Month: July 2022

Nigeria’s Second Independence

Why the Giant of Africa Needs to Start Over

Nigeria has always seemed like an impossibility. From the moment of its independence in 1960, observers questioned the country’s viability as a multiethnic, multireligious state. How could a country divided among two major religions and hundreds of different ethnic groups possibly stay together? When the devastating Nigerian civil war broke out in 1967, that skepticism appeared warranted. Perhaps, many concluded, Nigeria wasn’t meant to be.

The United States Contests the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative with a Private Corporation

At the G7 Summit in Germany, on June 26, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden made a pledge to raise $200 billion within the United States for global infrastructure spending. It was made clear that this new G7 project—the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII)—was intended to counter the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Given Biden’s failure to pass the Build Back Better bill (with its scope being almost halved from $3.5 trillion to $2.2 trillion), it is unlikely that he will get the U.S. Congress to go along with this new endeavor.

The Mass Ethnic Cleansing of Syrian Kurds is Collateral Damage From the War in Ukraine

Kurds are suffering the greatest collateral damage form the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian refugees attract global attention, but the Ukraine war has opened the door wide to the mass expulsion of two million Syrian Kurds, which is likely to take place in the coming months. Turkey is threatening to complete the ethnic cleansing of Kurds from northern Syria which it began five years ago.

Visite du conseil régional de Kayes aux migrants maliens en France

Une équipe du conseil régional de Kayes a rencontré hier (04/07/2022) les associations de migrants à la Gare de Lyon.

Il s’agit notamment de l’Association des communes du Diombougou et Séro Diamanou et l’Association des femmes des communes du Diombougou en France.

Ils ont échangé notamment sur les projets d’aménagement de Holonkharé, l’adduction d’eau de Troun et les initiatives économiques soutenues par les femmes de la diaspora.

MORTS DE MIGRANTS AUX FRONTIERES EUROPEENNES : « L’accord Espagne-Maroc sur l’immigration tue »

Selon l’Association pour la Taxation des Transactions en Aide aux Citoyens au Maroc (ATTAC Maroc), les prémisses du drame du vendredi 24 juin 2022 ont été annoncées depuis plusieurs semaines. Elle exige la fin des politiques criminelles financées par l’Union européenne et ses nombreux complices, les Etats, certaines organisations internationales et plusieurs organisations de la société civile.

The long, ongoing debate over ‘All men are created equal’

Kevin Jennings is CEO of the Lambda Legal organization, a prominent advocate for LGBTQ rights. He sees his mission in part as fulfilling that hallowed American principle: “All men are created equal.”

“Those words say to me, ‘Do better, America.’ And what I mean by that is we have never been a country where people were truly equal,” Jennings says. “It’s an aspiration to continue to work towards, and we’re not there yet.”

NATO chief expects speedy approval of Swedish and Finnish membership bids

NATO’s top official said Tuesday that he wants swift approval of Sweden’s and Finland’s application for alliance membership, as allies launched a ratification process that demands the backing of all 30 members.

Historically, entry into NATO is a lengthy endeavor, taking years in some cases. But for Finland and Sweden, “we speak about months,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

The guerrilla war on Belarus’s railways For months, Belarusian activists have been damaging railroads to hinder Russia’s army. Now they could face the death penalty.

In May 2022, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a law making any attempt to commit a terrorist attack punishable by death — and terrorism is exactly the charge being brought against a number of Belarusians who stand accused of damaging the country’s railroads. Belarus’s “railroad war” began before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the Russian and Belarusian armies began conducting joint exercises; since then, there have been dozens of attacks. At Meduza’s request, Belarusian journalist Anya Perova reports on Belarus’s railroad guerrilla fighters.

Russia’s oil is in long-term decline – and the war has only added to the problem

Immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, world oil prices jumped above US$100 per barrel, hitting US$130 for Brent crude on March 8. The prevailing fear was that substantial Russian supplies would be lost to the world market either through western sanctions or a voluntary decision by Moscow in retaliation to western support for Ukraine. This was especially worrying when the world was already struggling to secure enough additional oil to meet rapidly growing demand as the COVID restrictions began to ease.