TIG Post

Author: Abigail Ampofo

  • Giorgia Meloni: The far-right party in Italy wins the election and promises to rule fairly

    Giorgia Meloni, a leader of the far right, has declared victory in the Italian election and is on track to become the nation’s first female prime minister.

    The most right-wing government in Italy since World War Two is anticipated to be formed by Ms. Meloni.

    Giorgia Meloni, a leader of the far right, has declared victory in the Italian election and is on track to become the nation’s first female prime minister.

    The most right-wing government in Italy since World War Two is anticipated to be formed by Ms. Meloni.

    That will alarm much of Europe as Italy is the EU’s third-biggest economy.

    However, speaking after the vote, Ms Meloni said her Brothers of Italy party would “govern for everyone” and would not betray people’s trust.

    “Italians have sent a clear message in favour of a right-wing government led by Brothers of Italy,” she told reporters in Rome, holding up a sign saying “Thank you Italy”.

    She is set to win around 26% of the vote, ahead of her closest rival Enrico Letta from the center-left. Mr Letta told reporters on Monday that the far-right victory was a “sad day for Italy and Europe” but his party would provide a “strong and intransigent opposition”.

    Ms Meloni’s right-wing alliance – which also includes Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia – will take control of both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, with around 44% of the vote.

    Four years ago, Brothers of Italy won little more than 4% of the vote but this time benefited from staying out of the national unity government that collapsed in July.

    The party’s dramatic success in the vote disguised the fact that her allies performed poorly, with the League slipping below 9%, and Forza Italia even lower.

    Their big advantage, however, was that where they were able to put up one unified candidate in a constituency, their opponents in the left and centre could not agree a common position and stood separately.

    Giorgia Meloni appears certain to become prime minister but it will be for the president, Sergio Mattarella, to nominate her and that is unlikely to happen before late October.

    Although she has worked hard to soften her image, emphasizing her support for Ukraine and diluting anti-EU rhetoric, she leads a party rooted in a post-war movement that rose out of dictator Benito Mussolini’s fascists.

    Earlier this year she outlined her priorities in a raucous speech to Spain’s far-right Vox party: “Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology… no to Islamist violence, yes to secure borders, no to mass migration… no to big international finance… no to the bureaucrats of Brussels!”1px transparent line

    The center-left alliance was a long way behind the right with 26% of the vote and Democratic Party figure Debora Serracchiani argued that the right “has the majority in parliament, but not in the country”.

    In truth, the left failed to form a viable challenge with other parties after Italy’s 18-month unity government fell apart, and officials were downbeat even before the vote. The Five Star Movement under Giuseppe Conte won a convincing third place – but did not see eye to eye with Enrico Letta even though they have several policies in common on immigration and raising the minimum wage.

    Turnout fell to a record low of 63.91% – nine points down in 2018. Voting levels were especially poor in southern regions including Sicily.1px transparent line

    Italy is a founding father of the European Union and a member of Nato, and Ms Meloni’s rhetoric on the EU places her close to Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orban.

    Her allies have both had close ties with Russia. Mr Berlusconi, 85, claimed last week that Vladimir Putin was pushed into invading Ukraine while Mr Salvini has called into question Western sanctions on Moscow.

    Ms Meloni wants to revisit Italian reforms agreed with the EU in return for almost €200bn (£178bn) in post-Covid recovery grants and loans, arguing that the energy crisis has changed the situation.

    Italy is already the second most indebted country in the eurozone and Prof Leila Simona Talani of King’s College London believes the next government will face a clutch of serious issues.

    “They have no experience economically. Tax cuts will be a problem, so Italy will have less revenue and it’s heading for a recession, so it’ll face problems with the financial markets and with Europe. How will they find the money to tackle the rising energy prices?”

    People stand next to a poster of Enrico Letta, secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), at the PD headquarters, during the snap election, in Rome, Italy, September 25, 2022
    IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, There was little cause for joy at Enrico Letta’s Democratic Party headquarters on Sunday night

    The Hungarian prime minister’s long-serving political director, Balazs Orban, was quick to congratulate Italy’s right-wing parties: “We need more than ever friends who share a common vision and approach to Europe’s challenges.”

    In France, Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally said Italian voters had given European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen a lesson in humility. She had earlier said Europe had “the tools” to respond if Italy went in a “difficult direction”.

    However, Prof Gianluca Passarrelli of Rome’s Sapienza University told the BBC he thought she would avoid rocking the boat on Europe and focus on other policies: “I think we will see more restrictions on civil rights and policies on LGBT and immigrants.”

    Ms Meloni wants a naval blockade to stop migrant boats from leaving Libya, and Matteo Salvini is known to covet the job of an interior minister which he held three years ago. However, he is currently on trial for barring a boat from docking as part of his policy to close ports to rescue boats.

    This election marks a one-third reduction in the size of the two houses, and that appears to have benefited the winning parties.

    The make-up of the Chamber and Senate is not yet clear but a YouTrend projection said the right-wing alliance would hold as many as 238 of the 400 seats in the lower house and 112 of the 200 seats in the upper house.

    As for the center-left, they are projected to have 78 seats in the Chamber and 40 in the Senate.

  • Boy dead: Aunt ‘push boy,3 into Lake Michigan and watched as he sank

    On Sunday, shortly after 10 a.m. local time, Josiah Brown was declared deceased. He had been taken from the lake last Monday while in a severe state, and it had not been anticipated that he would make it.

    A three-year-old boy has died after his aunt allegedly pushed him into Lake Michigan in Chicago, US officials say.

    Josiah Brown was pronounced dead shortly after 10 am local time (4 pm UK time) on Sunday.

    He had been in a critical condition after being pulled from the lake last Monday and had not been expected to survive.

    Victoria Moreno. Pic: Chicago Police
    Image:Victoria Moreno. Pic: Chicago Police

    Josiah was allegedly shoved by his aunt Victoria Moreno at Navy Pier, a fall of more than 6ft, and she then stood by as he sank below the water, according to authorities.

    Divers found the boy at the bottom of the lake about half an hour later.

  • Denmark issues a warning for the Baltic Sea as a result of the Nord Stream 2 leak

    Denmark’s energy agency has ordered ships to keep five nautical miles away from Bornholm in response to the midnight leak. The leak was regarded as “dangerous for ship traffic.”

    A gas leak from the defunct Russian-owned Nord Stream 2 pipeline has led the Danish authorities to issue a warning to ships in the Baltic Sea.

    Following the overnight leak, Denmark’s energy agency has asked ships to stay five nautical miles clear of the island of Bornholm.

    It described the leak as being “dangerous for ship traffic”.

    The German government and local law enforcement officials are also working to find out what caused pressure in the pipeline to plummet suddenly.

    “We are currently in contact with the authorities concerned in order to clarify the situation,” said a statement from the German economy ministry.

    “We still have no clarity about the causes and the exact facts.”

    Nord Stream 2’s operator said pressure in the pipeline, which had some gas sealed inside despite never becoming operational, dropped from 105 to seven bars overnight.

    The pipeline has been one of the flashpoints in an escalating energy war between Europe and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February has sent gas prices soaring.

    Intended to double the volume of gas flowing from St Petersburg under the Baltic Sea to Germany, it had just been completed and filled with 300 million cubic meters of gas when Germany canceled it days before the invasion.

    European countries have resisted Russian calls to allow the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to operate and accused Moscow of using energy as a weapon.

    Russia denies doing so and blames the West for gas shortages.

     

  • Hacked to death: Gangster Salem Koudou dies in revenge for birthday party attack, court told

    Salem Koudou, 19, was stabbed 32 times after he was chased by up to 15 people in Brixton, south London, jurors heard.

    Darius Kwakye, 29, Donte McCalla, 21, and Tristan Bullock, 21, are on trial at the Old Bailey for his murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, which they deny.

    Opening their trial on Monday, Oliver Glasgow KC said there could be no excuse for the “murderous attack”.

    The jury heard that on 20 August 2020, Mr Koudou – a member of Stockwell-based gang All ‘Bout Money (ABM) – and two others went out in a stolen VW Golf to attack rivals.

    ABM was in a violent dispute with gangs known as 17 or Wandsworth Road, One Five-O (150) or Get Back Gang (GBG), and Four Ten (410).

    After failing in one attempt, Mr Koudou and his companions went on to Brixton where they came allegedly across an “ideal target”.

    Just before 6 pm, the VW Golf was driven head first into Kwakye’s parked Mercedes outside a birthday party on Marcella Road for Tyreicke Williams, 28, who was affiliated to GBG.

    Mr Koudou got out with an “enormous knife” and began to chase guests, including Mr Williams and Kwakye, it was alleged.

    Mr Williams fell to the ground and was set upon by Mr Koudou but managed to get away despite being hurt.

    Mr Glasgow said the response was “immediate and violent”, “swift and aggressive” as party guests armed themselves and gave chase.

    He told jurors: “The roles were now reversed, Salem Koudou no longer had the upper hand, and he had 15 or more people to escape from.”

    ‘No hope of survival’

    Realising he was “hopelessly outnumbered”, Mr Koudou fled but fell to the floor and was set upon by members of the group, the prosecutor said.

    Mr Glasgow told jurors: “In total, he was stabbed more than 30 times and the injuries he sustained were catastrophic.

    “His lungs, liver, and stomach were damaged by the knives that were used to stab him, and the blades were wielded with such ferocity that some of the wounds were as deep as 14cm.

    “Others damaged the bones of his rib cage, and one went through his skull.

    “There was no hope of survival and yet seconds was all it took for this attack to take place, for his pursuers to have their revenge, and for the killers to disappear calmly as if nothing had happened.”

    He added: “Given the build-up to this shocking violence, there can be no doubt that Salem Koudou’s pursuers wanted to avenge the attack upon Tyreicke Williams.”

    The defendants, from south London, were allegedly identified as being among the group of men who chased and stabbed Mr Koudou to death.

    However, Mr Glasgow said they do not accept CCTV and forensic evidence and deny that they had anything to do with the murder.

    The trial continues.

  • News of ‘Tsunami’: Wall Street mixed

    After a flurry of events last week, US markets and foreign equities were neutral on Monday morning.

    US stocks were mixed, oil prices were choppy, and the dollar and Treasury yields rose on Monday, with Wall Street digesting a raft of macroeconomic news.

    The moves came after sterling slumped to a record low earlier in the day, before recovering, and a renewed selloff in British gilts pushed euro zone bond yields higher as the reaction to last week’s fiscal statement in the United Kingdom again roiled markets.

    US stocks were mixed to start the week – the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped about 0.5 percent and the S&P 500 fell nearly 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4 percent.

    Global equities were also mixed after initially sliding on concerns about high-interest rates continued to put pressure on the financial system. Reaction to Italy’s election result, where a right-wing alliance won a clear majority, was muted.

    Europe’s STOXX 600 index at first slipped to hit a new low in December 2020 but then swung back for a slight 0.1 percent gain on the day. Asian stocks fell 1.45 percent.

    “I think everyone felt they were swimming in a tsunami of newsflow last week after one of the most incredible macro weeks in recent memory,” Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid wrote in a client note on Monday.

    The pound skidded to an all-time low against the dollar, the last trading down about 0.4 percent, as investors waited to see if the Bank of England will intervene to calm concerns over government plans that could stretch the country’s finances.

    Sterling’s declines are partly due to dollar strength. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six peers, hit a new 20-year top of 114.58 in early trade. It was last at $113.5, up about 0.36 percent.

    The tumble is leading to speculation the Bank of England will have to hold an emergency meeting to raise rates.

    “The Bank of England is in a very difficult spot where if they don’t react, they risk another sterling collapse and things getting very messy,” said Mike Riddell, senior portfolio manager, Allianz Global Investors. “If they do react, a developed market hiking rate to defend the currency looks like an emerging market. So they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t.”

    Stress building

    European government bonds were also hit. Five-year UK government bond yields jumped 50 basis points to their highest since October 2008, sending euro zone bond yields higher. Germany’s 10-year government bond yield hit its highest since December 2011 at 2.132 percent, and Italy’s benchmark bond yields rose to their highest since 2013.

    In the United States, Treasury yields also rose to new highs on Monday amid concerns that central banks globally will keep tightening monetary policy to curb stubbornly high inflation.

    Two-year Treasury yields, which tend to be more sensitive to interest rate changes, rose to a new 15-year high of 4.237, and benchmark 10-year note yields were up about 5 basis points from their Friday close, climbing to 3.746 percent.

    Oil prices hit nine-month lows on Monday before recovering to stand higher on the day in choppy trade, as recession fears and a strong dollar spooked the market where participants were waiting for details on new sanctions on Russia.

    Brent crude futures for November settlement were up about 0.9 percent, at $86.95 a barrel, having earlier fallen as far as $84.51, the lowest since January 14.

    Gold prices edged up from a two-and-a-half-year low on Monday as the dollar pulled back slightly from its two-decade peak, offering some support to bullion in the face of jitters over rising US interest rates.

    Spot gold was flat at $1,643 per ounce, after dropping to its lowest price since April 2020 at $1,626.41.

    “There has been an economic logic at play, as central banks raised rates to drive monetary policy into restrictive territory, get below trend growth for a while – a polite way of saying a recession – and then you get lower inflation,” said Samy Chaar, chief economist at Lombard Odier.

    “The question is whether the financial world can go through that sequence. It feels like we are reaching the limit of that, things are starting to break, for example, what we see with sterling.”

  • Bank of England: ‘Don’t panic, we know what we’re doing’

    This afternoon, the Treasury and the Bank of England made an effort to reassure. The message was crystal clear: Don’t worry; we have you covered.

    Privately among some Conservative MPs though, there’s a fear the government doesn’t.

    And so politically, a tussle for perhaps the biggest prize of the lot: the mantle of economic credibility.

    For years, this has been an Achilles’ heel for Labour; pummelled by Conservative opponents labeling them fiscally incontinent; unable to restrain the urge to tax, borrow and spend.

    But they are now attempting to turn that charge around on the Tories, and allow themselves to imagine this might be a moment – like Black Wednesday 30 years ago – where events spiral beyond the government’s control and so mug ministers of reputations, never to properly return.

    Others, though, counsel caution… this moment may pass; pressures may ease.

    Plenty within Labour still see a landscape changing; a willingness to be listened to again.

    What we are witnessing in the markets are the short-term consequences of Friday’s statement from the chancellor.

    But there will be long-term consequences too – that will shape the political debate between now and the next election.

  • Ebola outbreak: Ebola trainee medics walk out over safety concerns

    Trainee doctors fighting Ebola in Uganda’s epicenter of the disease accuse the government of endangering their lives.

    “Most times you come into contact with a patient and you use your bare hands,” one worker told the BBC anonymously.

    All trainees at Mubende’s regional hospital say they are on strike and are demanding to be moved somewhere safer.

    But Ugandan health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona told the BBC there was “no strike at the hospital”.

    Yet all 34 of the hospital’s interns – including doctors, pharmacists, and nurses – have announced their decision to strike in a joint statement.

    They say they are being put at undue risk because they lack appropriate safety kits, risk allowances, and health insurance.

    Six interns at the hospital have already been exposed to the virus, and are awaiting their test results in isolation.

    Since the outbreak began earlier this month, official government data shows 36 people are suspected of contracting Ebola, of whom 23 have died.

    A 24-year-old-man was the first known Ebola death, and six members of his family also died.

    No effective Ebola vaccine is available here yet, because the Sudan strain circulating in central Uganda is different from the Zaire strain that has afflicted West Africa and DR Congo and which can be immunized against.

    Experts say it is unrealistic to think Ebola will ever be eradicated, but it is now easier to prevent a crisis.

    A map of Uganda showing the location of the Ebola outbreak

  • Concerning the legal aid fund, Cardinal Zen and activists are in court in Hong Kong

    An ex-bishop of Hong Kong who is 90 years old has been accused of fraudulently registering a support fund for protesters who were detained in 2019.

    A 90-year-old Catholic cardinal and five others have gone on trial in Hong Kong for allegedly failing to register a now-defunct fund to help provide legal aid to people arrested in the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

    Cardinal Joseph Zen, the retired bishop of Hong Kong, was arrested in May together with others including singer Denise Ho and barrister Margaret Ng under the national security law.

    They have since been charged for failing to properly register the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund and appeared in court on Monday.

    Zen, together with Ho, Ng as well as cultural studies scholar Hui Po Keung and former legislator Cyd Ho, were trustees of the fund. A sixth defendant, Sze Ching-wee, was the fund’s secretary.

    All have pleaded not guilty.

    None of the defendants spoke to reporters on their way into West Kowloon court on Monday morning.

    If convicted they face a fine of up to 10,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,274) but no jail time.

    “Colluding with foreign forces”, the security law offense for which they were originally arrested, carries a potential life term.

    The 612 funds helped pay medical and legal fees for arrested protesters during the 2019 protests but were wound up last year after the national security police demanded information on its operations including its donors and beneficiaries.

    The Societies Ordinance requires local organizations to register or apply for an exemption within a month of their establishment.

  • People smuggler: Clients sign a waiver

    A people smuggler says that his clients are unaffected by the UK government’s proposal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. He is met by Jane Corbin at his Turkish headquarters.

    The night is falling as I make my way up the creaking stairs of a safe house in an anonymous alleyway in Istanbul, Turkey. I’m here to meet a kingpin in the people-smuggling trade – it has taken months to arrange, working through a trusted intermediary. It is the culmination of a BBC Panorama investigation into how thousands of migrants end up on the beaches of southern England claiming asylum.

    The people smuggler is from the Middle East – young and softly spoken, smartly dressed in black. He has agreed to tell me about his business if we do not reveal his identity. His bodyguards discreetly keep watch outside the house.

    I challenge him that smuggling people is illegal: “I know this is not legal,” he says, “but for me, it’s about humanity – that’s worth more than the law. We help people, we treat them well, we respect women – we don’t disrespect or hurt anyone.”

    Nearly 2,000 people died in the Mediterranean Sea last year.

    In April, the UK government signed a £120m deal with Rwanda to send some migrants, mostly single men, to Africa to have their asylum claims processed.

    Migrants carry a boat towards the water before they attempt to cross the Channel illegally to Britain, July 2022
    IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, More than 30,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel already this year

    The government said the aim was to smash the business model of the people smugglers and stop record numbers of people making the dangerous English Channel crossing.

    Already this year, more than 30,000 people have made the crossing in small boats, about as many as the whole of last year.

    The people smuggler sends hundreds of migrants to the UK. He readily admits his trade is very profitable and says he runs it like a businessman.

    “It doesn’t matter if it’s a whole family or an individual – each person pays the same price,” he says. “A trip to Britain will cost $17,000 [about £15,000] in total.”

    So how can he justify putting people’s lives at risk in dangerous sea crossings in flimsy boats?

    “Accidents can happen. We try and scare people to dissuade them,” he claims. “I say to them, ‘This road is dangerous and not worth it. You could die. And I tell his mum and his dad too.’”

    He shows us a form – a disclaimer he says he gets customers to sign, acknowledging the risks.

    Translation of the document

    Istanbul is the gateway between Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe – and this black market trade is booming here.

    Marketing is competitive. On social media, smugglers offer different rates depending on the destination.

    There are fake passports and British driving licenses for sale. Even sample questions from British Home Office officials to prepare migrants for a grilling.

    Istanbul at night
    Image caption, At night, migrants are taken in vans from Istanbul to the mountains, where they walk down to the Mediterranean

    The people smuggler collects his clients in safe houses in this sprawling city, which is home to about five million refugees. They are packed into small rooms, where they can wait months while their passage is arranged. His gang brings them food and water from local supermarkets.

    “We put them in a house and wait for everything to be prepared. And when it’s ready we take their phones so the cops can’t find out about us,” the people smuggler explains.

    Then the migrants are taken in a van at night from Istanbul to the mountains. They walk in groups of six or ten, down to the Mediterranean, to one of the people smuggler’s boats.

    They are bound for Greece or Italy.

  • Russian citizenship granted to Edward Snowden

    A former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who exposed vast US surveillance programmes, has been awarded Russian citizenship.

    The decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

    Mr Snowden, 39, has been living in exile in Russia since exposing the National Security Agency (NSA) programme affecting millions of Americans in 2013.

    Mr Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the US, has made no public comments.

    In 2020, the NSA surveillance of millions of Americans’ telephone records was ruled unlawful by the US Court of Appeals.

    Mr Snowden said afterward that he felt vindicated by the ruling.

    Top US intelligence officials had publicly insisted the NSA had never knowingly collected data from private phone records until Mr Snowden exposed evidence to the contrary.

    Following the revelation, officials said the NSA’s surveillance program had played a crucial role in fighting domestic terrorism, including the convictions of Basaaly Saeed Moalin, Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud, Mohamed Mohamud, and Issa Doreh, of San Diego, for providing aid to al-Shabab militants in Somalia.

  • Hurricane Ian: Nasa forced to shelter Artemis Moon rocket

    Due to an impending hurricane, the American space agency will remove its Artemis-I Moon rocket from the launch pad in Florida.

    In order to preserve it, NASA says that the Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle will be rolled back into its engineering workshop.

    Hurricane Ian is moving through the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall in Florida on Thursday.

    High winds and heavy rain are forecast for the Kennedy Space Center.

    Although the spaceport will probably escape the worst of the storm’s impacts, Nasa can’t risk its multi-billion-dollar rocket being damaged.

    The return to Kennedy’s famous Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) likely now moves the maiden flight of the SLS to November.

    Nasa had hoped the storm’s track through the Gulf would take it sufficiently westwards so that the rocket could stay out on the pad, enabling a lift-off to take place sooner.

    But the medium-range forecast models have, in recent hours, seen the expected track shift eastwards, putting the west coast of Florida, or its panhandle, directly in the firing line.

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already declared a “state of emergency”.

    Nasa has one of its giant tractors on standby at the pad, ready to initiate the roll-back.

    The slow speed at which this Crawler Transporter moves means the 6.7km (4.2 miles) journey to the VAB takes the best part of half a day. Engineers will therefore want to get it underway as soon as possible.

    The retreat is expected to begin at 0400BST (2300EDT).

    Artemis-I is the first in a series of missions that will eventually see humans return to the lunar surface after an absence of 50 years.

    The initial flight of the SLS is uncrewed: it’s billed as a safety demonstration of the hardware and will send a capsule called Orion out to and beyond the Moon before coming home to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

    Assuming everything works as it should, astronauts will then climb aboard the next scheduled SLS-Orion outing in 2024. This again will do a simple loop around the Moon.

    It’s on Artemis-III, possibly in late 2025, that astronauts will make the trip down to the lunar surface.

  • Ukraine war: Russia acknowledges mobilization faults in the Ukraine war, despite mounting public opposition

    In the face of mounting public criticism, the Kremlin has acknowledged that its efforts to mobilise Russian army reservists to fight in Ukraine were flawed.

    “There are cases when the decree is violated,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said, adding that “all the errors will be corrected”.

    Multiple reports say people with no military experience – or who are too old or disabled – are being called up.

    Last week’s mobilization decree has already triggered widespread protests.

    President Putin announced what he described as partial mobilization on 21 September, with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu later saying 300,000 reservists would be called up.

    However, reports in opposition Russian media suggested that up to one million people could be called up, pointing out that one paragraph believed to be about the exact number of the required reservists was omitted (classified) in the published version of Mr Putin’s decree on the official Kremlin website.

    A number of military experts in the West and Ukraine say Mr Putin’s decision to call up reservists shows that Russian troops are failing badly on the battlefield in Ukraine – more than seven months after Moscow launched its invasion.

    Since the mobilization announcement, more than 2,000 people have been detained at protests across Russia.

    At a briefing on Monday, Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, conceded that mistakes were being made.

    He said that in some regions, “governors are actively working to rectify the situation”.

    Mr Peskov also said he was unaware of any decisions to shut Russia’s borders and impose martial law in the country.

    Media reports earlier suggested this could be done to stop potential recruits from escaping abroad.

    In the latest sign of growing public protest, a man critically injured an army recruitment officer in the Siberian city of Ust-llimsk on Monday.

    Footage has emerged on social media apparently showing the attacker approaching the officer and then shooting him. People in the building are then seen screaming and running in panic after the gunman shouted to them to flee.

    Over the weekend, people in Russia’s Dagestan republic in the North Caucasus clashed with police over the mobilisation drive. More than 100 people were arrested during protests in the regional capital, Makhachkala, said OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights monitor.

    There have also been reports of a number of arson attacks on recruitment centres and other administrative buildings across Russia.

    In his last week’s mobilisation announcement, Mr Putin did not specify how many reservists would be called up.

    But speaking immediately after the president, Mr Shoigu said 300,000 reservists – people who have had military experience and required specialist skills – would be enlisted.

    The minister said this was just over 1% of Russia’s 25 million military reserve potential. The process would be spread over several months.

    Certain age and disability limits would apply, the mobilisation decree said. It provided no further details. It is believed that males aged 18-60 – and in some cases even older – could be mobilised.

    Russian commentators have cast serious doubts on the promises of the president and his defence minister that the call-up will be limited.

    They also point out that the decree says nothing about exceptions, such as not recruiting students or conscripts.

    It is believed to have been left to regional heads to decide who to call in order to meet quotas.

    Before launching its invasion on 24 February, Russia had amassed about 190,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders.

     

  • Kerala lottery: India jackpot winner tired of requests for help

    An Indian lottery winner claimed he regretted winning the jackpot because he is receiving so many pleas for financial assistance.

    Anoop, an auto driver from Kerala in southern India, won 250 million rupees ($3.06 million, £2.9 million) in a state lottery earlier in September.

    But a week later, he posted a video requesting strangers to stop bothering him and his family.

    “I wish I hadn’t won,” he says. “The third prize may have been better.”

    Anoop says in the video that he is considering moving houses to escape the overwhelming public attention.

    He had made national headlines when he won the prize, the highest ever offered in the state for a lottery.

    He bought the ticket on 17 September – a day before he was supposed to fly to Malaysia for a job – after breaking open his son’s piggy bank.

    After news broke of his win, his family received a lot of media attention.

    “I was overjoyed when I won,” he says in his recent video. “There were people and cameras at the house and we were happy.”

    But the situation soon got out of control, he says.

    “I can’t leave the house, I can’t go anywhere. My child is ill and I can’t take him to the doctor.”

    Anoop – who will receive 150mn rupees after government taxes – says people begin arriving at his house every morning.

    “All I can tell everyone is that I haven’t gotten any money yet. No one seems to understand my problem, no matter how many times I say it,” he says.

    Anoop says he and his family have been staying with relatives to escape the attention.

    The state government has said it will arrange a day’s training programme for Anoop on financial management to help him use the money well.

  • Inferior oil blamed for Sri Lanka power cuts

    A senior Sri Lankan official has attributed the shutdown of a power plant that resulted in prolonged outages to imports of crude oil of poor grade.

    The oil used in the furnaces, according to utility regulator chief Janaka Ratnayake, contained an excessive amount of sulphur.

    But the country’s energy minister has disputed the allegation.

    Last week, Sri Lanka increased its daily power outage from 80 minutes to 140 minutes because of a drop in power generating capacity.

    “Sulphur content is too high in the furnace oil [fuel oil] which is not suitable for the current power plants and it’s also not conforming with environmental standards,” Mr Ratnayake, the head of the Public Utilities Commission, told the BBC.

    “If you buy good quality crude oil for refineries, then this problem will not happen.”

    Mr Ratnayake said about 10% of the country’s electricity came from diesel and fuel oil power plants. The rest of the electricity is generated from hydro, renewable, and coal-powered plants.

    But Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara defended the crude oil import policy.

    In a tweet, he said Sri Lanka’s state-run fuel retailer, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, would respond legally to Mr Ratnayake’s allegation.

    According to Mr Wijesekara, the power cut was extended because of a breakdown at one of the hydro-power stations and insufficient funds for diesel and fuel oil.

    The South Asian nation has been facing its worst financial crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948. It is struggling to find enough dollars to import fuel and food.

    The shortages led to months of anti-government protests and long queues outside petrol stations.

    In July, the unrest came to a head when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to flee the country and then resign after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence.

    Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was subsequently elected by MPs as president.

    Since then, the government has introduced a ration system for fuel using a QR code that has reduced the queues outside petrol stations.

    Sri Lanka has reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan of $2.9bn (£2.7bn) and it expects the deal to be approved by the IMF board by the end of this year.

    But the conditions include Colombo reaching an agreement with its creditors on debt restructuring. Sri Lanka has about $50bn of external debt.

  • Cuba Family Code: Country votes to approve same-sex marriage

    In a national referendum, Cubans decided to legalise same-sex marriages.

    A new Family Code that will also permit surrogate pregnancies and grant gay couples the ability to adopt children was approved by around two-thirds of the electorate.

    It marks a big moment for Cuba, which saw gay people persecuted and sent to work camps in the 1960s and 70s.

    However, there was significant opposition to the reforms among religious groups and conservatives.

    The referendum on Sunday was for a new Family Code – a 100-page document that went through more than two dozen drafts and hours of debate in community-level meetings.

    Cuba’s government had backed the law change and ran a nationwide campaign urging people to approve it.

    Speaking as he voted on Sunday, the country’s President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said he expected most of the population would vote yes and that the new code reflected the diversity of people, families, and beliefs.

    On Monday, preliminary results indicated an “irreversible trend”, with 66% of votes counted so far in favour of the reform, electoral council president Alina Balseiro said on state television, according to AFP news agency. The law required 50% of voters’ approval to be adopted.

    The reforms were the culmination of efforts by gay rights activists in Cuba.

    Official attitudes towards homosexuality on the Communist-run island have changed over the past decades, partly thanks to the efforts of former leader Raúl Castro’s daughter Mariela.

    In the early part of communist leader Fidel Castro’s rule after the 1959 revolution, homosexual men and women were sent to work camps for supposed “re-education”.

    However, many in Cuba still oppose the step, including evangelical churches and other non-religious conservatives.

    Parts of the opposition also campaigned for a “no” vote, urging Cubans to seize a unique opportunity to hand the country’s communist government a defeat in the polls.

    Some anti-government activists consider the referendum an effort by the state to improve its human rights image following a brutal crackdown on all forms of dissent in recent years.

    The referendum also comes during a serious energy crisis, which has led to daily power cuts affecting millions of people across the island.

    A child holds a banner which reads "Code Yes" referring to a family code referendum to take place on September 25, during a state organized pro-referendum demonstration in Havana, Cuba, September 17, 2022. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
    A child holds a banner that reads “code yes”

  • Canada removes  vaccination entry requirements and makes the Arrive Can  optional

    All remaining Covid border restrictions, including the requirement for traveller vaccinations, have been lifted, Canada reports.

    As of 1 October, travellers will also no longer need to provide proof of Covid vaccination, undergo any testing, or isolate and quarantine.

    The mask mandate on planes and trains will also be lifted.

    The ArriveCan app – used to upload health documents when entering Canada – will become optional.

    Federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in an announcement on Monday that Canada is “in a much better position” than it was earlier in the pandemic, in part due to the availability of Covid-19 vaccines and treatment options.

    The country’s high vaccination rate – with around 82% of the population having received two doses – and a falling death rate are also factors.

    Around 32 Canadians are currently dying each day from the virus.

    Covid-19 cases are slowly rising in Canada and signs point to a resurgence ahead of autumn, Mr Duclos said, but he added this is “largely explained by the domestic transmission of the virus”.

    He said Ottawa is open to reintroducing measures, especially if a new, highly-transmissible variant emerges.

    Vaccine mandates for travellers entering the US remain in place, and some American lawmakers have urged President Joe Biden to drop the remaining restrictions.

    Other countries, including the United Kingdom, dropped Covid entry requirements earlier this year.

    Covid-19 mandates were opposed by some in Canada and were the subject of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in Ottawa, which were held in support of truckers who refused to get vaccinated to cross the US-Canada border.

    The February protests gridlocked Canada’s capital for two weeks.

    Supporters of the convoy also staged blockades at key border crossings between the US and Canada, disrupting the flow of goods between the two countries.

    The protests were eventually cleared after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the never before used Emergencies Act, which gives the government additional powers in times of national crisis.

    The World Health Organisation declared in early September that Covid-19 deaths have hit their lowest point but experts have warned about the ongoing threat of the virus, especially if new variants emerge.

    Despite the end of the restrictions, Mr Duclos urged people to get their booster shots and encouraged people to continue wearing masks in public.

  • Reports: Deadly clash between rival Libyan government forces

    Five people have been killed and 13 others hurt in clashes between two opposing forces that support the UN-backed government of Libya on Sunday, according to AFP, which cited medical sources.

    The gun battle in Zaouia, some 40km (25 miles) west of the capital Tripoli, was between fighters linked to the defense ministry and those with ties to the interior ministry, local media reported.

    The victims included a 10-year-old girl, the report said.

    The fighting broke out over a dispute about fuel smuggling which is common in the country, a security source told AFP.

    The clashes come amid a political crisis between backers of rival Libyan Prime Ministers Abdulhamid Dbeibah and Fathi Bashagha, whose forces are vying for control of the oil-rich nation.

    Mr Dbeibah’s government was installed last year as part of a United Nations-led peace process, while Mr Bashagha was appointed by Libya’s eastern-based parliament in February.

  • ‘Sham’ referendums’: UK sanctions Russians

    The United Kingdom has imposed a new round of sanctions.in response to what it described as Russia’s “sham” referendums in four occupied regions of Ukraine.

    “The Russian regime has organised these sham referendums in a desperate attempt to grab land and justify their illegal war,” the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement.

    “The process reflects their approach in Crimea in 2014, combining disinformation, intimidation, and fake results. These referendums do not represent the demonstrated will of the Ukrainian people and are a severe violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and political independence,” it added, citing Moscow’s seizure of the Black Sea peninsula eight years ago.

    The FCDO said the measures will specifically target individuals behind the votes in Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia on whether to join Russia, including several Moscow-installed officials in the occupied regions, a number of oligarchs, board executives from major state-owned banks and IMA Consulting, a firm described as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “favourite PR agency”.

  • In the Musk lawsuit, the CEO of Twitter will be interrogated

    The CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, will be questioned in a deposition on Monday as part of the ongoing legal action the company is pursuing to compel Elon Musk to finish buying the social media company for $44 billion.

    According to a court filing, lawyers for Musk are set to question Agrawal at 9 a.m. PT. Musk himself is set to be deposed by Twitter’s lawyers on Monday and Tuesday, according to an earlier court filing.
    The testimony comes as both sides barrel toward a high-profile trial set for mid-October.
    Musk has sought to extricate himself from the merger agreement, first by claiming that Twitter’s spam account problem is far greater than it has let on, and later by citing allegations of longstanding unaddressed security vulnerabilities disclosed by the company’s former head of security.
    Those allegations, which were also submitted to the US government under a whistleblower process, were first reported by CNN and The Washington Post last month.
    Monday’s deposition could force Agrawal to answer questions linked to the whistleblower allegations by Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who led Twitter’s security team from November 2020 until he was fired this January.
    Twitter has previously said that Zatko’s allegations paint a “false narrative” of the company and that Musk’s claims are “factually inaccurate, legally insufficient and commercially irrelevant.”
    Earlier this month, leading members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Agrawal a letter seeking similar information and requested responses by Sept. 26, but it is not clear whether Twitter has responded to the letter. The committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

  • NATO launches air force training in the Baltic region

    In an effort to fortify its eastern defenses against Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, a group of NATO member states have started two days of training exercises in the Baltic Sea region.

    Air forces from Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom are taking part in the exercises. NATO candidate Finland is also involved in the drills.

    “The exercise series integrates more than two dozen fighter and support aircraft and NATO airborne early warning aircraft with NATO and national command and control centres,” NATO said in a statement.

    “The realistic drills train Allied forces to deter and – if needed – defend against any aggression,” it added.

  • Russia and Hungary cheer new Italian leaders

    Now that Meloni is expected to win, there has been a greater reaction, with Moscow declaring its openness to forging “constructive” ties with Rome.

    “We are ready to welcome any political forces that are able to go beyond the established mainstream, which is filled with hate for our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

    Meloni’s political allies in Italy have both made controversial remarks about Russia.

    Silvio Berlusconi claimed last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “pushed” into invading Ukraine, though he later made clear Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was “unjustifiable and unacceptable”.

    Meanwhile, Matteo Salvini has questioned Western sanctions on Moscow – something Meloni herself supports at the EU level.

    Meanwhile, Hungary’s nationalist leader Prime Minister Viktor Orban has congratulated Meloni – whose rhetoric on the EU is close to that of the Hungarian nationalist leader – and her allies on the election results.

    He added he looked forward to future cooperation over peace, the European economy, and the energy crisis.

  • USA is keen to cooperate with new Italian government

    The US government says it is “eager” to collaborate with a new Italian government on “shared goals” now that Giorgia Meloni’s success is obvious.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Twitter listed the priorities:

    • supporting a free and independent Ukraine
    • respecting human rights
    • building a sustainable economic future

    Quote Message: Italy is a vital ally, strong democracy, and valued partner [of the US].” from Antony Blinken US Secretary of State

    Antony BlinkenUS Secretary of State

    Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron says his government respects the democratic choice of Italian voters.

    The European Union must continue to work together with Italy “as neighbours and friends”, the Elysée Palace said in a statement.

    “It is within Europe that we will overcome our common challenges”, it added.

    France’s statement shares similarities with the official line from fellow eurozone lynchpin Germany, where the government has expressed the view it expects Italy to continue to be a “very Europe-friendly country”.

  • US provides $457.5 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine

    United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has announced that the US will offer Ukraine new civilian security assistance of $457.5 million.

    The aid is designed to help Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice agencies, Blinken tweeted.

    “We share their commitment to a democratic, independent, and sovereign Ukraine,” he added.

    Source: Aljazeera

  • Meloni government could mean more EU division

    Two of the first congratulatory messages to Giorgia Meloni, within the EU, have come from Hungary and Poland.

    That’s no coincidence. Warsaw and Budapest both have conservative nationalist governments who rail against EU overreach and have been at odds with Brussels on issues including LGBT rights.

    But it’s a little more complicated than saying the three nations might sit as some kind of united trio around the European Council table.

    Poland and Hungary are deeply split on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Warsaw has been hard-line on sanctions against the Kremlin whereas Budapest has been seen, increasingly, as a barrier.

    Giorgia Meloni has stressed her support for Ukraine but it’s an approach that, it’s feared, won’t be fully backed by her right-wing allies.

    What is certain is that a new Meloni government could mean more EU division given its predecessor was the Brussels-favoured technocrat, Mario Draghi.

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

    Source: bbc.com

  • Is Meloni the future? At least for a while, certainly

    Was yesterday’s vote for Meloni – or anti-everything and everybody else?

    Probably both in a country that has tried every shade of politics in its almost 70 governments since World War Two.

    Italy beloved by the world for its food, art, history, and culture is just not working for a large part of its own population. A perpetually stagnant economy has helped fuel a massive brain drain.

    The political gerontocracy of recycled ageing men in suits has prompted a massive desire for change. Enough Italians feel that Giorgia Meloni represents that – for better or worse.

    Her rigidity on LGBT rights and immigration finds favour in Italy, where Catholic conservatism still holds sway, and which has long felt it has shouldered the burden of Europe’s migration crisis.

    And while she insists her party has consigned fascism to history, a country that never had the equivalent of Germany’s denazification has allowed traces of its dark past to permeate through its post-war politics.

    There is, undoubtedly, a section of Meloni’s base that still glorifies Il Duce [war-time fascist dictator Benito Mussolini]. She knows it is now incumbent upon her to reassure Italians – and Europeans – that she really has moved on.

    Is Meloni the future? At least for a while, certainly. But in a country whose governments last on average just over a year, she knows Italians’ patience with the latest political novelty can run out quickly.

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

    Source: bbc.com

  • Germany is incensed and jubilant with the Meloni outcome

    The official line from Germany – as we reported earlier – is one that suggests the expectation of a “Europe-friendly country”.

    However, most politicians who have commented on Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy’s predicted win have expressed concern or alarm. The only German party to welcome the result is the far-right AfD.

    Jürgen Hardt, the foreign policy politician with the conservative Christian Democrat CDU, expressed worry about Meloni’s “openly post-fascist comments” and the “hair-raising views” of her party’s members.

    He told the DPA news agency that “racism and the exclusion of minorities should no longer have any place in Europe”.

    Katarina Barley, EU Parliament Vice-President and leading politician within Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrat SPD, told German newspaper Die Welt that Meloni’s “electorally tactical lip service to Europe” can’t hide the fact she represents a danger to constructive co-operation in Europe.

    Barley said Meloni was worrying because her “political role models are Viktor Orban and Donald Trump”.

    Omid Nouripour, chairman of the German Green Party, described the result as “alarming”.

    In an interview on German television, he said it was well-known that people in her right-wing nationalist coalition had “very close relations with the Kremlin”.

    He said it couldn’t be ruled out that in Moscow yesterday evening, people were also “cracking open the champagne”.

    Leading AfD politician Beatrix von Storch meanwhile tweeted: “We are celebrating with Italy! My heartfelt congratulations to the whole center-right coalition.”

    She wrote she hoped that together with “our friends around Salvini”, Meloni would “build a strong right-wing government. Sweden in the north, Italy in the south: left-wing governments are so yesterday.”

  • Moldova considers revoking citizenship of dual-nationals who fight for Russia

    Russia launched a “partial” mobilisation last week to reinforce its troops in Ukraine, and there are 200,000 people with dual Moldovan-Russian citizenship who live in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria.

    Maia Sandu, Moldova’s pro-Western president, said there was a risk that some of those people could be called up by Russia to fight.

    “To prevent that happening, we are analysing the possibility of applying the process of revoking Moldovan citizenship for those people (with Russian passports) who fight on the side of the aggressor,” she said, adding Moldova was holding consultations with Moscow to prevent cases of its citizens being called up.

    A woman walks past the Operational Group of Russian Forces headquarters in Tiraspol in 2021, the capital of the breakaway region of Transnistria, a disputed territory unrecognised by the international community, in Moldova [File Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP]
    Russia has had peacekeeping troops stationed in Transdniestria since the early 1990s when an armed conflict saw pro-Russian separatists wrest most of the region from Moldovan control [File: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP]

  • Russia school shooting: Death toll rises to 13

    National officials have revealed that the death toll from a shooting at a school in the Russian city of Izhevsk has increased to 13, including seven children.

    A further 21 people were wounded in the incident, including 14 children, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

    Alexander Brechalov, the regional governor, said in a video statement that the-still unidentified gunman shot himself following his rampage.

    According to the Investigative Committee, the gunman wore a black t-shirt with “Nazi symbols.” No other details about the attacker or his motives have been released. Izhevsk, with a population of approximately 640,000 people, is located west of the Ural mountains in central Russia.

    Map Izhevsk

  • German government is being sued for toxic air pollution

    German citizens are suing their government over “dangerously” high levels of air pollution.

    They contend that the government is failing to safeguard their health and that their right to breathe clean, healthy air is being violated.

    Like many countries, Germany’s air pollution levels often far exceed World Health Organization limits.

    Globally, air pollution is associated with seven million premature deaths a year.

    It is the first time individuals in Germany have taken such action citing human rights legislation.

    The case comes after one of the EU’s top lawyers, the advocate general to the European Court of Justice, said in May that citizens could take such action to try to win compensation.

    The group of seven claimants, which includes parents acting on behalf of children, say their health is at risk and politicians are failing to protect them. A number of them have asthma.

    They live in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, and Dusseldorf – four of German’s seven biggest cities- and claim they are breathing air with concentrations of pollution four to five times higher than the WHO’s acceptable limits.

    Volker Becker-Battaglia lives in Munich, on one of Germany’s most polluted streets. “Air pollution is a problem you can’t see. It’s not in people’s minds, but it’s a killer,” he told BBC News.

    “About 150,000 people drive their cars in front of our house every day, it’s horrible. We flee the city whenever we can,” he explains.

    Constanze, from Düsseldorf, who prefers to use her first name only to protect her privacy, said she is taking part in the case for her two children.

    “They deserve to grow up healthy. Living in a city should not condemn them to get sick because of air pollution, and carrying its impacts with them for the rest of their lives.”

    Cars are a major source of air pollution
    IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Cars are a major source of air pollution

    Germany’s air pollution levels are in line with the country’s own law, but the claimants say the law must change to reflect growing scientific consensus.

    The WHO slashed the recommended limits in 2021, as more evidence became available about the dangers of toxic air.

    Germany’s Environment Agency said that the federal states are responsible for assessing air quality, and taking action if limits are breached.

    “The WHO guide values are recommendations that do not have the legally binding character of the limit values of the EU Air Quality Directive,” a spokesperson said.

    Air pollution levels in Germany. . .

    Research published this month suggests how breathing in car fumes can lead to lung cancer by awakening dormant cells.

    About one in 10 cases of the disease is attributed to air pollution.

    The German court could compel the government to take action to reduce it.

    The case is supported by environmental organisations ClientEarth and Deutsche Umwelthilfe.

    “Protection from air pollution is a human rights issue. Many people are starting to understand how much their life and their children’s lives can improve if governments start implementing better controls,” Irmina Kotiuk, a human rights lawyer with ClientEarth, said.

    Germany could act as a leader in improving air pollution, prompting other countries to do the same, she suggests.

    The claimants are also asking that the German government educates the public about dangerous levels of air pollution based on WHO advice.

    The case is filed in Germany’s constitutional court which protects citizens’ fundamental human rights. The claimants are not suing for financial compensation, but for the government to take action.

    A ruling in their favour would apply nationwide.

    It comes after a series of cases and rulings in Europe on air pollution.

    In 2020, nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah became the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. She lived near a busy road in London and died of an asthma attack.

    France’s government was ordered to pay a €10m (£8.9m) fine in 2021 over failures to improve air quality

  • The CEO of Easyjet says the airline will be impacted by the falling pound

    The airline has “a lot of expenses in dollars and we have revenues coming in in pounds,” Easyjet would be hurt by the decline in the pound’s value, according to its chief executive Johan Lundgren.

    He spoke at Luton Airport’s headquarters: “Clearly, the dollar is very strong versus the pound. It has an effect.

    “But, on the other hand, we’re one of the best-hedged airlines when it comes to the fuel position and the effects of this going forward.

    “Of course, it does have an impact but it has less impact on us versus some of our competitors.”

  • UK: Cost of government borrowing surges

    The cost of UK government borrowing increased again to the greatest level since 2008 amid the financial crisis as a result of the falling value of the pound.

    It’s because Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget outlined tax cuts which means the billions needed to help households with their energy bills will have to be borrowed.

    When governments want to borrow money, they sell bonds – usually bought by international investors – and the loan gets added on to the national debt.

    The larger the national debt gets, the more interest the government has to pay on all the bonds it has sold.

    Until recently, the government was able to borrow very cheaply, at rates of less than one percent.

    But interest rates have been going up, and so has the government’s interest bill.

    The interest on ten-year bonds has risen from 3.83% on Friday to 4.11% on Monday.

    Paul Dales, from Capital Economics, says this shows that markets are worried that the government’s tax cuts will force the Bank of England to raise interest rates higher and “a deterioration in the public finances will undermine the UK’s long-term growth prospects”.

  • Government borrowing to give tax cuts to the wealthy says labour

    Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is accused of squandering a chance to lay out a “real response to the cost of living problem” by Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the opening of her keynote address at the Labour Party’s Annual Conference in Liverpool.

    “What did we get instead?” she asks. “Tax cuts for the top 1%, increased bankers bonuses, and more than £50bn piled onto the national debt every single year.

    “Sterling is down, that means higher prices as the cost of imports rise,” she says.

    She adds that with the cost of government borrowing up, taxpayers’ money will go into paying off debt.

    “The cost of borrowing for working people will now go up too,” with higher mortgage repayments for families, she says.

    “And all for what? Not to invest in industries of the future, not for our NHS, not for schools, but for tax cuts for the wealthiest, a return to trickle-down economics.”

  • Kwesi Kwarteng declines to comment on the decline of the pound

    Let’s head back to London now, the chancellor has declined to comment on reports that the pound hit an all-time low after his mini-budget.

    Approached by a BBC journalist, while walking between government buildings, Kwasi Kwarteng is asked: “Chancellor, what are you doing to do about the turmoil in the markets this morning, sir?”

    Refusing to answer, the Tory MP replies: “I’m not going to make any comment now.”

    The reporter continues, asking what conversations Kwarteng is having with the Bank of England. He also asks if the chancellor has anything to say about what’s going on.

    “Are you going to reverse your announcement that you made last Friday?” the reporter asks, referring to the mini-budget, to which Kwarteng says only: “I’m just going to my office now, thanks.”

  • Ukraine backlash: Roger Waters gigs in Poland cancelled

    In response to criticism of the musician’s position on the Ukraine war, Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd, has cancelled scheduled performances in Poland.

    Live Nation Poland, the concert’s promoter, confirmed the cancellation but provided no explanation.

    The controversy was triggered by an open letter Waters wrote to Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska.

    In it, he said, “extreme nationalists” in Ukraine “have set your country on the path to this disastrous war”.

    He accused her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, of failing to fulfill his election campaign promises to bring peace to the Donbas region and made no mention of Russia’s responsibility for the war.

    In response, Mrs Zelenska wrote on Twitter that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine and was now destroying its cities and killing civilians. “Roger Waters, you should ask for peace from the president of another country,” she wrote.

    Mr Water’s open letter led Łukasz Wantuch, a Krakow city councilor, to urge people to boycott the concerts.

    City councillors have drafted a resolution to declare Mr Waters persona non grata, due to be voted on at a session on September 28.

    “Taking into account Russia’s criminal attack on Ukraine as well as the increasing number of war crimes committed by Russian soldiers that are coming to light, [the councillors] express outrage at the theses and statements made by Mr Roger Waters in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the resolution states.

    Mr Waters, currently on tour in the US, hit back in another Facebook post entitled “Hey Łukasz Wantuch, Leave them kids alone”, referencing the lyrics of the classic Pink Floyd song, Another Brick in the Wall.

    He denied an earlier media report that he or his management had canceled the concerts themselves and accused Mr Wantuch of the “draconian censoring” of his work.

    Asked whether the cancellation was connected to Mr Waters’ comments, a venue spokesman for the Tauron Arena in Krakow told the BBC: “No comment.”

    The Polish government has been a staunch ally of Mr Zelensky. It has sent hundreds of Soviet-era tanks and other armaments to Ukraine and encouraged the European Union to introduce tougher sanctions against Russia.

    Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the government decided to open Poland’s borders to millions of Ukrainian women and children fleeing the fighting.

    According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, close to 1.4 million Ukrainians have registered for temporary protection in neighboring Poland.

    Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been put up by Poles in their own homes.

  • Aldi’s boss: Numerous customers are switching brands

    As the cost of the living issue continues to affect low-income households, Aldi’s boss claims that customers are moving to the discounter “in droves.”

    Giles Hurley, the UK’s chief executive, told the BBC that Aldi has gained more than 1.5 million customers in just 12 weeks.

    The discounter has recently overtaken Morrisons to become the fourth biggest supermarket in the UK.

    Rival discounter Lidl has also been gaining ground as shoppers seek to lower their bills.

    There has been an “unprecedented” change in consumer behaviour as inflation has soared, Mr Hurley said.

    “We’re seeing customers switch in their droves,” he said. “Customers are prioritising value like never before and switching their shopping to Aldi.”

    Mr Hurley said shoppers from “all of the traditional full-price supermarkets” were coming to Aldi.

    According to the retail research firm Kantar, sales at Aldi were up 19% for the 12 weeks to September compared with the same time last year. If it keeps growing at this rate, it will add up to an extra billion or so pounds in sales this year.

    “We haven’t seen growth rates like this since the last recession,” said Mr Hurley, referring to the recession in 2008-2009.

    Rival discounter Lidl is also seeing a rapid increase in sales.

    Both businesses are still opening new stores, which is driving extra sales. Prices are also rising, which pushes up the value of sales.

    But Mr Hurley insists that Aldi’s popularity is broad-based.

    “There’s no doubt that some of our sales can be apportioned to new stores,” he says.

    “But the majority are coming from within the existing business as customers reappraise their search for value. It’s not just about new shoppers, it’s also about existing shoppers consolidating their shop at Aldi, and using Aldi as a first-stop shop.”

    Bargain hunting

    Consumers are buying fewer big brands and putting cheaper own-label products in their shopping baskets instead.

    According to the retail research firm, Kantar, private label ranges now account for 51% of the market, compared to branded products.

    Sales of the cheapest own label ranges are up by a third on last year.

    More than 90% of products at Aldi are non-branded items.

    Mr Hurley says the business is seeing growth across all categories, from a 20% increase in sales of its nappy range to a 29% rise in its premium Specially Selected range in the last three months.

    Mr Hurley was speaking as the chain released its results for the last financial year covering the twelve months to the end of December 2021.

    Aldi only racked up a small increase in sales compared with the previous year with revenues of £13.6bn, as it missed out on the online grocery boom during the pandemic.

    Pre-tax profits fell by 87% to £36m. That’s a net profit margin of less than a third of 1%.

    Aldi says the fall was down to Covid costs, increasing staff pay, and investing in prices.

    Aldi is a privately-owned business, something which Mr Hurley says gives it a big advantage.

    “We can look very much to the long term and not worry about short-term results.”

    Like Lidl, the chain is part of a much bigger German-owned retailer. Both discounters are still expanding, unlike traditional supermarkets which are adding little, if any, new space.

    Selling supermarket food is a highly competitive market, an industry that’s driven by volume and market share.

    “The bigger your sales, the more you can invest in your pricing and the better deals you can, in turn, get from your suppliers,” says Duncan Brewer, head of the retail and consumer products strategy team at EY-Parthenon

    “It’s that flywheel effect. And of course, if your volume falls, the trickier things can quickly get. The grocery pie isn’t getting any bigger so for the main supermarkets it’s all about taking someone else’s slice.”

    Aldi now has just over 970 stores. It’s planning to open another 16 before the end of the year, with a target of hitting 1,200 stores by 2025.

    It may be piling on shoppers, but Adam Leyland, editor-in-chief of the Grocer magazine, says Aldi isn’t going to get things all its own way.

    This is unlike during the financial crisis, when the big four chains raised prices too much, allowing the discounters to steal a march and begin their breakneck expansion.

    “Pricing is far more nuanced than it used to be,” he said. “It’s not straightforward. All the established players have developed their entry-level ranges to be more competitive, with some price matching against the discounters on hundreds of lines.

    “To maintain a price gap, discounter prices are around 15% cheaper than in continental Europe. It shows they’re having to work a lot harder,” Mr Leyland added.

    Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been price-matching Aldi on key products.

    Asda has recently launched a revamped basic range, Just Essentials, and had to put a temporary limit on the number of products customers can buy to keep up with demand.

    Aldi’s big rivals are determined not to make the same mistakes again, but the cost pressures are enormous for every supermarket. Food prices on the shelves are rising at their fastest rate in more than a decade.

    Mr Hurley wouldn’t be drawn on how much more food price inflation is still to come, saying that the last few years had taught him it was “very, very difficult to predict the future.”

    Aldi’s more efficient business model, he claimed, is better placed to insulate customers from rising prices right across the food supply chain.

    So how much profit margin is Aldi prepared to sacrifice this year to protect shoppers?

    “We always make value the cornerstone of our business. No matter what it takes,” says Mr Hurley, a sign that he’s determined to keep the pressure on.

  • Chris Davidson: Former pro-surfer dies after attack outside Australian pub

     A former Australian surfing champion, Chris Davidson, passed away after being attacked outside a bar north of Sydney.

    After being struck in the face, the 45-year-old fell and injured his head on the pavement, according to the police. He was attended to at the site, but he passed away shortly after

    A man, 42, has been arrested and charged with assault causing death.

    Mr Davidson grew up in Sydney and competed on the world surfing tour in 2010 and 2011.

    He shot to fame as a 19-year-old after he was granted a wildcard entry into the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, Australia, in 1996. There, he beat reigning world champion, Kelly Slater, in two consecutive heats.

    Mr Slater was among those who paid tribute to Mr Davidson after his death.

    “Had many a good battle with this guy. One of the most naturally talented surfers I ever knew,” the 11-time world champion wrote on Instagram.

    Surfing New South Wales executive director Mark Windon said Mr Davidson was “one of the most stylish surfers” Australia had ever produced.

    “He was an absolute prodigious talent and as flamboyant as he was in the water,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

    “[He] was a larger-than-life character, and for his life to finish that way is really sad.”

    Police have not released further details about the incident in South West Rocks, a small coastal town.

    The 42-year-old man was refused bail on Monday and will next face court in November, local media said.

  • Ukraine war: Two people allegedly killed in a hotel attack in Kherson by Kyiv forces

    Kremlin authorities say Ukrainian soldiers killed two persons, including a former member of parliament, in a missile attack on a hotel located in Kherson.

    Oleksiy Zhuravko, a pro-Russian former politician from Ukraine, was alleged to have perished in the strike by a regional official.

    Kirill Stremousov said in a statement that Ukrainian armed forces fired a missile on the Play Hotel by Ribas at 05:30 (03:30 BST) on Sunday.

    Kyiv has not responded to the claims.

    The Russian-installed administration said in a post on Telegram that this “was a planned terrorist act”, adding that the building of the hotel was not used for military purposes.

    The statement said that two people were killed in the attack according to “preliminary information”.

    The authorities said journalists from Russian media were in the hotel when the missile struck, news agency AFP reports. These claims could not be independently verified.

    A representative of the law enforcement agencies in the region was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying that the attack “was clearly carried out with the help of Nato representatives, according to their intelligence and on their tip”.

    Rescue workers were said to be combing the rubble in search of victims at the hotel, located in the center of the southern Ukrainian city.

    The strike comes as Kherson – one of the first places to come under Moscow’s control after the invasion – is taking part in a so-called referendum, asking people if they want to join Russia. As well to Kherson, people in Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia have also been casting their ballots since Friday and voting is due to finish on Tuesday.

    The West and Kyiv have condemned the votes as “shams” and pledged not to recognize their results. There have also been reports of armed Russian soldiers going door-to-door to collect votes.

    The votes come after Ukrainian forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in the south. Last month, Ukraine’s military said it had broken through Russia’s first line of defence.

  • Typhoon Noru kills five rescuers in the Philippines

    In the Philippines, a storm that left homes underwater and millions without electricity claimed the lives of five rescue personnel.

    They were operating in the San Miguel district, north of the Philippine capital of Manila, when sudden floods washed them away.

    The district was among those hit hard by Typhoon Noru, with some residents seen stranded on their roofs, while others waded through chest-high garbage-strewn waters, attempting to pass on supplies.

    The typhoon caused gusts of up to 240km/h (149mph) on Luzon, where more than half of the country’s 110 million population live.

    Noru, known locally as Karding, first made landfall as a super typhoon, but later weakened at 20:20 local time (12:20 GMT) on Sunday. It is expected to leave the Philippines by Monday evening.

    In San Vincente, a village in San Miguel, one man was seen futilely trying to brush water away from his door.

    Another, standing on top of the rooftop of her home, shouted that the country’s leaders needed to “focus on climate change”.

    Floods in the village peaked at around 04:00 in the morning, and waters are said to be receding.

    More than 74,000 people had been evacuated from the typhoon’s path, and officials had earlier issued warnings of “serious flooding” in areas of the capital, Manila.

    But so far there have been no reports of severe damage or widespread loss of life.

    “I think we may have gotten lucky, at least this time,” said Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos during a briefing on Monday. “I think it’s clear from what we did these last two days is that, very, very important, is preparation,” he added.

    “It’s not yet over. I think the point when we can stand down is when the majority of evacuees are already back in their homes,” he said.

    Mr Marcos has ordered that supplies be airlifted and clean-up equipment provided to communities that have been most affected.

    In Quezon Province, east of Manila, fishermen had earlier been prevented from heading to sea, and there were reports of some areas being without power.

    Flights and ferry services have been canceled. On Luzon, President Marcos suspended all government work and school classes were also canceled.

    In Dingalan municipality, northeast of Manila and on the Pacific coast, residents were forced to seek shelter.

    Trading on the country’s stock exchange will also be suspended on Monday and Mr Marcos warned that the energy ministry had placed on high alert all energy-related industries in the county.

    Thousands of volunteers are monitoring river levels, bridges, and mountains for landslides which could hamper rescue efforts, said Dick Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross.

    Information will be crucial in getting help to where it is needed, he said.

    The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean, is highly vulnerable to storms. It sees an annual average of 20 tropical storms.

    An estimated 400 people died when Typhoon Rai hit the country in December 2021, with rescue teams describing scenes of “complete carnage”.

    And in 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical storms ever recorded, killed some 6,300 people.

    Map

  • Mobilization call: Man shoots Russian soldier, sets conscription office on fire

    British intelligence has reported that, as men called up for the country’s partial mobilization began arriving at military camps, a man shot a recruiter and set a conscription office on fire in Russia.

    In Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk, a conscription office was shot at by the assailant, severely injuring a military recruitment officer.

    Sky News has confirmed a video purportedly taken by a would-be recruit of the shooting.

    It shows the gunman shooting the recruiter who falls to the ground, as others at the draft office start running out to the sounds of a woman screaming.

    He was detained by police and identified himself as 25-year-old Ruslan Zinin in a separate video posted on social media.

    Irkutsk region Governor Igor Kobzev wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the recruitment officer was in hospital in a critical condition, adding the detained gunman “will absolutely be punished”.

    It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin – faced with a series of defeats in Ukraine – announced a partial mobilization last week that could see 300,000 reserves called up to fight.

    Elsewhere, a man was seen throwing Molotov cocktails at a military registration and enlistment office in Uryupinsk, in footage circulating on social media.

    It shows the man driving a car up to the entrance of the local government building in the center of the town.

    He can then be seen lighting several Molotov cocktails, throwing them one by one at the entrance to the building.

    Town officials confirmed the building was set on fire early on Monday morning, and a man was detained. Damage was minimal and no one was injured, they added.

    The threat of mass conscription has sparked protests around the country, and military-aged men have been fleeing in droves.

    “Everyone who is of conscription age should be banned from traveling abroad in the current situation,” Sergei Tsekov, a member of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, told RIA news agency on Monday.

    Russia faces an administrative and logistical challenge to provide training for the new recruits, the UK Ministry of Defense said in its latest intelligence update.

    Many tens of thousands of call-up papers have already been issued.

    “Many of the drafted troops will not have had any military experience for some years,” the MoD said.

    “The lack of military trainers, and the haste with which Russia has started the mobilization, suggests that many of the drafted troops will deploy to the front line with minimal relevant preparation.

    “They are likely to suffer a high attrition rate.”

    Videos have emerged showing men being forced onto buses as many citizens refused to take part in the war.

    Protests over mobilization have taken place in more than a dozen cities across Russia, with girls as young as 14 years old detained.

    Hundreds of people were arrested over the weekend, and there were major protests in the Dagestan region yesterday.

    Sky correspondent Alex Rossi in Moscow said: “Russia is a very heavily securitized police state. Dissent isn’t tolerated, but there have been sporadic protests all over the country. Thousands of people have been arrested, protesting against what the Kremlin is calling a partial mobilization, but really, what to you and I, looks like mass conscription.”

    The call-up of 300,000 reserves is almost double the initial invasion force, “so is a reflection really of how badly things are going on the battlefield, and shows that they have a very significant manpower problem”, he said.

    General Sir Richard Barrons, a former head of the Joint Forces Command, told Sky News some individuals who are mobilized may find themselves on the front line in Ukraine very quickly.

    “Of course, they wouldn’t necessarily be very enthusiastic about that,” he said. “And they won’t be very well trained and are probably not very well equipped for this kind of mobilization to make a difference.

    “Russia would have to invest in training and equipping these large numbers of people that would take them well into next year. And it just doesn’t look like they have the training machinery, the logistics, or the weapons to make this really work any time soon.”

    As Russia steps up its conscription of citizens, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged opposition troops to surrender to his country’s forces.

    It comes as “sham” referendums continue in contested territory, which could lead to the formal annexation of Ukraine’s land.

    They are being held in the self-declared Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republics (LPR), and in Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

    The move comes eight years after a similar process in Russian-occupied Crimea, which Moscow said was justification for annexing the peninsula.

    Sky’s security and defense editor Deborah Haynes in Dnipro, Ukraine, said the move was “a further escalation of the war”.

    “There is no sign on the Ukraine side that they are backing down, but they are clearly going to have to counter an ever-increasing Russian force as they try to defend their territory and win back their land,” she added.

  • Russian Foreign Minister meets with Mexican officials to discuss Ukraine peace proposal

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reportedly met to discuss a peace proposal for the Ukraine crisis.

    The plan was presented to the UN General Assembly this week but Ukraine opposes it, saying it would be advantageous to Russia.

    Mr Ebrard wrote on Twitter that he and Lavrov had a “cordial conversation”, and posted a picture of them together.

    Yesterday, the Mexican met his Ukrainian counterpart.

    The plan involves creating a “mediation committee” to settle conflicts worldwide, spearheaded by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Pope Francis.

    Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the committee would immediately start talks with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to achieve “a truce of at least five years”.

    Mr Lopez Obrador said earlier this week: “I don’t want to play a leading role, as a government we’re making a proposal to see if it’s accepted.”

  • Tanzania intends to purchase a cargo plane

    With plans to utilize the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) as a key cargo airport, the government is planning to buy a new special cargo aircraft.

    According to the Deputy Minister for Work and Transport, Mr Atupele Mwakibete, plans are aligned for the special cargo aircraft- Boeing 767-300F to arrive in the country in June 2023, to boost the cargo business.

    Mr Mwakibete was responding to a question asked in Parliament by Hai lawmaker, Saasisha Mafuwe who wanted to know why the government has not declared the KIA as a special airport to boost the country’s agribusiness by allowing cargo aircraft to land and takeoff without paying the fees.

    In his answer, Mr Mwakibete said in an effort to attract cargo business, the government was ready to review landing fees for all cargo aircraft as it had been proposed by the Hai representative.

    “Currently we do not have special cargo aircraft which have specific schedules to land at KIA,” he said.

    He, however, insisted that the cargo coming to KIA was being transported by passenger aircraft.

  • Threat of terrorism in Ghana: Kumasi arrests 21 suspicious foreign nationals

    In the Ashanti Region’s Ejisu, a suburb of Kumasi, the Ghana Police Service has arrested 21 foreign nationals as part of its ‘See Something, Say Something’ anti-terrorism programme.

    According to graphic.com.gh, the 21 suspects were arrested after they were reported by community leaders for exhibiting abnormal behaviors.

    The report indicated that the community leaders in Ejisu reported the suspects to the police after they observed their suspicious activities for about a month.

    One of the community leaders, Mohammed Ali, said that they reported the 21 foreign nationals because they were of the conviction that they were a security threat because of their actions.

    “For several times, I entered and asked them, what are they doing? They said that they were learning. In the evening, you see them making phone calls, different phone calls, everybody making a phone call.

    “Maybe they are trying to convince someone or I don’t know, so that is what they have been doing around here,” Ali is quoted to have said by graphic.com.gh.

    Neither the Ghana Police Service nor the National Security has commented on the arrest yet.

    The National Security Ministry, in May 2022, launched a Citizen Education Campaign, dubbed ‘See Something, Say Something, to help raise awareness and alertness on a possible terrorist attack in Ghana.

    The campaign seeks to educate the citizenry to report any suspicious activities related to terrorism to the security agencies and it forms part of efforts to help deal with the terrorist threat in the West African sub-region.

  • Financial meltdown: Fitch downgrades Ghana once more, this time from “CCC” to “CC”

    The Long-Term Local-and Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Ghana have been once again downgraded by the international credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings.

    The rating agency, in August 2022, downgraded Ghana’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CCC’ from ‘B-‘.

    In a release posted on its website (fitchratings.com), the agency indicated that it normally does not give credit ratings below CCC.

    “Fitch Ratings has downgraded Ghana’s Long-Term Local- and Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to ‘CC’, from ‘CCC’. Fitch typically does not assign Outlooks to issuers with a rating of ‘CCC’ or below,” parts of the release read.

    The ‘CCC’ rating implies that Ghana is considered a “junk” country in terms of investment and any investor who buys a bond issued by the Government of Ghana is at a high risk of not getting his/her investment.

    On the reasons for the downgrade to CC, Fitch indicated that “The downgrade reflects the increased likelihood that Ghana will pursue a debt restructuring given mounting financing stress, with surging interest costs on domestic debt and a prolonged lack of access to Eurobond markets. There is a high likelihood that the IMF support programme currently being negotiated will require some form of debt treatment due to the climbing interest costs and structurally low revenue as a percentage of GDP.

    “We believe this will be in the form of a debt exchange and will qualify as a distressed debt exchange under our criteria. The government has not confirmed or denied press reports that Ghana is preparing to negotiate a restructuring.

    “Interest costs on external debt are lower than for domestic debt and near-term external debt amortizations appear manageable. However, we believe there could be an incentive to spread a debt restructuring burden across domestic and external creditors and therefore do not have a strong basis to differentiate between Foreign- and Local-Currency ratings at this time,” it added.

  • Richmond: Life sentence for a killer named by his dying victim

    After being identified by his victim in his final breaths, a drug dealer was sentenced to life in prison for murder.

    On May 17, 2021, Oliver Muldowney, 36, stabbed Tim Hipperson, 39, in Richmond, London, after accusing him of having sex with his partner.

    Judge Shani Barnes at the Old Bailey said Muldowney had an “unstable and erratic” personality and ordered him to serve at least 29 years in jail.

    The attack happened while children were being picked up from a nearby school.

    ‘Unpredictable’

    “The number of people who rushed to Mr Hipperson’s aid were largely parents picking up their children from school.

    “This was an area – in public – where there were a lot of people in the middle of the day and there were children all around, so that is in my view an aggravating factor,” added the judge.

    The trial also heard Muldowney told an eyewitness “you saw nothing” as he walked away from the attack, just before 16:00 BST.

    Police body-worn camera footage caught the victim naming his killer as “Olly”.

    Muldowney, a prominent drug dealer in Richmond, fled the area but was arrested by police days later.

    Mr Hipperson, who was trying to beat his addiction, had to gone to buy drugs with a friend from Muldowney’s drugs runner on the day of his murder.

    Muldowney later unsuccessfully tried to bribe Mr Hipperson’s friend with drugs and money to leave the area.

    Oliver Muldowney
    IMAGE SOURCE, METROPOLITAN POLICE/PA Image caption, Oliver Muldowney was a prominent drug dealer in Richmond

    “I do not accept you were a kindly drug dealer not prone to make threats,” the judge said.

    “It is clear you are a man who is unpredictable and was to be feared.

    “What was extraordinary was that you believed you were so powerful that no one would speak out against you.”

    Mr Hipperson’s mother, Sheila, said her son’s murder was made “all the crueler” because it happened in a period of his recovery from drug addiction.

    She told the court in a victim statement: “Tim had emerged from years of addiction and was taking huge steps to beat his illness.”

    In a statement to the court, Muldowney apologised to Mr Hipperson’s friends and family.

    Muldowney was found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice, having admitted dealing in crack cocaine and heroin.

    His drug runner Jonathan Nash, 36, of Feltham, west London, was jailed for three and a half years after being found guilty of two counts supplying heroin and crack cocaine.

  • Goldman Sachs: Pay bias lawsuit reveals allegations of sexual assault

    According to recently made public court documents, women at Goldman Sachs alleged 75 instances of sexual assault and harassment involving top bankers between 2000 and 2011, including rape.

    The allegations are contained in a New York class-action complaint accusing the banking behemoth of discriminating against women’s compensation and promotion.

    The suit, which now represents roughly 1,400 women, is set for trial in June.

    Goldman has been fighting the case since 2010 and denies claims of bias.

    It said many of the complaints were two decades old and had been “presented selectively, inaccurately and are incomplete”.

    “The plaintiffs’ presentation of the complaints does not reflect reality at Goldman Sachs,” a spokesperson said. “Discrimination, harassment and mistreatment in any form are unacceptable at Goldman Sachs, and when identified, swift action, including termination, is taken. Out of respect for the persons involved, we are not going to comment on the individual complaints.”

    Cristina Chen-Oster, a former vice president who worked for the bank from 1997 to 2005 and was one of the three women who filed the initial complaint, said she was looking forward to sharing her experience at trial.

    Cristina Chen-Oster
    IMAGE SOURCE,CRISTINA CHEN-OSTER Image caption, Cristina Chen-Oster was one of three women who filed the original complaint

    “I hope this case will help to finally break the glass ceiling for women on Wall Street and set a precedent for other industries where gender discrimination is pervasive,” she said. “We need to bring transparency to practices that previously seemed untouchable.”

    The lawsuit says women at Goldman were paid and promoted less, as a result of a pattern of discriminatory practices, including a “boys’ club” work culture that permitted the sexualisation of female staff.

    Goldman is accused of tolerating managers who engage in sexual harassment, such as one who rang a bell every time a woman entered the floor. He was later promoted to managing director, according to the complaint.

    The incidents of alleged sexual assault reported to the firm included a female employee who claimed she was drugged and raped after a company baseball game.

    Another female employee alleged that a male manager took her to an abandoned floor and propositioned her for sex; he later called to say he was “masturbating to the sound of her voice”, the complaint says.

    The complaint says Goldman retaliated against women who complained about the issue, as well as those who went on maternity leave.

    In Ms Chen-Oster’s experience, outlined in the initial complaint, she describes having a married male colleague pin her “against a wall, kissing and groping her” after a company dinner.

    She alleges that she was consistently paid less and denied opportunities, noting that Goldman removed responsibilities after she went on maternity leave and assigned her a seat among female support staff.

    “The record overwhelmingly demonstrates that year after year Goldman continues to treat women as second-class employees, permitting a culture of fear and retaliation to flourish rather than fixing known, systemic gender bias,” the lawsuit alleges.

    Lawyers are asking the court to order reinstatement or damages for the women, who according to the suit were paid 20% less than their male counterparts if they were vice presidents, while female associates earned 8% less.

  • Ukraine’s ‘referendums’: Soldiers canvass homes for votes in sham votes

    Armed soldiers have reportedly gone door-to-door in Ukraine’s seized regions to solicit votes for sham “referendums” on joining Russia.

    “You have to answer verbally and the soldier marks the answer on the sheet and keeps it,” one woman in Enerhodar told the BBC.

    In southern Kherson, Russian guardsmen stood with a ballot box in the middle of the city to collect people’s votes.

    The door-to-door voting is for “security”, Russian state media says.

    “In-person voting will take place exclusively on 27 September,” Tass reported. “On the other days, voting will be organized in communities and in a door-to-door manner.”

    One woman in Melitopol told the BBC that two local “collaborators” arrived with two Russian soldiers at her parents’ flat, to give them a ballot to sign.

    “My dad put ‘no’ [to joining Russia],” the woman said. “My mum stood nearby and asked what would happen for putting ‘no’. They said, ‘Nothing’.

    “Mum is now worried that the Russians will persecute them.”

    The woman also said there was one ballot for the entire apartment block building, rather than per person.

    Although the evidence is anecdotal, the presence of armed men conducting the vote contradicts Moscow’s insistence that this is a free or fair process.

    Experts say the self-styled referendums, taking place across five days, will allow Russia to claim – illegally – four occupied or partially-occupied regions of Ukraine as their own.

    In other words, a false vote on annexation, seven months into Russia’s invasion.

    The self-styled “annexation” could lead to Russia claiming that its territory is under attack from Western weapons supplied to Ukraine, which could escalate the war further.

    British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK had evidence that Russian officials had already set targets for “invented voter turnouts and approval rates for these sham referenda”.

    Mr Cleverly said Russia planned to formalize the annexation of the four regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia – by the end of the month.

    Armed soldier walks past ballot box as people line up to vote
    IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS Image caption, Ballot boxes being guarded by armed soldiers in Luhansk

    A source in Kherson told the BBC there was no public effort to encourage voting, apart from an announcement on the Russian news agency that people can vote at a port building, which had been disused for 10 years.

    Another woman in Kherson said she saw “armed militants” outside the building where the vote seemed to be taking place. She pretended to forget her passport, so she didn’t have to vote.

    The woman said all her friends and family were against the referendum. “We don’t know how our life will be after this referendum,” she said. “It is very difficult to understand what they want to do.”

    Kyiv says the referendums will change nothing, and its forces will continue to push to liberate all of the territories.

    Women line up to cast vote in referendums on bus.
    IMAGE SOURCE,REX/SHUTTERSTOCK Image caption, These women in Luhansk voted in a converted bus

    Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent mobilisation of at least 300,000 extra troops has caused many Russian men of fighting age to flee.

    One young Russian man who left St Petersburg for Kazakhstan to avoid the draft told BBC World Service that most of his friends were also on the move.

    “Right now, I feel like it’s a total collapse. I know only maybe one or two folks that don’t think about exile right now,” he said.

    He said some, like him, are travelling across the border, whereas others have gone to small Russian villages to hide.

    “The big problem of Russia is that we didn’t think about the war in Ukraine in February as we think about it right now,” he said.

  • £6.2 million project to install ground-source heat pumps in Stithians’ homes

    The first phase of a multimillion-pound project to install ground-source heat pumps in Cornwall homes has begun.

    The £6.2 million project, which would assist about 250 homes, will first install pumps in the village of Stithians, where many residents rely on heating oil.

    The pumps cost about £20,000 each, but the project by manufacturer Kensa is being paid for by European funding.

    Heating homes account for 30% of the UK’s carbon emissions.

    The Heat The Streets project has been given £6.2m from the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is seeing systems being rolled out to homes of different numbers of bedrooms and ages in the village.

    Project manager Lisa Treseder, from Kensa, said the work would mean cheaper bills “, especially for people that are on oil and… even more for people that have got electric storage heaters”.

    Parish councilor Phil Blease, who helped bring the project to Stithians, said it was an attitude of “we’re all in this together and we’ve all got to do our bit”.

    He said: “We have been very successful in doing that, and inspired a lot of other energy groups and communities.”

    Future plans include creating communal grids of underground pipes to source heat that people could hook into to heat homes in a carbon-friendly way, project bosses said.

  • Microsoft: Bosses think workers do less from home

    In a significant new Microsoft survey, managers and employees have fundamentally different opinions on productivity when working from home, a new survey reveals.

    Bosses question whether remote work is equally productive as being in the office.

    While 87% of workers felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home, 80% of managers disagreed.

    The survey questioned more than 20,000 staff across 11 countries.

    Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella told the BBC this tension needed to be resolved as workplaces were unlikely to ever return to pre-pandemic work habits.

    “We have to get past what we describe as ‘productivity paranoia’ because all of the data we have shows that 80% plus of the individual people feel they’re very productive – except their management thinks that they’re not productive.

    “That means there is a real disconnect in terms of the expectations and what they feel.”

    Remote working peaked?

    Both Mr Nadella and Ryan Roslansky, the boss of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, said employers were grappling with perhaps the biggest shift in working patterns in history.

    The number of fully-remote jobs advertised on LinkedIn soared during the pandemic but Mr Roslansky said data suggested that type of role might have peaked.

    He told the BBC that of some 14 or 15 million job listings that are typically live on LinkedIn, about 2% of those involved remote working before the pandemic. Some months ago, that stood at 20%, and it has since come down to 15% this month.

    At a time of acute labour shortages, employers are having to work harder to recruit, enthuse and retain staff. That even includes Microsoft itself, according to Mr Nadella.

    “We had 70,000 people who joined Microsoft during the pandemic, they sort of saw Microsoft through the lens of the pandemic. And now when we think about the next phase, you need to re-energize them, re-recruit them, help them form social connections.”

    Microsoft employees can work from home up to 50% of the time as standard. More than that requires management approval or a move to part-time work.

    Some companies have struggled to impose new working arrangements and expectations.

    There has been resistance to calls at Apple to return to the office three days a week from September, while Tesla boss Elon Musk has demanded 40 hours a week in the office sending an email saying: “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”

    An unprecedented number of people have also changed jobs since the start of the pandemic. A phenomenon Microsoft has dubbed “the great reshuffle”, sees workers born after 1997 (so-called Generation Z) nearly twice as likely to switch jobs.

    “At the peak of our ‘great reshuffle,’ we saw a year-on-year increase of 50% of LinkedIn members changing jobs. Gen Z was at 90%,” the report said.

    By 2030, Generation Z will make up about 30% of the entire workforce so managers need to understand them, according to LinkedIn’s boss.

    As you might expect, alongside its new observations Microsoft has new products aimed at easing this potential mismatch in expectations. It is focusing on helping companies’ younger workers feel a sense of belonging, and an ability to learn in, an organization in the way staff did in the past.

    Its new Viva software, for example, allows direct contact to senior managers, online teaching, and a channel to share personal photos – somewhat like a company intranet site with bells on to ring in a new world of work, which employers, in particular, are struggling to navigate.

  • Unions have announced additional action in response to Kwarteng’s “anti-democratic” crackdown on strikes

    The chancellor’s plan was quickly followed by the announcements of two additional unions to join the rail strikes on October 1. As a result, all unions are participating, and there won’t be training services in various parts of the country.

    Unions have condemned Kwasi Kwarteng’s plan to introduce a law that will require members to vote on pay offers before strikes can happen.

    The chancellor, announcing a mini-budget, said it was “unacceptable” industrial action was causing so much disruption – ahead of fresh rail strikes next week.

    He said other European countries had minimum service levels to stop “militant trade unions” closing down transport systems.

    Mr Kwarteng said the government would do the same “and go further”.

    “We will legislate to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote to ensure strikes can only be called once negotiations have genuinely broken down,” he said.

    Moments after his comments, two unions, Unite and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), announced fresh rail strikes in the long-running dispute over jobs, pay, and conditions.

    It means all the major rail unions are now taking strike action on 1 October, threatening a complete shutdown of the network for the first time since the row blew up earlier this year.

    Further action is planned on 5 and 8 October, with Network Rail saying only about 11% of services will operate on 1 October and in some parts of the country there will be no trains at all.

    The strikes will affect the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, which takes place from 1-5 October, while the London Marathon takes place on 2 October when train services will also be affected.

    Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) on the picket line outside London Euston train station. Picture date: Thursday August 18, 2022.
    Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said the plan was not the right move

    Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) union, said: “We already have the most severe anti-democratic trade union laws in western Europe and this latest threat will rightly enrage our members.

    “The government should be working towards a negotiated settlement in the national rail dispute, not seeking to make it even harder to take effective strike action.

    “RMT and other unions will not sit idly by or meekly accept any further obstacles on their members exercising the basic human right to withdraw their labour.”

    Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA, said: “Unions are democratic organizations and industrial action only occurs as a last resort and after a postal ballot of members which also includes having to meet undemocratic thresholds.

    “Frankly, having to ballot our members on pay offers before they can take industrial action will not make a blind bit of difference.

    “If the offer is rubbish, it will still be rubbish whether our elected workplace reps have consulted our members on it or a ballot has taken place.

    “This new Tory proposal will serve only to elongate disputes and generate greater anger among union members. It will do precisely nothing to encourage employers to come to the negotiating table with realistic offers.”

  • Nigeria selects 18 people to run for president

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) highlighted that 18 parties had fielded presidential candidates and their vice presidential running mates in a list released on Tuesday.

    Nigeria’s electoral commission has cleared 18 candidates to contest the presidential election scheduled for February next year.

    In a list published on Tuesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) noted that 18 parties had fielded presidential candidates and their running mates.

    The list includes the names of the 75-year-old veteran presidential contestant and former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, and former Lagos governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu, 70, of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

    It also includes the 60-year-old former governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who is seen as a third force.

    Election campaigns officially begin next week on Wednesday.

    Rampant insecurity, chronic unemployment, and a worsening economic outlook are among the issues the candidates are expected to address.

    Nigeria has a population of more than 200 million people, out of which more than 95 million voters have registered to participate in the coming election.