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North Korea

Barack Obama Is Time's Person Of The Year - Kim Jong-Un Reacts

TIME, THE ONION(USA)

Worldcrunch

Even though Kim Jong-un seemed like a shoe-in for Time's Person Of The Year 2012, having accumulated more online votes than anyone by far, the magazine announced today that Barack Obama had won the coveted title instead.

Barack Obama is TIME's 2012 Person of the Year | ti.me/VQVajw#POY2012

— TIME.com (@TIME) December 19, 2012

The historic portrait of President Obama by Nadav Kander was made Dec. 12 at the White House. @timetwitter.com/patrickwitty/s…

— Patrick Witty (@patrickwitty) December 19, 2012

Kim Jong-un was very fair-play about the decision...

[rebelmouse-image 27086107 alt="""" original_size="500x403" expand=1]

Photo: petersnoopy

Time, Shmime... More importantly, Kim Jong-un was voted 2012 Sexiest Man Alive by the satire news website the Onion. There, there, Kim, we've made you a special cover:

Photomontage: Worldcrunch

And anyway, the North Korean leader has more awesome things to do with his time:


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Geopolitics

How Russia And China Are Trying To Drive France Out Of Africa

Fueled by the Kremlin, anti-French sentiment in Africa has been spreading for years. Meanwhile, China is also increasing its influence on the continent as Africa's focus shifts from west to east.

Photo of a helicopter landing, guided a member of France's ​Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maneuver by members of France's Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maria Oleksa Yeschenko

France is losing influence in its former colonies in Africa. After French President Emmanuel Macron decided last year to withdraw the military from the Sahel and the Central African Republic, a line was drawn under the "old French policy" on the continent. But the decision to withdraw was not solely a Parisian initiative.

October 23-24, 2019, Sochi. Russia holds the first large-scale Russia-Africa summit with the participation of four dozen African heads of state. At the time, French soldiers are still helping Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Niger fight terrorism as part of Operation Barkhane.

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Few people have heard of the Wagner group. The government of Mali is led by Paris-friendly Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, although the country has already seen several pro-Russian demonstrations. At that time, Moscow was preparing a big return to the African continent, similar to what happened in the 1960s during the Soviet Union.

So what did France miss, and where did it all go wrong?

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