in Drug Trade: Who’s Protecting these Kingpins? first appeared on My Zimbabwe News.

HONG KONG — China’s economy slowed sharply to a 4.3% annualized pace of growth in the April-June quarter, the government said Wednesday, the weakest in over three years.

The official data fell short of forecasts and was far below the economy’s strong 5% pace of growth in January-March, despite a surge in exports driven partly by the boom in artificial intelligence, and by robust global demand for Chinese electric vehicles.

China has largely shrugged off wider economic impacts from the Iran war as soaring energy prices pushed up global inflation. Exports rose 17.6% in the first half of the year from a year earlier, and 27% in June, according to customs data.

But domestic spending and investment have lagged, limiting the boost from export manufacturing for an economy that has struggled to regain momentum since parts of China were locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This was the slowest growth in any quarter since the lockdown-impacted fourth quarter of 2022,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank in a note.

Some economists say China’s economy is becoming increasingly unbalanced as heavy state support and private investments pour into frontier technologies like AI, computer chips and robotics while other areas such as lower-value manufacturing and jobs creating services industries languish.

Exports of high-tech products such as electric vehicles, computer chips and other electronic equipment have risen sharply, helped by hefty government support since China’s leaders have made development of advanced technologies a top priority.

China ran a record $1.2 trillion global trade surplus last year, drawing complaints from policymakers in other countries over their trade imbalances with the world’s second-largest economy. Many have pointed to those heavy state subsidies, which they say contribute to an oversupply of manufactured goods that end up being exported overseas. Industrial output by value rose 5.4% in the first half of the year from a year earlier.

As is true in many countries, the expansion of AI and robotics has also raised worries at home over whether businesses will create enough jobs to sustain growth in the longer term.

Chinese families have cut back on big purchases, their appetite for spending constrained by a prolonged property slump and uncertainties over jobs and wages.

As China remains reliant on its exports to sustain overall growth, “China’s growth model has become increasingly imbalanced,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics and trade policy at Cornell University. Substantially increasing domestic demand will be tough as confidence remains weak, he added.

Mao Shengyong, deputy head of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, told reporters that given the increasingly unstable and uncertain global situation, the imbalance between strong supply and weak demand “remains acute” at home.

As China focuses on high-tech manufacturing and pursues “higher-quality economic growth,” it will work to build a robust domestic market and offer support to keep employment stable, he said.

Highlighting weaker points in the economy, investment in fixed assets, such as factory equipment, fell 5.7% year-on-year in the first half of the year, while retail sales of consumer goods climbed a meager 1.3%. Housing prices continued to fall.

China’s economy is going through a “significant transition,” said Wei Li, Head of Multi-Asset Investments at BNP Paribas Securities (China).

For the whole of 2026, Chinese leaders have set a growth target of 4.5% to 5%, slower than last year’s 5%. Overall economic growth for the first half of the year was at 4.7%, the data released Wednesday showed.

The International Monetary Fund recently raised its forecast for China’s annual growth by 0.2 percentage point to 4.6%. It expects China’s economy to expand just 4.1% in 2027.

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WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday modestly downgraded its outlook for the world economy this year, citing the energy shock caused by the Iran war. But the fallout from the conflict is being partially offset by booming investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies.

The IMF now expects the global economy to expand by a sluggish 3% in 2026, down from 3.5% last year and from the 3.1% it had forecast for this year back in April. The fund expects worldwide growth to rebound to 3.4% next year.

Iran responded to U.S. and Israeli attacks Feb. 28 by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas passes. Energy prices soared, squeezing businesses and consumers. The IMF now expects oil prices to be up nearly 32% this year and for global consumer prices overall to increase 4.7% in 2026. That would be up from 4.1% in 2025 and would mean that two years of progress against inflation has stalled.

The IMF forecasts assume that the Strait of Hormuz reopens later this month — even though U.S. strikes on Iran resumed and President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that a ceasefire with Iran was over. They also assume that commerce through the strait returns to normal by next March.

“The world economy has weathered the shock from the war better than feared,″ Petya Koeva Brooks, deputy director of the IMF’s research department, told reporters Wednesday. The economic damage from the energy shock has been limited partly because countries could draw on existing oil stockpiles and because oil-exporting countries outside the Persian Gulf stepped up production.

Countries that produce and export their own energy and that benefit from AI investment are insulated from the war’s economic damage. Among them is the United States. The IMF expects the U.S. economy — the world’s largest — to grow a solid 2.3% this year, up from 2.1% in 2025 and unchanged from the April forecast. President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax cuts, big gains in productivity and a strong stock market are also giving the American economy a lift.

The 21 European countries that share the euro currency, hit hard by higher energy prices, are collectively forecast to grow just 0.9% this year, down from 1.4% in 2025.

China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is expected to expand 4.6% this year, down from 5% in 2025 but a bit faster than the IMF had expected in April. Weighed down by higher energy prices and a property market collapse, the Chinese economy is getting offsetting help from public works spending, a surge in high-tech manufacturing and booming exports.

India is once again forecast to be the world’s fastest-growing major economy, advancing at a 6.4% clip (down from a sizzling 7.7% last year) on strong consumer spending.

The IMF is a 191-nation lending organization that works to promote economic growth and financial stability and to reduce global poverty.

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