French Departure From Niger Underscores Fading Influence

African News Review, VOA News AfricaLeave a comment

https://gdb.voanews.com/f83656b4-3034–4dec-bc4c-92d469468139_cx0_cy8_cw0_w800_h450.jpgPARIS — France clos­es 2023 with a dimin­ished pres­ence in Africa’s restive Sahel region, after with­draw­ing troops from three once-staunch allied coun­tries col­lec­tive­ly fight­ing an Islamist insur­gency, and see­ing its influ­ence increas­ing­ly replaced by oth­er pow­ers, includ­ing Rus­sia. The last French sol­diers left Niger ear­li­er this month, with Paris tak­ing the unusu­al step of clos­ing its…

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Somalia Joins East Africa Trade Bloc as It Eyes New Opportunities

Google News-Africa, VOA News AfricaLeave a comment

https://gdb.voanews.com/A13175EE-8517–4D3C-8DC8-810D514E82A6_w800_h450.pngThe East African Com­mu­ni­ty trade bloc admit­ted Soma­lia as its eighth mem­ber on Fri­day, a move Soma­li author­i­ties and busi­ness­es hope will boost the coun­try’s war-rav­aged econ­o­my. The EAC com­mon mar­ket — which con­sists of Burun­di, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go, Kenya, Rwan­da, South Sudan, Tan­za­nia and Ugan­da — was set up in 2010 and currently…

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A federalized Europe isn’t in America’s interest

More Stories, Politico EULeave a comment

Andrew A. Mich­ta is senior fel­low and direc­tor of the Scow­croft Strat­e­gy Ini­tia­tive at the Atlantic Coun­cil of the Unit­ed States. Views expressed here are his own. There’s a sea change com­ing to Europe, and its con­se­quences for America’s rela­tions with key allies haven’t yet reg­is­tered in Wash­ing­ton. Pre­dom­i­nant­ly dri­ven by pres­sure from Berlin and Paris,…

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Biden’s China summit was a reminder: the US should talk to its rivals more often | Christopher S Chivvis

Around the World, The GuardianLeave a comment

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f3de41213a1c4503d7c3a9cb22812d9abf457d3f/0_107_2700_1620/master/2700.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d88d153753cfa39044055cd8401ed3feBiden deserves cred­it for push­ing for the meet­ing despite an often heat­ed­ly anti-Chi­­na polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment in the US Wednesday’s meet­ing between Joe Biden and Xi Jin­ping was a lot hard­er to pull off than the pho­tographs of the two lead­ers ambling around the gar­dens of the Filoli man­sion out­side San Fran­cis­co may have made it appear.…

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