UNITED STATES PRESIDENT VISITS SLAVERY MUSEUM IN ANGOLA.

U.S. President Joe Biden has toured a slavery museum in Angola and inspected shackles and a whip but also addressed Africa’s future, saying Africans will make up one in four people by 2050 and the world’s fate rests in their hands.

Biden’s visit, the first to Angola by a U.S. president, is meant to promote billions of dollars of commitments to the sub-Saharan African nation for what he called the largest ever U.S. rail investment overseas.

“The United States is all in on Africa,” Biden earlier Tuesday told Angolan President João Lourenço, who called Biden’s visit a key turning point in U.S.-Angola relations dating back to the Cold War.

Biden will visit the coastal city of Lobito on Wednesday for a look at the corridor’s Atlantic Ocean outlet. The project also has drawn financing from the European Union, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, a Western-led private consortium and African banks.

It was not clear how much of the U.S. commitments had been delivered and how much will depend on the Trump administration.

Biden had promised to visit sub-Saharan Africa last year, after reviving the U.S.-Africa Summit in 2022. But the trip was delayed until this year, reinforcing a sentiment among Africans that their continent is still a low priority for Washington. The last U.S. president to visit sub-Saharan Africa was Barack Obama in 2015.

SOUTH AFRICA PRESIDENT SAYS GROUP OF TWENTY TO WORK WITH NEW UNITED STATES LEADER.

As the world awaits the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has reiterated the G20 resolution to work together with the new leader.

Ramaphosa reassured them about the relevant steps they have taken to caution against Trump’s America First approach in his second administration, which starts on Jan. 20.

Trump has given an indication that his foreign policy will be combative. He has pledged to impose new tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, while he also threatened this weekend 100% tariffs against nations in the BRICS bloc of developing nations, which include Brazil, Russia, China, India, South Africa and others.

Trump wrote on social media site X that those countries should expect to “wave goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy” if they pursue a policy of looking to move away from the U.S. dollar for international trade.

Ramaphosa said Tuesday he had reached out to the U.S. president-elect to congratulate him on his election victory, he also hoped Trump would travel for the G20 summit in South Africa in late 2025.

South Africa assumed the rotational leadership of the group of the world’s leading economies on Sunday from Brazil and will hand it over to the United States at the end of 2025.

SOUTH AFRICA RELAXES VISA RULES FOR NIGERIAN TOURISTS, BUSSINESS PEOPLE.

South African Government has relaxed its visa rules for Nigerian tourists and business people, saying they can now apply for a visa without submitting a passport.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced this at the opening of the 11th session of the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) in Cape Town, which President Bola Tinubu attended.

This was contained in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

According to the statement, President Ramaphosa said South Africa has simplified its visa processes to facilitate travel for Nigerian business people and tourists, with measures such as five-year multiple entry visas.

He also pledged South Africa’s commitment to removing constraints on greater investment and addressing the challenges faced by companies in both countries.

“As we mark 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, we see a bright future for our relationship. Our strong bonds of friendship provide a firm foundation for more meaningful economic cooperation.

“Nigeria is host to a number of South African companies. South Africa has always been open to Nigerian business, reflected in the number of investments and operations established in this country.

He also acknowledged the Nigerian government’s reforms to further strengthen and foster a business environment that offers assurances to investors, including from South Africa.

NAMIBIA ELECTS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT.

Namibia’s ruling SWAPO party was declared winner Tuesday of last week’s disputed elections, ushering in the southern African country’s first woman president after a disputed vote that the main opposition has already said it does not recognise.

Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah took just over 57 percent of ballots followed by the candidate for the main opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) with 25.5 percent, the election authority announced.

Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, becomes the first woman to rule the mineral-rich southern African country that has been governed by the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) since independence in 1990.

The November 27 election was extended twice as logistical and technical problems, including a shortage of ballot papers, led to long queues.

Some voters gave up on the first day of voting after waiting for up to 12 hours.

UNITED NATIONS SEEKS FORTY-SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS FOR AID IN 2025.

The UN appealed Wednesday for more than $47 billion to deliver vital aid next year, warning surging conflicts and the climate crisis will leave hundreds of millions of people in need.

“The world is on fire,” the United Nations’ new humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva, acknowledging he was looking ahead to 2025 with “dread”.

With brutal conflicts spiralling in places like Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, and as climate change and extreme weather take an ever-heavier toll, the UN estimated that 305 million people globally will need some form of emergency assistance next year.

“We are dealing with a poly-crisis right now globally, and it is the most vulnerable people in the world who are paying the price,” Fletcher said, warning that swelling inequality combined with the convergence of conflict and climate change had created a “perfect storm” of needs.

Launching the Global Humanitarian Overview, Fletcher acknowledged that the UN and its partners would not be able to reach all of those in need.

The annual appeal by UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations is seeking $47.4 billion for 2025 — slightly less than the appeal for this year — which it said was enough to provide assistance to the 189.5 million most vulnerable people.

SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT PRESSED TO STEP DOWN OVER MARTIAL LAW BID.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faced demands to resign after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law was voted down by lawmakers and brought thousands of protesters to the streets.

Yoon’s shock bid to impose martial law on South Korea for the first time in over four decades plunged the country into the deepest turmoil in its modern democratic history and caught its close allies around the world off guard.

The United States, which stations nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea to protect it from the nuclear-armed North, initially voiced deep concern at the declaration, then relief that martial law was over.

The dramatic developments have left the future of Yoon — a conservative politician and former star public prosecutor who was elected president in 2022 — in jeopardy.

South Korea’s main opposition party — whose lawmakers jumped fences and tussled with security forces so they could vote to overturn the law — demanded Yoon’s immediate resignation.

“We will file charges of insurrection,” against Yoon, his defence and interior ministers and “key military and police figures involved, such as the martial law commander and the police chief”, the Democratic Party said in a statement.

It added that it would also push for impeachment.

The nation’s largest umbrella labour union called an “indefinite general strike” until Yoon resigned.

MACRON REJECTS CALLS TO RESIGN AS FRENCH PRESIDENT.

French President Emmanuel Macron has rejected calls to resign to break a political impasse in the country, saying such a scenario amounted to “political fiction”.

“It doesn’t make sense… it’s frankly not up to scratch to say these things,” Macron, whose government faces a no confidence vote in parliament , told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to Saudi Arabia.

“It so happens that if I am before you, it is because I was elected twice by the French people. I am extremely proud of this and I will honour this trust with all the energy that is mine until the last second to be useful to the country,” added Macron, who is due to serve until 2027.

Several prominent opposition figures and even some voices closer to the presidential faction have suggestion resignation could be Macron’s only viable option.

Macron also accused the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen of “unbearable cynicism” in backing the motion which threatens to topple the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

“We must not scare people with these things, we have a strong economy,” he added.

While most commentators predict that the left and fa-right will team up to bring down the government, Macron appeared to hold out some hope saying he could “not believe” that the no confidence motion would we passed against the government.

TRUMP’S PLAN FOR UKRAINE COMES INTO FOCUS.

Advisers to Donald Trump publicly and privately are floating proposals to end the Ukraine war that would cede large parts of the country to Russia for the foreseeable future.

According to a Reuters analysis of their statements and interviews with several people close to the U.S. president-elect.

The proposals by three key advisers, including Trump’s incoming Russia-Ukraine envoy, retired Army Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, share some elements, including taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table.

Trump’s advisers would try forcing Moscow and Kyiv into negotiations with carrots and sticks, including halting military aid to Kyiv unless it agrees to talk but boosting assistance if Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses.

Trump repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to end the nearly three-year-old conflict within 24 hours of his Jan. 20 inauguration, if not before then, but has yet to say how.

UKRAINE GIVES ABSCONDING SOLDIERS SECOND CHANCE AS FORCE DWINDLE.

As Ukraine’s military struggles to find enough troops, particularly infantry, to hold off Russia’s much larger army, some units are giving a second chance to those who have absconded from service.

Data from the prosecutor’s office shows nearly 95,000 criminal cases have been opened since 2022 against soldiers going “absent without leave” (AWOL) and for the more serious crime of battlefield desertion.

The number of cases has risen steeply with each year of the war: almost two-thirds of the total are from 2024. With many tens of thousands of troops killed or wounded, it is a depletion that Ukraine can ill afford.

Hyundai Motor union plans strikes on Thursday and Friday

Opens new tab labour union plans to stage strikes for four hours each on Thursday and Friday.

South Korea’s Metal Workers’ Union, of which the Hyundai Motor union is part, plans to launch a full strike from Dec. 11 unless South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol steps down, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.

Yoon is under fire to resign or face impeachment after he declared martial law only to reverse the move hours later, drawing criticism from various unions and groups.