France Seeks to Calm Diplomatic Storm Over Macron’s China-Taiwan Comments 

France is try­ing to lim­it the diplo­mat­ic fall­out after Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron said Europe should reduce its depen­dence on the U.S. and avoid “get­ting caught up in crises that are not ours,” fol­low­ing a state vis­it to Chi­na ear­li­er this month. Crit­ics said Macron’s remarks under­mined the transat­lantic rela­tion­ship at a time of dan­ger­ous geopo­lit­i­cal tensions.…

Nigerian Agency Says Malaria Vaccine Could Protect Millions

Nige­ri­a’s Nation­al Agency for Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion and Con­trol, NAFDAC, announced a pro­vi­sion­al approval of the R21 vac­cine dur­ing a media brief­ing on Mon­day. The reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cy’s con­sent came days after Ghana approved the vac­cine. NAFDAC said the vac­cine is 70 to 80 per­cent effi­cient in pre­vent­ing the mos­qui­­to-borne dis­ease and could pro­tect millions…

Niger Credited With Negotiating Release of US Aid Worker, French Journalist

The gov­ern­ment of Niger says it nego­ti­at­ed the release of a U.S. aid work­er and a French jour­nal­ist who were held cap­tive by Islamist mil­i­tants in the Sahel region. Aid work­er and mis­sion­ary Jef­fery Wood­ke was held for more than six years, while reporter Olivi­er Dubois spent near­ly two years in cap­tiv­i­ty. Kid­nap­pings in the…

Russia Sanctions a Boon for Chinese Arms Sales to Africa?

Rus­sia has long been the biggest exporter of arms to sub-Saha­ran Africa, but a new study indi­cates West­ern sanc­tions are mak­ing it hard­er for Moscow to sell weapons, open­ing the door for more Chi­­nese-made arms. Even before the Ukraine war, Chi­na had increased its sales of weapons to sub-Saha­ran Africa, export­ing almost three times as…

US Pledges Humanitarian, Economic, Security Aid to Niger

In a first for a U.S. sec­re­tary of state, Antony Blinken was in the African nation of Niger Thurs­day to offer human­i­tar­i­an, eco­nom­ic and secu­ri­ty aid. Blinken’s vis­it to Niger fol­lows a stop ear­li­er in the day in Ethiopia, a trip viewed by ana­lysts as an effort to bol­ster U.S. rela­tions in a part of the…

What Joint Drills With South African, Russian Navies Mean for China 

South Africa is under fire for host­ing joint naval exer­cis­es with Rus­sia dur­ing the one-year anniver­sary of the inva­sion of Ukraine, with crit­ics say­ing it will be a pro­pa­gan­da vic­to­ry for Moscow. But what does the third par­tic­i­pant in the drills, Chi­na, have to gain from the tri­par­tite exer­cis­es tak­ing place this week? Some ana­lysts told…

Canada Welcomes Record Number of Immigrants, Seeks More

Cana­da is tout­ing the arrival of a record num­ber of new per­ma­nent res­i­dents in 2022, con­sol­i­dat­ing its sta­tus as one of the most wel­com­ing coun­tries for fam­i­lies and indi­vid­u­als seek­ing to make a new life in a for­eign land. That image is rein­forced by polling show­ing that, not only do Cana­di­ans strong­ly sup­port high lev­els of…

US Envoy Heads to Africa to Advance Joint Priorities

U.S. Ambas­sador to the Unit­ed Nations Lin­da Thomas-Green­­field will trav­el to Ghana, Mozam­bique and Kenya this week to advance joint pri­or­i­ties fol­low­ing December’s U.S.-Africa Lead­ers Sum­mit.  Her tour, from Jan­u­ary 25 to 29, will focus on region­al secu­ri­ty issues, food inse­cu­ri­ty, human­i­tar­i­an issues, and sup­port­ing African efforts to mit­i­gate cli­mate change, a senior admin­is­tra­tion official…

France’s Baguette Becomes Another Ukraine War Casualty

The fall­out of the war in Ukraine is hit­ting even France’s icon­ic baguette, which was recent­ly added to UNESCO’s World Her­itage list. On Mon­day, French bak­ers took to the streets of Paris to protest soar­ing ener­gy and oth­er prices they say are imper­il­ing their trade. Denis Durand begins his work­days at 3:30 a.m. to bake the…