Foreign News

Antony Blinken begins four-nation Africa tour amid Sahel worries

Published

2 years ago

2024/01/23

Priyan

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (Aljazeera)

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said the US is committed to deeper relations with Africa despite global crises as he opened a four-country tour of the continent.

Blinken is touring four democracies on the Atlantic Coast – Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola – as security deteriorates in the Sahel and doubts grow about a key US base in neighbouring coup-hit Niger.

US President Joe Biden welcomed leaders from Africa in 2022 in a show of newfound attention to the continent. But he did not visit Africa last year as promised.

Blinken nonetheless quoted Biden as he vowed, “We are all in when it comes to Africa. Our futures are linked, our prosperity is linked, and African voices increasingly are shaping, animating and leading the global conversation,” Blinken said as he opened talks in Cape Verde.

“The United States is committed to deepening, strengthening and broadening partnerships across Africa,” Blinken said.

He called Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking archipelago of around 500,000 people that has cooperated with the US on law enforcement and naval stops, a “beacon of stability” and a “strong, principled voice”.

Much of the continent has been uneasy about the billions of dollars in Western aid to Ukraine, and Cape Verde’s Prime Minister Jose Ulisses Correia e Silva told Blinken that his country “strongly condemns” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Silva also criticised the recent spate of coups in Africa and said that Cape Verde was “guided by the values of liberal democracy”.

Blinken toured the port in the capital Praia, expanded as part of nearly $150m given to Cape Verde through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which grants US aid to countries that meet democratic standards.

The US government body said last month that it would work with Cape Verde on a third package, and Silva invited the Peace Corps to return after a decade-long absence.

Later on Monday, Blinken was to head to Ivory Coast, where he will watch the host country take on Equatorial Guinea in the Africa Cup of Nations.

The match will take place at the 60,000-seat Olympic stadium built with support from China, whose own Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited last week.

Along with Russia, China – which is seen by the US as the top global rival – has rapidly expanded its influence in Africa in recent years.

While China has doled out loans for infrastructure projects, Russia’s powerful and ruthless Wagner Group of mercenaries has been deployed to Mali, the Central African Republic, and allegedly Burkina Faso.

A delegation visited Moscow last month from Niger, whose military last year toppled elected President Mohamed Bazoum months after a visit by Blinken aimed at bolstering him.

Niger had been the linchpin in US efforts to counter armed groups who have ravaged the Sahel, with the US building a $100m base in the Nigerien desert city of Agadez to fly a fleet of drones.

The government expelled forces from former colonial power France.

While Niger has allowed the US to keep its nearly 1,000 US troops, General James Hecker, the US Air Force commander for both Europe and Africa, said late last year that “several locations” elsewhere in West Africa were being discussed for a new drone base.

As Blinken opens his visit, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is touring three other West African nations – Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, where she is attending a presidential inauguration and monitoring a peaceful transition of power in a once-turbulent nation.

(Aljazeera)

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Foreign News

Portugal elects Socialist Party’s Seguro as president in landslide

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/9

Priyan

Presidential candidate Antonio Jose Seguro, of the centre-left Socialist Party, waves to the crowd during a campaign rally ahead of the February 8 presidential election, in Lisbon, on February 5, 2026 [Aljazeera]

Antonio Jose Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party has secured a landslide victory and a five-year term as Portugal’s president in a run-off vote, beating his far-right, anti-establishment rival, Andre Ventura, according to partial results.

With 95 percent of votes counted, 63-year-old Seguro has garnered 66 percent. Ventura trailed at 34 percent, still likely to secure a much stronger result than the 22.8 percent his anti-immigration Chega party achieved in last year’s general election. Ballots in large cities such as Lisbon and Porto are counted towards the end.

Two exit polls have placed Seguro in the 67-73 percent range, and Ventura at 27-33 percent.

A succession of storms in recent days has failed to deter voters, with turnout at about the same level as in the first round on January 18, even though three municipal councils in southern and central Portugal had to postpone voting by a week due to floods. The postponement affected some 37,000 registered voters, or about 0.3 percent of the total, and is unlikely to influence the overall result.

Portugal’s presidency is a largely ceremonial role, but it holds some key powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament under certain circumstances.

Ventura, 43, who had trailed Seguro in opinion polls, had argued that the government’s response to the fierce gales and floods was “useless” and called for the entire election to be postponed.

However, the authorities rejected the demand.

Seguro, during his last campaign rally on Friday, accused Ventura of “doing everything to keep the Portuguese from turning out to vote”.

Despite his loss on Sunday, Ventura, a charismatic former television sports commentator, can now boast increased support, reflecting the growing influence of the far right in Portugal and much of Europe. He is also the first extreme-right candidate to make it through to a run-off vote in Portugal.

Meanwhile, Seguro has cast himself as the candidate of a “modern and moderate” left, who can actively mediate to avert political crises and defend democratic values. He received backing from prominent conservatives after the first round amid concerns over what many see as Ventura’s populist, hardline tendencies.

But Prime Minister Luis Montenegro – whose minority centre-right government has to rely on support from either the Socialists or the far right to get legislation through parliament – declined to endorse either candidate in the second round.

While the role is largely ceremonial, the head of state has the power to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

The new president will succeed outgoing conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in early March.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Washington Post chief executive steps down after mass lay-offs

Published

3 days ago

2026/02/8

Priyan

Will Lewis speaks to the staff and employees of the Washington Post in Washington, DC on November 06, 2023. [Cricinfo]

The chief executive of the Washington Post is stepping down, the newspaper has announced, days after overseeing mass lay-offs.

William Lewis said it was the right time to leave, saying in a message to staff that was shared online that “difficult decisions” had been made to ensure the paper’s future.

On Wednesday the newspaper announced it was cutting a third of its workforce, dramatically scaling back its coverage of sport and international news.

The decision was condemned by many journalists and prompted criticism of the Post’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. Executive editor Matt Murray said the cuts would bring “stability”.

Jeff D’Onofrio, who joined as chief financial officer of the newspaper last year, will serve as acting publisher and CEO, the Post said as it announced Lewis’s departure.

A former Dow Jones chief executive and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Lewis was appointed to the role at the Washington Post in 2023.

He has faced criticism from subscribers and employees as he tried to reverse financial losses at the daily.

Hundreds protested in front of the paper’s headquarters in Washington DC on Thursday after the mass lay offs, which included the paper’s entire Middle East staff and its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent.

Marty Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said the cuts ranked “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations”.

The departure of Lewis marks the latest upheaval for the leading US newspaper, which has seen a series of staff cuts and controversial editorial decisions in recent years.

Reuters Jeff Bezos speaks in front of a microphone — *Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, acquired the Washington Post in 2013. [BBC]*

Shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, Bezos, the founder of Amazon, broke with decades of tradition by deciding the newspaper would not endorse a presidential candidate.

The newspaper had endorsed a candidate in most presidential elections since the 1970s – all of whom had been Democrats.

The move caused widespread criticism and led to the loss of tens of thousands of subscribers.

Meanwhile, the opinion editor resigned in February last year when Bezos decided to focus the paper’s comment section on “personal liberties and free markets”.

Bezos, who acquired the newspaper in 2013, said pieces opposing those views would not be published.

***[BBC]***

Foreign News

King Charles to host Nigeria’s first UK state visit in 37 years

Published

3 days ago

2026/02/8

Priyan

King Charles (left) will host Nigerian President Bola Tinubu (right) in March [BBC]

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host Nigeria’s president in the country’s first state visit to the UK in 37 years, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Bola Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu have accepted an invitation to be guests of the King at Windsor Castle from 18 to 19 March.

State visits are considered a form of soft-power diplomacy, using the pomp of royal hospitality to strengthen relations with important international partners.

The last Nigerian state visit to the UK took place in 1989, when military ruler Gen Ibrahim Babangida travelled to meet the late Queen Elizabeth II for a four-day trip.

Although this will be Tinubu’s first formal state visit to the UK, he has already met the King since taking office following Nigeria’s disputed election in 2023.

Tinubu and his wife were received at Buckingham Palace in September 2024 and also held a bilateral meeting with the King on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai.

But a state visit allows for ceremonial pageantry aimed at elevating the occasion and demonstrating the importance with which the UK views those visiting.

The visit comes at a time of improving diplomatic and economic links between the UK and Nigeria – with trade between the two worth more than £8bn in the year to October, government figures show. This makes the African nation one of the UK’s most important partners in the continent.

In 2024, the two countries signed a new trade and investment partnership designed to expand opportunities for business.

The agenda for the March visit has not been disclosed, nor details of the events planned for it – but state visits typically include carriage processions and a state banquet, and usually coincide with visiting leaders having political meetings.