Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has urged Russia to renew its deal with Ukraine
Egypt’s president has urged Vladimir Putin to renew the deal allowing Ukraine to export grain at a summit the Russian president is hosting.
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said it was “essential” the deal be revived and called for an urgent solution to supply the poorest African countries.
Russia quit the deal last week and has since bombed Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Mr Putin says the West was not keeping its side of the bargain and has offered Russian grain to six African countries.
He said Russia would deliver the grain for free.
Egypt is a key buyer of grain via the Black Sea route and is particularly vulnerable to global food price shocks.
In response Mr Putin insisted that rising food prices were a consequence of Western policy mistakes that predated the war with Ukraine.
He also claimed the grain deal had not been getting grain to the poorest countries and said Russia was ready to provide its own grain to help avoid a “global food crisis”.
Russia could provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25-50,000 tonnes of free grain each in the next three to four months, he said.
These six countries are all Russian allies apart from Somalia, which is suffering a severe humanitarian crisis.
Since withdrawing from the deal, Russia has repeatedly bombarded Ukrainian ports and depots, destroying thousands of tonnes of grain.
African leaders also used the second day of the summit to press Mr Putin to move ahead with a peace plan they are proposing to end the war resulting from Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour last year.
The plan calls for Russia and Ukraine’s sovereignty to be recognised, urgent peace talks and continued unhindered grain exports.
Congo Brazzaville President Denis Sassou Nguesso insisted it “mustn’t be underestimated”.
Mr Putin said Moscow was looking at the plans, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out any plan that leaves Russia in control of territory it has seized.
Russia’s invasion led to a blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports – trapping 20 million tonnes of grain which were meant for export.
This caused world food prices to soar, and threatened to create shortages in Middle Eastern and African countries which imported significant amounts of food from Ukraine.
The deal was struck in July 2022 between Russia and Ukraine – brokered by Turkey and the UN – allowing cargo ships to sail along a corridor in the Black Sea 310 nautical miles long and three nautical miles wide.
Ukraine is one of world’s biggest suppliers of crops such as sunflower oil, barley, maize and wheat.
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump faces new charges in connection with his post-presidency handling of classified documents after the special counsel filed a new indictment Thursday.
The federal indictment, filed in the Southern District of Florida, alleges that Trump was part of a scheme to delete security video and that a newly charged defendant — who was identified as a property manager at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence — told another employee that “the boss” wanted the server deleted.
That employee, Carlos De Oliveira, who was a maintenance supervisor at Mar-a-Lago, was charged Thursday. His lawyer, John Irving, declined to comment.
Court documents say De Oliveira denied that he was involved in moving boxes. “Never saw anything,” he told the FBI, according to documents. “Never saw anything,” he repeated.
The indictment lays out what federal authorities say was a scheme to obstruct the ongoing investigation. Trump was very focused on not allowing officials to get their hands on his boxes, it indicates.
“I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t,” Trump told his lawyer in May 2022, according to the indictment. “What happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them? Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
Trump’s lawyer said Trump later made a “plucking motion” to suggest that he should take anything that was “really bad” out. Afterward, prosecutors suggest, Trump was involved in an effort to delete security camera video that would show how his employees had moved boxes of documents before the FBI search.
The superseding indictment claims that Walt Nauta and De Oliveira met up at a security guard booth where security video was displayed on monitors and that De Oliveira later stepped into an audio closet with another employee and had a conversation that De Oliveira said should be kept between them.
De Oliveira asked the employee how long the server retained video, and the other employee indicated it was about 45 days, according to the indictment. De Oliveira said that “the boss” wanted the server deleted, but the employee responded that he did not believe he would have the right to do that and would need to speak with the supervisor of security, the indictment says.
De Oliveira reiterated that “the boss” wanted it done and asked, “what are we going to do?” according to the indictment.
That conversation took place in late June 2022, just a few weeks before the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, the indictment says. After the search, it alleges, Nauta called another Trump employee and asked about De Oliveira. The unnamed Trump employee told Nauta that De Oliveira was loyal and would not do anything to affect his relationship with Trump, according to the indictment.
Nauta later wrote in a Signal chat with the representative of a Trump PAC that De Oliveira was loyal, and Trump later called De Oliveira and told the maintenance worker that Trump would get him a lawyer, the indictment says.
Trump blasted the Department of Justice in an interview with Fox News after the indictment was announced, calling the charges “ridiculous” and accusing the department of “prosecutorial misconduct.”
“It’s election interference at the highest level,” said Trump, who leads the GOP field in polls on the 2024 presidential race. “They’re harassing my company, they’re harassing my family and by far, least importantly of all, they’re harassing me.”
Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty, and a trial has been set for May.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
Daniel Barnes
Daniel Barnes reports for NBC News, based in Washington.
Ken Dilanian
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for NBC News, based in Washington.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican presidential candidate, on Thursday rebuked his opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and his state over its controversial new standards on how Black history is taught in middle school, which includes instruction on how “slaves developed skills” that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“There is no silver lining” in slavery, Scott responded when asked by a reporter following a town hall in suburban Des Moines about that element of Florida’s new curriculum.
“What slavery was really about [was] separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives,” said Scott, who is the Senate’s only Black Republican. “It was just devastating. So, I would hope that every person in our country — and certainly running for president — would appreciate that.”
He also suggested that Florida’s Black history standard represents a question that will and should come up again on the campaign trail.
“Listen, people have bad days. Sometimes they regret what they say,” Scott said. “And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”
DeSantis’ initial response to the uproar over the new standard was to back away from it.
“I didn’t do it. And I wasn’t involved in it,” he told reporters last Friday. He added, “I think that they’re probably going to show — some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”
Another GOP presidential opponent, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan Sunday that words like “I didn’t do it” “are not the words of leadership.”
GOP Rep. Byron Donalds, the sole Black member of Florida’s congressional delegation, has faced a strong backlash from DeSantis’ campaign and Florida officials over his gentle criticism of the standard, which was tucked into a comment that overall praised the state Education Department’s curriculum.
“The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate. That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn’t the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this,” he posted on social media Wednesday morning.
But DeSantis allies were soon trying to tie him to Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently criticized the standards during a speech in Jacksonville, Florida.
“How is it that anyone could suggest that amidst these atrocities [of slavery], there was any ‘benefit’ to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Harris said last Sunday.
Manny Diaz Jr., Florida’s education commissioner, questioned Donalds’ conservatism, lumping him in with Democrats who have lambasted the standards.
“We will not back down from teaching our nation’s true history at the behest of a woke @WhiteHouse, nor at the behest of a supposedly conservative congressman,” Diaz tweeted.
And DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern tweeted, “Florida isn’t going to hide the truth for political convenience. Maybe the congressman shouldn’t swing for the liberal media fences like @VP.”
In Iowa on Thursday, DeSantis spoke with reporters and defended the creation of the new standards, arguing that Harris was trying to “demagogue” the issue. He then compared the line in the new standards to language in the framework of an AP African American Studies course, which Florida initially rejected, about how enslaved people “learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians and healers in the North and South.”
“Once free, African Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others,” the AP African American Studies course framework says.
On Wednesday night, Donalds, a former DeSantis ally who has endorsed former President Donald Trump, tweeted, “Anyone who can’t accurately interpret what I said is disingenuous and is desperately attempting to score political points.”
In an interview with CBS News Thursday, DeSantis denied he’s picking a fight with Donalds.
“You had nobody raising a ruckus about this until it became convenient to try to do it, so I would just say, you know, I’d ask all my colleagues in Florida, stand up for your state, don’t side with Kamala Harris,” he said.
— Aaron Navarro, Musadiq Bidar and Laura Garrison contributed to this report.
Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani has declared himself the new leader of Niger after a dramatic coup.
Also known as Omar Tchiani, he staged a takeover which started on Wednesday when the presidential guards unit he led seized the country’s leader.
This shatters Niger’s first peaceful and democratic transition since independence in 1960.
President Mohamed Bazoum is thought to be in good health, and still held captive by his own guards.
The coup has been roundly condemned by international bodies including the African Union, West African regional bloc (Ecowas), the EU and the UN.
Gen Tchiani, 62, has been in charge of the presidential guard since 2011 and was promoted to the rank of general in 2018 by former President Mahamadou Issoufou.
Speaking in a televised address, Gen Tchiani said his junta took over because of several problems in Niger, including insecurity, economic woes and corruption, amongst other matters.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
This month, parts of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico were more than 5 degrees F warmer than normal. In recent days, a patch of the North Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada — a region normally kept relatively cool by the Labrador Current — was an astounding 9 degrees F warmer than usual, according to Frédéric Cyr, a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a department of the Canadian government that oversees marine science and policy and manages the country’s fisheries.
Scientists pay close attention to marine heat waves because the world’s oceans are crucial for the planet’s ability to store heat. Studies have found that Earth’s oceans have absorbed about 90% of the heat trapped on the planet from greenhouse gas emissions since 1970.
As climate change causes the world to warm, sea surface temperatures can offer clues about the health of these bodies of water. As such, the extent of the heat wave unfolding in the North Atlantic, its severity and its duration are all cause for alarm, Ryan said.
“As a scientist, you know this is well within the range of what climate models predict would happen at some point, but to see it actually happening is kind of scary,” she said.
Some impacts are being felt already. The soaring sea surface temperatures off Florida are imperiling the region’s coral reef. Scientists have warned that the heat wave could trigger mass die-offs of coral, which could have profound implications for marine ecosystems in the area.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, researchers are tracking changes in the distribution of fish as the waters warm. Ryan said certain tropical fish species are expanding their range, venturing further north than normal. Other animals, such as whales, are shifting their movements to match their prey.
“We’re seeing some animals compress their habitats, or some shift latitudinally if they’re capable,” Ryan said. “Or, like the corals in Florida, they just have no chance and die off.”
Kathy Mills, a research scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, said the long-term consequences of such warm waters may not even be known because such conditions have no comparison in recorded history.
“This is out of the realm of anything we’ve observed or been able to observe in the past,” she said, “So we don’t even have data to turn to in order to understand what the impacts of temperatures this hot for such large regions might be.”
Many consequences are also not detectable right away, said Cyr.
“It’s a bit too soon to understand what’s going on,” he said, adding that capturing the full implications for fisheries, marine species and ocean health requires time — and plenty of data.
Mills similarly said that it can take months to conduct biological surveys and work with fisheries to measure outcomes. She said, however, that the warming observed in recent months has been unusually widespread.
“Globally there are very few places that are cooler than usual,” she said. “You would typically expect sort of a balance, but we have a large portion of the ocean that is hotter than long-term averages, and the certain regions experiencing these really exceptional temperatures.”
This year, El Niño conditions are also expected to play a role, compounding background warming from climate change. El Niño, a natural climate cycle characterized by warmer-than-usual waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, can have a significant effect on rainfall, hurricanes and other severe weather. El Nińo typically also increases average air and sea temperatures.
That means sea surface temperatures may continue to climb.
“The fact that this could be even more extreme if we had a strong El Niño already set up and in place is just shocking,” Mills said.
Denise Chow
Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.
Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio loved going to Starbucks and ordering a sweetened tall peach green tea lemonade and a cake pop, showing off bright colors like yellow, pink and turquoise. She wanted to grow up to play softball in college and become a lawyer. But the 10-year-old fourth-grader never got the chance – last May, she was among 21 people killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Now, her mom is running to be the city’s mayor, saying in a message to her daughter, “I will honor your life with action.”
“I grieve for the woman you would have become and all the difference you would have made in this world. I grieve for the woman I was when you were still here,” Kimberly Mata-Rubio wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday, along with a photo of a newspaper article announcing her mayoral run. “But, one part of me still exist, I am still your mom.”
10-year-old Lexi Rubio was among the young victims of the Uvalde school shooting
According to Uvalde Leader-News, the 34-year-old mother of five will run for the mayoral seat this November. Mata-Rubio has lived in the city her entire life, graduating from Uvalde High School in 2007. She’s also an award-winning journalist, the local paper – where she is employed as an advertising executive – says.
Mata-Rubio told the paper that she wants to “represent the underserved…whose voices matter but have long been unheard.”
“It would be easy to run from the issues that plague our town, but I have decided to remain in Uvalde and be part of the change that is long overdue,” Mata-Rubio told the Uvalde Leader-News. “…Our leadership became comfortable, which led to the events that unfolded on May 24, 2022. The aftermath has added to the trauma of a grieving and fractured community. It is my hope to bridge the gap because only when we come together can we evolve to something greater.”
Her daughter, Lexi, was among the 19 children killed at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. Just hours before the shooting unfolded, Mata-Rubio was at the school as Lexi was recognized for getting on the “A” honor roll and was awarded the “good citizen award.”
“We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school,” Mata-Rubio wrote on Facebook the day after the shooting. “We had no idea this was goodbye.”
In her first run for an elected office position, Mata-Rubio is seeking to take the seat left by Don McLaughlin, who has served as the city’s mayor since 2014. He announced earlier this month that he is stepping down to run for the District 80 state House seat, according to The Texas Tribune. The city is now planning a special election this November for his replacement, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
If elected, the Uvalde Leader-News says Mata-Rubio would be the first woman and third Hispanic mayor of the city.
Li Cohen
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.
A largely semi-desert country, Chad is rich in gold and uranium and stands to benefit from its recently-acquired status as an oil-exporting state.
Chad’s post-independence history has been marked by instability and violence, stemming mostly from tension between the mainly Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly Christian and animist south.
Chad became an oil-producing nation in 2003, with the completion of a $4bn pipeline linking its oilfields to terminals on the Atlantic coast.
However, it suffers from inadequate infrastructure, and internal conflict with rebels in the north, exacerbated by a jihadist insurgency across the Sahel region and Lake Chad Basin.
Capital: N’Djamena
Area: 1,284,000 sq km
Population: 17.9 million
Languages: French, Arabic
Life expectancy: 51 years (men) 54 years (women)
Transitional President: General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno
Chadian military leader, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno
General Déby took over as transitional leader in April 2021 following the death of his father President Idriss Déby in a military operation against rebels.
Déby had come to power himself in 1990 after toppling the dictator Hissene Habré. He later set up Chad’s first multi-party political system, and went on to win successive elections.
Elections had been scheduled for the second half of 2022. but these have been postponed until at least October 2024.
Lake Chad is an important source of water for millions of people in the four countries surrounding it
Although legally there is freedom of the press, in practice this is restricted. Criticism of the government is generally permitted but reporters commonly self-censor to avoid reprisals.
Media outlets can have their own editorial line, but investigative reporting that is critical of senior government officials and their close associates is not tolerated, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The remote Ennedi mountains in the Sahara, in northeastern Chad.
Some key dates in Chad’s history:
1883-93 – Sudanese adventurer Rabih al-Zubayr conquers the kingdoms of Ouadai, Baguirmi and Kanem-Bornu, situated in what is now Chad.
1900 – France defeats al-Zubayr’s army, completing its conquest in 1913. Chad becomes a colony.
1946 – Chad becomes a French overseas territory with its own territorial parliament and representation in the French National Assembly.
1960 – Chad becomes independent.
1963 – The banning of political parties triggers violent opposition in the Muslim north.
1966 – Northern revolt develops into a fully-fledged guerrilla war.
1973 – French troops help put down the northern revolt, but Frolinat continues guerrilla operations throughout the 1970s and 1980s with the help of weapons supplied by Libya.
1977 – Libya annexes the Aouzou strip, and sends in troops in 1980 to support President Goukouni Oueddei in his fight against the Army of the North, led by a former prime minister, Hissene Habré.
1981 – Libyan troops withdraw at Oueddei’s request.
1982 – Habré seizes power. He is later accused of mass political killings during his rule.
1983 – The Organisation of African Unity recognises Habré’s government, but Oueddei’s forces continue resistance in the north with Libyan help.
1987 – The combined troops of Frolinat and the Chadian government, with French and US assistance, force Libya out of the entire northern region apart from the Aouzou strip and parts of Tibesti.
1990 – Coup leader Hissene Habre toppled by former ally Idriss Déby.
1994 – International Court of Justice rejects Libyan claims on Aouzou and rules that Chad had sovereignty over the strip.
1996 – Déby wins Chad’s first multi-party presidential election.
1998 – The Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad, led by Déby’s former Defence Minister, Youssouf Togoimi, begins armed rebellion against the government.
2006 – Rebels seeking to oust President Déby battle government forces outside the capital. Hundreds are killed. Chad cuts diplomatic ties with Sudan, accusing it of backing the rebels.
State of emergency imposed in eastern areas bordering Sudan’s Darfur region after a spate of ethnic violence.
2007 – UN Security Council authorises a UN-EU peacekeeping force to protect civilians from violence spilling over from Darfur in neighbouring Sudan.
2009 – Eight rebel groups unite to form new rebel alliance, the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR). EU peacekeepers in eastern Chad hand over to a new, larger UN force known as Minurcat.
2010 – President Déby and Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir hold talks in Khartoum, their first meeting for six years; President al-Bashir says Sudan is ready for full normalisation of ties.
Chad and Sudan agree to deploy joint force to monitor situation along their shared border. Chad-Sudan border reopens seven years after Darfur conflict forced its closure.
2012 – Chad calls on countries neighbouring northern Nigeria to set up a joint military force to tackle Boko Haram militants.
Senegal, African Union agree to set up special tribunal to try Chad’s former leader Hissene Habré.
Leader of rebel group FPR, Abdel Kader Baba Ladde, surrenders.
2016 – Hissene Habré is found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison by an African Union-backed court in Senegal.
2021 – President Déby dies during military operation against rebel group.
2023 – Chad plans for a referendum on a new constitution aimed at returning it to civilian rule.
In 2016 Hissene Habre was convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture during eight years of repression in the 1980s
Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last year, have filed a motion seeking to get his indictment in the slayings dismissed, a court filing shows.
In the filing, dated Tuesday, attorneys for Kohberger, 28, argue that the grand jury was “misled as to the standard of proof required for an indictment.”
They say the grand jury should have been informed that the standard of proof required for an indictment would be “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
However, they argue that the grand jury was instead “erroneously instructed” with the standard of proof required for a “presentment,” which they say would mean having a “reasonable ground for believing the defendant has committed” an alleged offense.
“The failure to properly instruct a Grand Jury as to the standard of proof is grounds for dismissal of the Indictment,” the filing states.
More on the Idaho slayings
If the judge refuses to dismiss the indictment, Kohberger’s defense team has asked for a new preliminary hearing to determine whether the case should move forward. The Latah County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment.
Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho, on Nov. 13. Any potential motive remains unknown.
Kohberger, a doctoral candidate at nearby Washington State University studying criminology, was arrested on Dec. 30 in Monroe County in northeastern Pennsylvania.
A grand jury in Latah County indicted him on murder charges on May 16, and he was arraigned on May 22, with a judge entering a not guilty plea on all murder charges.
Attorneys for Kohberger recently suggested they had evidence that would corroborate him being at a location other than the crime scene on the night of the slayings that left four University of Idaho students dead.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have previously said in court documents that DNA on a knife sheath found at the off-campus home where the four students were killed directly links Kohberger to the crime scene.
A June 16 filing from the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office said law enforcement officials used investigative genetic genealogy to link DNA found on the sheath to the suspect. The investigation found the DNA was at least 5.37 octillion times more likely to be Kohberger’s than an unrelated member of the public, according to the document.
Law enforcement sources had previously told NBC News that DNA played a role in helping investigators identify Kohberger as a suspect.
Kohberger’s trial is tentatively set to begin on Oct. 2.
Chantal Da Silva
Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based in London.
The remains of a German climber who has been missing since 1986 have been recovered on a glacier in the Swiss Alps, the Valais canton police said on Thursday.
On July 12, climbers found human remains and several pieces of equipment on the Theodule glacier, in southern Switzerland.
The remains were transported to a hospital and “DNA comparisons allowed to establish that this was an alpinist who had disappeared in September 1986,” the police said in a statement.
Climbers found human remains and several pieces of equipment on the Theodule glacier, police said.
Valais canton police
Then 38 years old, the man went missing after failing to return from a climb. A search undertaken at the time was unsuccessful.
Police did not identify the climber but published of photo of a hiking boot sticking out of the snow that apparently belonged to the missing man.
Climate change has accelerated the melting of glaciers, which has led to the discovery of bodies of climbers who vanished over the decades.
In August 2017, Italian mountain rescue crews recovered the remains of hikers on a glacier on Mont Blanc’s southern face likely dating from the 1980s or 1990s.
The month before that, a shrinking glacier in Switzerland revealed the bodies of a frozen couple who went missing 75 years ago.
Marcelin Dumoulin and his wife, Francine, were 40 and 37 years old when they disappeared on Aug. 15, 1942. Regional police told local media in July that their bodies were discovered near a ski lift on the glacier by a worker for an adventure resort company.
In 2016, the bodies of a renowned mountain climber and expedition cameraman who were buried in a Himalayan avalanche in 1999 were found partially melting out of a glacier.
In 2015, the remains of two Japanese climbers who went missing in 1970 on
Switzerland’s famous Matterhorn were found and their identities were confirmed through the DNA testing, Reuters reported.
In 2022, Switzerland’s glaciers lost a record 6% of their volume — almost double the previous record in 2003, Reuters reported.
Algeria, a gateway between Africa and Europe, has been battered by violence over the past half-century.
There are conflicting reports about the death toll during the war against France for independence in the 1950s and early 60s. French historians estimate that up to 400,000 Algerians were killed, while the Algerian government says more than one million people died.
The country later endured a brutal internal conflict after when elections that Islamists appeared certain to win were cancelled in 1992; a low-level Islamist insurgency still affects Algeria.
The Sahara desert covers more than four-fifths of the land. Algeria is the continent’s biggest country, and is the world’s 10th largest.
Oil and gas reserves were discovered there in the 1950s, but most Algerians live along the northern coast.
Capital: Algiers
Area: 2,381,741 sq km
Population: 29.3 million
Languages: Arabic, Tamazight, plus French
Life expectancy: 75 years (men) 78 years (women)
President: Abdelmadjid Tebboune
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune
Abdelmadjid Tebboune won the December 2019 presidential election from a field candidates all associated with the era of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the long-serving head of state forced out of office by mass protests in April.
The opposition boycotted the election, demanding a clean sweep of the military-dominated elite and a sustained campaign against corruption.
Mr Tebboune has pledged to carry out the necessary reforms, but the former civil servant faces a serious challenge in winning over public trust.
The town of Guerara
Press freedom in Algeria has been further restricted following a 2023 law passed by the country’s parliament. The measure tightens media ownership rules and empowers courts to force journalists to reveal their sources.
Domestic media outlets will be banned from receiving overseas funding and dual-nationals prevented from owning press or broadcasting companies.
Algerians endured a long and bitter struggle for independence
Some key dates in Algeria’s history:
c. 600BC – Carthaginians expand settlements along the North African coast.
4th Century BC – Berbers form the single largest element of the Carthaginian army.
241-238BC – Revolt of the Mercenaries: Berber soldiers rebel after being unpaid following Carthage’s defeat by Rome in the First Punic War.
146BC – Carthage is destroyed by Roman forces under Scipio Africanus.
2nd Century BC – Emergence of the Berber kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania.
24AD – Berber kingdoms become part of the Roman Empire.
429 – Germanic Vandals invade North Africa and set up kingdom based on Carthage.
477-578 – Rise of the Mauro-Roman kingdom, an independent Christian Berber kingdom centred in Altava.
533-34 – Byzantine forces under Belisarius drive out the Vandals as part of the Emperor Justinian’s reconquest of the Western Roman Empire.
578-708 – Kingdom of Altava is a successor state to the previous Berber kingdom. It flourishes until the conquest of the area by the Umayyad Caliphate in the seventh and eighth centuries.
972-1148 – Zirids: a Berber dynasty from modern-day Algeria rules the central Maghreb from 972 to 1014 and the eastern Maghreb from 972 to 1148.
1050s-1147 – Almoravids: A Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco established an 11th Century empire over the western Maghreb (North Africa) and Al-Andalus (southern Spain) starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almohads in 1147.
1121-1269 – Almohads: A North African Berber Muslim empire that at its height, controls much of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.
1235-1557 – Zayyanids: A Berber dynasty centred on the town of Tlemcen in northwest Algeria.
1509 – Spanish conquer Oran.
1512 – Turkish privateer brothers Oruç and Hayreddin – both known to contemporary Europeans as Barbarossa or “Red Beard” – operate successfully off Tunisia.
1519 – After a Spanish attempt to take Algiers, an assembly of Algerian notables asks the Ottoman Sultan Selim to make Algiers part of the Ottoman Empire. Hayreddin Barbarossa is named Beylerbey of Algiers, or emir of emirs. The province becomes key for the Turks who see it as the spearhead of Ottoman power in the western Mediterranean.
1681-88 – French-Algerian War: part of a wider campaign by France against the Barbary pirates – mainly Muslim pirates and privateers operating from North Africa to capture slaves for the Ottoman slave trade. In addition to seizing merchant ships, they raided coastal towns and villages in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal but also in the British Isles, Netherlands, and Iceland.
1783-1784 – Following attacks on Spanish merchant shipping, the Spanish navy and allies bombard Algiers, destroying much of its fortifications.
1815 – The Second Barbary War: between the United States and the Barbary Coast states of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers.
1816 – Britain and the Netherlands bombard Algiers in a bid to force the local ruler to stop enslaving Europeans. However, this does not completely end until the French conquest of Algeria.
1830 – French conquest of Algeria. France invades and quickly takes Algiers and seizes other coastal communities. Additional military forces were brought in over the following years to quell resistance in the interior, and to encourage colonists to settle and farm.
1848 – Algeria becomes a department of France, an integral part of France itself. It is a destination for hundreds of thousands of European colonists. Many Europeans settle in Oran and Algiers, and formed a majority of the population in both cities by the early 20th Century – about a fifth of the total population of Algeria.
1939-1945 – The Collapse of France and the Anglo-American occupation of North Africa during World War Two encourages hopes for independence.
1945 – Pro-independence demonstrations in Setif. Thousands of Algerians are killed in suppression of ensuing unrest.
1954-1962 – Algerian War of Independence. A major armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front or FLN which sees Algeria winning its independence from France. It is a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. It also becomes a civil war between the different communities and within communities. Death totals vary between 400,000 and 1.5 million. Up to a million European colonists leave Algeria.
1962 – Algeria becomes independent.
1976 – Algerian, Moroccan armies clash over Western Sahara.
1989 – New constitution removes the one-party state and moves country away from socialism to western capitalism.
1991-2002 – Algerian Civil War: With the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)dominating the first of two rounds of legislative elections in 1991, and fearing the election of an Islamist government, the authorities cancel the elections. They ban the FIS, triggering a civil war between Algeria’s armed forces and various Islamist rebel groups. Islamist militants conduct a violent campaign of civilian massacres. More than 100,000 people are thought to have died.
1999 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika becomes president and introduces national reconciliation policy.
2007 onwards – Islamist insurgency campaign in the Maghreb and Sahel by Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM, an Islamist militant organization that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state.
2019 – President Bouteflika announces he will step down after street protests, driven by decade-long economic stagnation, unemployment, labour market segmentation and chronic corruption.
Villagers took to arming themselves during the 1990s insurrection by Islamists
