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U.S. Representative George Santos (R-NY) chats with his State of the Union guest and members of his staff as they prepare for the evening in Santos’s office on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. February 7, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Santos chargesheet grows, Niger kicks out UN rep, GOP voters question McCarthy ouster, China reaps oil windfall
44,000: US Rep. George Santos (R-NY) — already under scrutiny for lying about his background — allegedly stole more than $44,000 from campaign donors by using their identities and credit card information, according to a new 23-count indictment. Santos is also alleged to have lied to the Federal Elections Commission by claiming he loaned his campaign $500,000 at a time when he only had around $8,000 in the bank.
72: The military junta in Niger ordered UN resident coordinator Louise Aubin to leave the country within 72 hours, following expulsions of France’s ambassador and military missions. Mali and Burkina Faso similarly soured on the UN and expelled French forces following their own coups.
25: Just 25% of Republicans support the move by a small group of far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last month, according to an AP-NORC poll. Around 30% say it was the wrong move, and the lion’s share of the party, 43%, is unsure.
10 billion: Chinese oil importers have saved about $10 billion this year thanks to access to heavily discounted oil from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, all subject to US-led sanctions. The relatively cheaper energy has been a rare boon for Beijing amid China’s economic crisis.
U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, walks outside on the day of his appearance in a federal court on gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., October 3, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Hunter Biden in court, deadly Niger ambush, post-terror raids in Turkey, India questions journalists, cyber attacks target Kenya
3: President Joe Biden’s son Hunter President Joe Biden's son pleaded not guilty to three firearms charges in a Delaware federal court on Tuesday. The younger Biden was indicted last month on three counts related to possession of a firearm while using illegal drugs.
29: In one of the deadliest raids in Niger since soldiers staged a coup in July, a group of soldiers conducting operations against militants were ambushed by more than 100 insurgents. At least 29 soldiers were killed.
13,400: Following a terrorist attack in Ankara last week, Turkish authorities have dispatched some 13,400 security officers to carry out raids in 64 Turkish provinces to find suspects with ties to Kurdish militant groups and those who possess illegal weapons. Hundreds of people have been arrested.
30: Indian authorities are carrying out raids too. On Tuesday, police in Delhi raided the homes of several well-known journalists and authors at 30 separate locations as part of an investigation of news website NewsClick. Opposition critics say NewsClick is guilty only of criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government. Authorities say they suspect the website is funded by China.
860 million: Kenya’s communications regulator says the country has experienced a record 860 million cyber attacks in the past year, and that “the frequency, sophistication and scale of cyber-threats” targeted at Kenya’s critical information infrastructure is surging. Makes you wonder how many daily attacks are directed at, say, the United States, China, Russia, or Ukraine.Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune chairs the meeting of the Higher Committee for Supervision of Customs Declarations and Commercial Operations Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune chairs the meeting of the Higher Committee for Supervision of Customs Declarations and Commercial Operations in Algeria on Aug. 01, 2023 .
Algeria tries to play peacemaker in Niger
Algeria announced that the military junta in Niger has accepted its offer to mediate a return to civilian control. In late August, Algiers proposed a six-month-long transition plan, overseen by a civilian.
Algeria has advantages as a mediator. It has good relations with the United States but opposes French intervention in Africa, which the Nigerien junta has also opposed vociferously. Algiers also condemned the coup and supported ousted President Mohamed Bazoum but has been steadfastly opposed to any military intervention against its southern neighbor.
Countries to Niger’s south and west are under pressure to take action against this coup, the latest in a string of putsches in the region. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who also presides over ECOWAS, a political bloc of West African states, had activated a response force and threatened to attack Niger as a matter of last resort.
The long delay in action betrays ECOWAS’s hesitancy — intervention in Niger is likely to get messy and drag in countries like Mali and Burkina Faso that have pledged to support the junta. But if Algeria can make progress in talks, it gives Tinubu a good argument that the measure of last resort is not yet necessary.
It all might be a little too good to be true. Amaka Anku, head of Eurasia Group’s Africa practice, says the situation “sounds pretty similar to previous statements that [Niger] was ready to negotiate with ECOWAS.”
Diplomatic missions by both ECOWAS and US officials have amounted to scant progress in restoring civilian control in Niger. While Algiers is touting this as a path toward a peaceful resolution, Anku says it is not clear that Algeria will be successful.
Activists protest at Nigerian Embassy against Ecowas' military intervention in Niger
France to leave Niger
Macron said that he still regards Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically elected leader now held prisoner by the junta, as the country's "sole legitimate authority."
The move leaves France’s counter terrorism strategy in the Sahel region in tatters, after Paris was forced to withdraw its troops from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in recent years following military coups. France’s exit from resource-rich Niger will leave a power vacuum that both Russia’s Wagner Group and Islamic extremists will seek to fill.
Migrants sit on their belongings in the back of a truck
Hard Numbers: Migrants in the middle, people smugglers freed, bridge workers killed, South Carolina upholds abortion ban
7,000: The UN says 7,000 migrants – those fleeing Africa, and those returning – have been stuck in Niger since the coup in the West African country last month prompted the closing of borders. Niger has been suspended from the African Union and ECOWAS since the coup, but diplomatic efforts to restore constitutional order have failed … which means these discouraged migrants might have a helluva wait.
1,468: This won’t reduce illegal migration. Hungary announced Wednesday that it has released 1,468 foreign national detainees convicted of people smuggling. Budapest announced its intended release earlier this year, noting that the prisoners would have three days to vacate the country. They may leave, but we reckon they know their way back.
26: Twenty-six workers were killed Wednesday, and more are feared missing, amid the collapse of a railway bridge they were constructing in northeastern India over the Kurung River. Rail and construction accidents in India, often linked to infrastructural issues, are not uncommon.
6: South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday to uphold a ban on abortion after about the six-week mark. The decision from the all-male court reversed the court’s earlier ruling, which said the state constitution’s privacy protections included the right to seek an abortion. The new ban takes effect immediately.
The McDougall Creek wildfire burns next to houses in the Okanagan community of West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
Hard Numbers: Canada fires, Israelis killed, Nicaraguan visas, Niger junta's plans … and where was William?
30,000: At least 30,000 households in British Columbia, Canada, have been told to evacuate, with another 36,000 homes on alert, as the province battles an unprecedented number of wildfires. Further north, 20,000 residents of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, have also been ordered to leave their homes. Overall, 1,000 fires are burning across Canada in what is now the country’s worst fire season on record.
3: Two Israeli men were killed on Saturday in a suspected Palestinian attack at a West Bank car wash, and on Monday, an Israeli woman was shot and killed in Hebron. Since the start of 2023, Palestinian attacks against Israelis have claimed 30 lives while nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed in the worst spate of violence in the region in 20 years.
100: The US has canceled the visas of 100 Nicaraguan officials accused of restricting human rights and undermining democracy by supporting President Daniel Ortega’s regime. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the measures on social media, stating, “We call on the regime to unconditionally and immediately release Bishop Álvarez and all those unjustly detained.”
3: Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the leader of the military coup in Niger, took to the country’s airwaves on Saturday to propose a three-year transition of power to civilian rule, without giving further details. Tchiani also warned that any attempt at military intervention by ECOWAS or other forces would “not be a walk in the park.”
1: Prince William, president of England’s Football Association, was heavily criticized for not attending the FIFA World Cup final between England and Spain, while Queen Letizia got kudos for making the trip Down Under with her daughter Sofia. Maybe it made the difference – the Spanish squad trounced the Lionesses 1-0.Niger's security forces stands guard as pro junta supporters take part in a demonstration in front of a French army base in Niamey, Niger.
Niger’s junta to try ousted president for “high treason”
The prospect of a diplomatic solution in the West African country of Niger – more than two weeks after a military coup – appears more remote than ever after military leaders announced that they’ll prosecute the recently deposed leader.
After weeks of back-and-forth with regional leaders, junta personnel say they will try President Mohamed Bazoum, who’s currently in custody along with his wife and son, for “high treason.”
Quick background. The Western-aligned Bazoum came to power in 2021, becoming the former French colony’s first democratically elected head of state.
Indeed, the country of 25 million, one of the poorest in the world, is of great significance to global power brokers like the US, France, and Russia. Read more here.
Though it’s unclear when the trial might start, the hefty charges could carry the death penalty in Niger.
What’s more, many say that there’s no way that Bazoum would get a fair trial because the new justice minister has close ties to the junta.
This comes as a West African regional bloc, known as ECOWAS, has tried to engage with the junta to reinstate Bazoum – which has so far been a non-starter for the military. As diplomatic efforts foundered, ECOWAS said last week that it had put a military force on standby as proof that it was ready to intervene militarily to reinstate the constitutional order. This only caused the junta to double down as they promptly threatened to kill Bazoum.
The latest threat suggests that the junta leaders feel confident that regional forces are full of bluster and aren’t really prepared to fight it out. Are they right?
Niger's junta supporters take part in a demonstration in front of a French army base in Niamey, Niger, on Aug. 11, 2023.
Talk, not troops, in Niger
West African nations continue to dither on using force in Niger, even after last week’s resolution by the Economic Community of West African States to send in troops to restore the government of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
Instead, Nigerian President and ECOWAS Chairman Bola Tinubu is pursuing diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, including green-lighting a mission to Niger by a delegation of Islamic scholars, who met with coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani for several hours on Saturday.
Tchiani is playing up the historic relationship between the neighboring nations, claiming that the coup was “well intended” to avert an imminent threat to both Niger and Nigeria (presumably from jihadists) and that the two countries “were not only neighbors but brothers and sisters who should resolve issues amicably.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress issued a statement on Sunday warning ECOWAS against the use of military force, claiming that it would cause instability and loss of life in the entire region and endanger the lives of Bazoum and his family.
Bazoum remains under house arrest with his wife and 20-year-old son, reportedly in dire conditions in an unlit basement. The ousted leader said they had gone without electricity for a week, had no access to medication, and that his family was subsisting on dry rice and pasta. While the junta allowed a doctor to visit Saturday and bring some food, Bazoum’s supporters fear the plan is to “starve him to death” and are pleading for Western nations to intervene.
But any such intervention is proving tricky. While France talked tough at the beginning of the coup, on Sunday the French defense minister said his country would support the latest diplomatic efforts by ECOWAS. Rising anti-French and pro-Russian sentiment in Niger is complicating efforts to resolve the crisis, now in its third week with no clear end in sight.
For more on what the US and Russia want for Niger, click here.