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…

On King Holiday, Biden Declares, ‘In America, Hate Will Not Prevail’

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden declared Mon­day that “in Amer­i­ca, hate will not pre­vail,” as he recalled the life of the Rev. Mar­tin Luther King Jr. on the nation­al hol­i­day com­mem­o­rat­ing the slain civ­il rights leader and his quest for jus­tice and equal rights for Blacks in the Unit­ed States. Biden, speak­ing in Wash­ing­ton to lead­ers of…

Cameroon Hands Road Construction to Military Following Separatist Attacks, Abduction

Cameroon’s mil­i­tary has tak­en over con­struc­tion of roads link­ing its trou­bled west­ern regions to Nige­ria after what it said were repeat­ed sep­a­ratist attacks. The mil­i­tary says the rebels abduct­ed eight peo­ple this week, includ­ing road work­ers, who were aban­don­ing work sites due to inse­cu­ri­ty.  Cameroon says scores of gov­ern­ment troops and road con­struc­tion equip­ment of…

DACA Becomes Federal Regulation, but Future Still Uncertain 

The Biden admin­is­tra­tion has revised a pro­gram that pro­tect­ed from depor­ta­tion hun­dreds of thou­sands of undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants brought to the Unit­ed States as chil­dren, in hopes of sat­is­fy­ing one of the argu­ments made by Repub­­li­­can-led states in fed­er­al courts that the pro­gram was not cre­at­ed prop­er­ly. Biden offi­cials issued the new ver­sion of Deferred Action…