PUEAA

Can India’s Rahul Gandhi defeat Narendra Modi with ‘unity marches’?
ALJAZEERA
The opposition launches its 2024 election campaign amid hope among supporters and cynicism from critics.

Putin reelecto: comisión electoral rusa confirma su victoria con 87.28% de los votos
FORBES MÉXICO
'Sobre los resultados generales de la votación, 76,277,708 electores votaron por la candidatura de Putin, lo cual representa el 87.28% de los votos', afirmaron autoridades electorales rusas.

US to suspend UNRWA funding until March 2025
ANADOLU AJANSI
A new spending bill will cut US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) until March 2025, according to the text of the $1.2 trillion legislation released by congressional leaders Thursday.

Madagascar Asks for Restitution of Sakalava King's Skull From France
ALL AFRICA
Two of the great granddaughters of a Sakalava king in Madagascar, who was beheaded in 1897 by colonial troops, publicly addressed the French ambassador, asking him to speed up the restitution of their ancestor's skull.

Senegal's economy 'in hands of women' warns female presidential hopeful
RFI
With promises of boosting the economy and gender equality, business leader Anta Babacar Ngom is the only woman vying for the Senegalese presidency in this Sunday's polls. She told RFI that while hard-working women play a vital role in all sectors of the workforce, they're given little opportunity to thrive.

Algeria to hold presidential vote in September
AFRICA NEWS
The presidency announced the date in a statement Thursday after meeting with a group that included high-ranking members of Parliament and the constitutional court as well as its independent election authority.

Gambia Moves Toward Overturning Landmark Ban on Female Genital Cutting
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Of the 47 members of the Gambia National Assembly present on Monday, 42 voted to send a bill to overturn the ban onward to a committee for consideration before a final vote. Human rights experts, lawyers and women’s and girls’ rights campaigners say that overturning the ban would undo decades of work to end female genital cutting, a centuries-old ritual tied up in ideas of sexual purity, obedience and control.

Japan ends the world’s greatest monetary-policy experiment
THE ECONOMIST
On march 19th officials at the Bank of Japan (boj) announced that, with sustainable inflation of 2% “in sight”, they would scrap a suite of measures instituted to pull the economy out of its deflationary doldrums—marking the end of a radical experiment. The bank raised its interest-rate target on overnight loans for the first time since 2007, from between minus 0.1% and zero to between zero and 0.1%, becoming the last central bank to scrap its negative-interest-rate policy. It will also stop buying exchange-traded funds and abolish its yield-curve-control framework, a tool to cap long-term bond yields. Even so, the boj stressed that its stance would remain accommodative: the withdrawal of its most unconventional policies does not augur the beginning of a tightening cycle.