MAURITANIA
Coup leader sworn in again
President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was sworn in on Saturday for a second term in the presence of several fellow African leaders. Abdel Aziz was handed another five years with 82 percent of the vote on June 21 in polls boycotted by much of the opposition. He was cheered by thousands at the Olympic Stadium in the capital, Nouakchott, as he vowed to address the problems of the poor and “fight corruption and mismanagement.” He also pledged to tackle racism and extremism and said he would take on terrorism and organized crime by strengthening the army. The heads of state of the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal and Chad attended the ceremony as well as diplomats and dignitaries from other countries. Abdel Aziz, a former general, seized power in an August 2008 coup and won disputed elections the following year. He campaigned on his success in fighting armed groups linked to al-Qaeda at home and in neighboring Sahel nations. The 57-year-old pledged “to be the president of all Mauritanians and to guarantee the rights of all citizens.”
LEBANON
Clashes kill eight soldiers
Eight soldiers have been killed in clashes with gunmen in the east, near the border with Syria, which erupted after a suspected extremist was detained, the army said yesterday. In a statement, the army said its operations against the gunmen in the Arsal region continued into yesterday morning, adding that “during the battles the army lost eight martyrs and a number of others have been wounded.”
SUDAN
Floods displace thousands
More than 3,000 homes have been destroyed by floods that hit almost half of the nation’s states over Ramadan and the Eid Al-Fitr holidays, official media said on Saturday. The capital, Khartoum, was among the areas inundated, prompting an opposition party to accuse the government of lying about its preparedness after deadly floods in the city last year. “Twenty-two districts in eight states were affected by flooding and heavy rain,” the SUNA news agency reported, citing the federal health ministry. There were 184 injuries during the deluge, which affected about 6,100 families, about half of them in Nile and North Kordofan states, SUNA said. Among the victims were more than 3,000 inhabitants of Jaborona, near Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, said Kabi Jeremiah, humanitarian attache at the South Sudanese embassy. “Khartoum state is telling lies about its preparation for the rainy season,” the opposition Reform Now party said in a statement on Saturday. It called for the suspension of Khartoum Governor Abdel Rahman al-Khidir, “because he completely failed to have a solution to the rainy crisis which is repeated every year.”
LIBYA
Airport showdown kills 22
The interim government says a day of militia fighting for control of the international airport in the capital, Tripoli, has killed 22 people. In a statement early yesterday, it said “heavily armed groups” have shelled “civilian targets” endangering thousands of citizens and leaving hundreds of families displaced. The 22 people were killed on Saturday alone. “Tripoli’s hospitals received 22 bodies and 72 people were wounded,” the government said. “Mediating committees are still trying to stop the violence and return Tripoli to normal. They have faced difficulties because of the stubbornness of the militias attacking the city,” it added.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion