Category: LATEST NEWS

In the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent candidacy for the presidential election to support Donald Trump in the race for the White House in November.

In a speech Friday, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, a heavyweight in the history of the Democratic Party, said he wanted to withdraw from states where the battle is raging because he believed his presence in the race would benefit Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.

Robert Kennedy did acknowledge that his decision to support Donald Trump had caused tensions within his immediate family.

Campaigning in Las Vegas, Donald Trump said it was a “great honor” to receive the endorsement.

The former president called him a “great man” and said he was “respected by everyone.”

The US presidential election will take place on November 5.

At least 100 villagers and soldiers were killed in central Burkina Faso during a weekend attack on a village by al-Qaida-linked jihadis.

Based on video evidence available; regional specialists have described the assault as one of the deadliest this year in the conflict-battered West African nation.

Villagers in the Barsalogho commune which is 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the capital city were helping security forces dig up trenches to protect security outposts and villages on Saturday when fighters with the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group invaded the area and opened fire on them, said Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank.

Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, saying in a statement that it gained “total control over a militia position” in Barsalogho in Kaya, a strategic town where security forces have used to fight off jihadis that have over the years tried to close in on the capital, Ouagadougou.

At least 100 bodies were counted in videos of the attack, Nasr said. The Associated Press could not independently verify the count but reviewed videos that appeared to be from the scene, showing bodies piled beside the trenches and shovels amid gunshots.

Burkina Faso’s security minister Mahamadou Sana said in a state television broadcast on Sunday that the government responded to the attack with support from the ground and air. Among those killed were soldiers and civilians, the minister said, without stating the exact number of casualties.

“We are not going to accept such barbarity on the territory,” Sana said. He said the government has directed medical and humanitarian assistance to all those affected and that authorities are committed to protecting lives.

About half of Burkina Faso is outside of government control as the country has been ravaged by growing jihadi attacks encircling the capital. The jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have killed thousands and displaced more than 2 million people in one of the world’s most neglected crises.

The violence contributed to two coups in 2022. Still, the military junta that promised to end the attacks has struggled to do so, even after seeking new security partnerships with Russia and other junta-led, conflict-hit countries in Africa’s Sahel region.

Burkina Faso’s junta leader Capt. Ibrahim Traore  who activists say was drafting critics to join the army as punishment – has also been requesting civilians to assist the military in security efforts. A civilian task force, Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP), is already working closely with the military.

The trenches being dug in the Barsalogho commune are among the several that authorities urged civilians to help create in areas the jihadis are seeking control of.

The jihadis are becoming more successful because of a lack of efficient air cover and intelligence by security forces. They are also active because of ineffective control of areas bordering Mali and Niger, the two countries also struggling with violent attacks, according to Nasr.

Human rights abuses committed by the country’s security forces and VDP have also led more people to join the jihadis, he said.

The largest diamond found in more than a century has been unearthed at a mine in Botswana, and the country’s president showed off the fist-sized stone to the world at a viewing ceremony Thursday.

“They (diamonds) mean everything to us in good times and bad times,” Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi said.

He gasped and said “wow” before calling senior government officials over to take a closer look.

The as-yet-unnamed diamond was presented to the world at the office of Botswana Masisi. It weighs approximately half a kilogram and Masisi was one of the first to hold it.

The Botswana government says the huge 2,492-carat diamond is the second-biggest ever discovered in a mine. It’s the biggest diamond found since 1905.

Officials said it was too early to value the stone or decide how it would be sold. Another smaller diamond from the same mine in Botswana was sold for $63 million in 2016, a record for a rough gem.

“It’s the largest stone discovered in the world through a processing plant,” said Naseem Lahri, Botswana managing director for Lucara Diamond Corp., the Canadian mining company that found the diamond.

“The reason we’re able to recover this diamond is because of the technology that we use, which is XRT (X-ray transmission), so that is why we’re so proud of this”, she said.

Lucara said in a statement Wednesday that it recovered the “exceptional” rough diamond from its Karowe Mine in central Botswana.

“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara President and CEO William Lamb said in a statement.

The weight would make it the largest diamond found in 119 years and the second-largest ever dug out of a mine after the Cullinan Diamond that was discovered in South Africa in 1905. The famous Cullinan was 3,106 carats and was cut into gems, some of which form part of the British Crown Jewels.

A bigger, less pure black diamond was discovered in Brazil in the late 1800s, but it was found above ground and was believed to have been part of a meteorite.

Botswana, a country of 2.6 million people in southern Africa, is the second-biggest producer of natural diamonds behind Russia and has unearthed all of the world’s biggest stones in recent years. The Karowe Mine has produced four other diamonds over 1,000 carats in the last decade.

Before this discovery, the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the Karowe Mine in 2019, was recognized as the second-biggest mined diamond in the world at 1,758 carats. It was bought by French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed amount.

The 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, also from Botswana’s Karowe Mine, was bought by a British jeweller for $53 million in 2017. Another diamond from Karowe, The Constellation, was sold for the record $63 million.

Diamonds are formed when carbon atoms are squeezed together under high pressure deep underground. Scientists say most diamonds are at least a billion years old and some of them more than three billion.

Kenyan police have announced a $1,500 reward for information leading to the capture of Collins Jumaisi, a suspected serial killer who escaped from a Nairobi police cell on Tuesday. Jumaisi, who has been dubbed a “vampire” by authorities, is accused of murdering and dismembering 42 women over a two-year period. He broke out of a police station in an upscale area of the capital, alongside 12 Eritreans.

Jumaisi was arrested last month after police discovered mutilated female bodies in a rubbish dump in Nairobi’s Mukuru slum. Among his victims was his wife, who was reportedly his first kill. Despite his confession to the murders, Jumaisi claims he was tortured during his detention.

Five police officers have been implicated in his escape, but they were released on bond after a court hearing on Wednesday, despite prosecutors’ attempts to keep them in custody. The officers allegedly helped Jumaisi and the others escape by cutting through a wire mesh roof and scaling a perimeter wall.

The escape has sparked outrage in Kenya, particularly as it comes just months after another high-profile suspect escaped custody in Nairobi. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has urged the public to come forward with credible information, promising a significant cash reward for Jumaisi’s recapture. Meanwhile, Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, is investigating possible police involvement or negligence in both the killings and the escape.

This case has intensified scrutiny on Kenyan police, who are frequently accused of misconduct and extrajudicial killings, yet rarely face accountability.

Israel’s economy is suffering from its nearly 11-month long war with Hamas, as its leaders grind ahead with its offensive in Gaza that shows no signs of ending and threatens to escalate into a wider conflict.

The country’s deficit is up, credit ratings are down, the tourism industry is flailing, and state expenditures are mired in controversy.

The cost of rebuilding areas in the south and north of the country, compensating families of victims, and strengthening Israel’s defense systems has placed a massive strain on the economy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to allay concerns by saying the damage is only temporary, but the war has hurt thousands of small businesses and compromised international trust in an economy once thought of as an entrepreneurial dynamo.

Leading economists say a cease-fire is the only way to stop the damage.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt are straining to seal a deal that would bring an end to the war and exchange scores of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, but success has proved elusive.

The war began on October 7, when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 people hostage.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the territory’s Health Ministry said.

Since the beginning of the war, rockets fired from Gaza and from Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from their homes and wreaked large-scale damage.

Israel’s economy has recovered from previous shocks, like COVID-19 and past wars with Hamas.

The vibrant high-tech sector, the main engine of the economy, appears to be rebounding from a slowdown when the war broke out late last year.

But the drawn-out conflict and the threat of further escalation with Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, has had an especially harsh impact on small businesses, shipping, and the tourism industry.

In Jerusalem’s Old City, nearly all souvenir shops have closed.

Even Jerusalem’s iconic American Colony hotel has had to lay off workers and are mulling pay cuts, said Jeremy Berkovitz, the official representative of the owners.

“We did consider at one point closing for a few months,” said Berkovitz.

“That would mean sacking all the staff, it would have meant letting the gardens which we’ve developed over 120 years go fallow.”

In Haifa’s flea market, merchants set up their wares forlornly.

“Now, there are no tourists, not very much,” said Meir Sabag, an antiques dealer whose shop sat empty.

He said business is worse now than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a recent weekday, the formerly bustling port of Haifa, where massive container ships would stop on transnational voyages and a major hub of Israeli import-export, sat still.

With Yemen’s Houthi rebel group endangering ships passing through Egypt’s Suez Canal, many long-haul tankers have stopped using Israeli ports as refueling points, said a port official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was sharing internal information.

Sheinin said that the best way to help the economy bounce back would be to end the war.

“But,” he cautioned. “If we are stubborn and continue this war, we will not recover.”