Newscast - Africa

United States President Joe Biden says the US will soon announce a new $800m military aid package to Ukraine, bringing the total since he took office to nearly $7bn.
Biden says the aid will include an advanced air defence system and artillery support as Ukraine continues to face a Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
The US President also pushed back on the suggestion that in light of an array of domestic issues, including gun violence among others some US allies think Biden has failed to live up to its pledge to reassert Washington’s leadership on the international stage.

The US Supreme Court has limited how the nation’s main anti-air pollution law can be used to reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
The court says that the Clean Air Act does not give the US Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.
President Joe Biden has aimed to cut the US’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade and to have an emissions-free power sector by 2035.

The European Commission informed the Al-Haq and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights that their 13-month-long suspensions were lifted unconditionally and with immediate effect.
The Commission cited the results of a review conducted by the EU’s European Anti-Fraud Office which it said found no suspicions of irregularities and/or fraud” and did not find sufficient ground to open an investigation.
Al-Haq says that the arbitrary suspension imposed on the funding of Al-Haq’s EU-funded project was finally lifted the disgraceful suspension which was unlawful from the start and based on Israeli propaganda and disinformation.

The United States blocked a US-based company worth more than $1 billion linked to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, saying the ally of President Vladimir Putin used it to funnel and invest shadowy funds.
The Treasury Department says that Kerimov, a billionaire active in Russian politics, secretly managed the Delaware-based Heritage Trust which put its money into a number of large public companies.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen vowed that the United States would keep taking action even as Russian elites hide behind proxies and complex legal arrangements.

The United Nations Security Council has to maintain the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali while condemning the country's military rulers for using mercenaries that have committed human rights violations.
The council expressed grave concern about the deteriorating political and security situation in the West African nation.
The junta has hired mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group, which the European Union and human rights groups accused of violating human rights and international humanitarian law

Civil Servants under the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions banner, formerly Apex, have rejected the government's recent cost of living adjustment, calling it a non-event.
The Trae union advised the government to bring to the bargaining table a ZWL offer for obvious reasons.
They added that the non-monetary incentives announced by the minister are old news, except that they are long overdue for implementation.

The Bank of Namibia and Banco Nacional de Angola have agreed to collaborate on various fronts, to further their respective price and financial stability mandates as well as execution of strategies to modernise national financial systems
The two central banks decided to cooperate to promote effectively, modernised, and digitally-enabled payment methods between the two countries; improve trade-friendly exchange control regimes and protect the stability and integrity of their respective financial systems.

The UK has announced a deal with Nigeria to tackle illegal migration.
Home Secretary Priti Patel says the landmark agreement with Nigeria will increase the deportation of dangerous foreign criminals.
The European Court of Human Rights cancelled the first flight due to take asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.
The government says the scheme would discourage others from crossing the English Channel.

Nigeria and Portugal have expressed determination to take relations to a whole new level with concrete deliverables, emphasizing the need for stronger ties 46 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations.
President Muhammadu Buhari says that in spite of the existing cordial relations between the two countries, there was a need for greater collaboration.
President Buhari declared that as many as ten agreements and Memoranda of Understanding are being prepared for signing during his State visit to the European country.

The former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu appeared before Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court in London, facing charges under Britain’s Modern Slavery Act.
The prosecutor claims that David Ukpo, who alleged that he was coerced to donate his kidney to the Senator’s daughter, is 15 years.
Ekweremadu was remanded in custody as the court argued that he is an influential person, a flight risk and the case involves a child and modern slavery.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan explained that members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs will be travelling to the UK soon.