PARIS (Reuters) -- French President Emmanuel Macron will fly to Africa this week in a bid to counter Russian efforts to dislodge France from the continent, after Paris suffered a series of military and political setbacks in its former sphere of influence. Macron will visit three African nations around the Congo basin as well as Angola, with the focus of the trip being ostensibly away from France’s troubled former colonies in the Sahel, where anti-French sentiment is on the rise. The tour comes just over a week after Burkina Faso booted out French troops and ended a military accord that allowed France to fight insurgents in the West African nation, becoming the latest African country to reject Paris’ help. France withdrew its forces from Mali last year after the junta there ended a decade of operations. Macron has accused Russia of feeding anti-French propaganda in Africa to serve “predatory” ambitions.

 

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BEIJING (AP) — Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of the Russian leader, will visit Beijing this week, China’s Foreign Ministry said, as U.S. concerns grow that China is considering providing military aid to Russia. Spokesperson Hua Chunying said Lukashenko is due to visit Tuesday through Thursday, but gave no details about his agenda. The visit comes as top U.S. officials repeated warnings to China against providing military aid to Russia in its war on Ukraine, saying that would bring heavy consequences. Beijing accused the U.S. of smearing it over the military aid allegations and reiterated that it seeks only peace between Russia and Ukraine. Beijing on Friday issued a proposal calling for a ceasefire and peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cautiously welcomed China’s involvement -- but said success would depend on actions not words.

 

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PARIS (Reuters) -- Environmental and human rights activist groups said on Monday they had sued BNP Paribas, the eurozone’s biggest bank, for providing financial services to companies they allege contribute to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian NGO Comissão Pastoral da Terra and French group Notre Affaire À Tous said they filed the lawsuit last week with the Paris judicial court, alleging BNP Paribas did not carry out proper checks before agreeing to finance such companies. The case is the second to target BNP Paribas on these grounds, following another complaint filed last week. The first ruling by a French court based on the law is due on Tuesday in a case against oil major TotalEnergies. BNP Paribas said it required “full traceability” from its clients regarding their supply chains of beef and soy from the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado. It pledged to no longer provide financial products or services to those that do not agree to.

 

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WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Billionaire Elon Musk has called U.S. media “racist” after multiple American newspapers announced they would stop publishing a popular comic strip whose creator called Black people a hate group. Musk, who owns electric car company Tesla and social network Twitter, tweeted Sunday in response to an article about a rant by Scott Adams, creator of the long-running “Dilbert” -- a satirical take on office life. “For a *very* long time, U.S. media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians,” Musk wrote on the social network, where he has reinstated users banned for hate speech. “Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist.” Adams, like Musk, has increasingly stoked controversy with his views on social issues. But a video posted on Wednesday -- in which Adams referred to Black people as a “hate group” -- proved to be the last straw for many “Dilbert” publishers.“That’s a hate group and I don’t want anything to do with them,” he said. “Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.” 

 

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GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AFP) -- Ecuador confiscated about 8.8 tonnes of cocaine worth $330 million that had been hidden between bananas in a container bound for Belgium, police said Sunday. “Record seizure in 2023 of more than eight tonnes of cocaine,” wrote police commander General Fausto Salinas on his Twitter account.  “We prevented (the international sale of) 90 million doses, worth $330 million in Europe,” he said, posting a video showing police searching the container, which was being shipped from the port of Guayaquil. Located between Colombia and Peru -- the world’s main producers of cocaine -- Ecuador seized a record amount of the drug in 2021: about 210 tonnes bound for European ports.  In 2022, seizures exceeded 200 tonnes - 61 percent of which were hidden among bananas destined for export -- and so far this year they have totalled 31 tonnes.