Foreign Tit Bits Today
By Yadnom Awu/ Asaba
America
FG Shutdown Forces Mass Flight Cancellations
Thousands of flights have been cancelled in America following the shutdown of the major activities of the Federal Government of that country.
The shutdown is affecting the operations of more than 40 airports , and officials of the Federal Aviation Administration say that between 1,800 and 2,000 flights have been cancelled today and through the weekend.
The cancellations tag at roughly 4 percent of the country’ s daily total flights, but the volume of annulled flights is expected to rise to 10 percent early next week, if the shutdown, now in its 38th day, persists till then.
The cancellations were triggered by the inability of tens of thousands of unpaid Federal Government employees to sustain activities at the control towers of airports due to stress arising from their second jobs to which they had resorted to earn money to meet their needs.
They had been unpaid since October 3.
The cancellations today means that 268,000 seats are not available to take up on the routes.
The aviation sector contributes $250 billion to the American economy per annum.
America’s last similar mass cancellations of flights was in 1981.
The current shutdown is the longest in American history.
Jamaica.
Hurricane Melissa Cost Jamaica 30 Percent GDP Losses- UNDP
Days after it struck the Caribbean Island nation of Jamaica, the United Nations has estimated that Hurricane Melissa caused damage estimated at 30 percent of the country ‘s Gross Domestic Product GDP.
Kishan Khoday, an official of the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP), disclosed this.
He said that the figure of 30 percent was a tentative one, and that it could ultimately be much higher.
Melissa, the strongest storm to have hit Jamaica , caused much losses in public and private property, aside from fatalities.
The low lying coastline areas of Black River were most hit.
The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Hulness, had appealed for international support after the hurricane wreaked havoc, including the compromise of public power supply to more than 500,000 persons.
America….
Trump Says Kazakhstan To Join Abraham Accord.
The President of America, Donald Trump,, has said that the Asian country of Kazakhstan is set to join the Abraham Accord.
The Accord, the flower of Trump’s diplomatic engagements in his first term, is an agreement under which signatory countries concede to have full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state of Israel.
Trump made the announcement in Washington, and the development is seen as a part of the package of efforts to help Israel return to the warmth of the international community after its unprecedented isolation following its highly controversial war on Gaza.
Kazakhstan already had an embassy in Tel-Aviv before the announcement and the development is seen as a symbolic gesture.
Sudan
RSF Sign Up To Ceasefire Proposal
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has said that it had agreed to the proposal for a three- month ceasefire.
It said that it welcomed the move , which,it added, was purely for humanitarian reasons.
The proposal was put forward by a coalition of countries led by America, which President, Donald Trump, had expressed the hope that an acceptable political solution could be found to end the crisis afflicting the country.
However, the Sudanese Army had yet to respond to the proposal.
The Prime Minister of Sudan, Kamil Idris, had warned that the crisis in the country could affect the region and much of the rest of Africa, unless it was promptly resolved.
America
Shareholders, Directors Okay $1 rillion Pay For Elon Musk
The board of Tesla, one of the world s leading producers of electric vehicles and space craft, has approved an annual package of $1 trillion for its founder and Chief Executive, Elon Musk.
Musk is the single richest man in the world, and the proposed pay is potentially the highest for any individual in the world.
However, the pay is conditional on his firm, Tesla, being able to sell 20 million electric vehicles and 1 million robots per annum.
