Newscast - Africa

China says it is blacklisting seven Taiwan officials over their alleged support for the self-ruled island’s independence.
The group will be banned from entering mainland China and the territories of Hong Kong and Macau, and restricted from working with Chinese officials.
The seven officials targeted by Beijing include Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s representative in the United States.
Xinhua says the punitive measures were necessary to safeguard the peaceful development of the cross-Strait relations and the immediate interests of the people on both sides of the Strait.

Sir Keir Starmer says families would not pay a penny more on their energy bills this winter under Labour's plans to tackle rising living costs.
The Labour leader claimed his proposals would save the average household £1,000.
economists however said the plan would cost as much as the Covid furlough scheme, if it was extended beyond this winter.
The government has already announced what is says is £37bn of support for hard-pressed families, but it is under pressure to do more, with bills set to rocket over the winter.

The Moscow Exchange will be partially reopened to foreign investors after a nearly six-month suspension during the Ukraine war.
It says only investors from countries that are not hostile will be allowed to trade bonds.
The Moscow Exchange says it would be reopening its bond market to "non-resident clients from countries that are not hostile, as well as non-residents whose ultimate beneficiaries are Russian legal entities or individuals.
It added that banks, brokers and investment management companies had started registering their foreign clients with the exchange.

Saudi oil giant Aramco has broken its own record with a $48.4bn profit for the second quarter of 2022.
It is a 90% year-on-year increase and marks the biggest earnings for the world's largest energy exporter since its public listing three years ago.
Bloomberg reports that the Saudi oil giant's figure represents the biggest quarterly adjusted profit of any listed company.
The state-owned Saudi energy giant announced it would keep its dividend unchanged at $18.8bn for the third quarter.

The UK has launched a scheme to cut tariffs on hundreds of products from some of the world's poorest countries to try to boost trade links.
The preferential terms, which come into effect early next year, will affect products ranging from food to textiles.
Under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme, 99% of goods imported from Africa will be duty free.
Ministers say the scheme helps to fulfil the post-Brexit pledge to take back control of the country's trade policy while also reducing dependence on aid.

Egypt says it will temporarily suspend its participation in the UN peacekeeping force in Mali starting on Monday over concerns about the security of its troops.
The decision also comes as activists backing Mali’s military-led government continue to demand Minusma’s expulsion over its perceived failure to protect civilians from attacks.
Egypt's mission to the UN in New York said last month that the Egyptian contingent of Minusma would be temporarily withdrawn but did not indicate how long the suspension would last.
Egypt has about 1,000 soldiers in Minusma, mainly providing logistical support.

Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, ordered the deployment of watertight security arrangements to cover all schools, hospitals, health workers, and critical national infrastructure across the country.
Baba also ordered regular patrols, stop-and-search, raids, and show of force by tactical commanders to clamp down on crime and criminality in the country.
The IGP directed Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and the 36 police commissioners in the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to prioritise the use of intelligence gathering networks, particularly traditional/local intelligence, to locate criminal hideouts and flush them out before they could strike.

Nigeria has levelled fresh claims of fraud against a little-known offshore firm, Process and Industrial Developments, which earlier won an $11 billion arbitration award against the country, ramping up the pressure ahead of one of the biggest London trials to take place next year.
The federal government would seek to prove to the court that P&ID did not make full disclosure to the court in the first place in the course of the case.

The country’s Consumer Price Index, which measures the level of price change in goods and services, hit 19.64 percent in July 2022 from the 18.60 percent recorded in the last month.
The National Bureau of Statistics says on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 %, which was 0.001% higher than the rate recorded in June 2022 (1.816 %).
The country’s urban inflation increased by 2.08% to 20.09% in July 2022 from 18.01% in July 2021. On the other hand, the rural inflation rate reached 19.22% from 16.75% in the corresponding period of 2021.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on security.
Ndume says the government should prioritise the security of Nigerians.
He says the earlier they prioritise this seriously and even declare a kind of state of emergency in the areas of security and welfare of citizens, the better for us because that is what the government is all about.