MOZAMBIQUE
Protesters dispute election
The capital, Maputo, on Friday experienced a mobile Internet blackout after protests against the re-election of the ruling Frelimo party descended into violence. Protests erupted on Thursday with hundreds of opposition supporters rejecting what they called a ballot “stolen” by a “corrupt” electoral commission in favor of the party that has ruled since 1975. The commission on Thursday had announced Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo as the winner of the Oct. 9 election with 71 percent of the vote, sparking a furious reaction from the opposition. Further sporadic demonstrations sprang up on Friday in the capital, where streets were littered with broken glass, burnt tires and other debris. Internet outages across various mobile carriers struck Maputo, although home access was not affected.
UNITED KINGDOM
Hunt on for cheese swindler
British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on Saturday urged cheese lovers to help police catch scammers who conned a London dairy out of 22 tonnes of English and Welsh cheddar. Oliver described the theft as a “brazen heist of shocking proportions.” He told followers on Instagram to be alert if they heard anything about “lorry loads of very posh cheese” being offered “for cheap,” adding that the cheddar would have originally been worth about ￡300,000 (US$388,830). The appeal comes after Neal’s Yard Dairy said it delivered more than 950 wheels of cheddar to the alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer before realizing it had been duped. The Metropolitan Police in a statement on Friday said it was investigating a “report of the theft of a large quantity of cheese.”
UNITED STATES
G7 to boost sanction efforts
Finance ministers of the G7 nations on Saturday vowed to step up efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine. “We remain committed to taking further initiatives in response to oil price cap violations,” the group said in a statement following a meeting in Washington. Those further steps were not spelled out in detail. In December 2022, the G7 together with the EU and Australia agreed to pressure purchasers of Russian oil to not go above a certain price ceiling. However, some countries, notably China, have continued to import Russian crude oil without observing the price ceiling. The G7 finance ministers also said they would take additional measures aimed at “increasing the costs to Russia of using the shadow fleet to evade sanctions.” The group on Friday announced it had reached an agreement to provide a loan of about US$50 billion to Ukraine. The loan would be repaid with the interest — about US$3 billion a year — generated by Russian assets seized and frozen after the war began in February 2022.
BULGARIA
Borisov likely to top poll
Bulgarians began voting yesterday in their seventh election in less than four years, with dim hope of an end to political turmoil that has favoured the country’s far right. The EU’s poorest member state has been at a standstill since 2020, when massive anti-corruption protests brought down the Cabinet of conservative three-time prime minister Boyko Borisov. Six consecutive votes so far have failed to yield a stable government. Borisov’s GERB party once again looks set to top the vote, but chances are high that GERB would struggle to find partners to govern. Voter turnout is also expected to be low, amid fears of electoral fraud.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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