World

Gabon and Togo joined the Commonwealth on Saturday, becoming the latest nations with no historic ties to Britain to enter the English-speaking club headed by Queen Elizabeth II. 

The 54-nation group of mostly former British colonies accepted Togo and Gabon’s application for membership on the final day of its leadership summit in Rwanda.

“We have admitted Gabon and Togo as new members, and we all welcome them to the Commonwealth family,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame said at the closing press conference.

The French-speaking West African states are the first new members to join the Commonwealth since Rwanda in 2009.

Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said membership opened the door to 2.5 billion consumers in the Commonwealth realm, offered new education opportunities, and tapped a “craze” for English among his countrymen.

“Togo’s membership is motivated by the desire to expand its diplomatic, political, and economic network… as well as to get closer to the English-speaking world,” he told AFP.

It also allowed the small and developing nation of 8.5 million to redefine bilateral relations with the UK outside the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit, he added.

Francophone states have also sought Commonwealth membership in recent years to pivot away from France, analysts said.

Togolese political scientist Mohamed Madi Djabakate said the move would prove popular as French influence in Togo was often blamed for its economic woes.

“Togo joining the Commonwealth is better for many people than sharing the French language and culture, which at the end of the day has not promoted development,” he told AFP.

– ‘Making history’ –

Rwanda’s own membership came at a time of immense strain between Kigali and Paris, and the east African state has forged close ties with the UK in the years after its admission, including a controversial migrant deal agreed this year.

Gabonese President Ali Bongo said his country was “making history” by joining the group.

“Sixty-two years after its Independence, our country is getting ready to breakthrough with a new chapter,” Bongo said in a statement on Twitter. 

“It’s a world of opportunities for Gabon on the economic, diplomatic & cultural levels.” 

Their admission is a boon for the Commonwealth at a time of renewed discussion over its relevance and purpose.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the interest from new members proved the organisation was alive and well.

But it could also raise questions about the Commonwealth’s espoused commitment to good governance and democracy as fundamental values of its charter.

Oil-rich Gabon, a former French colony on the Atlantic Ocean, has been ruled by the Bongo family for 55 years.

Ali Bongo took over after his father’s death and was returned to power in 2016 following an election marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud.

Togo, a former German then French colony, has also been under dynastic rule for more than half a century.

General Gnassingbe Eyadema governed with an iron fist from 1967 until his death in 2005, upon which his son Faure Gnassingbe took power.

He was re-elected in polls that were all contested by the opposition.

Born out of the British Empire, the Commonwealth represents one-third of humanity and spans nations across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Mozambique — a former Portuguese colony — became the first Commonwealth member without historic links to Britain when it joined in 1995.

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– Ukrainians withdraw as Severodonetsk occupied-

Ukraine’s Severodonetsk is “fully occupied” by the Russian army, its mayor says, after weeks of fighting over the key eastern city.

“The city has been fully occupied by the Russians,” mayor Oleksandr Striuk says.

The Ukrainian army had Friday said it would withdraw from the city of around 100,000 inhabitants before the war to better defend the neighbouring city of Lysychansk.

Striuk says civilians have started to evacuate a chemical plant, where hundreds of people have been hiding from Russian shelling.

– Street fighting in Lysychansk –

Russian troops and allies have entered Lysychansk and street fighting is under way in the eastern Ukrainian city which neighbours its now occupied strategic twin Severodonetsk, pro-Moscow separatists say.

“The people’s militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Russian army have entered the city of Lysychansk,” a representative for pro-Russian separatists, Andrei Marochko, says on Telegram.

“Street fighting is currently taking place,” he adds in a claim which cannot be independently verified.

– US sees Severodonetsk as ‘small gain’ for Russia –

The United States plays down the importance of Ukraine’s retreat from Severodonetsk, with the Pentagon saying it means a “very small, very incremental gain” for Russia.

“What (the Ukrainian troops) are doing is putting themselves in a position where they can better defend themselves,” a senior Pentagon official tells reporters before the news broke of the city having been occupied.

– Russia says will deliver nuclear-capable missiles to ally –

Russia will deliver missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the coming months, President Vladimir Putin says.

“In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin tells Russian television as he receives Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Saint Petersburg.

Putin also offers to upgrade Belarus’ warplanes to make them capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

– Russia trying to drag Belarus into war: Kyiv –

Ukraine’s intelligence service says Russia is aiming to drag Belarus into the war, after saying missiles were fired from Belarusian territory into a northern border region.

“Today’s strike is directly linked to Kremlin efforts to pull Belarus as a co-belligerent into the war in Ukraine,” Ukrainian intelligence says on Telegram.

Ukraine says it suffered a “massive bombardment” from inside neighbouring Belarus, a Russian ally not officially involved in the conflict.

– Dozens of Polish fighters killed: Russia –

Russia’s defence ministry says its troops have killed “up to 80” Polish fighters in “precision strikes” on the Megatex zinc factory in Konstantinovka (Kostyantynivka in Ukrainian), in the eastern Donetsk region.

The region, claimed by Russia, has been the theatre of combat since Moscow began its offensive in Ukraine in late February.

– Rebuilding Black Sea ports will take decade: Kyiv – 

It will take Ukraine a decade to build infrastructure to replace its Black Sea ports, whose blockade by Russia is preventing grain exports around the world, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister says.

Millions of tonnes of wheat and other grain have been stuck in Ukrainian ports since Russia invaded in February, sparking global concern about hunger and food prices.

– BRICS calls for Ukraine-Russia talks –

The BRICS group of nations says it backs talks between Moscow and Kyiv, after a virtual summit held against the backdrop of the Ukraine conflict.

The group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa accounts for more than 40 percent of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product.

Three members — China, India and South Africa — have abstained from voting on a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion.

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Facing high medical costs and pressure to reconsider, a single mother living in California turned to activists across the border in Mexico who helped her have an abortion.

“We’re supposed to be in a free country, in a state where you can smoke marijuana, but abortion is still somewhat taboo,” the 31-year-old said, shortly before the US Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to the procedure.

The woman, of Mexican descent, believes terminating a pregnancy will now become ever harder, although the liberal West Coast states of California, Oregon and Washington jointly vowed to defend abortion rights.

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to overturn the nationwide right to abortion gives all 50 states the freedom to ban the procedure, and nearly half are expected to do so in some form.

Even before the ruling, accessing a safe abortion in the United States was already “complicated if you don’t have money,” said the mother of three, who works in a restaurant in San Diego.

She initially visited two clinics in the United States, but at both the cost of the procedure was almost $1,000, which she could not afford.

At one of the facilities, which had religious links, she was discouraged from having an abortion.

“They told me there were other options, that I could give it up for adoption. But I was determined, desperate,” she told AFP by telephone, explaining that she got pregnant because contraceptives failed.

– ‘Huge setback’ –

Through a friend, the woman learned about Colectiva Bloodys, a non-government organization in Tijuana just south of San Diego that is part of a cross-border network providing free assistance to women in the United States who cannot access an abortion.

“I was surprised that they helped me from Mexico. I thought that we were more liberal here,” she said.

“Everything moved very quickly there. In less than a day they said ‘here’s the solution,'” the woman said.

She was sent a combination of medication that ends a pregnancy by causing the uterus to contract, a method considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO), mainly for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The NGO responded quickly to any follow-up questions and “was always supportive,” she added.

Colectiva Bloodys has sent these treatments to conservative-led US states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia for a few years and expects more requests following the Supreme Court ruling, said one of its members, Crystal Perez Lira.

“It’s very unfortunate, a huge setback; but we are going to have the capacity and the will” to offer support, Perez Lira said.

Mexican activists had already been surprised by the amount of interest from women in the United States in the cross-border network, launched in January in the face of obstacles to accessing a safe abortion.

“As of May, we had assisted 200 women who crossed the border and sent 1,000 sets of medicine. We didn’t expect so many,” said Veronica Cruz, founder of Las Libres, one of some 30 groups in the network.

– Financial constraints –

While the activists had expected mainly Latinas to seek their help, they have also been approached by non-Spanish speakers.

“Most turn to us for financial reasons. Over there the medication costs about $600 or they have to wait weeks to get it from organizations. We give it for free,” Cruz said.

Some of the women seeking assistance in Mexico are reluctant to go to a clinic in the United States because they lack the necessary immigration documents.

“We don’t invade their privacy. We don’t question their legal status or their nationality,” said Perez Lira.

In contrast to the US ruling, Mexico’s Supreme Court last year declared the laws criminalizing abortion unconstitutional, authorizing it de facto throughout the conservative Latin American country. 

In Mexico City, which decriminalized abortion in 2007 and provides free care regardless of place of residence, authorities pledged to support women from the United States following the court ruling.

“It’s truly regressive, sad and outrageous that in a country where these rights had been recognized they are going backwards. We’ll be ready to help,” the city’s health secretary, Oliva Lopez Arellano, told AFP.

“We have the capacity for around 25,000 legal terminations a year and now we’re at half that,” she said.

One in 10 of the 247,000 abortions carried out in the city in the past 15 years have been for migrants heading to the United States, most of them Central Americans, she added.

In addition to Mexico City, eight more of Mexico’s 32 states have decriminalized abortion.

Abortion rights supporters prepared to fan out across America Saturday for a second day of protest against the Supreme Court’s thunderbolt ruling, as state after conservative state moved swiftly to ban the procedure.

Deeply polarized America woke up to a new level of division: between states that will now or soon deny the right to abortion, enshrined for 50 years, and those that still allow it.

Dozens of new protests were planned Saturday from coast to coast, a day after demonstrations across the country that were largely peaceful — although police fired tear gas on protesters in Phoenix, Arizona and police in riot gear moved to disperse a hard core of protesters in downtown Los Angeles.

Fueling the mobilization, many fear that the Supreme Court, with a clear conservative majority made possible by Donald Trump, might now set its sights on rights like same-sex marriage and contraception.

At least eight right-leaning states imposed immediate abortion bans — with a similar number to follow suit in coming weeks — after the court eliminated constitutional protections for the procedure, drawing criticism from some of America’s closest allies around the world.

The court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision enshrining a woman’s right to an abortion, saying individual states can restrict or ban the procedure themselves.

President Joe Biden, who called the ruling a “tragic error” stemming from “extreme ideology,” spoke out again Saturday morning as he signed a gun control bill, calling the decision shocking.

“I know how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans,” Biden said at the White House.

Of the state laws taking effect to ban or severely restrict abortion, Biden added: “My administration is going to focus on how they’re administered and whether they violate other laws.”

On Friday Biden urged Congress to restore abortion protections as federal law, and said Roe would be “on the ballot” in November’s midterm elections.

– ‘You have failed us’ –

Hundreds of people demonstrated into the night outside the fenced-off Supreme Court on Friday — and were set to return on Saturday.

In Missouri — which immediately banned abortion, making no exception for rape or incest — protesters gathered Friday night in St. Louis at what had been the state’s last abortion clinic.

Pamela Lukehart choked back tears as she recalled how things were before abortion became a legal right.

“Women died getting abortions back then,” the 68-year-old told AFP, her voice breaking. “We were trying to protect women’s rights, women’s lives, and now they’ve taken all that away from us.”

As of Saturday morning, at least eight states had already banned abortion — Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah.

The court tossed out the legal argument in Roe v. Wade that women had the right to abortion based on the constitutional right to privacy with regard to their own bodies.

Altogether about two dozen states are now expected to severely restrict or outright ban and criminalize abortions.

Women in those states will either have to continue with their pregnancy, undergo a clandestine abortion, obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where it remains legal.

While the ruling represents a victory in the struggle against abortion by the religious right, leaders of the largely Christian conservative movement said it does not go far enough and they will push for a nationwide ban.

Several Democratic-ruled states, anticipating an influx of patients, have already taken steps to facilitate abortion and three of them — California, Oregon and Washington — issued a joint pledge to defend access in the wake of the court’s decision.

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Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged on Saturday they would not interfere with international efforts to distribute aid to tens of thousands of people affected by this week’s deadly earthquake.

Even before Wednesday’s quake the country was in the grip of a humanitarian crisis, with aid flows and financial assistance severely curtailed since the Taliban’s return to power.

The 5.9-magnitude quake struck hardest in the rugged east along the border with Pakistan, as people slept, killing over 1,000 and leaving thousands more homeless.

Aid organisations have complained in the past that Taliban authorities have tried to divert aid to areas and people that supported their hardline insurgency — or even seized goods to distribute themselves and claim the credit.

But Khan Mohammad Ahmad, a senior official in hard-hit Paktika province, said international organisations helping relief efforts would not be interfered with.

“Whether it is WFP, UNICEF or any other organisation… the international community or the United Nations… they will do the distribution by themselves,” said Khan.

“The responsible people from the Islamic Emirate are here… our members will be always with them (to help),” he added, referring to the Taliban’s new name for Afghanistan.

– Huge challenge –

The disaster poses a huge logistical challenge for the government, which has isolated itself from much of the world by introducing hardline rule that subjugates women and girls.

But the international community has been quick to respond to the latest disaster to befall the country and aid is starting to flow — although not always where it is needed most.

“What don’t we need? We need everything,” Said Wali told AFP in Gayan district, close to the epicentre of the quake, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of Kabul.

“We are alive, but there is no one listening to us and we have not received any aid so far.”

Many of the buildings in Wali’s village — like most in the Afghan countryside, made out of mud bricks — had been flattened in the quake.

“Our beds and all our stuff are buried under our home. Our homes are destroyed… there is nothing left,” he said.

“Currently we need money so that we can buy our necessities — clothes, mattresses, equipment. We also need flour and rice.”

– ‘Courage and resilience’ –

The country’s health minister, who toured Gayan district Saturday, said people were deeply traumatised by the quake and reluctant to return to their homes

“The whole community is badly affected, mentally and psychologically,” Qalandar Ebad told AFP.

“I think now the situation is critical… society is totally damaged here.”

But Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s top official in Afghanistan, praised Afghans for their resilience and courage after touring the area Saturday.

“What signs of resolve in face of this adversity — I would say endless adversity,” he told AFP.

“Endless difficulties, endless tragedy, and yet these people are so gracious, so strong. And they are willing to overcome, and they are coming together as a community and as a society.”

Delivering aid has been made more difficult because the quake struck areas already suffering the effects of heavy rain, causing rockfalls and mudslides that wiped out hamlets perched precariously on mountain slopes.

Communications have also been hit with mobile phone towers and power lines toppled.

Officials say nearly 10,000 houses were destroyed, an alarming number in an area where the average household size is more than 20 people.

Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s emergency response teams were stretched to deal with the natural disasters that frequently strike the country.

But with only a handful of airworthy planes and helicopters left since they returned to power, their response to the latest catastrophe is further limited.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Afghanistan’s deadliest recent earthquake killed 5,000 in 1998 in the northeastern provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan.

Talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal will resume within days after being stalled for months, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Saturday during a surprise visit to Tehran.

The negotiations began in April last year but hit a snag in March amid differences between Tehran and Washington, notably over a demand by Iran that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be removed from a US terror list.

“We will resume the talks on the JCPOA in the coming days… I mean quickly, immediately,” Borrell told a news conference in the Iranian capital, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The landmark nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018, when then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and began imposing harsh economic sanctions on America’s arch enemy.

The administration of incumbent US President Joe Biden has sought to return to the agreement, saying it would be the best path with the Islamic republic.

“We agreed today that this visit will be followed by the resumption of negotiations also between Iran and the US facilitated by my team to try to solve the last outstanding issues,” said Borrell.

The EU foreign policy chief was speaking after a two-hour meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on the second day of a previously unannounced visit to Tehran.

Amir-Abdollahian confirmed the resumption of the negotiations.

“We will try to solve the problems and differences through the talks that will resume soon,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding the key for Tehran was “the full economic benefit of Iran from the agreement concluded in 2015.”

“We hope that specifically the US side, this time around, realistically and fairly makes responsible and committed efforts in the negotiations and on the path to reach the final point of the agreement,” he added.

– ‘Meaningful diplomacy’ –

On the eve of Borrell’s trip, the US point man on Iran, Robert Malley, had “reiterated firm US commitment to come back to the deal” over a meal with the EU diplomatic chief, according to the EU’s coordinator for the talks, Enrique Mora.

“We remain committed to the path of meaningful diplomacy, in consultation with our European partners,” Malley said in a tweet.

France, one of the six world powers that agreed the 2015 deal, had on Friday appealed to Iran to “seize this diplomatic opportunity to conclude now, while this is still possible”. 

The nuclear deal Iran reached with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States gave it relief from sanctions in return for guarantees it could not develop an atomic weapon.

Iran has always denied wanting a nuclear arsenal.

– Cameras removed –

In April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States still believed a return to the accord was “the best way to address the nuclear challenge posed by Iran”.

Blinken warned at the time that the “breakout time” for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb if it so chooses was “down to a matter of weeks” after the deal pushed it beyond a year.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors adopted a resolution this month censuring Iran for failing to adequately explain the previous discovery of traces of enriched uranium at three sites which Tehran had not declared as having hosted nuclear activities.

On the same day, June 8, Tehran said it had disconnected a number of IAEA cameras that had been monitoring its nuclear sites.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi later confirmed 27 cameras had been disconnected, leaving about 40 still in place.

The move by Iran, he warned, could deal a “fatal blow” to the negotiations unless the UN nuclear watchdog’s inspectors were given access within three to four weeks.

During the talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the accord, Iran has repeatedly called for guarantees from the Biden administration that there will be no repeat of Trump’s pullout.

Borrell came to “give a last-ditch ultimatum, declaring that if the negotiations do not lead to an agreement, the failure of the talks will be announced in the days and weeks to come,” according to Iranian analyst Ahmad Zeidabadi.

But he told AFP: “I think there are good chances that an agreement can be concluded” because it is in the interest of the various parties.

Norwegian police have arrested a man suspected of “Islamist terrorism” after two people were killed and 21 wounded in shootings in the normally tranquil country’s capital Oslo on Saturday, causing the city’s Pride march to be cancelled.

The suspect, a 42-year-old Norwegian man of Iranian descent already known to the anti-terrorism services, was arrested shortly after the shooting started around 1:00 am (2300 GMT Friday) in three locations in central Oslo, including a gay bar.

The arrested man “is suspected of homicide, attempted homicide and a terrorist act”, senior police official Christian Hatlo told a press conference.

Norway’s domestic intelligence service PST, which is responsible for counter-terrorism, said it was treating the attack as “an act of Islamist terrorism”.

The suspect “has a long history of violence and threats” and has been on the PST’s radar “since 2015 in connection with concerns about his radicalisation” and membership “in an Islamist extremist network”, PST’s chief Roger Berg told a press conference.

Intelligence services spoke to the suspect last month, but did not consider him to have “violent intentions”, Berg said. He added that the PST was also aware the suspect had “difficulties with his mental health”.

Norwegian media named the suspect as Zaniar Matapour, describing him as a father of Iranian Kurdish origin who arrived in Norway as a child.

Police said that of the 21 people wounded in the attack, 10 were seriously injured — however none had life-threatening injuries. An automatic weapon and a handgun were also seized.

Police said they received the first reports at 1:14 am and the suspect was arrested five minutes later. They added that the suspect was quickly apprehended thanks to the “heroic contribution” of bystanders.

– ‘We won’t disappear’ –

Organisers of the Pride march due to take place on Saturday afternoon said they were calling it off.

“To all the homosexuals who now are afraid and are in mourning, I say we are all with you,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on Facebook.

The shootings happened near the London Pub gay club, the Herr Nilsen jazz club and a takeaway food outlet in a central area packed with people on a warm summer night.

“He looked very determined about where he was aiming. When I realised it was serious, I ran. There was a bleeding man lying on the ground,” a woman who saw the incident told the Verdens Gang newspaper.

“There were a lot of injured people on the ground who had head injuries,” another witness was quoted by the paper as saying.

On Saturday hundreds of people marched near the scene, shouting: “We’re here, we’re queer, we won’t disappear.”

“I think it’s fantastic that this march is taking place, otherwise he would have won,” a visibly upset participant in her 50s told AFP.

As a sign of solidarity, many people, some in tears, laid rainbow flags and flowers near the scene of the attack, which was cordoned off by police.

“Today is a day that reminds us that Pride is a day we have to fight for — the goal has not yet been reached,” Trond Petter Aunas said at the scene.

– King ‘horrified’ –

Norway’s intelligence services raised the country’s threat level, calling the situation “extraordinary”. They were looking into whether other attacks could be possible but said that for the moment “we have no indication of this.”

Police presence was stepped up throughout the capital and officers — who do not normally carry guns in Norway — were instructed to arm themselves.

The attack led to enhanced security for Pride marches taking place across France on Saturday, the French government said.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences for the victims, calling for unity “in the face of hatred” and the “barbarity of an Islamist terrorist”.

According to an NRK radio journalist present at the time of the shooting, the shooter arrived with a bag from which he pulled out a weapon and started firing.

A black bag was still visible on Saturday on the pavement of an area littered with broken glass where forensic experts were investigating.

Police said that the suspect had several minor run-ins with the law, for knife and drug possession.

Norway’s King Harald V said in a statement that he was “horrified”.

“We have to gather together to defend our values — liberty, diversity and mutual respect.”

Generally peaceful Norway was the scene of bloody attacks on July 22, 2011 when right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people.