Newscast - Africa

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has confirmed the United States plans to open an embassy in the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands in an effort to counter China’s influence in the politically troubled Pacific Islands.
The State Department says Solomon Islanders cherished their history with Americans on the battlefields of World War II, but that the US was in danger of losing its preferential ties as China aggressively seeks to engage elite politicians and business people in the Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in a speech that says he had done nothing wrong and would not bow down to the forces of evil or to Taiwan’s agents.

The UK tax authority has seized three Non-Fungible Tokens as part of a probe into a suspected VAT fraud involving 250 alleged fake companies.
HM Revenue and Customs say three people had been arrested on suspicion of attempting to defraud it of £1.4m.
The authority says it was the first UK law enforcement to seize an NFT.
NFTs have been touted as the digital answer to collectables, but plenty of sceptics fear they're a bubble waiting to burst.

Ukraine vowed to keep its airspace open to international travel despite Western warnings that Russian troops conducting drills near its borders could invade at any point.
Ukraine’s budget airline SkyUp says that its flight from Portugal to Kyiv was forced to land in Moldova because the plane’s Irish leasing company had revoked permission for it to cross into Ukraine.
SkyUP added that European leasing companies were demanding that Ukrainian airlines return their planes to EU airspace within 48 hours.
Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry responded by holding an emergency meeting aimed at maintaining foreign travel and keeping the country from becoming more isolated in the heat of the crisis.

The UN chief’s special adviser on Libya called on both its interim prime minister and his parliament-designated successor to maintain stability and said elections should be held as soon as possible.
Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, prime minister of the UN-recognised Government of National Unity says he will hand over power only after an election, and rejected parliament’s move last Thursday to appoint former interior minister Fathi Bashagha to head a new government.
UN adviser Stephanie Williams held separate meetings with Dbeibah and Bashagha on Sunday.
She says the UN remains committed to raising the voices of the 2.8 million Libyans who registered to vote.

United States President Joe Biden has signed an executive order creating the possibility of splitting $7bn in frozen Afghan funds held in the US, potentially allotting half for humanitarian aid to the country while keeping the other half available for possible seizure by victims of the September 11 attacks.
The executive order signed says the administration will seek to facilitate access to $3.5 billion of the Afghan assets currently held by the Federal Reserve of New York for the benefit of the Afghan people and for Afghanistan’s future.
The Biden executive order says that even if the pending judgement allows $3.5bn to go to the people of Afghanistan, another $3.5bn would stay in the US and remain subject to ongoing litigation by US victims of terrorism.

China says it has given conditional approval for Pfizer’s COVID-19 drug Paxlovid to treat adults with mild to moderate illness and a high risk of developing severe disease.
Pfizer says that preliminary studies show that Paxlovid does not target the ever-evolving spike protein the coronavirus uses to invade cells, meaning it should theoretically be more variant-proof.
China’s National Medical Products Administration says further research on the drug needed to be undertaken and submitted to the regulator.
Beijing has not yet approved any foreign-made coronavirus vaccines.

A UN expert has warned that proper preparations are essential to avoid fuelling violence and polarisation if South Sudan proceeds with elections next year.
First Vice-President Riek Machar warned that he will not back elections until a unified national army is formed, a permanent constitution is drafted, a census conducted and millions of refugees can return home from abroad to cast their ballots.
Yasmin Sooka, chairwoman of the UN’s Human Rights Commission on South Sudan says there is a risk that South Sudan is going back to war if elections are conducted without support from the African Union and the international community.

South Africa’s National Treasury says it was more optimistic than the International Monetary Fund on the medium-term economic growth outlook after the IMF said it expected a lacklustre performance.
It says the National Treasury acknowledges the difficult juncture South Africa is at adding that it believed medium-term growth would be driven by a gradual recovery in confidence and private investment.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has predicted a 10 per cent increase in credit to the agricultural sector over the next two years.
He says about $2 billion out of about $2.5 billion had been disbursed to over three million farmers cultivating over 4.7 million hectares of arable land in the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory under the Anchors Borrowers’ Programme.
He noted that over 80 per cent of the fund was targeted at the agricultural sector.

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has called on Nigerian youths to build a great society, telling them to let their generation heal the country’s wounds.
Osinbajo asked young Nigerians to see the various challenges in the environment as opportunities for the creation of solutions, as the nation rapidly expands population with attendant human sustenance need.
He says this generation of Nigerians are ordained by momentous historical circumstances to play on a grander stage adding that they belong to the most globalized generation ever to walk the earth.