Category: Foreign

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said yesterday Israel opposes a return to the nuclear deal with Iran.

Lapid spoke over the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron during which he said Israel would not be obligated by the deal, according to a statement issued by his office.

“Israel will continue to do everything to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear capability,” Lapid said.

The Israeli premier said Iran is still negotiating on an offer, which was presented as “take it or leave it.”

He claimed that there are new elements in the offer that go beyond the limits of the original nuclear deal, adding that it will “pave the significant investment to flow into Iran’s terrorist network and to strengthening the Iranian military”.

According to the statement, Macron emphasised his commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said early yesterday that Israel opposes a forthcoming nuclear deal between the West and Iran and will “work to bring it down.”

Israel accuses Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb, a claim denied by Tehran, which says its program is designed for peaceful purposes.

Yesterday, Iran cited “good progress” in talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement with the West.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure campaign” on Tehran.

Iran retaliated by stepping back from its nuclear-related commitments under the deal. Tehran has since exceeded thresholds on the enrichment of uranium, as well as the amount it is allowed to possess under the pact.

Across the development sector, financial management in donor-funded projects often encounters various challenges, including resource misallocation, weak internal controls, and risks of fraud, which can undermine transparency and erode donor trust. In a developing continent like Africa, where organizations depend on external donor funding to scale their impacts,  these issues threaten the sustainability of nonprofit initiatives and complicate regulatory compliance, creating a pressing need for robust oversight and innovative solutions.

In response to these challenges, progressive leaders in Africa’s nonprofit and research sectors are embracing technological solutions to strengthen financial governance. CPA Amos Nyombi stands out for his decisive leadership in enhancing anti-fraud measures and internal controls across donor and grant-funded programs, thereby supporting the sustainable growth of the nonprofit ecosystem.

His contributions towards strengthening financial management have significantly reduced the financial discrepancies in the nonprofit, with audit findings reduced by 30% and a consistent 100% compliance rate achieved in both donor and external audits. “Integrating technology into financial oversight is no longer optional; it is essential to prevent fraud and ensure that every donated dollar advances the mission effectively,” Nyombi remarks. He adds, “This initiative not only aligns with stringent donor regulations but also exemplifies best practices in transparency and governance.”

Trusted with financial responsibilities throughout his career trajectory, Nyombi manages oversight for over ten donor-funded projects annually, collectively securing funding of approximately $2 million. Commenting on the impact of his work, he explains, “Tailoring grant reporting frameworks to bridge compliance requirements with operational transparency enables organizations to maintain donor trust and demonstrate sound financial governance.” This rigorous stewardship reassures donors of the institution’s strong commitment to responsible fund management, fostering sustained partnerships and funding opportunities.

Amos Nyombi is a reckoning voice in Africa, leveraging his technical skills and efforts to advocate and enhance the financial integrity of grant-funded initiatives, safeguarding resources, and optimizing operational efficiency in the Nonprofit sector. Indeed, his contributions are vital in sustaining program credibility, facilitating long-term impact, and advancing the missions of beneficiary organizations.

Turkey’s president and the UN chief met with Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskyy yesterday in a high-stakes bid to ratchet down a war raging for nearly six months, boost desperately needed grain exports and secure the safety of Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.

The gathering, held far from the front lines in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, near the Polish border, marked the first visit to Ukraine by Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the outbreak of the war, and the second by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.

Erdogan has positioned himself as a go-between in efforts to stop the fighting. While Turkey is a member of Nato – which backs Ukraine in the war – its wobbly economy is reliant on Russia for trade, and the country has tried to steer a middle course.

At the meetings, Turkey agreed to help rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure, including roads and bridges, and Zelenskyy asked Guterres to seek UN access to Ukrainian citizens deported to Russia, according to the Ukrainian president’s website.

Zelenskyy also requested UN help in freeing captured Ukrainian soldiers and medics.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, at least 11 people were killed and 40 wounded in heavy Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Wednesday night and yesterday morning, Ukrainian authorities said.

Russia’s military claimed that it struck a base for foreign mercenaries in Kharkiv, killing 90. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side.

Heightening international tensions, Russia also deployed warplanes carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, an enclave surrounded by two Nato nations.

THE Federal Government has received over 2.6 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines from the Canadian government to help the country ramp up the vaccination roll out process.

This is coming after the recent launch of the SCALES 3.0 vaccination strategy to provide opportunity for the ramp up of childhood vaccination against diseases like polio, yellow fever, measles and other vaccine preventable childhood diseases in the same locations where the adults receive COVID-19 vaccines.

Speaking during the official handover of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, said: “I am pleased to inform you that the Canadian government has donated 2,649,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria. On behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria, I want to sincerely thank the Government of Canada for providing this much-needed support. This donation is critical to helping Nigeria ramp up her vaccination roll out process.

“Johnson & Johnson offers a single-dose opportunity for full vaccination, which means if you take one dose of the vaccine, you are regarded as a fully vaccinated person. However, we strongly recommend a booster dose after 2 months of taking the initial dose to strengthen your level of immunity against COVID-19. A second dose of J&J vaccine serves as the booster dose.

“The recent MIC/NIC survey results show that despite the pandemic, Nigeria is only one of the few countries globally that recorded improved immunization coverage. I would like to thank parents and guidance who continued to take their children for vaccination even with the difficulties and challenges faced during the lockdown and limited access to health facilities.”

A top executive at former United States President Donald Trump’s family business pleaded guilty yesterday to evading taxes in a deal with prosecutors that could potentially make him a star witness against the company at a trial later this year.

Trump Organisation CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to all 15 of the charges he faced in the case.

In a low, somewhat hoarse voice, he admitted taking in over US$1.7 million (NZ$2.7m) worth of untaxed perks – including school tuition for his grandchildren, free rent for a Manhattan apartment and lease payments for a luxury car — and explicitly keeping some of the plums off the books.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to sentence Weisselberg to five months in New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, although he will be eligible for release much earlier if he behaves well behind bars. The judge said Weisselberg will have to pay nearly US$2 million in taxes, penalties and interest and complete five years of probation.

The plea bargain also requires Weisselberg to testify truthfully as a prosecution witness when the Trump Organisation goes on trial in October on related charges. The company is accused of helping Weisselberg and other executives avoid income taxes by failing to report their full compensation accurately to the government. Trump himself is not charged in the case.

Weisselberg said nothing as he left court, offering no reply when a journalist asked whether he had any message for Trump.

Weisselberg’s lawyer Nicholas Gravante Jr said his client pleaded guilty “to put an end to this case and the years-long legal and personal nightmares it has caused for him and his family”.

Russian prisons are actively seeking volunteers to fight in Moscow’s war on neighbouring Ukraine, according to human rights activists.

Suspects and defendants were being recruited with the promise that in exchange, the authorities would drop criminal proceedings, said Olga Romanova.

A Russian civil rights activist based in Berlin, in a Facebook post, citing examples from pretrial detention centres in the Moscow area.

“But I think it has started everywhere,’’ said Romanova, a specialist on prisoners’ rights in Russia.

Moscow depends on volunteers as general conscription has not been introduced to fill the ranks of its armed forces fighting in Ukraine, in the invasion that began in February.

The fact that in many areas, officials are posting street advertisements for people to fight in the war may indicate a shortage of personnel at the front.

Cities and regions are currently forming their own battalions.

Read Also: Russia suspends START weapons inspections over travel curbs

In the Russian judicial system, almost all indictments end in a guilty verdict, meaning suspects and defendants appeared to be given the choice between going to war or going to prison.

The founder of Gulaga.net, a project created to combat violence in Russian prisons, Vladimir Ossetschkin, confirmed the recruitment practices in prisons from France, where he is living in exile.

He said there were indications of the practice from St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Tver and Bryansk.

Russian media have been reporting on the search for volunteers in the nation’s many penal camps since July, according to the Meduza website, which said Wagner mercenary group was recruiting convicts.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wanted Kremlin businessman and backer of Wagner, personally recruited volunteers in prison camps, the Mediazona website reported.

The prisoners were said to have been promised monthly pay of 100,000 roubles (1,625 dollars) along with bonuses, payments to their families in the event of death, and an amnesty.

(dpa/NAN)

UNITED Nations Secretary General António Guterres has appointed a Nigerian social entrepreneur, Gbenga Sesan, to serve on his inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel.

The UN chief also appointed nine other high-level and eminent persons to serve on the IGF Panel for two-year term during the 2022 to 2023 IGF cycles.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Mr. Stéphane Dujarric announced this at a news conference on Tuesday at UN headquarters in New York.

Dujarric said Guterres established the panel to support and strengthen the IGF, an annual meeting to discuss public policy issues pertaining to the Internet.

“Panel members will address strategic and urgent issues and highlight Forum discussions, as well as possible follow-up actions, to promote greater impact and dissemination of IGF discussions, according to its Terms of Reference.

“They were appointed by the Secretary-General following an open call for nominations, and in line with “an equitably distributed, multistakeholder configuration” of representatives from Government, the private sector, civil society and the technical community, as well as prominent persons in the field of digital policy.’’

The spokesman said the Panel also consists of five ex-officio members: senior representatives of the current, immediately previous, and immediately upcoming IGF host countries; the Chair of the Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group, as well as the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, Mr Amandeep Singh Gill.

The Internet Governance Forum is an outcome of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WISS) that took place in 2005.

The first phase was held in Geneva in December 2003.

South Korea has claimed that North Korea has fired two cruise missiles in a new weapons test.

The two suspected guided missiles flew in the direction of the Yellow Sea, the Ministry of Defence said in Seoul.

How far the projectiles flew was initially unclear.

UN resolutions prohibited North Korea from testing ballistic missiles, which, depending on the design, can also carry nuclear warheads.

Tests of cruise missiles, however, were not subject to sanctions against the largely isolated country.

Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles have their own permanent propulsion system.

North Korea has already tested missiles several times this year.

The country’s ballistic missile test had increased tensions in the region since the start of the year.

Pyongyang was subjected to tough international sanctions because of its nuclear weapons programme.

However, the U.S. and South Korea also fear that North Korea could carry out a new nuclear weapons test at any time.

UNITED States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan is part of a deliberate U.S. strategy to destabilise the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday.

He said the visit wasn’t just by one politician, but was part of an underlying strategy.

“The U.S. was seeking to destabilise the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and the whole world,’’ Putin said duing his speech at the 10th annual Moscow Conference on International Security.

Putin called the move a brazen demonstration of disrespect for the sovereignty of other countries and for international obligations and a carefully planned provocation.

Speaking at the opening of the conference on Tuesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu similarly said that Pelosi’s provocative landing in Taiwan was yet another step to destabilise the region.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliamentarians have commenced a move to halt tenure elongation in the region.

The lawmakers are at the verge of passing a Good Governance Bill, which is expected to end tenure extension.

The Chairman, Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Edwin Snowe Junior, stated this at the ongoing Delocalised Meeting of the Joint Committee on Political affairs, Peace, Security and Africa peer review mechanism (APRM), Legal Affairs and Human Rights / Social Affairs, Gender and Women Empowerment holding in Banjul, Gambia.

Snowe-Junior said the ECOWAS parliamentarians are working to ensure that no president or head of government would be allow to do more than two terms or be allowed to tamper with the constitution for the purpose of elongating tenure beyond what is subscribed in the Constitution.

He said: “We are now discussing as we will be doing in this meeting the good governance bill encouraging countries or the president to desist from the third term because when you ambushed your constitution you gave the territory to ambush your tenure. So, if you have done one term and if the citizens say they are comfortable with you and you have done well, then you can go and have a second term.

“But most governments if they have done the second term, they will say we want to make the constitution better for the people. So, they make it better for the people and go and change the constitution and by changing the constitution, they say now is a new republic. So, now is a new republic and so, I can now go on a new trend for the new republic, which is wrong.

“So, ECOWAS Parliament has a reason why we have a gender committee because in most of the conflicts, our mothers, our sisters , our wives , our daughters suffer the most .”