South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Dissolves Parliament

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May 9, 2021

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has dissolved parliament, paving the way for the appointment of Lawmakers from opposing sides in the country’s five-year civil war.

Activists and civil society groups say the move is long overdue. Edmund Yakani of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation – one of the civil society groups that signed the peace deal called for a speedy process.

Speaking to newsmen, Yakani said it should not take weeks or months and that if possible, the president should appoint the new parliament by Monday.

A peace deal signed three years ago determined that almost a quarter of the MPs would come from the party of Mr Kiir’s former foe, Riek Machar though majority of the 550 legislators will be from the governing SPLM party.

South Sudan’s MPs will not be elected but will instead be nominated by different political parties.

A unity government has been in place for over a year, but following numerous outbreaks of inter-ethnic conflict the UN has warned of a risk of a return to large-scale conflict in South Sudan.

Insecurity is still rife across South Sudan and has prevented many farmers – who have been forced to flee their homes – from planting or harvesting crops, causing food shortages nationwide.

There are also warnings from the UN’s World Food Programme that more than seven million people in South Sudan will suffer acute food insecurity over the coming months. Also a recent report by the UN has called for the arms embargo to be extended, and for new sanctions against people who hinder the implementation of the peace deal

Israel Vows To Restore Calm In Jerusalem

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Angel Gimalo

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May 9, 2021

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Israel vowed Sunday to restore order in Jerusalem after hundreds of Palestinian protesters were wounded in weekend clashes with Israeli security forces, as a key court hearing on a flashpoint property dispute was postponed.

The area around the revered Al-Aqsa mosque has seen several nights of violence, the worst since 2017, fuelled by a years-long bid by Jewish settlers to take over nearby Palestinian homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Israeli police again faced off against mostly young Palestinians at several locations in east Jerusalem late Sunday.

Police fired stun grenades and “skunk” water cannons spraying foul-smelling water at Palestinians outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate and scuffled with youths in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, amid other isolated flare ups across the area.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported a total of seven injuries from Damascus Gate and Sheikh Jarrah, including four hospitalisations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended Israel’s response to the protests and rioting in east Jerusalem.

“We will uphold law and order –- vigorously and responsibly,” Netanyahu said ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting, while vowing to “guard freedom of worship for all faiths”.

But the Israeli role in the hostilities — especially Friday’s clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site — has met widespread criticism.

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Putin Reviews Russian Military Might As Tensions With West Soar

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Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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President Vladimir Putin has reviewed Russia’s traditional World War Two victory parade, a patriotic display of raw military power that this year coincides with soaring tensions with the West.

Putin, who has been in power as either president or prime minister since 1999, stood beside Soviet war veterans on a review platform set up on Red Square.

The parade on Moscow’s Red Square commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two featured over 12,000 troops and more than 190 pieces of military hardware.

This included intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, and a fly-past by nearly 80 military aircraft under cloudy skies.

Putin said that Russia will again and again uphold international law, but at the same time would firmly protect national interests (and) ensure the security of the people.

Sunday’s parade follows a massive show of Russian military force near the borders of Ukraine and in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Kyiv in 2014, and an uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

This year’s parade precedes parliamentary elections in September and comes at a time when Moscow’s relations with the West are strained over issues ranging from the conflict in Ukraine to the fate of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

The United States and Russia have expelled each other’s diplomats in recent months in a series of retaliatory moves and Moscow and EU member states have been involved in a similar tit-for-tat diplomatic dispute.

US Navy Seizes Arms Shipment In Arabian Sea Amid Yemen War

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Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized an arms shipment hidden aboard a vessel in the Arabian Sea, the latest such interdiction by sailors amid the long-running war in Yemen.

The weapons seized included Chinese-made, Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, sniper rifles, heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers although the Navy did not identify where it believed the shipment originated.

However, the assortment of arms aboard the dhows mirrored other shipments banned by the U.S. and allied forces in the region that later were described to be heading to Yemen.

The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey discovered the weapons aboard what the Navy described as a stateless dhow, a traditional Mideast sailing ship, in an operation that began Thursday.

Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been battling a Saudi-led military coalition for control of the country since 2015is awash with small arms that have been smuggled into poorly controlled ports over years of conflict.

Scottish Nationalists Vow Independence Vote After Election Win

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Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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Pro-independence parties In Scotland have won a majority in parliament paving the way to a high-stakes political, legal and constitutional battle with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the future of the United Kingdom.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the result meant she would push ahead with plans for a second independence referendum once the COVID-19 pandemic was over.

Sturgeon said it would be absurd and outrageous if Johnson were to try to ignore the democratic will of the people or try to block the right of the people of Scotland to choose their own future.

She added that it is the will of the country,” she added after her Scottish National Party (SNP) was returned for a fourth consecutive term in office

The British government argues Johnson must give approval for any referendum and he has repeatedly made clear he would refuse.

He has said it would be irresponsible to hold one now, pointing out that Scots had backed staying in the United Kingdom in a “once in a generation” poll in 2014.

The election outcome is likely to be a bitter clash between the Scottish government in Edinburgh and Johnson’s United Kingdom-wide administration in London.

The nationalists argue that they have democratic authority on their side; the British government say the law is with them and It is likely the final decision on a referendum will be settled in the courts.

African Nations Gear Up To Polish Image At Dubai Expo

By

Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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African nations are attending this year’s Dubai Expo 2020 in force, intending to project the image of a modern and ambitious continent and shed stereotypes of conflict and underdevelopment.

The six-month mega-event, delayed by the Covid pandemic, is a milestone for the wealthy Gulf emirate which has spent some $8.2 billion transforming a barren stretch on the outskirts of the city into an eye-popping site bristling with high-tech pavilions.

As the huge project nears completion ahead of the scheduled October 2021 opening, African delegates touted their ambitions to generate trade and investment at a high-level meeting this week.

AU’s head of strategic partnerships Levi Uche Madueke said with nearly all African states represented for the first time, Expo provides a stage to advertise a “continent that is ready to move forward.

Madueke said despite the need to develop infrastructure and the existing barriers to international trade, Africa has a lot to offer thanks to its rich natural resources and youthful population.

He added that the time had come for the Continent to reach out to the world, and for the world to understand and collaborate with it.

Since the first World Expo was held in London in 1851, global fairs have been used to showcase innovations and as a branding exercise for participating countries.

And in its quest to gain influence on the international scene, the United Arab Emirates has increased its political and economic presence in Africa in recent years, particularly in the eastern Horn.

Death Toll Rises To 50 From Blasts Near Afghan Girls School

By

Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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The death toll from bombs planted outside a girls’ school in an area of the Afghan capital populated largely by Shiite Hazaras rose to 50 Sunday as the Taliban denied government accusations that they were behind the bloody attack.

The Saturday’s blasts rocked the west Kabul district of Dasht-e-Barchi, a regular target of Sunni Islamist militants and comes as the United States military continues to pull out its last 2,500 troops from the violence-wracked country

Describing Saturday’s carnage, Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told reporters that a car bomb first detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada School, and when the students rushed out in panic two more devices exploded.

He said more than 100 people were wounded, adding that most of the victims were female students.

No group has so far claimed the attack, but Afghan officials including President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban.

Speaking in a statement after the blasts, Ghani said that the savage group does not have the power to confront security forces on the battlefield, and instead targets public facilities and the girls’ school.

The insurgents have denied involvement and insist they have not carried out attacks in Kabul since February last year, when they signed a deal with the United States that paved the way for peace talks and withdrawal of the remaining US troops.

The United States was supposed to have pulled all forces out by May 1 under a deal struck with the Taliban last year, but Washington pushed back the date to September 11.

Thousands March In France For Real Action On Climate Change

By

Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris and other French cities on Sunday to call for more ambitious measures in the fight against climate change.

The nationwide protests come after the lower house of parliament this week approved a climate bill to curb greenhouse gas emissions that environment activists say doesn’t go far or fast enough.

A group of climate campaigners, “Ensemble pour le climat” or “Together for climate” said the proposed law is a climatic and social failure while Greenpeace France denounced government’s refusal to take action for climate.

Activists blame President Emmanuel Macron, who has been very vocal about his support for climate change action, for having “weakened” a set of measures initially proposed by a panel of 150 citizens who had worked for months on the issue.

Seeking the upper hand in what could be a key issue in next year’s elections, the president promised a referendum on the bill if it gained approval in both houses of parliament.

The National Assembly, where Macron has a majority, overwhelmingly voted in favour of the revision in March, but on Monday, the bill goes to the Senate, where the right-wing Republicans hold the majority.

Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, a National Assembly deputy for Macron’s LREM party charged on Sunday saying they have already decided “to empty the bill of its substance”,

He warned in the JDD weekly that changes “will prevent the agreement,” as under French law a referendum can go ahead only if it is approved in identical wording by both houses of parliament.

Macron’s office responded by telling Newsmen that the plan to change to constitution was “in no way buried”.

Large Segment Of Chinese Rocket Disintegrates Over Indian Ocean

By

Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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The Chinese space agency says a large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean on Sunday.

Officials in Beijing had said there was little risk from the freefalling segment of the Long March-5B rocket, which had launched the first module of China’s new space station into Earth orbit on April 29.

However, the US space agency NASA and some experts said China had behaved irresponsibly, as an uncontrolled re-entry of such a large object risked damage and casualties.

In a statement, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said after monitoring and analysis, at 0224 GMT on May 9, 2021, the last-stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 launch vehicle had re-entered the atmosphere.

Providing coordinates for a point in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives, It added that most of the segment disintegrated and was destroyed during descent.

The US military’s Space Command said the rocket “re-entered over the Arabian Peninsula at approximately 10:15 pm EDT on May 8 (0215 GMT Sunday)”.

Monitoring service Space-Track, which uses US military data, said that the location in Saudi Arabia was where American systems last recorded it adding that it was confirmed the rocket actually went into the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives.

Because it was an uncontrolled descent, there was widespread public interest and speculation about where the debris would land.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin suggested last week that China had been negligent, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson echoed that after the re-entry on Sunday.

Congo Leader Visits Sudan, Egypt For Talks On Nile Dispute

By

Zoe Maven

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May 9, 2021

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Congo’s president, the current head of the African Union, has met with Egyptian and Sudanese officials amid international and regional efforts to relaunch negotiations over Ethiopia’s disputed dam on the Nile River’s main tributary.

President Felix Tshisekedi was received by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of Susan’s ruling sovereign council, at the Khartoum’s airport after the two leaders then headed for talks at the presidential palace.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok also attended the talks, according to a statement by the sovereign council.

Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi said Congo’s president has offered an initiative to break deadlock over the dam’s dispute adding that the Sudanese authorities would study the initiative.

The Egyptian leader’s office said Tshisekedi then flew to Cairo where he met with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Burhan reiterated Sudan’s call for a negotiated agreement on the filling and operation of the dam’s massive reservoir, the sovereign council said in a separate statement.

The latest round of African Union-brokered negotiations in Congo’s capital of Kinshasa in April failed to make progress on the issue.

The dispute now centers on how quickly Ethiopia should fill and replenish the reservoir and how much water it releases downstream in case of a multi-year drought.

Egypt and Sudan argue that Ethiopia’s plan to add 13.5 billion cubic meters of water in 2021 to the dam’s reservoir is a threat to them. Cairo and Khartoum have called for the U.S., the U.N, and European Union to help reach a legally binding deal.