Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he had hosted successful talks in the White House with representatives of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on a controversial dam being built on the Nile. Trump was mediating in a dispute over Ethiopia’s construction of the huge …
Read More »Britain’s Johnson launches election campaign on opposition turf
Birmingham, United Kingdom | AFP | British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday launched the Conservatives’ election campaign in a traditional stronghold of the Labour opposition he hopes to win over by vowing to “get Brexit done”. Addressing supporters who were dressed in t-shirts bearing the slogan, he urged voters to …
Read More »Milking it: investors hope Qatar’s desert dairy will be cash cow
Doha, Qatar | AFP | The cows of Qatar’s Baladna farm, housed in climate-controlled farms in the desert, exemplify the lengths to which Qatar has gone to resist what it calls an economic “blockade” enforced by its Saudi-led neighbours. When the boycott began in June 2017, Qatar responded with sweeping measures, …
Read More »Rebuke for Trump in races seen as barometers for 2020 election
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump and his Republican allies suffered stinging defeats Tuesday as Democrats were projected to win closely-watched elections in two states, results that signal troubling headwinds for his 2020 re-election campaign. The Republican Governor Matt Bevin in deep-red Kentucky was ousted by his …
Read More »Nigerian ‘sex slavery’ ring goes on trial in France
Lyon, France | AFP | Twenty-four suspected members of a sex trafficking ring accused of forcing Nigerian women into prostitution in France go on trial Wednesday, the latest case to highlight the growing use of Nigerian migrants as sex slaves in Europe. Nigeria was the main country of origin of the …
Read More »Trump calls for ‘war’ on cartels as Mormons murdered in Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico | AFP | President Donald Trump offered Tuesday to help Mexico hunt the killers of nine Mormon women and children shot dead in a lawless border area — and said the United States stood ready to back its southern neighbor in a “war” on the drug cartels. Gunmen …
Read More »Troubles, what troubles? Trump basks in populist love
Lexington, United States | AFP | Taking the stage in a packed Kentucky arena to the strains of America’s unofficial patriotic anthem, “God Bless the USA,” Donald Trump didn’t look like a man in trouble. Harried by impeachment proceedings, yes. Beset by foreign policy worries, yes. Accused of everything from sexual …
Read More »Disinformation, surveillance seen as growing threats to democracy: watchdog
Washington, United States | AFP | Governments around the world are increasingly using social media to manipulate elections and monitor their citizens, in a worrisome trend for democracy, a human rights watchdog said Tuesday. An annual report on online freedom by the nonprofit group Freedom House found evidence of “advanced social …
Read More »Xi pledges wider market access, free-trade deals
Shanghai, China | AFP | President Xi Jinping on Tuesday pledged to further open China’s economy, declaring the world must “knock down walls” as he opened an annual trade fair against the backdrop of the US tariffs war. Xi addressed an audience including French President Emmanuel Macron at the import exhibition …
Read More »India’s top court orders halt to stubble burning as Delhi chokes
New Delhi, India | AFP | India’s top court has ordered a complete halt to stubble burning around Delhi, a major contributor to lethal smog that on Tuesday kept the metropolis of 20 million people choking in air rated “very poor”. The Supreme Court said the capital’s residents were “losing precious …
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