Researchers studying a rare Madagascar lemur have observed the nocturnal creature picking its nose and eating mucus.
The Aye Aye, a cat-sized primate that lives in the forests of the Indian Ocean island, was known to hunt for insect grubs in hollow logs with its unusually long middle finger.
But for the first time, it’s been recorded sticking its finger up its nose and then licking it clean.
Similar behaviour has been seen in other primates, including humans, prompting scientists to suspect the unpalatable activity could have health benefits.
It’s thought nasal mucus may contain proteins beneficial to an animal’s immune system.
Kenya’s new 22-member cabinet will be sworn in on Thursday, a day after parliament approved them.
President William Ruto has kept one minister from his predecessor’s cabinet as a national security adviser and established the position of prime cabinet secretary.
The former head of the central bank, Njuguna Ndung’u, will be the new treasury secretary, while former parliament speaker, Justin Muturi, will be the new attorney general.
Despite promising 50% of cabinet appointments to women, Mr Ruto nominated only seven women to the 22 ministerial positions, with two women as presidential advisers and one woman as cabinet secretary.
The new cabinet’s immediate focus will be to reduce the cost of living and the food crisis caused by failed rains.
On Tuesday, the president said that he will need at least a year in order to reduce the price of maize flour – the country’s staple food.
A high-profile Republican Senate candidate running on an anti-abortion platform is facing allegations from a second woman that he paid for her abortion.
Herschel Walker, a former American football star, hopes to unseat Georgia’s Democratic incumbent in the midterm elections next month.
The latest accuser called him “a hypocrite” unfit to be a US senator.
The ex-NFL star has denied both claims, calling the latest one “foolishness”.
Mr Walker, backing former US President Donald Trump, is running neck and neck with Democrat Raphael Warnock in November’s mid-term race.
The second woman spoke anonymously to reporters over Zoom, saying Mr Walker pressured her into ending her pregnancy. Neither woman has revealed her identity publicly.
The woman, who is being named by her lawyer only as “Jane Doe”, told reporters on Wednesday that she had a years-long relationship with Mr Walker while he was married and that he had driven her to a clinic.
She did not appear on camera during the virtual news conference in Los Angeles.
“He had publicly taken the position that he is about life and against abortion under any circumstance, when in fact he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred by driving me to the clinic and paying for it,” she said.
Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, cited exhibits including alleged love letters, a 1992 voicemail, and a hotel receipt that proved the two had a relationship in the late 1980s and 1990s. The BBC has not inspected the purported evidence.
Speaking at a campaign event in Dillard, Georgia, just before the news conference, Mr Walker – who has staked out a strong anti-abortion stance – called the latest accusation a “lie”.
“I’m done with this foolishness,” he said. “I already told people this is a lie, and I’m not going to entertain, continue, to carry a lie along.”
“And I also want to let you know that I didn’t kill JFK either,” he joked, accusing the Democrats of politically dirty tricks against him.
The new accuser, who says she is an independent voter that supported Donald Trump, said she became pregnant in 1993 by Mr Walker while he was playing for the Dallas Cowboys.
She said Mr Walker “encouraged” and gave her money to have an abortion, but after she became emotional on her first visit to the clinic to complete the procedure, he returned with her the following day and “waited for hours in the parking lot until I came out”.
“I was devastated because I felt like I was pressured into having the abortion,” she said.
Earlier this month, Mr Walker denied a claim from another anonymous woman that he had pressured her and paid for her to get an abortion in 2009.
Mr Walker is challenging the incumbent, Mr Warnock, a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta who supports abortion. The extremely close race could determine which party controls the US Senate after next month’s elections.
Warnock campaign spokeswoman Rachel Petri said in a statement on Wednesday: “Today’s new report is just the latest example of a troubling pattern we have seen play out again and again and again.”
Mr Warnock has himself been assailed over reports his church was evicting low-income tenants from apartments it owns, and that he ran over his ex-wife’s foot in a car during a domestic dispute.
In their applicationto stay in the UK, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf cited the European Convention on Human Rights and stated that they had renounced their Pakistani citizenship.
Two members of a sex grooming gang in Rochdale have lost their long-running appeal against deportation to Pakistan.
Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, had fought the deportation on human rights grounds but an immigration tribunal said they should be removed from the UK.
Judges said Khan had shown a “breathtaking lack of remorse” and that there was a “very strong public interest” in both men being kicked out.
The decision was made in August and released publicly today.
The pair were convicted in May 2012 and were part of the gang that groomed dozens of girls for sex in the Lancashire town.
The gang of nine operated for two years from 2008, plying girls as young as 12 with alcohol and drugs and gang-raping them at various locations, sometimes “pimping” them out for money.
As many as 47 girls were abused, according to police. The victims were often criminalized by authorities and were in and out of court.
Khan’s abuse included getting a 13-year-old pregnant and using the threat of violence to pass a 15-year-old around to other men.
He had argued at his last hearing in June that he shouldn’t be deported because his son needed a role model.
Father-of-five Rauf also trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her in his taxi to secluded areas and to a flat where he and others would abuse her.
After being freed from jail in 2014 and 2016 respectively, Rauf and Khan mounted a long campaign to try to avoid being kicked out of the UK after their British citizenship was revoked.
They cited article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to a private and family life, as the reason why they shouldn’t be deported.
Lawyers for the men also argued they were “stateless” because they had certificates showing they had renounced their Pakistani citizenship.
Grooming victims ‘treated with contempt’
The grooming case was dramatised in the BBC programme Three Girls, but there’s still anger in Rochdale that none of the men have been deported.
The girl Khan got pregnant with reportedly once came “face to face” with him and a child in Asda and ran out of the shop crying.
In April, Greater Manchester Police apologised to three victims for failing to protect them. The force admitted: “GMP could and should have done much more to protect you and we let you down.”
Campaigners criticised the apology as being “10 years too late” and said the girls had been treated with contempt.
A report also revealed that the ringleader of the Rochdale gang, Shabir Ahmed, had once been employed as a welfare rights officer by Oldham Council despite multiple concerns being raised against him.
Ahmed is serving a 22-year sentence.
A Home Office statement after the deportations were approved said: “The crimes committed by the Rochdale child sexual exploitation group who preyed on the young and vulnerable were truly appalling and have no place in our society.
“That is why we are determined to take whatever action is available to us within the law to make sure perpetrators are brought to justice and to protect victims”
But there were questions in the House of Lords this week about the need to update the rules for eligibility.
Labour peer Viscount Stansgate had challenged how Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, could be two of the five potential replacements when one had “left public life” and the other had “left the country”.
Any update will require an amendment to the Regency Act, which is under the auspices of the Cabinet Office, but there appears to be momentum behind such a constitutional change.
However, it is expected that the response will be to widen the number of royals who can act on behalf of the monarch, making a more flexible list of available working royals – rather than removing Prince Andrew and Prince Harry.
IMAGE SOURCE,MAX MUMBY/INDIGO Image caption, Peers questioned the status of Prince Andrew and Prince Harry as two of the current five counsellors of state
Depending on the legislative timetable, there could be changes later this year, reflecting the need to have stand-ins in place when both the King and Queen Consort and Prince and Princess of Wales could be on overseas trips in 2023.
At present these are Camilla, the Queen Consort; Prince William, the Prince of Wales; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and his daughter, Princess Beatrice.
They can carry out official duties, such as signing documents, receiving ambassadors, or attending Privy Council meetings, if the monarch is temporarily ill or abroad,
IMAGE SOURCE, PETER NICHOLLS Image caption, Counsellors of state could be needed if the King is travelling overseas
Labour peer Viscount Stansgate – who is Stephen Benn, the eldest son of Labour politician Tony Benn – said this showed the value of updating the Regency Act, to ensure royals were available to stand in.
“It is the only reason why it was possible to open the current session of this Parliament,” he told peers in the House of Lords.
He called on the government to approach the King over changes to the current arrangements, now that Prince Harry was living in the United States and Prince Andrew no longer carried out royal duties.
Lord Addington, a Liberal Democrat, suggested that working royals – “somebody who actually undertakes royal duties” – should be given priority for these roles.
In response, the Lord Privy Seal, Lord True, said he would not comment on “specific circumstances” of counselors, but he did not rule out a change.
Brooks claimed that his car had a throttle malfunction and that he had no intention of injuring anyone, but the jury did not believe him.
A man has been found guilty of killing six people last year when he drove his car into a Christmas parade near Milwaukee.
Darrell Brooks was found guilty of six counts of intentional homicide in the November 21 attack in Waukesha, about 15 miles from the Wisconsin city.
An eight-year-old marching with his baseball team and three members of the Dancing Grannies group were among the dead.
More than 60 people were also injured.
Somebody in the court shouted “burn in hell you piece of s***” as the verdicts were read to the Madison court.
The 40-year-old initially pleaded guilty by reason of mental disease but withdrew that plea in September.
The following month he dismissed his lawyers and began representing himself.
He mounted an erratic defence during a trial that included heated arguments with the judge, refusing to acknowledge his name and meandering cross-examinations.
What happened at the Waukesha Christmas parade?
On one occasion, after being moved to another courtroom, he removed his shirt and sat bare-chested on the table with his back to the camera.
Another day, he hid behind a barricade of boxes containing legal documents.
Brooks suggested his car had a throttle malfunction, that he had no intention of hurting anyone, and had sounded the horn to warn bystanders.
However, a vehicle inspector testified that the Ford Escape SUV was in good working order.
Prosecutors said Brooks had fled after an argument with his girlfriend but didn’t know why he drove into the parade other than being enraged.
“When you ride through a parade route and roll over children… your intent is known. That’s not an accident,” said Waukesha County District Attorney Sue Opper in closing arguments.
She said his refusal to stop showed he intended to kill people.
Brooks now faces a mandatory life sentence for each homicide conviction.
Liz Truss liftedthe Conservatives’ 2019 ban on fracking for shale gas, claiming it would help with rising energy costs. However, the measure was opposed by many Conservatives whose constituents are opposed to fracking in their areas.
Rishi Sunak is reinstating the ban on fracking that Liz Truss controversially lifted.
During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the new prime minister said he stands “by the manifesto” on fracking.
The Conservative 2019 manifesto placed a moratorium on fracking in England following opposition from environmentalists and local communities.
Mr Sunak’s spokesman explicitly confirmed he was reinstating the ban after PMQs.
Ms Truss lifted the ban last month as part of her plan to limit rising energy costs but said fracking would only resume where there was local consent.
Fracking was ultimately what brought her government down after Labour tabled an opposition day motion last Wednesday calling for a draft law to ban fracking.
But the Tory party whips said the motion was actually a vote of confidence in the government and told Conservative MPs they had to vote against it or face being suspended.
However, many of them and their constituents are opposed to fracking and said they could not vote to support fracking, even if the whips saw the vote as something different.
As the vote was taking place there were accusations of “bullying” and “manhandling” of Tory MPs who were being told to vote against the motion.
Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate and net zero secretaries, said Mr Sunak voted against Labour’s fracking ban last week and is now putting a moratorium on the practice.
“Whatever their latest position, the truth is that the Tories have shown that they cannot be trusted on the issue of fracking,” he said.
Ms Truss had to make a number of U-turns after her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng brought in a raft of unfunded tax cuts which unleashed economic turmoil in the UK for weeks.
Mr Sunak has, so far, kept most of those U-turns but the fracking ban is the first Truss policy he has reversed since he became PM on Tuesday.
LGBT football fans attending the World Cup in Qatar should show “a little bit of flex and compromise,” according to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
On Wednesday, he told LBC that fans travelling from England and Wales should be “respectful of the host nation,” where same-sex activity is illegal.
Within hours, the prime minister’s official spokesman stated that LGBT World Cup fans should not be expected to “compromise who they are” if they visit Qatar.
Labour called Mr Cleverly’s remarks “shockingly tone-deaf”.
In a separate interview with Sky News, the foreign secretary reiterated his message when asked how the government was pushing for LGBT equality in Qatar.
He said: “These are Muslim countries, they have very different cultural starting points for us. I think it’s important when you’re a visitor to a country that you respect the culture of your host nation.”
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, During England matches, Harry Kane wears a white One Love captain’s armband, with a rainbow design in support of the LGBT community
The decision to stage the World Cup in Qatar, a country where homosexuality can be punishable by death, has been criticised by LGBT groups.
England and Wales have both qualified for the tournament, meaning they will each play three group matches, plus knock-out matches if they progress.
England’s three initial matches are being played in Doha, Al Khor, and – against Wales – in Al Rayyan. Wales are playing all three of their matches in the latter city.
Earlier this year, LGBT organisations engaging with Fifa said “progress has been slow” in ensuring the safety of LGBT fans – and that reassurances from Qatar had “not been adequate”.
Some footballers have been taking a defiant stand in support of the LGBT community in the run-up to the World Cup. Footballer Harry Kane has said he intends to wear his OneLove rainbow captain armband during World Cup matches, even if it is not approved for use by the football’s global governing body, Fifa, which runs the World Cup.
Fifa regulations state that a player’s kit and other “basic compulsory equipment. must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images”.
Some politicians, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, said they would not attend the tournament due to Qatar’s human rights record.
Wales’s First Minister, Mark Drakeford, is still expected to be there.
Mr Cleverly said he would be attending the World Cup, adding that the UK has “incredibly important partners in the Middle East”.
Mr Cleverly’s remarks come as Qatari officials stopped UK campaigner Peter Tatchell from staging an LGBT rights protest in Doha on Tuesday.
Mr Tatchell said he was “surrounded and interrogated” by authorities following the one-man protest, believed to be the first LGBT rights protest to take place in any Gulf state.
The campaigner said the foreign secretary should not attend the World Cup, and instead “highlight the abuses being carried out by the regime”.
Shadow digital, culture, media, and sport secretary Lucy Powell hit out at the foreign secretary’s remark, describing it as “shockingly tone-deaf”.
She said: “Sport should be open to all.
“Many fans will feel they can’t attend this tournament to cheer on their team because of Qatar’s record on human, workers, and LGBT+ rights.
“The government should be challenging Fifa on how they’ve put fans in this position, and ensuring the full safety of all fans attending, not defending discriminatory values.”
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, James Cleverly was appointed as the foreign secretary on 6 September by Liz Truss – and retained his position under Rishi Sunak
“Any UK officials who attend should be using their position to highlight human rights abuses, not endorsing the regime.”
The Foreign Office, which is now headed by Mr Cleverly, has always issued and updated official online travel advice for Britons when they travel to any country in the World. For Qatar, the relevant page says: “Homosexual behaviour is illegal in Qatar.
The Canadian province of Quebec is bringing back a debate about the country’s ties to the British monarchy in light of King Charles III’s upcoming coronation.
Following the introduction of a motion by Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet that compelled a discussion about the Crown in the House of Commons, parliamentarians will vote on whether Canada should sever ties with the monarchy on Wednesday.
His move follows the refusal of 14 recently-elected Quebec politicians to recite an oath of allegiance to the King during their swearing-in to the provincial legislature, as required by Canadian law.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Blanchet admitted that his motion is likely to fail, but he said the failure will show Quebecers that federal politicians “prefer to support the King than the people”.
In Canada, the monarch – now King Charles – is the head of state. The monarchy serves a mainly symbolic role, with the power to govern entrusted to the Canadian government.
Changing the current system would need approval from both the House of Commons and the Senate in parliament, as well as the unanimous consent of all 10 provinces
Members of Canada’s governing Liberal party have already said they will oppose the motion.
While Mr Blanchet’s motion may fail, the future of Quebec politicians who refused to swear the oath to the Crown remains uncertain.
Their refusal could lead to a bill that seeks to redefine the requirement to take the oath of allegiance in the province – if they are able to sit in Quebec’s legislature at all – and political watchers say they are eager to see how the dispute unfolds.
Quebecers have long opposed the Crown
Quebec’s relationship with the monarchy is complex.
Many Quebecers are in favour of Canada being a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy– a sentiment that is tied to the province’s history of being a French-speaking region that was once under British colonial rule.
The province has twice voted against independence in referendums, and the push for Quebec sovereignty has weakened over the years. But Quebec politicians have continued to put forward policies that seek to define the province as distinct from English Canada.
When tabling his motion on Tuesday, Mr Blanchet said he believes Canada’s tie to the British Crown is “archaic.”
“It is a thing of the past, it is almost archaeological, it is humiliating,” he said.
Frustration with the oath of allegiance to the Crown isn’t new. As early as 1970, members of the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois, a separatist provincial political party in Quebec, had openly opposed it.
Their opposition led to the creation of a second, supplementary oath in 1982 that also pledges loyalty to the people of Quebec.
Since then, politicians in that province have had to recite both oaths before taking office. In 2018, some recited the oath to the Crown behind closed doors in protest.
Mr Blanchet, whose party represents Quebec interests in the federal House of Commons, said many recite the oath only because they have to.
“We are a conquered people that still have to swear allegiance to a conquering King,” he said.
This sentiment was echoed by the 14 members of Quebec’s National Assembly, who have not yet recited the oath ahead of the assembly’s commencement in November – an unprecedented number of politicians to do so.
“What’s happening now is really dramatic,” said Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, who added that politicians may not be able to sit or receive their salary without reciting the oath.
“The Constitution Act of 1867 clearly states that to become a member of a provincial legislature, you need to perform the oath of allegiance,” Beland said.
“There is quite a bit of suspense about what will happen.”
Ewan Suaves, the spokesperson for Quebec Premier Francois Legault, said the law is clear that politicians must recite the oath in order to sit. But added that the premier, too, opposes it.
“We agree that it’s time to end the obligation to swear allegiance to King Charles III, but it takes a Bill in order to do so. And to present or pass a Bill, the [members] must sit,” Mr Suaves said.
How does the rest of Canada feel about the Crown?
Opinion polls suggest Canada as a whole remains divided on the monarchy. In an Ipsos survey conducted following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, half of the Canadian respondents – around 54% – said their country should sever its ties with the Crown.
That sentiment is strongest in Quebec, where 79% agreed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, has said the monarchy offers his country “extraordinary stability”.
In response to Mr Blanchet’s motion asking Canada to sever its ties to the Crown, Mr Trudeau said “there is not one Quebecer who wants the [Canadian] constitution reopened.”
Mr Beland said that at a time when Quebec’s independence movement has weakened, there has been more emphasis on symbolic assertions of sovereignty – like refusing to take the oath of allegiance.
He added the refusal to take the oath could be a way to seize political momentum by the Parti Quebecois, who lost seats in the recent election.
“This is about broad principles, but this is also a lot about political posturing,” Mr Beland said.
Amending the oath requirement is also a complicated task, and there is disagreement among experts on how it can be done.
Some believe a bill passed by the Quebec National Assembly would be enough to replace or amend the oath of allegiance. Others, however, believe any changes to the oath would require an amendment to Canada’sconstitution.
The latter, “of course, is much more difficult to do,” said
Rishi Sunak has announced that he will appoint a new independent ethics adviser to fill the vacancy left by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Downing Streetannounced on Wednesday that the new Prime Minister will soon appoint a new independent ministerial interests adviser.
Lord Geidt, the previous ministerial interests adviser, resigned in June and was not replaced when Boris Johnson resigned.
Ms Truss, during her brief tenure in Downing Street, had not appointed an ethics adviser.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said that the appointment of the new ethics adviser would be “done shortly”.
Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin also confirmed in the Commons that “it is absolutely the prime minister’s intention to appoint an independent adviser”.
Under Mr Johnson’s tenure, two ethics advisers quit within two years.
Veteran civil servant Sir Alex Allan resigned as ethics adviser in November 2020 after Mr Johnson failed to act on a critical report on alleged bullying by then Home Secretary Priti Patel.
His successor, Lord Geidt, resigned in June this year after accusing Mr Johnson of proposing a “deliberate” breach of the ministerial code.
Clashes have been reported in Mahsa Amini’shometown between Iranian security forces and protesters after crowds gathered near her grave to mark 40 days since her death in custody.
Security personnel in Saqqez’s Zindan Square fired live rounds and tear gas, according to a Kurdish rights group.
The semi-official news agency Isna reported a clash on the city’s outskirts.
Earlier, thousands of mourners at the Aichi cemetery shouted “Woman, life, freedom” and “Death to the dictator”.
They are two of the signature chants of the anti-government unrest that has swept across Iran since Ms Amini died.
The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was detained by the morality police in the capital, Tehran, on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.
She fell into a coma after collapsing at a detention centre and died three days later. There were reports that officers beat her on the head with a baton and banged her head against a vehicle, but the police denied that she was mistreated and said she suffered a heart attack.
Many Iranians were enraged and the first protests took place after Ms Amini’s funeral in Saqqez, when women ripped off their headscarves in solidarity. The protests spread quickly and evolved into one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Women have been at the forefront, defiantly waving their headscarves in the air, setting them on fire, and even cutting their hair in public.
Schoolgirls have also been demonstrating in playgrounds and on the streets in an unprecedented show of support.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights says at least 234 protesters, including 29 children, have been killed by security forces in a violent crackdown on what Iran’s leaders have portrayed as “riots” fomented by foreign enemies.
Riot police and members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force were reportedly deployed in large numbers in Saqqez and other parts of Kurdistan province on Wednesday, in anticipation of fresh unrest on the 40th day of mourning for Ms Amini – a culturally significant occasion for Iranians.
However, videos showed thousands of residents walking along a highway and through a field – apparently to bypass roadblocks – to reach the Aichi cemetery.
“They tried to stop us from entering the cemetery… but I managed to get in,” Reuters news agency quoted a witness as saying.
Kurdish human rights group Hengaw, which is also based in Norway, posted several videos that it said showed a large crowd shouting “Down with traitors” and “Kurdistan, Kurdistan, the fascists’ graveyard”.
In another clip, men and women were seen waving scarves and shouting “Freedom, freedom, freedom”.
Despite the authorities pressure on the family to recall the 40 th days ceremony for #Mahsa_Amini , thousands gather on Mahsa’s grave chanting “Kurdistan will be the graveyard of fascists” “women , life, freedom” pic.twitter.com/ifH9h3DHsv
It was not clear whether members of Ms Amini’s family were at the cemetery. Activists said security forces had warned them not to hold a mourning ceremony and had threatened the safety of their son.
State news agency Irna, meanwhile, cited what it claimed was a statement from the family saying that they would not hold an event in order to avoid “unfortunate issues”. But a source close to the family told the BBC they had written no such message.
Kurdistan Governor Esmail Zarei Koosha said the situation in Saqqez was calm on Wednesday morning and denied that roads had been shut.
“The enemy and its media… are trying to use the 40-day anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death as a pretext to cause new tensions, but fortunately, the situation in the province is completely stable,” he was quoted as saying by Irna.
Later, Hengaw posted videos it said showed a crowd of protesters walking towards the governorate’s office in Saqqez and clashes between protesters and security forces in the Qukh neighbourhood.
The people have been gathered in front of the Saqqez governorate building.
— Hengaw Organization for Human Rights (@Hengaw_English) October 26, 2022
Isna reported that “a limited number of those present at Mahsa Amini’s memorial clashed with police forces on the outskirts of Saqqez and were dispersed”. It added that the local internet service was cut off “due to security conditions”.
Hengaw also reported protests in the nearby cities of Sanandaj and Mahabad as well as general strikes in cities and towns across Kurdistan.
Authorities closed all schools and universities in the province “because of a wave of influenza”, according to state media.
Opposition activist collective 1500tasvir said protests were also held on Wednesday at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, as well as at universities in Tehran, the north-eastern city of Mashhad, and in Ahvaz, in the southwest.
Earlier in the day, Rishi Sunak asked Sir Keir Starmer his first Prime Minister questions.
Body language expert Darren Stanton says the new prime minister “came alive” in the Commons, and was far more “animated” than his “lacklustre” speech outside Number 10.
He said: “Rishi Sunak was definitely thrown in at the deep end. The pleasantries were short-lived as both the PM and Sir Keir wasted no time in the gloves coming off.
“Sir Keir vigorously challenged Mr Sunak’s decision to reinstate the Home Secretary [Suella Braverman] after she had resigned – Sir Keir was robust, articulate and animated as he challenged Mr Sunak, and it encouraged Mr Sunak to adopt a very different stance to his lacklustre and hollow speech outside of Number 10 yesterday.
“From a non-verbal perspective, Mr Sunak came alive having to deliver information at short notice.
“Responding to rebuttals from his peers, Mr Sunak gave a much more polished and much stronger performance than we have recently seen.
“He was far more animated and his arms weren’t static like they previously were.
“Instead, he used illustrators – like finger pointing – to hammer home his points, proving that his mind and body were congruent with the messages he was sending.
“It suggests his words during PMQs were much more genuine and from the heart.”
Mercedes-Benz has announced its intention to exit the Russian market and sell shares in its industrial and financial services subsidiaries to a local investor, making it the latest carmaker to do so.
Japan’s Nissan this month took a $687m loss in handing over its business in Russia to a state-owned entity for 1 euro, mirroring an earlier move by Renault, which sold its majority stake in Russia’s Avtovaz for 1 rouble.
Now shares in Mercedes’s local subsidiaries are expected to be sold to the car dealer chain Avtodom.
Mercedes stopped manufacturing in Russia in early March.
White House has reported that US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have agreed to work together to support Ukraine.
They first spoke just hours after Sunak became Britain’s third prime minister this year.
The two leaders also reaffirmed the “special relationship” between the US and the UK, and said they would work together to advance global security and prosperity, the White House said in a read-out of the conversation.
“The leaders agreed on the importance of working together to support Ukraine and hold Russiaaccountable for its aggression,” the statement said.
RIA news agency reports that Putinobserved exercises by Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.
“Under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Vladimir Putin, a training session was held with the ground, sea, and air strategic deterrence forces, during which practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
State television showed Putin overseeing the drills from a control room.
The Kremlin says it keeps the door open for talks on a possible prisoner swap with US basketball star Brittney Griner but reiterated that discussions must be kept strictly confidential.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked if Griner could be freed as part of a prisoners swap with Washington and said, “We always say that any contacts about possible exchanges can only be conducted in silence under a tight lid on any information.”
On Tuesday, Russian courts rejected Griner’s appeal against her nine-year sentence for drug possession.
Russia’s air strikes on civilian infrastructure raise the cost of Ukraine’s recovery, which will require nearly $4 billion per month to maintain power and water supplies, according to the International Monetary Fund’s chief.
In an interview with Reuters, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said the organisation was focused on keeping Ukraine afloat while working on a longer-term plan.
“We still hope that we can stay within these parameters of 3-4 billion, but what changed since we had this discussion in Russia’s terrible bombing of civilian infrastructure,” she said.
“Just to get electricity back and water supply back we are moving towards the upper range of 4 billion…Just imagine a worst-case scenario.”
Georgieva also signalled that China should be allowed to join an international platform that the European Commission wants to set up this year for Ukraine.
Roberson Alphonse, a journalist for the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste and the radio station Magik9, is recovering in a Port-au-Prince hospital.
Officials said a well-known Haitian journalist survived an assassination attempt in which he was shot in his car while on his way to work in the capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday.
According to Frantz Duval, chief editor of both the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste and the radio station Magik9, Roberson Alphonse has undergone two operations and is currently hospitalized and expected to recover.
The incident highlights the deteriorating security situation in a country racked by gang violence.
Haiti’s Ministry of Culture and Communication said it learned “with horror the news of the assassination attempt” that occurred in the Delmas neighbourhood.
“His rigour, his effort to be impartial, and his sense of perfection make him a model for the profession,” the ministry said in a statement.
Motorcycle drivers pass through a burning roadblock as anger mounted over fuel shortages that have intensified as a result of gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [File: Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters]
Many colleagues echoed the sentiment, including Widlore Mérancourt of the online news site AyiboPost.
“My friend, Roberson Alphonse could be anything he wants anywhere in the world. He picked Haiti. He also could’ve (made) millions selling his platforms. He opted for integrity and independence. I love him and I wish him well,” he wrote.
Duval thanked an unidentified person he said rescued Alphonse and applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding before medical help arrived. He noted the car had more than 10 bullet holes.
Body of another journalist found
The attack on Alphonse comes just weeks after Haitian leaders requested the immediate deployment of foreign security forces as the country faces an unprecedented crisis.
Also on Tuesday, authorities found the body of another journalist who had been missing for several days.
Garry Tess used to host a political talk show in the southern city of Les Cayes, according to the government’s Office of Citizen Protection, which said it was extremely worried about the security of journalists in Haiti and urged they be protected.
No one has been arrested in either case, although journalists in Haiti have long been the target of warring gangs who have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
Meanwhile, the president of Haiti’s Senate, Joseph Lambert, demanded a judicial investigation.
The attacks come more than a month after two other journalists identified as Tayson Latigue and Frantzsen Charles were fatally shot and their bodies set on fire while reporting in a slum controlled by gangs.
In January, gang members killed two other journalists who were reporting in Laboule, a community south of Port-au-Prince.
The Miami-based Inter-American Press Association says this year has been one of the most violent for the press since record-keeping began in 1987.
Journalists also are still seeking justice in the March 2018 disappearance of freelance photographer Vladjimir Legagneur, who was last seen in Port-au-Prince’s Grand Ravine, one of its poorest and most dangerous areas.
Foreign troops
The government’s decision to seek international security assistance has triggered anger and protests, with Haitians shouting against “foreign occupation” and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who had asked international partners for “the immediate deployment of a specialised armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the “criminal actions” of armed gangs across the country.
One of Haiti’s most powerful gangs surrounded the main fuel terminal more than a month ago, demanding Henry’s resignation as they prevented the distribution of petroleum.
Gas stations have shut down, banks and grocery stores are operating on limited hours and potable water is becoming scarce as the country battles a cholera breakout that has killed at least 40 people, with more than 1,750 suspected cases so far.
UNICEF warned on Monday that the actual number of cholera cases is likely much higher, given under-reporting. The agency notedthat it has only been able to find a third of the 318,000 litres (70,000 gallons) of fuel needed to serve more than half of 16 cholera treatment centres in Port-au-Prince.
On Tuesday, the European Union said it was extremely concerned about the deterioration of Haiti’s situation, adding that it has reached unsustainable levels.
“The EU regrets that as a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds and protests have been co-opted by gangs, escalating into violence, looting and territorial gains for armed gangs, political actors have so far failed to find a political solution to the crisis,” it said.
“The EU, therefore, urges all political actors to …engage in constructive negotiations to overcome the current political crisis and its security and humanitarian consequences
Former home secretary Sajid Javid has responded to criticism about the number of women in Rishi Sunak’scabinet by drawing attention to the party’s diversity.
Earlier today, shadow women and equalities secretary, Anneliese Dodds, criticized the lack of women in the top jobs, pointing out that just one in five members of the cabinet were women.
She said: “This isn’t a fresh start, it’s just jobs for the boys.”
In response, Mr Javid said Ms Dodds should “come back to us” when Labour had seen a Jewish, Asian, and female prime minister.
Norway’s security services say they have arrested a university lecturer accused of spying for Russia.
The man was arrested on his way to work by Oslo’s internal security agency, the PST after he was identified as a “threat to fundamental national interests.”
The suspect, said to be in his 30s, had posed as a Brazilian academic, but officials say he is actually Russian.
Moscow’s embassy in Oslo told local media it was unaware of the man’s identity.
Norwegian officials said the man had worked as a researcher at the University of Tromso in the north of the country since 2021. His lawyer told local media that he denies the allegations.
But the PST’s deputy chief, Hedvig Moe, told reporters that investigators had become concerned that the man “may have acquired a network and information about Norway’s policy” in the north of the country.
“Even if this … is not a threat to the security of the kingdom, we are worried it could be misused by Russia,” she added. She declined to say what had prompted the arrest, simply saying “that it was was the right point to stop the activity he was involved in”.
Officials believe the suspect was working in Norway as part of Russia’s so-called “illegals” programme.
First operated by the KGB during the Cold War, and revived in recent years by President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s intelligence agencies craft fake identities, or “legends”, for spies before deploying them to foreign countries.
“Typically illegal agents are talent scouts recruiting agents for later, and preparing the ground for other spies to do traditional intelligence work,” Ms Moe said. “It is a long-term project to have an illegal agent. It costs a lot of money. Major state actors only use them and it is known Russia has used them in the past.”
The man has not been officially identified, but local media reported that his social media accounts showed he had won a masters from the University of Calgary’s Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies in 2018.
The suspect arrived in Norway in December last year to work on a research group that worked with Norwegian government agencies on “hybrid threats” linked to “Arctic Norway”.
The group’s head said the man was working as an unpaid researcher, which was unusual but not unprecedented.
“He first contacted me in autumn last year… We assessed him like we would other researchers. One of his references was a professor I knew very well,” said Gunhild Hoogensen Gjoerv, a professor of security studies at the University of Tromso.
“He was a really lovely guy, very good at his job,” she said. “We had no reason to suspect him of being anything else than what he said he was.”
She told the Guardian that while the man did not have access to classified information, he did “get an understanding and insights into the sort of discussions and debates that we are having about security”.
In recent weeks, Norway’s security services have arrested several Russian citizens accused of working for Russia as spies. Eight people have been arrested for flying drones near, or taking pictures of, critical infrastructure.
The country – a key Nato member that has replaced Russia as the biggest gas supplier to Europe – has been concerned by sightings of drones near critical oil and gas infrastructure.
Today provided some insight into what a Rishi Sunakpremiership would entail.
The man who had just taken over at No. 10 appeared confident, relaxed, and ready for the challenges that lay ahead.
Labour clearly think his vast personal wealth will put off voters, but the criticism couldn’t wipe the smiles from most Conservative faces.
Desperate to put the past few weeks behind them, a majority of Tory MPs clearly feel they’ve got the unity candidate they need to begin the recovery.
But there was also a hint of some of the obstacles he will face.
Firstly, his newly appointed home secretary is already giving him a bit of a headache, with Labour calling for an inquiry into Suella Braverman’s recent security breach.
Other issues will be his lack of mandate, the party’s tricky fracking policy, and, of course, the partygate inquiry which the opposition will try to drag him into.
But so far he hasn’t stumbled.
And although it was a low bar, he’s delivering on his promise to bring the party together and provide competent and professional leadership.
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
Among the interests listed by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during his time at Stanford University were the history of Coca-Cola and Star Wars.
A screenshot of the Tory leader’s alumni profile, shared by a political science student at the university, Tianyu M. Fang, shows details of Mr Sunak’s course at the prestigious US university.
And among his skills and hobbies is the history of Coca-Cola.
It comes after a clip of the Tory leader emerged in 2021 in which he spoke of his love for the fizzy beverage and admitted he was addicted to coke.
During the clip, Mr Sunak, who was chancellor at the time, told two school students: “I’m a coke addict. A total coke addict.”
He then realised how the statement might be perceived and added: “Coca-Cola addict for the record. I have seven fillings to show for it.”
He went on to say he now only allowed himself one coke a week and expressed his affection for a drink called “Mexican coke” which he claimed was made with “cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup“.
A Labour MP has slammed Rishi Sunak’sdecision to promote a key ally despite their previous dismissal for national security reasons.
Gavin Williamson, a former education secretary who oversaw the pandemic exam fiasco, was appointed minister without portfolio last night.
Questioning Mr Sunak in the Commons, Labour’s Stephen Kinnock accuses the prime minister of trying to “shamelessly swap red boxes for political support”.
He says there are “serious consequences to all this horse trading” and asks whether the PM sought any advice on security concerns about Mr Williamson, who was sacked previously for leaking sensitive information relating to national security.
Mr Sunak says this happened four years ago, although the Labour MP is “right” to raise the topic of national security.
He says that four years ago, Labour was busysupporting Jeremy Corbyn – who had wanted to abolish NATO.
“We won’t take any lectures on national security,” he says.
Tehran sanctioned several media outlets and a French town mayor in addition to parliament members.The Iranian government has blacklisted a number of European Union officials and organizations, primarily because of their stance on the country’s ongoing protests, which Iran claims are “inciting terrorism.”
While the bulk of the sanctions is related to recent developments concerning the weeks-long protests that erupted last month after the death of a young woman in custody, others deal with Tehran’s repeated grievances with the bloc’s officials and member states over issues that have led to longstanding political disputes.
The Iranian foreign ministry said on Wednesday it had imposed sanctions on 12 individuals and eight organizations for their “intentional actions in supporting terrorism and terrorist groups, inciting terrorism and propagating violence and hatred that has led to riots, violence, terrorist acts and violation of human rights of the Iranian nation”.
The sanctions entail an entry and visa ban for the individuals in addition to the confiscation of any assets they may have in Iran.
The targeted entities include the Friends of Free Iran and the International Committee in Search of Justice, two informal groups in the European Parliament, in addition, to Stop the Bomb, an organization that has advocated sanctions on Iran with the stated goal of preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons – which Tehran maintains it will never seek.
The Persian-language services of Germany’s Deutsche Welle and France’s RFI were also targeted, extending Iran’s push against foreign-based channels that it says are promoting “terrorism” on Iranian soil. Two directors of the German newspaper Bild were also blacklisted.
The Karl Kolb and Rhein Bayern Fahrzeugbau companies were blacklisted for “delivering chemical gases and weapons” too late Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, who is said to have used them against the nascent Islamic Republic during the eighth-year conflict that began with Iraq’s invasion of Iraq in 1980.
A number of European Parliament members were also targeted, in addition to Martine Valleton, the mayor of Villepinte, a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris where French authorities said a plot had been uncovered to bomb a 2018 rally of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq group, which is outlawed in Iran. This led to the arrest of Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assadi, who served at Iran’s embassy to Austria, in Germany, and his subsequent sentencing in a Belgian court.
The measures mark the first time Iran has officially sanctioned EU officials and institutions, a move that comes as a reaction to the bloc’s sanctions on Iran’s so-called morality police and others earlier this month over their alleged roles in what it called the “brutal repression” of the protests that have gripped Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody 40 days ago.
Separately, Iran has previously blacklisted a group of British individuals and organizations in retaliation for their sanctions related to the protests.
Tremors were felt as far away as Manila, more than 330 kilometres (205 miles) to the south of the epicentre.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked the northern Philippines, forcing the closure of an international airport, sending panicked residents into the streets, and causing significant damage to a hospital.
The earthquake, which struck at about 10:59 pm on Tuesday (14:59 GMT) near the upland town of Dolores, was felt as far away as the capital Manila, more than 330km (205 miles) to the south.
Police and civil aviation officials said that at least 26 people were injured in Ilocos Norte, the home province of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, where the international airport in the capital city of Laoag was ordered to close temporarily on Wednesday due to damage from the earthquake.
(Al Jazeera)
The president – also known as Bongbong – warned of aftershocks on Wednesday and advised people, in a tweet, to stay out of tall structures.
As aftershocks continue, we remain in coordination with DPWH for the inspection of roads and buildings, DSWD for relief, DOE for outages and DILG for monitoring.
Everyone is advised to keep out of tall structures.
Patients were evacuated from the 200-bed Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital in Batac city,about 60km (37 miles) north of the epicentre, which sustained some of the worst reported damage so far.
At least two towns in Cagayan province temporarily lost electricity due to damaged power lines. A number of bridges and roads in outlying provinces were damaged.
In the town of La Paz in Abra, a century-old Christian church was damaged, with parts of its belfry collapsing and some walls cracked, littering the church’s grassy yard with debris, officials said.
Notable quake, preliminary info: M 6.5 – 11 km ENE of Dolores, Philippines https://t.co/q9auPOPbUW
Dolores town police officer Jeffrey Blanes said that “buildings were shaking so people ran outside”.
A member of the public in Aparri municipality, located more than 100km (62 miles) from the epicentre, posted on the website of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) that it was the most extensive tremor they had experienced.
“The longest earthquake I’ve ever felt. Thank God we’re safe. Stay safe everyone,” the post read.
Photos of collapsed ceilings in some of the hospital rooms, as well as dozens of patients waiting in chairs on the driveway outside, were posted on the local fire service’s official Facebook page.
“The authorities made us leave the building while they checked the building integrity… We are currently conducting an assessment of the damage,” hospital worker Tom Tabije told the AFP news agency by phone.
The civil defence office in Abra province,where Dolores is located, said there were no immediate reports of casualties, but the extent of the damage would not be known until morning.
“We are unable to make a thorough assessment of the impact now because it is nighttime and we are also thinking about our people’s safety,” Abra rescuer Joel de Leon told AFP by phone.
Eleven people were killed, and several hundred were injured in July when a magnitude 7.0 quake hit the mountainous Abra province triggering landslides and ground fissures. In October 2013, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the central island of Bohol, killing more than 200 people.
Earthquakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic and volcanic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron will no doubt be beaming when they meet in Paris to discuss future European cooperation.
But, behind the smiles, both sides are aware that the EU’s central relationship is under strain like never before.
On a variety of issues, including defence, energy, business assistance, and EU expansion, the two countries are currently pulling in opposite directions.
And underlying everything is a fear fast becoming an obsession in Paris.
The French concern is that the war in Ukraine has ripped up Europe’s geostrategic rule book, leaving Germany enhanced and pushing France to the Western side-lines.
Symbolic of the rift was the cancellation of what had been until now a routine set-piece of Franco-German friendship – the regular joint meeting of the two countries cabinets.
After a pause for Covid, these encounters were meant to resume at Fontainebleau on Wednesday. But faced with a glaring lack of common ground – as well, according to France, as the studied uninterest of several German ministers – it was agreed to call the session off.
Mr Scholz’s arrival for a bilateral summit with the French president is an attempt to minimise the differences, but no one is deceived.
Lamenting what it called the “glacial” state of cross-Rhine relations, Le Figaro newspaper said in an editorial that it was “the result of a profound geostrategic change – a continental shift that started a long time ago and which is destined to transform the face of Europe”.
The essence of this shift – according to French analysts – is the awakening of the slumbering giant that is Germany and its dawning realisation that it must shift for itself in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood.
For France, this is bad news because it casts doubt on a central assumption of the last half century: that by walking lockstep with Germany, France can not just restrain its richer and stronger neighbour, but also project its own vision of European unity.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Earlier this year the German chancellor decided to buy F35 fighter jets
On re-arming, Germany has shown a clear preference for US kit – like F-35 fighter jets and Patriot air-defence systems – and seems content to leave once-vaunted European defence initiatives on hold.
Stung by criticism that it was suckered by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Germany appears anxious to reassure its eastern neighbours by promoting itself as the European arm of Nato, rather than – as France would like it – a partner in EU defence.
On energy, Germany is against a cap on gas prices, which France wants. It also wants France to authorise a new pipeline to carry gas – and eventually green hydrogen – from Spain. But France refuses.
And then there is Germany’s decision to offer €200bn (£170bn) in state aid to businesses and households to get them through the energy crisis.
For France, this will create severe economic distortions because other European countries will be unable to compete with that level of subsidy. Germans reply that France is hardly in a position to give lessons about the iniquity of state aid.
In an article titled “The late Franco-German couple”, veteran French commentator Nicolas Baverez said France had only itself to blame for letting itself be eclipsed by Germany over the years.
What has happened now with the Ukraine war, he said, merely revealed the imbalance that was already there. “While France is content to talk about sovereignty, Germany exercises it,” he wrote.
Managers say it will be a“huge logistical challenge” to recruit and train 25,000 people to return the airport to pre-COVID capacity.
The UK’s busiest airport is still less busy than it was before the pandemic, but it is planning measures to avoid Christmas travel chaos.
Demand for air travel is still below 2019 pre-pandemic levels, Heathrow Airport said, with numbers expected to be down a quarter on 2019 for the whole of 2022 at between 60 and 62 million people.
The numbers won’t return to 2019 levels for a number of years, the airport said in its financial results for the nine months ending 30 September.
Heathrow served 18 million passengers over the summer, more than any other European hub.
Airport bosses blamed the headwinds of a global economic crisis, the war in Ukraine, and the impact of COVID-19 for the lower passenger numbers.
But there was some good news for the airport as it managed to turn a £1.4bn loss in the first three quarters of last year into a £643m profit this year.
In order to bring up passenger numbers and cope with peak demand, the “huge logistical challenge” of recruiting and training 25,000 security-cleared staff needs to be done by businesses across the airport.
Global coronavirus cases are expected to gradually increase in the coming months, reaching approximately 18.7 million per day by February.
The current daily average is around 16.7 million, according to the University of Washington report.
It is far fewer than last winter when the Omicron variant pushed the estimated peak daily average to about 80 million – and the increase is also not expected to cause a big increase in deaths.
COVID infections in the US are predicted to rise by a third to more than a million per day over the same period, driven by factors such as people being inside more over the winter.
But a surge in Germany has already peaked, according to the study’s authors, who expect cases there to fall by more than a third to about 190,000.
The IHME suggests the recent rise in cases and hospitalisations in Germany could be down to Omicron subvariants BQ.1 or BQ.1.1, and that it might spread to other parts of Europe in the coming weeks.
Another Omicron subvariant called XBB is also driving a surge in admissions in Singapore, according to the analysis.
The University of Washington researchers say the variant is more transmissible but less severe.
The Dutch media discovered evidence that “overseas service stations,” which promise diplomatic services, are being used to silence Chinese dissidents in Europe.
The existence of the unofficial police outposts, according to a spokeswoman for the Dutch foreign ministry, is illegal.
The Chinese embassy says it is not aware of their existence.
The investigation was sparked by a report entitled Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild, by the Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders.
According to the organisation, the public security bureaus from two Chinese provinces had established 54 “overseas police service centres” across five continents and 21 countries. Most of them are in Europe, including nine in Spain and four in Italy. In the UK, it found two in London and one in Glasgow.
The units were ostensibly created to tackle transnational crime and conduct administrative duties, such as the renewal of Chinese drivers’ licences. But, according to Safeguard Defenders, in reality, they carry out “persuasion operations”, aimed at coercing those suspected of speaking out against the Chinese regime to return home.
RTL News and the investigative journalism platform Follow the Money shared the story of Wang Jingyu, a Chinese dissident who said he was being pursued by Chinese police in the Netherlands.
Speaking in English, Wang told Dutch journalists he received a phone call earlier this year from someone claiming to be from one such station. During the conversation, he said he was urged to return to China to “sort out my problems. And to think about my parents”.
Since then, he described a systematic campaign of harassment and intimidation, which he believes is being orchestrated by Chinese government agents.
In response to the revelations, the Chinese embassy told RTL News it was not aware of the existence of such police stations.
Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman Maxime Hovenkamp told the BBC: “The Dutch government wasn’t made aware of these operations through the diplomatic channels with the Chinese government. That is illegal.”
She said it would have to investigate and decide the appropriate response. “It is very worrying a Chinese national has apparentlybeen subjected to intimidation and harassment here in the Netherlands. Police are looking into options to offer him protection,” she added.
Services such as passport renewals or visa requests are usually handled by an embassy or consulate. Diplomatic rules apply in these locations, as laid out in the Vienna Convention, of which both the Netherlands and China are signatories.
Policing outposts like the ones China is accused of running could violate the territorial integrity of a host country by circumventing national jurisdictions and the protections afforded under domestic law.
Safeguard Defenders said China’s policing tactics were “problematic” as they targeted suspects without firmly establishing links to crime or adhering to due process in host countries.
This is primarily done by coercing or making threats against the family members of alleged fugitives, as a method to “persuade” them to return home, the organization said.
On 2 September, a national Anti-Telecom and Online Fraud Law were adopted in China, establishing a claim of extraterritorial jurisdiction over all Chinese nationals worldwide suspected of these types of fraud.
The pressure is now on the Dutch government to ensure critics of the Chinese government who are granted asylum can be protected, and that in the Netherlands, Dutch law prevails.
Tensions with North Korea come and go, but the situation on the Korean peninsula is the most volatile it has been in five years, and it appears to be getting worse.
The North has fired a missile over Japan in the last month, forcing residents to seek shelter; this is a hostile and provocative act. It has launched several other ballistic missiles, flown warplanes close to the South Korean border, and fired hundreds of artillery shells into the sea, which have landed in a military buffer zone established by the two Koreas in 2018 to maintain peace.
Technically, the two countries are still at war.
On Monday a North Korean merchant ship crossed the countries’ sea border, causing both sides to fire warning shots. South Korea says the incursion was intentional.
So, what is Kim Jong-un up to? There are three reasons North Korea tends to launch missiles – to test and improve its weapons technology, to send a political message to the world (primarily the US), and to impress its people at home and shore up loyalty to the regime.
It can be hard to decipher which of these ends Pyongyang’s actions serve, but this time Mr Kim has been explicit. State media has reported several times that the recent launches and drills are in response to military exercises being run by the US, South Korea, and Japan. The North has blamed its enemies for escalating tensions and says its launches are a clear warning they should stop.
Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo have been holding large-scale military exercises, separately and together, for the past two months, to show they are ready for a North Korean nuclear attack. There is little doubt these have antagonised Mr Kim, who has always viewed such exercises as his enemies rehearsing for an invasion. The reason North Korea started developing nuclear weapons in the first place was to stop itself from being invaded.
But there is a less explicit reason he could be upping the pressure now. Some believe may be preparing the ground for a more provocative test – the detonation of a nuclear weapon for the first time in five years, or even a small-scale attack on South Korea.
Last year he laid out a five-year plan, detailing all the new weapons he planned to develop. It included smaller battlefield nuclear bombs and short-rangemissiles to carry them. The recent tests are evidence Mr Kim is not only working his way through this weapons wish list but that he is training his troops to use them. He used some of the recent drills, he said, to simulate a nuclear attack on South Korea.
Now Mr Kim needs attention. He needs the world to notice the progress he has made if he is one day to get harsh international sanctions on his country lifted. Sanctions haven’t stopped North Korea from developing weapons, as they were designed to, but they are hurting its economy.
Talks aimed at reducing those sanctions have long stalled and North Korea is slipping down the global agenda. The world is far more concerned with the war in Ukraine, and the rise of an authoritarian China. President Biden’s position is that sanctions on North Korea can only be eased when it agrees to give up all its nuclear weapons.
In the meantime, Washington and Seoul have agreed to strengthen their defence of the Peninsula by holding the military exercises Pyongyang hates so much, and responding to its provocations with force. Following the North’s latest round of missile launches and drills, South Korea sent up warplanes and shot artillery of its own.
If Mr Kim is to get the US to negotiate on terms more favourable to him, he must prove how dangerous his country has become. Last month he declared North Korea to be a nuclear weapons state, a position he said was irreversible.
We should be worried about how assertive it seems to have become, said Kim Jong-dae, a former advisor in South Korea’s Defence Ministry. He pointed out how in the past North Korea has waited until US forces have finished their military exercises before retaliating. This time they fired artillery into the sea while exercises were ongoing.
“We have never seen this audacity and aggression before, it is different. It is the North acting like a nuclear state,” he said.
The US and South Korean governments believe preparations for North Korea’s seventh nuclear weapon test are complete and the North is waiting for the opportune political moment to act. An attractive window is opening, with China’s Communist Party Conference now over and the US midterm elections approaching.
Meanwhile, South Korea is in the midst of yet another round of war games, with the US scheduled to join in. These may well provide Kim Jong-un with the pretext he has been waiting for.
Ukrainian refugees have been told by their government not to return until spring to help relieve pressure on the energy system following a wave of Russian attacks.
“The networks will not cope,” said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. “You see what Russia is doing.”
“We need to survive the winter,” she added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskysaid Russian air strikes had destroyed more than a third of the country’s energy sector.
Ms Vereshchuk said that although she would like Ukrainians to return in the spring, it was important to refrain from returning for now because “the situation will only get worse”.
“If it is possible, stay abroad for the time being,” she added.
Ukraine’s economy has suffered badly since the war began. Mr Zelensky has called on the world for help urgently to cover an expected budget deficit of $38bn (£33bn) next year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Ukraine would need $3bn every month to survive the next year – and $5bn if Moscow’s bombardment intensified.
The deputy mayor of the western city of Lviv, Serhiy Kiral, told the BBC on Saturday that Russia’s strategy was to damage critical infrastructure before the winter and bring the war to areas beyond the front line.
Russia says it began attacking Ukraine’s energy networks in retaliation for an attack on a bridge linking mainland Russia to occupied Crimea, although Kyiv has not said it was behind the bridge attack.
Areas targeted by the latest attacks include the Cherkasy region, southeast of the capital Kyiv, and the city of Khmelnytskyi, further west.
On Friday Mr Zelensky accused Russia of planting mines at a hydroelectric dam in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, which is under the control of Moscow’s forces.
He said that if the Kakhovka hydropower plant was destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people would be in danger of flooding. Russia has denied planning to blow up the dam and said Ukraine was firing missiles at it.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, the UN’s refugee agency has recorded about 7.7 million refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia, out of a population of about 44 million.
A group of left-wing Democrats in the United States Congresshas withdrawn a letter calling for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine conflict.
According to the Progressive Caucus, the message was misinterpreted as aligning with the Republican Party’s growing reluctance to continue sending aid to Kyiv.
Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal stated that it was written “months ago” and that it was released without being “vetted.”
The memosparked intra-party backlash before the US midterm elections next month.
The letter to the White House was made public on Monday and was signed in June by 30 of President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Its call for the US to negotiate directly with Russia was seen as undermining the Biden administration, which has repeatedly said Moscow is not interested in diplomacy.
White House officials said in response that diplomacy is only possible when all sides are prepared to negotiate, and that is not currently the case.
Massachusetts Democratic congressman Jake Auchincloss denounced the letter as “an olive branch to a war criminal who’s losing his war”, in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Another Progressive Caucus member, Ruben Gallego, responded: “Russia doesn’t acknowledge diplomacy, only strength.
“If we want Ukraine to continue as the free and democratic country that it is, we must support their fight.”
Ms Jayapal, a Washington state congresswoman, said on Tuesday that she still supported an end to the war “with diplomacy”.
She said the timing of the letter’s release meant it had “been conflated with [Republican] opposition”.
Ms Jayapal continued: “It is a distraction at this time.”
She accused Republicans of planning to withdraw financial and military support for Ukraine if they win a majority in Congress next month.
Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy warned earlier this month that if his party takes power in November there will be no “blank cheque” for Ukraine.
Other signatories to the letter included New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading figure in the party’s socialist wing, and Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, who has taken a lead role in the Democrats’ efforts to investigate former President Donald Trump.
Mr Raskin disavowed the letter on Tuesday in a statement condemning Russia as “a world centre of antifeminist, antigay, anti-trans hatred”. He praised the Ukrainian armed forces for recruiting women and “sexual minorities”.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez has faced pressure over Ukraine at recent public appearances.
One heckler at a town hall-style event accused her of voting for nuclear war with Russia and China, shouting: “Why are you playing with the lives of American citizens?”
Google has been fined 9 billion rupees ($113 million; £98 million) by India’s competition regulatorfor anti-competitive practises, the second such penalty in less than a week.
Google was accused by the regulator of “abusing” its dominant position in the app store by forcing app developers to use its in-app payment system.
It requested that the tech behemoth not prohibit app developers from using third-party billing or payment services.
Google said it was reviewing the allegations.
“By keeping costs low, our model has powered India’s digital transformation and expanded access for hundreds of millions of Indians,” a Google spokesperson told the BBC.
“We remain committed to our users and developers and are reviewing the decision to evaluate the next steps,” the spokesperson added.
In a 199-page order released on Tuesday, the Competition Commission of India (CCI)said that Google was implementing certain policies on its Play Store that required app developers to “exclusively” use its payments system for distributing or selling apps and in-app services.
The regulator asked Google to adopt eight remedies or operations adjustments within three months, including not restricting “app developers from using any third-party billing/payment processing services, either for in-app purchases or for purchasing apps”, according to Reuters.
“Google should ensure complete transparency in communicating with app developers and details about service fees charged,” the CCI added.
The order is the latest setback for Google, which is facing a series of anti-trust allegations in India.
Last week, the company was fined 13bn rupees ($161m; £144m) for using its Android platform to dominate the market.
The CCI said the tech giant was entering into forced agreements with players in the space to ensure that its bouquet of apps – such as Google Chrome, YouTube, Google Maps and others – were used.
The Android-relatedinquiry was started in 2019, following complaints by consumers of Android smartphones. The case is similar to the one Google faced in Europe, where regulators imposed a $5bn fine on the company for using its Android operating system to gain an unfair advantage in the market.
Google had called CCI’s decision “a major setback for Indian consumers and businesses”, adding that it will review the order and decide on the next steps.
According to local reports, a python killed and swallowed a woman in Indonesia’s Jambi province.
Jahrah, a rubber tapper in her fifties, had arrived at a rubber plantation on Sunday morning.
She went missing after failing to return home that night, and search parties were dispatched to find her. A day later, villagers discovered a python with a large stomach.
Locals later killed the snake and found her body inside.
“The victim was found in the snake’s stomach,” Betara Jambi police chief AKP S Harefa told local media outlets, adding that her body appeared to be largely intact when it was found.
He said the victim’s husband had on Sunday night found some of her clothes and tools she had used at the rubber plantation, leading him to call on a search party.
After the snake – which was at least 5m (16ft) long – was spotted on Monday, villagers then caught and killed it to verify the victim’s identity.
“After they cut the belly apart, they found it was Jahrah inside,” Mr Harefa told CNN Indoneisa.
Though such incidents are rare, this is not the first time someone in Indonesia has been killed and eaten by a python. Two similar deaths were reported in the country between 2017 and 2018.
Pythonsswallow their food whole. Their jaws are connected by very flexible ligaments so they can stretch around large prey.
One expert had earlier told the BBC that pythons typically eat rats and other animals, “but once they reach a certain size it’s almost like they don’t bother with rats anymore because the calories are not worth it”.
“In essence, they can go as large as their prey goes,” said Mary-Ruth Low, conservation & research officer for Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
That can include animals as large as pigs or even cows.
The World Bank has warnedthat it is too expensive for governments to assist everyone with their rising energy bills.
According to the bank’s president, Covid support schemes were not targeted enough toward the most vulnerable, and the debt will take decades to repay.
The same policy, according to David Malpass, is being implemented to assist people in dealing with rising energy bills.
“Governments are saying we will take care of everyone, which is just too expensive,” he said.
It is pushing global debt to record levels and people at the bottom of the income scale are hardest hit, he said.
It comes as separate research suggests the UK’s own energy support scheme is far too expensive in its current form.
The government is limiting average bills for households using a typical amount of energy to £2,500 a year for six months but will review the support offered from April.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the current scheme could cost some £30bn because it was untargeted.
It also said households could save up to £20bn per year if they were incentivized to invest in energy-saving measures like solar panels.
Covid comparison
During the pandemic, governments borrowed billions of pounds to get through lockdowns.
They paid for job retention schemes like furlough, increased benefit payments, and loans and grants for businesses that were forced to close.
Mr Malpass told the BBC’s World Service there was an accepted economic view that there should be a social safety net, some protection for people during a crisis.
The subsidies should be temporary and targeted to those who need them most, he said.
But Mr Malpass said many of the Covid subsidies were not targeted. “They went to everyone…and now the consequences are coming home.
“People will be left for years and even decades paying for that debt,” he added.
The Institute of International Finance reports that global debt topped $305 trillion earlier in the year and is expected to increase further.
The war in Ukraine is causing energy prices to spike. Across Europe, governments have introduced energy subsidies to help households pay for rising prices.
The energy crisis comes at a time when governments have already run up large amounts of debt.
Mr Malpass said he was concerned that the additional help for people will push inflation – the measure of rising prices – even higher.
In the UK inflation is at a 40-year high of 10.1%.
The International Monetary Fund expects global inflation to peak this year at 9.5% and says it will not begin to fall until 2024. It’s causing many low-income countries to default on loan repayments and pushing vulnerable people into poverty.
The role of Prince Andrew and Prince Harry in standing in for King Charles for official duties has been questioned in the House of Lords.
They continue to be two of the five “counsellors of state” who can carry out important constitutional duties if the monarch is ill or away.
When one had “left public life” and the other had “left the country,” Viscount Stansgate questioned their status.
It was time for a “sensible amendment” to end this arrangement, he said.
Lord Addington, a Liberal Democrat, suggested that working royals – “somebody who actually undertakes royal duties” – should be given priority for these roles.
In response to questions from peers, the Lord Privy Seal, Lord True, said he would not comment on “specific circumstances”, and the Royal Household would need to be consulted about any change.
But Lord True told the House of Lords: “The government will always consider what arrangements are needed to ensure resilience in our constitutional arrangements.
“And in the past, we have seen that the point of accession has proved a useful opportunity to consider the arrangements in place.”
At present these are Camilla, the Queen Consort; Prince William, the Prince of Wales; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and his daughter, Princess Beatrice.
They can carry out official duties, such as signing documents, receiving ambassadors or attending Privy Council meetings, if the monarch is temporarily ill or abroad,
This authority was used earlier this year to allow the then Prince Charles to carry out the State Opening of Parliament on behalf of the late Queen.
Labour peer Viscount Stansgate – who is Stephen Benn, the eldest son of Labour politician Tony Benn – said this showed the value of updating the Regency Act, to ensure royals were available to stand in.
“It is the only reason why it was possible to open the current session of this Parliament,” he told peers.
And he called on the government to approach the King over changes to the current arrangements, now that Prince Harry was living in the United States and Prince Andrew no longer carried out royal duties.
Changes to the legislation would be the responsibility of the Cabinet Office and a spokeswoman referred back to the comments of the Lord Privy Seal.
According to the state-owned Somali National News Agency (Sonna), a military court found the two “guilty of assassination” in Mogadishu and Bosaso town in the north-eastern Bari region.
The two were identified as Adan Mohamed Ali Mohamud and Mohamed Ali Mohamed Farah.
Local media reports said many al-Shabab and Islamic State militants are still in prisons waiting to be executed after being sentenced to death.
The Islamic State insurgents mainly operate in north-eastern Puntland where they had claimed attacks in the past.
President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi has fired Agriculture Minister Lobin Lowe and his deputy Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima for “incompetence and gross negligence.”
President Chakwera made the announcement on Tuesday evening during a televised address.
The agriculture ministryis accused of botching the implementation of a programme in which Malawian rural farmers are provided with subsidized fertilizer and farm inputs.
Mr Lowe has not commented on the accusations.
The president has since appointed Sam Kawale, formerly the lands minister, to replace Mr Lowe.
The president said more changes in his cabinet would be coming in due course.
The Gambian parliament will hold an extraordinary session on Wednesday to discuss the deaths of nearly 70 children linked to cough syrups made in India.
The children were found to have severe kidney problems.
The session in parliament on Wednesday will be the country’s first since the tragedy earlier this month.
Gambian health authorities said there were no more new cases, but there are 82 existing cases and 12 recoveries.
Most of the existing cases involve children aged one and two years.
Civil society organisations in the country are mounting pressure on the authorities to take action against those responsible for importing the drugs.
Health officials and the Red Cross have started a second phase of recalling the cough syrups.
Police investigations have established that the Medicine Control Agencywas established without a laboratory to test the safety of the drugs.
President Adama Barrow has set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the deaths.
In British politics, the Great Offices of State refers to the four top jobs in politics: prime minister, chancellor, foreign secretary, and home secretary.
We know Rishi Sunak is the first, so let’s look at who the other three are.
Chancellor
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
In a move that many expected, Sunak decided to keep Jeremy Hunt as chancellor after he was brought in to undo the mess caused by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s September 23 mini-budget.
His was the first appointment to be announced by Sunak’s team.
Foreign Secretary
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Another person who stayed in their cabinet role was James Cleverly, made foreign secretary by Truss a few weeks ago.
It was reported that Penny Mordaunt, Sunak’s rival in the leadership race, had made it clear this was the job she wanted – but she instead remained in her current post as leader of the House of Commons.
Home secretary
EPACopyright: EPA
A controversial addition was Suella Braverman, who were both appointed and re-appointed as home secretary yesterday.
Braverman was made home secretary by Truss in September, but she later resigned after it was revealed she had broken the rules by sending an official document from her personal email account.
In her resignation letter, Braverman claimed it was “not serious politics” for MPs to make mistakes and carry on. Many saw this as a reference to Truss, who was under intense pressure to stand aside, which she did – the next day.
Stay tuned for a full list of everyone Sunak hired yesterday.
Michael Gove has returned to the cabinet under Rishi Sunak,three months after being fired by Boris Johnson. He will resume his duties as levelling up secretary.
Mr Gove was on the back benches for the first time in a very long while after being removed from the position in the wake of political chaos under Mr Johnson.
It had been widely suspected Mr Gove would return to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
This could be a tactical move by Mr Sunak, as Mr Gove has not been shy in criticising the government from the backbenches.
Labour’s shadow minister for levelling up responded with a jibe, saying: “If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try and try again…”
Lisa Nandy added: “Congratulations Michael Gove. The job has got a whole lotharder.”
A Russian court has rejected Brittney Griner’s appeal against her nine-year prison sentence on drug charges.
The sentence was upheld by a court near Moscow, with the state prosecutor calling it “fair.”
The double Olympic winner apologized for her “honest mistake” in her appeal hearing via video link, saying it had been “very, very stressful”.
Griner, 32, was convicted in August of smuggling and possessing cannabis oil.
It was not immediately clear whether all her legal routes had been exhausted. She is due to serve her sentence in a penal colony.
The sportswoman’s lawyer, Alexander Boykov, said his team hoped that a prisoner exchange would be possible.
In August, the Kremlin posed the possibility of a prisoner swap between the US and Russia involving the basketball player.
Reports in US media suggest imprisoned Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout – known as the Merchant of Death – could be transferred by Washington to the Russian authorities as part of the deal.
Mr Boykov said: “No judge, hand on heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in line with Russian criminal law.“
He added his legal team would be in talks with Griner as to whether she would want to pursue a further appeal.
The White House called the legal proceedings a “sham”.
In a statement, a US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Griner was being “wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances” and that President Joe Bidenhad called for her release immediately.
A top US diplomat, who attended the hearing, called the sentence “excessive and disproportionate”.
The sports star spoke to the appeals court of three judges remotely from her detention centre in a town near Moscow.
“I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence because it has been very very stressful and very traumatic,” she had told the court.
“People with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given,” she added.
Considered one of the world’s top players, she was detained on 17 February at an airport near Moscow when vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage.
She had come to Russia to play club basketball during the US off-season.
Her case has become subject to high-profile diplomacy between the US and Russia, whose relations plummeted after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
Sir Keir Starmerhas dropped the gloves in his latest remarks about the new Prime Minister, after previously congratulating Rishi Sunak.
Mr Sunak has only ever fought one leadership election battle, which he was “thrashed” by Liz Truss, the Labour leader told his shadow cabinet.
“Rishi Sunak stabbed Boris Johnson in the back when he thought he could get his job. And in the same way, he will now try and disown the Tory record of recent years and recent months and pretend that he is a new broom,” Sir Keir said, according to a readout of the meeting.
“But he was also the chancellor who left Britain facing the lowest growth of any developed country, the highest inflation, and millions of people worried about their bills. And now he plans to make working people pay the price for the Tories crashing the economy.”
He said Mr Sunak is a “weak prime minister who will have to put his party first and the country second”.
Acknowledging the Tories could expect a “bounce” in the opinion polls, he said he knew Labour’s hugelead in recent surveys was no more than an “enjoyable story”
In the latest episode of her bombshell podcast, Archetypes, the Duchess of Sussexdiscusses her genetic heritage and how she wants to delve deeper into her roots.
Meghan Markle revealed details about her genetic heritage in the latest episode of her bombshell podcast, Archetypes.
Unpicking the “Angry Black Woman” stereotype in a thought-provoking discussion with Nigerian American actress and comedian Issa Rae, writer Ziwe Fumudoh and professor Emily Bernards, The Duchess of Sussex told listeners that she took a genealogy test which revealed that she is 43% Nigerian.
“I just had my genealogy done a couple of years ago,” Meghan explains, as her guests eagerly ask her to share what the results entailed.
The Duchess then proudly says “I’m 43% Nigerian” to the shock of Ziwe, who shouts “No way!”.
Meghan says she wants to explore her heritage further after getting the results
Meghan can be heard giggling over her guest’s excitement, as she opens up about her roots during the major podcast moment.
“Are you serious? This is huge. Igbo, Yoruba, do we know?” the writer excitedly probes, desperate to know more about Meghan’s findings.
The Duchess of Sussex then tells her listeners: “I’m going to start to dig deeper into all of this because anyone that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are just like, what?”
After absorbing the bombshell revelation, Nigerian American Ziwe continues to joke that the Duchess looks like ‘her aunt Ouzo’ in a heart-warming clip between the pair.
A strong advocate for fighting against racism and prejudice, this is the first time that Meghan has opened up about her ancestral background on the public stage.
In this week’s episode, the Duchess of Sussex also opens up about the stereotypes of Black female roles in TV as she draws on her experience as a former actress.
The revelation comes after the Duchess’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, where she and Prince Harry alleged that a member of the royal family made racist remarks about their son Archie’s skin colour when they were working royals.
Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant Spotify to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around £18 million, in late 2020.
Archetypes were launched with the aim of investigating “labels that try to hold women back” through conversations between Meghan and historians, experts and women who have experienced being typecast.
In last week’s episode, she chatted to Paris Hilton about the stereotype of the “bimbo” and revealed that she felt “objectified” during her stint as a briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal.
The United Nations will sign a new Cooperation Framework with Ghana to provide the country with $500 million.
The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, described as the most important instrument for planning and implementing UN development activities in Ghana, is set to be signed today and will be implemented over a three-year period.
A Director of the UN Operations in Ghana, Ifeoma Charles-Monwuba, who represented the UN Country Director at a health walk in Accra over the weekend, disclosed this in an interview with the media after the exercise.
The instrument outlines the UN development system’s integrated contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) along with a commitment to leave no one behind, to a fundamental and human rights-based approach, to gender equality and women’s empowerment, to building resilience and sustainability, and to strengthening accountability.
Anniversary
The walk was a platform to commence activities to mark the 77th anniversary of the formation of the United Nations on the theme: “Building on the 3Ss — Solidarity, Sustainability and Science — Towards a more Resilient Ghana”.
Participants were drawn from the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police Service, the Immigration Service, and the Prisons Service.
The walk started from the forecourt of the State House and took participants through some principal streets of Accra and back to the State House.
Ms Charles-Monwuba said the health walk was also to sensitise Ghanaians to the presence of the UN in Ghana and to demonstrate the collaboration between Ghana and the world body.
Collaboration
“It is also to demonstrate the collaboration and good hospitality the UN in Ghana has enjoyed from the Government and people of Ghana, and also for the health benefit of the exercise,” she added.
Other activities lined up to mark the anniversary included a debate by students, a flag-raising ceremony, and a reception for the diplomatic community and the host government.
Ms Charles-Monwuba said these were to showcase Ghana as a strong member state of the UN, and also to show that the UN was in Ghana to stay and serve.
The Director II of the Multilateral Relations Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Joyce Asamoah-Koranteng, urged Ghanaians to play their respective parts in raising the flag of Ghana.
The signing ceremony will be attended by the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the UN Resident Coordinator, and heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes, and the diplomatic community.
He wrote to Rishi Sunak: “I know that you wish for a new team to join you in HM Government, so I write to stand aside.”
He added that he is “sure that HM Government will continue to deliver, and you will have my support in doing so“.
Congratulations to @RishiSunak on taking office as 🇬🇧 Prime Minister! I wish you to successfully overcome all the challenges facing British society and the whole world today. I’m ready to continue strengthening the 🇺🇦-🇬🇧 strategic partnership together!
