Friday, March 29News That Matters

Tag: USA

Chinese Spying in Africa through Infrastructure Projects

Chinese Spying in Africa through Infrastructure Projects

FEATURED, NEWS, Politics, TECH
By Keefa Nuwahereza A new report shows how Beijing is using infrastructure to expand its surveillance network on the continent, making U.S. officials vulnerable. China’s Expands Spy Ambitions in Africa In 2018, the African Union accused China of infiltrating the computer network in its glitzy new headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to steal sensitive data—a task made easier by the fact that China itself built the headquarters. But it likely didn’t stop there. In recent years, China has quietly embarked on government building projects across Africa that add up to a counterintelligence nightmare for the United States and its partners on the continent, according to new research from the Heritage Foundation. China has constructed or renovated nearly 200 govern...
Trump to Withdraw US troops from Somalia.

Trump to Withdraw US troops from Somalia.

FEATURED, NEWS, Politics
Pentagon has begun drafting plans for US president, says Bloomberg, citing people familiar with matter President Donald Trump has informed his top advisers that he wants to withdraw US troops from Somalia, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said the Pentagon has begun drafting plans for Trump. The talks have involved National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The US has 650-800 troops in Somalia to help the African country fight the al-Shabaab terrorist group. The move will allow Trump "to make good on campaign pledges to bring soldiers home even though the c...
Trump, Kim Jong Un congratulate Museveni as Uganda turns 58

Trump, Kim Jong Un congratulate Museveni as Uganda turns 58

FEATURED, Latest News, Politics
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a congratulatory message to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as the East African country marks 58 years of independence, according to the state news agency, KCNA. “On behalf of the government and people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, I extend my warm congratulations to you and to the government and people of your country on the occasion of the 58th anniversary of independence of Uganda,” Kim said in a congratulatory message quoted by the KCNA. “Our people sincerely hope that under your leadership, the friendly people of Uganda will achieve great successes in their efforts for consolidating the national unity and attaining the socio-economic development of the country,” he added. He further said “I take this opportu...
Trump, ‘Get your hands off Somali refugees!’

Trump, ‘Get your hands off Somali refugees!’

FEATURED, NEWS, Politics, TECH
Before being admitted to the hospital for coronavirus infection, Donald Trump spent the last two weeks on yet another vile anti-immigrant tirade. Both in a policy statement to Congress and on a campaign stop in Minnesota, Trump veered to his campaign cornerstone to send yet another message to his racist base that immigrants are not welcome in this country.  But it is more dangerous than that.  Trump went after Rep. Ilhan Omar in her very own home state and screamed to the crowd, “She tells us how to run our country, can you believe it? How the hell did Minnesota elect her? What the hell is wrong with you people?” (NYTimes, Oct. 1) Rep. Omar’s background is Somali. She is the first Somali American, the first naturalized citizen of African birth and the first woman of ...
Campaigners say Asylum Seeker’s Legal Victory Against Home Office is ‘beacon of hope’

Campaigners say Asylum Seeker’s Legal Victory Against Home Office is ‘beacon of hope’

FEATURED, NEWS, TRAVEL
The court of appeal has found a 27-year-old woman from Uganda, known only as PN, was unlawfully removed from the UK CAMPAIGNERS HAVE described a 27-year-old lesbian asylum seeker’s legal victory against the Home Office as a “beacon of hope” after the court of appeal found that the woman, known only as PN, was unlawfully deported from the UK. PN, who came to the UK from Uganda as a child, was detained in Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre before being deported in December 2013 under the fast-track system.  Her removal was subsequently ruled unlawful and the high court ordered the Home Office to bring PN back to the UK. After bringing PN back to the UK last year, the Home Office sought to have the high court ruling overturned but on Monday the court of appeal ru...
Trump, Biden Spit Venom At Each Other In ‘Ugly’ First US Election Debate

Trump, Biden Spit Venom At Each Other In ‘Ugly’ First US Election Debate

FEATURED, NEWS
By Our Reporter President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden traded personal insults in the first 2020 presidential campaign debate held on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,  on Tuesday. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden engaged in a heated and at times ugly exchange of words in the first presidential debate of the US election. At some point, Trump accused Biden of being a leftist and promoting socialism. In reply, Biden openly called Trump a racist and told him to “shut up” as Trump repeatedly tried to goad Biden with interruptions. The debate did little to illuminate the policy choices facing Americans in the election and probably did not shift the dynamic of a rac...
France to Rule on Fate of Alleged Rwanda Genocide Financier

France to Rule on Fate of Alleged Rwanda Genocide Financier

FEATURED, NEWS, Politics, Rwanda
A top French appeals court is to rule Wednesday on whether alleged Rwandan genocide financier Felicien Kabuga will stand trial in France or face a UN tribunal in Tanzania. Kabuga, who is 84 according to officials but claims to be 87, was arrested in May at his home outside Paris after 25 years on the run. The 1994 Rwanda genocide of some 800,000 people by Hutu extremists targeted rival Tutsis as well as also moderate Hutus. Once one of Rwanda’s richest men, Kabuga is alleged to have funnelled money to militia groups as chairman of the national defence fund. He is also accused of setting up the Interahamwe militia that carried out massacres as well as the Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines whose broadcasts incited people to murder. A French court ruled in June that Ka...
Exiled ‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero Claims he was Duped into Flying Back to Kigali

Exiled ‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero Claims he was Duped into Flying Back to Kigali

FEATURED, NEWS, Politics, Rwanda
Paul Rusesabagina, depicted in a Hollywood movie as a hero who helped save Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide, told the New York Times he believed he was flying to Burundi at the invitation of a pastor, but was instead lured to Rwanda and arrested on terrorism charges, Rusesabagina was speaking to the US daily in an interview the paper said had been authorised by the Rwandan government and had taken place in the presence of government officials. "How I got here – now that is a surprise," he told the newspaper. "I was actually not coming here." The 66-year-old Hutu political dissident and former hotel manager was propelled to fame after the Oscar-nominated film "Hotel Rwanda" portrayed him using his connections with the Hutu elite to protect Tutsis fleeing sl...
How the Hero of ‘Hotel Rwanda’ fell into a Vengeful Strongman’s Trap

How the Hero of ‘Hotel Rwanda’ fell into a Vengeful Strongman’s Trap

FEATURED, NEWS, Politics, Rwanda
As the manager of a five-star hotel where 1,268 people sheltered from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina was known for his cool head — a quality that kept the killers at bay, helped ensure that all his guests survived, and led to an Oscar-nominated movie, “Hotel Rwanda,” that brought his story to a global audience. Now Mr. Rusesabagina is back in Rwanda, but this time under arrest, in a spartan cell in Kigali’s central police station, where he sleeps in a simple bed draped in a mosquito net. He still cuts the figure of an unruffled hotelier — pressed blazer, white shirt, polished loafers — even as he wrestled with how to explain the latest twists of a life story that threatens to outdo even its Hollywood version. Not long ago Mr. Rusesabagina, 66, was the toast o...
Military leaders Mark End of U.S. Marines Engagement in Uganda

Military leaders Mark End of U.S. Marines Engagement in Uganda

FEATURED, NEWS, Politics
U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy Sailors with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, Crisis Response-Africa 20.1, Marine Forces Europe and Africa, and members of the Uganda People's Defense Force celebrate in Camp Singo, Uganda, in February. American and Ugandan military leaders held a virtual ceremony this week marking the end of a U.S. Marine engagement with Uganda as part of that nation's six-year participation in the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership. Major Gen. Stephen M. Neary, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa spoke by video teleconference with Brig. Gen. Peter Omola, the Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability Center Commandant and his soldiers. While the overall APRRP effort is not ending, the event marked th...