Headline

Gabon Junta Chief Wins Presidency

Published

7 months ago

April 13, 2025

Gabon’s junta chief, Brice Oligui Nguema, has won the presidential election with 90.35 per cent of the vote, according to provisional results released Sunday by the interior ministry.

Oligui, who ended more than five decades of corruption-plagued rule by the Bongo family in August 2023, assuming the role of transitional president, had promised to return the country to democratic rule.

Earlier Sunday, Gabon 24 television had reported that he was “well ahead” in several of the central African country’s provinces.

On Saturday, voters had flocked to the ballot boxes to have their say in an election marking the end of military rule. The latest provisional figures from the interior ministry put the participation rate at 70.4 per cent.

The day after voters poured into polling stations, the streets of the capital Libreville were calm — in contrast with previous elections in 2016 and 2023 marked by tensions and unrest.

“I hadn’t voted in a long time, but this time, I saw a ray or something that made me go out and vote,” 58-year-old Catholic Olivina Migombe told AFP while en route to church on Sunday.

“I believe in change this time,” the professed Oligui voter added.

– Debt and poverty –

Whoever wins will have to reckon with the oil-rich country’s litany of problems, from crumbling infrastructure to widespread poverty, all while labouring under a crushing mountain of debt.

If Oligui is elected president “he will have lots of work to do,” Patrick Essono-Mve, a 48-year-old unemployed technician, also on the way to mass, told AFP.

Oligui has sought to shed his military strongman image and even ditched his general’s uniform to run for a seven-year term.

The junta leader has dominated the campaign, with his seven challengers, led by ousted leader Ali Bongo’s last prime minister, Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, largely invisible by comparison.

But critics accuse Oligui of having failed to move on from the years of plunder of the country’s vast mineral wealth under the Bongos, whom he served for years.

For the first time, foreign and independent media were allowed to film the ballot count.

International observers at polling stations across the country did not notice any major incidents, according to first reports.

In total, some 920,000 voters were called to cast their ballots at 3,037 polling stations, of which 96 were abroad.

Already, in the first results released by state media CTRI News on Sunday morning, Oligui was the overwhelming favourite to win in around 30 polling stations, some of them returning results of 100 percent of the vote in his favour.

AFP

Headline

Sweden To Charge 18-year-old Over IS Terror Plot

Published

17 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said Tuesday it intended to charge an 18-year-old man for planning a terrorist act in Stockholm on behalf of the Islamic State group.

According to prosecutors, the planning took place between August 2024 and February 2025.

“We believe the purpose of the preparations was to induce serious fear in the population, in the name of the Islamic State. The criminal act could have seriously harmed Sweden,” Deputy Chief Prosecutor Henrik Olin said in a statement.

Prosecutors did not provide details of the plan but said the man was also suspected of “preparation for serious crimes under the act on flammable and explosive goods and training for terrorism”.

Prosecutors said they planned to file the charges on Thursday and that a press conference would be held the same day.

The young man will also be charged alongside a 17-year-old boy with attempted murder in Germany in August 2024.

Both of them are also suspected of “participation in a terrorist organisation,” according to the statement.

The man was arrested in Stockholm on February 11 and has been in custody since then.

AFP

Headline

US Shutdown Hits 35 Days, Tying Longest In History

Published

17 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

The US government shutdown entered its 35th day on Tuesday, matching a record set during President Donald Trump’s first term, as lawmakers voiced hope over progress behind the scenes to end the dispute.

The federal closure appears almost certain to become the longest in history, with no breakthroughs expected before it goes into its sixth week at midnight — although there were fragile signs in Congress that an off-ramp is closer than ever.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune set the buoyant mood music on Monday when he told reporters he felt “optimistic” that newly energised talks between warring Republicans and Democrats could end in a deal before next week.

The government has been grinding to a halt since Congress failed to pass a bill to keep federal departments and agencies funded past the end of the last financial year on September 30.

“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think any of us expected that it would drag on this long. We didn’t believe, we couldn’t have imagined,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told a news conference arranged to mark the six-week milestone.

“It’s now tied for the longest shutdown in US history. And we didn’t think we’d have to come in here every single day — day after day after day — and repeat the obvious facts to the American people and to put on display every day what is happening here.”

Some 1.4 million federal workers — from air traffic controllers to park wardens — have been placed on enforced leave without pay or made to work for nothing, while vital welfare programs and even paychecks for active-duty troops are under threat.

Both sides remain dug in over the main sticking point — health care spending.

Democrats say they will only provide votes to end the funding lapse after a deal has been struck to extend expiring insurance subsidies that make health care affordable for millions of Americans.

But Republicans insist they will only address health care once Democrats have voted to switch the lights back on in Washington.

While both sides’ leadership have shown little appetite for compromise, there have been signs of life on the back benches, with a handful of moderate Democrats working to find an escape hatch.

A separate bipartisan group of four centrist House members unveiled a compromise framework Monday for lowering health insurance costs.

Democrats believe that millions of Americans seeing skyrocketing premiums as they enroll onto health insurance programs for next year will pressure Republicans into seeking compromise.

But Trump has held firm on refusing to negotiate, telling CBS News in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would “not be extorted.”

The president has sought to apply his own pressure to force Democrats to cave, by threatening mass layoffs of federal workers and using the shutdown to target progressive priorities.

Last week his administration threatened to cut off a vital aid programme that helps 42 million Americans pay for groceries for the first time in its more than 60-year history, before the move was blocked in court.

And the president has returned to a familiar playbook of demanding the elimination of the Senate filibuster — the 60-vote threshold for passing most legislation — so Republicans can pass government funding themselves.

“Terminate the filibuster now, end the ridiculous shutdown immediately, and then, most importantly, pass every wonderful Republican policy that we have dreamt of for years, but never gotten,” Trump fulminated in an all-caps social media post.

Preserving the filibuster — which senators say protects the voice of the minority — is one of the few issues on which Republicans are willing to defy Trump and radical reform seems highly unlikely.

“The votes aren’t there,” Thune told reporters on Monday.

AFP

Headline

China Backs Nigeria, Warns Against Foreign Interference

Published

18 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

China has urged the international community to respect Nigeria’s sovereignty following a US threat of military action.

The Chinese government reiterated its support for President Bola Tinubu’s administration, commending the government for guiding the country along a development path tailored to its national conditions.

According to a report sourced from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People’s Republic of China’s website, the Spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, stated this at a press briefing on Tuesday in Beijing.

She said, “As Nigeria’s strategic partner, China opposes any attempt by foreign powers to use religion or human rights as a pretext to meddle in another country’s internal affairs or impose sanctions and military threats.”

Recently, the US threatened Nigeria with possible military action due to the alleged persecution of Christians in the country.

The United States President, Donald Trump, had threatened to deploy military forces in Nigeria if the alleged genocide against Christians is not stopped in the country.