Sting in the tail: Nigeria bans song, ‘Tell Your Papa’ censures President Tinubu’s ‘insensitive’ policies
Since taking office in 2023, Tinubu’s policies such as the removal of subsidies on gasoline have hit hard as Nigeria grapples with fluctuating prices. Last year, at least 20 people were shot dead and hundreds more were arrested at protests demanding better opportunities and jobs for young people.
More wineskin than wine: ‘Western values’ is a framework for legitimating and justifying actions by ‘moral police’
Today, the response to Israel’s murderous campaign in Gaza has laid bare the hollowness of Western moral posturing. Governments that once lectured the world on human rights now justify mass killing and ethnic cleansing. Institutions that claimed to stand for international law now scramble to shield allies from accountability.
Fears rise 122 million Americans drink water laden with unsafe cancer-causing chemicals
An analysis of testing results from community water systems in 49 states found that nearly 6,000 such systems serving 122 million people recorded an unsafe level of chemicals known as trihalomethanes at least once during testing from 2019 to 2023.
UAE come under scrutiny for breaching genocide convention as Sudan accuses it of funding rebels
Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary rebels broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions. Both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces have been accused of abuses.
China strikes back with 84 per cent tariffs as escalating trade war with America hits markets
China told the World Trade Organization that the United States’ decision to impose what it has called reciprocal tariffs on Beijing threatens to further destabilise global trade.
Kenya, 37 African countries in quandary over ties with US as China bullies Africa to exit US-allied group
Founded in 2020, the group has coordinated sanctions on China over rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and rallied support for Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island Beijing claims as its territory.
Americans facing death sentences over a failed coup plot in DR Congo repatriated to the US
Among the three Americans was 21-year-old Marcel Malanga, son of opposition figure Christian Malanga, who led the foiled coup attempt that targeted the presidential palace in Kinshasa. The elder Malanga, who live-streamed from the palace during the attempt, was later killed while resisting arrest, Congolese authorities said. Marcel Malanga has said his father forced him to take part.
Ex-French President Sarkozy’s trial sheds light on Paris’s back-channel talks with Libya’s Gadaffi
Britain, France and other Western countries sought to restore a relationship with Libya for security, diplomatic and business purposes. In 2007, Sarkozy welcomed Gadaffi to Paris with honours for a five-day official visit, allowing him to set up a Bedouin tent near the Elysee presidential palace. Many French people still remember that gesture, feeling Sarkozy went too far to please a dictator.
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.
While Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya is already bigger than many African cities, UN thinking of evolving it into a city
Now the Kenyan government and humanitarian agencies have come up with an ambitious plan for Kakuma to evolve into a city. Although it remains under the United Nations’ management, Kakuma has been re-designated a municipality, one that local government officials later will run.
