Ten more big world news stories told in 3 sentences

Africa in 3: Burkina Faso’s military government has ordered France to remove its 400 troops from the country within one month

• The move follows a similar decision by another former French colony, Mali, which ordered 2,400 French troops to leave that country last year.
• Relations between Burkina Faso and France have deteriorated since Army Captain Ibrahim Traoré ousted Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, a military officer, who had himself overthrown elected president Roch Kaboré eight months earlier.
• French President Macron says he is waiting for clarification from the Burkinabe government in Ouagadougou which could end a security deal reached in 2018.

Source Financial Times

Asia in 3: China’s population dropped for the first time in 62 years to 1.41175 billion

• UN experts predict that India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation sometime this year.
• China’s birth rate was lowest in 2022 at 6.77 births per 1,000 people, down from 7.52 births in 2021, whilst the 2022 death rate was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people, compared with 7.18 in 2021.
• The one child policy abandoned in 2015 was a key contributor to the population decline, along with a preference for male children which has created a gender imbalance resulting in fewer families being formed in recent years.

Source: Reuters

Europe in 3: Ukraine Deputy Infrastructure Minister sacked for alleged theft of us$400,000 from winter aid fund

• Deputy Minister Vasyl Lozinskyi allegedly inflated prices of generators meant to aid Ukrainians through the bitter winter in case Russia targeted the country’s energy infrastructure.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who was voted into office in 2019 on a pledge to change the way Ukraine was governed, removed Lozinskyi from his position a day after the Deputy Minister had been detained by anti-corruption investigators.
• Ukraine is considered to be among the most corrupt countries in the world, ranked 122 out of 180 countries by Transparency International, and the EU has demanded anti-corruption reforms as a key requirement for Ukraine to join the European bloc.

Source: The Guardian

Middle East in 3: Fifth Kuwaiti mass government resignation in just over two years

• The resignation came amid a power struggle with the country’s assembly less than four months after parliamentary elections, and recent clashing over Parliament’s advancement of populist measures deemed too costly by government.
• The squabbling has prevented the passing of economic reforms, including a public debt law that would allow the government to borrow, leading to depletion of its reserve fund despite having the sixth-largest known oil reserve in the world.
• Kuwait has the freest assembly in the region, but political power remains concentrated within the ruling Al Sabah family, which appoints the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and can dissolve the 50-member assembly at any time.

Source: Associated Press

North America in 3: Ex head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York office laundered money, violated Russia sanctions while still at the FBI

• Allegations are that Charles McGonigal, 55, took USD225,000 in cash from an individual with business interests in Europe who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service.
• McGonigal allegedly concealed his relationship with this former foreign security officer from the FBI, and is accused of betraying his solemn oath to the United States in exchange for personal gain, and at the expense of national security.
• In a statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau was committed to holding accountable anyone who violated the law, including its own employees.

Source: NBC News

Oceania in 3: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in surprise resignation

• The 42 year old Prime Minister said she, “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job, and stepped down as PM on 25 January 2023, but will continue as MP until elections later this year.
• She became the world’s youngest female head of state when she was elected PM at 37, and steered the country through the Covid-19 pandemic, terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, and also through a volcanic eruption on White Island.
• Although polls showed her trailing behind the opposition in the upcoming election, she also recently faced a significant increase in threats of violence from conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccine groups.

Source: The Guardian

South America in 3: Argentina and Brazil are discussing plans for a common currency

• The talks between South America’s two largest economies aim to create a common currency to reduce dependence on the US dollar.
• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the currency would initially be used for trade and transactions between the two countries and could later be adopted by other members of Mercosur — South America’s major trade bloc.
• Analysts have expressed skepticism about the success of the talks which they say is doubtful due to the discrepancies between the two economies.

Source: CNBC

Zimbabwe in 3: Outrage as government deregisters 291 Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs)

• The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare announced that the PVOs had been deregistered for failing to comply with relevant provisions of the Private Voluntary Act.
• Among other things, the Act requires PVOs to submit annual audited and narrated returns to the authorities, which most of the deregistered PVOs failed to do at the risk of being deregistered if non-compliant for three consecutive years.
• Activists aligned with the opposition have expressed concern that the move reflected a closing of the democratic space but the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum urged PVOs to comply with the law to avoid any risk of being deregistered.

Source: NewsDay

Sports News in 3: Kenyan road runner, Betty Lempus, banned for five years after having violated anti-doping rules

• Lempus, 31, is famous for breaking the Paris women’s half-marathon record in 2021, on the same date that her sample tested positive for a banned metabolite substance, Triamcinolone Acetonide.
• The athlete later lied and attempted to cover-up the matter when confronted with evidence by the Athletics Integrity Unit, both acts which attracted separate consecutive bans.
• Discrepancies surfaced from her recount of events when the hospital she visited 16 days prior to the race denied having injected her with any medication containing the substance, and further disavowed the doctor she claimed treated her at the institution.

Source: BBC Sport

Some Trivia in 3: First AI-powered “robot” lawyer will represent defendant in court in February 2023

• The automated lawyer which runs on artificial intelligence software loaded on a smartphone is able to listen to court proceedings, formulate responses and provides them to the defendant in real time through a set of head phones.
• The CEO of its creators, a company called DoNotPay, said the test case will be heard in a US court on 22 February, where the technology will help a defendant fight a real case involving a traffic ticket, and in the event that it loses, DoNotPay will cover applicable fines.
• The company says it aims to democratise legal representation by making it free for those who cannot afford it, but given that the technology is still illegal in many courtrooms, it does not expect to commercialise the product any time soon.

Source: CBS News

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