World
President Biden bars Mali, Burkina Faso and others from US-Africa summit
United States President Joe Biden has barred Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Guinea from attending the US-Africa Leaders Summit slated for 13 – 15 December, 2022.
This was made known by the White House National Security Council, adding that the four African countries have been suspended by African Union (AU) due to coups d’etat staged.
A US official who revealed this said, “Currently four countries – Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sudan and Mali – are suspended by the AU and were not invited.”
He further stated, “President Biden invited all sub-Saharan and North African governments that have not been suspended by the African Union, and states the US Government recognises and states which we exchange ambassadors.”
While Zimbabwe has been invited for the first time, its president cannot attend because of travel restrictions, according to Today News Africa.
The United States will host 49 African heads of state, and the African Union envoy, in Washington for a three-day summit.
It is the second such summit under Biden’s administration, with the inaugural one hosted around the same time last year.
The summit will ride on the advantage that the Russia-Africa version is not forthcoming as Russia is engaged in war with Ukraine.
The US and Russia perceive each other as competitors in their approach to Africa and the war in Ukraine has given the floor to the former.
The US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs’ deputy assistant secretary, Robert Scott, and the special assistant to the president and National Security Council senior advisor for the US-Africa Leaders Summit, Dana Banks, spoke to a group of African journalists about the upcoming summit.
Banks said, “The summit reflects the US strategy towards Sub-Saharan Africa, which really emphasises the critical importance of the region in meeting this era’s defining challenges.”
“Africa’s voting patterns at the UN General Assembly on the war in Ukraine were an indicator of the continent’s interests,” she added.
“Africa is a key geopolitical player, one that is shaping our present and will shape our future.”
“We do have plans to incorporate members of their civil societies and their communities in the dialogue and in the conversation in the civil society forum and perhaps in some other engagements that are planned,” Banks said.
According to Scott, there will be a series of forums – an African and Diaspora Young Leaders forum; a civil society forum; a peace, security and governance forum – on the first day.
“There will be discussions on climate, as well as on health,” Scott said.
World
Former US President Bill Clinton hospitalised with fever
Bill Clinton, the former US president who has faced a series of health issues over the years, was admitted to hospital Monday in Washington after developing a fever, his office said.
“President Clinton was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center this afternoon for testing and observation after developing a fever,” the 78-year-old’s deputy chief of staff Angel Urena said on social media platform X, adding Clinton “remains in good spirits.”
Bill Clinton was previously hospitalized for five nights in October 2021 due to a blood infection.
In 2004, at age 58, he underwent a quadruple bypass operation after doctors found signs of extensive heart disease. He had stents implanted in his coronary artery six years later.
The health scare motivated him to make lifestyle changes, including adopting a vegetarian diet, and he has since spoken publicly about his efforts.
Clinton’s health last made headlines in November 2022 when he tested positive for Covid-19. He said at the time that his symptoms were “mild” and he was “grateful to be vaccinated and boosted.”
Clinton, who led the United States for two presidential terms from 1993-2001, is the second-youngest living US president, after 63-year-old Barack Obama.
He was born mere months after fellow former US president George W. Bush and President-elect Donald Trump.
Though his prosperous time in office was marred by scandals, he has enjoyed a second life in the two decades after his presidency, which has seen him venture into numerous diplomatic and humanitarian causes.
World
Trump dismisses claims of handing presidency to Musk as ‘hoax’
Could Elon Musk, who holds major sway in the incoming Trump administration, one day become president? On Sunday, Donald Trump answered with a resounding no, pointing to US rules about being born in the country.
“He’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump told a Republican conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
“You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country,” Trump said of the Tesla and SpaceX boss, who was born in South Africa.
The US Constitution requires that a president be a natural-born US citizen.
Trump was responding to criticism, particularly from the Democratic camp, portraying the tech billionaire and world’s richest person as “President Musk” for the outsized role he is playing in the incoming administration.
As per ceding the presidency to Musk, Trump also assured the crowd: “No, no that’s not happening.”
The influence of Musk, who will serve as Trump’s “efficiency czar,” has become a focus point for Democratic attacks, with questions raised over how an unelected citizen can wield so much power.
And there is even growing anger among Republicans after Musk trashed a government funding proposal this week in a blizzard of posts — many of them wildly inaccurate — to his more than 200 million followers on his social media platform X.
Alongside Trump, Musk ultimately helped pressure Republicans to renege on a funding bill they had painstakingly agreed upon with Democrats, pushing the United States to the brink of budgetary paralysis that would have resulted in a government shutdown just days before Christmas.
Congress ultimately reached an agreement overnight Friday to Saturday, avoiding massive halts to government services.
World
Seven confirmed dead in Western Mexico plane crash
At least seven people died when a light aircraft crashed Sunday in a heavily forested area of Jalisco in western Mexico, local authorities reported.
The aircraft, a Cessna 207, was flying from La Parota in the neighbouring state of Michoacan.
Jalisco Civil Protection said via its social media that the crash site was in an area that was difficult to access.
Initial authorities on the scene “reported a preliminary count of seven people dead,” who haven’t been identified yet, according to the agency.
“A fire was extinguished and risk mitigation was carried out to prevent possible additional damage,” it added.
Authorities said they were awaiting the arrival of forensic investigators to remove the bodies and rule out the presence of additional victims.
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