World

US President Donald Trump has signed into law a one-year extension of a trade preference program with African countries restoring duty-free access to the US market until the end of the year, the US trade representative said on Tuesday. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) applies retroactively from September 30, 2025, when the program expired through December 31, 2026. Greer also said his office would work with Congress this year to modernize AGOA to align with Trump's America First trade policy. "AGOA for the 21st century must demand more from our trading partners and yield more market access for US businesses, farmers, and ranchers," Greer said. What is AGOA? First enacted in 2000, AGOA allows qualifying sub-Saharan...

South Sudan could be sliding toward a civil war . The country's senior military commander, Johnson Olony, reportedly urged troops recently to act decisively and "spare no lives," including civilians, as part of preparations for a government offensive against opposition forces in Jonglei state.  The United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and other human rights organizations have condemned Olony's remarks as encouragement for potential war cimes.  The country's political situation has worsened following the detention and trial of former Vice President Riek Machar. For Tim Glawion of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, the situation is "really frightening. More than three quarters of the population are in extreme distress, threatened by hunger and exposed to...

France on Monday adopted a 2026 government budget, following months of negotiations and no-confidence motions in Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's minority government. "France finally has a budget," Lecornu wrote on X after the vote, hailing a "parliamentary compromise" which "curbs public spending" and "does not hike taxes for households and businesses." Lecornu survives challenges left and right Lecornu faced no-confidence votes from the hard-left and far-right but managed to weather those storms and got his budget through, using constitutional powers that circumvented having to put it through a parliamentary vote. Only 260 from the left-wing groups and 135 from the far-right in the National Assembly voted against Lecornu's centre-left Cabinet in the two votes, well short of the 28...

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez met on Monday with US envoy Laura Dogu as the two countries move to restore diplomatic relations severed in 2019. "The governments of Venezuela and the United States have set out to advance on a roadmap to address matters of bilateral interest, through diplomatic dialogue and on the basis of mutual respect and international law," a Venezuelan government statement said. The meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace focused on a shared agenda including energy, trade and political and economic issues, Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said. Gil also announced the appointment of former foreign minister Felix Plasencia as Venezuela's "diplomatic representative" in Washington. Venezuela undergoing major political changes Dogu later posted on X that ...

Immigration crackdowns ordered by US President Donald Trump have turned deadly, with a second US citizen killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this month.  Cell phone videos from eyewitnesses in Minneapolisshow how several ICE agents tackle 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti to the ground and then shoot him. He had not drawn his gun, as initially stated by the Department of Homeland Security.Footage from different cell phone recordings shows his gun on a belt, which an ICE officer removes before Pretti is killed.  Earlier this month, ICE agents had shot 37-year-old Renee Goodas she was driving away in her car. Videos taken from multiple angles also discredit the official statementthat Good was trying to run over an officer, killing her point-blank by firing through he...

Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, called on Friday for the country to implement a "new judicial system" and proposed an "amnesty law" that would lead to the release of hundreds of political prisoners and turn an infamous detention center into a sports and social venue. "May this law serve to heal the wounds left by the political confrontation, violence, and extremism," she said in an event at the Supreme Court of Justice. "May it serve to restore justice in our country and restore peaceful coexistence among Venezuelans." Though the interim Venezuelan government did not release the text of the bill, leaving unclear the specific criteria that will be used to determine who qualifies for amnesty, Rodriguez said it would cover cases from after 1999 but would exclude those impriso...

"I was involuntarily undressed by Elon Musk's Grok on X," Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch said in a recent video on the platform. She is one of countless victims of a feature on X's AI chatbot, Grok, that allows users to digitally strip women and children of their clothing. In less than two weeks, Grok generated three million sexualized images, including tens of thousands that appear to depict children.  Now, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has launched an investigation into Grok under the Digital Services Act, or DSA. The Commission said it would "assess whether the company [X] properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok's functionalities into X in the EU."  The investigation could set an important precedent in confronting US te...

Burkina Faso's military-led government dissolved all political parties by decree on Thursday. "The government believes that the proliferation of political parties has led to abuses, fuelled divisions among citizens and weakened the social fabric," it said. A bill scrapping party statutes, financing rules and the post of opposition leader will be sent to the transitional council, according to cabinet minutes. All assets of the dissolved parties will be transferred to the state. Before the coup, Burkina Faso had more than 100 registered political parties, with 15 holding seats in parliament after the 2020 election. But the junta that seized power in 2022 under Captain Ibrahim Traore has clamped down on dissent. Political parties in Burkina Faso have already been barred from holding publi...

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday signed a law that will open the nation's oil sector to privatization. Lawmakers in the country's National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law earlier in the day. "We're talking about the future. We are talking about the country that we are going to give to our children," Rodriguez said. Ruling-party lawmaker Orlando Camacho, head of the assembly's oil committee, said the reform "will change the country's economy."Is Venezuelan oil United States' main interest?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The decision comes less than a month after the US launched a military attack and kidnapped the country's then-President Nicolas Maduro. Washi...

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that would slap additional tariffs on goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba.   The order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and calls the Cuban government an "extraordinary threat" to US national security. Cuba's foreign minister condemned Trump’s executive order, calling it a "brutal act of aggression." The move could further aggravate an already deep energy crisis in the country. The Caribbean island has experienced severe fuel shortages in recent years, impacting its power grid and causing widespread blackouts.Cuba's economy faces a future without Venezuela's oilTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Trump cuts off...