WORLD BRIEFING: September 3, 2023
Today marks 556 days since Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine
In a front page banner headline, State Runs Out of Money, South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper reported today of a fiscal crisis so dire that cuts will need to be made in spending, and a freeze of new jobs and projects. The crisis is blamed on “the weak performance of the economy and shortfalls in revenue collection,” the paper said citing a Treasury Department letter.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu is recalling the country's ambassadors around the world with immediate effect. Nigeria's United Nations permanent representatives in New York and Geneva are exempted from the "total recall" due to the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) later in the month, Tinubu's office said in a statement - Reuters.
Gabon reopened its borders on Saturday, an army spokesman said, three days after closing them during a military coup in which President Ali Bongo was ousted. Military officers led by General Brice Oligui Nguema seized power Wednesday, placed Bongo under house arrest and installed Nguema as head of state, ending the Bongo family's 56-year hold on power. The coup — the ninth in the continent in three years — has raised concerns about a contagion of military takeovers across the region that have erased democratic progress made in the last two decades. The land, sea and air borders were opened because the junta was "concerned with preserving respect for the rule of law, good relations with our neighbors and all states of the world" and wanted to keep its "international commitments," the army spokesman said on national television - VOA
Russia attacked Ukraine in several waves overnight on Sept. 3 using Iranian-made kamikaze drones, the Air Force said in its morning update. Russia used a total of 25 Shahed-136/131 drones against Ukraine's southern regions that were launched from the occupied Crimea and Russia's port city of Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Krasnodarsk Krai located on the coast of the Sea of Azov. Ukraine's air defense downed 22 drones that targeted Odesa Oblast. Air raid alert was on in Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts in the early hours of Sept. 3 - Kyiv Independent
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rebuffed criticism over the slow pace of Kyiv's nearly three-month-long counteroffensive to retake territory occupied by Russia - RFE/RL
One of Ukraine's most powerful oligarchs, who also happens to be a former patron of President Volodymyr Zelensky, is to be held in custody for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. Ihor Kolomoisky is alleged to have transferred $14m (£11.1m) abroad over seven years, using banks he controlled. His lawyers say he will not post bail and will appeal against the court order. Local TV footage showed Mr Kolomoisky being led away from a district court in Kyiv dressed in a blue FC Dnipro tracksuit jacket on Saturday. His defence team say he is now being held at Ukraine's security service (SBU) headquarters in the city - BBC