african countries 24

Former President Robert Mugabe was finally buried at Kutma Zvimba in Zimbabwe. The burial service was a small and private event with only those close to the former veteran leader and members of the community in attendance.

The body of Pres Mugabe being laid to rest now 28/09/19 at 17:10 at his courtyard in Kutama village in Zvimba. We leave you cde, satisfied your remains are safe and secure. #RIPGushungo pic.twitter.com/XERYoL6q2B

— mawarire jealousy (@mawarirej) September 28, 2019

The burial service has started. #RIPRobertMugabe. pic.twitter.com/aZ3OGuj43U

— Sophie Mokoena (@Sophie_Mokoena) September 28, 2019

Mugabe’s family gathered to pay their last respects and celebrate his life.

The government of Zimbabwe had earlier announced that he will be buried at the Ntional Heroes Acre in Harare and a special shrine was supposed to be built. It was expected that it will take 30 days to build the shrine.

On Thursday, Mugabe’s body was transported to Kutma  by the military.

The spokesperson of the family Leo Mugabe says it was the former president’s wish to be buried at Kutma in Zvimba and the family was fulfilling that.

The veteran leader died in a Singapore hospital a few weeks ago, aged 95. His death comes after almost two years after a military coup ended his 37-year rule.

WATCH VIDEO BELOW: 

Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has attributed the now postponed protest in the banking industry to what she says are the ‘banks’ failure to re-skill employees’.

Earlier this week, Business Unity South Africa obtained an interdict against the planned protest.

However, workers who are members of the South African Society of Bank Officials say they still intend to protest over mass retrenchments as banks go digital.

Ndabeni-Abrahams was speaking during the celebration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information at the University of Pretoria.

“We need to improve on the enrolment of the digital skills that we must provide the citizens with. Because we can give internet to all but if people don’t know how to participate in the internet space then they will end up being victims. Now our’s is to say how do we use these platforms that are available to us to drive the right messaging so that people can be able to identify solutions to their own problems without them looking upon government to so do?”

Click on the video below:

A federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to set aside a plan that would make more people vulnerable to expedited deportation until a court can rule on the matter.

The lawsuit, filed by We Count! and other immigration advocates, asked a Washington court to overturn a plan making undocumented people eligible for deportation without court oversight unless they could prove they had been in the country more than two years.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction on Friday, setting aside the rule until it can be litigated, saying that the people represented by the immigration advocates “would be irreparably harmed by the challenged agency action.”

Previously, only those immigrants detained within 100 miles (161 kilometers) of the border who had been in the country two weeks or less could be ordered rapidly deported.

The policymakers an exception for immigrants who can establish a “credible fear” of persecution in their home country.

Also on Friday, a federal judge in California blocked a Trump administration rule that would have allowed indefinite detention of migrant families, saying it was inconsistent with a decades-old court settlement that governs conditions for migrant children in US custody.

Egypt’s president told supporters not to worry about calls for further protests against his rule on Friday, as security forces tightened controls in the center of the capital and closed off entrances to Tahrir Square.

Protests broke out on September 20 in Cairo and other cities following online calls for demonstrations against alleged corruption by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the military.

Sisi, who has been in New York for the past week attending the United Nations General Assembly, returned to Cairo on Friday morning, where he was greeted by religious dignitaries and a crowd of supporters.

Asking them why they were up so early on a Friday, the first day of Egypt’s weekend, he said: “The situation isn’t worth it. You need to know that the Egyptian people are very aware… Don’t worry about anything.”

Sisi also appeared to repeat his earlier rejection of allegations of corruption posted online by Mohamed Ali, a former contractor and actor, in the run-up to the protests. Ali’s videos have attracted a wide following.

“This is an image being painted as was done before, comprised of lies and defamation and some media working to present an image that isn’t true. We’re really strong, the country is really strong with (because of) you,” he said in a video posted on his official Facebook page.

Since last weekend’s protests, authorities have carried out a campaign of mass arrests which rights monitors say has seen at least 1 900 people detained. Egypt’s public prosecutor said on Thursday that “not more than 1 000” had been questioned after participating in protests.

Ali has called for new protests this Friday, though government supporters are also planning rallies to show their backing for Sisi.

HEAVY POLICE PRESENCE

The protests have unnerved investors and led to a pro-Sisi campaign in Egypt’s strictly controlled media.

Security forces have stepped up their presence in main squares in major cities and have been checking mobile phones for political content.

On Friday morning, roads leading to Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the epicenter of protests that led to the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, were closed to traffic. There was a heavy police presence around the square and at some junctions in the city center.

Sisi came to power after leading the overthrow of Islamist former President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 following mass protests against Mursi’s rule.

Sisi said on Friday that at some point he would request a show of mass support in which Egyptians would “go out in their millions”.

Sisi has overseen a broad crackdown on dissent that has extended to liberal as well as Islamist groups and which rights groups say is the most severe in recent memory.

Sisi’s backers say the crackdown was needed to stabilize Egypt after the turmoil that followed the country’s 2011 uprising.

Several hundred of those detained in the past week have been placed under investigation for charges including using social media to spread false news, undermining national security, joining a banned terrorist group and protesting without a permit, defense lawyers say.

Concerns over the digitisation of the banking sector and resulting job losses have been raised at the South Africa-UNESCO Engineering Conference held at the Mahikeng Campus of the North West University.

Academics attending the conference say more has to be done to re-skill and up-skill workers so that they can adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

North West Premier Job Mokgoro says strategies are needed to prevent job losses.

“We are very sympathetic to the issue of the possibility of job losses like in the instance of the banking industry, and we are all crossing our fingers. Whenever you plan any development you must have a risk mitigation strategy against any possible unintended consequences.”

Meanwhile the Department of Science and Innovation is investigating how many jobs are likely to be lost.

Director General Dr Phil Mjwara says: “We are working with the Human Sciences Research Council to se how the study could be done for the South African economy and for the South African industry.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday tempers needed to calm following a vitriolic session in parliament, after critics accused him of using language that had led to threats and abuse against his opponents.

Parliament reached boiling point on Wednesday when Johnson and his opponents engaged in hours of furious argument over Britain’s departure from the European Union (EU). Lawmakers hurled allegations of betrayal and abuse of power across the chamber.

The anger had become so intense that the husband of a lawmaker murdered days before the 2016 EU membership referendum said it could encourage violence unless politicians toned down their rhetoric.

“We do need to bring people together and get this thing done,” Johnson told BBC TV, declining to apologise for his language. “Tempers need to calm down and people need to come together because it is only by getting Brexit done that you will actually lance the boil of the current anxiety.”

The ferocity of the Brexit debate has shocked allies of a country that has prided itself on being a confident and mostly tolerant pillar of Western economic and political stability.

However, three years since Britons voted to leave the EU, the outcome remains mired in uncertainty with supporters on both sides of the debate becoming increasingly entrenched.

UNLAWFUL

Johnson returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled that his decision to suspend parliament earlier this month was unlawful.

He challenged his opponents either to bring down the government or get out of the way to allow him to deliver Brexit, something he has vowed to do by October 31 whether or not he has agreed a withdrawal deal with the EU.

His opponents roared “resign” and some cast him as a cheating dictator who should stand aside after the court ruling.

Johnson provoked anger by repeatedly calling a law that forces him to ask the EU for a three-month Brexit delay next month unless he can strike a deal as the “Surrender Bill”.

His critics say such language is often used in threats of violence or worse received by lawmakers, particularly women.

A far-right extremist was jailed in May for planning to murder a female lawmaker with a sword, while on Thursday a lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party said a man had been arrested at her office for striking the windows and shouting “fascist”.

“The prime minister’s language is encouraging people to behave in a disgraceful and abusive way towards other public figures,” said Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader. “I have witnessed it myself on the streets of this country.”

Johnson defended his use of “surrender bill”, arguing that the legislation hurt Britain’s negotiating stance with the EU.

“I think it’s fair enough to call the surrender act what it is,” he told the BBC. He said the growing threat to lawmakers had to be addressed but declined to apologize for his words and disputed suggestions his language was stoking feelings.

“What I worry about is if we don’t get Brexit done, then people will feel very badly let down,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that the toxic atmosphere meant opposition lawmakers might not support any Brexit deal he struck with the EU, making it almost impossible to get it through parliament, where he has no majority.

Many politicians were furious over his response on Wednesday to a question about Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker and mother of two children who was murdered on June 16, 2016 by a loner obsessed with Nazis and extreme right-wing ideology.

When one female Labour lawmaker said she had had threats from people echoing the prime minister’s rhetoric, Johnson replied: “I have never heard so much humbug in my life”

Cox’s husband Brendan said both sides should ponder the impact of the words they used.

“To descend into this bear pit of polarisation is dangerous for our country,” Cox told the BBC. “It creates an atmosphere where violence and attacks are more likely.”

PM’S SISTER UNIMPRESSED

Johnson says parliament is betraying the will of the people over Brexit, while opponents cast him a dictator who has ridden roughshod over democracy to take the United Kingdom to the brink of ruin.

Parliament speaker John Bercow said the atmosphere in the House of Commons was the worst he had known since he was elected 22 years ago.

It was not just politicians who were angry. Johnson’s sister Rachel described her brother’s words as a “particularly tasteless” way to refer to the memory of a murdered lawmaker.

“Words like collaborationist, traitor, betrayal, my brother using words like surrender, capitulation, as if the people who are standing in the way of the blessed will of the people as defined by 17.4 million votes in 2016 should be hung, drawn, quartered, tarred and feathered,” she told Sky News.

“I think that it is highly reprehensible language to use.”

In 2016, 17.4 million voters or 52%, backed Brexit while 16.1 million, or 48%, voted to remain.

Former Conservative prime minister John Major, a vocal critic of Johnson, said he hoped many of his party’s supporters would see the current government as an “aberration”.

“We abhor the language of division and hate – and words such as ‘saboteur’, ‘traitor’, ‘enemy’, ‘surrender’, ‘betrayal’ have no place in our party, our politics, nor in our society,” he said.

The owner of the Kenyan school where eight children died and 64 others were injured on Monday when their classrooms collapsed will appear in court on Friday. Moses Wainana was arrested on Thursday. It is not clear what charges he faces.

Wainaina’s arrest came soon after the government shut down the school and directed that the pupils be transferred to neighbouring schools.

On Monday, Kenya’s Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha seemed to shift blame over the accident on Wainana. He said the tragedy would have been avoided if the building regulations had been followed.

Magoha said the owners of the school constructed an additional floor to the single-storey building without seeking approval from the country’s construction authorities. The school was closed on Monday to allow police to carry out investigations.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) September Quarterly Bulletin released this week has shown that households are struggling as the economy fails to grow.

The new data shows that consumer disposable income is also under pressure.

The quarterly bulletin consumption expenditure growth in the economy increased to 2.8% quarter-on-quarter.

Household consumption expenditure is likely to moderate to 1.3% in 2019 and then increase to 1.7% next year.

The newly released data from the Reserve Bank shows that real disposable incomes of households moderated noticeably from 2017 – with 2018 posting two quarters of negative growth.

This is adversely affecting spending on durable goods or big ticket items.

Even though incomes improved in 2019, households are struggling and spending remains constrained, as the economy fails to show any signs of real growth.

Minister of International Relations, Naledi Pandor has called for clear incentives to be provided to countries that deliver on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In a fiery speech at the United Nations during an event to galvanise ambition ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform of Action in 2020, Minister Pandor said countries who do not give women senior roles in their decision-making structures should not have a seat at the table among those who are.

It was an occasion to spur countries into action, almost a quarter of a century after that landmark women’s world conference in China in 1995.

While there has been progress, the pace has been slow and the growing frustration is palpable.

Pandor says, “I do feel a sense of sadness as I stand here and talk of these matters given my own countries poor record on femicide and gender-based violence and as we deliberate I ask myself, what are we going to do different from today and how do we ensure as institutions such as this one that those who sit at this high table and give the undertakings we all giving today deserve to be at this high table.”

“What will the measure be to decide who will sit here when we report on whether we have made progress or not.  I think we need to set some incentives that will help us determine who will sit here. If we don’t have 50% in a legislature a country must not be here if women are not represented,” She says.

Pandor argued that if it was made too easy for countries to articulate a perspective in fora like the one she participated in, it would be too easy to neglect the gender equality agenda as a whole.

She called for monitoring and evaluation on progress countries were making, arguing that it was vital for them to be firm and not to rest. Calling for women to mobilise in their various countries and regions and ensure that international instruments are respected and observed in practice.

The minister says,  “Our success will be measured by ensuring that women play a role in governance, that women are represented in public life. Those women are economically empowered, that women enjoy financial inclusion. That agriculture is modernised. Those women have access not just to land but to its ownership, that women have access not just to technology but to its innovation. That women have access not just to markets but to their control. That women have access not just to infrastructure but to owning it. That women have access to capital and make use of it. All of these are matters that we must address. “

Pandor  also pointed to legislation as a tool. She says, “What should we do differently to ensure generational equality means real change. Women’s empowerment has to be enshrined in law. These laws should set out equal social, political, and economic rights and I believe as our first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela believed that the first of these laws must be the right to compulsory education, for all children boys and equally girls. Without that law enshrined in statute we won’t make that progress we are discussing today.”

For her part, the Executive Director of UN Women Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told the same gathering that there was a special place in hell for those who have the means to advance gender equality but refuse to do so.

[WATCH]: Min @NalediPandor speaking at the #UNSC meeting on “Cooperation between the United Nations & regional & sub-regional organizations in maintaining international peace & security”, at the Security Council Chambers, @UN, New York 25/09/2019 #SAatUNSC https://t.co/oSurpnOHGI

— DIRCO South Africa (@DIRCO_ZA) September 25, 2019

Kenya is lagging behind to meet the 2020 global target to Eliminate Mother To Child Transmission (EMTCT) of  Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), according to the country’s health ministry.

Statistics released by Kenya’s National Aids and Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) Control Program, NASCOP indicates that at least 22 children acquired HIV daily from their mothers in 2018, while 12 others died daily in the East African nation due to AIDS.

The country had more than 8,000 new HIV infections.

The report also indicates that at least 10,000 HIV positive mothers and children missed life saving antiretroviral treatment.

Elimination of the transmission of HIV is ranked as one of the greatest public health achievements and as a step towards an AIDS free generation.

Until 2017,  Kenya seemed on track to win the war against HIV/AIDS at least as far the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission was concerned.

“Mother to child transmission of HIV the rate, you can see where we are 2015 we are 8.3%, 2016 6.7%, we at this point knew we would move to 5% and get validated but we have so many missed opportunities it moved to 11.5% and now we are 12.4% what that means among 100 mothers who are HIV infected 12 will transmit the virus to the children,” says Says Nascop Head, Dr. Catherine Ngugi.

For a country to be considered to have eliminated mother to child transmission, it needs to have less then 50 new infections in new born babies per 100,000 live births and a transmission of less than 5% from mothers to their breastfeeding babies.

The country also needs to have an antenatal care coverage of at least 95% with HIV and syphilis testing of pregnant women of more or equal to 95%.

During a meeting of stakeholders in the country’s health sector, the ministry admitted that it’s off the mark.

“We recognize that Kenya unfortunately is among the countries with the highest HIV prevalence globally and while we have seen a sustained HIV response, new infections amongst children, adolescents, young people remains unacceptably high,” says Principal Secretary, Kenya Susan Mochache.

So why have the mother to child transmission rates doubled in two years?

“The children got it during breastfeeding, some did not receive ART during pregnancy and then some dropped off during pregnancy when they were pregnant they did not receive ART, ” says Ngugi.

The two day meeting will come up with solutions on how the East African nation can regain its footing in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Sibanye-Stillwater has announced its intention to retrench more than 5 000 workers at its Marikana mine in the North West.

Sibanye-Stillwater says that it will enter into consultation with the relevant stakeholders in terms of the Section 189 process.

Spokesperson for Sibanye, James Wellsted says the retrenchment process follows a detailed three-month review of the Marikana operation and that the unfortunate job losses are necessary in order to ensure the sustainability of the mine’s operation.

“This follows ongoing financial losses experienced at these operations with certain shafts having reached the end of their economic reserve lives. The company and affected stakeholders will together consider other measures to avoid and mitigate further retrenchments and seek alternatives to the potential closing or downscaling of operations.”

“The restructuring will result in a more sustainable business, which is able to secure employment for the majority of the Marikana workforce of approximately 22 000 people and benefit other stakeholders in the area for a much longer period.”

Saudi Aramco has asked banks to submit proposals for a project finance loan of more than $1 billion, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The state oil company’s request for proposals (RFPs) was sent this week, one of the sources said.

It was not immediately clear from the RFP the specific nature of the projects these funds will be used for, the sources said.

The request to banks went in a few days after the September 14 attack on the two giant plants which caused raging fires and damage that halved the crude output of the world’s top oil exporter, by shutting down 5.7 million barrels per day of production.

Aramco was not immediately available to comment.

EFF leader, Julius Malema has called on Zimbabwe’s leaders to respect the wishes of the late Robert Mugabe and allow the youth to continue to pursue his legacy.

Malema has visited the Mugabe family in Harare to pay his respects.

Mugabe died at the age of 95 from prostate cancer.

His funeral was held more than a week ago and the body is expected to be interred at Heroes Acre in the capital within the next few weeks.

Malema, who had called on Mugabe to step down, says it is regrettable that the liberation fighter had to be removed by the Zimbabwe military…

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has announced that contingency plans are in place ahead of the anticipated bank strike on Friday. In a statement, Sars says that it will work with all role players to avert any disruptions to the country’s financial system.

Over 40 000 members affiliated to the  Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)  and the South African Society of Bank Officials (Sasbo) are expected to down tools over retrenchments in the banking sector in what they have declared a total shutdown.

Sasbo says the union will ensure that ATM’s and banking operations are not functional. In Gauteng, it will start at Cosatu House down to the bank city where the memorandum will be handed over.

In Durban, they will go to the city hall.

Meanwhile,  Business Unity South Africa (Busa) says they have applied for an interdict to halt the strike.  Busa’s Cas Coovadia says a ruling on the interdict will be handed down on Wednesday.

“We have applied for an interdict and we are expecting a ruling tomorrow (Wednesday). We applied for the interdict because the strike has been planned on the basis of a Section 77 notice that was actually done in August 2017 and our legal people are of the view that the notice is outdated and so we have applied for an interdict and we are awaiting the ruling tomorrow  (Wednesday).”

Click below for more on the story: 

A trip to the United States that began as a golden opportunity for Ukraine to burnish relations with its most powerful international backer has turned into a diplomatic tightrope walk for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ahead of his first meeting with President Donald Trump this week, Zelenskiy was thrust into a political storm in Washington over accusations that Trump pressured him to launch a probe into the son of his main Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Zelenskiy cannot risk relations with either side of the political divide in Washington, whose bipartisan support Ukraine counts on for aid and diplomatic cover against Russia following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014.

An example of the pitfalls involved came this month when US lawmakers suspected Trump of trying to withhold $250 million of military aid to Ukraine, which had already been approved by Congress, as a tool to pressure Zelenskiy. Trump denied doing so on Monday.

The Zelenskiy administration wants to stay out of the firing line following media reports that Trump asked him in a phone call in July to launch an investigation that could damage Biden. Ukrainian officials deny Trump put pressure on Zelenskiy, but have been reluctant to divulge details of the call, saying such conversations should be confidential.

“Why should we react in any way? There was a conversation with the US president. Full stop,” top presidential official Oleksandr Danylyuk told Reuters by phone on Monday. “Any attempts to use Ukraine by one party or the other is clearly detrimental to our relations,” he added.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS MESS

A comedian and, like Trump, a television star with no prior political experience when he took office, Zelenskiy won a landslide election victory in April promising voters an end to Ukraine’s conflict with Russian-backed forces in the Donbass region that has killed 13 000 people.

The timing of the row in Washington is delicate for Zelenskiy, who hopes to build on the momentum from a recent prisoner swap with Russia to hold talks on the Donbass conflict with President Vladimir Putin in the coming weeks.

Before he was inaugurated, Zelenskiy got an early warning of what lay in store for him when Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani announced in May that he would visit Ukraine and then abruptly aborted his trip.

Giuliani had spearheaded calls for Ukraine to investigate the activities of Biden and his son, who joined the board of a Ukrainian gas company while Biden was vice president.

Serhiy Leshchenko, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who was an adviser to Zelenskiy during his campaign, recalled Zelenskiy’s reluctance to meet with Giuliani at that time.

“I think he understands that it’s (an) attempt to take him and put him in the battle between two parties in the US,” Leshchenko told Reuters by phone. “He just doesn’t want to be used by any of the sides. He’s a smart guy in general, I think he’s very wise and understands that for him it’s better to sit away from all this mess….Because if he supports one side, the other side will be angry,” he added.

Giuliani cancelled his visit saying Zelenskiy was surrounded by Trump’s enemies. He named Leshchenko, who in August 2016 had divulged details of payments from a former Ukrainian president to Trump’s campaign chief Paul Manafort during the US. election.

Giuliani said the evidence was fake, which Leshchenko denies. Seeing how toxic the issue was likely to become, Leshchenko said he withdrew from his advisory role, not wishing to damage Zelenskiy’s relations with Washington.

After Giuliani cancelled the trip, Andriy Yermak, an aide to Zelenskiy, later sought to meet Giuliani on what Yermak said was his own initiative. He was quoted in Ukrainian media outlet lb.ua on Monday as saying that he had told Giuliani that any investigation would be transparent.

“We can guarantee that during our term in office all investigations will be carried out transparently,” Yermak said. “These are the fundamental principles and basis of President Zelenskiy’s programme which we campaigned on.”

A Republican, Trump on Monday accused Democrats of waging a witch hunt against him, but he provided no evidence the accusations against him were politically motivated. Media reports about the July phone call stemmed from a classified whistleblower report from the US intelligence community.

Seven children were killed and at least 57 injured on Monday when a classroom collapsed in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, officials said.

Television stations showed images of rescue workers sifting through metal sheeting and slabs of concrete at the Precious Talent school and carrying white body bags to an ambulance.

“There have been 57 students that have been taken to hospital for treatment, and we can also confirm that there have been seven fatalities,” said government spokesman Cyrus Oguna.

Kenyatta National Hospital later said on Twitter 64 students had been sent to the hospital.

The first floor of the building collapsed, trapping the children below, local lawmaker John Kiarie told NTV Kenya.

The cause was not immediately known, but authorities have previously warned 30-40,000 buildings erected without approval in Nairobi are at risk of collapse.

Three years ago a six-story residential block collapsed in Nairobi, killing 51 people following heavy rains.

Classroom collapses on Pupils at Precious Talent School.Rescuers are at the scene where several pupils are feared dead while some are still stuck in the debris while others have been rushed to the Kenyatta National Hospital.Lets pray for the affected individuals
(Photos Courtesy) pic.twitter.com/Oi1ZeFgKtk

— Embakasi Finest 🇰🇪 🐐 (@ThisIsMboya) September 23, 2019

SABC East Africa correspondent Sarah Kimani reports:

The Passenger Rail Agency says it will embark on a series of cash recovery measures after the High Court in Johannesburg’s judgement against Daniel Mthimkhulu who had labelled himself a “Doctor” when his highest qualification was matric.

The court ordered Mthimkhulu to repay R5.7-million he had earned as a senior manager.

PRASA says Mthimkhulu also played a central role in the dodgy Swifambo contract and judgements in this regard also clear the way for the rail agency to recover more than R2.6-billion.

PRASA says it will continue in its efforts to root out corruption at the agency.

Global aviation leaders will be under pressure to deepen efforts to tackle airline emissions as they gather this week under the shadow of protests led by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

The 16-year-old, who inspired a ‘flight-shaming’ protest movement against aviation and sailed across the Atlantic rather than board a plane, is expected to join a march on Friday in Montreal as 193 nations meet at the UN aviation agency.

The International Civil Aviation Organization holds its assembly every three years and its 75th-anniversary gathering starting on Tuesday comes at a time of growing concerns about climate change and a six-month-old grounding of the Boeing 737MAX jetliner.

On Monday, the head of the US Federal Aviation Administration, Steve Dickson, will brief global regulators about delayed progress in approving MAX flights, which were halted in March following two fatal crashes.

The grounding is not on the agenda of the 24 Sept -4 Oct assembly but regulators will be anxious to avoid divisions on the sidelines over actions needed to restore the jet to service.

The debate over aviation’s impact on the environment will be a major topic for the public side of the talks, however.

Commercial flying accounts for 2.5% of carbon emissions.

But with passenger numbers forecast to double to 8.2 billion by 2037, experts say emissions will rise if no action is taken.

At its last full meeting in 2016, ICAO fostered the first global industrial climate initiative with a medium-term scheme to help airlines avoid adding to their net emissions from 2020.

The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) requires most airlines to limit emissions or offset them by buying credits from environmental projects.

The industry says around $40 billion in climate financing will be generated between 2020 and 2035.

The move eased the threat of a trade war after the European Union initially imposed its own emissions scheme unilaterally, but environmentalists say it did not go far enough.

The EU, some campaigners and the industry itself want ICAO to commit now to setting longer-term goals at its 2022 assembly- though they may well differ sharply over what they should be.

Andrew Murphy, aviation manager at the Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment, said climate protests led by Thunberg may put more pressure on the assembly.

“Discussions in ICAO on boosting climate ambitions have been stuck in neutral for years – Greta’s presence could inject much-needed urgency to the debate,” he told Reuters. ICAO secretary general Fang Liu said she would be open to meeting Thunberg in Montreal.

“Our goal is the same goal as Greta’s,” she said.

The aviation industry has committed to a target of halving net emissions by 2050, compared to 2005 levels, but there is no comparable long-term climate target for aviation set by countries in any international agreement, including the 2016 Paris accord.

Some of those arrested were carrying out intelligence work including photographing potential targets, the National Intelligence Security Services (NISS) said in a statement read out on state-affiliated broadcaster Fana.

“The group was … preparing to attack hotels, religious festivities gathering places and public areas in Addis Ababa,” NISS said.

Those detained, NISS said, were arrested in the capital Addis Ababa, Oromia and Ethiopia’s Somali region.

The militants have carried out numerous attacks in Somalia on military and civilian targets, and it has also conducted attacks abroad including in Kenya.

Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel firm, collapsed on Monday, stranding hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers around the globe and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.

Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser said it was a matter of profound regret that the company had gone out of business after it failed to secure a rescue package from its lenders.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said Thomas Cook had now ceased trading and the regulator and government would work together to bring the more than 150 000 British customers home over the next two weeks.

“I would like to apologise to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years,” Fankhauser said in a statement released in the early hours of Monday morning.

“It is a matter of profound regret to me and the rest of the board that we were not successful.”

The government and aviation regulator said that due to the scale of the situation some disruption was inevitable. “Thomas Cook has ceased trading so all Thomas Cook flights are now cancelled,” the CAA said.

The demise of Thomas Cook marks the end of one of Britain’s oldest companies that started life in 1 841 running local rail excursions before it survived two world wars to pioneer package holidays first in Europe and then further afield.

The firm now runs hotels, resorts and airlines for 19 million people a year in 16 countries. It currently has 600 000 people abroad, forcing governments and insurance companies to coordinate a huge rescue operation.

Pictures posted on social media showed Thomas Cook planes being diverted away from the normal stands, and being deserted as soon as they had landed.

Crippled by its 1.7 billion pounds of debt, Thomas Cook has been hit by online competition, a changing travel market and geopolitical events that can up end its summer season. Last year’s European heatwave also hit the company hard as customers put off last minute bookings.

The corporate collapse has the potential to spark chaotic scenes around the world, with holiday makers stuck in hotels that have not been paid in locations as far afield as Goa, Gambia and Greece.

In the longer term it could also hit the economies of its biggest destinations, such as Spain and Turkey, leave fuel suppliers out of pocket and force the closure of its hundreds of travel agents across British high streets.

The British government and the aviation regulator have drawn up a plan to use other airlines to bring Britons home. In Germany, one of the biggest customer markets for Thomas Cook, insurance companies will take charge.

Saudi Arabia will seek to make a case at a global gathering in New York this week for concerted action to punish and deter arch-foe Iran after strikes on Saudi oil plants rattled global markets and exposed the kingdom’s vulnerability to attack.

However, even Riyadh’s main allies the United States and the United Arab Emirates have little appetite for a conventional military confrontation which may spark a war in the Gulf and drag in other oil producers, diplomats say.

As it tries to build a coalition, Riyadh is preparing to provide evidence to the U.N. General Assembly which it says will prove Iran was behind the Sept. 14 drone and missile assault which initially drastically affected its oil output, a view shared by Washington. Riyadh says Iranian weapons were launched from the north and that it is working to pinpoint the exact location.

Iran has denied any involvement and vowed to retaliate against even a limited military response. It has criticized the accusations as part of a campaign of “maximum pressure” launched by President Donald Trump on Tehran after he quit a 2015 nuclear pact last year and widened sanctions to choke off Iran’s oil exports. Riyadh wants to see more punitive action by the international community.

“This attack is a tipping point. Saudi Arabia will make the case this was a devastating blow and continued threat to the global economy,” a Gulf Arab source told Reuters on Sunday.

“If Saudi Arabia can prove without reasonable doubt that Iran was behind it, then world powers could exercise their clout– their pressure, their trade tools, pulling Iran back from its brinkmanship policy,” the source said.

Ahead of the UN General Assembly, Riyadh says it wants a peaceful resolution, but if the probe proved the strike came from Iran then “this would be considered an act of war”.

Britain’s Thomas Cook needs to find an extra 200 million pounds ($251 million) to satisfy its lenders or one of the world’s oldest holiday company risks collapse, potentially stranding thousands of holidaymakers across Europe.

Thomas Cook has struggled with competition in popular destinations, high debt levels and an unusually hot summer in 2018 which reduced last-minute bookings. The firm has 1.7 billion pounds of debt.

A source close to the discussions said on Thursday that Royal Bank of Scotland had hit Thomas Cook with a last minute demand for the extra funding, adding that the situation “was becoming more critical”.

A spokesman for RBS said the bank did not “recognize this characterization of events” and was working with all parties to “try and find a resolution to the funding and liquidity shortfall at Thomas Cook”.

Under original terms of the plan, Fosun – whose Chinese parent owns all-inclusive holiday firm Club Med – would contribute 450 million pounds ($552 million) of new money in return for at least 75% of the tour operator business and 25% of the group’s airline.

Thomas Cook’s lending banks and bondholders were to stump up a further 450 million pounds and convert their existing debt to equity, giving them in total about 75% of the airline and up to 25% in the tour operator business, the group said.

GET A GRIP

If that deal is not finalised before a creditor vote on September 27, then holidaymakers could be facing the second major collapse of a tour operator in as many years, after the failure of Monarch in 2017.

When Monarch collapsed, the British government repatriated all customers abroad, both those with package holiday protection from Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) and flight-only passengers who were not protected.

If Britain does the same for Thomas Cook’s customers, then the 160 000 Britons abroad that would need repatriation would eclipse the number brought home after Monarch’s collapse.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport declined to say if there were plans for a similar repatriation effort. Asked about Thomas Cook, he said: “We do not speculate on the financial situation of individual businesses.”

British pilot union BALPA, whose members have previously gone on strike in a disagreement over pay with Thomas Cook’s management, have supported the restructuring and urged the banks and government to support the travel group.

“The government sat on the sidelines wringing its hands when Monarch Airlines was let down by its financiers, this time government needs to get a grip and do its bit to save Thomas Cook,” General Secretary Brian Strutton said in a statement.

The Yemeni Houthi movement on Friday accused the Saudi-led coalition of a dangerous escalation of the situation around Hodeidah after coalition forces attacked targets north of the port city. The actions threatened a UN-brokered ceasefire accord in the Red Sea port, Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul-Salam said.

The Saudi-led coalition on Friday launched a military operation north of Hodeidah against what it described as “legitimate military targets.”

A coalition spokesperson said attacks had destroyed four sites used to assemble remote-controlled boats and sea mines to help protect the freedom of maritime navigation.

“The concentrated raids on Hodeidah constitute a dangerous escalation that could blow up the Sweden agreement,” the Houthi spokesperson said on Twitter. “The coalition will bear the responsibility of this escalation which is also a test to the United Nations.”

A Hodeidah ceasefire and troop redeployment agreement was reached in 2018 at peace talks in Sweden as a trust-building measure to pave the way for talks to end the war, but it stalled for months before a Houthi withdrawal from three Red Sea ports.

The Western-backed, Sunni Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government in Sanaa in late 2014.

Tunisia’s ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali died in exile in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, days after a free presidential election in his homeland, his family lawyer said.

“Ben Ali just died in Saudi Arabia,” the lawyer, Mounir BenSalha, told Reuters by phone.

Ben Ali fled Tunisia in January 2011 as his compatriots’ rose up against his oppressive rule in a revolution that inspired other Arab Spring uprisings abroad and led to a democratic transition at home.

On Sunday, Tunisians voted in an election that featured candidates from across the political spectrum, sending two political outsiders through to a second round vote unthinkable during Ben Ali’s own era of power.

However, while they have enjoyed a much smoother march to democracy than citizens of the other Arab states that also rose up in 2011, many of them are economically worse off than they were under Ben Ali.

While almost all the candidates in Sunday’s election were vocal champions of the revolution, one of them, Abir Moussi, campaigned as a supporter of Ben Ali’s ousted government, receiving 4% of the votes.

Judgment is expected to take place the Labour Court on Friday in the Johannesburg Metrobus strike matter. Metrobus approached the court to interdict the strike.

Metrobus workers belonging to the Democratic Municipal and Allied Workers Union (Demawusa) have been on strike since Monday over matters relating to salary progression and office space.

“There’s no judgment which is stopping the strike now, the strike is continuing. We are just disappointed by the employer that instead of resolving the problem, they run to the courts. This is a third sitting now and we think the employer is negotiating in bad faith,” says Dion Makhura of Demawusa.

Watch a related video below:

A fire at an Islamic school in Liberia has killed at least 27 children, police said on Wednesday.

“The kids were learning the Koran when the fire broke out, “police spokesman Moses Carter said.

He added the blaze was caused by an electrical issue and that further investigations were on going.

Carter had originally said 30 children were killed before revising the death toll down to 27.

Two survivors were taken to the hospital, he said. The fire started late on Tuesday in the suburbs of the capital Monrovia, President George Weah said in a tweet. “My prayers go out to the families of the children that died last night in Paynesville City,” Weah said.

“This is a tough time for the families of the victims and all of Liberia.”

It is common for buildings to collapse in blazes linked to faulty electrics in Liberia’s big cities, however these are rarely deadly.

The world is at a critical moment on several fronts and the biggest challenge facing leaders and institutions is to show people that they care. This is according to the United Nations Secretary General who was speaking to the media in New York ahead of the start of the annual General Assembly High Level segment of the global organisation next week.

Antonio Guterres was also previewing his all-important Climate Action Summit on Monday in which he again urged world leaders not to come with fancy speeches but with concrete commitments towards up scaling ambition towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

Climate Change is a top agenda item for Guterres and he believes the High Level Week should be mobilised to respond to people’s anxieties with answers.

“I see the High Level Week as an excellent opportunity to showcase the United Nations as a centre for solutions and a driver for meaningful, positive change in people’s lives.   Let’s face it,  we have no time to lose. We are losing the race against climate change. Our world is off-track in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. We see trade wars and real wars, and the spread of hateful words and deadly weapons. Tensions are boiling over – and everyday people always pay the highest price. This is the moment to cool tensions, and nowhere is that more important than in the Gulf.”

At the climate summit, the UN Chief expects member states to showcase their initiatives aimed at moving away from coal, to put a price on carbon by stopping subsidies for fossil fuels and by cutting pollution levels that are so detrimental to human health. The summit is seeking commitments to reduce carbon emission by 45% before 2030 and to capitalise the Green Climate Fund to the tune of $100 billion annually starting in 2020.

“We will need government, businesses and people everywhere to join these efforts so we can put climate action into a higher gear.  We also need to step up our drive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”

With so many world leaders heading to New York, it is a time to advance diplomacy for peace just as the United States is accusing Iran of an Act of War after the attack –claimed by rebels fighting in Yemen – on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.

“I strongly condemn this attack, I think this attack is a dramatic escalation in the Gulf and I believe that we absolutely need to stop this kind of escalation and that we absolutely need to create the conditions to avoid a major confrontation in the Gulf that would have –as we have seen by the immediate impact on markets – if there would be a major confrontation in the Gulf it would have devastating consequences for the region and globally. “

Guterres is hoping to promote dialogue towards political and economic solutions in Libya, Yemen, from Syria to Palestine, Sudan, South Sudan and Zimbabwe.

“In relation to Zimbabwe, I think it’s very important that true political and economic reform is implemented in Zimbabwe in order first of all to solve the problems of the country and its people and second to be able also to gain in the international community the kind of support that Zimbabwe will need to overcome the very difficult situation in which it is. And of course the human rights dimension is fully part of that.”

The message to world leaders is to put people first, their needs, their aspirations and their rights.

The Northern Cape permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) were shocked to learn that the province’s municipalities had the highest vacancy rate in the country, their irregular expenditure had increased to R624 million and their debt to Eskom stands at R1.3 billion.

The municipalities are facing spiraling debt, political instability in some municipalities and high vacancy rates in critical managerial positions.

Seventeen of 31 municipalities have no Chief Financial Officers (CFO) or municipal managers or both.

This is according to the provincial department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs.

Department Head, Bafedile Lenkoe, says 30 of the 31 municipalities are dependent on government grants and are unable to fund their annual budget.

Lenkoe says this, coupled with vacancies in critical positions, has impacted service delivery.

“Where there is a vacancy rate, the stats indicate that there’s under expenditure, zero expenditure and most of those areas are where there are no technical directors. So, there is a correlation between vacancy rate and performance of a municipality.”

NCOP Deputy Chairperson, Sylvia Lucas who was premier of the Northern Cape for the past five years, says municipalities had been showing improvement during the past two to three years.

However, she says municipalities  particularly those in mining areas  are showing decline.

“Two or three years ago, it was Kgatelopele for instance, but if you listen to the report, Kgatelopele is one of the more compliant municipalities. But Tantsabane and Gamagara, there is a possibility that if we just change our style of governance and management, we might see an improvement in those specific municipalities.”

During the state of the province address in July in which the state of municipalities was highlighted, the provincial African National Congress (ANC) vowed to come down hard on those contributing to the waste of municipal funds.

“Fruitless and wasteful expenditure, there’s no reason to incur that so we’ll be strict on that. Those who are caught with their hands in the cookie jar. We’ll kick them out of the ANC. That’s the bottom line. That’s the message from the ANC. We are unequivocal about that. We are not ambiguous. That’s the message we are sending out to all councillors but also officials in the municipalities,” says party Provincial Secretary, Deshi Ngxanga.

The provincial government says it is exploring ways to create a single structure to coordinate all monitoring of municipalities.

45 African researchers from 12 countries have been selected to participate in a career development program for innovative research and solutions to help African farmers adapt to climate change.

The five-year program is expected to train researchers that can assist with policy recommendations that will help the continent to be more food secure.

In most cases, the solutions on how to mitigate and adapt against the effects of climate change have come from outside of the continent. Now, a $20 million fellowship dubbed the “One Planet Fellowship” hopes to change that through the training of 630 African and European scientists over the next five years.

The fellowship will be implemented by African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (Award) and France’s Agropolis Foundation.

The fellowship will cover 12 African countries – six Anglophone countries and six Francophone countries.

Fellows will be equipped with skills on scientific research, gender analysis as well as leadership skills.

The Democratic Municipal and Allied Workers Union (Demawusa) and the Johannesburg Metrobus management are heading to the Labour Court on Wednesday as the union’s members forge ahead with strike action until their demands are met.

Metrobus workers belonging to Demawusa embarked on an indefinite strike on Monday over salary progression issues.

Meanwhile, Metrobus says their bus, that was reported hijacked on Wednesday morning, has since been found parked at a Ghandi Square bus terminal in central Johannesburg.

Demawusa spokesperson, Dion Makhura, says the two parties could not come to an agreement in Tuesday’s negotiations.

“Today we are not meeting, we met them yesterday where we did not agree about the picketing. They say we must picket 500 meters away from their building and only 10 people are allowed to picket. They have taken us to the Labour Court at 10. We have only two demands: they have to pay salary progressions, where we are saying people have to paid in terms of their experience. The second is we have to have access to resources,” says Makhura.

Watch a related video below:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s battle for political survival looked set to stretch on for days or weeks after exit polls following Tuesday’s election showed the race too close to call.

The surveys by Israeli television stations gave Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud 31-33 of parliament’s 120 seats compared with 32-34 for the centrist Blue and White led by former general Benny Gantz.

They indicated that Netanyahu’s ally-turned-rival,ex-defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, could be the kingmaker, with the backing of his far-right Yisrael Beitenu party criticalto the formation of any ruling coalition.

“Netanyahu has lost, but Gantz hasn’t won,” said Udi Segal, a prominent Israeli television news anchor.

Without Lieberman’s support, the polls suggested, Likudcould put together a right-wing coalition controlling only up to 57 parliamentary seats, while Blue and White could enlist no more than 58 legislators – meaning both parties falling short of the 61 needed for a governing majority.

Lieberman was forecast to capture 8-10 seats, up to double his current tally in parliament, making him the linchpin.

The election was called after Netanyahu, 69, failed in efforts to cobble together a coalition following an April ballotin which Likud and Blue and White wound up in a dead heat, each taking 35 parliamentary seats. It is the first time Israel has had two general elections in a single year.

The two main parties’ campaigns pointed to only narrow differences on many important issues: the regional struggle against Iran, the Palestinian conflict, relations with theUnited States and the economy.

An end to the Netanyahu era, after a decade in power, would be unlikely to bring about a significant change in policy on hotly disputed issues in the peace process with the Palestinians that collapsed five years ago.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has announced his intention to annex the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians seek statehood.

But Blue and White has also said it would strengthen Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank, with the Jordan Valley as Israel’s “eastern security border”.

The Palestinians and many countries consider the settlements to be illegal.

KINGMAKER

Lieberman, a Jewish settler from the former Soviet Union who ran on a platform of limiting the influence of ultra-Orthodoxrabbis and politicians on everyday life in Israel, has said he seeks a “national unity” government with the two major parties, Likud and Blue and White.

That could be complicated: Lieberman has said he would not join a coalition that included ultra-Orthodox parties -Netanyahu’s traditional allies.

Gantz has ruled out participating in an administration with Netanyahu, if the Israeli leader is indicted on looming corruption charges. As in the election five months ago, his opponents, including Gantz, focused on bribery and fraud allegations against Netanyahu in three corruption cases.

The prime minister, due to face a pre-trial hearing in October to argue against the charges being filed, has denied any wrongdoing.

An election loss could leave Netanyahu more at risk of prosecution, without the shield of parliamentary immunity which his political allies had promised to seek for him.

And there is no certainty they would stand by a weakened leader without an obvious public mandate in any coalition-building.

Netanyahu portrays Gantz, 60, as inexperienced and incapable of commanding respect from world leaders such as U.S. President Donald Trump.

Before the last election, Trump gave Netanyahu a lift with U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. This time, the White House seems more preoccupied with Iran.

The Trump administration plans soon to release an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that may prove a dead letter: The Palestinians have rejected it in advance as biased.

Netanyahu’s open door in Washington and other world capitals, at a combustible time on Israel’s borders with Syria, Gaza and Lebanon, remains a big draw domestically.

In the final hours of campaigning, Netanyahu strained every sinew, urging voters to support him to avert what he described as the “disaster” of a left-wing government.

His voice hoarse, the veteran leader took to the streets and social media, at one point using a megaphone in Jerusalem’s bus station, to appeal to voters to extend his unbroken decade in power. “There’s no one else running who is worthy of being prime minister,” said Alon Gal, a 53-year-old hi-tech manager.

“With (Netanyahu), at least I know who I am dealing with.” In Gaza, Palestinians awaited the results of the vote. “This election affects many things in our life,” said Mohamad Abdul Hay Hasaneen, a janitor in the city of Khan Younis.

“There might be limited escalations after the election,but I don’t think this would result in a full war.”

Egypt’s foreign minister said Cairo had resumed talks with Sudan and Ethiopia over a $4 billion dam Addis Ababa is building on the Nile which had been suspended for over a year.

The three countries’ irrigation ministers met in Cairo on Sunday to resume negotiations over filling and operating the dam, which Egypt sees as a threat to its water supplies.

Egypt fears the dam will restrict Nile River flows, the economic lifeblood of all three countries, from Ethiopia’s highlands, through the deserts of Sudan, to Egyptian fields and reservoirs.

Sunday’s meeting came “after a halt of about a year and three months, a period exceeding what was planned”, state news agency MENA cited Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry as saying.

Ethiopia disputes the mega dam will harm Egypt, and in November, MENA quoted Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as saying he wanted to preserve Egypt’s Nile River rights.

Shoukry said he hoped the negotiations, due to continue on Monday, would lead to agreement on a firm timeline for talks that will eventually lead to a binding agreement on the dam’s filling and operation.

Oil shed some of its massive gains on Tuesday as the United States flagged the possible release of crude reserves, but the threat of military action over the attacks on Saudi oil facilities kept prices elevated and stocks under pressure.

While equity market losses have not been large, shaky investor confidence continued to support safe-haven assets. Gold edged higher and Treasury prices rose on Tuesday.

Investors otherwise broadly remained on the sidelines ahead of an expected interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the next round of US-China trade talks on Thursday.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.66%. Chinese shares fell 1.07%, while Hong Kong shares slumped 1.18%.

Euro Stoxx 50 futures were down 0.11%, German DAX futures were down 0.02%, while FTSE futures fell 0.31%.

“There is certainly a risk-off tone, but I’m surprised the markets are not reacting more,” said Tsutomu Soma, general manager of fixed income business solutions at SBI Securities in Tokyo.

“The US and other countries have oil reserves, which helps sentiment in a case like this. You also have a lot of positions riding on the Fed meeting.”

Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 0.96% to $68.39 per barrel on Tuesday. On Monday, it surged 14.6% for its biggest one-day percentage gain since at least 1988.

US West Texas Intermediate futures were down 1.29% to $62.09 per barrel following a 14.7% surge on Monday, the biggest one-day gain since December 2008.

Saturday’s attack on Saudi oil facilities has halved the kingdom’s oil output, creating the biggest disruption to global oil supplies in absolute terms since the overthrow of the Iranian Shah in 1979, International Energy Agency data show.

US President Donald Trump has authorized the release of emergency crude stockpiles if needed, which could ease some upward pressure on crude futures.

Trump said on Monday it looked like Iran was behind the attacks but stressed that he did not want to go to war, striking a slightly less bellicose tone than his initial reaction.

Iran has rejected US charges that it was behind the attacks. Tension between the two countries was already running high over Iran’s suspected ambitions to assemble nuclear weapons. The strikes in Saudi Arabia are likely to raise regional tensions even further.

The People’s Bank of China extended $28.27 billion of loans from its medium-term lending facility on Tuesday to maintain liquidity but kept the one-year lending rate unchanged at 3.3%.

Disappointment that the PBOC did not lower the one-year lending rate weighed on Chinese shares.

Many analysts expect China to lower benchmark rates for new loans on Friday to keep pace with monetary easing by other central banks.

Hong Kong shares headed for their biggest decline in three weeks after Moody’s lowered its outlook for the city’s credit rating due to protests in the Asian financial hub.

The Chinese-ruled territory has been rocked by more than three months of clashes, with demonstrators angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in their city’s affairs despite a promise of autonomy.

US stock futures fell 0.08%. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended 0.31% lower.

Spot gold traded a shade higher at $1,499.77 an ounce following a 0.7% increase on Monday.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes fell slightly to 1.8362%.

The dollar was little changed at 108.19 yen.

The Fed is expected to cut interest rates at a policy meeting ending on Wednesday, which could put pressure on the Bank of Japan to ease policy at a meeting the following day.

Trump said on Monday that the United States has reached initial trade agreements with Japan, but traders are also focused on the US-Sino trade war.

Deputy-level talks between the United States and China are scheduled to start in Washington on Thursday, paving the way for high-level talks next month aimed at resolving a bitter trade row that has dragged on for more than a year.

A blast in the centre of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul killed at least six people on Tuesday, police officials said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We are investigating whether it was a suicide attack or whether a magnetic bomb was attached to a motor-bike,” interior ministry spokesperson Nasrat Rahimi said.

In a separate incident, an explosion near an election rally attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani killed 24 people.
In the same incident 31 people were injured.

This happened in Charikar, capital of Parwan province, northof Kabul, health officials said.

Taliban commanders have said they will intensify clashes with Afghan and foreign forces to dissuade people from voting in the September 28th presidential election. This is when Ghani will bid for a second five-year term.

There have been five confirmed deaths from cholera in Sudan’s Blue Nile state since August 28, the country’s health ministry said.

The ministry reported 67 cases of cholera since that date, with 18 of them still receiving treatment in isolation rooms, it added in a statement.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was working closely with Sudanese health authorities and other partners to respond to cases of cholera in south-eastern Sudan.

Teams from the health ministry and the WHO have travelled to the state to support sanitation and water safety measures,disposal of waste and food safety, the ministry said in a previous statement.

It also asked the WHO to import cholera vaccinations.

Johannesburg’s Metrobus says one of its busses has been hijacked Monday morning as some drivers embark on a strike action.

The bus driver escaped unharmed. The bus was travelling from Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, headed for Ghandi Square in the CBD to pick up passengers.

Metrobus has described this as an act of intimidation.

Metrobus spokesperson Goodwill Shiburi says, “We are able to operate over 80% of our buses. But the moment you have intimidation and cases like that it sends wrong message to those who want to work. We need to make sure that our drivers are safe and passengers are safe. But at the moment we are assessing the situation and if it continues with intimidation we might halt the service.”

Some Metrobus commuters will have to find alternative means of transport as members affiliated to the Democratic Municipal and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (DEMAWUSA) down tools on Monday.

Employees are demanding a salary increase and union office space in all three depots in Johannesburg.

Shiburi says the southern part of Johannesburg, the eastern parts of Johannesburg, including the inner city and parts of Parktown will be affected by the strike.

He says negotiations will continue as planned. “A strike is not in the best interest of our passengers and given the number of people that will be embarking on strike, we are able to operate the service and I’m hoping that it’s only going to be a few routes affected,” adds Shiburi.

The International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor says she does not expect South Africa to receive any backlash from the 193 member states of the United Nations General Assembly, due to the recent violence in the country.

Pandor says many countries are aware of the government’s efforts to tackle the violence. She was speaking ahead of South Africa’s participation in the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, to be held in New York.

“And I will expect that South Africa will be treated in a proper manner given that as a government we haven’t done what’s been done by some countries on the continent, where hundreds have been expelled. Where there are illegal immigrants, we’ve tried to be humane in our efforts. Yes, there’s been this violence, but we’ve not behaved as other African governments, and those that did those things were not rejected by the international communities.”

Meanwhile, Pandor has criticised the media’s role in the recent wave of attacks on foreign nationals.

“I note the resistance in the media, which seems to find that something which is kept alive consistently even when respected actors on matters on Human Rights have said it is wrong to call South Africans xenophobic as a nation. But the events that occurred are concerning and we need to take steps.”

Click below for more on the story: 

Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has praised his predecessor, Robert Mugabe  for his vision and fortitude.

Mnangagwa was speaking on Saturday at the state funeral of Mugabe at the National Stadium in Harare.

He told his African counterparts and the world about the new path he said Zimbabwe was embarking on and demanded the lifting of sanctions.

“There is no place in our modern world for punitive unilateral sanctions imposed in pursuit of selfish interests, undue influence in colonial time expansionism. As we mourn our icon we call for the unconditional and immediate lifting of the sanctions imposed on us. We invite the world to work and walk with us in the brighter future for our people. A Zimbabwe free of the albatross of sanctions is indeed a better Zimbabwe for the world.”

For more watch video below:

Volkswagen  has abandoned its decades-old obsession with empire building and no-expense-spared engineering to free up resources for the development and mass production of electric cars, its CEO Herbert Diess told Reuters.

A global clampdown on toxic exhaust fumes has triggered a new wave of consolidation in the auto industry as car-makers look for ways to slash development costs for low-emission and self-driving technologies.

While rivals such as FiatChrysler and Renault explore a $35 billion deal to bulk up, Volkswagen is taking the opposite approach: slimming down.

“We don’t need more brands. With very few exceptions we can tap the world’s large profit segments with our existing brands,” Chief Executive Herbert Diess told Reuters at the Frankfurt auto show.

VW is spending $88.55 billion to buy battery cells and develop electric cars and has struck a broad alliance with Ford to help share development and manufacturing costs.

Volkswagen grew into a multi-brand empire under the leadership of Ferdinand Piech, the company’s chief executive and chairman between 1993 and 2015, whose aggressive expansion resulted in the acquisition of Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini in a single year.

Today the German company has 660 000 employees and owns the Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati and Audi brands in addition Scania, MAN and VW.

Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters singing “God Save the Queen” and waving Union Jack flags rallied outside the British Consulate on Sunday demanding that the former colonial power ensures China honours its commitments to the city’s freedoms.

The Chinese-ruled territory has been rocked by weeks of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests, with demonstrators angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in their city’s affairs despite a promise of autonomy.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984, lays out Hong Kong’s future after its return to China in 1997, a “one country, two systems” formula that ensures freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

“Sino-British Joint Declaration is VOID,” one placard read. “SOS Hong Kong,” read another.

“One country, two systems is dead,” they shouted in English under the sub-tropical sun, some carrying the colonial flag also bearing the Union Jack. “Free Hong Kong.”

With many young people looking for routes out of Hong Kong, campaigners say Britain should change the status of the British National (Overseas) passport, a category created after Britain returned Hong Kong to China. The passports allow a holder to visit Britain for six months, but do not come with an automatic right to live or work there.

“I am here to demand the UK protect our citizens’ rights in Hong Kong and speak up for Hong Kong under the Joint Declaration” Jacky Tsang, 25, told Reuters.

The spark for the protests was planned legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial, despite Hong Kong having its own much-respected independent judiciary.

The protests have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage.

Tens of thousands of Algerians marched in the capital on Friday to demand that the rest of the ruling elite follow former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in quitting power before any new election.

The 30th consecutive Friday protest also included demands that the authorities release Karim Tabou, a prominent opposition leader who has been held since Wednesday and charged with “contributing to weakening army morale”.

The army, the strongest institution in Algeria, wants a presidential election as soon as possible to break the deadlock between the protesters and the authorities.

The absence of an elected president since Bouteflika resigned in April has left Africa’s largest country, a major energy exporter, in constitutional limbo.

“No vote as long as the gang rules the country,” read one banner, referring to interim President Abdelkader Bensaleh and Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, who is expected to resign soon.

“Free Tabou, free Tabou,” another banner read.

Dozens of Bouteflika allies including two former prime ministers, two former intelligence chiefs, ministers and influential business tycoons have been put behind bars on corruption charges, but the protesters are calling for wider measures to overturn the old order.

Algeria is a key gas supplier to Europe and it is a US partner in its fight against militant Islamist groups in the Sahara and Sahel regions.

WeWork owner The We Company’s executives, investors and advisers are discussing curbing the voting power of founder Adam Neumann and removing his co-founder wife from a role in succession planning, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

An announcement on the corporate governance could come as soon as Friday, the source said, cautioning that the plans are still subject to change and that no final decision has been made.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that WeWork’s parent has chosen to list its shares on Nasdaq, adding that it would officially begin marketing the shares to investors next week ahead of a trading debut in the week of September 23.

WeWork did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment on the report.

In the run-up to its IPO, WeWork has faced concerns over its corporate governance standards, as well as the sustainability of its business model, which relies on a mix of long-term liabilities and short-term revenue, and how such a model would weather an economic downturn.

Revising Neumann’s supervoting rights, which give him 20 times the voting power of ordinary shareholders, was among the changes being discussed, the source said.

We Company, whose losses are widening with no stated path to profitability, has awarded Neumann unusual privileges that go beyond what most stock market investors are accustomed to.

We Company co-founder Rebekah Neumann, Adam Neumann’s wife who is the company’s chief brand and impact officer, will pick his successor if he dies or is permanently disabled in the 10 years following the IPO, alongside two company board members. She will get to pick those board members if two people currently on the board, Bruce Dunlevie and Steven Langman, step down.

Another possible change being considered is taking Rebekah Neumann out of this role, the source added.

Despite receiving lukewarm interest in its shares, the We Company is pressing ahead with an initial public offering and may seek a valuation as low as $15 billion to $18 billion in its IPO, down from the $47 billion value it commanded in the last private fundraising round in January.

The news on plans to curb Neumann’s voting power was earlier reported by the Financial Times.

We Company declined to comment on changes in the corporate governance.

A 41-year-old man was found dead in south-eastern Spain on Saturday, the local government said, bringing to at least six the death toll inflicted over the past two days by record-breaking rain.

More than 1100 military personnel have been deployed to the regions of Murcia and Valencia to help rescue people isolated by the deluge and evacuate thousands to safety after a river burs tits banks and cascades of water submerged highways.

The most recent victim was from the town of Orihuela, around 55 kilometres (34 miles) from the seaside town of Alicante,where acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the emergency response command centre.

“Sadly, we mourn another fatality in Orihuela,” Sanchez said on Twitter.

Three men were found dead on Friday, including one who tried to drive through a flooded tunnel, and two siblings perished on Thursday when their car was carried away by water.

The national weather agency maintained its weather risk alert at the third-highest level on a four-point scale for several areas in the centre and south of Spain.