Military ruler and son of a former president, Deby Itno, declared winner of Chad’s presidential poll
The oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million people hasn’t had a free-and-fair transfer of power since it became independent in 1960 after decades of French colonial rule. Hours ahead of Thursday’s announcement, Prime Minister Succès Masra published a speech on Facebook accusing the authorities of planning to manipulate the outcome.
UN General Assembly wants UN Security Council to ‘reconsider favourably’ Palestine’s quest for statehood
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly on Friday will act as a global survey of support for the Palestinians. An application to become a full UN member first needs to be approved by the Security Council and then the General Assembly.
High cost of unequal societies: Economic inequality, in effect, normalises immoral and unethical behaviour
The longer we let inequality define our contemporary daily lives, this new research helps us understand, the more unethical behaviour all around us will seem to reflect just the way our world naturally works.
US contractors land in Haiti to build base for UN forces as Kenyan contingent reassembles in Nairobi
The Kenyan contingent that will deploy reassembled this week for the first time since the Kenyan government announced in March that the deployment would be delayed, said a Kenyan security official, who asked not to be named.
Haiti’s transitional council rejigs its operations as it navigates political turmoil, gang violence
Instead of having a single council president, four longtime politicians will take turns leading the council every five months, according to two members who were not authorised to publicly share the changes because they had not yet been announced.
Hereditary politics: Tyrants, be it in Uganda or Chad, are self-perpetuating bloodhounds
Both Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Museveni of Uganda and Idriss Deby of Chad have a few similarities: They both loved power to the extent of excluding others from accessing it so long as they ruled; relied heavily on their armies, which they personalised; organised regular elections not to lose power to others, but simply to show that elective politics worked to prove their popularity; preferred politicomilitary politics to civilian politics and ensured that soldiers were in every civic space as dominants; and believed everything started with themselves and ended with themselves. The military is a t the centre of the electoral process.
Togo’s longtime leader assents to new constitution that eliminates presidential elections
Togo has been ruled by the same family for 57 years, first by Eyadema Gnassingbe and then by his son. Faure Gnassingbe took office after elections that the opposition described as a sham.
World Bank is transforming homosexuality into a political tool to graft Western values on Ugandans
Unlike in the case of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (2014) when the Uganda Constitutional Court ruled that it violated human rights, in the case of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, it on April 3 2024 ruled to uphold the law. However, institutions such as Human Rights Watch were not happy. They argue that the law has abusive and radical provisions, entrenches discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ and makes them prone to further violence.
Judge fines Trump $1,000 for contempt of court, warns he risks jail if breaks gag order again
Justice Juan Merchan said the nine $1,000 fines he had imposed so far did not seem to be deterring the wealthy business mogul from violating the order, which bars him from making public comments about jurors, witnesses and families of the judge and prosecutors if the statements are meant to interfere with the case.
Trump labels Biden’s government a ‘Gestapo’ administration’ that’s clipping his wings
The Gestapo was the secret police force of the Third Reich that squelched political opposition generally and, specifically, targeted Jewish people for arrest during the Holocaust. Trump’s unfounded comparison to Nazi-era tactics comes as he denies and tries to deflect from the charges against him – most notably his effort to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory, before a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
