Wandering War [in] World
News from anywhere it happens...
Today, since no particular place has a particularly in depth story we will return to this format. Snippets that speak to our perspective of winning - on both big and small fronts. All these are recent news so we'll just group them regionally. I'm saving internal news about Niger and Gabon for a separate piece so if you miss it that's why.
AFRICA
This report claims to have missed this happening in early August. Everyone else did too. How did they know?? British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley toured Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia, touting a long term strategy to improve Britain's relations in Africa - underpinned by a Wagner “alternative”.
The president and FM of CAR, plus the President of ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States) will negotiate with the junta in Gabon. This was organized through separate efforts by the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Apparently, the EU is still in the running to provide some function in Nigerien negotiations if ECOWAS has its way. President Omar Alieu was in Toledo, Spain to discuss on Thursday. After unilaterally rejecting an Algerian 6 month transition plan, Tinubu proposes a 9 month plan (which worked for them in 1998). And which ECOWAS then rejected.
UN demands “independent” probe into deadly crackdown on anti-MONUSCO protest in DRC. UN also faces difficult pull out of MINUSMA from Mali.
Nigerian banks sack 110 top executives; also others over N82 billion fraud. Tinubu announces recall of country's ambassadors around the world. The permanent representatives of Nigeria to the UN in New York and Geneva are exempted from the recall, as the UN General Assembly will be held later this month. According to a spokesman, he is committed "henceforth, that world-class efficiency and quality comes first in the provision of international and domestic services to citizens, residents and potential visitors”, noting that this order is a continuation of a thorough review of the current state of the Nigerian Consulates and embassies around the world. The Election Tribunal is to rule on election challenge case Wednesday. Retired military generals send a message to Tinubu: good governance is the only way to prevent a coup here in Nigeria. Meanwhile DSS uncovers a plot to mobilize violent protests across the country.
After visiting Burkina Faso (and probably the Central African Republic), the delegation of the Russian Federation headed by Deputy Minister of Defense Yunis-bek Yevkurov arrived in Mali. Clashes continue in the tri border area with Jnim and IS terrorists.
Zimbabwe opposition candidate says he will challenge election but then chooses not to after all. UN expresses concern. Russia, China, and South Africa congratulate Mnangagwa on his win.
Mali Interim President Assimi Goita signed into law a rise in local/state stakes in mining operations from 20% to as high as 35%. This will help the country recover at least $500 million up to $1 billion in lost (stolen?) revenue.
HRW bemoans a single journalistic outlet seeing suspension in Chad because of insulting and damaging language while not even mentioning any of the recently explosive violence. A constitutional referendum is scheduled for December.
This DW piece looks at a cooperative arrangement between Uganda and DRC. It is detailed and more nuanced than this, but reports on a road building project provided by Uganda in lieu of payment for an international court award of $325 million to DRC payable over 5 years. Locally denominated funds are used for labor and equipment, and there are no mass transfers of USD. DRC gets new roads and bridges. A country the size of Western Europe adds to its less than 2000 miles current at that mark. Winning.
Benin President Patrice Talon, welcomes investment and tourism from China, and waives visa requirements for those visitors. He also voiced hopes of Chinese partnership in helping make Benin a world class logistics center.
Ruling party sweeps elections in Ivory Coast.
WORLD at LARGE
Saturday, the Il-76 aircraft of the Azerbaijani airline Silk Way was once again loaded with weapons at an air base in Israel and flew to Azerbaijan. This was the third flight in the previous four days. This time, the weapons were delivered directly to Ganja, and not to Baku. Seems the Azerbaijani military began to more actively transfer weapons to the front line. Armenian Defense Ministry posted videos of these materiel transfers leading to the probability of resumption of hostilities.
China enters the lists of Nigerien negotiators. Jian Feng, Ambassador to Niger met with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed El Amin Zain to place Beijing's bid for the role.
ZH writes about UN “peacekeeping” missions. In particular the Mali extraction ongoing. Posts this chart showing the largest missions.
Sputnik explores this theme further.
Seeing a pattern? Maybe even a correlation.
ASIA/PACIFIC
An electoral miracle! Tharman Shanmugaratnam is now officially elected as the next Singapore President with 70.4% of the votes (1,746,427 votes). The sample count had been spot on, as Ng Kok Song received 15.72% (sample: 16%) and Tan Kin Lian received 13.88% (sample: 14%). Singapore sincerely wondered for a long time about this - does ethnicity matter? This election is a watershed, because a 70% Chinese population voted 70% for an Indian candidate - breaking all stereotypes or assumptions that race matters.
Indonesia calls out the Pentagon for “misstating” (AKA, lying) the existence of a press conference and also their official positions on Russia and China. There was no “joint statement” and their positions are hope to be friends and already friendly respectively. Not negative in any capacity as purported.
Some companies from Malaysia have begun to use Chinese yuan and UAE dirhams in settlements with Russian counterparties. The corresponding statement was made by the trade adviser of the Malaysian embassy in Russia, Hayfil Elmi Jamil. Earlier it was reported that Beijing began to settle accounts with its own trading partners in yuan more often than in dollars and euros.
ASEAN meeting opens today. Myanmar crisis and Chinese operations in the South China Sea headline the talks.
LATIN AMERICA
Guatemala's president-elect Bernardo Arevalo on Friday denounced an "ongoing coup" by the country's institutions to block him from taking power, after his political party was suspended. On Sunday, Guatemala's top elections court temporarily lifted its disqualification of the party of the president-elect. It was also reported a DC based (IACHR) group says the party representatives are being “harassed, doxxed, and threatened”. (Not promising - it almost sounds like a prediction.)
WESTERN WORLD
US GOP populists are raising the spectre of a US/EU split over continuance of support for Ukraine. The Atlantic posts this fantasy as an existential security concern with the potential to decouple international relations not seen in decades. The US would be an “unstable ally” because of this right wing assault on democracy. So sad.
French FM Colonna admits "Europe's future security architecture must take into account the interests of all countries, including Russia". She continued - “Russia exists and will exist. History and geography indicate that a significant part of the country is in Europe(💡). We will have to find a way together to restore a solid security architecture that takes into account the interests of all parties in the field of stability.”
Swedish political parties induce Nobel Foundation to reverse its decision to invite ambassadors from Russia, Belarus, and Iran.
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Well from the ridiculous to the sublime and most points between that's the sitrep for now. It is still a big world but becoming less dominated by complete idiots. We take the wins as they come and the losses in stride. Just being aware makes a huge difference. It reminds me of the Bush dogma “a thousand points of light”. Bet that was never meant that way which is maximum sublimation.
Go to Part 7.
Back to Part 5.