U.S. Asks Iran to Grant Inspectors Access To Workshop

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September 27, 2021

Iran must stop denying the U.N. nuclear watchdog access to a workshop making centrifuge parts as agreed two weeks ago or face diplomatic retaliation at the agency’s Board of Governors within days.

A U.S. statement to the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors on Monday said they were deeply troubled by Iran’s refusal to provide the IAEA with the needed access to service its monitoring equipment, as was agreed in the September 12.

It was responding to an IAEA report to member states on Sunday that said Iran had granted access to sites as agreed on Sept. 12 but not to the workshop, where IAEA inspectors were denied access on Sunday.

They had planned to check if the workshop was ready to operate and re-install cameras if it was.

The workshop at the TESA Karaj complex makes components for centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, and was hit by apparent sabotage in June in which one of four International Atomic Energy Agency cameras there was destroyed.

Iran removed them and the destroyed camera’s footage is missing.

TESA Karaj was one of several sites to which Iran agreed to grant IAEA inspectors access to service IAEA monitoring equipment and replace memory cards just as they were due to fill up with data such as camera footage.

The Sept. 12 accord helped avoid a diplomatic escalation between Iran and the West.

The European Union told the IAEA board that Iran’s failure to grant the IAEA access to the workshop was “a worrying development, contrary to the Joint Statement reached on 12 September 2021.”

A resolution criticising Iran at the Board of Governors could kill hopes of resuming indirect talks between Iran and the United States to bring both sides back into compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

EU Would Be Our Trade Priority, UK Opposition Labour Party Says

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Zoe Maven

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September 27, 2021

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Britain’s general election 2019 — Britain's Labour Party candidate Emily Thornberry speaks after the General Election results of the Islington South constituency is announced at a counting centre in Islington during Britain's general election, London, Britain December 13, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

The opposition Labour Party says it would make rebuilding Britain’s ties with the European Union its top trade priority, putting the bloc above U.S and Indo-Pacific deals in the post-Brexit era.

Trade policy chief Emily Thornberry said on Monday she would focus on fixing trade partnerships closer to home which have been hit by increased bureaucracy and a deterioration in diplomatic relations caused by the rancorous EU exit negotiations.,

Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson is only two years into a possible five-year term, but Labour is using its annual conference in southern England to bill itself as a credible alternative government with Britain beset by fuel shortages, empty shelves and soaring energy prices.

The government has made a push into the Indo-Pacific its trading priority, eyeing premium exports to its rapidly expanding middle classes and a surge in demand for British professional services.

She described the free trade agreement signed with the EU on Christmas Eve 2020 as “thin” and “desperate”, but said there was scope to build on it and restore a better functioning arrangement with Britain’s largest export market.

Since leaving the EU, British exporters in some sectors have either been priced out of EU markets or cut off entirely by the demands of new customs rules.

Thornberry’s first step would be to strike an agreement with the EU to resolve problems with the transportation of food between Britain and the EU, and Britain and Northern Ireland.

The government has said it wants to find solutions, but will not tie its food standard permanently to EU law.

Belarus Leader Warns On NATO Troops In Ukraine

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Zoe Maven

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September 27, 2021

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned on Monday of a joint response with Russia to military exercises involving troops from NATO member countries in neighbouring Ukraine.

Lukashenko, who gave no details of the response, also blamed the West for what he said was a looming humanitarian catastrophe this winter after migrants were left stranded and freezing on the Belarusian-Polish border.

Ukraine is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation but has long sought closer integration with Western militaries in the hope of one day joining the alliance, a move opposed by Belarus’ main ally, Russia.

Ukraine began joint military exercises with U.S. and other NATO member troops last week, while Russia and Belarus held large-scale drills that alarmed the West.

Lukashenko said he had discussed the situation in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin several times, and the Kremlin said on Monday that expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine crossed a red line for Putin.

Relations between Belarus and the West have deteriorated since Lukashenko cracked down on mass protests following a disputed election in August 2020, triggering U.S., European Union and British sanctions but support from Moscow.

Belarus and its EU neighbours have also traded blame over the plight of migrants. The EU has accused Minsk of encouraging migrants, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, to cross the borders in retaliation for the sanctions.

German SPD Seeks Three-Way Alliance To Succeed Merkel

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Zoe Maven

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September 27, 2021

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Party leadership meeting of the SPD after German general elections, in Berlin — Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader and top candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig and SPD member Franziska Giffey wave as they carry bouquets of flowers at their party leadership meeting, one day after the German general elections, in Berlin, Germany, September 27, 2021. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz vowed on Monday to strengthen the European Union and keep up the transatlantic partnership in a three-way coalition government he hopes to form by Christmas to take over from Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) came first in Sunday’s national election, just ahead of the conservatives, and aim to lead a government for the first time since 2005 in a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

The SPD, Germany’s oldest party, won 25.7% of the vote, up five percentage points from the 2017 federal election, ahead of Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc on 24.1%, provisional results showed. The Greens came in with 14.8% and the FDP won 11.5%.

Scholz, who served as finance minister in Merkel’s outgoing ‘grand coalition’, said a government led by him would offer the United States continuity in transatlantic relations.

Scholz said he hoped to agree a coalition before Christmas, “if possible”. However, his conservative rival Armin Laschet, 60, said he could still try to form a government despite leading his CDU/CSU bloc to their worst ever national election result.

The Greens and FDP said late on Sunday they would first talk to each other to seek areas of compromise before starting negotiations with either the SPD or the conservatives.

Merkel, who did not seek a fifth term as chancellor, will stay on in a caretaker role during the coalition negotiations that will set the future course of Europe’s largest economy.

Meanwhile, German shares rose on Monday, with investors pleased that the pro-business FDP looked likely to join the next government while the far-left Linke failed to win enough votes to be considered as a coalition partner.

Afghanistan Envoy Withdraws From Assembly Debate – UN

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Zoe Maven

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September 27, 2021

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Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Nations Ghulam Isaczai, pulled out of delivering an address to world leaders at the General Assembly later Monday.

Ghulam Isaczai, who represented president Ashraf Ghani’s regime that was ousted last month, had been due to defy the Taliban with a speech but his name was removed from the list of speakers early Monday.

Monica Grayley, a spokeswoman for the assembly’s president, confirmed that the country has wirhdrawn its participation in the general debate but added that Afghanistan’s mission to the UN had not cited a reason for the withdrawal.

The Taliban wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week requesting that its new foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, be allowed to “participate.”

The letter insisted that Isaczai “no longer represents” Afghanistan at the global body.

The letter said that the Taliban had nominated their Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s permanent representative to the UN.

The note came after Guterres had received a separate letter from Isaczai, dated September 15, containing the list of Afghanistan’s delegation for the session.

New Nyiragongo Lava Lake Lets Volcano ‘Breathe’ – Experts

By

Zoe Maven

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September 27, 2021

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Experts in DR Congo say the reappearance of a lava lake in the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano in eastern DR Congo is a good sign.

Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, the scientific director of the Goma Volcanology Observatory, said the “reappearance of the lava lake in Nyiragongo’s crater” dates from September 18.

He said it is not a phenomenon that presents an imminent risk of a new eruption, but rather a phenomenon that allows the volcano to breathe, adding that the appearance of this lake of fire in the crater will minimize earthquakes in the volcanic area of Goma.”

Nyiragongo’s eruption on May 22nd-23rd spewed out lava that buried homes in its wake, stopping just short of the northern outskirts of Goma, a city of some 600,000 people.

In the days following the eruption in May, mighty tremors shook Goma, and scientists feared a rare but potentially catastrophic event under nearby Lake Kivu that would send carbon dioxide gas, dissolved in the depths of the water, up to the surface and suffocate everyone in the vicinity.

The Democratic Republic of Congo authorities ordered the evacuation of 400,000 people as a precaution. The residents have largely returned since seismic activity fell back.

After the eruption, the disappearance of lava from the crater sparked fears that it remained buried under Goma.

In the previous major eruption in 2002, around 100 people died and swathes of eastern Goma were destroyed.

Nyiragongo’s deadliest eruption, in 1977, claimed more than 600 lives.

Sudan’s Burhan Vows Army Reforms After Coup Attempt

By

Zoe Maven

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September 27, 2021

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Sudan’s Sovereign Council head and the country’s ruling transitional authority General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has pledged to reform the army, days after a failed coup.

Speaking at the opening of a military hospital in Khartoum, Al-Burhan said the armed forces would be reorganized, adding that partisan activities are banned in the army.

He said the armed forces are committed to holding elections on the date fixed for ending the transition” in 2023, after which the army will leave the political scene and its role will be limited to protecting the country.

Sudan is led by a civilian-military administration under an August 2019 power-sharing deal signed after president Omar Bashir’s ouster by the military in April that year following mass protests against his iron-fisted rule.

Sudan’s government said it thwarted a September 21 coup attempt involving military officers and civilians linked to the regime of imprisoned Bashir. At least 11 officers were among those arrested.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has since called for reforms within the army, a highly sensitive issue in Sudan.

A transition to full civilian rule has remained shaky, reeling from deep fragmentation among political factions, economic woes and a receding role for civilian leaders.

Paramilitary leader and Burhan’s deputy in the Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has pointed a finger of blame at politicians after the failed coup.

Mali’s Prime Minister Says Elections Could Be Postponed

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Zoe Maven

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September 27, 2021

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Mali’s Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga says Elections scheduled for the country early next year could be postponed by months and that he was looking for alternative security partners to France as it prepares to reduce its troop presence in the conflict-torn country.

Speaking in an interview in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Maiga said the primary focus was to hold elections that will not be contested.

He suggested the presidential and legislative elections could be postponed by “two weeks, two months, a few months,” adding that a decision will be taken in October following a meeting of a national forum.

The elections, promised for February 2022 by strongman Colonel Assimi Goita, are aimed at restoring civilian rule following a coup in August last year against elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The military then appointed an interim civilian government tasked with steering back to democratic rule.

But Goita deposed the civilian leaders of the interim government in May — in a second coup — and was later declared president himself.

He has pledged to respect the February deadline for civilian elections set by the interim government, which also set October 31 as a date for holding a constitutional referendum.

The calendar for the elections “was fixed on the requirements of ECOWAS without posing questions about what practical steps must be taken to get there,” said Maiga.

Asked about UN criticism at the slow speed of the peace and reconciliation agreement signed with rebels in 2015, Maiga promised that the state “continues to respect it.”

Attacks on Schools, Kidnapping, Threats to Education— ASUSS

By

Rhoda Onuzulike

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September 27, 2021

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The Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools(ASUSS), has expressed concern over the incessant killings, kidnappings and harassment of teachers and students across the country, describing such situations as a serious threat to the nation’s educational development.

According to the Union, these sordid scenarios are affecting the teachers’ productivity adversely and making enrollment in schools dropped.

The group however said, as terrible as the situations seem to be, ASUSS lauded the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, for employing 7,600 teachers, commending Kano and Adamawa, for legislating on extension members’ retirement to 65 years.

The ASUSS’ CWC said this in a communique issued after its meeting in Kaduna, its National President, Com. Samuel Omaji and Secretary-General, Com. Sola Adigun, who doubles as the Chairman of ASUSS in Ekiti State.

The communique reads: “We appreciate the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, for the recruitment of 7,600 teachers into its 9,000 Secondary School Tutors. This is laudable as it is geared towards quality and functional education.

“We commend the government of Kano State for redeploying 11,000 trained teachers in its MDAs to schools to boost teaching and learning. The commendations also go to Oyo, Lagos and Delta States, for the up-to-date promotion of teachers”.

In spite of the above incentives to teaching, ASUSS seriously frowned at the insecurity across the country, particularly, incessant attacks on schools, leading to the killing and kidnapping of teachers and students for ransoms.

“That the prevailing insecurity transcends ethnicity and politics; and for the umpteenth time, the union calls on governments at all levels to be sincere in handling security issues as it is their fundamental responsibility”.

It added further that its members are incurably committed to its objectives of raising future leaders and shall vigorously pursue them for meaningful and robust development of education in Nigeria.

ASUSS urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the bills to energise better welfare packages for teachers, saying dilly-dallying on the passage doesn’t correlate with the position maintained by President Muhammadu Buhari

ASUSS called on all other states that have allegedly denied teachers their privileges, rights and regular emoluments to do the right thing to alleviate the burdens and pains on members.

The Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), has expressed concern over the incessant killings, kidnappings and harassment of teachers and students across the country, describing such situations as a serious threat to the nation’s educational development.

According to the Union, these sordid scenarios are affecting the teachers’ productivity adversely and making enrollment in schools dropped.

The group however said, as terrible as the situations seem to be, ASUSS lauded the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, for employing 7,600 teachers, commending Kano and Adamawa, for legislating on extension members’ retirement to 65 years.

The ASUSS’ CWC said this in a communique issued after its meeting in Kaduna and made available to newsmen by its National President, Com. Samuel Omaji and Secretary-General, Com. Sola Adigun, who doubles as the Chairman of ASUSS in Ekiti State.

The communique reads: “We appreciate the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, for the recruitment of 7,600 teachers into its 9,000 Secondary School Tutors. This is laudable as it is geared towards quality and functional education.

“We commend the government of Kano State for redeploying 11,000 trained teachers in its MDAs to schools to boost teaching and learning. The commendations also go to Oyo, Lagos and Delta States, for the up-to-date promotion of teachers”.

In spite of the above incentives to teaching, ASUSS seriously frowned at the insecurity across the country, particularly, incessant attacks on schools, leading to the killing and kidnapping of teachers and students for ransoms.

“That the prevailing insecurity transcends ethnicity and politics; and for the umpteenth time, the union calls on governments at all levels to be sincere in handling security issues as it is their fundamental responsibility”.

It added further that its members are incurably committed to its objectives of raising future leaders and shall vigorously pursue them for meaningful and robust development of education in Nigeria.

ASUSS urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the bills to energise better welfare packages for teachers, saying dilly-dallying on the passage doesn’t correlate with the position maintained by President Muhammadu Buhari

ASUSS called on all other states that have allegedly denied teachers their privileges, rights and regular emoluments to do the right thing to alleviate the burdens and pains on members.

Pay attention to changes in your body – End stage Ovarian Cancer patient

By

Cleopatra Okohai

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September 27, 2021

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A Canadian professor, Nadia Chaudhri, battling end-stage ovarian cancer has urged women to pay attention to changes in their body and consult a physician for proper diagnosis when they have unusual pain.

According to Chaudhir, women who are alert to changes in their bodies would be able to detect ovarian cancer early and get a good prognosis, noting that early detection is crucial to the treatment of the health condition.

The woman who shares her journey with ovarian cancer stated that women should pay attention to fatigue and changes in their bowel and urinary tract movements, stressing that changes in them could be a sign of serious health challenges.

The 44-year-old neuroscientist who shared her story via her Twitter handle @DrNadiaChaudhri is a mother to a young son.

Chaudhri is currently receiving palliative care at a local medical centre after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in June 2020.

Sharing her story, Chaudhri says that she currently can’t eat or poop, adding that she has been on IV fluids for the past two weeks.

She was diagnosed with high-grade serus epithelial, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer months after her doctor had mistaken her symptoms for urinary tract infection and treated it as such for three months.

The woman who documents her experience in palliative care on Twitter had told her followers she is at a stage where she will not be coming back from but in spite of that knowledge, she is not afraid of death.

The professor of psychology hopes that sharing her story will create awareness and encourage women to pay better attention to their bodies.

In her Tweet she says, Ovarian cancer comes in many forms & treatments are more advanced for some forms than others.

“We also need more awareness of symptoms because early detection improves prognosis dramatically.

“Know your bodies. Pay attention to fatigue and changes in bowel/urinary tract movements. Make sure you understand all the words on a medical report.

“Do not dismiss your pain or malaise. Find expert doctors.