JOHANNESBURG, 6 January, 2021, (TON): South Africa's economy is expected to expand by 3.3 percent in 2021, said the World Bank in a report released on Tuesday.

In the latest Global Economic Prospects, the World Bank said South Africa's growth is expected to rebound to 3.3 percent in 2021, 0.7 percentage point below previous forecasts before softening to a near potential pace of 1.7 percent in 2022.

"With economic activity in South Africa already on a weak footing before the pandemic hit, output is expected to have fallen 7.8 percent last year," said the report. "The country suffered the most severe COVID-19 outbreak in Sub-Saharan Africa, which prompted strict lockdown measures and brought the economy to a standstill."

The report said that growth in the region is forecast to rebound moderately to 2.7% in 2021. While the recovery in private consumption and investment is forecast to be slower than previously envisioned, export growth is expected to accelerate gradually, in line with the rebound in activity among major trading partners.

The pandemic caused an estimated 6.1 percent fall in per capita income last year and is expected to lead to a further 0.2 percent decline in 2021, it said.

The decline in per capita income is expected to set average living standards back by a decade or more in a quarter of Sub-Saharan African economies, "with even more severe setbacks in South Africa," said the report.

Government debt in the region has increased sharply to an estimated 70% of GDP last year, elevating concerns about debt sustainability in some economies. Banks may face sharp increases in non-performing loans as companies struggle to service their debt due to falling revenues.

WASHINGTON, 06 January 2021, (TON): US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including Ant Group’s Alipay, the White House said.

Trump’s executive order tasks the Department of Commerce with defining which transactions will be banned under the directive and targets Tencent Holdings Ltd’s QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay as well as Alipay.

The move is aimed at curbing the threat to Americans posed by Chinese software applications, which have large user bases and access to sensitive data, a senior official told media.

A US-based Tencent spokeswoman did not immediately comment.

The order signed by Trump also names CamScanner, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate and WPS Office. It says, “The United States must take aggressive action against those who develop or control Chinese connected software applications to protect our national security.”

Trump’s order says, “by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information”.

It added the data collection “would permit China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information”.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MALI, 6 January 2021, (TON): French invasion in Mali and its operations against Muslims tribal in the north resulted in cold blooded killing of at least 20 Muslims, many of them children.

Reports said that the incident took place during weekend in which French military helicopter carried out airstrikes on a wedding party in a remote village of Bounti in central Mali’s Mopti region. Scene of people running in all direction to save their lives but they were ruthlessly killed.

Residents of Bounti said in broad daylight, helicopter opened fire on the civilian participants of a wedding ceremony on Sunday, killing 20 Muslims, mostly children.

French military spokesperson claimed that its troops carried out a strike on jihadist militants in central Mali, but that not a wedding party.

The French first intervened in the Sahel region - a semi-arid stretch of land just south of the Sahara Desert which includes Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania in 2013.

France has 5,100 troops in the Sahel region, which has been a front line in the war against rebels in Africa for almost a decade. France wants to establish a secular government in Mali by changing the religious government therefore military operations and airstrikes are being carried out in the region.

BEIJING, 06 January 2021, (TON): Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked the military to strengthen training to hone its combat skills and remain on high alert as the newly revised defence law expanding the powers of the armed forces came into force this year.

The 67-year-old leader, who also heads the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) besides the Central Military Commission (CMC) -- the overall high command of the two million strong military -- signed the commission’s first order for 2021, which listed priorities in the training of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the People’s Armed Police Force (PLAF), official media here reported on Tuesday.

The order instructed the armed forces to stick to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as their guiding principle and uphold Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military as well as military strategies in the new era.

It said the CCP will enhance its guidance over the military’s training, urging the armed forces to focus on improving their combat readiness and continuing to reform their training system, state-run China Daily reported.

Mr. Xi said the PLA must be ready to “act at any second” as the armed forces kicked off the year’s military training and exercise on Monday.

“(The PLA must) increase the integration of new equipment, new forces and new combat realms into training and combat systems,” the Chinese President Mr. Xi said.

The first such order was issued in January 2018, when Xi addressed a massive training and commencement ceremony at a shooting range in northern China.

MOSCOW, 06 January 2021, (TON): The Russian Foreign Ministry made US responsible for Iran's recent decision of enriching uranium to 20 percent.

The Iranian move was "a deviation" from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, but the "root cause" of such deviations is the "systematic gross violations" of international obligations by the US, the ministry on Tuesday said in a statement.

Contrary to Article 25 of the UN Charter, the US does not comply with the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and deliberately creates obstacles to its implementation for other countries, the ministry said.

According to Moscow, enriching uranium to 20 percent has nothing to do with Iran's compliance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

All material enriched up to 20 percent is under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which does not record its switch to the use for undeclared purposes that go against the NPT, the statement read.

In May 2018, Washington pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal and reimposed harsh sanctions against Iran. In response, Tehran has gradually dropped some of its JCPOA commitments since May 2019.

RIYADH, 6 January 2021, (TON): Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhad says in a statement issued here at a Gulf Co-operation Council summit Tuesday, “Diplomatic relations have been restored between four Arab states and Qatar and the embargo imposed against Qatar three years back has been removed.”

Prince Faisal bin Farhad said that all the countries have agreed to fully set all differences aside".

Earlier, scenes of jubilation were witnessed when Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman publicly embraced the emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. The six GCC member states signed an agreement at summit heritage site of al-Ula.

 Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar in 2017 that have been restored. With this Saudi Arabia has reopened its land and sea borders and airspace to Qatar.

RIYADH, 05 January 2021, (TON): Gulf leaders have signed a “solidarity and stability” agreement towards ending the diplomatic row with Qatar at a summit in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has said.

The announcement came on Tuesday at the Gulf Arab leaders meeting in Saudi Arabia, with the annual summit taking place amid a breakthrough in the dispute between a Saudi-led bloc and Qatar that started in June 2017. Leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council signed the Al-Ula declaration, named after the Saudi city where the summit is being held.

“These efforts helped us reach the agreement of the Al-Ula statement that will be signed at this summit, where we affirm our Gulf, Arab and Islamic solidarity and stability,” the crown prince told the meeting.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, called the summit “positive”.

“A positive summit unifying ranks and establishing fraternity… changes and challenges surrounding us require genuine Gulf strength, cohesion and cooperation as well as Arab depth and stability,” he posted on Twitter.

Earlier, when Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said a resolution to the dispute seemed within reach, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a Twitter post said he hoped Gulf reconciliation “contributes to stability and political and economic development for all peoples of our region.”

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade ties with, and imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar. The quartet accused Doha of being too close to Iran and supporting “terrorist” groups. Qatar vehemently denied the allegations.

ROME, 05 January 2021, (TON): The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday warned that more desert locust swarms will arrive during January and spread throughout southern Ethiopia and parts of Kenya.

"More swarms will arrive during January and spread throughout southern Ethiopia and northern, central, and eastern counties of Kenya where they will mature and lay eggs that will hatch and give rise to hopper bands from late January onwards," the FAO statement said on Monday.

According to the FAO, numerous immature swarms formed in eastern Ethiopia and central Somalia, which moved to southern Ethiopia, reaching northern Kenya on Dec. 21.

Swarms bred and caused hopper bands to form in areas affected by Cyclone Gati, which hit northern Somalia recently.

The FAO also stressed that adult groups and a few swarms appeared on the coast of Sudan and Eritrea where breeding, albeit on a smaller scale than Saudi Arabia, will cause hopper bands to form.

Intensive control operations treated more than 336,000 hectares of land during December, and efforts should be maintained.

The desert locust, which is considered as the "most dangerous of the nearly one dozen species of locusts," is a major food security peril in desert areas across 20 countries, stretching from west Africa all the way to India, covering nearly 16 million square km, according to the United Nations.

KHARTOUM, 05 January 2021, (TON):  Sudan has voiced reservation over participation in a ministerial meeting on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that was convened on Monday, said Sudan's Irrigation and Water Resources Ministry.

"Based on outcome of the tripartite ministerial meeting held on Sunday, Sudan requested convening of a bilateral meeting with the African Union (AU) experts and observers on the evening," the ministry said in a statement.

"Instead of a response to the request, Sudan received an invitation to continue the direct tripartite talks, which pushed it to announce reservation over participation, to show its firm position on the need to give a role to the AU experts to facilitate the negotiations and narrow the gap among the three parties," it noted.

The ministry further stressed Sudan's adherence to the negotiation process under the AU pursuant to the principle of "African solutions for African issues."

Earlier, on Sunday, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia agreed to hold more talks over the GERD after one week to resume on Jan. 10.

The three countries have been negotiating under the AU patronage over technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD. However, the Sudanese negotiators believe that the GERD talks should go beyond the level of irrigation ministers and be referred to the AU and the leaders of the three countries to provide political will to bring their positions closer.

Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the project, while Egypt and Sudan, downstream Nile Basin countries that rely on the river for its fresh water, are concerned that the dam might affect their water resources.

TEHRAN, 05 January 2021, (TON):  Iran has resumed 20% uranium enrichment at an underground nuclear facility, the government said on Monday, beyond the threshold set by the 2015 nuclear pact, sparking international concerns.

“At around 7 pm (1530 GMT on Monday), we reached 20pc” enrichment, spokesman Behrouz Kamalavandi said in an interview aired on Tuesday.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog also confirmed Iran's move of enriching uranium to 20% purity at its Fordow site which is under the mountain.

“Iran today began feeding uranium already enriched up to 4.1 percent U-235 into six centrifuge cascades at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant for further enrichment up to 20%,” the IAEA said in a statement on a report that was sent to member states.

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, said the move was aimed at developing nuclear weapons and Israel would never allow Tehran to build them.

Tehran started violating the accord in 2019 in a step-by-step response to Washington's withdrawal from it in 2018 and the reimposition of US sanctions lifted under the deal.

The step was one of many mentioned in a law passed by Iran’s parliament last month in response to the killing of the country’s top nuclear scientist, which Tehran has blamed on Israel.

The European Union said Iran's enrichment programme would be a “considerable departure” from the deal.

China urges calm and restraint after Iran's enrichment announcement.

Russia's envoy to the IAEA said that Moscow is “not enthusiastic” about Tehran's move but emphasised that “there is nothing to overdramatise”.

“Our measures are fully reversible upon FULL compliance by ALL (parties to the deal),” tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Tehran insists it can quickly reverse its breaches if U.S. sanctions are removed. Biden, who takes office on 20 January has said the United States will rejoin the deal “if Iran resumes strict compliance” with the pact.

However, while the US insists that international sanctions against Iran prior to the JCPOA have been reinstated, the majority of Security Council members and Iran have made their positions clear that the US was not in a position to initiate the snapback mechanism as provided for in Resolution 2231 since the US was no longer a participant of the deal by the time it was trying to do so in August 2020.