Tehran, Iran — A militant attack near the Pakistani border with Iran left five Iranian forces dead, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Sunday. The report said the dead were ethnic Baluch members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's volunteer Basij force and were killed in Saravan city in Sistan and Baluchistan province. Saravan is some 1,400 km (870 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier in the day, state TV reported that Revolutionary Guard forces killed three terrorists and arrested nine others in a military operation. The report did not specify which group the suspects belonged to. Last month, unknown gunmen killed four people, including the chief of the Revolutionary Guard in the province. In September, gunmen killed four border guards in Sistan and Baluchistan province in two separate attacks. The militant group Jaish al-Adl, which seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority, claimed responsibility for one attack in which one officer and two soldiers were killed. The province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been the site of occasional deadly clashes involving militant groups, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces. It is one of the least developed parts of Iran. Relations between the predominantly Sunni Muslim residents of the region and Iran's Shiite theocracy have long been strained.

An intercepted missile fired from Yemen sparked blazes near Jerusalem Monday, and later the Houthi rebels said they carried out a successful attack on central Israel. The Iran-backed militant group said it executed a "military operation targeting the Nahal Sorek military base" southeast of Jaffa, and that the "hit was accurate and led to a fire." Meanwhile, the main television news outlet operated by the Houthis said U.S. and British forces carried out a series of airstrikes targeting the Amran and Saada governorates in Yemen. The Israeli military told Agence France-Presse a projectile from Yemen was intercepted in the Bet Shemesh area west of Jerusalem, and debris from that interception caused fires. In a statement to the AFP, it said: "Following the sirens that sounded in the Shfelat Yehuda, Yehuda, and Lakhish areas of central Israel, the IAF (Israeli Air Force) intercepted one projectile that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen. "The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory. Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol." An Iran-backed coalition, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, claimed to have carried out four drone attacks on “vital targets” in Israel Monday, but did not disclose details about the targets in a series of Telegram posts. Strikes in Gaza, Lebanon At least three people were killed Sunday when an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials reported. Palestinians reported heavy bombing late Sunday in the western areas of Nuseirat camp, and least 24 people were wounded and taken to the Awda hospital in Nuseirat, the head of the hospital’s ambulance service told the Associated Press. Earlier Sunday in northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on a home sheltering displaced people in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya killed at least 17 people including nine women, according to Dr. Fadel Naim, director of Al-Ahly Hospital in Gaza City. An Israeli airstrike killed at least 23 people, including seven children, in Aalmat village north of Beirut, far from the areas in the east and south where Hezbollah militants have a major presence. Lebanon's health ministry said another six people were wounded. There was no Israeli evacuation warning and no immediate Israeli comment on the attack. The United Nations children’s agency says the war between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 200 children in Lebanon.   Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 3,189 people have been killed and over 14,000 wounded in Lebanon in more than a year of conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. Some 1.2 million people have been displaced. The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, although about one-third of them are believed to be dead. Israel's counteroffensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas militants. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom, European Union and others. Israeli President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to meet with outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday in Washington as the mid-month deadline approaches for Israel to meet a Biden administration ultimatum that it allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza to assist Palestinians or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding. Information from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters was included in this report.

The United States said Tuesday that Israel has made limited progress on increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as Washington requested, so the Biden administration will not limit arms transfers to Israel. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that "we at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law." The administration told its ally on October 13 that it had one month to increase aid to Gaza, where the situation after 13 months of war between Israel and Hamas militants has unleashed a catastrophic humanitarian situation, or face a reduction in military aid. The deadline was Tuesday. “We are not giving Israel a pass," Patel said, adding that "we want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow the conditions for that to continue to progress." Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israel’s top national security adviser, Ron Dermer, in Washington on Monday to go over the steps that Israel has taken. At the United Nations, U.S. envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that Israel has taken some important steps, including restoring aid deliveries to the north, but that it must ensure its actions are “fully implemented and its improvements sustained over time.” “And we continue to reiterate, there must be no forcible displacement nor policy of starvation in Gaza, which would have grave implications under U.S. and international law,” she said. A senior U.N. human rights official said at the same meeting that the entry and distribution of aid into Gaza has fallen to “some of the lowest levels in a year” and criticized Israel’s conduct of military operations in the north. “All states, consistent with their obligations under international law, must therefore assess arms sales or transfers and provision of military, logistical or financial support to a party to the conflict, with a view to ending such support if this risks serious violations of international law,” Ilze Brands Kehris, U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, said. Israel denies it is limiting aid to Gaza, blaming the U.N. and aid agencies for slow distribution and Hamas for stealing it. Earlier Tuesday, eight international aid organizations said that of 19 measures of compliance with the U.S. demands, Israel failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four. "Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza," the report said. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.” Asked what grade the United Nations would give Israel, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric would not offer one, but said, “I think from what we've been telling you over the last few days and frankly much longer, it's pretty clear that we're nowhere near what we need.” While aid entering Gaza is insufficient overall, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says it is especially bad in northern Gaza, where 85% of its attempts to coordinate aid convoys and humanitarian visits in October were denied or impeded. “As I brief you, Israeli authorities are blocking humanitarian assistance from entering North Gaza, where fighting continues, and around 75,000 people remain with dwindling water and food supplies,” acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told the Security Council meeting. “Conditions of life across Gaza are unfit for human survival,” she said. Famine alert On Friday, U.N.-backed food security experts issued an urgent warning, saying there is a strong likelihood that famine is occurring or imminent in parts of northern Gaza and that immediate action is needed to avert a catastrophe. “By the time famine has been declared, people are already dying of hunger, with irreversible consequences that can last generations,” Rein Paulsen told the Security Council meeting. Paulsen is the director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. “The window of opportunity to deliver this assistance is now, today, not tomorrow,” he said. Israel’s U.N. ambassador told reporters ahead of the council meeting that the report by the famine committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC as the experts are known, is “harmful propaganda” and “filled with baseless and slanderous claims” against Israel. “As I have said here in the past, there are agencies dedicated to real humanitarian work, and then there are those like the IPC, which prioritize smearing Israel over actually helping those in need,” Danny Danon said. Inside the council, he said IPC claims of imminent famine in northern Gaza are “simply false,” and that Israel facilitated over 713 trucks into the north in October. He said across Gaza, a dozen bakeries produce pita bread, and overall, Israel is allowing aid in through multiple crossing points, including the Kissufim crossing to central Gaza, which was opened on Tuesday after having been shuttered 19 years ago. “Are these the actions of a state wishing to cause a famine?” Danon asked. Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour said Israel should allow international journalists into Gaza to see for themselves whether there is famine or not. “We need international media, independent media, to go and to document exactly what is happening,” Mansour told reporters. “It is genocide in northern Gaza, and we need the international media to go and tell the story.” In 13 months of war, Israel has allowed only a few handpicked reporters to accompany its troops into Gaza on brief tours to see the Hamas tunnels. It has also shuttered the bureau of Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera in Israel. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 137 journalists and media workers have been killed, nearly all of them Palestinian. As the situation worsens, the Security Council’s 10 elected members are working on a draft resolution on the protection of civilians in the conflict and the need for an immediate cease-fire, release of hostages and scaling up of aid. Biden reaffirms support for Israel President Joe Biden reiterated his support of Israel during a Tuesday Oval Office meeting with Israel’s president and echoed the wish to see the return of the remaining hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza for more than a year. “My commitment to Israel is ironclad,” Biden told President Isaac Herzog during their morning meeting in the White House. “And we share a deep friendship.” Herzog underscored his government’s main objective: “First and foremost, we have to get the hostages back.” As President-elect Donald Trump begins to put his government together, his transition office announced Tuesday that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is his nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, and real estate investor Steve Witkoff will be his special envoy to the Middle East. Air strikes in Gaza, Beirut Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 people in Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinian authorities said, while in Lebanon, plumes of smoke rose above Beirut’s southern suburbs less than an hour after Israeli forces told residents to evacuate. A strike early Tuesday hit a house at a refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, according to Al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Israel's new defense minister, Israel Katz, said on X that during a meeting with military officials Tuesday, he reiterated that Israel will continue hitting Hezbollah with full force, and that there will be no cease-fire in Lebanon. The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, although about one-third of them are believed to be dead. Israel's counteroffensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas militants. The war spread to Lebanon in mid-September, after months of rocket fire from Hezbollah into Israel and drone and airstrikes by Israel’s military in south Lebanon escalated. More than 3,200 Lebanese have been killed, most of them in the past six weeks. Both Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated as terrorist organizations by the United States. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell and United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.

BAKU, Azerbaijan — The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Tuesday he's hopeful that meetings this week with Iranian officials, including the country's new president, can lead to a breakthrough in monitoring the country's nuclear program, a longstanding issue that has gained new urgency as Israel has twice struck Iran amid rising tensions in the Middle East. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will travel to Iran on Wednesday to meet for the first time with President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July. Grossi said he hopes to build on positive discussions he had with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during the U.N. General Assembly in September. "We have a problem that we need to solve," Grossi said in an interview at the U.N. climate conference in Azerbaijan. "That is this gap, this lack of confidence, which we should not allow to grow into a self-fulfilling prophecy of using nuclear facilities as targets." He added: "There has been a bit of a dire straits dynamic with Iran that we want to go beyond." Iran is rapidly advancing its atomic program while increasing stockpiles of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, all in defiance of international demands, according to the IAEA. Iran says its program is for energy purposes, not to build weapons. Grossi's visit comes as Israel and Iran have traded missile attacks in recent months after more than a year of war in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, a group supported by Iran. Grossi noted that international law prohibits the attack of nuclear facilities and "it's obvious that is something that can have radiological consequences." The Biden administration said last month that it had won assurances from Israel that it would not attack nuclear or oil sites. A 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers put limits on Iran's nuclear program, which the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons. The deal included the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran. But that deal collapsed after Donald Trump's administration in 2018 pulled the United States from it. That led Iran to abandon all limits put on its program and enrich uranium to up to 60% purity. When asked if the IAEA feared Iran may be developing a bomb, Grossi said he didn't "have any information that would sustain that." He added that inspectors' job was not to "judge intentions," but rather verify that what Iran says about its nuclear program was true. Trump's reelection last week raises questions about whether and how the incoming administration and Iran may engage. Grossi said he had worked with the first Trump administration, which he said engaged in "seamless, professional work," and looked forward to looking with Trump's second administration. "Circumstances have changed in that the problem has grown bigger than it was," said Grossi. "The problem of not finding a solution."

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, has assured that the Federal Government will soon begin payment of the pension backlog. Edun gave this assurance on Tuesday in Abuja during a peaceful rally by the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector, NUPCPS, at the Federal Ministry of […]

Nigerian Govt to commence payment of pension backlog – Finance Minister Edun

Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand has suggested that new manager, Ruben Amorim may have made a mistake in not keeping former interim manager, Ruud van Nistelrooy at the club. Amorim arrived at Man United on Monday to officially take charge at Old Trafford having been named Erik ten Hag’s permanent replacement a few weeks ago. […]

Man Utd: Rio Ferdinand identifies first mistake Amorim has made

Beijing — China has published baselines for a contested shoal in the South China Sea it seized from the Philippines, a move that's likely to increase tensions over overlapping territorial claims. The Foreign Ministry on Sunday posted online geographic coordinates for the baselines around Scarborough Shoal. A nation's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone are typically defined as the distance from the baselines. Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. China seized the shoal, which lies west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, in 2012 and has since restricted access to Filipino fishermen there. A 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court found that most Chinese claims in the South China Sea were invalid but Beijing refuses to abide by it. Ships from China and the Philippines have collided several times as part of increased confrontations, and the Chinese coast guard has blasted Philippine vessels with water cannons. China's move came two days after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed two laws demarcating the government's claims in the disputed waters. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said that the delimiting of the baselines was in accordance with a U.N. agreement and Chinese law. "This is a natural step by the Chinese government to lawfully strengthen marine management and is consistent with international law and common practices," it said. The statement added that one of the laws signed by Marcos, the Philippine Maritime Zones Act, violates China's sovereignty in the South China Sea. "China firmly opposes it and will continue to do everything necessary in accordance with law to firmly defend its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," the Foreign Ministry said. China stakes claim to almost the entirety of the South China Sea. It has a series of disputes with several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines and Vietnam over territory in the waters, which are part of a key shipping route in Asia.

Taipei, Taiwan — Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. has secured another term in office after defeating former President Tommy Remengesau Jr. in its Nov. 5 election that was closely monitored. Palau sits on the front line of competition for geopolitical influence between the United States and China in the Pacific Ocean. Analysts say the outcome shows more Palauan voters support Whipps’ policy agenda, which includes tax reforms and deeper engagement with the United States. “It seems Palau’s closer relationship with the United States under Whipps Jr.’s leadership makes sense for the majority of Palauans,” said Henryk Szadziewski, an expert on Pacific affairs at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. While election authorities still haven’t finished counting absentee ballots, Whipps has won the vote with one of the biggest margins in Palau’s electoral history, 57.5%. Remengesau, who is Whipps’ brother-in-law, took 41.3%. Whipps thanked supporters for allowing him to continue “building on the progress” that his administration has achieved over the last four years. “Your decision to grant me a second term as president is a responsibility I hold with the utmost respect,” he said in a statement shared with VOA on Monday. The president can only have two consecutive four-year terms and must step down after that, but he can run again after a four-year gap in between. Remengesau has served a total of four terms already. Separately, the spokesperson for Palau’s election commission told Radio New Zealand the following day that it was “highly unlikely” that Whipps would lose the election. Meanwhile, in a concession speech broadcast by a local radio station, the Palau Wave Productions, on November 7, Remengesau said the election is finished and the Palauan people have “spoken through a peaceful and free election.” Palau has a population of around 20,000 people and is situated around 890 kilometers (550 miles) east of the Philippines. It is one of three Pacific Island countries that receive significant economic support from the U.S. under agreements known as the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA. Under the accords, the U.S. provides economic aid worth billions of dollars, while Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia give the U.S. exclusive military access to their land, water and airspace, as well as the right to deny China access to their ports and territorial waters. In September, U.S. lawmakers passed funding for key provisions in COFA for Palau. The U.S. military is also helping to repair a runway on a World War II-era Japanese airfield on the island of Peleliu and installing two radar systems on Palau. Experts say they expect Palau to keep deepening ties with the U.S. during Whipps’ second term and relevant efforts will likely include increasing the frequency of U.S. military visits and enhancing connectivity with Palau. “There’s going to be a much stronger U.S. presence in terms of military visits, joint actions to combat transnational crime and illegal fishing, and boost transport and digital connectivity,” Meg Keen, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Australia, told VOA by phone. During his first term, Whipps repeatedly said “presence is deterrence,” referring to the increased U.S. military presence in Palau, and characterized the Pacific island country as “part of the U.S. homeland” when it comes to security. In an interview with VOA last month, Whipps said U.S. protection plays a key role in safeguarding Palau’s territorial integrity. “Since Palau is small, having the protection of the United States is important because we see what’s happening now in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China,” he said during an interview at his office in Koror, Palau. Since 2023, the Chinese and Philippine coast guards have repeatedly confronted each other at several disputed shoals that both sides claim to be their territories. While Beijing views almost the entire South China Sea as its territorial water, a 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court found that most Chinese claims in the South China Sea were invalid. Beijing refuses to abide by the ruling. While many Palauans support the Whipps administration’s efforts to deepen security ties with the U.S., some political observers say some Palauans are still concerned about the negative impacts associated with the increased U.S. military presence across the Pacific island country. “Some Palauan people hold this apprehensiveness about the implication of increased U.S. military presence in Palau because they rarely saw U.S. soldiers in military uniforms in the past,” Kambes Kesolei, editor of one of Palau’s main newspapers, Tia Belau, told VOA by phone. “Some Palauans wonder what they can do to prevent Palau from becoming over-militarized,” he added. In addition to deepening ties with the U.S., some analysts say Palau will maintain its diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which could lead to “increased coercive pressure” from China. Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has repeatedly vowed to reunite with the island, by force if necessary. “I expect ties between Palau and Taiwan to remain robust but increasing coercive pressure from the People’s Republic of China, [PRC,] may increase risks for Palau, which will need strong support from the U.S. and like-minded partners to maintain resiliency against PRC coercion,” Parker Novak, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, told VOA in a written response. Whipps has accused China of weaponizing tourism against Palau and posing a wide range of threats to the Pacific island country’s national security, including cyberattacks and illegal incursion of Palau’s territorial water by Chinese vessels. “In 2015 and 2016, tourism numbers from China went through the roof, which helped Palau’s economy grow 30%, but since Palau never switched diplomatic recognition [from Taiwan] to China, that number just basically collapsed in the following years,” Whipps told VOA. In response to questions about Whipps’ claim that China has pressured Palau to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press conference on November 4 that only a small number of countries, including Palau, still maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. “China urges these countries to fulfill their obligations under international law, stand on the right side of history, and make right decisions that truly serve their fundamental and long-term interests at an early date,” she said. While Whipps is likely to remain critical of China’s attempt to coerce Palau, Keen in Australia said the Palauan president is not going to completely “shut the door for China.” “He is very much wary of how China has used land and tourism to build pressure, but if the investment is in the national interests of Palau, he is willing to consider,” she told VOA.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, battered in parliamentary elections last month, has survived a rare runoff vote against the opposition to remain the country's leader but he still faces turmoil ahead. One of his top priorities is dealing with the aftermath of a major corruption scandal in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in which dozens of lawmakers from the party are alleged to have pocketed profits from event ticket sales as kickbacks. Ishiba also now has a much-emboldened, opposition eager to push through policies long stymied by the LDP. Support ratings for his Cabinet have fallen to about 30%. Here is a look at what's happening in Japan's tumultuous politics, and what it might mean for Ishiba and his government as they prepare to navigate a second term of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Why did the vote in parliament take place? A parliamentary vote for a new leader is mandatory within 30 days of a general election. In the past that was mostly ignored as the head of the LDP usually enjoyed a majority in the Lower House, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. This time, though, because Ishiba's LDP and its junior coalition partner lost its majority in the recent election, the runoff on Monday couldn't be avoided — the first in 30 years. What's next for the prime minister? Opposition's top leader, Yoshihiko Noda, has noted that nearly half of all lower house steering committees are now headed by the opposition. That’s a huge change from the pre-election domination of the LDP, which controlled all but three of the 27 committees. “We are going to have a new landscape in Japanese politics,” Noda said. Twelve of the committees in key areas, including budget, political reforms, national security and legal affairs, will be headed by Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and two other main opposition groups. What's certain is that the era of LDP’s one-sided rule is over, for now, and the opposition has a chance to achieve policies long opposed by the ruling conservatives, including on issues like gender equality and diversity. Noda last Friday said a legal committee that is now headed by his party’s gender equality chief, Chinami Nishimura, is aiming to achieve a civil code revision to allow married couples the option of keeping separate surnames. That change has been stalled by LDP conservatives for 30 years despite widespread support by the public and a United Nations panel on discrimination against women. Who is the opposition kingmaker? Yuichiro Tamaki is head of the conservative Democratic Party for the People, which quadrupled its seats to 28 in the election. The vote elevated his party from a fringe group to a major player. He is now being cast as a potential key to Ishiba’s survival. A Harvard-educated former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, the 55-year-old Tamaki has seen success by pushing for the raising of a basic tax-free income allowance and an increase of take-home wages. His messages on social media have appealed to younger voters, who have long been ignored by LDP policies catering to conservative elderly. Ishiba apparently seems to find Tamaki’s 28-member DPP an attractive partner to secure a majority. The two parties, which have common ground in some areas — including support for greater nuclear energy use and a stronger military — have started policy talks. Ishiba met with both Tamaki and Noda on Monday but Tamaki may be cautious about moving too close to a scandal-plagued LDP ahead of another election next year. Noda is struggling to form a unified opposition to force a change of government, which he says is his next goal. What does this mean for Ishiba's government? For Ishiba, the “hung parliament” requires him to win over opposition forces so he can push his policies. While considered unstable, it might also provide a chance for a more consensus-based policy making process, experts say. “I’m taking the current situation positively as a chance to get our opposition voice heard more carefully,” Tamaki said. Ishiba also faces challenges of restoring unity in his own party. A number of senior LDP lawmakers are waiting to overthrow Ishiba, though their priority is to resolidify their footholds, not infighting — and nobody is eager to do damage control at this difficult time anyway. “The [Ishiba] administration is quite unstable. ... He will have to get opposition parties' cooperation every time he wants to get a bill approved, which could stall policies,” said University of Tokyo political science professor Yu Uchiyama. And even if Ishiba survives politically in the coming months, there could be a call for his replacement ahead of next elections. “Japan is likely to return to a period of short-lived government,” Uchiyama said. How does this affect Japan's diplomacy, security and ties with Trump? Ishiba congratulated Trump hours after his victory and in a brief telephone conversation, they agreed to closely work together to further elevate their alliance. While experts say Trump understands the importance of U.S.-Japan relations, he may — as he did in his first administration — pressure Japan to pay more for the cost of 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan or to buy more expensive American weapons. Trump's possible tariff proposals could also hurt Japanese exporters. Ishiba on Saturday renewed his pledge to pursue an ongoing military buildup plan under a strategy that calls for a counter-strike capability with long-range cruise-missiles. He has long advocated a more equal Japan-U.S. security alliance but could face difficulty pursuing those plans. ‘’It will be a fantastic experiment to see if a national unity government can get Japan through until the next election,” said Michael Cucek, an expert in Japanese politics at Temple University in Japan.  

Guddiga Doorashooyinka iyo xuduudaha dowlad goboleedka Jubaland ayaa doortay Guddoomiye, Guddoomiye kuxigeen iyo xoghaye. Guddiga doorashada…

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Somaliland, the self-declared state in the Horn of Africa, is set to hold its fourth presidential…

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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has left little question about the sort of economic policies he will pursue when he is sworn in for a second term as president in January. The once-and-future president has promised to extend existing tax cuts and implement new ones; to pursue a deregulation agenda, particularly when it comes to energy production; to reinstate a strong protectionist trade policy, including substantial tariffs on imports; and to undertake a "mass deportation" program that would remove a large number of the millions of undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States. While there may be little doubt about the kind of policies Trump will implement, the degree to which he will pursue them is an open question. "The problem that all economists are dealing with is they don't know how much of what Trump said on the campaign trail to take seriously," Steven B. Kamin, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told VOA. "They don't know if he's going to do a lot of these things, or if he is, how far he'll take it." When it comes to tariffs, Trump has promised across-the-board 10%-20% levies on all imports, and charges of up to 60% on goods coming from China, which experts warn would be economically ruinous. His rhetoric about fossil fuel extraction suggests he will drive up oil and gas production, even though the U.S. is currently producing more energy than it ever has. On immigration, he and his advisers have vacillated between suggesting that all undocumented people will be forcibly removed and describing a much more targeted operation. Tax policy One thing that appears certain is that Trump will work with Congress — which seems likely to be fully controlled by the Republican Party — to extend the tax cuts that became law as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which he signed into law in 2017. Those tax cuts reduced the income taxes paid by many American workers and reduced taxable income by increasing the standard deduction. They also sharply cut the top business income tax bracket from 39% to 21%. Those provisions are all scheduled to expire over the next several years, some as soon as 2025, and Trump has proposed making them permanent. Trump has also floated the idea of other tax cuts, including further reducing the business income tax to a maximum of 15%, and making income from overtime wages, tips and Social Security payments nontaxable, all of which would reduce government revenues. Kamin said the stimulative impact of Trump's proposed additional tax changes would likely not be great, but the impact on the country's debt might be, because they will virtually guarantee additional government borrowing to finance deficit spending. "The real concern for folks that are concerned about the fiscal balance — and I'm one of them — is that by cementing in place large fiscal deficits as far as the eye can see, even in environments of strong economic activity when we should be running surpluses, that leads to increases in the debt," he said. "That, eventually, should lead to crowding out of private investment, rising interest rates, and more worries about the government's sustainability position," Kamin added. "But when the debt will reach a level that will be worrisome in that respect, nobody knows." Cost-cutting In theory, some of the deficit spending made necessary by large tax cuts could be offset by a reduction in government spending, something Trump has also floated on the campaign trail. In particular, the president-elect has proposed creating a Department of Government Efficiency, to be headed by Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of the electric car company Tesla and the rocket builder SpaceX, and the owner of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. For his part, Musk has mused that it should be possible to slash federal spending by as much as $2 trillion per year, or about 30%. Reductions of that magnitude would require deep cuts to a vast array of programs, including elements of the social safety net such as Social Security and federal health programs like Medicaid. However, it is unclear how Trump would persuade even a Republican Congress to enact such a wide-ranging reduction in government services. Immigration policy If Trump follows through on a policy of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, it is virtually certain to have a negative impact on economic sectors where they are present as laborers in significant concentrations, especially agriculture and construction, said Marcus Noland, executive vice president and director of studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "If you take lots of people out of the labor force, you reduce the amount of output, because there's less labor available, and you raise prices," Noland told VOA. "These people are not distributed evenly across the United States economy," he said. "They're concentrated in agriculture and construction, so you would disrupt those sectors the most, especially if you combine it with tariffs." Trade policy Trump's tariff proposals, especially if he follows through with his maximalist proposals from the campaign trail, could be significantly damaging. While theoretically meant to stimulate American manufacturing, Noland warned that they could have the opposite effect. "Some modeling that I worked on suggest that those tariff policies, instead of reviving the industrial sector, will actually reduce industrial activity in the United States," he warned. Blanket tariffs on imports, and especially high levies on Chinese goods, would create severe challenges for U.S. manufacturers. "The reason is that you would increase the price of industrial inputs, and so, the United States would become a high-cost place to produce," he said. "Investment would fall — and investment is intensive in industrial materials — so, ironically, it has the opposite effect of what its proponents say."

Diplomacy is in full swing as U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israel's president, and President-elect Donald Trump speaks with Israel's prime minister. Fast-rising methane emissions could undermine efforts to limit global warming by mid-century, prompting scientists and policymakers to urge aggressive action to curb the output of the potent greenhouse gas. An election in Somaliland, and the fight against Boko Haram in Chad. Plus, Trump’s foreign policy.

Not less than 13 persons have reportedly died after a mining site collapsed in Bassa local government area of Plateau State. Chairman of the local government, Joshua Riti, who confirmed ths incident, said it occurred on November 10. He added that seven of the deceased hail from Bassa LGA, NAN reports. “This is an unfortunate […]

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    The United States authorities have declared Olalekan Abimbola Olawusi, a 48-year-old Nigerian man, wanted over the death of a minor, with a $25,000 reward offered for aby information leading to his arrest. The suspect, believed to have fled to Nigeria, faces charges of first-degree murder and two counts of inflicting serious bodily injury […]

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Dutch coach, Eric Ten Hag was eventually booted out of Manchester United 30 months after his appointment in May 2022. The former Ajax gaffer didn’t quite succeed with the Red Devils in terms of quality, squad depth and results but he was able to deliver two trophies( Carabao, FA Cup) in his two years in […]

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