The White House has warned that the US government faces a second shutdown in three weeks as Congress encounters obstacles to pass a temporary spending bill before midnight.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget “is currently preparing for a lapse in appropriations,” an OMB official said Thursday, calling on lawmakers to get the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk “without delay.”

With just hours to go before current federal funding expires, the effort stalled in the Senate when one lawmaker blocked a quick vote on the compromise bill in the upper chamber of Congress.

The legislation, which extends government funding for six weeks and raises the federal debt ceiling, would break the cycle of government funding crises.

Republicans and Democrats agreed Wednesday on a two-year deal to increase government spending. But the bill hit a stumbling block after Senator Rand Paul refused to allow the Senate to act expeditiously to pass the spending measure.

Moving legislation swiftly through the Senate requires consent by all 100 members, but Paul objected.

The legislation is expected to increase the bulging federal deficit which is estimated to be around $440 billion for fiscal year 2018.

“I can’t in all good honesty and all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits,” Paul said.

If the Republican senator from Kentucky stands his ground, congressional rules dictate that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can declare a new session at midnight Friday, then hold a procedural vote on the spending bill one hour into the new day. A final vote would follow.

If passed, the bill would then head to the House of Representatives. If it passes, it would be sent to the White House for a signature by Trump, who supports the measure.

But the deal’s fate in the lower chamber is far from certain. Fiscal conservatives in the House may join with Paul in balking at adding billions of dollars to the national debt two months after passing a $1.5 trillion tax cut package.

The US government shut down for two days last month after a failure to pass legislation to fund government operations and agencies.

There have been four government shutdowns between 1990 and 2017. In 2013, government funding lapsed for 16 full days and more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.

Source: Presstv

France is planning to spend $33 billion (€27bn) to upgrade its arsenal of nuclear weapons as part of a massive $370 billion (€300bn) military spending over the next few years to meet the NATO military alliance’s requirements, the French defense chief has announced.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, French Defense Minister Florence Parly said Paris wanted to increase its military budget so that it can “hold its own” as a key power in Europe.

“The government’s goal is twofold: reach the target of spending two percent of GDP on defense by 2025, while also ensuring we manage our public finances,” Parly said.

France spends $42 billion (€34bn) or 1.8 percent of its GDP for military purposes, slightly less than the two-percent threshold set by NATO.

Under the new plan, President Emmanuel Macron’s government increases overall spending by $2 billion (€1.7bn) a year starting from 2019 until 2022, when it will reach $53 billion (€44bn). Then the budget would be bumped up by $3.6 billion (€3bn) a year between 2023 and 2025.

By then, Paris is supposed to have completed the expensive revamp of its nuclear arsenal, with work on a third-generation nuclear submarine program and a new generation of airborne nuclear missiles already underway today.

“We are going to make up for past shortfalls and build a modern, sustainable, protective army” that would allow France “to hold its own,” said Parly.

French military forces are currently deployed to West Africa on a declared mission to fight militant groups.

The country is also a main contributor to a US-led coalition that has been targeting alleged terrorist positions in Iraq and Syria since 2015.

The years-long operations have put strain on France’s military forces and equipment.

With thousands of troops overseas, the new program allows the defense department to perform a host of upgrades on equipment, from bullet-proof vests to combat uniforms.

There will also be a 34-percent increase in spending on “modernizing weaponry,” which includes buying new Scorpion armored vehicles, four Barracuda attack submarines and three multi-mission frigates, as well as a new fleet of Griffon multi-role armored vehicles.

There are also plans to develop new spy satellites, light surveillance aircraft, new Rafale fighter jets and armed drones. Air tankers are also on the long list of upgrades.

The development is a major reversal in France’s military strategy over the past years and is expected to please US President Donald Trump, who has put NATO allies under pressure to increase their military budgets.

Source: Presstv

There have been speculations concerning the whereabouts of Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, who has been missing in action for some time now. But yesterday’s establishment of the constitutional council and the appointment of its members is causing more controversy. Yesterday’s presidential decrees established a constitutional council provided for in the 1996 constitution and appointed members of the said council. 77-year-old Clement Atangana, a legal expert of Beti extraction, who has been on retirement for more than ten years, was appointed as head of the constitutional council, while other very old faces were appointed as members of the same council in the same decree. Members of the council are members of the ruling CPDM and people who are personally loyal to the country’s president and his collaborators.

The appointment of these old and retired Cameroonians underscores the fact that Mr. Biya is not yet ready to give Cameroonian youths a place in today’s Cameroon. Besides marginalizing youths, Mr. Biya is still pursuing his policy of Anglophone marginalization by appointing only Francophones to head major government institutions. It should be underscored at this point that all heads of important structures in Cameroon are Francophones despite the ongoing Anglophone crisis which was triggered by the government’s marginalization of the country’s English-speaking minority.

But this is not what is concerning Southern Cameroonians in particular. Southern Cameroonians are still fighting for their secession and they are hell-bent on quitting a marriage that has brought them more pain than gain. There has been serious fighting in many towns in the Southwest region of the country, with many young men being killed in cold blood by army soldiers. Our sources say some of the young men killed had nothing to do with the rebellion that is unfolding in the English-speaking regions of the country.

It should be recalled that some towns such as Kwakwa in the Southwest region have been erased from the country’s map as army soldiers have burnt all the houses and sent everybody into exile. Currently, Mbonge in the same region is being attacked by army soldiers who are killing and maiming any young men they find in the town.

It is worth pointing out that the greatest concern to many Cameroonians is the whereabouts of their president who has not been seen in public for many weeks. The signatures on the two presidential decrees released yesterday are different and this is causing many Cameroonians to argue that those signatures were forged to give the impression that Mr. Biya who is suspected of either being dead is alive.

Over the last week, there have been rumors that Mr. Biya who is suffering from cancer and a failing heart is gradually heading to his grave. Some sources had even indicated that he had died and that there was commotion among his supporters who are all scared of losing their positions and influence.

A Cameroon Intelligence Report’s source at the Unity Palace, which elected unanimity, had informed our cream of intelligence officers in Yaoundé that everything pointed to the demise of the 85-year-old dictator who has ruled the Central African country for 35 years with an iron fist.

The source added that given the way in which government officials had been visiting the Unity Palace over the last week, it was clear that Mr.Biya was no more. The atmosphere at the presidential palace was tense and government officials had been holding meetings to come up with a common response so as to keep the population in the dark.

Our source added that members of the Cameroon strong man’s entourage were working hard to keep the information from the public place in the pious belief that they could change things to suit their intention.

He stressed that the Secretary General at the presidency had been holding a series of meetings with some of his collaborators who were advising him to issue decrees that would usher in constitutional changes on Mr. Biya’s behalf and the appointment of Clement Atangana is one of the changes the Beti Mafia was advocating.

The calling of senatorial elections next month, our soured added, was one of the moves designed by the Beti Mafia to kick out the current senate president, Marcel Nyat Njifenji, so that it could retain power even after Mr. Biya was dead and gone.

Under the country’s current constitution, the constitutional successor is the president of the senate, Marcel Nyat Njifenji, himself 83 years old and a collapsing figure who has been involved in the corruption and mismanagement that have become the country’s hallmark. Many Cameroonians hold that if the country has to change significantly, figures like the senate president and national assembly speaker have to disappear from the political scene.

By Kingsley Betek with files from Rita Akana in Yaounde

The United Nations says over 300 child soldiers have been released by armed groups in war-ravaged South Sudan under a scheme to help reintegrate them into society.

According to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), at least 311 children, 87 of them girls, were released by armed groups on Wednesday in Yambio, which is located in the south of the country.

David Shearer, the UN secretary general’s special representative and head of UNMISS, said in a statement that the children would soon begin reintegrating into their communities and learning new skills to support themselves. “This is the first time so many young women have been involved in a release like this in South Sudan,” the statement read.

“They will have endured suffering, including sexual abuse. It is vital that they receive the support they need to rejoin their communities and that they are welcomed home by family and friends without any sense of stigma.”

“Children should not be carrying guns and killing each other. They should be playing, learning, having fun with friends, protected and cherished by the adults around them,” Shearer said.

The integration program in Yambio is aimed at helping 700 child soldiers return to normal life. Of these, 563 are part of President Salva Kiir’s force and 137 are with rebels.

The UN peacekeeping force, acting in unison with the UN children’s agency UNICEF, is negotiating the release of child soldiers in other regions of the country.

“This is a crucial step in achieving our ultimate goal of having all of the thousands of children still in the ranks of armed groups reunited with their families,” said Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF’s Representative in South Sudan. “It is the largest release of children in nearly three years and it is vital that negotiations continue so there are many more days like this.”

Civil war broke out in South Sudan in December 2013, just two years after the country became independent, when disagreements between President Kiir and then Vice President Riek Machar turned into an armed conflict between their loyalists. While fighting generally subsided early last year, clashes once again intensified in July 2016.

Tens of thousands of people have died and more than four million people have been driven from their homes, while millions of others are suffering from hunger in a humanitarian crisis expected to worsen as the lean season sets in.

The UN and international rights groups have on numerous occasions accused both Machar’s loyalists and government troops of committing atrocities during their military operations.

Source: Presstv