fDiIntelligence.com Alex Irwin-Hunt Covid-19 precipitated a global stalling of the tourism industry. Now, as vaccine rollouts help lockdown measures ease, investment into the tourism cluster has started to pick back up, with domestic tourism leading the recovery. Get the full report from fDi Intelligence, in association with the UN World Tourism Organisation, here. The pandemic has battered the global tourism industry, with investment and job creation declining significantly in 2020, according to a report published today by fDi Intelligence, in association with the UN World Tourism O ..read more

By ANDREW RETTMAN EU Observer The European Parliament (EP) has blacklisted eight MEPs and reprimanded three others for going on fake election-observation trips. But a co-chair of the body that imposed the sanctions was said to have taken a soft approach to a member of his own political family, risking accusations of partisanship. Italian centre-right MEP Fulvio Martusciello treated more favourably (Photo: ep.europa.eu) Five of the blacklisted MEPs were French politicians from the EP’s far-right Identity and Democracy group. These were Virigine Joron, Hervé Juvin, Jean-Lin Lacapelle ..read more

Africa News Standard Bank Group was on Wednesday named African Bank of the Year by a leading publication in recognition of the banking giant’s achievements in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and empowering women. African Banker (https://bit.ly/2T1pgvl) magazine announced the winners of its 2021 Awards at a virtual ceremony held on the side-lines of the African Development Bank’s 2021 Annual Meetings. The African Development Bank is a high patron of the event. The 2021 virtual event featured performances by African diva Angelique Kidjo and Adina, a Ghanaian-South African singer. The award f ..read more

Nairametrics  by William Ukpe Earlier this month, the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub (Trade Hub) awarded a $1.4 million co-investment grant to OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Limited (OCP Africa), a firm in the production of phosphate-based fertilizers, to install modern blending equipment within its fertilizer blending plant facility under construction in Kaduna State. OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Limited, a brainchild of OCP Africa SA, a subsidiary of the state-owned Moroccan company OCP Group, announced that the facility and equipment will produce various fer ..read more

AP By LORNE COOK European Union leaders pushed ahead Thursday with plans to outsource the bloc’s migration policy challenges by spending billions of euros to improve cooperation from countries that people leave or cross when they set out for Europe. Long unable to agree on who should take responsibility for migrants when they come and whether other members of the 27-nation EU should be obliged to help, the leaders focused instead on how to prevent people from arriving in the first place. At their summit in Brussels, they said that “mutually beneficial partnerships and cooperation with countrie ..read more

Sahara News by Lemine Ould Sidi Morocco has achieved “very concrete” results in terms of inclusion to reach an enrolment rate of 90% for refugee and migrant children, stressed, Friday in Rabat, the Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Morocco, François Reybet-Degat. Reybet-Degat was speaking at a press briefing on the occasion of the signing of a partnership agreement between UNHCR and ESSEC Business School. The UN official also highlighted the efforts made by Morocco in terms of protection and assistance to refugees for whom the Kingdom is now a ..read more

Sahara News by Lemine Ould Sidi Morocco’s ambassador to Nairobi, El Mokhtar Ghambou, called on Kenya, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, to support the autonomy plan presented by the Kingdom to achieve a solution to the Moroccan Sahara issue. “I call on the Kenyan government to support the autonomy plan for the southern provinces under Moroccan sovereignty, an initiative hailed and adopted by many world powers, such as the United States, and deemed as ‘serious and credible’ by the UN Security Council,” said the Moroccan diplomat in an interview broadcast Thursday by KTN Ne ..read more

Source: Xinhua Editor: huaxia Israel’s leading airline El Al announced on Friday the launch of two direct flight routes to Morocco starting July 25, the first of their kind between the two countries. Thus, the airline will conduct flights between Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv and the Moroccan cities of Casablanca and Marrakesh. El Al’s historic direct routes to Morocco follow the normalization agreement signed between the two countries in December 2020. The airline said flights to Morocco would take about five hours on each direction, and ticket prices would start ..read more

Source: Xinhua Editor: huaxia A UN office for counter-terrorism and training was inaugurated on Thursday in Rabat, as a training hub to build counter-terrorism capacities and boost cooperation in the African continent. According to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the office will develop and deliver specialized counter-terrorism and law enforcement training programs to member states in north and sub-Saharan Africa, with initial focus on the Sahel region. Speaking during the inauguration ceremony, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said that this inauguration “falls naturally wit ..read more

Sahara News by Lemine Ould Sidi The opening in Rabat of the United Nations Office for Counter-Terrorism and Training in Africa (UNOCT) is part of Morocco’s vocation and engagement, under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, towards its continent, said Thursday minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita. The opening of this program office for Africa in Rabat “falls naturally within Morocco’s vocation and engagement towards Africa under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI. It confirms Morocco’s role as a regional hub, provider ..read more