Azerbaijan and Armenia trade barbs following Yerevan's receipt of additional weapons from France.

James Colemam | 20th June, 2024.

After thirty years of warfare, Yerevan and Armenia traded fresh insults on Wednesday in an effort to progress towards a peace deal. This came after France promised to arm Yerevan with more weaponry.

In the course of their recent efforts to negotiate a treaty, the two South Caucasus countries agreed that Armenia would cede four disputed border villages to Azerbaijan.

We believe that France's strategy in the South Caucasus is ineffective. The main foreign policy advisor of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev, President Ilham Aliyev, forewarned the Azerbaijani media of the policy's detrimental effects.

"This is a blow to regulating relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia."

Armenia's foreign ministry responded by declaring that it was "the sovereign right of every state" to keep combat-capable armed forces equipped with modern military equipment.

As a result, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry stated that Armenia's activities were "illegitimate and represent a threat to Azerbaijan".

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars, with Azerbaijan regaining significant portions of territory in 2020.

Last year, its soldiers seized control of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the focal point of the protracted battle. Most of the region's ethnic Armenians emigrated to Armenia.

One of Yerevan's most reliable European allies, France is also home to a substantial Armenian diaspora.

Despite having formal ties to Russia, Armenia has distanced itself from Moscow in recent years, citing insufficient protection. Armenia has been advised by Russia not to play around with the West, and they disagree with the criticism.

A surge of recent demonstrations against Armenia's territorial concessions and the loss of Karabakh has forced Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign.

The state of Louisiana in the United States requires all classrooms to have a display of the Ten Commandments.

By Timmy Mabs | 20th June, 2024.

Louisiana has become the first state in US to mandate that a poster of the Ten Commandments be shown in all public school classrooms, up to university level.

The commandments were referred to as "the foundational documents of our state and national government" in the Republican-backed legislation that Governor Jeff Landry signed into law on Wednesday.

Civil rights organizations anticipate contesting the bill on the grounds that it violates the Establishment Clause, which is the first amendment of the US Constitution that guarantees the separation of church and state.

It states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

According to state law, the commandments must be "the central focus" of the exhibition and the sacred text must be included in a "large, easily readable font" on a poster that measures 11 by 14 inches (28 by 35.5 cm).

A "context statement" consisting of four paragraphs that explains how the commandments "were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries" will also be displayed with it.

By 2025, all classrooms that receive state financing must have the posters up in their displays; however, the posters themselves are not being funded by the state.

Other Republican-led states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah have lately proposed legislation along similar lines.
The Ten Commandments' exhibition in public spaces like courtrooms, police stations, and schools has given rise to countless legal disputes.

A related Kentucky statute mandating that the document be shown in elementary and high schools was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1980.

The Ten Commandments posting requirement "had no secular legislative purpose" and was "plainly religious in nature," the Supreme Court declared in a 5-4 vote.

The court pointed out that the Ten Commandments mentioned worshiping God, which included keeping the Sabbath day, in addition to crimes like killing and stealing.

 

Two US men jailed for conspiracy to sell Iranian oil to China.

Timmy Mabs | 12th June, 2024.

Two Texas men, Zhenyu Wang and Daniel Ray Lane, have been sentenced to 45 months in prison for attempting to sell Iranian petroleum in violation of US sanctions and conspiring to commit money laundering.

According to the Justice Department, the pair schemed to evade US economic sanctions against Iran from July 2019 to February 2020. They facilitated the purchase of sanctioned oil from Iran, masked its origins, and sold it to a refinery in China.

Lane, the president of Stack Royalties, a Texas-based company, claimed that the case was an example of government overreach. His attorney, Paul Hetznecker, stated that undercover government agents offered Lane "millions of dollars in profits" to participate in the scheme, which he initially rebuffed.

The pair were charged alongside three others in 2020 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. At least two co-conspirators have since pleaded guilty, according to court records. The sentencing highlights the ongoing enforcement of US sanctions against Iran's petroleum exports, which China continues to import despite the sanctions.

BREAKING: Tinubu names Abuja expressway after Wole Soyinka.

Timmy Mabs | 4th June, 2024.

The Nigerian government has named a major arterial road in Abuja, the capital city, after Wole Soyinka.

The road, previously known as the N20, stretches from Northern Parkway to the Outer Northern Expressway (also known as the Murtala Mohammed Expressway). The naming was announced by the President during the road's inauguration on June 4.

The President praised Soyinka as a foremost playwright who has brought international recognition to Nigeria.

Mr. Nyesom Wike the FCT Minister, was appreciated for recommending the naming of the road after Soyinka.

This recognition is a testament to Soyinka's enduring impact on Nigerian literature and his legacy as a cultural icon.

The inauguration of the Wole Soyinka Way is one of the multiple projects commissioned by President Bola Tinubu to mark his administration's first year in office. Some of the other projects include;

Southern Parkway: renamed the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Way

Abuja Rail Mass Transit: also known as the Metro Rail

Outer Southern Parkway: renamed the Mahamadou Issoufou Way

These projects highlight the administration's focus on infrastructure development and honor notable figures like Wole Soyinka.

US urges Hamas and Israel to agree to the proposed Gaza truce.

Timmy Mabs | 3rd June, 2024.

Rafah was attached by Isreal in May.
(Photo credit: AFP)

Israel resumed its airstrikes on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, on Sunday night. Over half of Gaza's population is seeking sanctuary in Rafah, where there has been an Israeli military operation for the past three weeks.

Mediators are pushing Israel and Hamas to accept the cease-fire and hostage-release plan that US President Joe Biden put up on Friday; Hamas has welcomed the proposal. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emphasised that Israel will fight on until Hamas is defeated and the hostages that were captured during their October 7 raid are freed.

Netanyahu's coalition partners are putting pressure on him to sign a ceasefire agreement, or else his government would fall apart. However, since Biden had earlier said that a significant Israeli offensive on Rafah would be a red line, continuing with the attack carries the risk of publicly alienating Israel. The government must embrace Biden's proposal for a truce, according to demonstrators who have voiced their support for the quick release of hostages and who assembled in Tel Aviv on Saturday. 

The Mercy Corps received a donation of NT$16.21 million (US$500,000) on May 9 from Taiwan for humanitarian aid, along with supplies for medical care and communications, to Palestine. Foreign Ministry officials have not yet commented on this particular deal.

Abba Kyari welcome by family members after 27-months in detention.

Timmy Mabs | 1st June, 2024.

On February 14, 2022, Kyari was taken into custody by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on suspicion of having ties to a global drug trafficking organisation.

On March 7, 2022, Kyari was arraigned alongside Sunday Ubia, Bawa James, Simon Agirigba, and John Nuhu, the other four members of the Police Intelligence Response Team.

After being held for 27 months in detention, Kyari was released from the Federal Capital Territory's Kuje Custodial Centre.

Kyari was welcome by his family and well wishers.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters destroy an Israeli drone and launch rockets towards an Israeli base.

Timmy Mabs | 1st June, 2024.

Hours after Israeli drone attacks left at least one person dead and numerous others injured, the militant Hezbollah organisation claimed to have shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon and fired rockets at an Israeli military camp on Saturday.

Hours after Israeli drone attacks left at least one person dead and numerous others injured, the militant Hezbollah organisation claimed to have shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon and fired rockets at an Israeli military camp on Saturday. 

In a statement, Hezbollah claimed that its fighters had taken out the Hermes 900 Kochav drone, claiming that the aircraft had been targeting both civilian residences and militants. The recent military assault by Israel on Rafah, the southern metropolis of Gaza, has resulted in an increase in the gunfight along the Israel-Lebanon border.

The drone was operating in Lebanese airspace when a surface-to-air missile was fired towards it, according to the Israeli military. The drone was struck and landed within Lebanese territory. The military declared that "the incident is under review."

With a long endurance and medium altitude, the Hermes 900 Kochav drone is capable of transporting four guided anti-tank missiles.

 In the border town of Kiryat Shmona, Hezbollah announced on Saturday that its militants had also used Burkan rockets to assault an Israeli army base, "scoring direct hits, igniting a fire and destroying part of it." A warhead for a Burkan missile can weigh anything from 300 kg (661 lbs) to 500 kg (1,100 lbs). Without providing specifics, the Israeli army acknowledged that a rocket had struck a military base in Kiryat Shmona.

The missile strike on Kiryat Shmona was reported by Israeli media, which also made available photos of the infrastructure damage. There were no confirmed casualties. 

The state-run National News Agency said earlier on Saturday that two persons were injured in an Israeli drone attack on a motorbike close to the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm. Another drone strike was reported by the agency on Saturday afternoon in a village close to Nabatiyeh, a city in southern Iran.

A woman was murdered and other others were injured on Friday night in the coastal village of Adloun by an Israeli bombardment, according to the agency. 

The day following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, Hezbollah started bombing Israeli military positions along the Lebanon-Israel border. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been displaced since then. 

In Lebanon over the last seven months, over 400 individuals have died, most of them fighters, but over 70 civilians and non-combatants have also died. Since October, Israel has seen 15 military deaths and 10 civilian deaths.