NIGERIA ARRESTS SEVEN POLISH NATIONALS FOR RAISING RUSSIAN FLAGS AT PROTESTS.

Nigeria has arrested seven Polish nationals for raising Russian flags during anti-government protests this week in the northern state of Kano.

A spokesperson for the state security service, Peter Afunanya, said on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been protesting since Aug. 1 against President Bola Tinubu’s painful economic reforms that have seen a partial end to petrol and electricity subsidies, currency devaluation and inflation touching three-decade highs.

The protests which turned deadly in at least six northern states have seen 22 people killed so far during demonstrations, Amnesty International said, with more protesters killed in Kano, the rights group said.

This week, some protesters waved Russian flags during protests in northern states, underscoring concerns about increased Russian activity in western Africa.

Security services detained some of the tailors they said had made the banners.

Afunanya said the Poles were detained during efforts by the Department of State Services to enforce security. He gave no details as to who they were, but said the operations were not targeting Polish citizens.

Stanislaw Gulinski, a Polish consul to Nigeria, confirmed the arrests at a meeting between Nigeria’s foreign minister and diplomats in the capital, Abuja.

“They were arrested two days ago in Kano and last I heard, they were on the plane to Abuja from Kano,” he said.

“The Abuja (diplomatic post) was informed about the arrest of a group of Polish students and a lecturer in Kano, northern Nigeria,” the Polish foreign ministry wrote on social media platform X.

“The consular service is establishing the exact circumstances of the incident with the local authorities in order to support our citizens.

The ministry of foreign affairs remains in contact with the families of those detained.”

SOUTH AFRICA MOVES TO IMPLEMENT NATIONAL HEALTH BILL DESPITE RESISTANCE.

South Africa is moving ahead with implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) bill.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said despite strong opposition from within and outside government.

The NHI aims to provide universal coverage through a major overhaul of South Africa’s two-tier system.

Ramaphosa signed the bill right before the May election in which his African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority.

“We have highlighted the social and economic value of affordable, accessible, quality health care that is available equally to all South Africans,” Ramaphosa said in a speech, at the closing of an ANC policy meeting.

“We will therefore proceed with the implementation of the National Health Insurance.”

Speaking earlier, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the section of the bill which outlines transitional mechanisms would be implemented “immediately”.

This includes setting up advisory committees and amending other health-related laws to be in line with the NHI.

The legislation will gradually limit the role of private insurance in South Africa, create a new public fund to provide free access for citizens, and set the fees and prices that private healthcare suppliers can charge for NHI-funded benefits.

Supporters call it a generational change to reverse inequality dating to the apartheid era. But opponents, including big local health insurers, say the proposed funding model won’t work.

UNITED STATES TO GIVE OVER FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN HUMANITARIAN AID FOR CONGO.

The U.S. said it would provide nearly $414 million in humanitarian assistance for the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 25 million people need such aid, nearly a quarter of the country’s population.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Jeffrey Prescott, told Reuters a significant amount of that money would go to United Nations agencies and aid groups providing urgent food assistance, healthcare and nutrition support, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene.

“This funding also includes direct support (of) agricultural commodities from American farmers,” said Prescott, who will formally announce the aid in Kinshasa on Wednesday with U.S. Ambassador to the DRC Lucy Tamlyn.

It takes total U.S. funding for DRC since October to $838 million, said Prescott.

Congo’s army has been battling M23 insurgents since 2022, and renewed fighting in the country’s east has driven more than 1.7 million people from their homes, taking the total number of Congolese displaced by multiple conflicts to a record 7.2 million, according to U.N. estimates.

A U.N. aid appeal for $2.6 billion for DRC this year is only one-third funded and the World Health Organisation warned last month that more than one million children are at risk from acute malnutrition in Congo.

Prescott said he hoped the U.S. funding would encourage other countries to also “step up as well” and help DRC.

The U.S. will also provide $10 million for health assistance and donate 50,000 mpox vaccines, Prescott said.

UK, EGYPT ISSUE ALERTS FOR IRAN, LEBANON AIRSPACE.

Egypt and Britain asked their airlines on Wednesday to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace amid growing fears of a possible broader conflict in the region after the killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Britain’s advisory to its airlines to avoid the Lebanese airspace came hours after Egypt instructed all of its airlines to avoid Iranian airspace for three hours in the early morning on Thursday.

Many airlines are revising their schedules to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace while also calling off flights to Israel and Lebanon.

Currently, there are no scheduled flights operated by UK airlines to Lebanon, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.

Similarly, Egyptian airlines have already been avoiding the Iranian airspace. Thursday’s directive, however, would apply to all Egyptian carriers, including charter operators, other smaller airlines, said Mark Zee, founder of OPSGROUP – a membership-based organization that shares flight-risk information.

TURKEY SUBMITS ICJ BID TO JOIN SOUTH AFRICA GENOCIDE CASE AGAINST ISRAEL

Turkey has formally submitted its bid to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over the Gaza war at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş made the announcement on social media platform X.

“We will continue our efforts to have Israel tried in international courts for the crime of genocide and to receive the harshest punishment it deserves for the crimes committed by Netanyahu and his gang,” Kurtulmuş wrote.

At the end of December, South Africa took Israel to the top UN court in The Hague for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention.
South Africa contends that Israel is committing “systematic” acts of genocide in Gaza, citing examples of military violence and statements by Israeli politicians and military brass.

Israel has denounced the lawsuit as “wholly unfounded.”

At the end of May, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to immediately end the controversial military operation in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

In addition to Turkey, several other countries, including Spain as the first EU country, have joined the lawsuit.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused Israel of “genocide” over its war against Hamas, the militant group which launched an unprecedented attack on October 7 that left some 1,200 people dead in Israel.

Erdoğan has good relations with Hamas.

Ten months on from Israel’s air and ground offensive, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 39,600 people have died in the Palestinian territory.

UKRAINE BORDER GUARDS PREVENT DOZENS OF MEN FROM FLEEING COUNTRY.

Ukrainian border guards have prevented 48 conscripts from fleeing to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria, which is controlled by pro-Russian forces.

Drone footage had showed several groups of men climbing into the back of a lorry, which was later stopped by border guards.

The arrests were made near the village of Chorna in the southern region of Odessa, around 10 kilometres from the border.

The men are said to have paid smugglers the equivalent of more than $3,600 each.

In addition to a fine for attempting to cross the border illegally, the men now face conscription into the Ukrainian army.

Ukraine has been resisting the Russian invasion for almost two and a half years.

Martial law is in force in the country and conscripted men between the ages of 18 and 60 can only leave the country in exceptional cases.

Fearing being sent to the eastern front to face Russian troops, many conscripts have attempted to cross Ukraine’s western and southern borders.

Dozens have already lost their lives while fleeing.

RUSSIAN BORDER REGION INTRODUCES STATE OF EMERGENCY AMID UKRAINIAN ATTACKS.

The head of Russia’s Kursk border region on Wednesday announced a state of emergency amid an ongoing Ukrainian cross-border incursion launched some 36 hours ago.

At least five civilians have been killed and 31 wounded — six of them children — since the incursion began, Russian health officials said Wednesday.

Witnesses interviewed on Russian television said they had fled border areas in cars under drone fire.

“To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the Kursk region from 7 August,” Governor Alexei Smirnov said in a post on Telegram.

After two days of fighting, the extent of the damage and the depth of the Ukrainian advance was unclear — though several reports from Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers suggested the fighters had gained several kilometres.

President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had indiscriminately attacked civilian buildings and ambulances while Russia’s top general vowed to crush the incursion.

“The Kyiv regime has undertaken another large-scale provocation,” Putin said in a televised meeting with government officials.

The White House said Wednesday it was contacting key US ally Ukraine to learn more about the “objectives” of Kyiv’s most serious cross-border incursion into Russian territory in months.

“We’re going to reach out to the Ukrainian military to learn more about their objectives,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters when asked about the operation.

Washington supported “common sense” actions by Ukraine to stop attacks by Russian forces, Jean-Pierre added.

President Joe Biden in May allowed Kyiv to use American-supplied weapons against targets just across the Russian border to repel Moscow’s push on the Kharkiv region.

THOUSANDS OF POLICE ON STANDBY AS UNITED KINGDOM BRACES FOR MORE RIOTS.

Thousands of UK riot police on Wednesday stood ready to deal with more potential outbreaks of violence, which erupted more than a week ago after three children were murdered.

Far-right groups have planned demonstrations in more than 30 locations, with immigration lawyers and buildings hosting asylum seekers set to be the primary targets, according to posts on messaging app Telegram leaked to the British media.

The government has said 6,000 specialist police are being readied to deal with England’s worst disorder in over a decade, which has seen hundreds arrested and more than 100 charged.

The violence broke out after three girls, aged nine, seven and six, were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport, north west England.

False rumours initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales. UK media reported that his parents are from Rwanda.

Despite the police statement, initial disturbances in Southport centred around a local mosque, and widespread violence has rocked England and Northern Ireland since.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer late Tuesday warned anyone involved would face “the full force of the law”, including those inciting violence online.

Starmer, a former chief state prosecutor, said he expected “substantive sentencing before the end of this week” for the rioters, after chairing his second emergency meeting in as many days on Tuesday.

US SAYS ISRAEL SHOULD HAVE ‘ZERO TOLERANCE’ IF SOLDIERS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED PALESTINIAN PRISONERS.

Israel should fully investigate allegations of sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees by its soldiers.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday, calling for “zero tolerance” for perpetrators.

Miller said U.S. officials had reviewed the video, asked about a video, aired by Israel’s Channel 12, that appeared to show soldiers taking a detainee out of sight of surveillance cameras to carry out abuses and about broader allegations of abuses against prisoners.

“We have seen the video, and reports of sexual abuse of detainees are horrific. They ought to be investigated fully by the government of Israel, by the IDF,” Miller said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

“There ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee, period. … If there are detainees who have been sexually assaulted or raped, the government of Israel, the IDF need to fully investigate those actions and hold anyone responsible accountable to the full extent of the law.

The White House also called the reports of rape, torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners “deeply concerning.

“It is essential that the rule of law and due process prevail,” said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre.

A spokesperson for Israel’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

But the Israeli military, which runs some detention facilities where Palestinian prisoners have been held, said in response to earlier allegations that it operated according to the rule of law and any specific claims of abuse were investigated.

TAYLOR SWIFT VIENNA CONCERTS CANCELLED AFTER ATTACK THREAT.

Three upcoming Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna have been cancelled following a possible security threat.

The shows had been due to take place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Ernst Happel Stadium.

On Wednesday, two people were arrested on suspicion of planning Islamist attacks on large events in the area around the Austrian capital.

A statement from the organisers said: “Due to confirmation by government officials of a planned terrorist attack at the Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three planned shows for everyone’s safety.”