Marionette or president? How United Arab Emirates funds Ruto’s pork barrel politics to gain easy access East African natural resources
In Nairobi, security and international diplomacy experts aver that Kenya’s credibility is headed for the headwinds following US’ Africa policy switch that signals disengagement with the continent. US aid freeze leaves African countries at the mercy of Middle East kingdoms that have become influential as alternative lenders to World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the US.
Powerful Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq ready to disarm to avert deadly US airstrikes
Izzat al-Shahbndar, a senior Shi’ite Muslim politician close to Iraq’s governing alliance, says discussions between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and several militia leaders were “very advanced”, and the groups were inclined to comply with US calls for disarmament.
Chaos at Pentagon as defence secretary Hegseth accidentally reveals start time of planned killing of Yemeni militant
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth speaks to US service members at the Defence Personnel Accounting Agency on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii,US, on March 25, 2025. Credit: DOD/U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Madelyn Keech
‘I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity,’ expelled South African ambassador to US says as he returns home
“The supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48 per cent white,” Rasool said in the talk.
Sudanese ‘alternative’ government formed in Kenya preparing to grab diplomatic legitimacy
Politician Ibrahim al-Mirghani, another backer, said the new government would go to the United Nations and other forums to block the army’s participation.
Kenyan flower farmers explore Middle East markets as invasive bugs and toxic pesticides hurt exports to Europe
Nationally, the flower industry employs half a million people, according to a Central Bank of Kenya 2021 report, and is estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics to be worth over $800 million. Roses make up about 66 per cents of cut flower exports, at an estimated value of about $300 million.
EU cut out as US and Russia set to meet in Saudi Arabia to start talks to end the war in Ukraine
Trump, who took office on January 20, has repeatedly vowed to swiftly end the Ukraine war. He made separate phone calls to Putin and Zelenskiy on Wednesday, leaving Washington’s European allies alarmed that they will be cut out of any peace process.
Saudi Arabia spearheads Arab scramble for alternative options to Trump’s Gaza plan
The latest Egyptian proposal involves forming a national Palestinian committee to govern Gaza without Hamas involvement, international participation in reconstruction without displacing Palestinians abroad, and movement towards a two-state solution, three Egyptian security sources said.
Trump cuts funding for South Africa citing land policy and Pretoria’s war case against Israel
US President Donald Trump holds a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, on February 7, 2025. Credit: Reuters
Trump’s expansionist rhetoric meets with resistance in ME where he wants US to take over Gaza Strip
The US taking a direct stake in Gaza would run counter to long-time policy in Washington and for much of the international community, which has held that Gaza would be part of a future Palestinian state that includes the occupied West Bank.
