TIG Post

Author: Abigail Ampofo

  • Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault complaint dismissed by a New York court

    A sexual assault complaint filed against actor Kevin Spacey has been dismissed by a New York judge.

    Anthony Rapp filed the lawsuit, alleging that the actor illegally assaulted him when he was 14 years old at a party in 1986.

    Mr Rapp, now 50 and also an actor, filed the lawsuit in September 2020, asking for approximately $40 million (£36 million) in damages.

    Mr Spacey, an Oscar winner, has denied the accusations against him.

    He is separately facing five charges in the UK of sexual assault, to which he has pleaded not guilty. That trial is due to begin in June 2023.

    On Thursday, following a three-week civil trial in a Manhattan federal court, a jury found that Mr Rapp had not proved his claim that Mr Spacey had made an unwanted sexual advance.

    Deliberations lasted for more than an hour and, after the verdict was read out by the judge, Mr Spacey reportedly hugged his lawyers before leaving the courtroom.

    Mr Rapp says that Mr Spacey was around 26 or 27 years old when he met him at a party at his Manhattan apartment.

    In a Buzzfeed article from October 2017, Mr Rapp said that Mr Spacey had picked him up, placed him on a bed, and lain down partially on top of him. “I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually,” he wrote.

    Taking the stand in his own defence in the third week of his trial, Mr Spacey said he had been shocked when Mr Rapp went public with his allegations five years ago.

    “I didn’t know how this could possibly be true,” the 63-year-old said, adding he would not have been sexually interested in Mr Rapp as he was underage.

    Court sketch, 20 Oct 22
    IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, A sketch in court shows Mr Spacey (R) and Mr Rapp’s lawyer Richard Steigman (C)

    Mr Rapp’s lawyer Richard Steigman argued there were gaps in Mr Spacey’s memory and changes in his recollection.

    Mr Spacey’s lawyer Jennifer Keller countered that Mr Rapp’s story was a fabrication, and she said he was “getting more attention in this trial than he has in his entire acting life”.

    Career derailed

    Multiple allegations of sexual misconduct derailed the Hollywood star’s stage career. Netflix dropped him from its political drama series House of Cards and Christopher Plummer replaced him in the role of J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World.

    In August, a judge ruled that Mr Spacey must pay $31m to the producers of House of Cards for the costs they incurred after firing him from the show.

    Mr Spacey won Oscars for his performances in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects.

    In July, he entered a not-guilty plea in London to criminal charges of sexually assaulting three men over a decade ago.

    During the New York trial, he was asked about a suggestion by Mr Rapp that he was a “fraud” for not coming out as gay sooner. Mr Spacey said he had always been private about his personal life, including his childhood because his father had held racist and homophobic views.

  • GNACOPS: The law is not subservient to the appointment of the new GES Director-General

    Enock K. Gyetuah, National Executive Director of the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), has expressed the Council’s concern over President Akufo-Addo’s choice  for the position of Director-General of the Ghana Education Service.

    President Akufo-Addo has nominated Dr. Eric Nkansah as the new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

    His appointment was contained in a letter issued on Wednesday, October 19 by the Presidency and signed by Nana Bediatuo Asante, Secretary to the President.

    Reacting to the appointment, the GNACOPS Director stated that it was a “violation of our professional education standards.”

    “It is a total contravention of the Teacher Professionalism as far as the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 ( Act 1023) is concerned.

    “The appointment is in breach of sections 67(1), 68(1,&1a), and 79 (1) of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 Act 1023.

    “The Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), as an upholder of good standards in education, does not support this appointment,” he said.

    According to him, Dr. Eric Nkansah is not an educationist and has not served, nor risen through the rank and file of the Ghana Education Service to be bestowed such an honour.

    The Council is thus calling on the President to rescind his appointment and select someone from the GES to fill the vacant position.

    “It is no secret that there are ranks or levels in every sector, through which employees should pass, before being promoted to managerial positions.

    “Why should Educationists spend their lives in service to GES, go through promotions and ranks, if a banker could overnight become their Director General?” he said.

    “GNACOPS strongly proposes that the appointment system of the Director General of  GES, should be looked at carefully from the service viewpoint, and be restricted to only Professional within the Education sector.

    “It should be based on projectory experience, qualification, and skills, with rank and longevity in the service, being made the heart of the appointment, similar to what is done in the Police Service, in the appointment of IGP,” he added.

    Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Nkansah has 14 days to either accept or reject his appointment as the new GES Director-General.

     

  • Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed promises Tigray war will come to an end

    Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has stated that the conflict in northern Tigray “will end and peace will prevail.”

    He made the remarks during the inauguration of a talent development centre in the Oromia regional state on Thursday.

    “The situation in northern Ethiopia will come to an end, peace will prevail. We will not continue fighting forever. I believe that in a short period of time, we will stand with our Tigrayan brothers for peace and development,” Mr Abiy said.

    He urged Ethiopians to work together for the country’s prosperity and not to be divided along ethnic and religious lines.

    On Thursday, the Ethiopian government accepted an invitation by the African Union to participate in peace talks to be held on 24 October in South Africa to end the war that has killed an unspecified number of people and displaced millions.

    It came on the same day Tigrayan rebels accused Ethiopian and Eritrean forces of killing seven youths in a town that was captured by the federal army on Tuesday.

     

  • Theresa May pleads for compromise and unity

    The former prime minister has pleaded with her party to provide an “orderly transition”, amid fears the upcoming leadership contest could become messy. 

    Other Conservative MPs have shared similar thoughts this afternoon – including Justin Tomlinson, who said this was the “last-chance saloon” for the party to maintain credibility.

    A vicious leadership contest would further divide an already split party that is about to see its third prime minister in the space of a few months.

    Source: Sky News 

     

     

     

  • MP reminds his colleagues that Johnson is still being investigated

    While some Conservative MPs are asking for Boris Johnson’s comeback, others are cautioning against it.

    Sir Roger Gale reminded people that the ex-prime minister was still being investigated by the Privileges Committee for potentially misleading the House.

    He added: “Until that investigation is complete and he is found guilty or cleared, there should be no possibility of him returning to government.”

     

  • Sunak supporter: To triumph in the polls, we ‘got to unite’ behind the new Prime Minister

    One Tory MP believes previous leadership challenger and ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak will run to replace Liz Truss.

    “I am pretty sure he will, I hope so,” Richard Holden tells Sky News.

    The MP says that in the difficult economic times, the party and the country need a PM “who has got the economic experience to deliver real stability over the next few years and get the ship of state back on an even keel” – and that person is Sunak.

    He adds: “What we need is competence right at the core of this at the moment… and the economy front and center.

    “We have had a really tough time over the past few weeks. Even though I didn’t support Liz [in the leadership contest] I didn’t want it to go the way things have gone.

    “What we need to see now is competence at the heart of government and particularly the economic vision.”

    But while Holden wants Sunak in Number 10, he also promises he will “unite behind anybody”.

    He adds: “The truth is that the Conservative Party has got to unite behind whoever is elected to win the next election.”

     

  • 44 days in office: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

    Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister just 44 days after succeeding Boris Johnson.

    She will be the prime minister with the shortest tenure in modern British political history.

    In a statement read outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said: “I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability.

    “Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills.”

    She said she was elected “with a mandate to change this”, adding: “We delivered on energy bills.”

    ” I recognise, though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” she said.

    “I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.

    “This morning, I met the chairman of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady. We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week.”

    Ms Truss will remain as PM until her successor has been chosen.

    British Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation, as her husband Hugh O'Leary stands nearby, outside Number 10 Downing Street, London, Britain October 20, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
    Image:Liz Truss’ husband Hugh O’Leary stood nearby as she resigned as PM

    Sir Graham said they expect to conclude a leadership election by Friday 28 October with a new PM in place in time for the 31 October fiscal statement.

    He said Tory members are expected to be able to vote but the candidates could be whittled down to just one.

    Ms Truss’ resignation came just a little over 24 hours after she told MPs she was a “fighter, not a quitter”.

    There has been much speculation about who could replace Ms Truss, with new chancellor Jeremy Hunt one of the main names being suggested.

    However, Sky News deputy political editor Sam Coates said he has been told Mr Hunt will not stand.

    Other Tory MPs being suggested are Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Kemi Badenoch, and even Boris Johnson.

    Former leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has ruled himself out.

    Graham Brady makes a statement
    Image: Graham Brady said the leadership campaign will be over by next Friday
    Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for a general election “now” as he said the British public “must have a chance at a fresh start“.

    He added: “The Tories cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people.

    “They do not have the mandate to put the country through yet another experiment; Britain is not their personal fiefdom to run how they wish.”

    The start of Truss’ downfall

    Ms Truss’ downfall started when her former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced his mini-budget a month ago, which prompted weeks of economic turmoil and eventually led to him being sacked last Friday.

    Mr Hunt, who voted for Rishi Sunak during the leadership campaign, then took over as chancellor and U-turned on the majority of the unfunded mini-budget tax cuts on Monday – further undercutting Ms Truss’ authority.

    On Wednesday afternoon, her home secretary, Suella Braverman then quit after saying she had breached security rules by sending a policy message to a colleague over her personal email by mistake.

    It only got worse on Wednesday evening after confusion over whether Labour’s opposition day vote was actually a confidence vote in the government or not – which resulted in allegations of “manhandling” of Tory MPs by colleagues.

    Some Tory MPs had publicly called for Ms Truss’ resignation before that but in the hours before she quit, a flurry of Tory MPs revealed they wanted her to go.

    Conservative Party rules prevent a leader from a confidence vote in the first 12 months of their tenure but it is understood after a significant number of MPs wrote to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, calling for her to go, a decision was made that she could not stay.

     

     

  • Lafarge, a cement company, has pleaded guilty to helping ISIS

    Lafarge, a French cement company, has pled guilty in the United States to aid the Islamic State and other terrorist organisations.

    The company agreed to pay a $777.8 million (£687.2 million) penalty for payments made to keep a factory operational in Syria after the crisis broke out in 2011.

    Prosecutors said it was the first time a firm in the United States pled guilty to aiding terrorists.

    Lafarge said it “deeply regretted” the events and “accepted responsibility for the individual executives involved”.

    The cement manufacturer, which was bought by Switzerland’s Holcim in 2015, said their behaviour had been in “flagrant violation” of Lafarge’s code of conduct.

    The firm opened its plant in Jalabiya near the Turkish border in 2010 following a $680m investment.

    US prosecutors said that Lafarge’s Syrian subsidiary had paid Islamic State and another terror group, al Nusra Front, the equivalent of $5.92m to protect staff at the plant as the country’s civil war intensified. Executives likened the arrangements to pay “taxes”, they said.

    Lafarge eventually evacuated the plant in September 2014, when Islamic State took control of the town and the factory. But before its departure, the deals helped the company do $70.3m in sales, prosecutors said.

    Lafarge had previously admitted bribes were paid after an internal investigation. But US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Tuesday that the company’s actions “reflect corporate crime that has reached a new low and a very dark place.”

    “Business with terrorists cannot be business as usual,” she added.

    In a statement, Lafarge’s new owner Holcim said none of the conduct involved Holcim, “which has never operated in Syria”.

    It added that former Lafarge executives involved in the bribery had concealed it from Holcim, as well as external auditors.

    Eric Olsen, who ran Lafarge and Holcim until 2017, stepped down from his role following an investigation into Lafarge’s activities in Syria.

    At the time, Mr Olsen said he had not been involved in any wrongdoing and was standing down to bring “serenity” to the company.

    The Department of Justice said that senior executives at Lafarge were involved in the arrangements and aware they risked running afoul of authorities.

    Logo on a plant of French cement company Lafarge on 7 April 2014 in Paris
    IMAGE SOURCE, AFP Image caption, The dealings with armed groups took place before Lafarge merged with Holcim

    Executives had attempted to require Islamic State not to include the name “Lafarge” on documents memorializing and implementing their agreements and many involved in the scheme also used personal email addresses, rather than their corporate email addresses, to carry out the conspiracy, the Department said.

    Lafarge executives also backdated the termination agreement to Aug. 18, 2014, a date shortly after the United Nations Security Council had issued a resolution calling on member states to prohibit doing business with Islamic State, to falsely suggest that negotiations with Islamic State had not occurred after the UN resolution, the Department said.

    The dealings by Lafarge were eventually made public in 2016 on a website run by a Syrian opposition group.

    Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York – where the case was brought – said the conduct “by a Western corporation was appalling and has no precedent or justification”.

    “The defendants paid millions of dollars [to Islamic State], a terrorist group that otherwise operated on a shoestring budget, millions of dollars that [Islamic State] could use to recruit members, wage war against governments, and conduct brutal terrorist attacks worldwide, including against U.S. citizens,” he said at a press conference announcing the guilty plea.

    Lafarge also faces charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in France over its activities in Syria, but the company denies the claims.

     

     

  • A Japanese heritage worker reverses his car into Kyoto’s oldest toilet

    A man working to protect Japan’s cultural heritage accidentally crashed his automobile into the country’s oldest toilet at a centuries-old Buddhist temple.

    The communal latrine at Tofukuji in Kyoto dates from the 15th century and has been listed as an important cultural asset.

    Its ancient door was ruined after the employee hit the gas without realizing the car was in reverse, police said.

    No one was injured and the actual latrines inside remained intact.

    The unnamed man, who works at the Kyoto Heritage Preservation called the police soon after the crash, telling them he had crashed into the temple. He was said to be visiting the temple on business, according to the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.

    A photo in the newspaper showed what appeared to be the car after it drove into the toilet’s 700-year-old wooden door and pillars.

    Toshio Ishikawa, director of the Tofukuji Research Institute, was “stunned” by the scale of the accident.

    Another official said that although the damage is repairable, restoring the outhouse to its original state would require “lots of work”.

    The unused communal toilet – known as tōsu – was built in the first half of the Muromachi period (1336-1573) and is located inside Tofukuji temple.

    It’s nicknamed the “hyakusecchin”, which means 100-person toilet, as it was used by more than 100 trainee monks at the temple practicing religious self-discipline, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported.

    The paper describes it as a structure containing a stone row holding around 20 circular holes.

  • Estonia’s foreign minister says Russian sanctions need to go further

    Estonia’s foreign minister says that sanctions against Russia still haven’t gone far enough.

    Urmas Reinsalu said that the point of sanctions is to raise pressure to end the war and the only person who can end the war is President Vladimir Putin.

    He argued that “as we have not reached that decision point, it means the sanctions have not reached the needed altitude”.

    He didn’t specify what further sanctions should be imposed.

    Source: Aljazeera.com

  • Estonian lawmakers brand Russia a “terrorist government”

    Estonian lawmakers blasted Moscow’s illegal acquisition of Ukrainian territory and labeled Russia a “terrorist regime.”

    The statement received 88 votes from the 101-member legislature, with 10 MPs missing and three abstaining.

    The statement said the Estonian parliament “declares Russia a terrorist regime and the Russian Federation a country that supports terrorism.

    “(President Vladimir) Putin’s regime, with its threats of a nuclear attack, has turned Russia into the biggest danger to peace both in Europe and in the whole world,” it said.

     

  • Russia ‘demanding’ to be included in the Nord Stream inquiry – AJ correspondent

    Mohammed Vall of Al Jazeera, reporting from Moscow, says the absence of Russian involvement in the Nord Stream investigation is fueling Russians’ perception that the West is to blame for the damage to the two gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

    “Russia has been blaming, and it is still blaming the West, of being behind the sabotage because, they say, the main damage there is against Russian interests,” Vall said of the explosions last month that damaged the pipelines that carry Russian gas to Europe.

    “Russia is still demanding a role in this investigation, and without that, the doubts Russia has over the whole thing will remain, and any investigation results will not be accepted here in Moscow,” Vall said.

     

  • War crimes: UN finds Russia and Ukraine possibly guilty

    A UN investigation determined that Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights breaches in Ukraine during the early weeks of the conflict, including potential war crimes against civilians.

    The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found that Russian forces had indiscriminately shelled areas they were trying to capture and “attacked civilians trying to flee”.

    It also found abuses committed by Ukraine, including two cases of people who were out of action who were shot, wounded, or tortured.

    “Russian armed forces are responsible for the vast majority of the violations identified, including war crimes,” the Council said in the report.

    “Ukrainian forces have also committed international humanitarian law violations in some cases, including two incidents that qualify as war crimes.”

     

  • Iran promises to provide surface-to-surface missiles to Russia

    Iran has agreed to supply Russia with surface-to-surface missiles and additional drones, according to two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats.

    On October 6, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, two senior Revolutionary Guard officials, and an official from the Supreme National Security Council arrived in Moscow for talks with Russia about the delivery of the weaponry.

    “The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family,” said one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip.

    “Where they are being used is not the seller’s issue. We do not take sides in the Ukraine crisis like the West. We want an end to the crisis through diplomatic means,” the diplomat said.

    However, the Iranian diplomat rejected that weapon transfers breach a 2015 UN Security Council resolution.

     

     

  • Five children’s bodies were retrieved from a mass grave in eastern Donetsk

    Five children’s bodies were recovered from a mass grave in a town formerly controlled by Russian soldiers.

    According to investigators, four of the children were buried in a mass burial at a cemetery in Lyman, while another was exhumed from a makeshift grave dug by his mother in their yard.

    It has been preliminarily established they all died from shrapnel wounds as a result of Russian shelling, the National Police of Ukraine said in a statement posted to Telegram.

    Policemen retrieved girls born in 2021, 2019, and 2008, and boys born in 2011 and 2012 from the mass graves.

    The two youngest girls are sisters.

    After the forensic examination, the children will be reburied.

    “Investigative actions have been ongoing for two weeks in Lyman — at the site of the largest mass burial in the de-occupied part of Donetsk region. Investigative teams work continuously, searching for and interviewing relatives, establishing the history of all the dead,” the statement said.

    As of the morning of this morning, 35 military personnel and 131 civilians were exhumed in the Kramatorsk district.

    Among the civilians were  67 men, 56 women, and five children. The gender of six people is unknown.

     

  • More than 400 infrastructure sites damaged by Russian air attacks

    Since early last week, Russian attacks have destroyed more than 400 infrastructure targets across Ukraine, according to a top Ukrainian official.

    Ukraine’s Minister for Communities and Territories Development, Oleksii Chernyshov, stated that Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones had hit 408 Ukrainian sites since October 10.

    The targets included 45 energy facilities and more than 180 civilian buildings.

    Chernyshov insisted that Ukrainians would not be cowed by Moscow’s onslaught.

    He said that “such terrorist actions of the aggressor mobilize and harden us even more”.

     

  • Brittney Grine: American WNBA basketball star facing Russian jail term, sends thanks for support

    Brittney Griner, the American WNBA basketball star whose appeal against a Russian prison sentence is set to be heard next week, thanked her supporters on her 32nd birthday.

    “All the support and love are definitely helping me,” Griner was quoted as saying by her lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, who spent several hours with her in the Moscow pre-trial detention center where she is being held.

    “Today is of course a difficult day for Brittney,” said Blagovolina, who is representing Griner in court.

    “Not only is this her birthday in jail away from her family, teammates, and friends, but she is very stressed in anticipation of the appeal hearing on October 25.”

     

  • Analysis: News blackout in southern Ukraine means ‘something big is going on’

    A news blackout in southern Ukraine means “something big is going on”, military expert Professor Michael Clarke has told Sky News.

    Professor Clarke, former director-general of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said: “The Ukrainians have conducted a complete news blackout on what is happening in the Kherson oblast because the Russians are holding a line between Snihurivka and My love, and that line they have been holding onto for over a week now as Ukraine moves south.

    “When the Ukrainians have a news blackout it means something is going on. They have always done this before when there is a big offensive push on.

    “I am guessing in the next 48-72 hours they might tell us what is happening.

    “Now for sure, something big is happening. It might fail, and it may not work, but in the past, it has worked.

    “Standby for some more interesting information – I am guessing on this frontline between Mylove and Snihurivka.”

    Meanwhile, around 100 women – all from the Azovstal steelworks – have also been released in a prisoner exchange.

    Showing footage of their release, Professor Clarke said: “These women are all coming out, some of them are in combats, they might have been given those combats, but they are walking in line – they are coming out they are almost marching.

    “They are coming out in order, they are making a point. We are the women from Azovstal steelworks.

    “Civilians got mixed in with the troops towards the end, it was all pretty awful.

    “But here they are, they are holding their head up, they are coming out with pride and that is making a point to the Russians and the rest of the world. ”

    DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana

     

  • UK MP says, Chinese diplomat involved in the protester attack

    A British MP says that one of China’s most senior UK ambassadors was involved in violence towards demonstrators at the Manchester consulate on Sunday.

    MPs in Parliament have privilege, allowing them to speak freely without fear of legal action.

    China has not commented on Zheng Xiyuan’s alleged involvement.

    But the foreign ministry in Beijing defended the actions of consulate staff.

    A man is pulled at the gate of the Chinese consulate after a demonstration against China"s President Xi Jinping, in Manchester, Britain October 16, 2022.
    IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS Image caption, A protester is pulled at the gate of the consulate on Sunday – the consul-general is alleged to be in a mask and hat (far left)

    Spokesman Wang Wenbin said people had “illegally entered” the grounds and any country’s diplomats would have taken “necessary measures” to protect their premises.

    But the official Chinese version is at odds with video footage and statements from police. Officers had to drag back a protester from inside the consulate gate as he was being attacked.

    After Consul-General Zheng Xiyuan ripped down the placards, Ms Kearns told MPs, there was “grievous bodily harm against a Hongkonger, one of whom was hospitalised for taking part in a peaceful protest.

    “Some were then dragged onto consulate territory for a further beating by officials who have been recognised to be members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

    “We cannot allow the CCP to import their beating of protesters, their silencing of free speech, and their failure to allow time and time again protests on British soil. This is a chilling escalation.”

    According to a statement by the Greater Manchester Police, around 30 to 40 people had gathered outside the consulate to protest.

    “Shortly before 4 pm a small group of men came out of the building and a man was dragged into the consulate grounds and assaulted,” the statement said.

    “Due to our fears for the safety of the man, officers intervened and removed the victim from the consulate grounds.”

    The consulate is UK territory, but cannot be entered without consent.

    Another MP, Labour’s Afzal Khan – who represents the constituency where the consulate is, Manchester Gorton – told the House of Commons he was “sickened” by the scenes.

    “The UK stands for freedom, the rule of law, and democracy,” said the Labour MP. “The quashing of peaceful protests will never be tolerated on British soil.”

    Mr Khan and other MPs called for the consul-general to be declared a “persona non grata” – meaning a person who is unwelcome in the country.

    As a diplomat, the consul-general has diplomatic immunity, meaning he is theoretically protected from prosecution. Declaring someone “persona non grata” can remove diplomatic status and potentially result in expulsion.

    Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith asked if the government would “be prepared to expel the consul-general and any of those that are found to have been part of that punishment beating and the vandalism?”

    Foreign Office minister Jesse Norman said, “we will take action once we have a full understanding of the facts”. He added the government had issued a summons to the Chinese charge d’affaires in London – the Chinese ambassador’s deputy – for an explanation.

    Mr Norman told the House of Commons: “We’ve already outlined a process of raising this formally with the Chinese embassy… and we will see where these procedures, these legal and prosecutorial procedures, may lead to, and at that point, we will take further action.”

    Some MPs called for the Foreign Office to go further, including Labour’s Andrew Gwynne who said: “Had these incidents happened on the streets of Hong Kong, there would have been outrage from the British government, rightly so.

    “They happened on the streets of Manchester and yet we have this situation where the minister is basically sending a memo to the Chinese embassy, an offer of a cup of tea and a chat with the ambassador.”

     

     

  • Elnaz Rekabi: Iranian climber claims her hijab fell off inadvertently at competition

    According to an Instagram post, a female Iranian climber who competed with her hair uncovered did so because her headscarf “inadvertently” fell off.

    Those protesting against Iran’s clothing code praised Elnaz Rekabi, 33 when a video showed her breaking it at the Asian Championships in South Korea.

    Friends had been unable to contact her, according to BBC Persian on Monday.

    On Tuesday, the Instagram post apologised for “getting everybody worried” and said she was flying home.

    “Due to bad timing, and the unanticipated call for me to climb the wall, my head covering inadvertently came off,” it explained.

    The post added that she was on her way back to Iran “alongside the team based on the pre-arranged schedule”.

    BBC Persian’s Rana Rahimpour says that too many people the language used in this post looks like it has been written under duress.

    Other Iranian women who have competed abroad without wearing a headscarf in the past have said they came under pressure from Iranian authorities to issue similar apologies, she adds. Some of them decided not to go back to Iran.

    Women in the country are required to cover their hair with a hijab and their arms and legs with loose clothing. Female athletes must also abide by the dress code when they are officially representing Iran in competitions abroad.

    File photo showing Elnaz Rekabi wearing a hijab as she competes at the indoor World Climbing and Paraclimbing Championships in Paris on 14 September 2016
    IMAGE SOURCE, AFP Image caption, Elnaz Rekabi wore a hijab at the indoor world championships in Paris in 2016

    Earlier, the Iranian embassy in South Korea said Ms Rekabi had left Seoul for Iran on Tuesday morning. It also strongly denied what it called “all fake news, lies and false information” about her.

    The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) said it had been in contact with Ms Rekabi and the Iranian Climbing Federation, and that it was “trying to establish the facts”.

    “It is important to stress that athletes’ safety is paramount for us and we support any efforts to keep a valued member of our community safe in this situation,” it added. “The IFSC fully supports the rights of athletes, their choices, and expression of free speech.”

    A source told BBC Persian on Monday that Ms Rekabi’s passport and mobile phone were confiscated, and that she left her hotel in Seoul two days before her scheduled departure date. Her family and friends lost contact with her after she said she was with an Iranian official.

    Two years ago, an Iranian international chess referee said she had received death threats after a photo circulated that appeared to show her without a hijab at the Women’s World Chess Championship in Shanghai.

    Shohreh Bayat insisted that she had been wearing a headscarf loosely over her hair at the time, but she subsequently stopped covering her hair and claimed asylum in the UK after being warned that she could face arrest in Iran.

    “I had to choose my side because I was asked to write an apology on Instagram and to apologise publicly,” Ms Bayat told BBC World News on Tuesday.

    “I was given a list of things to do. I knew that if I just followed those things that I did not believe in if I apologised for not wearing a headscarf, then I could not forgive myself.”

    Asked what she thought about Elnaz Rekabi’s Instagram post, she said: “I think actions speak louder than words. And she made a very powerful statement in not wearing a headscarf.”

    Ms Bayat has called on the international community to act over the violent crackdown by Iranian authorities in response to nationwide protests against the compulsory hijab laws and the clerical establishment.

    The protests were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by morality police in Tehran on 13 September for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely.

    The police denied reports that she was beaten on the head with a baton and said she suffered a heart attack.

    On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Office said it was deeply worried by the “unabated violent response by security forces against protesters, and reports of arbitrary arrests and the killing and detention of children”.

    “Some sources suggest that as many as 23 children have been killed and many others injured in at least seven provinces by live ammunition, metal pellets at close range, and fatal beatings,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.

    She added that a number of schools had also been raided and children arrested by security forces, while some principals had been arrested for not cooperating.

    Norway-based Iran Human Rights has reported that 215 people have been killed by security forces. Authorities have denied killing peaceful demonstrators and instead blamed foreign-backed “rioters”.

     

  • Rwandan legislators opposed to contraception for 15-year-olds

    The Rwandan parliament has rejected a bill to change a 2016 law to allow contraception to be supplied to females as young as 15 years old.

    The plan was submitted by a group of MPs in order to reduce adolescent pregnancies, which have increased by 21% – from more than 19,000 in 2020 to 23,000 last year, according to officials.

    Only 18-year-olds and above are legally allowed to access sexual reproductive health services – but there has been debate among health activists, and cultural and religious leaders about lowering that limit.

    The rejection of the bill stops “the anticipated changes” in the law that “has gaps”, Aflodis Kagaba, a Rwandan reproductive health activist, told the BBC.

    “Unfortunately, this has overshadowed everything else including the opportunity to re-open these important conversations in parliament,” Mr Kagaba said.

    More than 30 MPs who rejected the bill cited their faith, and social and cultural reasons, local media report.

    But Mr Kagaba said the current law “has gaps” and believes “it still needs to be revised”.

    “Today if you are under 18 and need [sexual and reproductive] health services you are required to be accompanied by parents for their approval!”

    “This is a very huge barrier,” he said.

     

  • Calm restored after Nigerian students were attacked in India

    Nigerian officials have urged Indian authorities to safeguard the safety of Nigerian students studying in the country.

    Fighting broke out between Nigerian and Indian students at Delhi’s GD Goenka University last weekend, sparked by a football match dispute.

    Footage of the clash has been shared on Twitter.

    The incident at the university’s Gurugram campus forced more than 80 Nigerians to flee and take refuge at the country’s embassy.

    The chairwoman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said: “a few injuries” had been recorded during the violence.

    But Mrs Dabiri added that “calm” had been restored and that the Nigerian students have since returned to the campus after a meeting between officials of the two nations.

    In a tweet, the Nigerian representative also said the country’s embassy had got a “written commitment by the Indian authorities to protect” Nigerian students.

    She also advised that any students who felt “threatened” should report to the diplomatic mission of Nigeria.

    The Indian authorities said they are investigating the incident – including reviewing CCTV footage of the violence, according to local media.

    Thousands of African students – many of them Nigerians – are studying at several Indian universities.

    But there have often been tensions between the locals and Africans.

    Local media report that last month some Indian students had protested against African students praying on a football pitch, insisting that they should instead do so inside their hostels.

     

     

  • Seven ‘dangerous’ inmates escape from a South African prison

    Police in South Africa has initiated a manhunt for seven inmates who escaped from a jail in Grahamstown, a city in the Eastern Cape region.

    According to a police statement, an officer who arrived at the Makhanda Correctional Facility at 04:00 local time saw some lights were on and discovered that the detainees had escaped through a window.

    “Police are warning the community that these prisoners are dangerous and should not be approached instead police must be contacted,” the statement said.

    The escapees include one person charged with murder and five Zimbabwean nationals either imprisoned for or facing rhino-poaching charges.

     

  • Trevor Noah Explains Why He’s ‘Totally On Trump’s Side’ In Latest Scandal

    “The Daily Show” host on Monday delved into the former president’s latest scandal, which involves his beleaguered Truth Social platform. The co-founder of the social media company, Will Wilkerson, came out as a whistleblower, alleging the firm had violated federal securities laws and that Trump had pressured executives to hand over shares to his wife, Melania Trump.

    Wilkerson was fired from his role as an executive of Trump Media and Technology Group last week after coming forward.

    Noah was unsympathetic.

    “I am totally on Trump’s side in this story,” Noah said. “Yeah, it’s the year 2022. If you go into business with Donald Trump, and you’re surprised that you got scammed, that’s on you. What were you thinking? ‘Well, I know the last guy that Trump worked with almost got hanged by an angry mob, but I think I’m going to turn out fine. I don’t know what could go wrong.’”

    Source: yahoo.com

  • Former pastor is being charged with sexual assault again

    The former pastor of a McDonald County fringe church at the centre of a sexual abuse scandal 16 years ago is facing a fresh accusation of raping an underage girl.

    Raymond L. Lambert II, 67, of rural Washburn, was arrested and charged last week with first-degree rape in the summer of 2013. The arrest was made by the Missouri State Highway Patrol following an investigation into information that arose in August.

    A probable-cause affidavit states that the victim, who is now an adult, told a state patrol investigator Lambert sexually assaulted her nine years ago when she was visiting a relative in McDonald County.

    She told authorities, the affidavit states, that Lambert had raped her in a dark shed. She said that shortly after he began sexually assaulting her, the sound of car tires on the road outside sent him into a panic and he stopped, warning her not to tell anyone.

    The affidavit states that she did not tell anyone what happened at the time. But her mother was able to confirm that the girl had visited a relative that summer.

    Lambert, his wife, two brothers who served as deacons in Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, and George Johnston, the suspect’s uncle and pastor of Grand Valley Baptist Church North in Newton County, were charged in 2006 with various sex offenses when a few women left the churches and told authorities that they had been sexually abused over the years, dating back as far as the 1970s.

    No one was convicted in the scandal as the McDonald and Newton county prosecutors’ cases fell apart with the victims ultimately backing out of testifying at trial.

     

  • Mob Justice: Woman, 37, battles for her life after torture

    Nsor Catherine, a 37-year-old lady who was wrongly accused of stealing GH12,000 from a businesswoman in Tamale, is demanding justice.

    She claims that the beatings and torture she endured have left her bedridden since the occurrence.

    Nsor Catherine until that faithful day of the assault was residing in Damongo.

    She narrates how she suffered her unfortunate attack after a woman accused her of stealing her money.

    “I was walking in the market and all of a sudden a strange woman held me, pulled me to a shop at the Aboabo market, and accused me of stealing GH¢12,000.

    “They did not allow me to talk but rather called some men who came there and started beating me. They stripped me naked and beat me till I couldn’t breathe again.

    “As if that was not enough, they took me to their house, locked me in a room, whipped me with a cable, and also plugged an electric iron and used it on my back and my legs all for me to confess for a crime I didn’t commit.”

    According to her, her assailants also arranged lorry tyres with petrol to burn her.

    “When they wanted to burn me, one of them asked me to call someone I know to tell the person I was going to be burnt alive so I called my sister and she came with the police to rescue me.

    “I spent all my life savings treating myself and I don’t have anything again. I have been relying on local treatment for the past two months and I need support to go back to the hospital.

    Her younger sister, who went to her rescue with the police, told 3news.com that life has not been easy for the family since the incident.

    “After the incident, the people came to the police station to beg, they came to our house to beg my sister to forgive them and promised to compensate her. We gave them an amount to pay with the police and the court as witnesses but since then they haven’t said anything and my sister’s health keeps getting worse.

    “She is mentally unstable and behaves weirdly since the incident.

    Mob justice is also known as instant justice in Ghana serves as an indictment on the 1992 Constitution.

    It creates a heightened sense of fear among citizens that they could become victims and also undermines the legitimacy of the police and legal authorities.

    Like Nsor Catherine, several other women have suffered certain forms of mob action.

     

     

  • Bill Gates Has Big News About Terrible Disease

    Bill Gates almost never gives up in a fight. “Several significant worldwide setbacks over the past few years have left many people disillusioned and wondering whether the world is doomed to get worse,” the billionaire philanthropist bemoaned on Twitter on July 13 after what he dubbed “setbacks.”

    The pandemic is one of the biggest setbacks in history. The war in Ukraine is a gigantic tragedy for the entire world. The damage from climate change is already worse than most models predicted. The U.S. has taken a huge step backward for gender equality and women’s health.”

    He later appeared somewhat optimistic, as if he’d been trying to persuade himself that he saw light at the end of the tunnel.

    “But I’m still optimistic. These setbacks are happening in the context of two decades’ worth of historic progress and I believe it is possible to mitigate the damage and get back to the progress the world was making,” the entrepreneur said.

    $1.2 Billion to Fight Polio

    A few months later, the philanthropist seems to have regained his energy and his will to win his humanitarian battles.

    He has thus just promised $1.2 billion more to eradicate polio. The announcement was made on Sunday in Berlin by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which made the pledge to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

    “By coming together and funding efforts like the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we can #EndPolio and build a healthier world, ” Gates tweeted on Oct. 15.

    “We’re very committed,” Gates told Bloomberg in an interview. “I can’t say forever, but giving up would mean hundreds of thousands of kids being paralyzed.”

    The new fund will help redouble and speed efforts to fight this disease, which has reappeared in recent months in regions where it was thought to have disappeared. A resurgence would jeopardize billions of dollars of investment over decades.

    Polio Reappears in New York

    A case of polio had been identified last summer in Rockland County, N.Y., half an hour north of Midtown Manhattan. Traces of the virus had also been detected in sewage in the U.K. and Israel, which had suggested that the disease, which had been almost eradicated worldwide, had resurged.

    “The individual experienced severe symptoms, including paralysis, and was hospitalized,” New York State and County health officials said. “New Yorkers should know that paralysis from polio is typically permanent, resulting in life-long disability.”

    The last known case of polio in the U.S. was in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 7-month-old child who had just moved from India to the U.S. was diagnosed in San Antonio.

    The World Health Organization in June warned that a type of poliovirus derived from the oral polio vaccine – which, in rare cases, can cause infection in others but not in the person vaccinated – had been detected in London sewage samples. It can cause severe illness and paralysis in unvaccinated people.

    Polio, which largely affects children under age 5, has been virtually eradicated worldwide, according to Unicef. Cases have fallen by 99% since 1988 when polio was still endemic in 125 countries and 350,000 cases were recorded. Polio remains endemic in two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    Infections declined sharply in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the U.S., with the development of a vaccine. The last natural infection to have occurred in the U.S. dates from 1979.

    The Gateses, through their foundation, have already donated nearly $5 billion directly to the fight against polio.

    For 2019-2023 some $4.2 billion is needed to eradicate polio through vaccination and other health services, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The program had $2.2 billion before Gates’ pledge. After the commitment, the funding shortfall is around $1.4 billion. Germany will co-host a pledge event at the World Health Summit on Oct. 18 in Berlin.

    “India’s success against poliovirus showed the world that to #EndPolio, perseverance and collaboration are vital. @naveenthacker and over 1,300 leading global experts have urged the world to recommit to ending polio,” Gates posted on Oct. 15.

     

  • Jess Carter: Chelsea defender to remain at club until 2025

    Chelsea defender Jess Carter has signed a contract extension that will keep her at the club until 2025.

    Since joining Chelsea in 2018, the 24-year-old has won the Women’s Super League three times.

    Carter has also helped Emma Hayes’ side to win the FA Cup, Continental Cup, and Community Shield.

    “I’m looking forward to continuing my development with the team, helping them to become even more successful,” the England international said.

    The player is closing in on 100 appearances for Chelsea and was a part of the Lionesses squad which won the European Championship this summer.

    General manager Paul Green added: “She had an outstanding 2021-22 season for both club and country and we want to reward her for those achievements.

    “We’re really happy with the way she’s been developing over the last couple of seasons and look forward to seeing that continue in the upcoming years.”

     

  • Why I married two husbands and sleep on same bed with them – Woman shares intriguing tale

    A woman has said after giving birth to two children, poverty forced her to marry two men.

    Sharing her story to the popular YouTube channel Afrimax, the woman said she gave birth to two children for her first husband throughout their marriage, and their home was affected by poverty.

    In the course of moving to a new city in search of a better life, the husband failed to establish contact with her for three good years.

    She married another man after falling in love with him and believing that her husband had left her for good.

    Polyandry is a type of polygamy in which a woman simultaneously marries two or more men. Contrasted with polygyny, which involves one male and two or more females, is polyandry.

    Polygamy, group marriage, or conjoint marriage are all terms used to describe marriages in which there are multiple “husbands and wives” participants of each gender.

    Polyandry is a term that broadly refers to having intercourse with numerous men, either within or outside of marriage.

    The 1980 Ethnographic Atlas reported 1,231 cultures, of which 186 were judged to be monogamous, 453 occasionally practice polygyny, 588 frequently practiced polygyny, and 4 to practice polyandry.

    Source: myinfogh.com

  • Tory factions would struggle to agree on candidate if PM is ousted – and Truss’s allies take heart from that

    A few smiles at cabinet this morning, as the chancellor was set to deliver a tough message-spending cut are on the way, and every department will have to make them.

    It’s the prime minister’s first formal meeting with her cabinet – although she held a reception with them last night – since firing her former chancellor and allowing her new one to tear up her economic strategy as she sat silently beside him.

    Jeremy Hunt yesterday reversed almost all of the tax cuts which have not yet been enacted and went further on income tax by saying even Rishi Sunak’s plan to cut it in two years was no longer affordable.

    Today he was poised to tell cabinet ministers that all spending is under review, from the health service – where seven million people are waiting for treatment – to defence spending, pensions, and schools, as he finalises his fiscal plan.

    The prime minister, who cabinet ministers concede, was forced into a U-turn by the government’s creditors, is being described in normally friendly newspapers as a “lame duck” and a mourner at the funeral of her own policies, only just falling short of calling for her resignation.

    As she enters a critical week in which Conservative MPs must decide whether she has the authority to continue even in the short-term, Ms Truss will meet groups of her MPs today.

    She met the One Nation group of centrist Conservatives last night where I’m told she was relatively upbeat.

    Tonight, she meets the European Research Group, most of whom backed her tax-cutting agenda and will be disappointed it’s no longer viable.

    Her allies take heart from the fact that if MPs moved to oust her, the Tory factions would struggle to agree on a candidate who they could unite around.

    With the polls looking increasingly dire, and unpopular decisions imminent, that can very soon change.

    DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana

    Source: SkyNews

     

  • The majority of Tory members believe Truss should resign now

    More than 80% of Conservative Party members think Liz Truss is doing a bad job – with 55% saying she should stand down as leader.

    Boris Johnson is the members’ favourite to take over – beating out Rishi Sunak and Ben Wallace.

    New polling from YouGov surveyed 530 Tory members today and yesterday for their opinion, a comparatively smaller sample size than opinion polls of the public at large.

    Some 83% of paid-up Conservative backers think Ms Truss is doing badly – with just 15% saying she is doing well. Only 2% don’t know.

    When asked if Ms Truss should resign, 55% of all those asked said yes, 38% said no, and 7% did not know.

    Almost 40% of members who voted for Ms Truss in the leadership race now want her to go, the poll found.

    It follows similar bad numbers from JL Partners overnight (see 6.29 am post), which found that most Truss supporters in the Tory party regret their choice.

    When asked by YouGov who they want to take over as PM should Ms Truss stand aside, 32% said Boris Johnson, 23% said Rishi Sunak, 10% Ben Wallace and 9% say Penny Mordaunt.

    Going forward, most Tory members – around 31% – think they alone should choose Conservative Party leaders, with no input from MPs.

    Only 25% think the current system should remain, with another 25% thinking MPs alone should choose the leader.

    However, if Ms Truss does stand down, six in 10 members want MPs to agree on a unity candidate and there not to be another election at the current time.

     

  • ‘The Prime Minister has my full support,’ says Rees-Mogg

    Liz Truss has the “full support” of Jacob Rees-Mogg ahead of a cabinet meeting in Downing Street this morning.

    Mr Rees-Mogg told Kay Burley that “of course” he supports the Prime Minister as he walked through the black entrance of Number 10 Downing Street.

    Asked how many more mistakes she could afford to make, Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News: “It was a very good statement yesterday.

    “Markets are reassured, and the prime minister has my full support.”

     

  • There is now ‘very little stability’ for low income families, economist says

    Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s emergency statement means there is “very little stability” for families on a low income, Rachelle Earwaker, senior economist at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has said.

    Ms Earwaker told Sky News this morning that Mr Hunt yesterday chose to make “immediate” measures to bring security and stability to the markets but “no security and stability” had come to families on low incomes.

    “These are families who are trying desperately to get their essentials at the moment,” she said.

    “Trying to get food on their table. There is now no certainty that benefits will be uprated in April with inflation and come April as well, which is looking like a financial cliff edge for families, we don’t yet know what the energy support will be like for families.

    “So I would say there is very little stability there at the moment for lower-income families.”

    Asked what Mr Hunt needed to do in his Halloween fiscal update, she added: “The chancellor says that he is committed to making sure he is protecting the most vulnerable, and we absolutely need to see that benefits will be uprated in April in line with inflation.

    “If not, hundreds of pounds will be cut from the budgets of families, and they will certainly not be able to afford essentials going forward.”

    Ms Earwaker went on to say the government had a “range of tough decisions coming up” and needed to be careful that if public service cuts were to happen it would not affect the most vulnerable in society.

    Source: Skynews.com

  • Pat McFadden: The Conservatives have “lost all economic credibility”

    Earlier today, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey stated that the mini-budget was approved by the entire cabinet.

    He stated that the full cabinet had agreed to it before it was submitted to the Commons, and he also continued to make the case for the Ministry of Defence to preserve its promised money, despite the fact that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was expected to tell all government departments to find savings.

    Now, Pat McFadden, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, has said the “frank admission” that ministers approved the disastrous mini-budget showed the Conservatives had “lost all economic credibility”.

    “They couldn’t run a bath let alone a major G7 economy,” he said.

    “They have put a Tory premium on people’s mortgages and reduced the UK to nervously watching its gilt yields day by day.

    “Labour will match the financial stability the country needs with a proper plan for growth based on the efforts of the whole country, not tired and failed trickle-down economics.”

     

  • Body language expert: Truss performance in the Commons lacked ’emotional intelligence

    Prime Minister Liz Truss went into “waxworks mode” in the Commons Wednesday and her performance lacked “emotional intelligence”, according to body language expert Judi James.

    Speaking to Sky News today, Ms James said the body language of the prime minister was “hard to fathom” and “bizarre”.

    Analysing the scenes, she said: “I would imagine the best way to describe it would be a lack of intelligence.”

    Ms James went on to say Commons leader Penny Mordaunt looked like “somebody on a sinking ship for over an hour armed with a teacup” before Ms Truss “bounced in” and “started laughing and chatting behind her”, which was “strange”.

    “There was no bonding going on between the two women,” she said.

    The body language expert said the Tory leader then fell into “waxworks mode” and did not join in, before adding that her facial expression became “frozen” and her eyes “looked like somebody who was fighting sleep”.

    “You know if you go to see a bad play or go to the cinema and you can feel your eyes beginning to droop. It was that kind of blinking going on,” Ms James continued.

    “And then the only other sign we got from her body language is what I call her ‘poker tell’.

    “When she doesn’t like something her chin moves from side to side.

    “But apart from that, very little endorsement signals going on. Normally we’d expect to see her looking at Hunt and nodding, but she just sat there looking glazed and looking at the opposition but without any real focus .”

    Asked if Ms Truss’s body language gave a hint as to whether she was determined or defeated, Ms James added: “She is determined in the brain cells, but I think generally her body is telling her she is defeated.”

     

  • Adom-Otchere ‘lied’ about the Council of State meeting records of Togbe Afede

    Facts available to GhanaWeb prove that the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV, attended more meetings as a Member of the Council of State than had been previously reported.

    Good Evening Ghana show host, Paul Adom-Otchere, alleged in June this year that Togbe Afede XIV only attended 39 meetings out of the 242 meetings of the Council of State in the four years that he served, that is between 2017 and 2020.

    According to him, the 39 meetings that Togbe Afede was present at constituted 16 percent of attendance.

    “Of the 48 months, the Council of State held 242 meetings of which Togbe Afede XIV attended 39 [meeting]; it constituted 16 percent,” Adom-Otchere said while doing a touchscreen analysis of Togbe Afede’s letter explaining why he rejected ‘inappropriate’ ex-gratia paid into his account.

    Adom-Otchere depended on records ostensibly from the Council of State through a Right To Information, RTI, request put in by Metro TV at the time.

    GhanaWeb is, however, in possession of documents from the RTI Commission which give a different account of Afede’s attendance records.

    In the new documents, Togbe Afede attended 57 meetings out of a total of 125 meetings, which figure represents 45.6 percent attendance.

    A total of 18 meetings that Togbe Afede attended were not included in Paul Adom-Otchere’s narrative.

    The breakdown of his attendance record is as follows:

    a. 47 out of 114 plenary meetings

    b. 10 out of 11 Committee-level meetings

    Togbe Afede was head of the ‘Economy and Sustainable Development Initiatives Committee’ (ESDIC) held eleven meetings over the four-year period.

    Source: Ghanaweb.com

     

  • A bag of cement now selling at GHC90

    The price for a 50-kilogram bag of cement has been increased by manufacturers.

    Checks by myinfogh revealed that all the major manufacturers have adjusted their prices upward.

    Its Super Strong brand is however selling at ¢78 per bag, while the GHACEM Extra is going for GHC90.

     Why the increase?

    Some of the manufacturers say the increase has been influenced by a sudden rise in the cost of operations, from July 2022, due to the sharp depreciation of the cedi over the past months.

    Officials at one of the manufacturing firms told Joy Business on condition of anonymity that, “when the factory price (wholesale price) of a 50 kilogramme was about ¢59.00, it was based on an exchange rate of about ¢7.60 in June 2022.

    Some of the manufacturers also said customers should expect about ¢8 to ¢15 increase per bag on the market.

    This will, however, be influenced by the location as Accra may have a different price from the other regional capitals due to transportation.

    The rising cost of operations

    “Based on the fact that most of the manufacturers have to import some of the raw materials at a dollar rate of more than ¢9, someone has to take care of this sudden increase in cost”, a manufacturer said.

    Some of the manufacturers also told Joy Business that t it has been very difficult to absorb all the rising costs of operations, and therefore there is a need to share some of the burdens with consumers.

    This might be the second time in less than three months that the price of the product has gone up due to what the manufacturers described as the rising cost of production

    Impact on the housing industry

    The development may impact the prices of houses in the short term and the personal budget of many individuals who are currently putting up houses in the country.

    It could also affect the cost of ongoing construction projects.

    Reducing cement prices

    Manufacturers had in recent times pushed for the government to take a second look at the taxes on the inputs and charges at Ghana’s Ports.

    They had hoped the government will take an action to help reduce the price of cement.

    It is the hope that these manufacturers will see review taxes/levies at the ports, a move that could help slow down the hikes in the price of cement recorded in recent times.

    Source: myinfogh.com

     

     

     

  • The ongoing prosecutions reflect my commitment to fighting corruption – Akufo-Addo

    The ongoing prosecution of former and current government officials has “vindicated” President Nana Akufo-commitment Addo to fighting corruption.

    According to him, legislation to enhance the legal framework for dealing with corrupt activities, such as the CHRAJ, EOCO, and the Judiciary, is a strong sign of the government’s and his own desire to combat corruption.

    President Nana Akufo-Addo made these statements in an interview on Otec FM’s morning show “Nyansapo” hosted by Captain Koda, in Kumasi, on Monday, October 17, 2022.

    He stated that he has not hesitated to back the Attorney-General to prosecute any person where there is evidence like in the case of the former head of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Adjenim Boateng.

    “There are a whole lot of prosecutions going on of people of the past government and even of this government. The former head of the Public Procurement Authority is on trial today for acts of corruption in my time,” the president noted.

    “There is also a whole lot of legislation to strengthen the legal framework for dealing with the acts of corruption. All the corruption institutions like the police, the CHRAJ, the EOCO, and the Judiciary among others have been strengthened,” he added.

    He mentioned that the creation and works of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) have also given him hope in the quest to reduce corruption in the country.

    “Kissi Agyebeng is doing very in that office. He is not a direct government or party member but somebody who has the courage to strike where he has to strike, irrespective of the person’s party affiliation,” he eugolized.

     

  • NPP’s worst performance better than NDC’s best – George Krobea Asante

    A Deputy National Communications Director of the ruling NPP, George Krobea Asante, has admonished the opposition NDC for claiming superiority in the management of the economy.

    Speaking on Peace 104.3 FM’s evening show, the Platform with Nana Yaw Kesse as the host, George Krobea Asante pointed out that “today, even in the UK, the Pounds Sterling is struggling against the US Dollar”. He further stated that “in the midst of the economic difficulties being experienced by Ghanaians, we have a stable power.”

    He said that under the NDC, apart from the challenging economic situation, erratic power generation became the order of the day.

    “Even in the midst of crisis, the worst form of NPP’s government is better than NDC’s best government,” he stressed.

    He also touched on the fight against illegal mining activities emphasizing that while there is a national discourse on the matter, the NDC is rather thinking about the next elections whether by foul or fair means.

    He pointed out to the opposition party that the fight against galamsey is a very serious national issue that must be given attention by all political parties, but the NDC, which is only concerned about winning power, is looking the other way.

    All the NDC excels in, Mr. George Krobea Asante said, is the engagement of propaganda by members of the opposition party. He called on all well-meaning Ghanaians to make the fight against galamsey a topmost priority.

    Source: Ghanaweb

  •  46-year-old man has been detained on suspicion of raping and murdering his ex-wife

    A 46-year-old man, Kwabena Mawuli, has been arrested for allegedly raping and killing his former wife at Suminakese in the Kwahu District of the Eastern Region.

    The victim, Yaa Kesewaa, and the suspect were married for five years without a child and have been divorced for the last five years.

    According to a report by Onuaonline.com, a nephew of the deceased, Kwasi Ofori, said Kwabena Mawuli, on Friday, October 14, 2022, went to his farm where he shares a boundary with his ex-wife.

    The suspect waited for Kesewaa to arrive and pounced on her, and forcibly had sex with her. The suspect, fearing that his victim would file a complaint, subsequently slashed the back of her neck with a cutlass.

    Mawuli then sneaked back home but was spotted by some residents who were sceptical about his unusual early return from the farm.

    The suspect, however, confessed to committing the crime after being picked up and interrogated over the death of his former wife.

     

  • Otoobuor Gyan Kwasi expresses readiness to handover after the gazette

    The Acting President of the Okuapeman Traditional Council, Akuapem Adonten Hene, and Akuapem Aburihene, Otoobuor Gyan Kwasi, has stated that he is willing to hand over over power and position to the Okuapehene, Oseadeeyo Kwasi Akuffo III, as customs requires.

    According to Otoobour Gyan Kwasi, this is essential due to the National House of Chiefs’ gazette of Okuapehene on October 5, 2022.

    The Aburihene became acting President of the traditional council following a petition filed by Queen-mother of Okuapeman Nana Obuor Nketiaa II challenging the legitimacy of the Abrewatia of Sakyiabea royal house Lily Agyemang in selecting Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi to be enstooled as Okuapehene.

    Speaking to journalists after a get-together organized by the Management of Papaye to the Adonteng Chiefs for a successful and incident-free Odwira festival this year, Aburihene, Otoobour Gyan Kwasi, revealed that due to chieftaincy issues in Akuapeman, the traditional council muted or banned all gatherings in Akuapem before the annual Odwira festival celebration.

    But he’s happy that, after all, calm and peace have prevailed in Akuapeman and they’ve had a successful Odwira festival.

    Otoobour Gyan Kwasi added that “Now, the National House of Chiefs has gazetted our chief Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi, the traditional council will meet on Tuesday 18/10/22 to outdoor him and hand over his position to him, after which we will present him, Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi, to Koforidua Regional House of Chiefs on Thursday, October 20, 2022.

    “These are all indications of peace and unity and also a win for the entire Akuapeman. Again, I want to emphasize that Okuapeman must move forward.”

    Otoobuor Gyan Kwasi called for calm and peace moving forward.

    “We must all remain calm. We are one people, and peace is what we want. Anybody who wishes to help Okuapeman must do that in earnest and with honesty so that Okuapeman becomes successful,” he said.

    Background

    Three Royal Houses, namely: Nketia House, Ama Ogyaa House, and Sakyiabea House, ascend the Ofori Kuma stool and that has been codified under the declaration of the customary law (Akuapem State) order, 1960, L.I. 32.

    The L.I. further provides that these three houses ascend on a rotational basis, and when it is a house’s turn, it is that house that nominates.

    Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III passed away in 2015 after reigning for 35 years, which is the longest reigning period since the formation of the Akuapem State.

    Lilly Agyemang Abrewatia of Sakyiabea royal house whose turn it was to nominate a candidate, settled on Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi and presented him to the Asonahene to be given to the Queen-mother to present to the Kingmakers.

    Surprisingly, the Queen-mother Nana Obuo Nketiaa II added another name Odehye Kwasi Akuffo who is the nephew of Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi which allegedly created confusion which stalled the process even though eight(8) out of the eleven(11) Kingmakers backed Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi.

    The two candidates were all separately enstooled by the two factions deepening dispute on the enstoolment process.

    This compelled the Abrewatia Lilly Agyemang to initiate a suit at the judicial committee of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs in 2019 to set the record straight that under L.I. 32 and the customs of Okuapeman, it is not the Queen-mother’s exclusive right to nominate the Okuapehene, which the Judicial Committee upheld and entered a judgment in her favor on April 30, 2020, and restrained Odehye Kwasi Akuffo from carrying himself as Okuapeman’s chief.

    On May 1, 2020, Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi was presented to the Kingmakers and all due processes were followed for his enstoolment as Okuapehene as the consequential orders of the judicial committee of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs directed

    On May 3, 2020, Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi was sworn in with the stool name  His Royal Majesty Oseadeeyo Kwasi Akuffo III to become the 26th occupant of the Ofori Kuma stool.

    All five divisional chiefs also swore an oath of allegiance to the Okuapehene that same day.

    However, dissatisfied with the judgment of the Eastern regional house of chiefs and subsequent events thereafter, the Queen-mother, Nana Obuo Nketiaa II, and three others appealed against the judgment at the Judicial Committee of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs at the National House of Chiefs.

  • Chains such as Burger King, KFC, and Pizza Hut face disruption as a result of a strike vote at a key food supplier

    In the case of a catastrophic strike by Best Food Logistics workers, fast food restaurants may be forced to hurry to source alternative supplies through no fault of their own.

    It claimed that 93% of employees had rejected a 6% pay increase since it was much lower than the rate of inflation and amounted to a real-terms pay loss this year and next.

    Nadine Houghton, GMB National Officer, said: “These workers bust a gut to deliver fresh, just-in-time food to some of the biggest names in the business.

    “Best Food’s parent companies Booker and Tesco are making incredibly healthy profits and paying large dividends while leaving these workers crushed by the cost of living.

    “Now some of their biggest clients may well be left short this Christmas because they won’t meet GMB’s reasonable request for a pay deal that protects our members through this year and into next with a genuine cost of living increase.”

    The prospect of disruption to supplies for chains builds on a year of intensifying union action across the economy that has seen railway workers, Royal Mail, and Post Office staff-to-Felixstowe dock workers walk out in a fight for better pay.

    The outgoing leader of the trade union body the TUC has warned key healthcare workers could be next on the picket lines this winter.

    Frances O’Grady was due to tell its annual congress they were already struggling with rising bills and claim that members of unions were facing the “longest squeeze on real wages since Napoleonic times”.

    ‘So it looks like we have nurses strike on our hands?’

    “If ministers and employers keep hammering pay packets at the same rate, UK workers are on course to suffer two decades of lost living standards”, she said.

    “We have got to stop the rot”.

    The prospect of a pay fight between the government and unions representing health workers could not come at a more difficult time given winter pressure on the NHS and the clear signal from the new chancellor Jeremy Hunt that he will be keeping a tight hold of the public purse strings in the wake of the disastrous mini-budget outlined by his predecessor.

     

  • The US blacklists suspected Somali terrorist funders

    The US has blacklisted eight Somalis accused of providing financial and other material support to the Islamist al-Shabab group.

    According to Washington, they are part of a network that has smuggled weaponry from both domestic and foreign sources.

    This comes a day after the Somali authorities warned businesses in the capital, Mogadishu, against paying taxes to the al-Qaeda affiliate.

    Al-Shabab frequently extorts businesses in Mogadishu raising tens of millions of dollars for their militant activities in Somalia and neighbouring countries.

    President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declared an all-out war against al Shabab and sought international support to defeat the militants.

    Last week, the information ministry suspended dozens of social media accounts and websites for allegedly publishing al-Shabab propaganda.

     

  • Ramaphosa cancels free power and water for ministers

    South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has removed controversial benefits for cabinet ministers and their deputies, including free energy and water.

    The incentives sparked popular outrage because they were deemed callous at a time when South Africans are dealing with daily power outages and increased living costs.

    In a press briefing on Monday evening, a spokesman said the president “acknowledges and appreciates the public sentiments on the matter”.

    The ministerial handbook, which outlines ministerial benefits, will be “aligned to the realities that many South Africans face”, presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya said.

    He said the intention behind the perks was “not a nefarious one”.

    “The intention was to try and find some form of balance between what ministers could afford versus some of the costs that they have,” he is quoted as saying the by the state news agency.

     

  • Uganda to seek assistance from France in the DR Congo crisis

    Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni says he plans to invite French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on how to resolve the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

    “I’m going to write to [Mr] Macron and invite him here to discuss African and world issues, including Europe,” President Museveni told the outgoing French ambassador during a meeting on Monday evening.

    He added: ““I would like really to sit down with Mr Macron and we talk strategically. Europe has nothing to lose if they work well with Africa.”

    DR Congo is battling rebel activity in large swathes of its eastern region. One of the main armed groups there, the M23, has recently made gains against the army to occupy a strategic border town and areas around it in North Kivu province.

    President Macron last month met the leaders of Rwanda and DR Congo on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

    They discussed how to put an end to the activities of armed groups in DR Congo.

     

  • Ethiopian army enters major Tigrayan city – rebels

    Forces in the embattled northern Ethiopian region of Tigray say government forces and their allies have reached Shire, one of the country’s largest cities, and that they are still engaged in a “life and death struggle.”

    On Monday, the Ethiopian government said it intended to control airports in Tigray.

    “During war movement out of areas is natural,” a statement by the Tigrayan rebel forces says.

    It called the entering into the Shire by the government “temporary”.

    Fighting broke out in August after five months of relative peace and there are growing concerns that the humanitarian crisis is worsening with transportation of aid into the region suspended because of the renewed clashes.

    Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes fearing the violence in the region, the Tigrayan force’s statement says.

    Tigrayan forces have called on the international community to “fulfill its duty and stop the hostilities”.

    They also called on Tigrayans to continue fighting “in this crucial phase of the conflict”.

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said that the situation in Tigray was “spiralling out of control” and hostilities must end immediately.

    But the violence has continued and there are unconfirmed reports of government forces entering multiple smaller towns in southern Tigray as well.

     

  • Nigeria’s anti-drug agency in mistaken identification raid

    The Nigerian anti-drug agency has apologised to a man in the central state of Plateau after its officers accidentally searched his home while looking for a suspected drug dealer.

    Armed operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested Alyasa’u Idris after breaking into his home in a predawn raid on Thursday.

    But it turned out to be the wrong target.

    Mr Idris, 42, said he initially thought his house was being attacked by kidnappers because kidnappings for ransom are rampant in the country. He then hid inside the ceiling but was pulled out by the officers who broke into the ceiling, he said.

    The incident happened in the town of Yelwan-Shendam.

    The officers interrogated the man after taking him away – but they then realised he was not the person they were looking for.

    He said upon returning home after being released, he found his 500,000 Naira ($1,145; £1,010) was missing.

    Mr Idris, a mattress dealer, told the BBC that his entire family was traumatised by the experience and that all his four wives were taken to hospital because of the psychological impact.

    A spokesperson for the anti-drug agency Femi Babafemi told the BBC that its officers had immediately apologized to the man after realizing it was a case of mistaken identity.

    Mr Babafemi said the victim should write a formal complaint to the agency for investigation on the claims of missing money and demand for compensation.

     

  • Ukraine war: Moscow and Kyiv exchange women detainees for sailors

    Russia has swapped 108 Ukrainian women detained as prisoners of war for 110 Russian hostages held by Ukraine according to officials on both sides,

    As per reports, 37 of the women were caught after surrendering during the siege of the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol, which ended in May.

    Most of the Russians freed are sailors from merchant ships held in Ukraine.

    They also include members of pro-Russian separatist military units from the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

    Daylight photos were released of the Ukrainian women boarding coaches in an unspecified area and later of them arriving after dark in government-held territory in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

    Freed prisoners
    IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS Image caption, The freed Ukrainians were taken to safety in coaches

    Freed prisoners
    IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS

    Freed prisoners
    IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS

    The Ukrainian presidency’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, confirmed on social media that 108 women had been released in the “first all-female exchange”.

    He said they included mothers and daughters who had been held captive together. All but 12 of them are servicewomen, he said.

    Denis Pushilin, the top Russian-backed official in the breakaway part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, confirmed the swap but said two detainees had decided to remain in Russia. Kyiv has not commented on this.

    According to Mr Pushilin, the prisoners freed by Ukraine are 80 sailors and 30 service personnel.

     

  • Ministry of Defence: Ex-UK pilots being enticed to assist the Chinese military

    Former British military pilots are allegedly being recruited to China with substantial sums of money in order to pass on their experience to the Chinese military.

    Up to 30 former British military pilots are said to have gone to China to teach members of the People’s Liberation Army.

    The United Kingdom has issued an intelligence notice warning former military pilots not to serve in the Chinese military.

    Attempts to headhunt pilots are ongoing and had been ramping up recently, western officials say.

    A spokesperson from the Ministry of Defence said the training ​and the recruiting of pilots do not breach any current UK law but officials in the UK and other countries are trying to deter the activity.

    “It is a lucrative package that is being offered to people,” said one western official. “Money is a strong motivator.” Some of the packages are thought to be as much as £237,911 ($270,000).

    The retired British pilots are being used to help understand the way in which Western planes and pilots operate, information that could be vital in the event of any conflict, such as over Taiwan.

    “They are a very attractive body of people to then pass on that knowledge,” a Western official said. “It’s taking Western pilots of great experience to help develop Chinese military air force tactics and capabilities.”

    The UK first became aware of a small number of cases of former military pilots being recruited in 2019 which were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The Covid-19 pandemic slowed attempts down when travel to China was almost impossible but the attempts have now increased, leading to this alert.

    “We’ve seen it ramp up significantly,” a western official said in a briefing to journalists. “It is an ongoing issue.” Current serving personnel is being targeted but none are thought to have accepted.

    The pilots have experience on fast jets and helicopters and come from across the military and not just the Royal Air Force. They have flown Typhoons, Jaguars, Harriers, and Tornados.

    F-35 pilots are not thought to be involved although China is thought to be interested in them. Some of the pilots are in their late 50s and left the military some time ago. Pilots of other allied nations have also been targeted.

    Officials said they are being recruited through intermediary head-hunters and cited a particular flying academy based in South Africa as being involved.

    There is no evidence that any pilots have broken the Official Secrets Act or that they have committed any crime. The aim of the alert is to try and deter activity and inform current staff and industry partners and also remind personnel of their obligations to protect sensitive information.

    “We are taking decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK Armed Forces pilots to train People’s Liberation Army personnel in the People’s Republic of China,” an MoD spokesperson said.

    “All serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements across Defence, while the new National Security Bill will create additional tools to tackle contemporary security challenges – including this one.”

     

     

  • Liz Truss: ‘I will lead Conservatives into the next general election’

    Liz Truss has insisted that she will lead the Conservatives into the next general election, despite U-turns that have left her fighting for her authority.

    The Prime Minister apologized for making mistakes after new chancellor Jeremy Hunt scrapped almost all of her tax-cutting proposals to calm market turbulence.

    She went on to say that her month-old premiership “hasn’t been perfect,” but that she had “corrected” flaws.

    And she said it would have been “irresponsible” not to change course.

    In an interview with the BBC, she said she was still committed to boosting UK economic growth, but acknowledged it would now take longer to achieve.

    “I remain committed to the vision, but we will have to deliver that in a different way,” she said.

    It comes after a dramatic day at Westminster after Mr Hunt announced that nearly all the tax cuts announced at last month’s mini-budget would be scrapped.

    The decision has been welcomed by investors but has left Ms Truss’s economic agenda in tatters only weeks into her time in No 10.

    Liz Truss told the BBC’s Chris Mason she was “sorry for the mistakes that have been made”.

    In her interview, Ms Truss said she accepted responsibility for going “too far, too fast” – and she wanted to “say sorry for the mistakes that have been made”.

    She added that she remained committed to a “low tax, high growth economy” – but preserving economic stability was now the “priority”.

    “I do think it is the mark of an honest politician who does say ‘yes, I’ve made a mistake. I’ve addressed that mistake. And now we need to deliver for people.

    “It would have been completely irresponsible for me not to act in the national interest in the way I have.”

    Shadow Treasury minister James Murray said the PM’s apology “after weeks of blaming everyone else” would not “undo the damage” caused by her mini-budget.

    “No sorry can change the fact that this crisis was made in Downing Street but is being paid for by working people,” he added.

    Jeremy Hunt in the Commons
    IMAGE SOURCE, JESSICA TAYLOR/UK PARLIAMENT Image caption, Liz Truss sat in the Commons for half an hour as Mr Hunt outlined the U-turns to MPs

    Ms Truss watched on silently as Mr Hunt delivered a Commons statement to explain to MPs why the economic strategy, outlined last month by Kwasi Kwarteng, was being torn up.

    The chancellor warned that “decisions of eye-watering difficulty” on tax and spending remain ahead of an economic statement on 31 October, when he will give further details of a plan to reduce the UK’s debt burden.

    He said further windfall taxes on energy companies – a policy repeatedly rubbished by Ms Truss during her Tory leadership campaign – could not be ruled out, along with changes to the pension triple lock.

    Ms Truss refused a Labour request to explain the U-turns to MPs herself before Mr Hunt’s statement, with Commons leader Penny Mordaunt saying the PM had been “detained on urgent business”. The prime minister later arrived in the Commons taking her seat beside Mr Hunt before he began his statement.

    Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the PM of leaving an “utter vacuum” in government, while one of his MPs jibed she had been “cowering under a desk”.

    In total, £32bn of the £45bn in tax cuts announced at last month’s mini-budget have now been ditched, including plans to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p from April.

    Cuts to dividend taxes and VAT-free shopping for international tourists have also been scrapped, along with a freeze on alcohol duty rates.

    Leadership threats

    The government’s energy support package, a policy repeatedly championed by Ms Truss in defence of her premiership, will also be scaled back after six months.

    The reversals have prompted some Tory MPs to talk privately about how Ms Truss could be ejected from office, despite party rules preventing a formal leadership challenge for a year.

    Tactics reportedly under consideration include submitting no-confidence letters in a bid to force party bosses into a rule change or changing the rules to allow MPs to bypass party members and pick a new leader themselves.

    Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey called for a general election, telling the BBC “the damage has already been done” by the mini-budget.

    Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves echoed calls for Ms Truss’s removal, telling BBC Breakfast the “only thing left from the Prime Minister’s plan is higher mortgage rates and higher bonuses for bankers”.

    Ms Reeves said Labour would fund a longer-running energy bill support package by scrapping non-dom status.

    However, there is little agreement over who should take over from Ms Truss if she is removed.

    Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has quashed rumours that he could replace Ms Truss should she resign.

    Speaking to the Times, he said he will be holding on to his current job and accused Tory MPs of playing “political parlour games”.

    Five of the PM’s own MPs have called publicly for her to resign, with others briefing journalists that they think her time in office is up.

    Ms Truss has been holding meetings with her cabinet ministers and backbench MPs as she tries to reassure her party of her grip on power.

    She also met Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the committee that decides the Tory party rulebook.

    The committee’s treasurer has confirmed a rule change is possible, but suggested “probably 60-70%” of the party’s MPs would have to support the move.