Saturday, July 24We Break the News

POLITICS

Jul222021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and 10 other members arrested

Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and 10 other members arrested

AFRICA, EAST AFRICA, POLITICS, TANZANIA
  were rounded up in the dead of night Wednesday in a crackdown denounced as a throwback to the oppressive rule of the country's late leader.Officials from Tanzania's main opposition party say they have not been able to establish where Mbowe is being held. • Ten other leaders arrested alongside him had been taken to the Central Police Station in Mwanza, the party said. Tanzania's main opposition party said Thursday that its leader and other members could be charged with terrorism after being arrested in a sweeping midnight raid that has drawn international concern. Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and 10 other members were rounded up in the dead of night Wednesday in a crackdown denounced as a throwback to the oppressive rule of the country's late leader. Police searched Mbow...
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Jul212021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
American Politician Scott Taylor Strengthens U.S.-Africa Relations Through African Energy Week Participation in Cape Town

American Politician Scott Taylor Strengthens U.S.-Africa Relations Through African Energy Week Participation in Cape Town

ENERGY, HUMAN INTEREST STORIES, INTERNATIONAL, POLITICS, USA, WORLD
Confirmed as a speaker at Africa’s premier energy event, Scott Taylor is expected to drive a discussion on U.S.-Africa cooperation, engagement and partnerships JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 21, 2021/ -- American politician Scott Taylor has confirmed his attendance and participation at the upcoming African Energy Week (AEW) 2021, taking place in Cape Town on the 9th-12th of November 2021. With extensive experience in international relations, Taylor’s participation will drive a discussion on global energy cooperation with a focus on strengthening U.S.-Africa partnerships and connecting U.S. service providers, financiers, and stakeholders with competitive African projects. Taylor will lead a delegation of U.S. industry leaders and service providers to AEW 2021 in Cape Town in a...
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Jul192021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Jordan’s King Abdullah becomes first Arab leader to visit Biden in Washington

Jordan’s King Abdullah becomes first Arab leader to visit Biden in Washington

INTERNATIONAL, JORDAN, POLITICS, RELATIONS, USA
Bilateral talks about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Jordan's economy come at a critical moment for the king Jordan’s King Abdullah II will become the first Arab leader to be welcomed to Washington by US President Joe Biden. The US president and the first lady, Jill Biden, were expected to receive King Abdullah and Queen Rania on Monday in what the White House called a highlight of "the enduring and strategic partnership" between the two nations. King Abdullah is usually among the first Arab heads of state to visit new US presidents, including Barack Obama. The Biden administration has the task of repairing ties with Amman that were shaken up during former president Donald Trump's tenure. “Really, the only pillar that was out of place was the previous [Trump] admi...
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Jul192021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
SA Defence Minister Rejects President Ramaphosa’s Coup Claims

SA Defence Minister Rejects President Ramaphosa’s Coup Claims

AFRICA, GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, Security, South Africa
SA Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula South Africa’s Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula contradicted President Cyril Ramaphosa on the nature of the recent civil unrest that engulfed Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. Ramaphosa had said South Africa had just defeated an “insurgency” bent on undermining the country’s democratic order, but Mapisa-Nqakula on Sunday said the riots and looting were simply the work of “criminal counter-revolutionaries”. Said Mapisa-Nqakula: We are not seeing signs of a coup or insurgency, but rather a counter-revolution creeping in, in the form of criminality and thuggery. This was designed to sow the seeds of division in the country. Well, this is a terrible look for Ramaphosa and the African National Congress (ANC) government as a who...
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Jul192021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Ethiopia’s Tigray forces say they freed 1,000 captured soldiers

Ethiopia’s Tigray forces say they freed 1,000 captured soldiers

AFRICA, ETHIOPIA, POLITICS, PRIME MINISTER, REBELS, WAR
Officials in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office and a government task force on Tigray did not answer calls seeking comment.Tiksa Negeri/File Photo/Reuters Forces in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region have released around 1,000 government soldiers captured during recent fighting, the head of its ruling party said, as both sides prepared for a showdown over contested land in the West of the region. Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), told Reuters by satellite phone late on Friday that they have released 1,000 low-ranking soldiers. “More than 5,000 (soldiers) are still with us, and we will keep the senior officers who will face trial,” he said. He said the soldiers had been driven to Tigray's southern border with the Amhara region on Fri...
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Jul182021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
William Samoei Ruto assures Kenyans

William Samoei Ruto assures Kenyans

AFRICA, COVID-19, EAST AFRICA, HUMAN INTEREST STORIES, KENYA, POLITICS
Kenya:This is the time to direct our energies and resources to millions of vulnerable Kenyans and their ordinary hustles. It is the time to engage in a candid conversation that will make our country better. It is not the time to focus on the review of the Constitution to create positions for a few leaders. Engaged wananchi at Ukunda, Msambweni, on our way from Lunga Lunga where we held an empowerment for the construction of a school for Muslim teachers, Kwale County.
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Jul172021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
US deputy secretary to visit Tokyo, Seoul for trilateral talks on North Korea

US deputy secretary to visit Tokyo, Seoul for trilateral talks on North Korea

INTERNATIONAL, JAPAN, NORTH KOREA, POLITICS, RELATIONS, USA
Wendy Sherman to meet Japanese, South Korean counterparts to discuss regional security, COVID-19 relief mage: State Department photo by William Ng/ Public Domain | Wendy Sherman speaking in Tokyo, Jan. 2015 U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit Japan and South Korea for talks with her counterparts on North Korea and pandemic relief, among other issues, the U.S. State Department said Thursday. Sherman, South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo will discuss “regional security issues such as the DPRK, as well as climate change and global health,” the State Department said in a press release. Seoul’s foreign ministry said the trilateral talks will take place in Tokyo on July 21, and afterward Sherman wil...
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Jul172021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
South Africa Unrest: Former Top Spy Released Without A Charge

South Africa Unrest: Former Top Spy Released Without A Charge

AFRICA, LAW, POLITICS, PROTESTS, RIOT, South Africa
Thulani Dlomo A former high ranking member of South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA), Thulani Dlomo, has been released from police custody without being charged. Dlomo had handed himself over to the South African Police Service (SAPS) in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, 16 July. An alleged close colleague of former President Jacob Zuma, Dlomo was identified by the media as one of the 12 individuals wanted by the government for allegedly instigating the violence in KZN and Gauteng. According to SABC News, Dlomo went to the Durban Central Police Station late on Friday and surrendered himself to the custody of the authorities. Speaking outside the police station, Dlomo’s lawyer, Phumlani Shangase, who accompanied him to the police, said his client is a free man for no...
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Jul172021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
At Least 210 People Killed in Riots in South Africa as President Says Unrest Was ‘Instigated’

At Least 210 People Killed in Riots in South Africa as President Says Unrest Was ‘Instigated’

AFRICA, ARMY, POLICE, POLITICS, PROTESTS, RIOT, South Africa, VIOLANCE
TEHRAN (FNA)- The death toll from riots in the South African provinces KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng has increased to 212, Kumbudzo Ntshaveni, the acting minister under the President of South Africa, stated. "We received reports of six more deaths. The total death toll in Gauteng province was 32, and 137 more people were detained. In total, 862 people were detained in Gauteng. ... In the province [of KwaZulu-Natal] 89 more victims are reported, total the death toll is 180. In total, 1,692 detentions were made in the province," Ntshaveni noted at a briefing broadcast by the SABC News TV channel. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the weeklong looting and deadly unrest that have rocked the country were “planned". “It is quite clear that all these incidents of unrest and l...
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Jul162021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
White House official: Netanyahu is damaging US-Israel relations

White House official: Netanyahu is damaging US-Israel relations

INTERNATIONAL, Israel, POLITICS, RELATIONS, USA
Former PM's criticisms of current administration make Democratic Party less sympathetic to Israel, official says. Netanyahu with Pres. Biden Statements made recently by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are being felt as insults by the current American administration and the Democratic Party, a senior official close to the White House told Israel Hayom. Netanyahu expressed his views regarding the policies of the Biden administration vis-a-vis Iran in an article that was published in Israel Hayom last Wednesday, and he has made several speeches expressing similar sentiments in the Knesset recently. According to the official, "President Biden is taking a clear stance that expresses America's sense of obligation to Israel and to Israel's security, and is also promoting thi...
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Jul142021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Zuma’s ‘Private Spy’ Thulani Dlomo Alleged Brains Behind Unrest In South Africa

Zuma’s ‘Private Spy’ Thulani Dlomo Alleged Brains Behind Unrest In South Africa

AFRICA, PAN AFRICA, POLITICS, PROTESTS, RIOT, South Africa, VIOLANCE
The unrest in South Africa might have started off as a sporadic form of violence and opportunistic looting. However, it has now emerged to be a more sophisticated network of well-ochestrated cabal hell burnt on causing chaos and bringing the country to its’s knees. The controversial former head of the State Security Agency’s (SSA) rogue special operations unit, Thulani Dlomo, has been identified as a prime suspect being investigated for fomenting violent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal following the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma. News24  revealed, from information confirmed by three independent and highly placed sources, that intelligence officials told the police Dlomo was a key person of interest in instigating the unrest that has rocked South Africa, led to the death of at le...
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Jul142021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
‘We are going after the instigators’: Cele says there are forces behind mass looting

‘We are going after the instigators’: Cele says there are forces behind mass looting

AFRICA, POLITICS, PROTESTS, RIOT, South Africa, VIOLANCE
Sporadic violence and incidents of looting continued throughout areas in Gauteng on Monday night. Businesses in Soweto’s Diepkloof Mall awoke to their businesses ransacked and severely damaged. The owner of a small medical centre in the facility, Dr Thabile Vezi, arrived at work on Tuesday morning to discover her business had been overrun and looted . “My thoughts were:‘We’re a medical centre, we’ll be spared,’ mainly because we’re servicing the community in terms of their health needs, but also because there’s nothing to loot. It’s a medical centre.” Soldiers have been deployed to quell the widespread unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Despite a military presence in Soweto, reports of looting continued and a stampede in Meadowlands on Monday reportedly left 10 dead. ...
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Jul142021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Julius Malema’s Twitter account suspended. What now?

Julius Malema’s Twitter account suspended. What now?

AFRICA, POLITICS, Social Media, South Africa
Johannesburg - EFF leader Julius Malema’s Twitter account was suspended after the social media network found he had violated its rules on Tuesday. Malema has tweeted continuously about the riots and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. He recently wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa, seeking clarity on the deployment of the SA National Defence Force. He questioned the SANDF's deployment and threatened that EFF supporters would be on the streets if the SANDF was sent out to patrol the streets. “No soldiers on our streets! Otherwise, we are joining. All fighters must be ready… they won't kill us all. We need a political solution to a political problem, not soldiers. #NoToSoldiers,” Malema tweeted on July 12, which he also pinned to the top of his Twitter account. The DA s...
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Jul142021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
U.S. raps China at ASEAN meeting for unlawful claims in South China Sea

U.S. raps China at ASEAN meeting for unlawful claims in South China Sea

China, INTERNATIONAL, POLITICS, POWER, RELATIONS, USA
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks in Washington on Tuesday. | POOL / VIA REUTERS At an online meeting with his Association of Southeast Asian Nations peers on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Washington’s position that it will not accept China’s unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, according to the State Department. Blinken also expressed deep concern about a military coup that occurred in Myanmar earlier this year, and called for ASEAN to take coordinated action for the cessation of violence and a return to civilian rule in the member country. The remarks came during the first foreign ministers meeting between the United States and the 10-member ASEAN group under the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden. High on the ag...
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Jul132021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Russia is worried about losing Cuba and wants to send troops

Russia is worried about losing Cuba and wants to send troops

ARMY, CUBA, INTERNATIONAL, POLITICS, PROTESTS, RELATIONS, RUSSIA
Protests over the past 24 hours in Cuba have worried Moscow, and the first fears have surfaced that Russia is likely to lose the strategic island for the future deployment of air defence systems, ships, and aircraft. There are currently protests in Cuba. According to the Russian embassy in Havana, these protests are linked to living standards, the growing Kovid-19 epidemic, and its complications. The emergence of political slogans is already beginning to speak more clearly that the intervention of foreign forces is possible as a reason for these protests. Arrests are being made by both police and Cuban intelligence. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has appealed to the country’s communists, who he says should also take to the streets and oppose “this vandalism,” he said. What is...
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Jul132021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Cuba blames US for anti-government protests

Cuba blames US for anti-government protests

CUBA, GOVERNMENT, INTERNATIONAL, POLICE, POLITICS, PROTESTS, USA
Cuba has blamed a US "policy of economic suffocation" for unprecedented protests against the country's communist government, as Washington pointed the finger at "decades of repression" in the one-party state. The longtime foes traded barbs a day after thousands of Cubans took to the streets chanting: "Down with the dictatorship" in protests dispersed by police who arrested dozens. The anti-government rallies erupted spontaneously in several cities as the country endures its worst economic crisis in 30 years, with chronic shortages of electricity, food and medicine and a recent worsening of the coronavirus epidemic. The only authorised gatherings in Cuba are usually events of the ruling Communist Party, but according to the data journalism site Inventario, a total of 40 demons...
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Jul132021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Biden calls ‘remarkable’ Cuba protests a ‘call for freedom’

Biden calls ‘remarkable’ Cuba protests a ‘call for freedom’

CUBA, HUMAN INTEREST STORIES, INTERNATIONAL, POLITICS, PRESIDENT, PROTESTS, USA
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting on reducing gun violence, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, July 12, 2021, in Washington.  President Joe Biden on Monday called protests in Cuba “remarkable" and a “clarion call for freedom,” praising thousands of Cubans who took the streets to protest food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis — one of the island's biggest antigovernment demonstrations in recent memory. “The Cuban people are demanding their freedom from an authoritarian regime. I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this protest in a long long time, if, quite frankly, ever,” Biden said in a brief exchange with reporters at the start of a meeting with mayors and law enforcement officials to discuss gun violence in the U.S. The comments ma...
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Jul122021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
North Korea dismisses U.S. humanitarian aid as ‘sinister scheme’

North Korea dismisses U.S. humanitarian aid as ‘sinister scheme’

COVID-19, INTERNATIONAL, NORTH KOREA, POLITICS, RELATIONS, SOUTH KOREA, USA
U.S. humanitarian aid is a "sinister political scheme" to put pressure on other countries, a North Korean researcher said, after suggestions from U.S. allies such as South Korea that coronavirus vaccines or other help could promote cooperation. North Korea's foreign ministry published the criticism of U.S. aid on an official website on Sunday, a clear indication that it reflects government thinking. Kang Hyon Chol, identified as a senior researcher at the ministry-affiliated Association for the Promotion of International Economic and Technological Exchange, listed a series of examples from around the world that he said highlight a U.S. practice of linking aid to its foreign policy goals or pressure on human rights issues. "This vividly reveals that the American ulterior inten...
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Jul122021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
South Africa deploys army in two provinces to quell protests

South Africa deploys army in two provinces to quell protests

AFRICA, ARMY, POLICE, POLITICS, PROTESTS, South Africa
Deployment of troops comes after six people killed in days of protests in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Police said six people have been killed and more than 200 arrested in protests and looting since last week [Phill Magakoe/AFP] The South African military said it was deploying soldiers in two provinces, including its economic hub of Johannesburg, to help police cope with looting and arson attacks on businesses. The move comes as the country’s top court began hearing a challenge on Monday by former president Jacob Zuma against a 15-month prison term. Police said six people have been killed and more than 200 arrested in related protests and looting since last week. “The South African National Defence Force has commenced with pre-deployment processes and procedures in line with...
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