Newscast - Africa

Lebanon has warned Israel against any aggressive action in disputed waters where both states hope to develop offshore energy after a ship arrived off the coast to produce gas for Israel.
President Michel Aoun says any activity in the disputed area would amount to an act of aggression and a provocation, after the arrival of the natural gas storage and production ship operated by London-based Energean.
Israel says the field in question is within its exclusive economic zone, not in disputed waters.
The Lebanese presidency says Aoun discussed with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati the vessel’s entry into the disputed maritime area with Israel and asked the Army Command to provide him with accurate and official data to build upon the matter.

A court in Australia has ordered Google to pay a former legislator some 715,000 Australian dollars in defamation damages over two videos posted to YouTube.
The Australian Federal Court found that the two videos drove John Barilaro, the deputy premier of Australia’s most populous state New South Wales, to quit politics prematurely.
Judge Steven Rares says the videos, which were posted by political commentator Jordan Shanks amounted to a relentless, racist, vilification, abusive and defamatory campaign against Barilaro.
The judge says that Alphabet Inc’s Google, which owns content-sharing website YouTube, earned thousands of dollars by hosting the two videos but failed to apply its own policies to prevent hate speech, cyberbullying and harassment.

The Central Election Commission says voters in Kazakhstan have backed constitutional amendments proposed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in the June 5 referendum.
It said that 77.18 per cent of votes were in favour of the amendments which decentralise decision-making and stripped former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev of his national leader status. The total turnout stood at 68.06 per cent.
Electoral commission chair Nurlan Abdirov says the referendum can be considered validated.

President Kais Saied dismissed 57 judges, prompting judges in Tunisia to embark on a week of strike and stage sit-in protests against the president’s firing of dozens of their colleagues.
President Kais Saied dismissed 57 judges this week after accusing them of corruption and protecting terrorists.
President Saied plans to hold a referendum next month on a replacement constitution, a move opposed by most of Tunisia’s political parties.

The West African bloc, Ecowas, has postponed making a decision on Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso after its leaders failed to agree on what action to take against the military juntas in each of those three countries.
The region's leaders, however, said they were concerned with the countries' deteriorating political and security situations.
The bloc imposed economic sanctions on Mali after officers staged two coups in less than a year. It threatened harsh measures against both Guinea and Burkina Faso whose military rulers have proposed to remain in power for three years.

Uganda's health minister says the country's Covid-19 cases have risen to levels last witnessed in June 2021 when the Delta variant was prevalent.
Minister Jane Aceng says the country was well prepared to respond and save lives than before
She also ruled out travel restrictions or lockdowns in any part of the country under the current circumstances.
She added that they will optimize the existing control and mitigation tools at personal and community levels.

Tanzania's government is reversing its controversial decision to lift a ban on wildlife exports.
The order to roll back the embargo was only announced two days ago and had been heavily criticised by activists.
The law was introduced in 2016 to help prevent protected animals from being smuggled out of the country by poachers.
Tanzania's Minister of Tourism and Natural Resources Pindi Chana however said the ban would be reinstated until a further decision had been made.

The World Health Organisation has raised the alarm on the extent to which tobacco damages both the environment and human health, calling for steps to make the industry more accountable for the destruction it is causing.
WHO highlighted that the industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming.
The Director of Health Promotion at WHO, Dr Ruediger Krech, says Products like cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes also add to the build-up of plastic pollution.

The proposed national carrier for Nigeria, Nigeria Air will receive its Air Transport Licence from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority today in preparation for it to start operation after it has obtained its Air Operator Certificate.
The company had disclosed this in a public notice as part of the requirements for granting an AOL.
The notice stated that any person or organisation with objection should make it known before 28 days expire.
The Director-general of the NCAA said the promoters of Nigeria Air have applied for AOC and that the process was still ongoing.

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s power sector have warned that the sector faces imminent collapse as a result of challenges.
They highlighted the acute foreign exchange shortage in the country as a major challenge affecting the sector.
They said this was because almost all the materials in the sector are being purchased in foreign currency, adding that the cost of maintaining their facilities is also in dollars.
The federal government had at the weekend explained the drop in electricity generation as a result of the partial shutdown of the Oben gas plant for the repair of critical gas processing equipment.