Ukraine To Hold Land Military Drills With US, Poland, Lithuania

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July 27, 2021

Ukraine, the United States, Poland and Lithuania will hold a large military exercise in the western part of Ukraine later in July, the Ukrainian military said on Monday, the second round of war games involving Kyiv and foreign partners in a month.

The drill, Three Swords-2021, will involve more 1,200 servicemen and more than 200 combat vehicles and will last from 17 to 30 July at Yavoriv training ground in Lviv region.

Last week, Ukraine and the United States started a military exercise, Sea Breeze, involving more than 30 countries in the Black Sea and southern Ukraine, despite Russian calls to cancel the drills.

Sea Breeze 2021 follows a rise in tensions between NATO and Moscow, which said last month it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to chase it out of Black Sea waters off the coast of Crimea.

Relations between Kyiv and Moscow plummeted after Russia seized Crimea and over Russia’s support for a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has said it had urged NATO to speed up Ukraine’s entry through a Membership Action Plan and welcomed the Alliance statement confirming Ukraine’s eventual entry into the military alliance.

Foreign Journalists Harassed Covering China Floods

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Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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Journalists from several media outlets covering recent floods in China were harassed online and by local residents, with staff from the BBC and Los Angeles Times receiving death threats, according to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC).

In a statement on Tuesday, the FCCC criticized what it said was growing hostility to foreign media, some of which it said was fanned by official bodies.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the FCCC and BBC statements. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent after office hours.

In one incident, the local branch of the ruling Communist Party’s Youth League had asked its social media followers to report the whereabouts of a BBC reporter covering the floods, according to the FCCC statement.

China’s foreign ministry has publicly criticized what it calls “fake news” from Western news outlets including the BBC.

One BBC journalist, John Sudworth, left the country this year citing threats of legal action, obstruction and intimidation. China’s foreign ministry said at the time it had never threatened Sudworth.

Ukrainian President Fires Head Of The Armed Forces

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Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed the head of the armed forces, Ruslan Khomchak, citing tensions between the armed forces and the Defence ministry.

Reports say Khomchak will be moved to a post on the national security and defence council. He will be replaced by Valery Zaluzhny, who heads the military’s northern command. Ukrainian troops have fought Russian-backed separatists in a conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.

The Ukrainian media in recent months have reported disputes between the defence ministry and Khomchak. Khomchak in March denied any rift: telling the news outlet gordon.ua:

Ukraine has urged its Western backers to speed up its entry into the NATO military alliance as a deterrent against Russia, though NATO members say Kyiv must reform its armed forces and tackle corruption to be able to apply.

Cuban Embassy In Paris Attacked With Petrol Bombs

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Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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Cuba’s embassy in Paris said on Tuesday it had been attacked overnight with petrol bombs that caused some damage but no injuries to its staff, in an incident that prompted French authorities to beef up security around the building.

The embassy said in a statement that three petrol bombs were thrown by two unnamed individuals, causing a fire on the facade and the entrance of the building,

Cuba has been rocked by protests against a deep economic crisis, the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and curbs on civil liberties, prompting the Communist-run country to restrict access to social media.

Cuba’s foreign ministry published photos of the petrol bombs on its official Twitter feed. Its embassy in Paris pointed the finger at the United States, saying such acts had been “encouraged by campaigns by the U.S. government against our country.”

The foreign ministers of the United States and 20 other countries on Monday condemned mass arrests in Cuba and called for full restoration of Internet access.

France’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on the Cuban embassy, adding that a judicial investigation had been opened to try and determine who was behind it. It confirmed that there had been some material damage but no injuries.

Food, Water Running Out In Tigray Refugee Camps – UN

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Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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The United Nations says at least 4,000 Eritrean refugees are trapped in two camps in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, cut off from humanitarian aid, and their food rations may have run out.

Appealing for access to the Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps, the U.N. refugee agency said there was a real danger of hunger if the refugees did not receive supplies.

Babar Baloch, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing that he last food distribution to the two refugee camps was done during the month of June, the ration supplies then were only enough for 30 days.

Fighting that began between the Ethiopian central government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) last November has escalated in and around the camps, and two refugees have been killed this month, it said.

David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme, said on Twitter the U.N. agency would run out of food in Tigray on Friday and that 170 trucks carrying food and other supplies were currently unable to reach them.

An official state website said a unilateral government ceasefire aimed at enabling humanitarian aid was being hampered by TPLF “provocations”. It called for pressure on the rebel group to open the route for cargo.

Fadela Chaib, spokeswoman of the World Health Organization, said medical services in Tigray were “alarmingly limited”, leaving hundreds of thousands of people, including the wounded, without access to basic care.

She said there has been a “significant and worrisome increase” in cases of severe acute malnutrition reported among children in Tigray,

Ivory Coast’s Ouattara And Gbagbo Meet For The First Time In 10 Years

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Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara offered a hearty welcome to his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo on Tuesday as the rivals met for the first time since the West African country’s deadly 2010-11 conflict.

Gbagbo, 76, has leapt into the spotlight since returning last month from Europe, where he won a landmark case at the International Criminal Court. In the last months of his stormy rule from 2000 to 2011, Gbagbo rejected defeat by Ouattara in a presidential ballot.

The ensuing conflict claimed more than 3,000 lives. After he was ousted, Gbagbo was flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity, of which he was eventually acquitted.

But Gbagbo’s spokesman Justin Katinan Kone urged the public “not to make too much” of the meeting, expected to last about half an hour and to be followed by a news conference.

Many in the West African country hope this will meeting will be a step further towards national reconciliation, and help bury the hatchet between the two politicians, who to this day, remain the most influencial men in Ivory Coast.

Government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly said that Dialogue in Ivory Coast “will continue, because that is the government’s will”.

It’s also the first time since Gbagbo returned from Europe last month, where he won a landmark case at the International Criminal Court (ICC). He was acquitted of crimes including murder, rape and persecution.

After the former president landed in Ivory Coast last month, many wonder if Laurent Gbagbo will make his official comeback to politics, or if he will stand back from his revered status amongst his Ivorian Popular Front supporters.

Nigeria Loses $243 Million 51 Days After Twitter Ban

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Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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The decision by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to ban Twitter in Africa’s most populous country in June, has dealt a blow to its revenue ambitions.

According to Netblocks Cost of Shutdown Tools, which uses the classic Free Digital App GDP impact technique, Nigeria has lost at least $243 million in the past 51 days since the Twitter shutdown.

In Nigeria, Twitter recorded $1.19 billion in revenue in Q2 2021, against the $683.4 million Twitter reported for the corresponding period of Q2 2020. The United Nations, foreign capitals from Washington to London and rights groups have all condemned the ban as a threat to freedom of expression.

Nigeria’s broadcast regulator took a step further, ordering television and radio channels to suspend their Twitter accounts and stop using the social media giant for news, branding its use as “unpatriotic.”

Even using a VPN to access the platform would lead to investigation and possible suspension of broadcast licenses.

In Africa’s largest economy, three-quarters of the population of 200 million are younger than 24 — a generation that is also hyper-connected to social media.

Buhari’s government has defended the decision, saying that Twitter had become a platform for activities threatening the country’s stability, particularly for an outlawed separatist group in the southeast.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed this week dismissed worries about freedom of expression saying Nigeria’s stability was a priority. He said social media companies would now have to register and license locally in Nigeria.

But rights groups question the legality of the decision. Nigeria parliament has not passed legislation regarding to the ministry’s move against Twitter.

Tunisian President Sacks Defence Minister, Acting Justice Minister

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Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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Tunisian President Kais Saied has sacked the Defence minister Monday, a day after ousting the prime minister and suspending parliament, plunging the young democracy into constitutional crisis in the midst of a pandemic.

On Monday afternoon, the presidency announced the dismissals of Defence Minister Ibrahim Bartaji and Hasna Ben Slimane, the acting justice minister.

The president, who under the constitution controls the armed forces, warned his opponents against taking up arms, threatening that if anyone “fired a single bullet, government forces would respond with a rain of bullets.

Mechichi said he would hand power to the man chosen by the president, in his first comments since the shock move.

Saied declared on Sunday he had taken the necessary decisions to save Tunisia, the state and the Tunisian people, following street protests in multiple cities against the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic.

Street clashes erupted Monday outside the army-barricaded parliament, after Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and ordered parliament closed for 30 days, a move the biggest political party Ennahdha decried as a “coup.

Elsewhere, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday spoke by telephone with the Tunisian president asking him to respect democracy and “maintain open dialogue with all political actors and the Tunisian people.

Rwanda Genocide Suspect Extradited From Netherlands

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Angel Gimalo

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July 27, 2021

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The Netherlands has extradited to Rwanda a 72-year-old suspect accused of complicity in the 1994 genocide.

Venant Rutunga was immediately taken into custody after he left a Dutch plane that arrived in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on Monday night.

In a statement, Rwanda’s state prosecutor commended the Dutch authorities for “contributing to the global effort to fight impunity”.

Rutunga was arrested in the Netherlands in 2019 on an arrest warrant issued by Rwanda.

He fought against his extradition but lost the legal battle in May.

The authorities in Rwanda accuse Rutunga of orchestrating the killing of around 1,000 people from the Tutsi ethnic group when he served as a state agricultural officer in the southern part of the country.

Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa Named In U.S. $500K Fraud Case

By

Zoe Maven

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July 27, 2021

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Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s name was allegedly used in a botched deal which resulted in a Harare man losing US$488, 000.

According to a Zimbabwean news daily, a suspected fraudster, Eustine Charambira (33) appeared in court accused of duping a Harare man Erasmus Chimbumu of US$488, 000 in a mining chemical deal.

The accused is alleged to have told Chimbumu that she could only deliver after he gave her a deposit of US$1 million since the deal included the head of state Mnangagwa and some unnamed army generals who needed their part of the share.

The prosecutors initially consented to $50 000 but made a U-turn on its decision after establishing that Charambira had previous convictions for similar offences according to the Zimbabwean news daily.

It is alleged that last October, Charambira was approached by the complainant, who wanted to buy mining chemicals. This was after he was referred by one of his suppliers, Ragu Sivaragas.

Charambira told the complainant that, indeed, she had a company that imported the chemicals from the United Kingdom through Durban, South Africa, where they would collect them into the country.

It is alleged that the complainant told the accused person that he had only Zimbabwean dollars Charambira told him that her company only sold the chemicals in United States dollars.

Charambira allegedly phoned the complainant the next day and advised him to send the money in local currency to various bank accounts and suppliers, who would change the money into the US dollars at the black market rate.