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Officials in Zimbabwe — Africa’s largest tobacco producer — hope this year’s crop will boost the country’s ailing economy. However, demand is not as high as it used to be, and calls are growing for Zimbabwe to move away from tobacco due to health concerns. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.

Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 03-14-2024 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.

When longtime House Republican Ken Buck announced a few months ago that he was retiring at the end of the term, he seemed rather burned out and disgusted with the direction that his party was headed in. So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when Buck decided this week that he’s actually going to retire before the end of the month.

But this news apparently did come as a surprise to “Speaker” of the House Mike Johnson, who was reportedly caught entirely off guard by the news. Apparently Johnson is so inexperienced, unskilled, and clueless when it comes to politics, it didn’t even occur to him that this kind of obvious development might happen.

Really? Mike Johnson couldn’t foresee that a member of his own caucus who was burned out and retiring in disgust might end up skipping out early? What does Johnson think it means when he sees dark clouds in the sky? What does he think happens when someone touches a hot stove? Mike Johnson is an idiot.

The post “Speaker” Mike Johnson didn’t see this coming appeared first on Palmer Report.

The Biden administration on Wednesday reapproved a sanctions waiver that unlocks upwards of $10 billion in frozen funds for the Iranian government, according to a copy of the notice submitted to Congress late Wednesday and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The sanctions waiver—which has drawn fierce GOP opposition on Capitol Hill—allows Iraq to transfer electricity payments to Iran via third-party countries. The sanctions waiver was last approved by the Biden administration in November and set to expire this month, putting the White House in a tight position as a mounting chorus of GOP lawmakers express concern about sanctions being bypassed. The authority granted in the latest waivers allows Iraq to convert dinars into Euros and transfer payments into Iranian banks accounts in Oman.

Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress raised concerns about the waiver earlier this week, the Free Beacon reported, saying that sanctions should not be lifted on the hardline Iranian regime in light of its support for Hamas and other terrorist proxy groups waging war on Israel and American outposts in the region.

While the State Department maintains the funds can only be accessed by Iran to pay for humanitarian supplies, like food and medicine, critics of the sanctions waiver argue that money is fungible, and that the waiver frees up cash for Iran to spend on its global terrorism operations.

The State Department would not immediately confirm transmitting the sanctions waiver to Congress, but defended its previous renewals on Tuesday in response to Free Beacon questions.

“Since 2018, the waiver has remained necessary as Iraq weans itself off Iranian energy imports, which cannot happen overnight,” a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon. “And Iraq is making progress in its path to energy self-sufficiency by increasing regional electricity interconnections, capturing and utilizing natural gas associated with oil production, and developing new domestic gas resources.”

But the waiver remains necessary to ensure Iraq has access to electricity and is able to pay down its debt to Tehran, according to the State Department.

“Under these waivers, no money has been permitted to enter Iran,” the official maintained. “Any notion to the contrary is false and misleading. These funds, which are held abroad in third countries, can only be used for transactions for the purchase of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices, and other non-sanctionable transactions. The money goes straight to the trusted vendor or financial institution in another country. The money never touches Iran.”

But Republicans on Capitol Hill say continued use of the sanctions waiver is enabling Iran to divert funds it would otherwise be forced to spend on critical humanitarian goods.

“By waiving the application of sanctions, the Administration is maintaining a financial lifeline for the Iranian regime, even as it continues to support terrorist organizations around the world,”  Rep. Bill Huizenga (Mich.) and three GOP House colleagues wrote to the Biden administration earlier this week.

Iran, the lawmakers argued, “has a history of lying about humanitarian transactions. There is no reason to think that they will not try to skirt these restrictions again. Additionally, money is fungible, and the waiver and subsequent transfer will free up billions in funds that Iran can now spend on its terrorist proxies, nuclear activities, and military.”

Richard Goldberg, a former White House National Security Council member who worked on the Iran portfolio, said the latest version of the sanctions waiver is substantially different than the one issued during the Trump administration. The Biden version, he said, gives Iran far more leeway in how the money is used.

“This is not the same waiver for Iraqi electricity imports that has been issued since 2018. This is an Iran sanctions relief waiver that allows Tehran to access money and use it for budget support, including debt payments and import subsidies,” said Goldberg, a senior adviser for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.

“The fact that the administration will not even tell the American people how much money Iran has accessed over the last four months—money that subsidized three American soldier deaths and nonstop attacks on the American Navy—should prompt the U.S. Senate to immediately pass the No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act and send to the president’s desk,” he said, referring to legislation that would cut off Iran’s access to previously frozen funds.

The post Biden Admin Renews Iran Sanctions Waiver That Unlocks Upwards of $10 Billion for Regime appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Report: U.S. Officials Asked Iran to Defuse Red Sea Tensions  The Maritime Executive

President Ilham Aliyev receives co-chairs of Nizami Ganjavi Int’l Center  azərbaycan24

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london — Britain’s government outlined plans on Wednesday to stop foreign states from owning newspapers, potentially giving ministers the power to block Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI’s bid to buy The Daily Telegraph. 

The battle over one of Britain’s most famous newspapers has raised questions about the independence of the media and the role of foreign investors acquiring ownership of politically influential assets. 

The Telegraph has close connections with Britain’s governing Conservative Party and the political struggle for ownership of the 168-year-old newspaper is as much about power and influence as it is about money.  

Stephen Parkinson, the culture minister in the House of Lords, said the government would make changes through an amendment to legislation going through parliament to prevent foreign states from having ownership of British newspapers. 

“We will amend the media merger regime explicitly to rule out newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states,” Parkinson told the Lords. 

The proposed changes to the law would in effect block the Telegraph’s takeover bid by RedBird IMI as currently structured, one government official said. 

RedBird IMI — run by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker but which has the majority of its funding from Abu Dhabi — declined to comment.  

The deal is already under a separate investigation based on existing laws, but the new plan is more explicitly targeted at preventing foreign state control. 

The right-leaning Telegraph is nicknamed the “Torygraph” for its long-standing support for the Conservative — or Tory — Party. Former Conservative prime ministers such as Winston Churchill and Boris Johnson have written for it. 

The contest for ownership of the Telegraph is playing out against the backdrop of an unpopular Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, that is set to lose the next election expected later this year, according to polls. 

Pressure had been building on the government after Tina Stowell, a former Conservative leader in the Lords, proposed an amendment to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill that would give parliament a veto on foreign governments taking over British media organizations. 

Her amendment had won the support of more than 100 members of parliament who cited concerns including the possibility of editorial interference and censorship. 

Having forced the government to come up with their own plan, Stowell withdrew her amendment.  

The new ban on foreign control is expected to be put to a vote in the House of Lords in the next few weeks. It would have to be passed there and in the lower House of Commons before the new rules would come into force. 

Parkinson said the new measures would create a new obligation for the government to refer any relevant media merger to the Competition and Markets Authority watchdog.  

If the CMA determined that the merger “has resulted, or would result, in foreign state ownership, influence or control over a newspaper enterprise,” then the government would be legally required to order the merger be blocked or unwound. 

Alina Habba cites ‘sloppiness’ of Georgia prosecutors after some Trump charges dropped  The Hill