Newscast - Africa

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency says all federal and state government-owned airports in Nigeria have approach and landing navigational aids.
It says Satellite Performance Based Navigation procedures that could enable aircraft to operate at any time of the day in these airports were also in place.
The acting Managing Director, NAMA, Matthew Pwajok, says the idea of tagging some airports in the country as sunrise or ‘sunset airports’ was misplaced.

Nigeria's broadcast regulator has fined four broadcasters, including Multichoice Nigeria Ltd, 5m naira each for airing a BBC documentary on the activities of bandit gangs in north-western Nigeria.
The National Broadcasting Commission says the documentary glorified the activities of bandits and undermines national security and contravened the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
The BBC says the story is overwhelmingly in the public interest and that it stands by its journalism.

The Federal Government has confirmed that it approved the purchase of vehicles worth N1.4 billion for the neighbouring Niger Republic to tackle insecurity.
The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed explained that providing intervention to the neighbouring Niger Republic is not new and it is the prerogative of President Muhammadu Buhari who approved the purchase.
She says President Buhari has the right to make his own assessment of situations and give directives accordingly.
She added that the financial support, which is primarily for the purpose of enhancing capacity to protect their territory, based on a request by the Nigerien Government, is also in the best interest of the country.

The Federal Executive Council has approved the procurement of utility vehicles, security gadgets, and accessories to support security agencies operating within the FCT at the sum of N1.835 billion.
The Minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello, disclosed that 60 utility vehicles with communication gadgets will be bought at that amount and delivered within two months.
He noted that the Council approved the supply of various security gadgets and accessories to support security agencies in the nation’s capital at a total sum of N847.1 million. The two procurements amount to N2.68 billion.

The United States issued fresh sanctions on Iran, this time targeting Chinese and other companies it said were used by one of Iran‘s largest petrochemical brokers to facilitate the sale of tens of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products from Iran to East Asia.
The US Treasury Department says the Iranian Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co allegedly exploited the designated businesses to sell Iranian oil and petrochemical goods to East Asia.
The Treasury says the US slapped sanctions on businesses from Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

The Philippines' newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr says the country has no plan to rejoin the International Criminal Court a decision that supports his predecessor’s stance but denies the demands of human rights activists.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte withdrew the Philippines from The Hague-based court in 2019 after the body launched an investigation the previous year into his campaign against illegal drugs that led to thousands of killings.
Marcos Jr says he recently met his justice secretary and other legal advisers to discuss the possible resumption of an ICC investigation into the drug killings.

Kamala Harris, the vice president of the United States, has called climate change an immediate and urgent crisis as she detailed the Biden administration's efforts to respond to disasters such as the deadly flooding in Kentucky and wildfires ravaging her home state of California.
Harris says that disasters such as the Kentucky flood and California wildfires show how immediate, how current and how urgent the issue is of addressing the extreme weather that we’ve been experiencing around the country and the world.

Kenyan ministers say the government has no intention of banning Facebook despite a watchdog last week accusing the social media platform of failing to stop hate speech ahead of the Aug. 9 elections.
Kenya's Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi assured the public that the platform would not be shut down.
Kenya's Minister of Information and Technology Joe Mucheru says while the issues raised were valid, they did not warrant blocking Facebook.
A spokesperson for Facebook's parent company, Meta, blamed human and machine error for missing some inflammatory content and said they had taken steps to prevent such content.

The British government has suspended its decision to stop providing aid to state hospitals in South Sudan.
Cuts were due to come into effect but the funding has been extended for two months.
South Sudan's health minister has warned that her country does not have enough money to take over the responsibilities.
The head of one hospital, in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, told the BBC he was worried the facility would collapse without British support.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, says the Federal Government is not responsible for the increase in the price of petrol across the country.
Sylva says the government is still subsidising petrol while adding that the marketers are most likely to blame.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited says petrol subsidy claims reached N2.6 trillion in the first half of 2022, surpassing revenue generated from the sale of crude oil.