After a legal battle over succession, South Africa’spresident officially recognised King Misuzulu.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially recognised South Africa’s new Zulu king, Misuzulu kaZwelithini, as the head of the country’s most powerful traditional monarchy in the first Zulu coronation since 1971.
The ceremony recognising the new king, who has promised to unite his country and uphold tradition, brings an end to the legal squabble over his succession to the throne.
“Our king is indeed officially the king of the Zulu nation and the only king of the Zulu nation,” said Ramaphosa on Saturday.
The head of South Africa’s largest ethnic group was crowned in August but needed official recognition from Ramaphosa to fully access and use government resources and support.
In March 2021, former King Zwelithini, Misuzulu’s father, died after reigning since 1971. The coronation was to recognise Misuzulu, 48, as the rightful heir after his late father.
“You have picked up the mighty spear that has fallen. May your steady hand guide and bring stability to the kingship of AmaZulu,” Ramaphosa said, adding that his government was committed to working with the new king to help transform rural areas into places of prosperity.
Although the title of king does not bestow executive power, the monarchs wield great moral influence over more than 11 million Zulus, who make up nearly a fifth of South Africa’s population of 60 million.
King Misuzulu reigns over a divided royal family, with another faction, that includes some of his late father’s wives and some of his siblings from the other palaces, recognising King Zwelithini’s first-born son Prince Simakade as king.
Misuzulu was chosen as the rightful heir through the will of his mother, the late Queen Mantfombi Dlamini Zulu, who became interim leader after the death of her husband King Zwelithini. The queen passed away almost two months after Zwelithini.
“I commit to developing the country and the economy and promoting peace and reconciliation first among the Zulus and also among the South Africans and Africans,” King Misuzulu said after taking his oath.
The king controls vast swaths of land, estimated at about 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres), in KwaZulu-Natal under an entity called the Ingonyama Trust.
Khaya Ndwandwe, a Zulu historian, said at the stadium that recognition of the new king by the government as “the real king of the Zulu people” means “now the king will be more than protected”.
“It’s a great day for the Zulu nation. It’s a day of great joy for the Zulu people, for every
The death toll in Somalia is expected to rise further following Saturday’s twin bombings targeting the education ministry.
According to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, at least 100 people were killed and 300 were injured in two car bomb explosions in Mogadishu.
Mohamud told reporters on Sunday that he expected the death toll from the twin blasts to rise further, blaming the al-Shabab armed group for the attacks.
“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were struggling with the lives of their families,” the Somali leader said after visiting the site of the blast.
Death toll climbs to 100, over 300 hurt in the nasty bombings at Sobe junction, says president @HassanSMohamud, adding the fatalities likely to rise. “We will defeat and we already defeated this radical group,” the Head of State said after visiting the site of the terror attack. pic.twitter.com/VcobTx3CgR
Authorities said the attack at the busy Sobe intersection on Saturday targeted the Somali education ministry and a school.
Sadiq Doodishe, a police spokesperson, told reporters that women, children, and the elderly had been killed in the attack.
State news agency SONNA said independent journalist Mohamed Isse Kona was also killed.
The first explosion hit the ministry; then the second blast occurred as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims, police officer Nur Farah told the Reuters news agency.
“I was 100 meters away when the second blast occurred,” witness Abdirazak Hassan told The Associated Press news agency. “I couldn’t count the bodies on the ground due to the [number of] fatalities.” He said the first blast hit the perimeter wall of the education ministry, where street vendors and money changers plied their trade.
A Reuters journalist near the blast site said the two explosions occurred within minutes of each other and smashed windows in the vicinity. Blood from victims of the blasts covered the tarmac just outside the building, he said.
Moments after the blasts, a large plume of smoke rose over the site.
The Aamin ambulance service said on Saturday that they had collected at least 35 wounded people. One ambulance responding to the first attack was destroyed by the second blast, director Abdulkadir Adan added in a tweet.
A driver and a first aid worker were wounded, he said.
One Ameen Ambulance driver was injured when his ambulance was completely destroyed. Our team was attempting to help the victims who were caught in an explosion attack against Ministry of Education building. It is very sad incident that the second explosion hit out vehicle.
The United Nations Mission in Somalia condemned Saturday’s “vicious attack” and extended its condolences to the families of the victims. Turkey condemned the “heinous” attack, while Qatar – firmly rejecting violence and “terrorism” – expressed its condolences and wished the wounded a speedy recovery.
The explosions occurred in the same location as Somalia’s largest bombing in October 2017, which killed more than500 people. In that bombing, a truck bomb exploded outside a busy hotel at the K5 intersection, which is lined with government offices, restaurants, and kiosks.
Al-Qaeda-allied al-Shabab, which has been fighting in Somalia for more than a decade, is seeking to topple the central government and establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The group uses a campaign of bombings both in Somalia and elsewhere, and targets have included military installations as well as hotels, shopping centres, and busy traffic areas.
In August, at least 20 people were killed and dozens wounded when al-Shabab fighters stormed the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu, triggering a 30-hour standoff with security forces before the siege was finally ended.
Mohamud, with support from the United States and allied local militias, has launched an offensive against the group, although results have been limited.
Environment Minister Mark Spencerhas come under fire for implying that “some little man in China” was listening in on his phone calls.
It comes on the heels of reports that Liz Truss’s phone was hacked while she was Foreign Secretary.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Spencer said: “We all talk on personal phones, don’t we?
“You know, I ring my wife.
“Maybe there’s some little man in China listening to my conversations between me and my wife.”
Labour MP Sarah Owen, who is of Chinese descent and is chair of East and South-East Asians for Labour, said: “Mark Spencer once again showing his ignorance, on many levels.”
Another Labour MP, Chris Bryan, tweeted: “‘Little man’? Honestly?”
Catherine West, the shadow minister for Asia and the Pacific, said: “More casual racism from the Tories.”
Mourners pay their respects as 154 people are confirmed dead in the Seoul disaster, which occurred during Halloweencelebrations.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has promised a thorough investigation into the weekend Halloween crush in Seoul, which killed more than 150 people and plunged the country into mourning.
Officials announced on Monday that the death toll had risen to 154, with 149 people injured, 33 of whom were in critical condition.
Tens of thousands of people crowded into the narrow streets and alleyways of Seoul’s popular Itaewon district on Saturday for the first major Halloween festivities since the COVID-19 pandemic struck three years ago.
Many of the revellers were in their teens and dressed in Halloween costumes.
But chaos erupted when people poured into one particularly narrow and sloping alley, even after it was already packed, witnesses said.
“It doesn’t matter how they died, or why they died. Those poor people, all at similar ages to my grandchildren, they died anyway,” said Jung Si-hoon, a retiree and a church elder, who placed an old wooden cross at the makeshift altar.
“What more should we say? We should pray for them and wish them to rest in peace.”
Shops and cafés nearby were closed, and police cordoned off the site of the tragedy as they continued their investigations.
Schools, kindergartens, and companies around the country scrapped planned Halloween events. K-pop concerts and government briefings were also cancelled.
“The government will undertake a thorough investigation into what caused this accident and do its best to make necessary institutional changes so that such an accident is not repeated,” Prime Minister Han said as government officials met on the disaster.
“Identification has been completed for all of the 154 deceased except one, and I believe it is time for follow-up measures such as funeral procedures to be carried out in earnest,” Han said. “We will do our best to provide necessary support by reflecting the opinions of the bereaved families as much as possible.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, were among those paying their respects at a memorial altar set up outside Seoul city hall [Yonhap via Reuters]
President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has declared a period of national mourning and designated Itaewon a disaster zone, visited a memorial altar outside the Seoul city hall with his wife on Monday to pay his respects to those who died. Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also among those expressing their condolences.
The crush of partygoers came as Itaewon, a symbol of freewheeling nightlife in the South Korean capital for decades, was beginning to recover from prolonged pandemic restrictions with new restaurants and shops opening.
The disaster is the worst in South Korea since the Sewol ferry sank in 2014, killing 304 people, most of them high school students.
The sinking of the Sewol and criticism of the official response sent shockwaves across South Korea, prompting widespread soul-searching over safety measures that are likely to be renewed in the wake of Saturday’s crush.
Before deleting his post, Tesla CEO Elon Musklinked to an unsubstantiated article about Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, tweeted an article containing a conspiracy theory about the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband before deleting the post hours later.
Musk’s tweet on Sunday linked to an article making unsubstantiated claims about Paul Pelosi’s personal life and the role it may have played in last week’s attack at his and his wife’s home in San Francisco.
Musk tweeted the article by the Santa Monica Observer, a website with a history of publishing misinformation, after Hillary Clinton posted an LA Times article about the suspected attacker, David DePape, and criticised Republicans for spreading “hate and deranged conspiracy theories”.
In response to Clinton’s tweet, Musk posted the article while adding there was a “tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye”.
US media outlets have linked DePape, who is accused of attacking Pelosi with a hammer, to blog posts espousing far-right and extreme views online, including the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Musk, who has described himself as a “free-speech absolutist”, appeared to have deleted his tweet several hours after posting it without explanation.
The Tesla CEO’s controversial tweet comes as his $44bn purchase of the social media platform is at the centre of a heated debate about the limits of free speech in the digital age.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has criticised Twitter’s moderation policies and accused the social media giant of having a left-wing bias.
The billionaire has stressed the need for a “common digital town square” where a wide range of beliefs can be debated while insisting he does not favour a “free-for-all hellscape”.
Critics have expressed fears that Musk’s ownership of the platform could result in a surge in hate speechand misinformation, while conservatives have heralded the takeover as a corrective to Big Tech censorship.
The BBC’s Roxy Gadekar, who is at the scene, reports that rescue teams are still trying to recover bodies from the river. Most of the bodies being recovered are of women and children.
Prasanna Kumar, the commander of the National Disaster Response Force, told the BBC that they would continue the operation until everyone has been accounted for.
“It was difficult at night since the water is stagnant and there is sewage in the river. The visibility was low, so it was difficult to spot bodies,” he said.
With daybreak, rescue teams were able to look under the wreckage of the broken bridge and found more bodies.
“We will search the whole river and leave no room for doubt,” he said.
“Search will continue and we will not rest.”
Meanwhile, a few stretchers lie on the bank of the river as bodies are pulled by rescue teams from the murky water and brought to shore.
Parts of a small dam, which is around 500m downstream from the wreckage of the bridge, have been broken to reduce the water level in the river to help rescuers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the tragedy was painful. He added that his thoughts were with the families of the victims.
“Rarely in my life, would I have experienced such pain. On one hand, there is a pain-riddled heart and on the other hand, there is the path to duty,” he said.
Expressing his condolences, he pledged the government’s full support to the families of those who died in the accident.
“All alertness is being observed even in the hospital where the injured are under treatment,” he said.
“In March this year, it was closed to the public for renovation,” Sandeep Jhala, the chief of the local Morbi municipality, told reporters.
Mr Jhala says the bridge was reopened to the public after repairs only on 26 October.
“But the local municipality had not yet issued a fitness certificate (after the renovation work),” he says.
Mr Jhala told local media that the municipality didn’t know yet “how the bridge collapsed, what was its capacity, whether they had taken any fitness certificate or not, what kind of material was used in it“.
What happened?
Reports said several hundred people were on the bridge at the time of the collapse on Sunday.
A major tourist attraction, the century-old narrow cable bridge, built over the Machchu river, draws tourists in big numbers.
The bridge was particularly busy this weekend as the Hindu festival season of Diwali and Chhath Puja drew a large number of visitors to the tourist spot, which was reopened to the public only last week.
Reports say hundreds of families were on the bridge when it collapsed.
Victims mostly include children, women, and elderly people.
Videos on social media showed dozens clinging onto the floating wreckage as emergency teams attempted to rescue them. Many children and women, who were stuck, could be heard crying for help.
The suspect threw two or three devices, which a witness described as petrol bombs, and was later discovered dead at a nearby gas station.
Another device discovered in the man’s car was later rendered safe by the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit.
The attack injured two people who were inside the centre.
Kent Police, which is leading the investigation, is not currently treating the incident as terrorism.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman described the attack as “distressing”.
A photographer with Reuters news agency who witnessed the incident reported a man had thrown petrol bombs with fireworks attached before taking his own life.
Dover MP Nathalie Elphicke also said she understood the suspect had killed himself.
Police had been called at 11.22 GMT on Sunday to The Viaduct, Dover, where the devices thrown by the suspect had started a fire.
Speaking to LBC radio, Ms Elphicke said the motivation of the perpetrator was so far unknown, but the centre is “a well-known facility” where small boats arrive before people are taken 20 miles away to the Manston asylum processing centre in Kent.
The Dover siteremained open but around 700 suspected migrants were moved to Manston – about 15 miles (24 km) away – for their safety during the initial stages of the police investigation.
IMAGE SOURCE, PA MEDIA Image caption, Migrants were at the immigration centre following the incident in Dover
Posting to Twitter earlier, Ms Braverman said: “I am receiving regular updates on the situation.
“My thoughts are with those affected, the tireless Home Office staff and police responding. We must now support those officers as they carry out their investigation.”
Conservative Dover MP, Ms Elphicke, said she was “absolutely shocked and appalled” by the incident and that “tensions have been rising” over the numbers of migrants arriving in the town.
“I have expressed my concerns over the security of the centre in Dover,” she said. “I don’t think this is the appropriate place for amigrant-receiving centre. Dover is an extremely busy and open port.”
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick – who visited the Manston facility on Sunday – said he was being updated on the incident by Kent Police.
Ukrainian officials have reported that Russia has launched massive missile strikes across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, causing power and water outages.
At least two explosions have been reported in Kyiv. One resident told the BBC that his neighbourhood was now without power.
According to local authorities, critical infrastructure facilities in the northeastern city of Kharkiv were hit.
The strikes follow Russia’s accusation that Ukraine was responsible for a drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet in annexed Crimea.
On Monday morning, missile strikes were also reported in the central Vinnytsia region, as well as Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, and Lviv in western Ukraine.
A facility at the Dnipro hydroelectric power plant in the Zaporizhzhia region was also reportedly hit.
In Kyiv, a facility that powers 350,000 apartments was damaged, with engineers urgently deployed to restore the supply.
Residents in the regions under attack were urged to remain in shelters, amid fears more strikes could follow.
Ukraine’s Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV that Russia had used its strategic bombers to carry out its “massive” strikes.
Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said that “Russian losers are continuing to fight against peaceful objects”.
IMAGE SOURCE, UKRAINE’S DIGITALISATION MINISTRY Image caption, All of Ukraine’s regions – except for the annexed Crimea in the south – were marked in red as being under air attack on Monday morning
Russia has so far made no public comments on the reported latest strikes.
On Saturday, one Russian warship was damaged in the port city of Sevastopol in a drone attack, the Russian defence ministry said. It also accused British specialists of having trained the Ukrainian soldiers who then carried out the strikes in Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
Moscow provided no evidence to back its claims.
Ukraine has not commented on the issue, while the UK defence ministry said Russia was “peddling false claims on an epic scale“.
One issue has stoodout like a sore thumb amid the relative political calm that has washed over Westminster in the last five days.
Suella Braverman’s reappointment as home secretary a week after she resigned over security breaches has perplexed and befuddled Conservative MPs and officials.
Given Rishi Sunak’s commitment to integrity, the perception that a great office of state was traded away for support in the race for Number 10 has riled some.
A former cabinet minister said: “Rishi has screwed up and done a grubby deal to get support… he comes out and says ‘I am the savior, I’m whiter than white’ but he’s grey when push comes to shove.”
Another former minister said Mr Sunak was “desperate for her not to back Boris as they were terrified of an election. He needed a coronation as he’s frightened of any electorate.”
Downing Street denied any deal was done.
But there are also live questions about Mrs Braverman’s suitability for the role.
Her resignation just 11 days ago came after she sent a sensitive government document from her personal email account.
One of the recipients was a veteran Conservative MP who is said to be a regular confidante of the home secretary.
But she also accidentally copied in a parliamentary staffer who works for another Tory MP.
More than 100 charities have signed an open letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, urging her to create a “kind and effective system” for asylum seekers in the UK.
It comes amid growing concern about the Manston immigration detention centre in Kent, which was discovered to be housing more than twice the number of people it was supposed to.
This problem has been exacerbated by this weekend’s petrol bomb attack on the Dover Tug Haven asylum site, which has resulted in the transfer of hundreds of people to the Manston processing centre.
The facility was overwhelmed on Sunday night, with a reported 4,000 being housed there – it was initially intended to house 1,600 to be moved on and processed within 24 hours.
Home Office minister Robert Jenrick visited Manston yesterday and admitted the situation there was “intolerable“.
Today I visited Manston to thank Home Office teams who continue to process migrants securely in challenging conditions.
Over 1,000 migrants crossing the Channel yesterday creates immense pressure. I was hugely impressed by the staff I met, managing this intolerable situation.
Mrs Braverman has been accused of failing to help solve Manston’s overcrowding problem. It was reported by The Times this weekend that she refused to approve new hotels where asylum seekers could be sent. It was said she ignored legal advice people should be moved.
On conditions at the site, the Refugee Council said one boy had contracted scabies having stayed at the Manston facility for 19 days in “inhumane” conditions.
The Home Office confirmed a small outbreak of diphtheria, a contagious bacterial infection that can prove fatal if it goes untreated, at the Kent site earlier in October.
The letter from charities reads: “Home secretary when you talk of ‘safe and legal routes’, you must be aware that it is impossible to ask refugees to come exclusively through such a path when even Afghan interpreters who are eligible for one of our few existing schemes remain in hiding from the Taliban.
“When you talk of ‘illegal migrants’, you must be aware that the top nationalities of people making dangerous journeys include Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Syria, and that at least 97% of asylum claims made by people from these countries are successful.
“When you question the existence of ‘modern slavery’, you must be aware that you are dismantling your own party’s proud and internationally-recognized achievement in protecting the survivors of trafficking.
“And when you complain about the cost of housing asylum seekers, you must be aware that, while people seeking safety did not choose to leave their homelands, they are willing to work and keen to contribute, if only the law permitted them.
“You have referred to this country’s proud history of offering sanctuary, so we ask you to make this happen with a fair, kind, and effective system for refugees.
“Deal with the backlog in asylum cases, create safe routes, respect international law, and the UN convention on refugees, and give refugees a fair hearing, however they get here. Then you would have really done something worth dreaming about.”
The letter, co-ordinated by charity IMIX and coalition campaign Together With Refugees, was signed by groups such as Choose Love, Christian Aid, City of Sanctuary UK, Doctors of the World, English National Opera, Freedom from Torture, Good Chance Theatre, JCORE, Jesuit Refugee Service, Rainbow Migration, Refugee Action, Refugee Council, Scottish Refugee Council, Safe Passage and Save the Children.
The government says Home Secretary Suella Bravermanprevented migrants from being transferred from short-term holding centres to hotel rooms in order to “speed up” their applications.
According to Environment Minister Mark Spencer, the government is facing “huge challenges” in managing the migrant situation.
Over the weekend, petrol bombs were thrown at a migrant centre in Dover, while MRSA and diphtheria were reported at another one (Manston, see the previous post) amid overcrowding.
Asked about reports Ms Braverman blocked migrants being moved from short-term holding centres to hotels, Mr Spencer said this was done because the home secretary “wants to process them quickly” and make sure only “genuine” asylum seekers are admitted to the UK.
He added that the way to cut down on migrants crossing the channel is to “break the model” of people traffickers.
Meanwhile, Mr Spencer said that Rishi Sunak would go to COP27 “if he’s got time” and that the prime minister has “an inbox which is full to the brim“.
Rishi Sunak has congratulated Lula da Silva for winning the election in Brazil, beating out incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
Mr Sunak said this morning on Twitter: “Congratulations to Lula da Silva on his victory in Brazil’s election.
“I look forward to working together on the issues that matter to the UK and Brazil, from growing the global economy to protecting the planet’s natural resources and promoting democratic values.”
Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer also congratulated Mr da Silva, saying: “This win must also be the start of a new era of global cooperation and action in the fight against climate change.”
Live streams and videos from social media provide extra detail as to how a Halloween celebration turned disastrous in the South Korean capital.
Packed into narrow alleyways lined with bars and clubs, thousands of people travelled to Itaewon, an area of Seoul, for the city’s first Halloween festival since the COVID-19 pandemic.
But as the crowds grew throughout the night to unmanageable levels, the celebration turned disastrous as a crush in one alleyway left at least 154 dead.
Sky News has analysed videos from social media to show how it took just 30 minutes for the situation to spiral out of control.
They also confirm an apparent lack of police or security presence in the build-up to the crush.
Halloween celebrations
The revellers turning up for the celebrations were predominantly young, with many travelling to the area via Itaewon train station.
Some live-streamed videos of their evening on Facebook. The screenshot below, taken from one of these livestreams, shows crowds beginning to form on the main road by the station at 8.10 pm.
The main road is busy, but cars are still able to drive freely and there is still space between people.
Over the following hours, the crowds grow in size. They funnel into a series of small side streets behind the main road around the Hamilton Hotel, highlighted in yellow on the map below. These streets are small and those running north to south slope steeply.
Image:The alleyways, highlighted in yellow, are where the crowds began to build
At 10.06 pm, people can be seen in the main alleyway running east to the west still freely moving but slowly. Some people are holding each other to avoid being split up by the crowd as they pass an Irish bar in the background.
Later, 150 metres east of where the footage above was shot, a denser crowd grew on one of the steep and narrow side alleys. People were so close to each other that any small movement rippled through the crowd.
In the footage below pop music is heard blasting out amongst cries of anguish as the packed-in crowd sense danger.
People in this street narrowly avoided disaster. It would be another steep alleyway on the other side of the Hamilton Hotel where the deadly crush would occur, highlighted in dark yellow below.
Image:The alleyway west of the Hamilton Hotel, highlighted here, was where the crush occurred
This short video shows this alleyway west of the hotel earlier in the evening. The crowd is spread wall to wall across the narrow passageway – which sits on a 20% gradient – with no escape routes.
Around the corner, Janelle Story, an eyewitness who spoke to Sky News, filmed her view as the crowd surged. This video was captured at 10.34 pm.
The story told Sky News: “Very suddenly this wave of people just came rushing towards us with this incredible force and urgency, and at the moment I stopped filming because it got really serious and scary.”
She was 40 metres from the western alleyway by the Hamilton Hotel where a crush was occurring. By matching the building exterior with existing imagery from Google Streetview, Sky News confirmed the footage was taken outside the Irish bar seen in the earlier video at 10.06 pm.
In less than half an hour, a busy but free-flowing crowd had turned dangerous.
Image:The eyewitness video (right) can be located by matching the front of the bar with existing imagery from Google Maps (left)
By 10.45 pm it became clear something was very wrong. Livestreams from the main road show ambulances and emergency personnel heading toward the Hamilton Hotel.
In the surrounding crowds, it also began to dawn on people a serious incident had occurred. One young man had been live-streaming the party on the street with his friends having fun. As they moved towards the Hamilton Hotel, the mood changed.
At 11.15 pm he filmed the crowd parting the way as paramedics moved through with patients on stretchers.
Image:A stretcher-bearer carries an injured person through the crowd on the main east-west alleyway
The video below shows the scene that the emergency services were heading from. A surge had forced the crowd to fall over, likely made worse by the steepness of the alleyway.
Emergency workers can be seen trying to free those caught in the crush. People try climbing the walls in an attempt to escape, whilst those on a small set of stairs leading to a side door into the hotel try to lift people to safety.
Reports suggested some people were trapped for over an hour. Other videos posted online show paramedics and members of the public attempting CPR in the moments after the surge. These videos are too distressing to share.
In the immediate build-up to the crush, few police officers or security personnel can be seen in the busy alleys on the livestreams analysed by Sky News. Questions are now being asked of the authorities’ management of the situation.
Mr da Silva, a veteran leftist, received 50.8% of the vote, while Mr Bolsonaro, the far-right incumbent, received 49.2%.
Official results show that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian election.
Brazil’s election has been the most divisive in recent memory, pitting far-right incumbent President Bolsonaro against leftist former President Lula da Silva.
On his victory, Mr da Silva tweeted a simple picture of his hand over the Brazilian flag and the word: “Democracy.”
It is a stunning return to power for Mr da Silva, 77, whose 2018 imprisonment over a corruption scandal sidelined him from that year’s election, paving the way for then-candidate Mr Bolsonaro’s win and four years of far-right politics.
Mr da Silva’s convictions were annulled, but he faced an uphill battle when he decided to re-run for president, with many millions of Brazilians continuing to believe he was corrupt.
After his victory was announced, he said: “They tried to bury me alive, and I’m here!”
And in his first speech to the nation as president-elect, he vowed his most urgent commitment would be to “end hunger” in Brazil.
His victory marks the first time since Brazil’s 1985 return to democracy that the sitting president has failed to win reelection.
‘Time of hope and future’
Colombian president Gustavo Petro wrote: “Viva Lula,” while Argentina’s leader Alberto Fernandez said the victory ushered in a new era “for the history of Latin America”.
He added: “A time of hope and future begins today.”
Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court’s count showed it was a close contest – Mr da Silva polled 50.9% of votes compared with 49.1% for Mr Bolsonaro, with all of the voting machines counted.
The election, in the world’s fourth-largest democracy, served as a referendum on two starkly different – and vehemently opposed – visions for Brazil’s future.
Mr Bolsonaro vowed to consolidate a sharp rightward turn in Brazilian politics after a presidency that witnessed one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19 and widespread deforestation in the Amazon basin.
Image:Jair Bolsonaro
Mr da Silva promised more social and environmental responsibility, evoking the rising prosperity of his 2003-2010 presidency before corruption scandals tarnished his Workers’ Party.
More than 120 million Brazilians were expected to cast ballots, with the vote conducted electronically.
There are also fears Mr Bolsonaro could challenge the election results should he lose – much like former US President Donald Trump.
For months, he claimed the nation’s electronic voting machines are prone to fraud, though he never presented evidence.
As Mr da Silva prepared to give a speech at a hotel in São Paulo on Sunday evening, Mr Bolsonaro had yet to concede the election.
It was the country’s closest poll in more than three decades. Just over two million votes separated the two candidates, with 99.5% of the vote counted. The previous closest race, in 2014, was decided by a margin of 3.46 million votes.
The new president, known universally as Lula, will be sworn in on 1 January 2023.
Petrol bombs have reportedly been thrown at a Border Force migrant centre in Dover.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service was called at 11:22 am to The Viaduct in Dover, where crews put out fires.
Reuters news agency – who had a photographer at the scene – reported a man threw petrol bombs attached to fireworks at the center.
The photographer captured the moment the man threw the homemade bomb from the car window. The man can be seen with a lighter in his hand as he throws the container toward the center.
He then took his own life following the incident, the agency said.
Police arrived minutes afterward and cordoned off the area.
Kent Police said: “Officers established that two to three incendiary devices had been thrown into a Home Office immigration premises.
“One minor injury has been reported.
“The suspect has been identified and located. Inquiries into the incident remainongoing.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are aware of an incident at Western Jet Foil, Dover and police are in attendance.
“It would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.”
It comes as almost a thousand migrants arrived in the UK yesterday, making the treacherous journey across the world’s busiest shipping lane and landing at Dover.
Image: Emergency services near the migrant processing centre
The identities of nearly all thosekilled in an apparent crowd surge in Seoul’s popular nightclub district Itaewon on Saturday have been confirmed, according to Seoul Metropolitan Police.
Police confirmed the identities of 150 people killed on Sunday, according to CNN.
The disaster claimed the lives of 153 people.
The three unidentified bodies are all young women whose nationalities have yet to be confirmed, they added.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government had said they had received 4,024 missing person reports as of 5 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET), though some of these reports could relate to the same people.
Police said there is no active search for those reported missing as they believeno one went missing from the scene. They said thousands of missing person reports have been used to help identify those killed in the incident.
If elected president, Lula would likely be unable to lead a transformational, leftist agenda.
The theme of “return” has dominated the presidential election campaign in Brazil. Many think the country is either going to see the comeback of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, marking a second pink tide of progressive South American governments, or the return of the Workers’ Party (PT), removed from power after President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment in 2016.
Or it is going to face a government takeover by forces associated with the military dictatorship (1964-1985) – right-wing defenders of family, tradition, and property and apologists for political violence and torture of political opponents.
There may be an element of truth to this interpretation, but sometimes turning to the past to make sense of the present can make it more difficult to discern the major differences between them. Indeed, if Lula were to win the presidential race, Brazil would not go back to the 2000s; nor is a military takeover led by his opponent, incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, that likely.
The vote: The poor vs the poorer
While many saw the results of the October 2 elections as a clear victory for Lula and the Brazilian left, a closer look reveals a different reality. Lula obtained 57 million or 48 percent of the valid votes – less than what many polls predicted – which sent him to a run-off with Bolsonaro.
The incumbent president obtained 51 million votes, two million more than in the first round of the 2018 presidential election. This is despite the fact that his government failed in its economic policies, the management of the pandemic, the fight against corruption, and the climate change agenda, especially with regard to curbing Amazon deforestation.
In the parliamentary and governor elections, which also took place on October 2, the right-wing parties and, in particular, the far right, performed much better than forecasts showed. They won more representatives in the two houses of parliament than PT and its allies.
Among those elected to parliament were former Judge Sergio Moro, who led the anti-corruption probe that saw Lula jailed; Damares Alves, the loudest proponent of the “gender ideology” conspiracy theory, which claims family values are under threat; and former health minister Eduardo Pazuello, who mismanaged the pandemic response. They were all ministers in Bolsonaro’s government.
The elections did not see a massive migration of the votes from the poor to Lula and his party, as was expected in light of the pro-poor policies in his first two terms (2003-2010). In that period, the country experienced extraordinary economic growth combined with successful income distribution measures, which generated massive support among impoverished Brazilians for Lula in his bid for re-election in 2006. He ended his second term with an 80 percent popularity rating and a GDP growth of 7.5 percent.
Part of the reason why Lula was unable to rally all of his former electorates may be that financial aid programmes for disadvantaged families introduced by Bolsonaro to address the economic downturn during the pandemic were extended.
According to Giuseppe Cocco, a political science professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, another reason may be that the effect of anti-Bolsonarism was to some extent mitigated by anti-Lulism – the negative sentiment triggered by corruption cases against Lula and the PT that contributed to bringing Bolsonaro to power in the first place.
Furthermore, Cocco’s research shows that the incumbent attracted more votes than Lula from the “precariat” – Brazilians who are above the poverty line but, nevertheless, face constant economic insecurity. These are people who are microentrepreneurs, who have gig jobs, small businesses or who are self-employed. They struggle economically and seek the stability that the far-right promises.
The right-wing tendencies of this layer of Brazilian societybecame apparent ahead of the 2018 election when a truck drivers’ strike took place. The protest started over rising fuel prices but ended with calls by some participants for the army to intervene and “solve the problems” of the state. Bolsonaro backed the strike, which boosted his popularity ahead of the vote.
Lula, on the other hand, draws support from the poorest strata, those who are on the threshold of subsistence. They have been the beneficiaries of his signature social programme, the Bolsa Familia, which distributed conditional cash transfers.
The line between the two groups is blurred, but the tension between them over income and economic opportunity seems to provide a better explanation of the electoral results than a more simplistic analysis that paints Lula as the candidate of the poor and Bolsonaro – as the choice of the elites and the well-off.
A Brazilian Biden
The campaign rhetoric Lula adopted was also quite different from previous elections. Unlike in the past, when he openly clashed with the elites, this time around, the PT candidate presented himself as the candidate of the system, as a “Brazilian Biden”, so to speak, putting an end to a Trumpist interlude.
He gathered an extraordinarily broad front, which included almost the entire left opposition, but also the main representatives of economic power from various sectors, social democrats, conservative liberals, the leftist environmentalist Marina Silva, former officials, such as the social-democratic liberal Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and others.
His campaign was also not dominated by street mobilisation or sharp factionalism. On the contrary, there were explicit guidelines to supporters not to confront the voters of the other candidate, and even to deemphasise the PT’s traditional colour red at campaign events.
Although his coalition had prepared a leftist political programme, Lula ignored it in the debates, sidestepped it in speeches to voters and the media, and stressed on several occasions that he would not take divisive positions, especially when it comes to his plans for the economy. Throughout the campaign, he built an image as the promoter of peace, indicating the need to resolve the conflicts that are multiplying in and between different social segments.
Bolsonaro and the Bolsonarist forces, on the other hand, fully occupied the anti-systemic political space. The incumbent spent the election campaign making verbal attacks against the corporate media – especially against the biggest TV network, Globo – the Brazilian Supreme Court and universities.
In a country that has traditionally seen intimidation, blackmail, and the murder of electoral opponents in urban peripheries and in the hinterland, Bolsonaro’s rhetoric put Brazil at risk of widespread politically motivated violence. A number of murders were attributed to feuds between sympathisers of the two candidates, while a video of a Bolsonaro supporter licking the barrel of a shotgun went viral.
Diminished appetite for a coup
Despite Bolsonaro’s incitement and heightened fears of violence, it is unlikely that a victory for Lula in the run-off would be challenged by the military. Even the prospect of an invasion of the Congress building in Brasilia – like the one that happened in January 2021 in the US – seems less likely.
The army’s top generals have given clear signals that whoever wins at the polls will assume the presidency. Furthermore, foreign powers, such as the Biden administration, have indicated that they would not support anti-democratic ventures.
Bolsonaro has been ambiguous about accepting the results. However, the fact that right-wing parties and far-right politicians won the majority of seats in parliament has diminished the appetite for coup talk.
Whatever the outcome of the election, the struggle for safeguarding minority rights, improving public services, expanding social programmes, protecting the environment, and embracing a security paradigm that is not guided by state violence against underserved populations will remain difficult. A victory for Bolsonaro, which is quite unlikely, would consolidate the far-right takeover of the state, leading to more policies aimed at dismantling public services, destroying the environment, and systematically sabotaging minority protections and academic institutions.
A win for Lula, which seems more likely, would also pose great challenges. Given the dominance of the right in parliament, it would be difficult to push through progressive policies. Social movements, collectives, and activists would have to focus on the defence of the government, which would take away energy and resources from ongoing struggles, as happened during the 2016 impeachment process against Dilma. The PT and its supporters would face a radicalised and armed opposition on the ground committed to defending “true Christianity”, “family values” and traditional gender roles. In this context, a Lula victory would not mean a return to the “happy Brazil” of the 2000s, as his campaign suggested.
The way out of the deep crisis that Brazil has plunged into in the last decade could be a Brazilian New Deal that pushes through much-needed structural changes in labour law and market, supports the creative role of minorities, and embraces the centrality of the global environmental agenda, something that Lula seems far from being able to lead, as corruption scandals and worn-off populist rhetoric have broken his spell.
But his election could at least provide an opportunity to seek reconciliation and rebuild bridgesbetween polarised segments of society. His return could set the ground for the construction of much-needed political alternatives.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
A rare Iranian joint intelligence report reveals that the arrested journalists who reported on Mahsa Amini’s death were trained abroad by the US.
Tehran and Washington are clashing again over weeks-long protests in Iran, as the US prepares to convene the United Nations Security Council to discuss the unrest sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police last month.
According to Reuters and Iranian state media, the US and Albania, another major critic of the Iranian government, will hold an informal UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and Iranian-born actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi – whom the Iranian state considers to be anti-establishment – will speak at the meeting, along with UN investigator on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, according to Reuters. Other UN member states and rights groups can reportedly attend the meeting as well.
But while the outlet cited a note outlining the event as saying the meeting will “highlight the ongoing repression of women and girls and members of religious and ethnic groups in Iran”, Tehran has offered a different account.
The Iranian government’s website, IRNA, on Saturday, cited unnamed “diplomatic sources” as saying Washington is organising the meeting in response to a rare joint report by the Iranian intelligence ministry and the intelligence division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) late on Friday that blamed the US as the main culprit behind the protests.
“Instead of responding to the points raised in the Iranian intelligence community, the US is fleeing forward and exhibiting selective support for human rights with specific political goals,” the source was quoted as saying.
Iran’s mission to the UN made the same point in a statement referring to the US as the “prime suspect of the riots” in Iran.
“The US and its allies have consistently taken advantage of such a platform (the UN) to advance their political agendas, even at the expense of violating international rules and the UN Charter,” it said, accusing Washington of double standards in supporting Iranians.
Women and ethnic Kurd and Baluch populations have featured prominently in the protests.
The commander of the elite IRGC warned protesters on Saturday against taking to the streets. “Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of the riots,” Hossein Salami said, according to Reuters.
Iran’s top authorities, including Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, have publicly blamed the US, Israel and others as being the orchestrators of unrest across the country, during which many dozens are thought to have been killed, with more injured or arrested.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Friday voiced concern and urged the Iranian authorities to address the “legitimate grievances of the population” while condemning “all incidents that have resulted in death or serious injury to protesters”.
What’s in the Iranian intelligence report?
The lengthy joint intelligence report that Tehran claims has motivated the upcoming UNSC meeting paints a picture of accounts that inform Iranian authorities’ stance on the protests.
According to the report, the US and some of its allies had planned – and delayed – unrest similar to what is happening across Iran right now for a long time, and had designs for different stages prior to, during, and following such unrest.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been at the forefront of the US efforts and has been aided by the intelligence services of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and other countries, it asserted, citing “completely credible” information.
The Iranian intelligence community claimed the US has spent billions of dollars over the years to create a network of sympathetic organisations and individuals, holding many gatherings and courses to teach “hybrid wars and soft overthrow” of the Iranian establishment.
These all-paid courses, it said, have been held in Italy, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates among others, with or without the knowledgeof those countries’ governments.
The report uses the initials of two female Iranian journalists, whom it says were “trained by the courses of the US mafia regime in foreign countries” and “played the role of being the first sources to manufacture news for foreign media” on developments concerning Amini that led to the protests.
The reporters accused by Iranian intelligence are Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were arrested shortly after protests broke out last month and remain imprisoned in Evin prison in Tehran. Hamedi was among the first to report on Amini’s death at the hospital, while Mohammadi travelled to Amini’s hometown of Saqqez to report on her funeral.
The intelligence report also alleges that CIA officials met with Kurdish separatist groups in neighbouring Iraq’s northern Erbil region in late September to ask them to amplify their role in Iran’s unrest. The IRGC in late September and early October repeatedly pounded positions in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region to punish the “terrorist groups” it said were based there.
Foreign-based Persian-language television channels, which Tehran blacklisted this week, and social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, which have been banned, were also featured in the intelligence report as being influenced and manipulated by Washington in its efforts to counter the Iranian state.
The occupied West Bank has seen an increase in violence as a result of daily Israeli raids, including in Nablus and Jenin.
According to medics and local media reports, a Palestinian man who shot dead an Israeli settler at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was killed by a security guard.
The shooting at the checkpoint near the Kiryat Arba settlement, where a group of predominantly right-wing Israeli settlers lives, comes days before Israel holds its fifth election in less than four years and as violence surges in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz identified the Israeli victim as 49-year-old Ronen Hanania while Palestinian media reported that Mohammad al-Jaabari, a 35-year-old Hebron resident, was killed in the fatal shooting.
The Hamas group,which rules the Gaza Strip, claimed the slain Hebron gunman as its member.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency response service initially reported five wounded, including a 49-year-old Israeli man left “unconscious with an injury to his upper body”.
A spokesperson for Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center told the AFP news agency that the man later died of his wounds.
The other Israelis suffered less severe injuries, the MDA said. A man Palestinian, who was also wounded in the shooting, was being treated at a Hebron area hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Israel’s army said “a terrorist shot live fire” near a checkpoint in Hebron, an occupied West Bank city where a community of hardline Jewish settlers lives.
“Soldiers are conducting searches in the area” for additional suspects, the army said.
At least three Palestinians, including al-Jaabari’s brother, were arrested from Hebron, according to the Maan news agency.
Israel’s security forces have not confirmed the allegation and Israeli media, citing security sources, reported that Ben-Gvir’s home in a Hebron settlement was not targeted.
‘Spiral’ of bloodshed
The United Nations envoy for Middle East peace, Tor Wennesland, warned on Friday that the occupied West Bank was “caught in a downward spiral” of bloodshed. This year is on track to be the deadliest in the territory in more than a decade.
More than 100 Palestinians, including fighters and attackers but also civilians, have been killed across the occupied West Bank as Israel has conducted near-daily raids.
The raids intensified following a spate of attacks on Israelis that began in March.
Israeli operations have primarily been concentrated in the northern occupied West Bank, while Hebron in the south has seen less unrest.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted on Saturday that he was “praying” for those wounded in Kiryat Arba.
“Terrorism will not defeat us,” said Lapid, who is currently serving as caretaker premier but is hoping to secure an independent mandate in Tuesday’s vote.
About 475,000 Jewish settlers currently live in the occupied West Bank, in settlements considered illegal by international law, alongside some 2.9 million Palestinians.
Security forceshave announced that at least nine people were killed and 13 were injured when a gas tanker exploded in the Iraqi capital.
A gas tanker exploded in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, killing at least nine people and injuring several others, according to security forces.
On Saturday night, an explosion was heard across much of Baghdad near a football field in the city’s east, sending shrapnel into residential buildings and into the pitch.
“Nine civilians were killed and 13 injured” when the tanker exploded, the commander of security forces in Baghdad, Ahmad Salim, said in a statement.
“The explosion is an accident and not an act of terrorism,” he added.
Most of the victims were amateurs playing football in their neighbourhood stadium, the Reuters news agency reported.
Medical sources gave a higher casualty toll to the AFP news agency, with one saying 12 people had been killed.
An AFP correspondent said the windows of nearby buildings were blown out and vehicles in the area were damaged.
“We were at home and felt a very strong blast and a smell of gas,” resident Mohammed Aziz, who lives just 100 metres (330 feet) from the blast site, told AFP.
“It felt like we were suffocating,” he added. “Our doors and windows were blown out.”
Iraq’s recently-elected president, Abdul Latif Rashid, promised there would be an investigation to identify those responsible for the accident.
Safety standards in the transportand construction sector are frequently flouted in Iraq, and accidents are a common occurrence.
In April 2021, more than 80 people died in a hospital fire in Baghdad, after badly stored oxygen bottles exploded.
Kinshasa orders Ambassador Vincent Karega to leave the country within 48 hours after accusing Kigali of supporting M23 rebels.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government has ordered Rwandan Ambassador Vincent Karega to leave the country within 48 hours after accusing Kigali of supporting M23 rebels, who have seized two towns in the DRC’s east, raising tensions between the two countries.
Saturday’s announcement by government spokesman Patrick Muyaya came after a meeting of the defence council, presided over by President Felix Tshisekedi, in the wake of rebels seizing control of Kiwanja and Rutshuru in the province of North Kivu.
DR Congo has repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the rebels, an allegation Rwanda has repeatedly denied. The decision to expel Karega is expected to further ratchet up tensions between the two countries whose relations have been fraught for decades.
Muyaya said that in recent days “a massive arrival of elements of the Rwandan element to support the M23 terrorists” against DR Congo’s troops had been observed.
“This criminal and terrorist adventure” had forced thousands of people to flee their homes, he added.
Rebel advance
The latest advance by rebel fighters prompted the UN peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, to increase its “troop alert level” and boost support for the army.
Fierce fighting erupted on Saturday morning between the Congolese army and M23 rebels in Kiwanja, which is 70km (43 miles) from the North Kivu capital, Goma.
John Banyene, a local civil society leader, later told The Associated Press that the rebels now controlled both Kiwanja and Rutshuru Centre. AFP, quoting unnamed officials, said the rebels had seized control of the towns.
“As we speak, we confirm that the M23 rebels and their allies control the town of Kiwanja, but the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo are not giving up,” Banyene told journalists in Goma.
The M23 was formed in 2012, claiming to defend the interests of Congolese Tutsis, a group sharing the ethnicity of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, against Hutu armed groups, seizing Goma, the largest city in DR Congo’s east, the same year. After a peace deal in 2013, many M23 fighters were integrated into the national military.
The group resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years, accusing the government of having failed to honour an agreement over the demobilisation of its fighters.
It has since captured swathes of territory in North Kivu, including the key town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border in June.
Since May, M23 has waged its most sustained offensive in years, killing dozens and forcing at least 40,000 people to flee in only a week’s time. Nearly 200,000 people had already been displaced over the past year even before the latest surge in violence.
The M23’s resurgence has inflamed regional tensions and spurred deadly protests against the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, which civilians accuse of failing to protect them.
Rwanda denies the charges and counters that DR Congo works with the Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a notorious Hutu rebel movement involved in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis, which Kinshasa also denies.
In August, a report by UN experts said they had “solid evidence” that members of Rwanda’s armed forces were conductingoperations in eastern DR Congo in support of the M23 rebel group.
Rwanda, though, has repeatedly denied the allegations and has accused Congolese forces of injuring several civilians in cross-border shelling.
Moscow has said it will supply hundreds of thousands of tonnes of grain to poor countries over the next four months, with assistance from Turkey.
TASS news agency, citing agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev, said only 3% of food exported under an UN-brokered deal had gone to the poorest countries and that Western nations accounted for half of all shipments.
The agreement was signed back in July to release several million tonnes of grain from blockaded Ukrainian ports.
The World Food Programme said the war in Ukraine has exacerbated a global hunger crisis as the conflict has pushed up the costs of food, fuel, and fertilizers.
TASS has indicated that Russia has suspended its participation in a grain export deal following overnight attacks on ships in Crimea.
The UN-mediated agreement, signed in July, allowed shipments of Ukrainian grain to be exported from blockaded ports.
“Taking into account… the terrorist act by the Kyiv regime with the participation of British experts against the ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian vessels involved in ensuring the security of the “grain corridor”, the Russian side suspends participation in the implementation of agreements on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports,” the ministry said in a statement.
It earlier said the drone attacks were mostly repelled, although a ship received minor damage.
Social media videos purport to show fires and black smoke in the Bay of Sevastopol.
A UN spokesperson has said they are in touch with Russian authorities and that all sides should refrain from doing anything to imperil the deal.
In the last few minutes, Russia’s agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev said only 3% of the food exported under the UN-brokered deal had gone to the poorest countries – and that Moscow intends to supply 500,000 tonnes of grain to these nations over the next few months.
On Wednesday, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said he was “relatively optimistic” the deal would be extended beyond mid-November.
The Wagner Group – dubbed by some as Putin’s private army – is apparently lowering its standards and recruiting Russian convicts suffering from serious diseases including HIV and hepatitis C for the Ukraine war, according to UK intelligence, citing the organisation’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The Ministry of Defence says that in earlier conflicts the Wagner Group has maintained “relatively high recruitment standards” with many of its operators previously serving as professional soldiers.
But the MoD added on Twitter that the admission of prisoners with serious medical concerns highlights “an approach which now priorities numbers over experience or quality”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 30 October 2022
Russia has slammed the United States for making false claims about Moscow’s decision to withdraw from a grain export deal mediated by the United Nations.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine used 16 drones to attack its Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula early Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” assisted in coordinating the “terrorist” attack.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US, said on Telegram: “Washington’s reaction to the terrorist attack on the port of Sevastopol is truly outrageous.
“We have not seen any signs of condemnation of the reckless actions by the Kyiv regime.”
Mr Antonov added: “All the indications that the British military specialists were involved in organising the massive strike with the use of drones, are disregarded.”
The UK has dismissed Russia’s claims as false, while US President Joe Biden denounced Russia’s decision on the grain deal as “purely outrageous” and said it would increase starvation.
A 46-year-oldwoman was killed in a two-car crash near Ayr.
Shona McKinlay, of Dreghorn, was driving a Renault Kangoo van on the A70 near the Holmston Roundabout just before 06:00 on Friday when it collided with an Audi TT.
A 44-year-old female passenger in the van and Audi’s 23-year-old driver were both taken to the hospital.
Police Scotland said both have injuries that are serious but not life-threatening.
Sgt Stewart Taylor said: “We are continuing with enquiries to establish the full circumstances and anyone with information or who may have dashcam or CCTV footage from the area is asked to get in touch.”
On Saturday, angry motorists removed Just Stop Oil protesters from central London’s blocked roads.
Campaigners gathered in Charing Cross Road, Kensington High Street, Harleyford Street, and Blackfriars Road, demanding that the government halt the issuance of new oil licences.
Drivers abandoned their vehicles in Harleyford Street to remove demonstrators, who returned repeatedly to reclaim their positions on the road.
Met Police said 33 protesters were arrested and the roads later reopened.
One motorist said during the protest: “We’ve asked you nicely, you are doing the wrong thing by blocking innocent people going about their business.
“Can you please move before we pick you up and move you?
“You are stopping the wrong people, I’ve got to go pick my kids up, I’ve got to get my lorry back to work. We can’t help you, go to Westminster.”
IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS Image caption, Just Stop Oil protesters blocked four roads in central London
Labour councillor Theresa Norton, 64, from Scarborough, attended to support the protest, saying: “Half an hour’s disruption is not a massive sacrifice.
“It’s these people that are making the biggest sacrifice. They’ll be arrested, go to a police cell, go to court on Monday.”
Just Stop Oil said the blockages follow four weeks of civil resistance, during which the police have made 626 arrests.
IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS Image caption, Police made 33 arrests on Saturday
Speaking after the protest, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said Just Stop Oil protests had “caused a significant amount of disruption and frustration among the public in London”.
He added: “We will always provide a proportionate policing response to protest and try to work with organisers so that protests can go ahead safely.
Labour is demanding that Rishi Sunak “come clean” about Suella Braverman’s security breach.
Ms Braverman resigned as home secretary under Liz Truss last week after violating the ministerial code by sending an official document from a personal email account. Rishi Sunak reappointed her on Wednesday.
Her reappointment has been criticized.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said her party will try to “force the government to come clean”.
A number of sources have disputed Ms Braverman’s account of events.
So far new Prime Minister Mr Sunak has resisted demands to launch an inquiry into Ms Braverman’s security breach, despite Labour and the Liberal Democrats raising “national security” concerns and calling for a Cabinet Office probe.
Ms Braverman has also refused to appear before MPs to explain what happened.
Labour wants ministers to share risk assessments of this and other alleged leaks, as well as the information given to the prime minister before he put her back in the Home Office.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Ms Braverman’s appointment “raises serious doubts” about the prime minister’s judgment and that the pair could not continue to hide from questions.
“Rishi Sunak’s decision to reappoint Suella Braverman was deeply irresponsible.
“Labour will use every parliamentary mechanism open to force the government to come clean over her reappointment, to get answers, and to require detailed documents to be released to the Intelligence and Security Committee.”
Sources dispute events
BBC News has spoken to several people with knowledge of the events surrounding Ms Braverman’s resignation.
A number of them dispute Ms Braverman’s claim to have reported her mistake to the cabinet secretary – the head of the civil service – as soon as she realised.
When confronted about her transgression she attempted to play down and explain away what had happened, sources suggested.
Ms Braverman had emailed a draft written ministerial statement on immigration policy to her close political ally, Conservative MP Sir John Hayes, using her personal email instead of her official government account.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded the home secretary was fired, accusing Mr Sunak of brokering a “grubby deal trading security for support” in the Conservative leadership contest.
But the prime minister insisted Ms Braverman had “learned from her mistake” and that he does not regret the appointment despite some Tory MPs adding also expressing concern.
Backbench MP Caroline Nokes backed opposition calls for an inquiry and former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry described the breach as “really serious”.
The Natural History Museum in London and Cambridge University have stated their willingness to work with Zimbabwe to return human remains taken during the colonial era.
The new statements come after a Zimbabwean delegation met with officials from both institutions.
Zimbabweans are looking for the skulls of late-nineteenth-century anti-colonial heroes, which they believe are in the United Kingdom.
But these have not yet been found.
The authorities in Zimbabwe have long suspected that the remains of some of the leaders of an uprising against British rule in the 1890s – known as the First Chimurenga – were taken to the UK as trophies.
The most significant among them was a woman who became known as Mbuya Nehanda. She was executed in what is now the capital, Harare, and is revered as a national heroine.
In doing a search of its archive, the Natural History Museum did uncover 11 remains “that appear to be originally from Zimbabwe” – but its records do not connect them with Nehanda. These include three skulls taken in 1893, thought to be from Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, as well as remains uncovered in mineshafts and archaeological digs and later donated.
Cambridge University’s Duckworth Laboratory has not been so specific, simply saying it has “a small number of human remains from Zimbabwe”, but in a statement sent to the BBC, it said it had not identified any of these as belonging to First Chimurenga figures.
The Natural History Museum, with 25,000 human remains, and the Duckworth Laboratory, with 18,000, have some of the largest such archives in the world.
These have come from a variety of sources including archaeological excavations of ancient sites, but for many, the exact origins have been obscured by time.
During the colonial era, body parts were sometimes removed from battlefields or dug up from graves either as trophies or for research into a now-discredited scientific field.
In the 19th Century, phrenology, which investigated the idea that human characteristics could be determined by the shape of the skull, was very popular in the UK and other parts of Europe. Phrenological societies would collect skulls to help develop the theory, which for some extended to racial classification.
Some of the archives that now exist in the UK are amalgamations of what had been amassed by defunct phrenological societies as well as private collectors.
Zimbabwe’s government believes that somehow the skulls of the country’s heroes ended up in the archives of a British museum.
Chief among them were spiritual leaders, including Charwe Nyakasikana, who became known as Mbuya (Grandmother) Nehanda as she was the medium of the revered ancestral spirit Nehanda. She was arrested after being accused of murdering a British official.
Nehanda was then hanged and her body decapitated, it is believed. What happened next is not clear, but in recent years, Zimbabwean officials have made several public statements saying it ended up in the Natural History Museum.
With a death cry of “my bones will surely rise”, Nehanda became an increasingly potent symbol for those fighting against white-minority rule in what was then known as Rhodesia in the late 1960s.
Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980.
IMAGE SOURCE, SHUTTERSTOCK Image caption, The Mbuya Nehanda statue in Harare was put up in 2021
A three-meter statue of Nehanda now stands over a major road in the centre of Harare. At its unveiling in 2021, President Emmerson Mnangagwapledged to continue to call for the return of her skull and others from the Natural History Museum.
For Zimbabweans, the removal of the head “means that you have literally punished the person beyond the grave”, Godfrey Mahachi, who led the delegation to the UK, told the BBC in 2020 when the visit was being planned.
“If the head is separated, that means that the spirit of that person will forever linger and never settle.”
Despite not finding what the Zimbabwean delegation was looking for, both the Natural History Museum and Cambridge University say they are committed to working with the Zimbabwean government to repatriate what was found.
As part of its policy of repatriation, earlier this year, the Natural History Museum returned ancestral Moriori and Maori remains.
In a press statement following a recent cabinet meeting, Zimbabwe’s government said that the delegation that went to the UK was satisfied that “there are indeed human remains of Zimbabwean origin in the UK”.
“Government will spare no effort to ensure the repatriation of our ancestors,” it added.
The Zimbabwean delegation also held talks with the British Museum, Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum, the University of Manchester Museum, and the UK’s National Archives. But no details are given about what was discussed.
Nancy Pelosi has statedthat the violent attack on her husband has left her “heartbroken and traumatised.”
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives said her family was “grateful for the quick response of law enforcement” and for his medical care.
A male assailant struck Paul Pelosi with a hammer at the couple’s San Francisco home on Friday.
The 82-year-old’s condition “continues to improve” after the attack, Mrs Pelosi said.
He suffered a fractured skull and injuries to his right arm and hands, and remains in hospital receiving “life-saving” care, she said.
The suspect, David Depape, 42, is said to have demanded to see Mrs Pelosi – stoking fears about political violence in the run-up to the 8 November midterm elections.
The speaker – who was on the other side of the country in Washington DC at the time of the assault – flew back to see her husband in hospital.
In her statement, she said prayers and warm-wishers were comfort and were helping Mr Pelosi’s recovery.
Police officers responded to a call at around 02:27 local time (09:27 GMT) on Friday.
They found Mr Pelosi and the suspect struggling over a hammer,but it was wrested from Mr Pelosi by the intruder, who violently assaulted him with it.
The suspect was tackled and disarmed by officers. He had attempted to tie up Mr Pelosi “until Nancy got home”, law enforcement sources told CBS News. He reportedly shouted “where’s Nancy?” during the incident.
He is also facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, and several other felonies.
Mrs Pelosi, also 82, is one of the most powerful politicians in the country. She was re-elected to a fourth term as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2021, making her second in line to the presidency, after Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The Baltimore native has represented the San Francisco area in Congress since 1987 and typically splits her time between California and Washington DC.
She is currently fundraising and campaigning with Democrats around the country ahead of the midterm elections.
Paul Pelosi is the multimillionaire founder of a venture capital firm and lives primarily in San Francisco, where he was born and raised.
The couple has been married since 1963 and have five children.
Members of Congress have been on high alert over security threats since the riot at the US Capitol in January 2021.
Mrs Pelosi’s office in the building was ransacked by supporters of then-President Donald Trump during the riot.
US President Joe Biden has condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi and said “enough is enough” when it comes to violence in politics.
The governmenthas been urged to investigate the claims that former prime minister Liz Truss’s phone was hacked while she was foreign secretary.
The Mail on Sunday reported private messages between Ms Truss and foreign officials, including about the Ukraine war, fell into foreign hands.
The hack was discovered during the summer Tory leadership campaign but the news was suppressed, the paper said.
The government said it had “robust” cyber-threat protection in place.
The spokesperson added that the government “did not comment on individuals’ security arrangements”.
Details about the hack were suppressed by then-prime minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, The Mail on Sunday claimed, citing what it said amounted to a “news blackout” imposed by Mr Case.
The newspaper also said private messages exchanged between Ms Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, her close friend whom she made chancellor when she became prime minister, were also uncovered by the alleged hack.
It is not clear how any hack happened, but opposition parties have seized on the issue.
“There are immensely important national security issues raised by an attack like this by a hostile state which will have been taken extremely seriously by our intelligence and security agencies,” said shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.
The Mail on Sunday reported agents suspected of working for Russia had been responsible for the alleged hacking, citing unnamed sources, but the BBC has not been able to verify this.
The Liberal Democrat’s foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran MP raised concerns about why the alleged hack had not been made public earlier.
“We need an urgent independent investigation to uncover the truth,” Ms Moran said. “If it turns out this information was withheld from the public to protect Liz Truss’s leadership bid, that would be unforgivable.”
The government has refused to comment on any of the details reported by the Mail on Sunday.
“The government has robust systems to protect against cyber threats,” a spokesman said. “That includes regular security briefings forministers and advice on protecting their personal data and mitigating cyber threats.”
After nearlytwo decades in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Pakistan’s oldest prisoner has been released.
Saifullah Paracha, 75, was arrested two years after the 9/11 attacks on the United States and charged with being an al-Qaeda sympathiser.
Mr. Paracha was suspected of financing a jihadist organisation, but he maintained his innocence and was never charged.
The US military prison in Cuba once housed hundreds of suspected militants captured following the attacks.
“Mr Saif Ullah Paracha, a Pakistani national, who was detained in Guantanamo Bay, has been released and reached Pakistan on Saturday, 29 October 2022,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
Clive Stafford-Smith, Mr Paracha’s lawyer, questioned why it had taken so long for his client to be released.
“He’s been cleared for release [for] well over a year… he used to hum to me The Eagles song Hotel California, where you can [according to the lyrics] check out ‘but you can never leave’,” Mr Stafford-Smith told the BBC’s Newshour programme.
Mr Paracha, who studied in the US, was accused by US authorities of having contact with some of the group’s most senior figures, including its leader Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
After 14 months at a US military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, he was transferred to Guantanamo.
The secretive US military prison has been used to hold what America describes as captured unlawful combatants during its “war on terror”.
US President Joe Biden is under pressure to clear out uncharged prisoners and move ahead with the trials of those accused of having direct ties to al-Qaeda.
His administration approved Mr Paracha’s release last year, along with that of another Pakistani national, 55-year-old Abdul Rabbani, and Yemen native Uthman Abdul al-Rahim Uthman, 41.
The statement from the Pakistani foreign ministry did not mention Rabbani.
There are still 35 people being held at Guantanamo – including Khalid Mohammed, named as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” in the 9/11 Commission Report.
The lawyer of Mr Paracha said he expected more detainees to be freed over the coming months.
“I’ve still got four clients there [at Guantanamo], all of whom are cleared for release,” he told the BBC, adding it was an “embarrassment to the US”.
The violent attack on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband comes with just over a week to go before the US midterm elections – a moment when political tensions are coming to a boil.
As if to emphasise this point, just a few hours after news of the assault on Paul Pelosi on Friday, the US government distributed a bulletin to law enforcement across the nation. It warned of a “heightened threat” of domestic violent extremism against candidates and election workers driven by individuals with “ideological grievances”.
Also on Friday, the US Department of Justice announced that a man from Pennsylvania had pleaded guilty to making multiple phoned death threats against an unnamed congressman – reported to be Democrat Eric Swalwell of California. The threats included telling a staff member in the congressman’s Washington office that he was going to come to the US Capitol with a firearm.
These wailing klaxons of a political system in peril come as Republicans and Democrats frame the upcoming midterm voting, which will determine which party controls Congress next year, as a pivotal moment in American history.
Republicans warn this is the last chance to put a check on Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency. Democrats say American democracy itself is at stake because of the numerous Republican candidates who have refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election.
And the rhetoric comes at the culmination of what has been a steady drumbeat of violence – and violent threats – that has been building all year.
Death threats
In Arizona, there have been multiple reports of masked individuals with firearms staking out ballot drop boxes, ostensibly to monitor the sites for election fraud. They’ve posted photographs of individuals casting their ballots on right-wing social media sites and encouraged others to join their efforts.
In June, a man was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He had travelled to the Washington suburb from California and called police after he arrived to tell them he had a firearm and intended to kill the conservative justice.
The following month, the Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, was attacked while on stage during a campaign rally. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a liberal leader in the Democratic Party, was threatened by a man with a handgun outside her Seattle home. He was subsequently charged with felony stalking.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Marjorie Taylor Greene waves to supporters at a Donald Trump rally.
Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has had police respond to her home six times based on anonymous hoax calls. The practice, called “swatting”, is used to try to provoke a confrontation between the target and law enforcement. She has also been the target of numerous death threats.
Partisan violence – and the threat of it – is nothing new in American politics, of course. The bloodiest recent attack occurred five years ago, when a man with multiple weapons opened fire on Republican politicians playing baseball at a city park. Five were injured, including one critically – second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise of Louisiana. That, however, was an isolated incident.
Keeping politicians safe
Data provided by the US Capitol Police suggests a violent wave is building. The number of cases involving threats against members of Congress has increased every year since 2017. In the first three months of 2022, the department has documented more than 1,800 incidents.
In response, Capitol Police announced in July that it would cover up to $10,000 for security upgrades in the homes of congressional legislators.
There are 435 members of Congress, however. They regularly travel to and from their homes around Washington and from the nation’s capital to their homes across the nation. A motivated individual fixated on violence will be able to find a way to strike against a targeted politician – or their family.
With Mrs Pelosi thousands of miles away in Washington, there was no police security provided for Mr Pelosi at their San Francisco home. He was not the intended target, but he became the victim.
Before the attack, the suspect is said to have asked, “Where is Nancy?” – the phrase harkening back to the 6 January assault on the US Capitol, when a man roamed the halls of the Capitol, calling out: “Where are you, Nancy? We’re looking for you.”
Politicians on both sides of the nation’s partisan divide have expressed their sympathy for Mr Pelosi and called for a cooling of the rhetoric. It is a task that is easier said than done, however.
With a population encased in political bubbles of social media and news outlets that reinforce their existing political beliefs and fears, individuals will continue to be tempted by extremism and violence. And when they go looking for the politicians they read about and see on television – ones they are told are enemies of the nation and threats to democracy – they will be able to find them.
The UK has hitback after Moscow accused a Royal Navy unit of causing explosions along a key gas pipeline between Russia and Europe.
It said Russia had made the “false claims of an epic scale” to “detract from the disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale
This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the west
It also mentioned “arguments going on inside the Russian government”, referring to reports of disquiet among Vladimir Putin’s top officials over the war situation.
British military experts have said Russia’s claim is a “straight lie” and that the navy would not have the means to carry out such an attack.
Moscow has claimed that explosions at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were caused by a UK navy unit.
It provided no evidence to support its claim.
Last month, at least 50 metres of the underwater pipeline that transports Russian gas to Europe were destroyed.
Danish police have said “powerful explosions” caused four holes in the pipelines.
German, Danish, and Swedish authorities have been investigating the incident but it is still not known who or what caused the blasts.
In a statement, Russia’s Defence Ministry said: “According to available information, representatives of this unit of the British Navy took part in the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 of this year.”
Although Western leaders have not directly accused Russia of being behind the attack, the EU has previously said Moscow was using its gas supplies as a weapon against the West.
The war in Ukraine has put pressure on gas supplies, pushing up prices for many European countries.
The State Department has ordered that non-emergency US embassy employees and their families leave Abuja, Nigeria, “due to the heightened risk of terrorist attacks there.”
In addition, the department issued a “Level 3” travel advisory for the entire country, urging people to “reconsider travel to Nigeria due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, and maritime crime.”
The State Department authorised the departure of non-emergency US government employees and family members earlier this week, after previously warning of planned terror attacks in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
“Targets may include, but are not limited to, government buildings, places of worship, schools, markets, shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, athletic gatherings, transport terminals, law enforcement facilities, and international organizations,” its October 23 advisory said of the alleged plots.
In an updated travel advisory issued Thursday, the State Department flagged 15 other Nigerian states in its “Do Not Travel” list due to risks ranging from terrorism to kidnapping and criminal activities perpetrated at sea.
In a similar advisory to British nationals, the UK government advised against nonessential travel to the Nigerian capital, while warning against all travel to 12 Nigerian states.
A popular Abuja mall closed its doors Thursday for the protection of staff and customers, its management said, adding that it was reviewing the security situation in consultation with authorities.
Nigeria’s police chief, Usman Alkali Baba, said there were “no imminent threats” in the country’s Federal Capital Territory.
“The Inspector General of Police, therefore, allays the fear of residents in the FCT and admonishes them to go about their lawful businesses and normal social lives/engagements as all hands are on deck to nip any security threat in the bud and respond to distress calls promptly,” a statement by his office said Thursday.
“The IGP similarly reiterates the commitment of the Nigeria Police to eliminating all threats, as well as protection of lives and property of all residents of the country,” the statement added.
Insurgency has remained rife in northeastern Nigeria, even as the country also struggles to contain motorbike riding gangs known locally as ‘bandits’ who carry out deadly attacks on communities in the northwestern region.
Nigeria also grapples with widespread kidnappings for ransom and maritime crimes in its southern region.
Hundreds of prisoners were broken free in a prison raid in the country’s capital in July. According to authorities, all inmates linked to Boko Haram escaped during the attack.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the raid.
After spotting a missing, injured hiker through a train window, a Colorado train passenger assisted in her rescue.
According to a Facebook post from the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management, the passenger was riding Colorado’s Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad on October 10 when she noticed the hiker through the window and alerted the train conductor.
Rats with backpacks could help rescue earthquake survivors
The hiker, a woman from New Mexico, went missing after she began a hike on the Colorado Trail, says the office. She left the trail and headed along the Animas riverbank, where she fell, breaking her leg. She spent two nights injured in the wilderness, according to the office.
After the second night, she managed to find a high-visibility spot on the riverbank – and flagged down the passing train.
Two train staff who were also trained medics crossed the river and stayed with the hiker until the Silverton Medical Rescue team arrived, according to the office.
The missing hiker had broken her leg and spent two nights in the wilderness. From SJCOEM/Facebook/Silverton Medical Rescue
The rescue operation was complex: the search and rescue team were flown in on a helicopter and used ropes to transport the injured hiker across the river. Then, a helicopter flew the patient to a nearby hospital. The search and rescue team was transported out of the riverbank area on a small train, according to the office.
“Another person in a moment of need was successfully brought home due to teamwork and collaboration,” wrote the office.
In recent days, war analysts have painted a picture of Russian forces struggling to make significant gains across Ukraine.
According to the Institute for the Study of War in the United States, they are “not making significant progress around Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, or anywhere else along the front lines in Ukraine.”
However, it said Russia is still trying to push a narrative that it is making major progress in Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Analysts said the information operation is likely an attempt to “improve morale” and “possibly the personal standing” of Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is behind the Wagner mercenary group.
The notorious Wagner group is “largely responsible” for the minimal gains around Bakhmut, but the ISW said the advances have been “at a languid speed and a significant cost”.
Mr Prigozhin, who reportedly confronted Vladimir Putin over Russia’s stalling war effort, acknowledged the slow pace of the ground operations near Bakhmut last week.
He said his Wagner forces were advancing just 100 to 200m per day, which he absurdly claimed was a normal rate for modern advances.
A large proportion of the pot – some £3bn – is being spent on housing refugees, mainly from Ukraine, according to the Centre for Global Development (CGD).
The UK is now spending more of its aid budget at home than in poorer countries, development experts have said.
That is because a large proportion of the pot – some £3bn – is being spent on housing refugees, mainly from Ukraine, according to the Centre for Global Development (CGD).
The UK aid budget is around £11bn, with some £4bn going to multilateral institutions including the World Bank.
Of the remaining £7bn, which is administered by the UK directly, more than half will be spent domestically this year, including some £3bn on housing refugees, according to CGD’s analysis.
While the UK is allowed to count refugee-hosting costs as official development assistance (ODA) under internationally agreed rules, it is one of only a few countries – and the only one in the G7 – to fund all the costs of Ukrainian refugees from its existing aid budget, the Washington and London-based think tank said.
Rishi Sunak was criticised for cutting the budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income during his time as chancellor, for setting a precedent for letting the Home Office and other departments use the pot, and for stretching the rules on what can be counted as aid.
Ranil Dissanayake, the policy fellow at CGD, said: “The development budget – the pot of money we put aside to help the world’s poorest people – is being squeezed from every angle.
“Not only was it slashed by almost a third, Rishi Sunak then set a precedent as chancellor for letting other departments claim whatever they could back from this pot.
“Saying we spend 0.5% of our national income on aid is becoming meaningless, when such a huge proportion of this pot is being spent domestically, rather than on helping people facing enormous hardship across the world.”
The appointment was seen as significant as Mr Mitchell, a former international development secretary, could increase pressure on Mr Sunak to honour his pledge to return to 0.7% international aid spending by 2024-25.
However, the prime minister is considering freezing the budget for an extra two years – saving £4bn a year – as he eyes ways to plug a multi-billion pound fiscal black hole, the Telegraph reported.
A spokesperson at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “Across government, there are significant pressures on the 0.5% ODA budget due to the costs of accepting refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine as well as wider migration challenges. Obviously how many refugees arrive in any particular period is not certain, so there is not fixed cost.
“We remain one of the largest global aid donors, spending more than £11 billion in aid in 2021, and UK aid has recently gone towards those in need in the Horn of Africa and Pakistan.”
Octopus has announced that it will acquire Bulb’s 1.5 million customers. The failure of Bulb inNovember 2021 was the most significant of dozens of energy supplier failures.
Octopus Energy has completed its acquisition of Bulb, a failed energy rival supported by billions of pounds in government funding for nearly a year.
Octopus stated that it is acquiring Bulb’s 1.5 million customers in order to “put an end to taxpayer losses and uncertainty for Bulb customers and employees.”
It added: “Octopus is paying the government to take on Bulb’s customer base – it is believed that this will represent a higher amount per customer than suppliers typically paid to take on any of the 29 suppliers who have failed since September 2021.
“Taxpayers will also benefit from a profit share agreement for a period of up to four years.”
It comes after Ovo Energy launched an 11th-hour bid to prevent Octopus from swallowing the nationalised supplier.
Ovo submitted an offer for Bulb soon after it collapsed into insolvency a year ago but subsequently pulled out of the auction.
Bulb’s collapse in November 2021 was the most significant among dozens of supplier failures, with Ofgem, the industry regulator, facing heavy criticism for its approach to licensing new entrants to the market.
The government has already been forced to spend billions of pounds buying gas to supply Bulb customers because the company did not hedge its purchases in order to fix its cost base.
Wholesale gas prices have soared over the last year, with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine having a particularly pronounced impact on global energy markets.
That would allow the buyer to secure sufficient forward supplies of gas to steer the company through the winter months.
Octopus intends to repay the government funding over a period lasting a number of months, according to sources close to the situation.
Incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his left-wing challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva squared off in their final televised debate before the tense run-off vote on Sunday.
According to polls, Lula is the slight favourite to run for a third term, capping a remarkable political comeback following his imprisonment on corruption convictions that were later overturned. However, Bolsonaro outperformed polls in the first round of voting earlier this month, and many analysts believe the election could go either way.
During Friday’s free-wheeling debate, the deeply polarising figures attacked each other’s character and record, accused each other of lying and refused repeatedly to answer each other’s questions.
“Brazilians know who the liar is,” said Lula, as the two locked horns over minimum wages and the left-wing politician’s history of corruption allegations.
“Stop lying Lula, stop lying. It’s getting ugly,” said Bolsonaro.
Lula, who served as president between 2003 and 2010, also highlighted that Bolsonaro’s government has not yet provided an increase to the minimum wage above inflation.
“This man governed for four years and there was not one percent of a real increase,” Lula said at the TV Globo debate in Rio de Janeiro, which lasted two and a half hours. He said the minimum wage is now worth less than when Bolsonaro was inaugurated.
Bolsonaro quickly promised to lift the minimum wage from $229 a month to $265 next year, though that was not included in his 2023 budget proposal sent to Congress, which the incumbent president’s allies control.
The debate was the second head-to-head confrontation between the two men, and the grand finale of a brutal campaign marked by months of mudslinging, negative advertisements, and a flood of disinformation on social media.
Lula leads polls
Still, most analysts and focus groups with undecided voters suggested the president had done little to shake up a race that polls show broadly stable since Lula led the first round of voting on October 2 by five percentage points.
That result was better for Bolsonaro than most polls had shown, giving him a boost of momentum to start the month, but the past two weeks of the campaign have presented headwinds.
On Sunday, one of Bolsonaro’s allies opened fire on Federal Police officers coming to arrest him. A week earlier Bolsonaro had to defend himself from attack advertisements after he told an anecdote about meeting Venezuelan migrant girls in suggestive terms.
In their first head-to-head debate this month, Lula blasted Bolsonaro’s handling of a pandemic in which nearly 700,000 Brazilians died, while Bolsonaro focused on the corruption scandals that tarnished the reputation of Lula’s Workers’ Party.
On Friday night, both candidates returned repeatedly to Lula’s two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, when high commodityprices helped to boost the economy and combat poverty. Lula promised to revive those boom times, while Bolsonaro suggested current social programmes are more effective.
Mothers from the US, Canada, the UK, and other western countries, are fighting to get their children out of Saudi Arabia after marriage breakdowns to Saudi nationals. A campaigner says many don’t get the help they need from their own governments.
At first, all seemed fine when American mum, Carly Morris, arrived in Saudi Arabia with her five-year-old daughter, Tala. The child’s Saudi father, whom she had married and later divorced during his seven-year scholarship in the USA, had persuaded her to come for a short visit. He had arranged a thirty-day visa for them both so that his parents could meet their granddaughter for the first time.
Carly’s holiday mood first took a knock on checking into the hotel her ex-husband had booked for her and Tala. Their room had no windows or internet access and her mobile phone would not work there. Though Carly says she soon had much more to worry about.
“The week after we arrived he asked for my passport and my birth certificate so that he could start processing her [Tala] exit permit. Though what he really did, I later found out, was he transferred her to Saudi citizenship.”
Dual citizenship is not recognised in Saudi Arabia so from this point on Tala, who had been born and raised in America, was considered a Saudi citizen only. This meant that under the country’s male guardianship system she could not leave the country unless her Saudi father agreed. It was soon clear that this was the last thing he would do.
Carly says her Saudi ex-husband began collecting Tala each morning and not bringing her back until late in the evening. Left alone all day in her basic hotel room with little money she relied on boxes of food he would leave for her. Finally, after nearly two years of appealing to him to take their daughter home, Carly began writing to members of the US congress and others who she hoped might help her.
This, she says, angered her former husband.
“When he found that I was reaching out to people outside of the kingdom asking for help, he abducted my daughter for a period of two months. He and his family fled their home even. During that time he filed for custody of her.”
In the papers filed as part of the custody proceedings, the father denied having abducted Tala.
After failing to get any constructive replies from American politicians, Carly wrote to the White House for help. She never heard back but her hopes nonetheless soared when the US President, Joe Biden, visited Riyadh in July. That effort too came to nothing, along she insists with appeals to US Embassy staff in Riyadh.
Back in America, Carly’s increasingly worried mother, Denise White, has come to believe that Saudi economic and political importance means US diplomats are reluctant to act. The Gulf kingdom is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, which gives it powerful political leverage, especially during the current energy crisis.
Speaking from her home in California, Mrs White says she is deeply concerned about her granddaughter’s lack of education, after being told that Tala has not been to school once in the past three years.
Carly has also voiced fears about the psychological impact on Tala of being caught in the middle of a custody battle in a country far from her home.
“I can’t get her to speak to anyone when social affairs people come here. She will not speak to any strangers. If I try to do video for my family she hides from the camera. I’m really worried about her socially at this point.”
IMAGE SOURCE, BETHANY ALHAIDARI Image caption, Bethany Alhaidari, from the Human Rights Foundation, says dozens of women are in the same situation as Carly
Statistics compiled by the US-based Human Rights Foundation show that Carly is one of nearly 50 American mothers fighting to get their children out of Saudi Arabia after marrying Saudi nationals. That is in addition to many from Canada, the UK, and other Western countries.
The foundation’s Bethany Alhaidari, who herself spent two years trying to get a Saudi exit visa for her daughter, says none have been successful over the past year. Many, she insists, simply don’t get the help they need from their own governments.
“There tends to be a sentiment, even in the US government, of ‘You did this to yourself, you should have known better. So I feel like we face a wall a lot of times with that attitude.”
The US embassy in Riyadh told the BBC that the welfare of US citizens was the “highest priority” of the state department and that the embassy was in regular contact with Carly and in touch with the Saudi government.
After a long court battle Carly was finally given custody of Tala, but told not to leave the Saudi city she is staying in, never mind the country itself. With no funds of her own, she says she had become a kind of prisoner within her own four walls.
“At that point, I had gone two years not even stepping outside. I sat inside this hotel every single day. Not one person has seen my face… not one person has knocked on my door”.
IMAGE SOURCE, BETHANY ALHAIDARI Image caption, Bethany Alhaidari says it took her two years to get her daughter back
Since speaking out on this issue Carly has been accused by Saudi authorities of “disrupting public order”, with the prosecution seeking a jail term as punishment.
She is also facing another even bigger new worry. Well before meeting her husband, Carly had converted to Islam and she insists her beliefs have never wavered since. But just days after she won back custody of her daughter, her ex-husband’s father officially accused her of denouncing her faith and insulting Saudi Arabia and all Muslims. Still unable to bring her daughter back home she also now faces a potential death sentence but pins much of the blame on herself.
“I was warned. Many people told me like, do not to enter that country. If you enter you will never get your daughter back. And I didn’t listen to the warnings… and I’m here in this situation three years later”.
The Saudi authorities and Carly’s ex-husband have been approached for comment but have not yet responded.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
After a backlash over a skit he did about Rishi Sunak’s appointment as Prime Minister, comedian Trevor Noah says he did not claim “the entire UK is racist.”
Earlier this week, Noah said on the US news show The Daily Show that there had been a “backlash” over Mr Sunak.
In the UK, many people, including ex-chancellor Sajid Javid, called Noah’s remarks “simply wrong.”
But Noah has now defended his segment, saying he was reacting to racists, and: “That’s why I said. ‘Some people’.”
Mr Sunak is the UK’s first British Asian prime minister and officially took over as Conservative leader and PM on Tuesday, after a leadership process.
In the original comments on the US programme, Noah – who is South African and grew up during apartheid – said: “You hear a lot of the people saying ‘Oh, they’re taking over, now the Indians are going to take over Great Britain and what’s next?’
“And I always find myself going ‘So what? What are you afraid of? I think it’s because the quiet part that a lot of people don’t realise what they’re saying is, ‘We don’t want these people who were previously oppressed to get into power because then they may do to us what we did to them.’”
During his skit, Noah played a clip from radio station LBC during the latest Conservative leadership race a week ago, when a caller falsely claimed Mr Sunak was “not even British”.
Mr Javid tweeted in response that the comments from the comedian were “so wrong” and that Britain “is the most successful multiracial democracy on earth and proud of this historic achievement”.
Former Tory leadership contender Rory Stewart said Mr Noah’s remarks were “completely bizarre” and an example of “lazy stereotyping”.
Downing Street said on Thursday that Mr Sunak did not believe Britain was a racist country.
Presenter Piers Morgan also tweeted that US media was “falsely portraying Britain as a racist country”.
Noah finally responded on Friday evening, saying: “C’mon Piers, you’re smarter than that.
“I wasn’t saying “The entire UK is racist”, I was responding to the racists who don’t want Rishi as PM because of his race. That’s why I said. “Some people”.”
C’mon Piers you’re smarter than that. I wasn’t saying “The entire U.K. is racist”, I was responding to the racists who don’t want Rishi as PM because of his race. That’s why I said. “Some people” 🙃https://t.co/QQgEQ45wJUhttps://t.co/bhurdPvsE8
Noah has long spoken about racial equality, publishing a book in 2017 titled Born a Crime, a reference to the fact he was born in South Africa to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a relationship was punishable by imprisonment.
He began his career in South Africa, releasing a string of stand-up specials and hosting a late-night talk show before relocating to the US in 2011.
He has hosted The Daily Show – a late-night talk and satirical news programme – since 2015 but last month announced he would be standing down.
Mr Sunak was born in Hampshire, south-east England, to Indian parents – a pharmacist mother and a GP father – and is married to Akshata Murty, with whom he has two young daughters Krishna and Anoushka.
A US manwho had been imprisoned for nearly four decades for murder was released after new DNA evidence pointed to a different person.
Maurice Hastings was sentenced to more than 38 years in state prison for the 1983 murder of Roberta Wydermyer and two attempted murders in California.
However, new DNA evidence pointed to another man who died in prison in 2020.
Now 69, Mr Hastings has been released from prison after his 1988 conviction was vacated on 20 October.
LA County District Attorney George Gascón described his conviction as a “terrible injustice”.
“The justice system is not perfect, and when we learn of new evidence which causes us to lose confidence in a conviction, it is our obligation to act swiftly,” he added in a statement.
Roberta Wydermyer was found in the boot of her car with a single gunshot wound to the head in 1983. She had earlier been sexually assaulted.
Mr Hastings was subsequently charged with murder and prosecutors sought the death penalty.
After a hung jury, a second jury convicted him and he was sentenced in 1988 to life in state prison without the possibility of parole.
At the time of the victim’s autopsy, semen was detected in an oral swab. Mr Hastings had maintained his innocence from the moment he was arrested, but a request for DNA testing of the swab in 2000 was denied by the district attorney.
Eventually he was able to put in a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021 and DNA testing in June found that the semen was not his.
The DNA profile instead matched a man who had been convicted of an armed kidnapping where he placed his female victim in a trunk of a vehicle.
Following a court hearing on 20 October to vacate his conviction, Mr Hastings told reporters he wasn’t bitter and wanted to enjoy the rest of his life.
“I prayed for many years that this day would come,” the Associated Press quoted Mr Hastings as saying. “I am not pointing fingers; I am not standing up here a bitter man, but I just want to enjoy my life now while I have it.”
TheRoyal Navy‘s commander-in-chief has ordered an investigation into allegations of bullying and sexual harassment directed at women in the Submarine Service.
Several whistleblowers who served in the fleet told the Daily Mail that they were mistreated at all levels.
The First Sea Lord, Adm Sir Ben Key, called the allegations “abhorrent,” adding that “sexual harassment has no place in the Royal Navy and will not be tolerated.”
“Anyone who is found culpable will be held accountable,” he said.
The allegations, revealed in detail by the Mail, include male crew members compiling a list setting out the order in which women would be assaulted in the event of a catastrophic event.
One woman told the Mail she was sexually assaulted by a man of a higher rank as she slept. She claimed one senior officer punched her in the kidney.
She alleged that another left naked pictures of models for her and posted 50p coins into her cabin, suggesting she would perform a sexual act in return.
Other women alleged they were frequently asked to perform sex acts and were often screamed at and hit with clipboards and pens.
Former Navy Rear Adm Chris Parry told the BBC’s Today programme he believed the issue was also a reflection of wider society.
“I’m afraid some of the sexualised behaviour that we see in the normal working place is transferred to submarines, as you would expect, and of course in a compressed environment everything becomes exaggerated,” he said.
He said the issue requires leadership, including “zero tolerance from the top down and the bottom up” when it comes to accusations of sexual harassment.
“It is about leadership. But it’s very difficult in submarines where you are living cheek by jowl with everybody and you don’t have a mature society putting people into those submarines.”
He said when he commanded ships with a mix of genders he took “very seriously” accusations of assault.
‘Unacceptable’
The Submarine Service is “unseen and unhindered,” according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) website, which says it has “built an enduring reputation for professionalism and courage”.
The service includes the Vanguard Class submarines that provide the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
Figures revealed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request showed that, as of 2019, just 1% of Submarine Service personnel were female.
Responding to the allegations, Adm Sir Ben said: “I want to reassure our people, and anyone who is reading this, that any activity which falls short of the highest of standards the Royal Navy sets itself is totally unacceptable and not a true reflection of what service life should be.
“These allegations are abhorrent. Sexual assault and harassment has no place in the Royal Navy and will not be tolerated.”
The MoD said that while most Navy staff enjoy rewarding careers, some navy personnel, predominantly women, have been affected by inappropriate sexualised behaviour.
It said it accepted more needs to be done to improve the experience of all personnel and mechanisms for reporting sexual offences were being improved.
Earlier this year, media reports emerged detailing allegations of bullying, drinking, misogyny and sexual harassment in the Red Arrows.
A series of incidents within the flagship aerial display team prompted the Chief of the Air Staff to order an inquiry, which has yet to report.
Last year, Diane Allen, a retired lieutenant colonel from the British Army, said the military needed its own Me Too moment, referring to the movement which saw people share their experiences of sexual harassment.
Speaking to the BBC’s Woman’s Hour in May last year about the issue in the Army and the Royal Air Force, she said she was concerned that “even the good people in the military are feeling coerced not to speak up when they see poor behaviour”.
When protesters descended onthe city last winter, Ottawa police did their best under “inhuman circumstances,” according to the force’s former chief.
On Friday, Peter Sloly testified at an inquiry into Canada’s use of the Emergencies Act to end the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests, saying that police were under enormous pressure at the time.
The protests began on January 29 and lasted three weeks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on 14 February.
Mr Sloly resigned as chief of Ottawa police on 15 February amid criticism of his force’s response to the protests.
Testimony presented before the Public Order Emergency Commission so far has suggested the force was dealing with power struggles, communication gaps and infighting as it scrambled to control the anti-vaccine mandate and anti-government protests.
In an emotional defence of police actions on Friday, Mr Sloly said his force tried to deal with the protests while facing a lack of resources and staffing issues.
“It was too cold and it was too much. But they did their very best. And I am grateful to them,” he said.
The Public Order Emergency Commission began six weeks of hearings on 13 October, and in other recent developments:
Some police forces were weighing bringing in military assistance in early February to help with the protests, according to tabled documents, though Mr Trudeau was saying publicly at the time he was wary of such a move.
Canadian intelligence services believed the protests to be driven largely by domestic concerns and did not see signs of funding from “foreign actors” despite money flowing in from Canada and elsewhere to online fundraising platforms in support of the protesters.
The inquiry has summoned Ontario Premier Doug Ford to testify, believing he has relevant evidence to share as his provincial government worked to end the protests with Mr Trudeau and Ottawa. Mr Ford has challenged the summons in court.
The winter protests paralysed much of Ottawa’s city centre with hundreds of heavy trucks, while smaller, shorter-lived protests elsewhere blocked two key US-Canada border crossings.
The protests in Ottawa – deemed an illegal blockade by police and the federal government – were eventually cleared by police on the weekend of 18 February.
The public inquiry, which is required under law when the Emergencies Act is invoked, will hear from more witnesses over the coming weeks, including Mr Trudeau.
His government has said that the use of the Emergencies Act – for the first time since it became law in 1988 – was a necessary “last resort” to deal with unprecedented protests.
