Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

-
By Nidal Al-Mughrabi Reuters  The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against  Hamas , as U.S. President Donald Trump called for an end to the  war  amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire. “Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,”  Trump  posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages. But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. offi...
Post a Comment

African progress backslides as coups and war persist

-

By Libby George Reuters

Nearly half of Africa’s citizens live in a country where governance has worsened over the past decade, as deteriorating security erodes progress, according to a new report.

The annual Ibrahim Index of African Governance report found that despite positive progress in 33 countries, overall governance was worse in 2023 in 21 countries, accounting for just under half of Africa’s population, compared with 2014.

For several countries, including densely populated Nigeria and Uganda, the deterioration in overall governance had worsened over the second part of the decade, according to the report released by Sudanese-British billionaire businessman Mo Ibrahim’s foundation.

“We can see really a huge arc of instability and conflicts and this deterioration, and security and safety of our people, is the biggest driver of deterioration and governance…putting everything down in general,” Ibrahim told Reuters in an interview.

Ibrahim pointed to the coups in West Africa and war in Sudan, but said poor governance also fostered violence and instability.

“If there is deterioration on governance, if there is corruption, if there is marginalization…people are going to pick up arms,” he said.

The report found that infrastructure – from mobile phone access to energy – and women’s equality, were better in 2023 for roughly 95% of Africans.

Health, education and business environment metrics had also improved continent-wide.

But the report found that public perceptions on progress were grim, even when the corresponding governance dimensions showed progress; all public perception indicators, apart from those tracking women’s leadership, declined.

The worst drops were in perceptions of economic opportunities and of safety and security.

The foundation said this could be due to higher expectations in countries that were making progress, and also a tendency to focus on what is not working.

But Ibrahim said it was a serious problem.

“If public dissatisfaction is high, that obviously can lead to unrest, it can lead to increased migration, conflicts,” he said.



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/hJmopfE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Israel-Hezbollah attacks continue despite international pressure for ceasefire

-
By Timour Azhari and James Mackenzie Reuters  Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington and pressing ahead with strikes that have killed hundreds in Lebanon and heightened fears of an all-out regional war. Despite Israel’s stance, the U.S. and France sought to keep prospects alive for an  immediate 21-day  truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York. An Israeli warplane struck the edges of the capital Beirut, killing two people and wounding 15, including a woman in critical condition, Lebanon’s health ministry said. That took deaths overnight and on Thursday to 28 and over 600 since Monday. The strike killed the head of one of Hezbollah’s air force units, Mohammad Surur, Hezbollah said, the latest senior Hezbollah commander to be targeted in days of assassinations among the group’s top ranks. On t...
Read more

Bolivia wildfires burn record area, scorching homes and farms

-
Image
By Monica Machicao and Daniel Ramos Reuters Wildfires in Bolivia have burned through more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) this year, mostly in the country’s tropical east, smashing records for its worst-ever fire season and scorching an area the size of Iceland or Cuba. The new figures released on Monday by non-governmental organization Tierra Foundation represent the equivalent of nearly 19 million American football fields. Fires in recent months have propelled Bolivia past devastating fire years in 2010 and 2019. Santa Cruz, a wealthy farming region in the country’s eastern lowlands near Brazil, has been the hardest hit, accounting for almost 7 million hectares of the total, followed by the nearby department of Beni, with 3 million hectares. “What’s happened in recent months in eastern Bolivia, and will continue to occur at least through October, is a disaster of a magnitude unprecedented in the country,” Juan Pablo Chumacero, researcher at the Tierra Foundation, to...
Read more