Author: chicagoinquirer

By Phil Stewart BRUSSELS – Ten years to the day after the formal launch of the U.S.-led operation against the Islamic State, the United States and its NATO allies gathered in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the future of a mission facing increasing headwinds. Niger kicked out the U.S. military from its counter-terrorism base in West Africa this summer. Afghanistan has been largely off-limits since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover. And Iraq wants the Pentagon to start reducing its personnel and end coalition operations there. At the same time, American officials warn the global threat from Islamic State is growing in…

By David Lawder WASHINGTON – World Bank President Ajay Banga said on Thursday that bilateral creditors need to provide more debt forgiveness to poor debt-distressed countries, and that the development lender was working on ways to ease service costs to improve development outcomes. Banga, speaking to reporters ahead of World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings next week, said the bank has already answered calls for its share of debt relief in restructurings by providing billions of dollars in additional grants and deeply discounted loans to debtor countries. Some $16 billion to $17 billion has gone to Zambia, Chad,…

ABUJA – Nigeria is beginning to reap the benefits of significant policy reforms following a near fiscal crisis in 2020, but must stay the course, the World Bank said on Thursday. President Bola Tinubu has instituted reforms including ending a decades-old petrol subsidy and devaluing the currency to try to boost output, which has been sluggish for about a decade. World Bank lead economist for Nigeria Alex Sienaert said that Nigeria’s fiscal deficit has reduced from 6.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first half of last year to 4.4% in the first half of this year, with the…

by Daniel Wiessner WASHINGTON – Nebraska’s top state court on Wednesday upheld a state law allowing felons who have completed their sentences to vote, enabling thousands more people to cast ballots in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. The Nebraska Supreme Court rejected claims by Secretary of State Robert Evnen, a Republican, that the law passed in April violated the state constitution and ordered him to implement it immediately. Two Nebraskans with felony records, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, had sued Evnen after he announced in July he was directing election officials to refuse to register felons to…

by Phil Stewart and Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON – In his final months in office, President Joe Biden is signaling new willingness to use U.S. military assistance to Israel as both a carrot and a stick to influence its high-stakes confrontation with Iran and Iran-backed militant groups. But while the approach increases Washington’s involvement in Israeli decision-making just weeks before the US presidential election, it is unclear whether it will help achieve Biden’s goals, including preventing a broader regional conflict and getting Israel to address the increasingly dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, experts say. Biden’s administration announced on Sunday it would…

CAIRO – Egypt opened a series of galleries to the public on Tuesday in its flagship new museum, but the glittering King Tutankhamun collection and solar boats buried by the Pyramid of Khufu are yet to be unveiled, pending a long-delayed grand inauguration. More than 20 years under construction, the sprawling Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) next to the pyramids of Giza was initially scheduled to open in 2012 but the launch was repeatedly pushed back due to cost overruns and political tumult. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly last week announced a “trial opening” ahead of a formal inauguration. Egyptian officials say…

By Nupur Anand, Duncan Miriri NEW YORK/NAIROBI -JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. lender, plans to enter Kenya and Ivory Coast this year and grow its footprint in Africa, CEO Jamie Dimon told Reuters. International markets are a growth area for JPMorgan, which has more than $4.2 trillion in assets and operates in over 100 countries. That compares with Citigroup, which does business in almost 180 countries and has the largest global footprint among U.S. banking giants. “We want to add a country or two (enter or deepen presence) in Africa, every couple of years or so,” Dimon said by phone…

by Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON -Voters in Georgia turned out in record numbers as the battleground state opened early voting for the Nov. 5 presidential election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, state officials said on Tuesday. At least 252,000 voters had cast ballots at early-voting sites as of 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), nearly double the 136,000 who participated in the first day of early voting in the 2020 election, said Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s No. 2 election official. “Spectacular turnout,” he wrote on social media. Trump, at a campaign event in Atlanta, expressed enthusiasm for the early vote…

by Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a U.S. diocese over decades-old abuse claims. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday. “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Gomez said in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have…

by Nandita Bose, Stephanie Kelly WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pennsylvania -Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris was grilled in a TV interview on Wednesday on the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle a surge in illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. In a combative interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Harris was also pressed to defend President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, her years as vice president and previous support of gender-affirming surgery for transgender inmates. Harris and Baier frequently talked over each other and Harris grew visibly frustrated. She was…