The crested crane, Uganda’s national symbol, appears on the country’s flag and coat of arms.
However, these beautiful birds are now considered endangered due to the loss of their wetland habitats to farming. There are only about 20,000 of them left in the world.
As people continue to drain and reclaim swampland for farming, cranes have fewer places to nest and breed.
Communities in Kabale, in the south-west, are working to protect the crane and the wetlands where it lives.
Convincing locals to give up potential farming land has not been easy, but members of the community have now come on board as so-called “crane custodians”.
They keep an eye on the birds in their localities, report any that are injured or killed, as well as pairs that have nested or have chicks.
Jimmy Muheebwa of Nature Uganda says the number of cranes has now stabilised.
But Uganda has already lost over 40% of its wetlands in the last two decades. So in some regions, it might be too late for the cranes.
Okatakyie Amoa Aturu Nkonkonkia II, Omanhene of Mpuaso/Japekrom Traditional Area in the Jaman South District of the Bono region, has warned his sub-chiefs not to tolerate any form of galamsey activity on his land.
According to him, anyone caught engaging in galamsey activity will face severe consequences.
The traditional leader stated that galamsey would not occur under his supervision.
He claimed that his forefathers had left the land to him and his people, so he would not entertain galamsey in the area.
As a result, he has urged people to report those who engage in galamsey so that they can be punished.
According to the Chief, “Galamsey will never happen in this area as long as I live. I promise my people that I will protect the land left to us by our forefathers. I will encourage you all to be vigilant and to report anyone you see engaging ingalamsey”.
Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) in the Eastern Region, has taken twenty-one (21) customers to court for nonpayment of a total of Ghc279,755.83 as of June this year.
EREDEC, KES hotels, KAMA Group of Companies, Antarctic Contract Works Ltd., Trinity Presbyterian Church, Adweso, Donewell Methodist Church in Jumapo, and Jumapo Health Center are among the notable customers who have been hauled before the court.
The GWCL has already disconnected these customers, but they have refused to pay the company’s debt for water consumed, thus the legal action.
Her Lordship Nana Ama Fynn, presided over by the Koforidua District Court, has referred approximately nine of the cases for resolution to alternative dispute resolution.
The Eastern Regional Chief Manager of GWCL, Ing. Asomani Nyarko, indicated that the company will not relent in this pursuit of retrieving all arrears from customers who are owing, whether disconnected or active.
He entreated customers who are owing to pay up, contact the nearest GWCL office to negotiate a payment plan before they are made to face the law.
“This exercise is targeted at all our customers owing in the Eastern Region, whether disconnected or active”., he added.
Meanwhile, Management of GWCL is still in court with the assembly member and the Chief of Oterkpolu for allegedly inciting residents not to pay water bills after their petition for free water supply was declined by the GWCL.
Communities around the Bukunor water treatment plant including Oterkpolu and Bukunor have refused to pay water bills since 2019 stating that, they are entitled to free water supply since raw water is pumped and treated on their land for distribution to other parts of the Eastern region.
They have since threatened GWCL over any attempt to disconnect the Communities.
The situation coupled with hostility meted out to workers of GWCL at the Bukunor Water treatment plant got the Eastern Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to intervene and attempted to resolve the impasse but to no avail forcing GWCL to take legal action.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has denied ever sponsoring a candidate within the governing New Patriotic Partyto unseat the Majority Leader as a lawmaker for the Suame Constituency.
According to the NPP stalwart, he considers Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu a strong loyalist in the party and will never do such a thing to him.
The Suame MP, in an interview on Kumasi-based Sompa FM, accused the co-founder of the Danquah Institute of unsuccessfully sponsoring a candidate against him in the party’s parliamentary primaries leading to the 2016 elections.
“He wrote something for someone to go on his radio station [Asaase radio] and say that if I contest Suame seat again I will lose and that is why he is saying he won’t contest again. Gabby Otchere-Darko, have you contested an election before?” the Majority Leader asked.
“In 2016, these same people were hiding behind a candidate saying that if he wins the Suame primaries, he will lose the general election; then they sponsored a candidate against me and it didn’t work for them. I had the confidence of the President who, two days before the primaries said ‘no I want to come and speak to your [Suame] people’ but I told him to stop [because] I am in control of affairs…
“The President was very worried and he wanted to fly in the night to Suamebut I had to tell him not to bother himself and God willing after the primaries those that Gabby Otchere-Darko and his people sponsored lost massively; their votes were not closer to what I had. I don’t know what Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko holds against me…,” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stated.
But Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko in a reply said on his Facebook timeline, November 15, “I have never sponsored any candidate against the Majority Leader for the Suame seat.
“I would never do such a thing to a person I considered a strong loyalist even within the NPP.”
Who does Gabby Otchere Darko think he is? What is his locus? – Kyei Mensah-Bonsu fumes.
The onset of the novel Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19,was perhaps, the one time in the world’s recent history where everything came to a standstill over something that not even the best of the earth’s scientists could immediately fully diagnose.
Economies were shattered and the wheels on which this world run grinded to halts in ways that were unprecedented and totally unplanned for.
But this was a challenge the world immediately got to work on, and when the dusts settled, and some headway had been made, the right processes begun into the production of vaccines that would reduce the threats of the virus, which until then, had caused many deaths across many nations of the world.
Soon, many countries had acquired the vaccines and with time, the majority of the world’s population had taken their shots; whether fully or partially. And then again, the wheels of the world’s economies begun to run once more, albeit a little slower than before the pandemic hit.
Vaccinating the billions of the world’s populations had to be done systematically, requiring the use of the right professionals for the job: a simple but technical job it was, but how well or not was it executed by the people who became known as the frontliners?
The case of Ghana and how its frontliners, including nurses and teachers, have and continue to play their roles in the execution of this global task is one that SEND GHANA, with funding from the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF), embarked on a comprehensive monitoring exercise to determine how well or not compliance to Ghana’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) was like.
The monitoring exercise also focused on the experiences of citizens who participated in the vaccination for the COVID-19.
SEND GHANA, a reputable and credible national Non-Governmental Organisation specialised in policy research and advocacy on pro-poor policy and development program monitoring in Ghana, gathered some very interesting findings, a number of which have received the blessings of the likes of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local health authorities.
So, what is the SEND GHANA monitoring report on compliance and citizens’ experiences all about? What are the revealing findings too?
With an overall aim of assessing compliance of Ghana’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) and the equitable uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines, the monitoring exercise combined district monitoring and data collection approach as methodologies.
The survey was also carried out in two regions of the country: the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions, across 37 vaccine centres of 8 districts (4 for each region).
In the Greater Accra Region, the districts surveyed were: Accra Metropolitan Assembly (Mamprobi Polyclinic, Kaneshie, and Obeweku Health Centre), Ashaiman (Community 22 Polyclinic, Lebanon Zone 3 Polyclinic, and Ashaiman Polyclinic), Tema (TMA Community One Polyclinic, Manhean Polyclinic, Tema General Hospital, and Tema Health Directorate), and La-Nkwantanang, Madina (Pentecost Hospital, Madina Polyclinic – Kekele, and Danfa Health Center).
In total, there were 720 citizens, with 677 of them representing 94% of the overall numbers were interviewed. By sex, the proportion of males interviewed was slightly higher (51%) than females (49%) in both regions. In the Ashanti region, interviewees encompassed 53% males and 47% females, while the Greater Accra region had less males (49%) compared with females (51%). It is interesting to note that the proportion of male and females interviewed in the Greater Accra region, mirrored the 2021 population and housing census.
A total of 653 responses were received from both teachers and health staff. Out of the 653 respondents, 443 (67.8%) were teachers while 210 (32.2%) comprised health care workers.
Regionally, 361 responses (55%) were from the Ashanti region with the remaining 292 (45%) from the Greater Accra region.
Highlights
According to the report, some of the highlights of it put together were:
– Vaccination posts at the health facilities monitored in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions recorded an average vaccination of 10 persons daily.
– Vaccination coverage among marginalized or vulnerable groups looks encouraging.
– Friends and Family were the main transmitters of information about the vaccination exercise.
– Clients were satisfied with time spent at vaccination centers and the attitude of health staff.
– Majority of surveyed health workers (90%) and teachers (86%) have received at least a dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.
– The fear of exposing family and friends to the COVID 19 disease enhanced the uptake of vaccines among teachers, healthcare workers and the general populace.
– Aside protection for family and friends, uptake of the vaccines among health staff and teachers were influenced by four other factors as follows; prioritization; adequate information about safety of the vaccines; ease of access to vaccination centres and perceived effectiveness of the vaccines against COVID-19.
Citizens’ experiences, opinions, and motivations for vaccination
But the survey focused on the responses of some people and what they thought of the exercise.
What and how they thought about the monitoring exercise were summarized as follows:
“The overwhelming majority of the citizens interviewed indicated they had taken their vaccine at the center. Only 10 people (representing 1.5%) of the 676 interviewees who interacted with the vaccination process within the three days of monitoring at each center did not receive the jab. The two regions (Greater Accra and Ashanti) contributed an equal proportion to this finding.
“The dominant reason given by the respondents in this group (those who did not receive the jab on the day of the monitoring) relates to claims that the number of clients/persons required to use the requested vaccine vial was not adequate, the unavailability of cards at the time of vaccination and inability to provide their cards for entries to be made at the point where the vaccines were administered.”
Recommendations
The Ghana Health Service should convene refresher sessions for its staff on the NDVP.
Although the monitoring findings show compliance was generally good, this is necessary to enhance high levels of compliance with guidelines of the NDVP.
Health Directorates are encouraged to sustain the vaccine promotion efforts/campaigns to contribute to the attainment of the country’s herd immunity target. This is also necessary if set targets for the various districts are to be met. As of July 2022, for instance, the Accra metropolis had fully vaccinated 46.2% of its target population. Thus, vaccination promotion and/or information and education campaigns will contribute in no small way to encourage more people to vaccinate.
Health promotion efforts for the COVID-19 vaccination exercise and subsequent vaccination exercises should adequately address possible side effects and safety as these are key for uptake.
COVID-19 vaccination communication messages should focus on the protection of family members and friends from the disease and possible deaths and less on mandates restricting access to services and employment reasons.
The Ghana Health Service should commend its staff for exhibiting good attitude and professionalism during the vaccination exercise.
The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Serviceshould adopt steps to increase the availability of vaccine logistics across districts within the country.
The meeting which took place at the Windsor Castle ws confirmed by a tweet on the official handle of the Royal Family.
“This afternoon, The King welcomed the President of Ghana to Windsor Castle for an Audience,” the caption accompanying a photo of the two gentlemen shaking hands read.
Akufo-Addo is in the United Kingdom on a private visit. He is expected back in the country today.
Per GhanaWeb tracking, Akufo-Addo becomes the third African leader to meet the King after Ali Bongo of Gabon and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria respectively.
Dozens of African leaders were in the UK in Septemberto attend the funeral of the King’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II who spent seven decades as the monarch.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has never authorised anyone to take money from anyone for his personal political gain.
This is the opinion of Dr. Kabiru Mahama, a technical advisor in Bawumia’s office, who adds that using money to gain access to the Second Gentleman of the Land is a sure way to never meet him.
Mahama praised Bawumia’s strictness when it comes to receiving visitors, saying that he frequently requests background checks on such visitors.
“The Vice President has never asked anyone, has never commissioned anyone to go and take money from anyone, anyone without exception. For the fact that I would need this money, give me this money for me to do a campaign…
“If you discuss issues about money, anything about money in exchange for something the Vice President would want, you may not even get his attention for the rest of your life and I am saying it without the blink of an eye,” he stressed on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme, November 15.
He added that Bawumia is so cautious, people often say he doesn’t open up and this is a result of ensuring he always is able to actin the supreme interest of the nation without distractions.
“People close to him tell you he doesn’t open up so much, he is a bit careful and wary of people coming with their own motives. He doesn’t want people to go through him to achieve interests contrary to the interest of the nation,” Mahama intimated.
Bawumia on November 14, 2022, had reason to issue a press release after a report by Anas Aremeyaw Anas alleged that a Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance had imputed corruptibility traits against Bawumia’s person.
Charles Adu Boahen was reportedly captured on tape saying Bawumia among other things needed a US$200,000 ‘appearance fee’ to meet and assist persons seeking to invest in the country.
Bawumia has dispelled the allegations and insisted that his integrity remains his most cherished asset in life.
“My most cherished asset in life is my integrity and I will not allow anyone to use my name to engage in corrupt activities,” Bawumia said in a post calling for the minister’s dismissal.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has since terminated Adu Boahen’s appointment and referred the contents of the investigation to the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Ghana, who are returning to the global showpiece after missing out in Russia 2018 has been housed in Group H against Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea.
The West African powerhouse will play Portugal on November 24 in its first game before taking on South Korea and the epic clash against Uruguay.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, the former Juventus star asserted the Black Stars admitted it is going to be difficult considering the group but did not rule Ghana out of the tournament.
“It’s going to be difficult, 2006 when we went to the World Cup in Germany we were underdogs”, Appiah tells Al Jazeera.
“We played against Italy we lost our first game and beat Czech Republic 2-0 who were number two in the world, played USA, number 5 in the world, we beat them. We are capable of doing that. We have to take it game after game”.
Appiah added: “We play Portugal and not thinking about Uruguay. We concentrate on Portugal game and see what will happen. Our players are good”.
Ghana will open their campaign against Portugal on November 24 at Stadium 974 in Doha.
Four days later, the Black Stars return to action with a clash with South Korea at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan.
Ghana will wrap up their group stage adventure with their much-anticipated encounter with Uruguay at Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah.
The Black Stars having missed out in the last edition hosted in Russia in 2018 will be hoping to improve their performance in Qatar after exiting the group phase during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Only three sides from the continent have ever progressed to the quarter-finals; Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002, and Ghana in 2010.
Ghana will be hoping to progress from the group stage at this year’s tournament.
Former Member of Parliamentfor Manhyia North, Collins Owusu Amamkwah, has stated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP grassroot )’s delegates (made up of youth and women) prefer Alan John Kyerematen to lead the party to the 2024 elections.
He reached this conclusion after conducting a survey.
According to the former Member of Parliament, who confirmed the conduct of an extensive survey in five selected regions, at least eight out of every ten NPP grassroots delegates polled preferred the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan John Kyerematen to lead the party to the 2024 election.
Collins Owusu discussed the details of his survey in an interview ahead of the crucial presidential primaries.
He confirmed conducting his survey in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Volta and Eastern Regions with simple random sampling chosen as the sample selection method.
According to the former Member of Parliament, the sample selected preferred named employment (improved standard of living) and a marketable candidate who could unite the party for victory in 2024 as the main motivation behind their choice of Alan.
A number of research reports have been circulated by various researchers on the possible replacement for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ahead of the 2024 main elections.
Per the NPP constitution, should the number of aspirants in the primaries exceed 5, a Super Delegates Election will take place to reduce the number to a maximum of 5.
Election experts predict that the upper-class nature of the super delegates electoral college, numbering about 1000, is being exploited by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the vice president, to his advantage, but the grassroot delegates numbering over 200,000 are rooting for Alan.
Ken Ofori-Atta,the embattled Minister of Finance, was reportedly irritated by an attempt by some alleged investors – who in reality were members of Anas Aremeyaw Anas’s camp – to give him money as a gift.
According to a report, Tiger Eye P.I. investigators pretended to be investors looking to invest in Ghana, and thus needed to meet with the Finance Minister to discuss opportunities and other modalities of doing business in Ghana.
According to the report, the investigators had earlier met with Charles Adu Boahen, Ofori-Atta’s deputy back in 2018, in a hotel suite in United Araba Emirates, UAE, where the now dismissed Adu Boahen was given monies in lieu of helping the investors get access to among other Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia who allegedly took a US$200,000 ‘appearance fee’ to meet investors.
After meeting with them, they then proceeded to meet with Ofori-Atta briefly at the Dubai airport whiles he was on transit to Tokyo on an official assignment.
The report established that neither the minister nor his PA accepted the money gift from the Tiger Eye P.I. team leaving the minister irritated.
“They were to have their chance, they thought when after several attempts Mr. Ofori-Atta agreed to meet them at the airport in Dubai on transit to Tokyo, Japan,” Asaase radio reportage stated.
“In the company of his then Personal Assistant (PA), Michael Bediako, Mr. Ofori-Atta met the supposed investors (investigators) at the Dubai terminal hotel (Dubai International Airport) on 5 April 2018 at around 6:30 am.
“Mr. Ofori-Atta was informed the meeting was with the Chairman of Al Baraka Islamic Bank of Bahrain, whose interest was to invest $500m to set up an “ethical” bank in Ghana.
“The meeting, per our checks, lasted some five minutes. Ken Ofori-Atta left very irritated when he was offered a “gift”, which he refused to accept, and walked out with his PA who was also offered a gift that was rejected as well,” the report added.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ latest ‘Galamsey Economy’ exposed Charles Adu Boahen, the dismissed Minister of State at the Finance Ministry over an alleged corruption scandal.
Anas in a post on his Facebook timeline hours before the showing of the‘Galamsey Economy’ film noted that the minister made some shocking revelations to his team in a hotel in UAE, when they posed as possible investors to Ghana.
Adu Boahen among other things alleged that Bawumia will require about USD200,000 as an appearance fee from an investor to get his backing and influence in establishing a business in Ghana.
“You mean, like appearance fees and stuff?” the investigators asked, to which Adu Boahen responded: “I mean he, himself (the Vice President), if you give him some (USD) 200,000 or something as a token, as thank you, appreciation, that’s fine. He’s not really, he’s not really (like) that. All he needs is to worry about his campaign money in 2020.”
But Dr. Bawumia in a statement on Monday, November 14, denied the accusations and called for an investigation into the allegations.
On the first day of the hearing of Parliament’s ad hoc committee set to investigate a vote of censure motion against Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, there were heated exchanges at different points of the hearing.
These were either between the chairmen and members or between ordinary members and in some instances between the chairmen and the lawyer for the embattled minister as well as between members and the minister’s lawyer, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko.
One of the stand-out episodes was between Gabby and a committee member in the person of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the North Tongu Member of Parliament.
The trigger was when the MP started asking questions about supposed government expenditure that could be said to have led to fiscal recklessness, one of the grounds against which the Minority is seeking to remove the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
While Ablakwa attempted to use the National Cathedral project to buttress his point, Gabby interjected stating that the MP would be better off using a press conference for what looked like a political issue which was not stated in the seven-point censure motion.
This triggered an over two-minute back and forth between the two men as other members of the committee and the chairmen moved in to mediate.
Read the full transcript of the exchange below:
Gabby: he can hold a press conference to deal with those matters, I think that we are here for specific reasons, grounds have been stated, let’s stick to that. You know, we are not here for… it is not a political platform to make some political pronouncements. These are serious allegations, they are serious allegations, please, please
Ablakwa: Chairman, I think he would not teach me how to do my work in Parliament, this is Parliament. You can’t teach me how to do my work in Parliament.
Gabby: No, there are rules here
Ablakwa: No, no, no. You won’t teach me how to do my work. No, no, no, he can’t come here and throw his weight around. He can’t teach me how to do my work. I take strong exception that I should go and hold a press conference. I won’t accept that.
Gabby: I am only 78 kilos, I am not going to throw it about.
Ablakwa: And you are not the chair, you don’t tell members what to do.
KT Hammond: Sammy, we appreciate the point you want to make.
Mr. Chairman, I think that those who appear before this committee must be guided. We work with Standing Orders and if you go through our Standing Orders, this committee can decide not to hear strangers.
KT Hammond: Who is the stranger now?
Ablakwa: Once you are not a member of Parliament, this is how the Standing Order describes him. That is how the Standing Orders describe them. You can’t come and say we should go and hold a press conference, we are working and we are here to do a job, so, please. Let that be clear.
A BBC-led investigation has discovered that pollution from an Egyptian oilfacility on the Red Sea coast is threatening the survival of some of the world’s last thriving coral reefs.
According to experts who studied satellite imagery of the area, contaminated water has been entering the sea since 1985 and was still flowing as recently as September.
Until three years ago, the plant was jointly owned by the British oil giant BP and Egypt’s state-owned Gupco oil company.
Egypt is hosting the COP27 climate summit, and neither the environment ministry nor Gupco would comment on the findings.
Red Sea corals have a unique ability to withstand warming sea temperatures.
The investigation was undertaken by BBC News Arabicand journalists from the group Source Material.
Sierra Leone‘s parliament has unanimously approved legislation that will ensure that one-third of its members and one-third of all local councillors are women.
The bill will now be signed into law by President Julius Bio.
Despite the fact that it was a key promise in his 2018 election campaign, it took cabinet three years to approve the draught.
A previous version was withdrawn due to a technicality.
US President, Joe Biden has stated that it is “unlikely” that the missile that killed two people in Poland on Tuesday was fired from Russia.
According to Polish officials, the “Russian-made missile” landed in Przewodow, near the Ukrainian border.
Early reports suggested Russia was to blame for the explosion. Moscow has denied the allegations.
Speaking from the G20 summit in Bali, Mr. Biden disputed the reports based on “preliminary information.”
The US president was speaking early on Wednesday morning, after several world leaders gathered on the sidelines of the summit at an “emergency round table” to discuss the blast.
Among the attendees were President Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak,French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Reports of the missiles falling in Poland – which is a Nato member – came after Russia launched a fresh wave of attacks across Ukraine on Tuesday, days after its troops were forced to leave Kherson.
Russia dismissed claims it was responsible, with the defence ministry in Moscow attacking what it called “a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said he had no information on the blast.
Russian state news agency Ria Novosti said it was instead Ukrainian missiles that had hit Polish territory.
But Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said any claim that Ukraine was responsible was a Russian “conspiracy theory”, and that anyone amplifying the message was spreading “Russian propaganda”.
Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters that it remained unclear how the blast had occurred and said investigators were evaluating all possibilities.
“We do not have any conclusive evidence at the moment as to who launched this missile… it was most likely a Russian-made missile, but this is all still under investigation at the moment,” he said.
Images shared online showed what appeared to be a large crater on what local media reported was Polish farmland, suggesting missile damage. Another image appeared to show a fragment of a missile.
The encroachment on to Polish territory raised questions as to whether Warsaw would trigger Article Four of the Nato treaty – meaning member states consult on whether the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any member state is threatened.
Warsaw said it was considering whether to invoke the provision.
Despite lending support to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, Nato has been careful not to become too heavily involved in the conflict in order to prevent an escalation.
The G7 group of nations also released a statement condemning the “barbaric missile attacks” launched by Russia on Tuesday and addressing the “explosion” in Ukraine.
“We offer our full support for and assistance with Poland’s ongoing investigation. We agree to remain in close touch to determine appropriate next steps as the investigation proceeds,” it said.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres also said he was “very concerned” by the Poland explosion and called for a thorough investigation.
“It is absolutely essential to avoid escalating the war in Ukraine,” said his spokesman, Farhan Haq.
The BBC’s Paul Adams said there were a number of possible explanations for the incident.
Russia has no interest in targeting Polish farms, so some kind of malfunction seems possible, he said. And on a day when Ukraine’s air defences were working hard to bring down Russian missiles, it is also possible that one of those missiles was knocked off course, our correspondent adds.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he had spoken to Polish President Andrzej Duda and the military alliance was “monitoring the situation”.
“Allies are closely consulting,” he said on Twitter. “Important that all facts are established.”
The attacks came after one of the heaviest bombardments of Ukraine by Russian forces since the war began.
Ukraine was hit by more than 90 missiles on Tuesday, according to Ukraine’s Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnatw, who said more than 70 were successfully shot down.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said most of the rockets fired had been aimed at the country’s energy infrastructure.
A group of Ukrainian activists has disrupted a high-level meeting of Russian officials at the UN climate summit in Egypt.
It’s the first time Russia was speaking publicly at COP27.
Russian Deputy Environment Minister Sergei Anopriyenko had just started talking when a young woman stood up shouting: “You are killing my people. You are shooting bombs at our people.”
Then another held a banner bearing the slogan Fossil Fuels Kill.
Seconds later, Viktoriya Ball stood up and shouted “you are war criminals” before walking out.
She told me outside the plenary room that Russia should not be at COP27.
“This conference is about making a better place for people and planet. But Russia is committing genocide, ecocide, they are destroying Ukraine, and fossil fuels are paying for war in my country,” she said.
Alyona Lovita, who came to Sharm el-Sheikh from Lviv, Ukraine, said she protested for her relatives living under bombardment.
After protesters were escorted out by UN security, Russian officials continued their event, telling the meeting that “we cannot stop climate change”.
Some seven million households have been left without electricity in Ukraine after Tuesday’s wave of Russian missile strikes targeted the country’s energy supplies, according to Ukraine’s presidential office.
Customers experienced power cuts in the Kyiv, Vinnytsya, Volyn, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyy, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv regions.
Some 15 energy facilities were damaged as a result of the attacks, said the deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
“Our power engineers are now doing everything to reconnect the power supply as soon as possible,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putinhas issued decrees bestowing the status “City of Military Glory” on two Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities – Melitopol and Mariupol.
It is a status similar to the Soviet-era “Hero City”, which honoured certain cities’ roles in the USSR’s fight against Nazi Germany in World War Two. The status gave them certain privileges under communism, such as consumer goods in short supply elsewhere.
Putin’s decrees say the new status honours “the courage, steadfastness and mass heroism displayed by the defenders of the cities in the fight for the freedom and independence of the fatherland”.
It makes no mention of the current war in Ukraine, which Russia still calls a “special military operation”.
Russian state news agency Ria says 45 Russian cities have the status of City of Military Glory.
In September, Putin declared four occupied regions of Ukraine, including the cities of Melitopol and Mariupol, to be part of Russia. The claim was widely condemned. Russian shelling devastated Mariupol, killing thousands, before the city was captured.
Putin has also given two smaller Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities– Luhansk and Horlivka – the status “City of Labour Valour”. It honours their hard industrial work during World War Two. He lists seven Russian cities alongside them.
District officials in Pflugerville, Texas said Monday that a middle school teacher is no longer employed after videos of his comments surfaced on social media.
A middle school teacher in Pflugerville, Texas, has been fired after a video of their racist comments to students surfaced on social media.
“Last Friday, Nov. 11, Pflugerville ISD officials were made aware of an inappropriate conversation a teacher at Bohls Middle School had with students during an advisory class,” Pflugerville Independent School District (PfISD) Superintendent Dr. Douglas Killian wrote in a statement Monday.
“As of Monday morning, Nov. 14, the teacher in question is no longer employed by Pflugerville ISD and we are actively looking for a replacement,” the statement added.
In videos posted on social media, the White teacher is heard telling multi-racial students that his race is superior. “Deep down in my heart, I’m ethnocentric, which means I think my race is the superior one,” he said, as students can be heard reacting.
“So White is better than all?” one student can be heard asking.
“Let me finish,” the teacher is shown to respond. “I think everybody thinks that. They’re just not honest about it.”
“You said you are a racist, right?” questioned a second student.
“I did, yeah, I’m trying to be honest,” the teacher said.
In the school statement, superintendent Killian apologized for any “undue stress or concern” caused by the unnamed teacher’s comments, and to the parents of the children who were captured on camera without their knowledge.
“We want to reiterate that this conversation does not align with our core beliefs and is not a reflection of our district or our culture at Bohls Middle School,” Killian continued.
“The advisory discussion was inappropriate, inaccurate, and unacceptable; and this type of interaction will not be tolerated in any PfISD schools.”
The United States has strongly condemned Russia’s latest missile attacks against Ukraine, which are reported to have struck residential buildings in Kyiv and additional sites across the country.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said the strikes will serve to only deepen the concerns among the G20 about the “destabilising impact of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war”.
“It is not lost on us that, as world leaders meet at the G20 in Bali to discuss the issues of significant importance to the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Russia again threatens those lives and destroys Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Sullivan said.
“Our thoughts are with the brave Ukrainian people, who continue to demonstrate resilience and courage in their defence of their sovereignty and democracy.”
He said the US, its allies and its partners would continue to provide Ukraine with what it needed to defend itself, including air defence systems, adding the US would stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that 85 missiles were launched against Ukraine on Tuesdayand 20 more are expected to hit the country.
In a video shared on Telegram, he also warned residents to stay in shelters.
The deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said the situation across the country was “critical” after missiles battered energy facilities, forcing emergency shutdowns and plunging parts of Kyiv into darkness.
“Russian terrorists carried out another planned attack on energy infrastructure facilities,” he said.
The situation in the capital Kyivwas, he added, “extremely difficult”.
These are the first Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities since Kyiv‘s forces liberated Kherson, a key southern port city, on Friday.
Ukrainians regard the recapture of Kherson as a major victory, comparable to the retreat of Russian troops from the Kyiv suburbs in March, as well as a humiliation for the Kremlin.
Approximately 30,000 Russian troops withdrew to the Dnipro’s eastern bank, and Kherson celebrated the weekend. Since early March, the city has been under Russian occupation.
But before today Russia had already fired hundreds of missiles at Ukrainian cities, hitting residential blocks, power stations and many other civilian installations. Many were cruise missiles fired from Russian bombers or ships positioned outside Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine says its air defences have shot down many Russian missiles during these strikes.
Russia claims the Kherson region and three other occupied Ukrainian regions to be part of Russia, as well as Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The claim – following hastily organised local “referendums” – is rejected internationally.
Meghan Markle has had a “dramatic change of heart regarding titles,” a royal expert has claimed, which goes against what she said in her bombshell Oprah interview back in March 2021, whereby she said that titles weren’t important to her.
Meghan Markle wants to keep royal title after realizing how beneficial it can be
Royal commentator Neil Sean told The Daily Express that the Duchess of Sussex, 41, had the alleged change of heart after speaking with Prince Harry’s cousins, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, as they helped her realize just how important and beneficial having those titles can be. And she reportedly wants to do whatever it takes to hang on to her Duchess of Sussex title to ensure that her and Prince Harry’s children – three-year-old son Archie and one-year-old daughter Lilibet – are offered titles of their own.
Harry and Meghan are very, very keen to cling onto those royal titles. After much deliberation, Meghan decided that the titles would be a good thing, not just for her but for both her children too,” Sean said.
“Meghan has become very friendly with senior members of the monarchy, predominantly Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice. After this, Meghan realized how useful a title can be, particularly when you want to move in the correct circles,” he added, in reference to Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and Fergie, the Duchess of York’s daughters. “That is the reason why they want to clutch hold of titles. It’s really down to the fact that after befriending Beatrice and Eugenie, she saw how useful those titles are to them. Their father, Prince Andrew, had to push very hard to make sure his children got those titles.”
f you cast your minds back to the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan said: “All the grandeur surrounding this stuff is an attachmentI don’t personally have. I’ve been a waitress, an actress, a princess, a Duchess – I’ve always still just been Meghan, right? I’ve been clear on who I am, independent of all that stuff, and the most important title I’ll ever have is mom. I know that.”
However, she and Prince Harry have since made it very clear how important a royal title would be for their children, especially because of the security and protection that comes along with it. So we never really believed that Meghan would snub another royal title if it was given to her or her children!
Prince Harry And Meghan’s Children’s Titles
The future of Prince Harry and Meghan’s children’s titles is currently up in the air, as many sources are hinting that King Charles III is waiting for Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir to be published in January, 2023 to make his decision about his grandchildren’s titles, depending on how much he trashes the royal family.
“Charles has made various threats to Meghan and Harry and warned them that if they go ahead, they will find themselves ostracized in a way they cannot believe. And so they are worried,” royal author Tom Bower told OK, in reference to their Netflix docu-series and Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare. “I do not think their children will get titles if they go ahead and slander the royal family. But they have also got to consider their own titles, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, could be taken away by Charles if they misbehave,” he added.
Prince Williamwas the surprise guest at a ceremony to hand out team jerseys at the England soccer HQ on Monday evening.
Prince William is the England soccer team’s number one fan!
The Prince of Wales, 40, was a surprise guest at the team’s HQ Monday evening ahead of the 2022 men’s World Cup and helped hand out new jerseys to the 26-player squad.
“I’m really here to just kind of point out that the rest of the country’s behind you,” Prince William told the team. “We’re all rooting for you. Enjoy it.”
William, who is President of the Football Association, received an England jersey signed by the entire squad in return.
“What you and Gareth have built here is something special, that’s clear to see,” William added, in reference to the role of England coachGareth Southgate, who steered the team to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup.
“Play for each other, support each other, enjoy it and I’m sure you’ll go far,” he added.
Prince William Highlights Importance of Mental Health in Talk With England Soccer Stars
EDDIE KEOGH – THE FA/THE FA VIA GETTY IMAGES
Southgate described the surprise visit of the Prince of Wales as “a nice moment to be with the group and Prince William, who has been a huge supporter of ours.”
“I know how passionate the players are about their country and it was great to see what it meant to each of them as they came forward,” he added about the players receiving their jerseys from William.
“As staff and players, we are all so privileged to represent England and we are excited to see what’s possible together. We want to make the fans proud again.”
Prince William’s presentation began with captain Harry Kane, who he recently joined for a conversation about mental health.
He also presented the No. 17 shirt to Bukayo Saka, who was one of the players William reached out to after he and others were racially abused on social media for missing crucial penalty kicks in the final of the European Championships in 2021.
Prince William and Jack Grealish. EDDIE KEOGH – THE FA/THE FA VIA GETTY IMAGES
Later, William was pictured with his arm around the shoulders of star forward Jack Grealish as they had a quiet chat. Grealish played for William’s favorite club team, Aston Villa, until he transferred to Manchester City in 2021.
The England team leaves for Qatar on Tuesday in readiness for their first match against Iran on Nov. 21. They then play the USA on Nov. 25.
In the latest episode of herArchetypes podcast, the Duchess of Sussexwelcomed Jameela Jamil, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Ilana Glazer to talk about why activism from women often draws criticism.
Meghan Markle is sharing the message she received from a “very, very influential and inspiring woman” ahead of her royal wedding to Prince Harry.
On a new episode of her Archetypes podcast, released via Spotify on Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex welcomed Jameela Jamil, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Ilana Glazer to talk about why activism from women often draws criticism. To close out the episode, Meghan recalled a piece of advice she received “just a few days” before her May 2018 nuptials from “a very, very influential and inspiring woman, who for her own privacy I won’t share who it was with you.”
“She said to me, I know that your life is changing, but please don’t give up your activism. Don’t give up because it means so much to women and girls,” Meghan, 41, said.
“And I kept doing the work for women and girls because it matters, yes. But also because she encouraged me to do so,” she said. “And the collective voice of all of us telling each other that matters is perhaps the point. There’s safety in numbers. But there’s also strength in numbers.”
Meghan’s fight for women started at a young age, notably when she called out a Procter & Gamble commercial that advertised its Ivory dishwashing soap solely to women. “I don’t think it’s right for kids to grow up thinking these things, that just mom does everything,” the then 11-year-old Meghan said during an interview with Nick News.
Just a few months ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry, she used her platform to encourage people to listen to women at an event alongside Prince William and Kate Middleton.
“I hear a lot of people speaking about girls’ empowerment and women’s empowerment — you will hear people saying they are helping women find their voices,” she said in 2018 at the first annual Royal Foundation Forum. “I fundamentally disagree with that because women don’t need to find their voices, they need to be empowered to use it and people need to be urged to listen.”
Supporting women remained a key cause in Meghan’s charity work after becoming a member of the British royal family, including becoming a patron of Smart Works, an organization that helps unemployed and vulnerable women regain the confidence they need to succeed at job interviews and return to work.
After Meghan and Prince Harry stepped back as senior members of the royal familyand relocated to her home state of California in 2020, the Duchess of Sussex has continued to advocate for women, from wearing a shirt with the words “Women, Life, Freedom” written in Farsi to call attention to the ongoing protests in Iran at the Women@Spotify event in October to a teenage girl with a virtual mentoring session in March 2021.
The decision by the US Department of Justice to investigate the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla has been described as a “mistake” by Israel.
Outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated that he informed US officials that Israel would not cooperate.
The Department of Justice and the FBI declined to comment, but Abu Aqla’s family praised the “significant step toward accountability.”
During an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank in May, the Al Jazeera correspondent was shot in the head.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) concluded that one of its soldiers probably killed her, but called her death unintentional and ruled out a criminal inquiry.
Shireen Abu Aqla, who was 51, arrived in Jenin refugee camp on 11 May to report on an Israeli army raid which had seen gun battles break out between soldiers and Palestinian militants.
She was wearing a helmet and blue flak jacket marked with the word “press” when she was killed while walking along a road with other journalists, one of whom was also shot and wounded.
Journalists, bystanders and Palestinian officials said the gunfire came from Israeli troops stationed about 200m (656ft) away – allegations which was later backed by investigations by the UN Human Rights Office and multiple media organisations.
The US state department said in July that the US Security Co-ordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority had concluded that “gunfire from IDF positions was likely responsible for the death”. He also found that there was “no reason to believe that this was intentional”.
The IDF initially said that it was not possible to know who killed Abu Aqla. But in September asenior official told journalists that there was a high probability that she was shot “by mistake by an IDF soldier, and of course he didn’t identify her as a journalist”.
Abu Aqla’s family heavily criticised both the USSC’s and the IDF’s findings and demanded that the US carry out an independent FBI investigation into the killing of a US citizen. Their call also received the support by dozens of members of the US Congress, including more than 20 Democratic senators.
On Monday, Israel’s Channel 14 TV and US website Axios reported that the US Department of Justice had recently notified the Israeli justice ministry that the FBI had opened an investigation.
Axios said the probe could lead to a US request to investigate the soldiers who were involved in the operation in Jenin, and that Israel would almost certainly reject it.
The probe is also likely to create further tension President Joe Biden’s administration and Israel’s incoming government, which will be led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The decision taken by the US justice department to conduct an investigation into the tragic passing of Shireen Abu Aqla is a mistake,” said Mr Gantz in a statement.
“The IDF has conducted a professional, independent investigation, which was presented to American officials with whom the details were shared.
He added: “I have delivered a message to US representatives that we stand by the IDF’s soldiers, that we will not co-operate with an external investigation, and will not enable intervention to internal investigations.”
Abu Aqla’s family said in a statement on Tuesday that they were “encouraged by the news”.
“We hope that the United States will use all of the investigativetools at its disposal to get answers about Shireen’s killing and hold those who are responsible for this atrocity accountable.
“We call on all parties with any evidence to respond to investigatory requests from the US States and not stand in the way of justice.”
The family also expressed hope that the FBI investigation would be “truly independent, credible, and thorough, following the evidence where it leads, up and down the chain of command”.
Tesla and CEO Elon Musk will spend this week in court to defend the massive compensation package that helped make him the world’s richest man.
The week-long trial in Delaware Court of Chancery will examine the 2018 compensation plan that the automaker’s board of directors created for Musk.
The automaker said at the time it could be worth nearly $56 billion, making it the largest compensation package for anyone on earth from a publicly traded company, and the net value today is $50.9 billion.
Even in the rarified air of CEO pay, Musk’s compensation plan stood apart. Millions upon millions of dollars are often lavished on corporate executives of the biggest companies, but the plan to pay Musk initially totaled in the tens of billions, as long as he met performance goals.
It wasn’t in cash – top executive pay rarely is – but in shares of the company. The higher Tesla went, the more those shares would be valued, the more Musk would be awarded and the more those shares would be worth.
And as Tesla’s stock shot ever upwards, it helped propel him to a net worth of over $300 billion at one point, all while shareholders reaped the potential gains.
But all the while, Musk was sharing his time between his many other endeavors. SpaceX began regularly sending astronauts to the International Space Station.
The Boring Company built a Loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center. And then, of course, he bought Twitter.
Huge CEO Pay
Musk isn’t the only one to benefit from the rise in value of Tesla shares and options,however. So have shareholders. The market value of Tesla has soared more 1,000% since they approved his pay package in March of 2018.
The case could be significant for Tesla, given the serious questions raised about its executive compensation, according to corporate governance experts. Tesla’s board of directors has defended the compensation package.
The trial may also invigorate debate over executive compensation, including large stock grants they receive. S&P 500 CEOs averaged $18.3 million in compensation in 2021, 324 times the median pay at the companies. That disparity has grown in recent years.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for example, received compensation valued at $212.7 million in 2021. Apple CEO Tim Cook received nearly $100 million last year. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was paid nearly $50 million in 2021.
The plaintiff, Richard J. Tornetta, claims on behalf of Tesla shareholders that Musk exploited his control over the company and its board of directors to secure the huge compensation package in order to “fund his personal ambition to colonize Mars.”
Musk entered March 2018, the month shareholders approved the compensation plan, at No. 41 on the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, due largely to his involvement in Tesla and SpaceX. At the time, Tesla was a promising but troubled automaker.
It had lost nearly $2 billion the year before and struggled to overcome production delays as it manufactured its mass-market Model 3 sedan.
Musk spoke of being in “production hell” as well as “delivery logistics hell” during the year, and joked about going bankrupt.
Many questioned if the company could survive as an independent automaker.
Tesla’s board of directors felt that with proper execution the automaker could become one of the world’s most valuable companies and wanted to encourage Musk to lead it for the long term.
The compensation plan included 12 batches of stock that Musk would receive if milestones were hit, including the market capitalization of Tesla as well as its revenue and adjusted earnings. (Each batch of stock would be earned if Tesla’s market capitalization increased an additional $50 billion above $100 billion. Other milestones included hitting $35 billion in annualized revenue and $3 billion in adjusted earnings.)
The plan, originally set to pay out over the course of a decade, turned out to be wildly lucrative for Musk and in astonishing time. Tesla was the best-performing US stock in 2020 and became America’s most valuable automaker ever. Its small SUV, the Model Y, became the best-selling car in Europe recently.
Musk has reached many of the milestones that trigger the payouts, and he is expected to earn the final batch early next year.
The payment plan helped lead to Musk becoming the world’s richest person, with an estimated net worth of $184 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
His true net worth can be challenging to estimate as a significant portion is invested in SpaceX, a private company that does not have to publicly reveal detailed financials that could show a decline or increase in value. Tech stocks and the entire stock market more broadly have fallen sharply this year.
A Duty to Shareholders
Richard Tornetta, who originally filed the lawsuit in June 2018, claims that the Tesla board of directors has breached its fiduciary duties for waste, and Musk has breached his own fiduciary duties for unjust enrichment.
Tornetta argued in his original 2018 complaint that the compensation plan was unnecessary to incentive Musk as he already had a large ownership stake in the automaker.
The lawsuit was certified as a class action case by the court in January 2021. The case has taken years to move through the system due to the drawn-out nature of litigation, including working through a motion from Tesla to dismiss the complaint.
The Tornetta complaint alleges that the board of directors that created Musk’s compensation plan lacked sufficient independence from him. The board included Musk’s brother Kimbal as well as friends Anthony Gracias and Steve Jurvetson. (Jurvetson and Gracias have since left Tesla’s board.)
Carla Hayn, a professor who teaches corporate governance at the UCLA business school, told CNN Business that the case is serious for Tesla as it will be a heavy burden for the automaker to prove the compensation and the process to create it was fair.
“This is a huge package,” Hayn said of the compensation plan. “Did they need to give away this much of the company to Musk to align his interests and keep him as CEO?”
She noted that Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, advisory firms, both recommended in 2018 that Tesla stockholders reject the compensation plan.
Institutional Shareholder Services cautioned that the plan “locks in unprecedented high pay opportunities for the next decade,” and noted that Musk already owned 22% of Tesla, aligning his interests with it. But shareholders did approve the plan, she noted.
Tesla’s Board
Hayn noted that Musk’s close relationships with the board members could be problematic for Tesla in the case.
“Given that entire board is very much under the influence of Musk it’s hard to know that anything that they did would be following proper process,” she said.
Tesla’s board of directors have claimed that it created the plan “after more than six months of careful analysis with a leading independent compensation consultant as well as discussions with Elon.”
“We gave Elon the ability to share in the upside in a way that is commensurate with the difficulty of achieving them,” they said at the time.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment and generally does not engage with the professional news media.
The trial is expected to last a week. Chancery court judges at times rule from the bench, but that’s uncommon. It may take weeks to months before a decision is issued.
Musk has become something of a regular at the Delaware Court of Chancery.Last month his acquisition of Twitter nearly went to trial at the court.
He testified before the court last year in a dispute over Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity. A judge ruled in Musk’s favor this April.
Musk’s unique management style will be a topic of discussion. He leads several ventures outside of Tesla: the aerospace company SpaceX; his tunneling venture The Boring Co.; a brain interface startup, Neuralink; and Twitter. It’s uncommon for executives to hold multiple CEO titles.
Russiamay have delayed announcing its withdrawal from Kherson in order to sway the outcome of the midterm elections in favour of Republicans, according to sources familiar with US intelligence.
Republicans failed to achieve the hoped-for “red wave,” and Democrats retained control ofthe US Senate after holding seats in key swing states Arizona and Nevada.
According to the most recent NBC News projection, Republicans will win 220 House seats to the Democrats’ 215.
That means the Republicans would still take control but with much less authority than the 40+ gains anticipated by some pollsters.
Now, sources have suggested that Russia delayed its Kherson withdrawal announcement in part to stop the Democrats from a political lead.
One source said the US elections were a “pre-planned condition” when it came to Russia’s acknowledgement that it was not succeeding in the Kherson region.
Meanwhile another source told CNN: “Even though there is still robust bipartisan agreement on Ukraine, the party that has been much more vocally supportive is the Democratic Party, and particularly the Biden administration.”
In Washington last week, President Joe Biden also appeared to notice the timing of Russia’s announcement as he described how Russia’s decision to leave Kherson was “evidence” they had “some real problems”.
He said: “I find it interesting that they waited until after the [US midterm] election to make that judgement.”
Rishi Sunak has said he is “hopeful” he will be able to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Bali as he described how the county posed a “systemic challenge” to the UK.
Speaking to Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby, the prime minister said it was important to “engage” with the Chinese leader to try and tackle “shared challenges”.
He said: “I’m very clear that China poses a systemic challenge to both our values and our interests, and it represents the single biggest threat to our economic security.
“And that’s why it’s right that we take the steps that are necessary to protect ourselves against a threat or a challenge.”
Asked if he would be able to have a collaborative relationship with President Xi, he added: “I think our approach to China is one that is very similar to our allies, whether it’s America or Australia and Canada.
“I think it’s an indisputable fact of the global economy that China is a big part of it.
“And if we want to solve big global challenges like public health, like Russia and Ukraine,fixing the global economy or indeed climate change, it’s important to have a dialogue and to engage with China.”
Over 150 participants took a major step to end malaria in South Sudan during the first-ever national malaria conference that took place from 8 to 10 November 2022.
Malaria remains the leading cause of illness and death in the country accounting for 66.8 per cent of outpatient consultations, 30 per cent of admissions and about 50 per cent of deaths.
“Malaria is preventable and treatable, and we cannot continue to lose lives needlessly”, said H.E. Vice President Hussein Abdelbagi Akol Agany. “We cannot continue doing business as usual. Malaria is an emergency and cannot just be the business of the Ministry of Health. I therefore call upon all of us, the public and private sectors, Intentional Organizations, UN Agencies, NGOS, Civil Society Organizations and communities to take action and fight this disease”, said H.E Abdelbagi.
“Malaria is a disease that is well known to everybody in this nation. It is treatable and preventable, yet half of the people especially children under five years of age and those with compromised immunity die from malaria. Recent data shows that three out of 10 hospital admissions are due to malaria. This shows that we are still a long way to go”, said Honorable Yolanda Awel Deng, Minister of Health, South Sudan.
The Ministry of Health together with its partners has made some progress in terms of prevention, treatment, and case management. “According to the 2017 Malaria Indicator Survey, 48 per cent of households slept under an insecticide treated net the previous night”, said Honorable Deng. “ Hon. Deng pledged USD 500 000 from the 2022/2023 budget to fight malaria and urged partners for continued long-term sustainable support to implement targeted interventions towards reducing the burden of malaria”.
Although great progress has been made in malaria control, major challenges such as the inadequate supply of malaria commodities at the utilization level, fragility of health systems, flooding, population displacements and food and nutrition insecurity affects the implementations of key malaria control and prevention interventions.
“Malaria is our number one enemy. One person dies of malaria every hour in this country”, said George Otoo, Head RCO, Strategic Planner on behalf of Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator. “It is time to act. Let us all unite and fight malaria. To fight malaria, we need domestic resources to strengthen Health systems and build more confidence in donors to provide the necessary support so that we are able to mount a good front against this disease”.
“Malaria remains a significant public health and development challenge globally. Last year, about 95 per cent of the estimated 228 million cases occurred in the WHO African Region, along with over 600,000 reported deaths”, said Dr Fabian Ndenzako, WHO South Sudan Representative a.i. “In South Sudan malaria is the number one killer. The World Malaria Report 2021 estimated that about 20 people die of malaria daily and over 8,500 people get malaria daily”.
Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable.
Early diagnosis and treatment of malaria reduces disease severity, prevents deaths, and contributes to reducing transmission.
The Republic of South Sudan’s Ministry of Health with support from the World Health Organization and other partners convened the conference to call for multisectoral collaborative approaches towards targeted interventions to accelerate the reduction of malaria illness and death towards the larger goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage.
The conference offered a platform for the government to update stakeholders on efforts towards the delivery of healthcare services at all levels with a special focus on malaria interventions. Also present at the conference were Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda to share their experience in the reduction and control of the malaria burden.
The conference also sought to formulate ways through which the government and partners can work together to strengthen the national and local institutions to address the key drivers of Malaria which includes flooding, food insecurity, population displacement due to conflict and climate change and develop capacities to deliver healthcare services to the population.
The conferencewith the theme “saving lives from malaria in a protracted humanitarian emergency setting” galvanized plans and actions by South Sudan’s health sector. Partners have re-committed to taking action to reduce the preventable impact of malaria on the population and ensure access to quality healthcare services for everyone in South Sudan.
At the conclusion of the three-day event, H.E. Abdelbagi announced the launch of the Zero Malaria in South Sudan Starts With Me campaign to add his voice and commitment towards a Malaria Free South Sudan.
Canadian police has announced that , a Hydro-Quebecemployee has been arrested for spying for China.
Yuesheng Wang, 35, was arrested and charged with espionage by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Monday.
According to police, Mr Wang “obtained trade secrets to benefit the People’s Republic of China, to the detriment of Canada’s economic interests.”
On Tuesday, he will appear in court in Longueuil, Quebec, to face four criminal charges.
The resident of Candiac, a suburb south of Montreal, is accused of obtaining trade secrets, unauthorised use of a computer, breach of trust by a public officer and fraud for obtaining trade secrets.
The crimes allegedly occurred between February 2018 and October 2022.
A company statement said that Mr Wang worked on batteries for the utility’s Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage (CETEES), which develops technology for electric vehicles.
He allegedly published scientific articles and submitted patents in “association [with] this foreign actor rather than with Hydro-Quebec”, he said.
An investigation was launched into Mr Wang in August 2022 after the company’s internal security branch filed a complaint.
“Our detection and intervention mechanisms allowed our investigators to bring this matter to the attention of the RCMP, with whom we have worked closely ever since,”a security official at Hydro-Quebec said in a statement, adding that “no organisation is safe from a situation like this one”.
The public utility company handles electricity generation, transmission and storage for the Canadian province, and exports power to parts of the US as well.
It is the largest power utility in Canada, according to a company website.
The RCMP statement called it a priority for them and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide to “detect and disrupt foreign interference attempts”.
“Hydro-Quebec is considered a critical infrastructure and a strategic interest to be protected,” investigators said.
“The RCMP and its partners are working together with at-risk sectors to improve Canada’s response and resiliency to this threat.”
In the coming weeks, Canada is expected to announce a new Indo-Pacific strategy. Earlier this month, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said the country would seek to deepen ties with other partners in Asia.
King Charles has begun the process of increasing the number of royals who can perform official duties in the monarch’s absence, proposing Princess Anne and Prince Edward as new additions.
Camilla, the Queen Consort, and four other senior royals currently serve as “counsellors of state.”
However, Prince Andrew and Prince Harry are no longer available as “working royals.”
On Monday, the House of Lords heard the King’s request for a change.
It’s expected that the Lords will reply on Tuesday – and the same day could see the government introducing legislation in the House of Commons, with a Counsellors of State Bill paving the way for the King’s proposal for two extra working substitutes.
This rapid move in Parliament is intended to resolve an awkward constitutional problem about who could deputise for the King if he was overseas or unwell and could not carry out his duties as head of state.
At present two of the five eligible to act as counsellors are effectively ruled out.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, withdrew from royal duties in the wake of his association with US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, lives with his family in the United States and has stepped back from being a “working royal”.
Rather than remove them from the list of counsellors of state, the proposal is to widen the pool of eligible royals, so that the availability of Prince Andrew and Prince Harry would cease to be an issue.
In the House of Lords, Lord Parker of Minsmere delivered a statement from the King which called for Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, to be added as extra counsellors of state.
The statement said that adding the extra counsellors would “ensure continued efficiency of public business when I’m unavailable, such as while I’m undertaking official duties overseas”.
The message was also delivered to the House of Commons,with leader of the house Penny Mordaunt telling MPs there would be legislation to follow.
This will mean amending the Regency Act, which at present stipulates that counsellors are the spouse of the monarch plus the next four royals in succession to the throne, who are over the age of 21.
The current counsellors are Camilla, the Queen Consort; Prince William, the Prince of Wales; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Prince Andrew, Duke of York and his daughter, Princess Beatrice.
Both Princess Anne and Prince Edward have previously been counsellors of state, before being overtaken in the order of succession.
Counsellors can carry out official duties which could include the state opening of Parliament, signing documents, receiving ambassadors or attending Privy Council meetings, if the monarch is temporarily ill or abroad.
It is expected that the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales could be undertaking overseas visits next year, so counsellors could be a necessity when they are away.
Last month the issue was raised in the House of Lords, with Labour peer Viscount Stansgate challenging how Prince Andrew and Prince Harry could be two of the five replacements when one had “left public life” and the other had “left the country”.
We are getting a bit more on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech at the G20 summit in Bali.
During his virtual address, the Ukrainian leader presented a 10-point plan for peace with Russia.
He also said there would be no “Minsk 3” deal to end the fighting in Ukraine.
The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war and his statement refers to two failed ceasefire deals between Kyiv and Moscow over the status of the region.
“We will not allow Russia to wait, build up its forces, and then start a new series of terror and global destabilisation. There will be no Minsk 3, which Russia will violate immediately after the agreement,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
Mr Zelenskyy’s 10-point plan for peace are:
Radiation safety and nuclear weapons;
Food safety
Energy security
Release of prisoners and internees
Implementation of the UN Charter
Withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities
Crowds of residents in Guangzhou, southern China’s industrial metropolis, escaped a mandatory lockdown and clashed with police, as rage over strict coronavirus controls erupted.
Some are seen overturning a police vehicle and tearing down Covid control barriers in dramatic footage. Riot squads have been dispatched to the area.
It comes on the heels of Guangzhou’s worst Covid outbreak since the pandemic began.
In the face of dismal economic data, China’s zero-covid policy is under severe strain.
Tensions had been building in the city’s Haizhu District, which is under stay-at-home orders.
The area is home to many poorer itinerant labourers. They have complained of not being paid if they are unable to turn up for work, and of food shortages and skyrocketing prices while living under Covid control measures.
For several nights, they’d been tussling with the white-clad Covid prevention enforcement officials, and then overnight on Monday the anger suddenlyexploded onto the streets of Guangzhou with a mass act of defiance.
Again, unsubstantiated rumours have played a role. Stories have spread that the testing companies are faking PCR results to artificially boost the number of infections in order to make more money.
In the north of the country, the coronavirus rumour mill is also building pressure.
Officials in Hebei Province announced that the city of Shijiazhuang would halt mass testing. But this led to speculation that the population was going to be used, guinea-pig-style, to monitor what would happen if the virus was allowed to spread unchecked.
Discussion of this has appeared on social media platforms under the hashtag #ShijiazhuangCovidprevention.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Guangzhou has been under lockdown after a recent spurt in Covid cases
Many panicking locals have stockpiled Chinese medicines which are said to help with Covid infection. Supplies in the city are said to have virtually run out for the moment.
A similar viral rumour led to the mass breakout of workers at the Foxconn complex in the central city of Zhengzhou two weeks ago, which has hit the global supply of Apple iPhones.
Local governments across China are struggling to maintain a zero-Covid approach without trashing their economies. The latest official factory output and retails sales figures show the crushing impact of the pandemic and the government’s policy response to it.
There are no provinces at all which have reported zero cases in recent days.
Around 20 million people in the heart of western China’s mega city of Chongqing have been placed under a type of lockdown being referred to ironically by people as “voluntary static management”. This is because, though there has been no official announcement, they’ve been told to remain indoors by community officials.
Online there have been jokes that the Chongqing government didn’t want to announce a mass lockdown on the same day that measures easing zero-Covid rules across China were revealed.
Because Covid amelioration still dominates life here, even a small shift in the way it is being administered can cause consternation and panic.
At the beginning of this week, officials in Beijing’s Chaoyang district decided to close many of the street-side testing booths and move them into housing compounds. There was a sudden cut in the number of PCR stations. The problem is that many office buildings require a daily result, or you can’t enter.
So at the booths that were open, the queues were enormous.
From the workers stuck in Tibet who protested to leave Lhasa, to the lockdown of the entire region of Xinjiang, zero-Covid is not going smoothly.
A series of changes announced last week slightly toning down the rules were seen as a sign that more easing was possible down the road. But even if the government is considering this, it may not be soon enough.
Ukraine has put forward “unrealistic” conditions for peace, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov has said.
Speaking to reporters in Bali, Indonesia, Mr Lavrov said he had been in talks with the leaders of France and Germany on the conflict in Ukraine before going on to accuse Kyiv of dragging out any possible resolution.
He claimed Ukraine was refusing to talk to Moscow and had put forward unrealistic conditions for peace.
The Kremlin official also said that the UN had promised to move obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilisers.
Russia has long complained of barriers to its farm exports, even though they are not directly targeted by Western sanctions.
In spite of the problems, Mr Lavrov said Russia had already exported 10.5 million tonnes of grain, mainly wheat, of which 60% had gone to Asia and 40% to Africa.
“I hope these promises will be fulfilled. At least the UN secretary general gave me his sworn assurance that this is a priority issue for him,” he added.
Yesterday, the Indonesian authorities said Mr Lavrov had been taken to hospital after his arrival in Bali for the G20 summit.
Wayan Koster, the governor of Bali, said he had been taken in for a “check-up” at the Sanglah Hospital in the provincial capital, Denpasar, and was “immediately returned”.
Three other Indonesian government and medical officials also said he was being treated on the resort island.
However, the Russian foreign ministry dismissed claims that he had been in hospital as “fake news”.
Despite the fact that there are more people on Earth than ever before because we are living longer lives, population growth is at its slowest rate since 1950, according to UN data.
According to UN Population Division projections, the world’s eighth billionth resident was born today.
The global population has grown to eight billion people, three times the size it was in 1950, and while there are more people on Earth than ever before because we are living longer lives, population growth is slowing to its slowest rate in more than 70 years.
The global population growth rate will be less than 1% in 2020. This is largely due to a lower birth rate, with women having fewer children as a result of widespread contraception and improved education and mobility opportunities for women and girls.
The global population is also getting older – 10% are aged over 65, and this will increase to 16% by 2050.
By 2050 the number of over-65s will be twice that of those under five.
China and India are the joint-most populated countries in the world, with 1.4 billion people each.
Based on UN projections, India will surpass China for the first time next year.
Image:The population of India is expected to surpass that of China next year
More than half of the projected increase up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050.
The biggest increases will come specifically from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, with both populations doubling in the next 30 years.
Elsewhere in Africa, the biggest surges will be in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt.
In Asia outside India and China, the biggest growth will happen in Pakistan and the Philippines.
More generally, 46 of the least-developed countries in the world will have the fastest-growing populations between now and 2050.
Most of this growth (two-thirds) will be driven by what has already happened – and the youthful structure of the population.
Image:China has been the most populous country since records began
Where is the population shrinking?
The world population is growing more slowly than it has in decades due to long periods of low fertility.
More than two-thirds of people live in countries where women have 2.1 children or fewer.
This is roughly the level that would produce zero growth worldwide.
The population of 61 countries will decrease by 1% or more between now and 2050 – either due to decreased birth rates or increased levels of migration.
The war in Ukraine is having a huge impact on its population size – with projections showing it will have lost more than 20% of its population by 2050.
Four other central and eastern European countries – Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Serbia – will experience similar population decreases in the next three decades.
COVID decreases life expectancy
Overall life expectancy fell from 72.8 before the pandemic in 2019 to 71 last year.
COVID’s impact was not the same for every region, however.
Central and southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean were hit the most – with life expectancy decreasing by around three years.
But in Australia and New Zealand, which both shut their borders and pursued a “zero COVID” policy for most of the pandemic, life expectancy increased by 1.2 years due to a decreased risk of dying from other causes during successive lockdowns.
Coronavirus may have resulted in some short-term reductions in pregnancies, but there was no evidence of an overall decline, UN experts said.
What’s next?
The global population will continue to grow – to around 8.5 billion people by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050.
It will start to peak at around 10.4 billion people in the 2080s and remain at that level until 2100.
After that, trends are uncertain.
Australia, New Zealand, the rest of Oceania, North Africa and Western Asia will still be growing in population by the end of this century.
But the rest of the world, including Europe and North America, will have reached their peak and started to decline before the year 2100.
Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said of the eight billion milestone: “This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognise our common humanity and marvel at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates.”
But he added: “At the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another.”
The latest wage figures will likely concern policymakers at the Bank of England who fear increases will fuel inflation further down the line.
Wage growth picked up by more than expected over the three months to September, according to official figures also showing a rise in the jobless rate.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS)said average weekly earnings, excluding bonus payments, rose at an annual rate of 5.7% during the three months to September as more workers secured better deals to help navigate the cost of living crisis and firms moved to retain and attract staff.
That was up from the 5.4% figure last month.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected an increase of 5.5%.
Nevertheless, at 5.7% it remains well below the official rate of inflation at 10.1%.
Real wage growth was 3.7% weaker in September when the effects of inflation were included, the ONS said.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.6% from 3.5% as the number of people in employment fell by 52,000.
Darren Morgan, ONS director of labour and economic statistics, said of the shift: “The proportion of people neither working nor looking for work has risen again.
“Since the onset of the pandemic, this shift has largely been caused by older workers leaving the labour market altogether, but in the most recent quarter the main contribution has actually come from younger groups.
“August and September saw well over half a million working days lost to strikes, the highest two-month total in more than a decade, with the vast majority coming from the transport and communications sectors.
“With real earnings continuing to fall, it’s not surprising that employers we survey are telling us most disputes are about pay.”
The figures were released as the economy battles problems from the highest inflation for 40 years and the fallout from Trussonomics – namely the now largely reversed mini-budget of September.
Official figures last week showed the economy contracted during the third quarter of the year as the cost of living crisis hit demand, leaving the country on course for a prolonged but shallow recession, according to the Bank of England, which believes the jobless rate could hit 6.5%.
The rate is the single most important interest rate in the UK and determines the rate the Bank of England pays to commercial banks that hold money with them. It influences the rates those banks charge people to borrow money or pay on their savings.
The Truss government’s growth plan exacerbated problems as financial markets called into question the UK’s economic credibility, making imports more expensive through a collapse in the value of the pound.
Other implications included a rise in fixed-term mortgage costs, adding to households’ growing bill mountain.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, will deliver his autumn statement to MPs on Thursday with little firepower to help alleviate the overall pain.
‘Taxes will increase for everyone’
He told Sky News on Sunday that everyone faced higher taxes as the government, now led by Rishi Sunak, aims to take a more sustainable approach to the public finances.
It is believed the package will be designed to save about £50bn from annual borrowing in the medium term.
Mr Hunt said in reaction to the employment data: “Tackling inflation is my absolute priority and that guides the difficult decisions on tax and spending we will make on Thursday.
press home the knock-on impact of 12 years of Tory economic mistakes and low growth.
“Real wages have fallen again, thousands of over 50s have left the labour market and a record number of people are out of work because they’re stuck on NHS waiting lists or they’re not getting proper employment support.
“What Britain needs in the autumn statement on Thursday are fairer choices for working people, and a proper plan for growth.”
The prime minister intends to use the summit to press the world’s most powerful economies to do more to reduce their reliance on Russian exports, while also encouraging others to do the same.
As he confronted Vladimir Putin’s officials at the G20 summit, Rishi Sunak said Russia must “get out of Ukraine and end this barbaric war.”
The prime minister made the remarks during the first session on Tuesday, criticising the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin from the talks on the Indonesian island of Bali.
“It is notable that Putin didn’t feel able to join us here,” he said. “Maybe if he had, we could get on with sorting things out.
“Because the single biggest difference that anyone could make is for Russia to get out of Ukraine and end this barbaric war.
“The UK rejects this aggression. We will back Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Mr Putin chose not to attend the talks, with the Kremlin blaming scheduling conflicts, but observers say officials are seeking to shield him from condemnation by world leaders.
Mr Sunak also rebuked Russia by saying “countries should not invade their neighbours”.
“It is very simple – countries should not invade their neighbours, they should not attack civilian infrastructure and civilian populations and they should not threaten nuclear escalation,” he said.
“Surely these are things on which we can all agree.”
The prime minister sat down with leaders of the world’s 19 biggest economies in Bali – the first meeting in the group’s 15-year history to be held in the shadow of a major European war instigated by one of its members.
Image:Justin Trudeau, the Canadian leader, and Mr Sunak met at a Bali cafe on Monday
‘Chorus of opposition to Putin’
Mr Sunak will use the summit to push the world’s most powerful economies to do more to reduce their dependence on Russian exports, while supporting others to do the same.
He will also reiterate the UK’s financial support for Ukraine, saying he committed £4.1bn in aid when he was chancellor.
This included £2.3bn in military aid, while Mr Sunak will promise to match this level of spending next year.
Before the meeting, he said: “Putin and his proxies will never have a legitimate seat at the table until they end their illegal war in Ukraine.”
He continued: “At the G20, the Putin regime – which has stifled domestic dissent and fabricated a veneer of validity only through violence – will hear the chorus of global opposition to its actions.”
Many countries have stood firm, supporting Ukraine with weapons and aid, while imposing various sanctions on Russia.
Mr Putin sent Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, to the talks in his place.
He was taken to hospital on his arrival at the talks with a heart condition, the Indonesian authorities said – though the Russian foreign ministry dismissed the claims as “fake news”.
Last week, the UK introduced legislation to stop countries using its maritime services to transport Russian oil unless it is purchased below a price cap – which Number 10 described as a “hugely influential measure, given the UK provides around 60% of global maritime insurance”.
The United Nations General Assemblyhas called for Russia to be held accountable for its invasion of Ukraine, approving a resolution recognising that Russia is responsible for reparation in the country.
The resolution, supported by 94 of the assembly’s 193 members, recognises that Russia must be held accountable for violations of international law in or against Ukraine and “must bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts”.
General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, but they carry political weight.
Nearly one week after the US midterm elections, the race for control of the lower chamber of Congress remains tight.
Republicans must win at least 218 seats to retake control of the House of Representatives, a task that has become increasingly difficult.
According to CBS News race projections, the party has currently won 214 seats, while Democrats have won 210.
Meanwhile, Democrats retained control of the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress.
The Biden administrationhad feared that a loss of power in Congress would bring the president’s agenda to a halt.
If the two parties split control of Washington, Democrats will “maintain our positions” but voters should not “expect much of anything”, President Biden said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters in Indonesia, where he is attending the G-20 summit, Mr Biden said the results had “sent a very strong message around the world that the United States is ready to play” and wants to remain “fully engaged in the world”.
He noted there was “a strong rejection” of election denialism, political violence and voter intimidation. But he warned that, without a majority in the House, Democrats would be unable to codify abortion rights through legislation, a key priority for liberal voters.
Out of the 11 House races that still remain to be called, most are in western and southwestern states, including California and Arizona.
The latter’s race for governor is also too close to call, with Republican Kari Lake – a chief proponent of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump – trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs.
A loss for Ms Lake would see her join the ranks of pre-eminent Trump-backed election deniers who lost last week. But a BBC News tally of results found at least 125 election deniers have won races for the House, Senate and governorships.
Newly elected members of Congress, including the first lawmaker from Generation Z and the first openly gay Republican, have already begun arriving in Washington for orientation.
History suggests the party controlling the White House usually loses seats in a midterm election, and Democrats’ performance this year is considered the best for a sitting party in at least 20 years.
That has endangered leadership bids for the top Republicans in the Senate and House ahead of the party’s internal elections on Tuesday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy – who hopes to succeed Nancy Pelosi as Speaker in the next Congress – and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are both reportedly scrambling to garner support from their colleagues.
Divisions within the party have been on full display in recent days as former President Donald Trump,who has received some of the blame for a poor showing, prepares to launch another presidential run later this week.
Taliban leaderHaibatullah Akhundzada has directed Afghan judges to impose punishments for specific crimes, including public amputations and stoning.
According to his spokesman, crimes such as robbery, kidnapping, and sedition must be punished in accordance with the group’s interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
The Taliban were condemned for such punishments, which included public executions, when they were in power in the 1990s.
When they retook power last year, they promised to govern more moderately.
But since then the militant Islamist group has steadily cracked down on freedoms. Women’s rights in particular have been severely restricted.
The Taliban’s supreme leader said judges must punish criminals according to Sharia, if the crime committed is a violation of those laws.
The Taliban’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted late on Sunday that the “obligatory” command came after Mullah Akhundzada met a group of judges.
“Carefully examine the files of thieves, kidnappers and seditionists,” Mujahid quoted Akhundzada as saying.
The exact crimes and punishments have not been defined by the Taliban, but one religious leader in Afghanistan told the BBC that under Sharia law, penalties could include amputations, public lashings and stoning.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Women were barred from all parks and funfairs in Kabul last week
Last week they banned women from visiting all parks in Kabul, excluding them still further from public life. It has since emerged the ban extends to women in the capital visiting public baths and gyms, although the latter attracted relatively few women.
Entry to parks, baths and gyms was already segregated under Taliban rules on segregating people by gender. The group claims Islamic laws were not being followed.
Levels of violence have fallen across Afghanistan since foreign troops pulled out after 20 years of war, in the face of the Taliban advance in the summer of 2021.
But the group has faced numerous allegations that it is abusing human rights, including of opponents, women and journalists.
It has vowed there will be no brutal repression of women as there was when it was in power from 1996-2001, but half the population face severe curbs on what they can do.
Women are barred from going on longer distance journeys without a male chaperone. Teenage girls have still not returned to school in most of the country, despite Taliban promises to allow them to do so.
While some women still work in sectors such as healthcare and education, most were told not to go to work after the Taliban swept back to power.
Billions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights.
Zelenskyy triumphantly walked the streets of Kherson, hailing Russia’s withdrawal as the “beginning of the end of the war,” but also acknowledging the high cost Ukrainian troops are paying in their grinding effort to push back the Russians.
Zelenskyy awarded medals to soldiers and posed for selfies with them in Kherson, striking a defiant tone.
“This is the beginning of the end of the war,” he said. “We are step by step coming to all the temporarily occupied territories.”
But he also grimly noted that the fighting “took the best heroes of our country”.
Zelenskyy’s trip to Kherson was another is a series of unexpected visits to front-line areas at crucial moments of the war. This one was laden with both symbolism and the common touch — clearly aimed at boosting morale of soldiers and civilians alike.
The Equiano subsea internet cable that landed ashore in Melkbosstrand outside Cape Town earlier this year could cut South Africa’s internet costs by around 20%, according to Google.
Equiano arrived in South Africa in early August, its final destination after already having landed in Togo, Nigeria, and Namibia.
The submarine internet cable, stretching 15,000km from Portugal to South Africa along the west coast of the continent, features 12 fibre pairs and a design capacity of 150Tbps. Equiano has 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve this region, according to Nitin Gajria, the managing director of Google in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“There’s a huge positive knock-on effect, in terms of digital economies, job generation… but, at the end of the day, for the end-user, the knock-on effect of this [Equiano] is faster internet and lower cost internet,” said Gajria on Wednesday at the AfricaTech festival held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
“So, depending on which country you’re in, what geography you’re in, and the various partnerships along the way, this would be somewhere in the range of 20% cheaper internet locally.”
Equiano will start feeding more network capacity through the west coast of Africa – and South Africa – in a phased approach, said Gajria, with the first phase expected to begin in December.
“What the cable does is it brings in a lot more network capacity to the continent. What we’re now doing is working with partners to bring this capacity further afield. This involves us working with ISPs, telcos, other infrastructure players in the ecosystem to bring this capacity further afield,” said Gajria.
“One of the objectives for us is to start driving more connectivity and getting more people online and getting faster, cheaper internet into more parts of Africa, including the rural areas.”
Of the approximately 1.1 billion people living in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 300 million are online,added Gajria. “And even those 300 million people, they don’t really have the full internet experience that many of us do.”
The problem in getting more people in Africa connected to the internet involves network availability, which is becoming less of an issue as telecommunication providers expand, said Gajria, access to an internet-enabled device, and access to fast, affordable data.
“So, think of it [Equiano] as bringing in a lot more supply of network capacity into the continent. What that will do is make [internet] speeds faster and make data cheaper, so it works on both sides of the equation,” said Gajria.
The landing of Equiano in South Africa coincides with the laying of the 2Africa cable, the longest subsea cable in the world, which recently touched down in Marseille, France. The 2Africa cable will connect 33 countries and the continents of Africa, Europe and Asia once live in 2023, further improving capacity in the regions it touches.
The United States has imposed new sanctions aimed at disrupting Russian military supply chains, targeting 14 people and 28 entities it claims are part of a transnational network that procures technology to support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The US Treasury also designated family members of Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as individuals who worked as financial intermediaries in Suleiman’s network.
“The United States will continue to disrupt Russia’s military supply chains and impose high costs on President Putin’s enablers, as well as all those who support Russia’s brutality against its neighbor,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken saidin a statement.
Defying political gravity, Democrats have avoided defeat in the Senate and could even score a victory.
President Joe Biden’s party flipped Pennsylvania and held on to every other seat (bar Georgia, where the Senate race is headed for a runoff on Dec. 6), a result that few other presidents have enjoyed in the past.
The Republicans are currently projected to win a slim majority in the House of Representatives, although 20 races remain too close to call. Still, Democrats’ losses in the lower chamber are fewer than forecast, scoring one of the best midterm results for the party in the last century.
Typically, the political party in the White House loses popularity, and therefore seats, in the midterm elections. There are a number of reasons for this: an overall lower voter turnout compared to presidential elections, those dissatisfied with the status quo being more likely to head to the ballots than those who support it, and swing voters switching their vote away from the ruling party depending on how economic and social conditions have fared.
Ahead of the Nov. 8 vote, Biden recorded low popularity rates in the polls as inflation touched 40-year highs. The odds appeared to be in Republicans’ favor, but the conservative party ultimately failed to get a leg up in the Senate races. Voters showed up for abortion rights, and against Donald Trump and candidates who doubted or rejected the outcome of the 2020 election .
Time Capsule: When presidents’ parties gained in Senate races
Only on three occasions since 1922 has the president’s party gained (or lost no) Senate seats.
On Saturday Nov. 12, Mark Kelly’s re-election in Arizona put the Democrats one vote away from clinching the Senate. Theformer NASA astronaut, who won a second term in a state that has historically voted red, has at times criticized Biden on issues such as immigration.
Later that day, the Nevada race results cemented the Democrats’ held of the Senate. When the tight race was called in Catherine Cortez Masto’s favor, Republicans’ 1994-like “red wave” talk fell flat on its head.
Now, Masto’s win over Trump-backed Adam Laxalt gives Democrats an opportunity to clinch an outright Senate majority if they win in Georgia’s December runoff.
All eyes on Georgia’s runoff election
Neither candidate in the Georgia Senate race won an outright majority, so the top two, Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, will face off in a runoff election on Dec 6. (Ironically, two black contenders will face-off with a tradition that was originally designed to keep Black voters away from the polls.)
Independently, a Warnock win would make history considering there has never been a midterm where every incumbent who sought another term won their primary and general elections since the popular vote for US senators were established in 1913.
In the context of the Senate, Warnock’s win would give Democrats a clear majority, so vice president Kamala Harris wouldn’t have to be the tie-breaker.
Democrats are eyeing a Georgia win, president Biden says
“I’m incredibly pleased by the turnout. And I think it’s a reflection of the quality of our candidates. And they’re all running on the same program. There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t running on what we did. They’re all staying, sticking with it. And so, I feel good. I’m looking forward to the next couple years.” —President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters on Nov. 13
Person of interest: Mitch McConnell
Many members of the Republican party, including Trump and his former White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, are blaming Minority Leader of the US Senate Mitch McConnell for losing the Arizona election. The Senate Leadership Fund, led by McConnell, withdrew broadcast ad spending from Arizona candidate Blake Masters to the tune of $9 million, and instead gave it to Lisa Murkowski, who was up against another Republican-backed nominee in Alaska. McConnell also spent more on Colorado than he did on Arizona, to little avail.
As the tense Arizona race trotted on, Masters said: “The people who control the purse strings, Senate Leadership Fund, Mitch McConnell—McConnell decided to spend millions of dollars attacking a fellow Republican in Alaska instead of helping me defeat Senator Mark Kelly. Had he chosen to spend money in Arizona, this race would be over, we’d be celebrating a Senate Majority right now.”
Released on Monday, his 74th birthday, the photograph marks Charles’ appointment as Ranger.
The photo shows the monarch leaning against an ancient oak tree in Windsor Great Park, with the winter sun gleaming in the background.
The photo shows the monarch leaning against an ancient oak tree in Windsor Great Park, with the winter sun gleaming in the background.
Britain’s King Charles III speaks in the Throne Room at St James’s Palace during the Accession Council in London in September 2022. He was formally proclaimed as King. Joining him were his son Prince William and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort. Credit: Jonathan Brady/Pool/AP
The post of Ranger was previously held by his father, Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, for 70 years. Duties include offering guidance to the Deputy Ranger on the stewardship of one of the country’s oldest estates, Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Festivities for the King’s birthday began Monday with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” by the band of the Household Cavalry at Buckingham Palace, where Charles was born in 1948. This performance was followed at midday by a 41-gun royal salute from the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery in Green Park.
Charles came to the throne on September 8, with the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at age 96.
Last month, the UK Royal Mint unveiled King Charles III’s coin portrait.
Canada will provide another $500 million in military assistance to Ukraine, in addition to sanctions against nearly two dozen Russians, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced.
The additional funding, which will help fund military, surveillance and communications equipment, fuel, and medical supplies, will be added to the $3.4 billion in Canadian assistance to Kyiv for its defence against Russia’s invasion, according to Trudeau’s office.
Monday’s sanctions target 23 Russian individuals “involved in gross and systematic human rights violations against Russian opposition leaders,” including police officers, prosecutors, judges and prison officials, the statement added.
The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that talks between US and Russian officials took place in Ankara.
“Such negotiations really took place. It was the American side’s initiative,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.
According to reports, US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns travelled to Turkey to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.
Burns reportedly warned Naryshkin of the consequences Russia would face in the event it used nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
The cost of Christmas has risen in price over the past 10 years, with the average cost of festive decorations and snacks up to £548 this year, new data suggests.
The Christmas Inflation Index, from personal insolvency provider Creditfix, looked at 25 items and found the traditional Christmas stocking has seen the biggest price rise.
The average cost of festive decorations and snacks such as advent calendars, cards, gift wrap, and a Christmas tree is now £130 more than it would have cost in 2012.
This is before Britons take into account the price of gifts, social events, and the full Christmas dinner shop.
While the average cost of a standard Christmas tree in 2022 is £88, it was £69 in 2012 – a jump of almost a third and 64% higher compared to 20 years ago.
Data was gathered on the average price of popular festive treats this year at popular department stores and supermarkets and then analysed using the Bank of England inflation calculator to show the difference over time.
Bauble prices have surged from an average of £7 in 2012 to almost £10 this year – a 32% increase.
Of the items analyzed, the Christmas tree topper was the least affected by inflation. Prices for angels and stars increased by only 15% over the past five years.
A supermarket-bought chocolate advent calendar, however, is now at record costs, setting people back £7 on average.
Separate data, commissioned by Park Christmas Savings, revealed Christmas will cost families more than £900 this year.
How the average price of festive favourites has risen in the last 10 years:
1. Stockings – from £3.12 to £4.25
2. Baubles – from £7.00 to £9.30
3. Christmas garlands – from £22.62 to £29.15
4. Inflatable Christmas decorations – from £39.00 to £50
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said it is up to Ukraine to decide what terms are acceptable for negotiations with Russia to bring an end to the war.
“It is for Ukraine to decide what kind of terms are acceptable. It is for us to support them,” Stoltenberg said during a press conference with members of the Dutch government in The Hague.
“We should not make the mistake of underestimating Russia … They still control large parts ofUkraine … What we should do is strengthen Ukraine’s hand,” Stoltenberg added.
US Central Intelligence Agency DirectorWilliam Burns has travelled to Turkey to speak to his Russian counterpart and warn Moscow of the consequences of any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, according to several reports citing an unnamed White House official.
The Reuters news agency quoted the White House official as saying that Burns, a former US ambassador to Russia, was not conducting negotiations of any kind on Monday with Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.
Ukraine was briefed in advance about Burns’s trip to Turkey, the official added.
The official provided no details regarding the timing of Burns’s meeting, and it was not immediately clear whether his talks with Naryshkin had already concluded.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency also reported the meeting, citing unnamed intelligence sourcesas saying it was being hosted by Turkish intelligence officials.
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