Author: chicagoinquirer

by Duncan Miriri NAIROBI – A China-Africa summit in Beijing this week takes place as a continent slowly emerging from a series of defaults seeks to define its future cooperation with the Asian nation that partly fuelled its debt binge and now faces its own economic headwinds. Africa and its ample mineral and oil resources and population of more than 1 billion people have become the focus of intense geopolitical competition in recent years between global powers like China, Europe and the United States. With China now Africa’s top bilateral lender, the visiting heads of state bring expectations of a…

CHICAGO – In the NFL, nobody wins without a game-changing quarterback. The Chicago Bears understand the nuance of that statement impossibly well. Credit general manager Ryan Poles for knowing when to fold ‘em, setting the Bears up for the league’s equivalent of winning the jackpot. Poles positioned the Bears to contend with a three-year plan focused on finding the right quarterback and surrounding him with a supporting cast that could carry its own weight. Caleb Williams, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, is the grand prize ready for his grand unveiling at Soldier Field on Sunday. Expectations in…

ADDIS ABABA -Ethiopian Airlines said on Tuesday it had suspended flights to neighbouring Eritrea because its bank account there was frozen. The carrier’s CEO Mesfin Tasew told a news conference that the Eritrean Civil Aviation Authority had blocked money transfers from Ethiopian Airlines’ bank account in the Eritrean capital city Asmara. Eritrea had previously said it would suspend all Ethiopian Airlines flights at the end of this month. Flights from Ethiopia to Eritrea had resumed in 2018 after two decades, following a peace deal and resumption of diplomatic relations between the two neighbours that earned Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed…

by Felix Onuah and Liz Lee BEIJING/LAGOS -China vowed to encourage its more “powerful” companies to invest in Nigeria, which in turn said it was open to Chinese companies building factories and developing its energy and mineral resources, after the two nations’ leaders met in Beijing. China welcomed Nigeria to its e-commerce and logistics sector and said it wanted to help the West African nation’s economy “diversify and flourish”, according to a joint statement released after President Xi Jinping and his Nigerian counterpart Bola Tinubu met on Tuesday. They held talks ahead of a summit of 50 African nations in…

by Brian Slodysko and Dan Merica WASHINGTON — Italo Medelius was leading a volunteer drive to put Cornel West on North Carolina’s presidential ballot last spring when he received an unexpected call from a man named Paul who said he wanted to help. Though Medelius, co-chairman of West’s “Justice for All Party,” welcomed the assistance, the offer would complicate his life, provoking threats and drawing him into a state election board investigation of the motivations, backgrounds and suspect tactics of his new allies. His is not an isolated case. Across the country, a network of Republican political operatives, lawyers and…

by Dyepkazah Shibayan ABUJA, Nigeria — At least 10 protesters in Nigeria including a British citizen faced a possible death penalty on Monday after being charged with treason over their participation in recent demonstrations against the country’s worst-in-a-generation economic crisis. The protesters were arraigned in the capital, Abuja, and accused of acting “with intent to destabilize Nigeria … and intimidate the president” during the protests. They pleaded not guilty and will remain in prison until a Sept. 11 bail hearing. A British citizen was named among suspects still at large. The British High Commission did not immediately respond to a…

by Jef Amy ATLANTA — Georgia voters are likely to be able to choose from six candidates for president after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Thursday put Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz back on the ballot and ruled that the Green Party’s Jill Stein had qualified by another route. Raffensperger, an elected Republican, overruled findings made last week by an administrative law judge that removed West and De la Cruz. West is running as an independent. De la Cruz is the nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation but has qualified as an independent in Georgia.…

by Gabriela Sa Pessoa SAO PAULO — The blocking of social media platform X in Brazil divided users and politicians over the legitimacy of the ban, and many Brazilians on Saturday had difficulty and doubts over navigating other social media in its absence. The shutdown of Elon Musk’s platform started early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country, missing a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The blockade marks an escalation in a monthslong feud between Musk and de…

by Zeke Miller and Colleen Long SAVANNAH, Ga. — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday defended shifting away from some of her more liberal positions in her first major television interview of her presidential campaign, but insisted her “values have not changed” even as she is “seeking consensus.” Sitting with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris was asked specifically about her reversals on banning fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings, positions she took during her last run for president. She confirmed she does not want to ban fracking, an energy extraction process key to the economy of swing-state…

by Olivia Diaz Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing the North Carolina State Board of Elections in a last-ditch attempt to get his name removed the state’s ballot ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The lawsuit filed in Wake County Superior Court Friday says the board’s denial of his request to remove his name as a third-party presidential candidate violated state election law and his right to free speech, according to The News & Observer and WRAL. “With November election looming and ballot deadlines fast-approaching, Kennedy has no choice but to turn to this Court for immediate relief,” the lawsuit…