Top Stories: South Sudan is celebrating ten years of independence on Friday. But after achieving its autonomy and becoming a self-governing state from Sudan -- rights organizations have warned that South Sudan's healthcare system has been decimated by conflict and a lack of investment -- and now the country’s health sector is in ruins. David Doyle reports. Zimbabwe has scrapped rules requiring sole state ownership for cannabis farming to encourage investment in the plant for industrial and even medicinal use. Zimbabwe is Africa's largest tobacco producer, but authorities expect hemp export earnings to start replacing tobacco as farmers seek higher earnings from the crop. Columbus Mavhunga reports from the Beatrice farming district in Zimbabwe. The UN has called Africa's Sahel region 'the canary in the coal mine' for the effects of climate change: drought and desertification that contributes to conflict and migration in the region. Burkina Faso rapper turned farmer Art Melody channels the struggles of being on the front line of climate change into his music. Henry Wilkins reports from Ouagadougou. The foreign ministers of Egypt and Sudan appealed to the U.N. Security Council Thursday to intervene in their dispute with Ethiopia over the operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Tensions have escalated since Addis Ababa said Monday it had begun its second phase of filling the dam. The Nile flows northward, with one tributary, the White Nile, beginning in South Sudan and the other, the Blue Nile, in Ethiopia. Ethiopia started building the dam in 2011 on the Blue Nile as a major hydropower project, which is nearly complete. After 10 years of negotiations, the three countries still have not resolved the situation. Now to Haiti, where there is a fragile peace on Friday, after the nation was engulfed in chaos Thursday, just one-day after President Jovenel Moise’s brazen assassination. Haitian authorities described a heavily armed hit-squad of 28 "mercenaries,” made up of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, involved in the killing of Moise, 53, at his private residence in a wealthy suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince, before dawn on Wednesday. Haiti National Police Director Leon Charles gave some details, saying that three suspects have been killed and eight were still at large. Seventeen Colombians have been captured and they were identified by their passports. The U.S. State Department has not confirmed the reports that two U.S. citizens are in detention. The U.S. says it will respond to requests for help in investigating the attack. But experts say the U.S. should resist any temptation to intervene militarily in Haiti as it has in times of past upheaval. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 started in 2019, we've learned a lot about the virus ... who is most vulnerable, how to better treat COVID-19 patients, and how the virus works? Researchers are also discovering how the virus manipulates the body's immune system and evades its defenses, as we learn in this report from VOA's Carol Pearson. European borders and economies are opening this summer, thanks to falling coronavirus cases and rising vaccination numbers. But experts warn the pandemic’s scars could be long term and profound—especially for young people, a generation Europe cannot afford to lose. For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from Paris. The pan-African digital music conference MIDEM AFRICA 2021, that took place June 28th – July 1st -- galvanized the African music industry into action on many fronts. One of South Africa’s hottest MC's and participant at the conference; Amapiano hitmaker Focalistic, explains how in this interview with the host of VOA’s Music Time in Africa, Heather Maxwell