Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has called out vaccine selfishness in the world but says it will wake up Africans to be self-sufficient.
President Museveni says what Africa needs is raw materials to produce its own Covid vaccines and not donations from the developed nations.
President Museveni said countries across the continent need to stop waiting for vaccine donations and manufacture them locally.
President Museveni says Uganda was in the process of making its own Covid vaccine and only needed help with some raw materials.
The African Union has been calling for a Covid vaccine patent waiver to allow the continent to make its own vaccines as the shortage continues in different countries.

Sudan will cut its government spending and increase social spending after completing a raft of rapid economic reforms this month that threatens to compound pressures on the majority of the population.
Sudan fully removed subsidies on car petrol and diesel, and in February it devalued its currency and began a policy of a flexible managed float.
The country will cut costs of external official trips by 50%, reduce fuel quotas for government vehicles by 20%, sell all surplus government vehicles and cut embassies' budgets by 25% among other measures.
The cabinet after three days of closed meetings says the government will expand the registration of a family support project called Thamarat or Fruits to include three million families or about 15 million people within two months.

A senior official says Sudan has rejected an Ethiopian proposal to manage the filling for a second time of a giant dam that it is building on the Blue Nile deepening a regional dispute over the project.
Addis Ababa has said it will again fill the reservoir behind the multi-billion dollar hydropower dam after seasonal rains start this summer, a move that both Sudan and Egypt oppose without a binding agreement on filling and operating the dam.
The senior Sudanese official says the Ethiopian proposal for the second filling was not real and a way to buy time, adding that any such proposal should come under the auspices of AU mediators and involve all parties.
The official also said that Ethiopia had put forward impossible conditions related to the division of the share of the water, which Sudan considers outside the scope of negotiations.

Members of the organised private sector have advised state governors to eliminate multiple taxations and introduce measures to further improve Ease of Doing Business in order to attract investors and promote economic growth.
The advice by the OPS followed the recent EoDB report released by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council which ranked Gombe State number one among the 36 states with an overall average score of 7.69 out of a maximum score of 10.
Officials of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry says the state governments should focus on eliminating multiple taxations, improving electricity supply, transportation, security and investment promotion, to ease doing business.
They also called for streamlining tax administration, introduction of legislation to provide a legal framework for doing business in their respective states.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, The Gambia, to issue provisional measures to urgently stop the Nigerian government and National Assembly from supporting and pushing through two bills to gag the media, and impose arbitrary and harsh punishment on journalists, broadcast stations, media houses and media practitioners in Nigeria.”
The right group says these anti-media bills are the latest threats to freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom in the country.
They said the bills are not in keeping with the provisions of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, which supplements articles 1 and 9 of the African Charter.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has asked Nigerian leaders to begin at this moment in the nation’s history, to prepare for and against population explosion.
Obasanjo says Nigeria’s population is becoming a liability due to its improper management, stressing that except there is urgent intervention, then the nation may be declared the third most populous nation in the world.
He says population management must come to the fore, especially in the face of the geometric population explosion without a corresponding socio-economic development.
Obasanjo expressed worry over the management of the population of the nation.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says Nigeria is set to utilise its legal provisions that empower the Federal Government to collect taxes on profits made in the country by global technology and digital firms not based in the country, but with a significant economic presence here.
The Vice President says it is already empowered to widen the tax net, including through the collection of taxes on the Nigerian income of global tech giants with a significant economic presence here, even if they have not established an office or permanent establishment and are currently not paying taxes in Nigeria.
He says they have had severe economic downturns which of course imply that we may not be able to collect taxes with the aggressiveness that would ordinarily be expected.

U.S. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration in the state of Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts after a building collapse near Miami left at least one dead and nearly 100 missings.
The White House says the President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.
Rescue crews picked through tons of rubble on Thursday looking for survivors after the collapse of part of the oceanfront apartment tower in Surfside near Miami.

Algeria’s president has accepted the prime minister’s resignation, paving the way for the formation of a new government following parliamentary election results.
A statement by the Algerian presidency says Abdelmadjid Tebboune accepted the resignation of the government led by Abdelaziz Djerad and appointed him as caretaker premier until a new cabinet is formed.
Djerad’s resignation follows a parliamentary election on June 12 that was marked by a low turnout and no majority winner after two years of mass protests and political turmoil.

Afghan leaders Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah will meet United States President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday for a high-stake discussion likely to shape Afghanistan’s future as the US withdraws forces nearly 20 years after invading.
President Biden is expected to offer assurances of US backing for the Afghan government in Kabul and is likely to press Ghani and Abdullah to unify their rival political factions in the face of rising Taliban assaults, analysts say.
Ghani and Abdullah are expected to appeal to Biden for specific and concrete pledges of financial and diplomatic support, including continued technical assistance for embattled Afghan military forces.
Director of the Afghanistan programme at the US Institute of Peace, Scott Worden, says the security situation is alarming and it’s deteriorating.