Newscast - Africa

European Union leaders have rallied behind France in its anger over a multi-billion dollar submarine deal with Australia that was scuppered when Canberra signed up to a trilateral Asia Pacific security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom.
The security pact includes the sale of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and has strained relations between western countries ahead of the start of this week’s annual gathering of world leaders for the United Nations General Assembly.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says more cooperation, more coordination, less fragmentation was needed to achieve a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific region where China is the major rising power.
Borrell says the bloc’s foreign ministers expressed clear solidarity with France.

Bill Gates’ non-profit group Breakthrough Energy announced that it has raised more than $1 billion from seven major companies, including ArcelorMittal and General Motors, to fund clean energy development.
A spokesman for the organisation told AFP that the amount raised so far tops $1 billion and has been given in the form of grants, shares, and commitments to acquire the technologies developed,
The idea is to support the development of new energy solutions to combat climate change by bringing together the public and private sectors and funding the steps to commercialization.

Rights groups have accused the Taliban of steadily dismantling human rights in Afghanistan since their ascent to power in the country last month.
Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organisation Against Torture accused the Taliban of a number of rights violations including limits on the freedom of the press, restrictions on women and targeted killing of civilians and former government officials.
The rights groups’ report however said the Taliban merely attempted to portray themselves as a reformed group that acknowledges a semblance of women’s rights and freedom of expression but that such statements are only a cover for regression to their earlier regime of repression.

Bill Gates’ non-profit group Breakthrough Energy announced that it has raised more than $1 billion from seven major companies, including ArcelorMittal and General Motors, to fund clean energy development.
A spokesman for the organisation told AFP that the amount raised so far tops $1 billion and has been given in the form of grants, shares, and commitments to acquire the technologies developed,
The idea is to support the development of new energy solutions to combat climate change by bringing together the public and private sectors and funding the steps to commercialization.

India health minister says the country will resume exporting Covid-19 vaccines from October, five months after it stopped sending supplies abroad in the face of a deadly wave of infections,
foreign ministry data shows that Exports stopped in April when a virus surge in India pushed the healthcare system to breaking point and there was a huge demand for jabs.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya says more than 300 million vaccine doses would be produced in October and one billion in the last three months of the year.
Mandaviya in a statement says the surplus supply of vaccines will be used to fulfil our commitment towards the world for the collective fight against Covid-19

The US justice department says that $26.6m seized from Equatorial Guinea's Vice-President Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue will be spent on Covid vaccines and other medical programmes in the West African state.
An official in a statement says wherever possible, kleptocrats will not be allowed to retain the benefits of corruption.
The justice department says the agreement stated that $10.3m of the money from the sale would be forfeited to the US and the rest would be distributed to a charity or other organisation for the benefit of the people of Equatorial Guinea,
The UN is to receive $19.25m to purchase and administer Covid vaccines to at least 600,000 people in Equatorial Guinea, while a US-based charity is to get $6.35m for other medical programmes in Equatorial Guinea.

The United States has urged Somalia’s president and prime minister to resolve their differences for the sake of the stability of the country.
A statement by State Department’s spokesperson Ned Price says they call on the President and the Prime Minister to avoid further provocative statements and to resolve their disagreement over personnel appointments and their respective authorities peacefully.
The US says that any further delay may increase the potential for violence and plays into the hands of al-Shabab and other extremist groups seeking to destabilise the country.

Former President Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial which has been rescheduled a number of times are due to resume on Tuesday in a Pietermaritzburg high court.
Mr Zuma is facing a string of charges in connection with a multibillion-dollar arms deal in which he is accused of accepting bribes from a French company Thales in the 1990s.
Both Zuma and the arms company have denied the accusations.
He insists that his court cases are politically motivated, but has provided no evidence of this.

The Central Bank of Nigeria says significant growth in non-oil tax receipts in April, prompted by the gradual return of business activities to pre-COVID-19 levels, led to a 28.2 per cent increase in the federal government’s revenue, relative to the preceding month, raising the government’s revenue to N1.106 trillion.
The CBN in its monthly economic report for April posted on its website reveals that at N1.106 trillion, the federation receipt in April 2021 outpaced both the budget benchmark and collections in March 2021 by 28.2 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively.
The report attributed the diminished share of oil to the meagre remittance of N3.79 billion from crude oil and gas exports, compared with N52.50 billion in the 2021 budget estimate.

The Federal Government says Nigeria’s resolve to remain as one indivisible entity is unshakable, in spite of the various challenges facing the nation.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says it is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria, over the years, has gone through challenging times, but the country must not miss the fact that its resolve to remain as one indivisible entity has remained unshaken.
He says that the youth especially needed a re-awakening voyage into the historical and unique heritage of the country and the secrets behind its unity in diversity.