Newscast - Africa

The Swiss-based mining company, Glencore, says it will pay $180m to the Democratic Republic of Congo to settle corruption claims.
The agreement covers an 11-year period from 2007 to 2018.
It is the latest in a series of corruption cases that has seen Glencore agree to pay out more than $1.6bn in fines this year.
In May it admitted to bribing officials in several African nations including DR Congo (DRC).
It followed an investigation by American, British and Brazilian authorities that also covered corruption claims in Latin America.

Meta has threatened to remove news content from Facebook in the US.
It objects to a new law that would give news organizations greater power to negotiate fees for the content shared on Facebook.
Meta claims their platform, in fact, provides increased traffic to struggling news outlets.
It says publishers put their content on Facebook because "it benefits their bottom line."
The legislation, known as the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) was introduced in Congress by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and has bipartisan support.
Media companies argue that Meta generates huge sums of money from news articles shared on the platform.

Apple presents itself as a white knight on the subject of privacy, but critics say its own advertising ambitions are built on anti-competitive practices.
Two developers going by the name ‘Mysk’ claimed last month that Apple was tracking users’ every tap on the App Store, with no way of disabling the function.
A class action lawsuit was subsequently filed in California, claiming that Apple’s promises regarding privacy are utterly false.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier said that Apple’s approach was a conflict of interest since it was designed to undermine rivals.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he had a productive conversation with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to emphasize the need for peace and security in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rwanda however says that despite the good discussions there are still differences in understanding of the issue.
Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta says a wrong and misguided approach by the international community had made the problem worse.
The US urged Rwanda to end its support for the M23 rebel group in DR Congo, in line with resolutions made during the talks on the conflict held recently in the Angolan capital, Luanda.

Libya’s Tripoli-based government of national unity has invited international oil companies holding contracts with the state oil firm to resume working in the country.
Production has been frequently halted over the last decade following invasions of oil sites by armed groups and protesters.
Libya has Africa’s largest crude oil reserves and is desperate to increase production to fund much-needed investment in housing, transport, and electricity networks.

A parliamentary sitting set to debate a damning report that found that South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa may have violated the constitution has been postponed by a week.
The report says Mr Ramaphosa allegedly covered up a theft at his farm. He has denied any wrongdoing and his spokesman says the report was flawed.
Parliament’s programming committee met on Monday night and unanimously agreed to hold the debate on 13 December to allow members of parliament to travel to Cape Town where parliament sits.
The president had on Monday moved to court to seek an order declaring any steps taken by parliament following the release of the report as invalid and unlawful.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has signed five memoranda of understanding with the national oil companies and relevant entities of five African countries on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project.
The five national oil companies and relevant entities were from Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone.
The signing ceremony, according to a statement from NNPC on Monday, was held in Morocco and was attended by the Group Chief Executive Officer NNPC, Mele Kyari; Dr. Amina Benkhadra, General Director of Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines; Mr Baboucarr Njie, Managing Director of the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation, Gambia; and Celedonio Placido Viera, General Director of PETROGUIN, Guinea Bissau.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami says that the Federal Government of Nigeria is committed to the domestication of the Rome Statute.
Malami disclosed that the National Assembly is working assiduously with his office to achieve the domestication drive of the Rome Statute.
The minister says Nigeria firmly believes in the rule of law as a panacea to a just and equitable world, noting that the country has continued to uphold her obligations under international law.
Malami pointed out that the Federal Government has not reneged on its pledge to extend maximum cooperation to the Office of the Prosecutor of the Court in addressing the allegation of crimes against humanity committed within its territory.

The Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has pledged to privatize the nation’s refineries if elected as President next year ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The PDP candidate says he will earmark $10 billion from the refinery sales to empower the small and medium-scale enterprises of young Nigerians.
He identified the refineries to be sold as the Port Harcourt refinery, Warri refinery, and Kaduna refinery which have not been functioning for years now.
The former Vice President pledged that his administration will restructure Africa’s most populous nation while promising to allocate more powers and resources to both state and local governments, asking the people to hold their leaders accountable.

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi says the vast number of unemployed youths in the North-East region is the biggest contributing factor to insecurity in the region, as thousands of youths wake up every morning without food or shelter.
Obi says with the enormous amount of arable land in the North-East, the region has the potential not only to feed the country but also produce enough cash crops for export. He pledged that his administration will bring that to reality if he wins the presidential elections next year.
He says insecurity will be a thing of the past when idle youths become engaged in legal activities, ranging from agriculture to commerce which will ensure the country moves from consumption to production.