Newscast - Africa

Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe has banned bulk airtime sales, ordering telecommunications service providers to stagger the reduction of physical airtime sales to 10% in a bid to contain illicit foreign currency dealings.
The Financial Intelligence Unit director-general, Oliver Chiperesa ordered the companies to control the production and sale of airtime.
The FIU says bulk airtime recharge vouchers are being abused by airtime dealers to facilitate illegal foreign currency trading and money laundering.
The unit says airtime dealers have been purchasing airtime vouchers in bulk from mobile telecommunication service providers using local currency and then disposing of the same at discounted foreign currency prices.

The United Nations says Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reached record levels last year, in a stark warning ahead of the COP26 summit about worsening global warming.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization says that continued rising greenhouse gas emissions would result in more extreme weather and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, the economy and humanity.
The WMO says the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a temporary decline in new emissions but had no discernible impact on the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates.

Poland Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak says the country will increase to 10,000 the number of soldiers deployed to help border guards stop migrant crossings from Belarus,
He says they are increasing the number of soldiers to help the border guard service by 2,500. Soon, about 10,000 soldiers will be guarding the security of the border.
The EU believes the Belarusian regime is deliberately sending the migrants over in retaliation against EU sanctions.

The Biden administration has announced pausing US assistance to Sudan after the military takeover and urged the immediate restoration of the civilian-led government.
Department of State spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that Washington will evaluate its entire relationship with Khartoum unless the country returns to the transitional path to democracy.
Price says the United States condemns the actions taken overnight by Sudanese military forces.
Price warned that the recent developments will affect bilateral ties between Khartoum and Washington if they are not reversed.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Australia will commit to a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 but will not improve its goal for 2030 at a crucial United Nations climate summit.
Morrison says Australians want action on climate change but they also want to protect their jobs and their livelihoods.
Morrison published an opinion piece in the Australian News Corp newspapers explaining his decision, which will commit to the 2050 net-zero goal but will not improve on an election pledge to reduce emissions between 26 per cent and 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The United States suspended $700 million in aid to Sudan after a military takeover and urged the immediate restoration of a civilian government.
State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the civilian-led transitional government should be immediately restored and represents the will of the people.
He says that the suspension concerned a $700 million package in economic support meant to assist Sudan’s democratic transition.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rowed back from his threat to expel 10 Western envoys over their joint statement of support for a jailed civil society leader.
The reversal came after the United States and several of the other concerned countries issued identical statements saying they respected a UN convention that required diplomats not to interfere in the host country’s domestic affairs.
He concluded the meeting by victoriously announcing in televised comments that the 10 ambassadors had learnt their lesson and will be more careful now.
The new Western statement shows they have taken a step back from the slander against the country.

Tesla became the latest US tech giant to hit $1 trillion in market value Monday as investors cheered a large order from Hertz and shrugged off criticism from a US auto safety official.
Shares of Elon Musk’s company finished at $1,024.86, up 12.7 per cent and topping $1 trillion for the first time.
The surge followed an announcement from rental car giant Hertz of an order to buy 100,000 autos from Tesla by the end of 2022 in the latest embrace of electric car technology by a mainstream auto player.

The German firm, BioNTech, has signed deals with Rwanda and Senegal to build Africa’s first vaccine manufacturing facility based on mRNA technology.
BioNTech says the plant will have an initial capacity to produce 50 million doses annually. The plant will be built in Rwanda.
The partners say mRNA vaccines could also be developed to fight other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
Rwanda’s Health Minister Daniel Ngamije said the goal was to include Africa in networks of scientific innovation and production.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced the lifting of the state of emergency in place since deadly jihadist attacks on Coptic Christian churches more than four years ago.
The North African country has been under a state of emergency since April 2017 bombings of two Coptic churches by an Islamic State group affiliate that killed more than 40 people.
Sisi says Egypt has become, thanks to its great people and its loyal men, an oasis of security and stability in the region.
Under a state of emergency, police powers such as arresting and holding citizens are extended and constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and assembly are curtailed.