World news
Cameroon Polls End Amidst Separatists’ Unrest
Cameroon saw isolated incidents of unrest in separatist Anglophone regions during voting on Sunday in an election widely expected to extend the rule of President Paul Biya, one of Africa’s last multi-decade leaders.
Polls closed at 1700 GMT after a mostly calm day of voting, but a drive by secessionists to disrupt the election meant not all polling stations were open in English-speaking regions, where voter turnout was low due to security fears.
Tallying the nationwide vote could take up to two weeks.
The army said a regional official suffered a minor injury after his convoy was ambushed by rebels. A security source said at least three armed separatists were shot dead by security forces in the northwest English-speaking town of Bamenda.
The reports could not be independently verified and separatist leaders could not be reached for comment.
Victory for Biya, 85, who has ruled for 36 years, would give him a seventh term, bucking a move by some Africa nations to install presidential term limits. The only current African president to have ruled longer is Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
In a speech after casting his vote in the capital Yaounde, Biya did not make specific reference to separatist violence.
“The election campaign took place peacefully,” he said, urging the country to “keep this self-control when the results are out.”
Oil and cocoa producing Cameroon has seen economic growth of over 4 percent a year since Biya was last elected in 2011, but many of its 24 million citizens live in deep poverty.
The secessionist uprising in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, home to five million people, has cost hundreds of lives and forced thousands to flee either to the French-speaking regions or into neighbouring Nigeria.
In the English-speaking regional capital of Buea, military snipers kept watch from rooftops on Sunday, part of the army’s response to separatists’ threat to stop the vote.
Two polling stations in Buea visited by a Reuters witness were not operational as staff did not have sufficient electoral materials. Only a few voters were seen casting ballots at other stations in the area and the streets were almost empty.
Biya did not visit the English-speaking regions during his campaign. A central problem of his rule has been his long bid to centralise a hugely diverse population in a country founded in 1961 on the promise of federalism and autonomy for its regions.
In 2016, protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers against the marginalisation of minority English speakers in their professions led to a heavy-handed clampdown, in which unarmed civilians were shot dead. That radicalised many and armed groups formed in the lush forests of the west.
Some opposition parties have united in an effort to harness discontent about the country’s crumbling infrastructure and about Biya, who they say has ruled Cameroon like a personal fiefdom for too long. The president goes years without convening cabinet meetings and spends long stretches out of the country with his wife Chantal, most often holidaying in Switzerland.
In 2011, Biya won 78 percent of the votes in an election the United States said was “marked by irregularities”. The odds are still against the opposition, including the main candidate, Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front.
Osih urged supporters via Twitter to monitor the count. The authorities have said the election would be free and fair.
“I have come to watch the vote to protect it against theft,” said retired teacher Jean Pierre Tassam, 62, at a polling station in Yaounde where results were being chalked up on a board.
“I am worried what the party of power will steal my vote.”
Of the country’s 24 million people, only 6.5 million were registered to vote as of October 1, according to the election authority, reflecting resignation to a continuation of Biya’s long rule. Polling stations were quiet throughout the day even in the capital.
Government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said the government had taken steps to ensure a smooth election. “It is not impossible that here and there they may be troublemakers,” he told journalists after he voted.
The African Union and other organisations monitored Sunday’s vote, but opposition candidates have already complained of efforts to fix the election in Biya’s favour.
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World news
Trump Slams ‘Unpatriotic’ US House Vote To End Iran War
President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed a vote in the US House seeking to order the withdrawal of American troops from the Iran war, suggesting the “unpatriotic” move disrupted negotiations with Tehran.
The largely symbolic vote came “right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand.”
In a notable rebuke of Trump, four members of his majority Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday in backing the measure, which passed 215-208 and now heads to the Senate.
The measure, which will ultimately face a presidential veto, marked the first time the Republican-controlled House approved a measure seeking to force Trump to wind down military operations against Tehran since the war began three months ago.
Democrats accuse Trump of violating the constitution by launching strikes on Iran alongside Israel in late February without congressional authorization.
Under the War Powers Act, presidents have 60 days to obtain congressional approval after introducing US forces into hostilities. That deadline passed weeks ago, and Democrats say Trump is now breaking the law.
“(Democrats) would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories,” Trump said.
“The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story — They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves.”
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World news
US, Iran Exchange Fire As Negotiations Stall
The United States and Iran said Monday they had again traded strikes, straining an already fragile ceasefire as negotiations between the two sides have stalled.
Weeks of complicated talks marked by sharp rhetoric and occasional flare-ups of violence have not managed to reach a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is essential to oil supplies.
Washington and Tehran have sharp differences on questions like Iranian nuclear efforts and the fighting in Lebanon, which Iran has demanded must stop as part of a broader agreement.
The latest exchange of fire coincided with Israel expanding its offensive in Lebanon, with Prime Minister Netanyahu vowing to push deeper into the country.
This picture, taken from a position in northern Israel on the border with southern Lebanon, shows an Israeli soldier taking position on the balcony of a building on May 31, 2026.
The US military announced that it had carried out “self-defense strikes” on Iranian radar and drone control sites in the southern part of the country over the weekend — its third such wave in just over a week.
The strikes were in response to the downing of a US MQ-1 drone, it added.
Shortly after, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted an “air base from which the attack originated” used by the US military, state broadcaster IRIB reported Monday, without specifying the location of the base.
The Guards’ announcement came on the heels of the Kuwaiti military saying its air defences intercepted “hostile missile and drone attacks”, without mentioning where attack originated.
Sticking Points
Iran was already in talks with the United States about the fate of its nuclear programme in February when the US and Israel launched air and missile strikes that wiped out much of the Islamic Republic’s senior leadership.
While Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear programme is for purely civilian ends, the United States and its Western allies suspect it aims to develop a weapon.
The New York Times and Axios reported on Saturday that Trump had sent back a “tougher” new framework to be considered by Iran, though details remain unclear.
Trump has said his priorities include stopping Iran from developing any nuclear weapons and reopening the Hormuz shipping lane, which Iran has blockaded since the war began.
“The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that, and it was very interesting,” he told his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, in an interview on her Fox News show.
Late Sunday, Trump stressed on Truth Social that the proposed deal “states, very clearly, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon”.
Tehran, however, has previously cast doubt on Trump’s assertions, and the sides remain far apart on key issues.
“We will not approve any agreement until we are certain that the rights of the Iranian people have been upheld,” Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a video broadcast on state television.
According to the Tasnim news agency, exchanges on the text “are ongoing, with both parties regularly proposing amendments”.
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World news
Iran Rules Out US Deal Without Protection Of National Interests
Iran’s chief negotiator said Sunday that Tehran would not agree to any deal with the United States unless it fully secures Iranian rights, as reports emerged that Washington had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Iran.
Any tweaks to the proposal could further delay an agreement to formally end the Middle East war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz after weeks of fraught negotiations marked by sharp rhetoric and occasional flare-ups of violence.
The New York Times and Axios reported on Saturday that Trump had sent back a new framework to be considered by Iran with “tougher” terms, though details remain unclear.
“We will not approve any agreement until we are certain that the rights of the Iranian people have been upheld,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, in a video broadcast on state television.
Trump has said his priorities include stopping Iran from any nuclear weapon development and re-opening the blockaded Hormuz shipping lane.
“The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that, and it was very interesting,” he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview broadcast on her Fox News program on Saturday night.
But Tehran has previously cast doubt on Trump’s assertions and the sides remain far apart on key issues.
Iran has said it needs the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before engaging in substantive talks on its nuclear program, dismissing earlier Trump comments that its enriched uranium stockpile would be destroyed as “baseless”, according to Iranian media.
Tehran has also insisted that Lebanon be included in any deal, despite ongoing fighting, with Beirut accusing Israel of a “scorched-earth policy” as it expands operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
After previously signalling a deal was close, Trump struck a less urgent tone, hinting at renewed military action in the Fox interview.
“I’m in no hurry,” he said. “If we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end in a different way.”
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