Free Republic

This week many of the same old names and faces as New Prime Minister Francois Bayrou announced his cabinet Monday. Emmanuel Macron loyalists Sebastien Lecornu and Stephane Sejourne remaining in place as Defense and Foreign ministers... In another sign of declining French influence in Africa Senegal's Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko announcing the closure of foreign military bases 'in the very near future'. This would mean an end to the French military presence in Senegal. French military forces in recent years kicked out of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger just days ago leaving a based in Chad... As far as protests...

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — About 50 Senegalese women climate activists hit the streets of Dakar Saturday to demand climate justice ahead of COP29 in a march held annually since 2021, but that organizers say is particularly pertinent this year. Participants yelled “Down with capitalism! Down with polluting countries!” as they marched through Dakar’s Medina neighborhood, carrying banners and signs demanding protection of Senegal’s resources and calling for a decarbonized future. “It’s been four years that we’ve been marching, and nothing’s changed. They’re spending billions to do their conferences, but they owe us billions in compensation,” said Cheikh Niange Faye, a...

In Bolivia former Leftist President Evo Morales demanding... In Israel early Tuesday rocket fire from Lebanon rockets landing... Telegram CEO Pavel Durov saying the social media app will share phone numbers and IP addresses with authorities when presented with a valid legal request. Durov currently under the pressure... A police internal investigation order in Israel that's after confrontation between religious Jews (Haredi) and police... The US moving additional troops to the Middle East... The US sanctioning Chinese technology for cars as well as car technology from Russia... At least 30 bodies have been discovered on a boat drifting off the...

Panicked passengers were forced to flee the burning wreckage of a Boeing 737 when it skidded off the runway in Senegal early Thursday, video showed. Eleven people were injured – four of them severely – when the Air Senegal flight headed from Bamako, Mali, crashed mid-lift off from Dakar’s Blaise Diagne airport shortly after 1 a.m. local time, the BBC reported. One of the 78 passengers was seen scrambling away from the Boeing 737-300 aircraft as it went up in flames, one clip from the scene showed. The plane – which Air Senegal chartered from the Senegalese carrier Transair –...

US Central Command confirming reported airstrikes on Yemen tonight... Late tonight two Ukrainian drones shot down over Russia's Tula Region... In New Mexico a jury finding the woman of firearms used on the "Rust" movie set guilty of involuntary manslaughter... In the African nation of Senegal President Macky Sall setting a March 24th election date following an order from... British Government Budget With Election Looming Draws Strong Criticism... A Chinese software engineer arrested in the US accused of stealing Google AI technology for two Chinese companies... The New York State National Guard will be deployed into the New York subway...

Federal immigration authorities arrested an illegal immigrant wanted in Senegal for alleged terrorist activities, two weeks after he was released into the country after being encountered by agents at the southern border. In a press release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says a 29-year-old "unlawfully present Mauritanian or Senegalese citizen" was arrested on Oct. 17. ICE says he is wanted by Senegalese authorities for criminal conspiracy in relation to a terrorist organization; destruction, degradation and damages in relation to a terrorist organization; direct provocation of an armed crowd and acts (or preparatory acts) aimed at compromising public safety. But he...

R&B singer Akon may have been born in the United States, but he wants to go back to his roots — which, to him, means constructing a city in his family’s ancestral home of Senegal, which he describes as a “real-life Wakanda.” Ordinarily, I’d just think this was some idle talk by someone not in compos mentis. After all, one of Akon’s best-known songs was a collaboration with enthusiastic marijuana endorser Snoop Dogg (“I Wanna Love You”), so maybe Akon’s been hitting the wacky tobaccky a bit too often. However, nothing short of megadoses of LSD could possibly have produced...

R&B singer Akon is hyping his centrally planned community in Senegal, the country of his childhood, promising that every African American who invests with him will become a millionaire. In addition, he says if they collectively leave the U.S. for Africa, they could do real damage to the country that has oppressed them so much. The 50-year-old artist, whose real name is Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and spent much of his childhood in Senegal. Consequently, he is a big believer in Africa. “If you’re coming from America or Europe or elsewhere in the diaspora...

Israeli air defenses shooting down five rockets incoming from Gaza early Wednesday morning... A federal district judge in Louisiana with a July 4th order regarding censorship of social media posts by the Biden Administration... Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that Russia and the US are talking about a prisoner exchange... Nuclear incident talk as Ukraine reinforces its military positions on the border with Belarus... An emergency evacuation of the White House Sunday night over a white powder that turned out to be cocaine... US politics and Joe Biden's approval ratings moving downwards... In Tunisia a local resident killed during fighting...

A growing number of countries are coming forward to join BRICS and accept the new currency for global trade. The South African ambassador Anil Sooklal hinted that the alliance could expand this year becoming BRICS+. The move could add pressure on the U.S. dollar as developing nations would end their reliance on the greenback. The global financial order could tilt from the West to the East creating a new multipolar economy. According to the latest report, the BRICS alliance has formally received applications from 25 countries to join the bloc. The 25 nations that expressed their interest to join are...

Russian air defenses shooting down drones tonight near Kursk in southwestern Russia... Street protests in the African nation of Senegal today as the opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was given a two-year prison sentence for "corrupting youth"... In Washington DC the US Senate taking up the plan to raise the US debt ceiling... US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelling a planned visit to Israel next week... Joe Biden taking a fall... The Dutch government intends to buy dozens of Leopard tanks for Ukraine... NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says he will travel to Türkiye to discuss the membership of Sweden...

Populist French Senator Stéphane Ravier faces a criminal trial after publishing a tweet in January of last year in which he stated that “immigration kills the youth of France.” Ravier, a former member of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) who joined political pundit and writer Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party last year, faces trial on March 9th in the criminal court of Marseilles on charges of incitement to discrimination, hatred, or violence. The case revolves around a tweet published by Ravier on January 11th of 2022, in which he reacted to the murder of a teen in Paris by a...

A wild brawl was caught on video in Senegal’s parliament this week after a male opposition lawmaker slapped a female colleague of the ruling party, reports say. The confrontation between Massata Samb and Amy Ndiaye Gniby of the Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition erupted during a budget presentation. Samb was addressing the chamber about recent comments Gniby had made in which she had criticized a spiritual leader’s opposition to the idea of President Macky Sall seeking a third term, according to Reuters.

Every time Abdou's mother hears of a homophobic attack in the streets of Senegal's capital Dakar, she locks him in her bedroom. Abdou -- who, like other LGBTQ people AFP interviewed, asked not to be identified by his real name -- is used to hiding. He has been concealing his sexuality most of his life. But lately the 20-year-old has felt even more in danger. "The situation is becoming more and more serious," said the soft-spoken unemployed tailor. "Before they would say you were gay, but they didn't hit you. Today you are beaten and it's posted on social media."...

Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi called for allowing Christians and Jews to perform pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest place. Speaking following prayers with the presidents of Mali, Sierra Leone, Niger, Mauritania and Senegal on the occasion of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday in Timbuktu, Mali, late on Monday, Qadhafi said "Mecca should be a meeting point to all people except heretics and impure". He said that Christians and Jews are not heretics or impure and "believe in God" and should be allowed to go to pilgrimage in Mecca. Qadhafi challenged Muslim religious leaders to allow US President George W. Bush to enter...

Interview with Col. (Ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, former deputy head of assesment, Israel Military Intelligence.Iran is trying to avenge the November 2020 assassination of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.Israel's Mossad - intelligence agency - foiled several Iranian terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in Africa, Channel 12 reported.The terrorists, from the Iranian Quds Force, have reportedly been trying for months to target Israeli businessmen in Senegal and Ghana, as well as in Tanzania, where Israelis are used to going on safari.

An al Qaeda operative at Fort Bragg By JOHN SULLIVAN and JOSEPH NEFF Raleigh News & Observer November 13, 2001 FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A former sergeant at Fort Bragg who became a close adviser to Osama bin Laden obtained sensitive documents describing how U.S. special operations units function. Ali A. Mohamed, a trusted trainer in bin Laden's al Qaeda network, walked the halls of the U.S. military's top warfare planning center at Fort Bragg for more than two years as an Army sergeant. From 1987 to 1989, he acquired sensitive documents describing how special operations units work and a...

Secretary General. Joined by 34 other countries, the document enshrines the Trump administration’s pro-life diplomacy on the official record of the General Assembly. “The United States strongly supports the dignity of all human beings and protecting life from the moment of conception throughout the lifespan,” Ambassador Kelly Craft wrote to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres transmitting the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family. Following the letter, the declaration was issued as an official document of the United Nations last week and circulated on December 11, after having been translated into all six official UN languages....

Cuba, China and Russia on Tuesday were elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council -- a move that the U.S. branded a “mockery” of the body's intended purpose and as proof that Washington was right to leave the council in 2018. The three countries, all with a history of authoritarianism and human rights abuses, were elected by the U.N. General Assembly, along with countries including Bolivia, France, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom. Saudi Arabia was on the ballot but failed to drum up enough support to win a seat.

China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan are tipped to finish top of Tuesday’s election for seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council, prompting disbelief from freedom campaigners and exiled dissidents alike. U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group, said allowing these countries anywhere near the council “is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade.”