TIG Post

Author: Abigail Ampofo

  • Retrial: After previous jury discharged, Ryan Giggs faces another trail

    A judge has decided that Ryan Giggs, a former Manchester United football player, will be retried on charges that he beat his ex-girlfriend.

    At a quick hearing on Wednesday at Manchester Crown Court, the judge set a new trial date of July 31 of the following year.

    Jurors had failed to reach verdicts following more than 20 hours of deliberations in his four-week trial.

    Mr Giggs, 48, also denied controlling or coercive behaviour towards his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville, 38.

    He also denied “losing control” headbutting her and assaulting Ms Greville’s sister, Emma, 26, by elbowing her in the jaw during a row at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester on 1 November 2020.

    In a statement issued following the decision, Mr Giggs said he was “obviously disappointed that a retrial has been ordered” on the charges, following the jury being discharged last week.

    “My not guilty plea remains in relation to all charges. I am confident that justice will eventually be done and my name will be cleared of all the allegations,” said Mr Giggs, who was not required to attend the hearing.

    “I would like to thank my legal team, my mum, my children, my girlfriend Zara, as well as my closest friends, for their support throughout this period.

    “I understand the level of interest and the scrutiny around this case, but I would like to ask that my and my family’s privacy is respected in the weeks and months ahead.”

    IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Ryan Giggs quit as Wales manager

    During Wednesday’s hearing, Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, told Judge Hilary Manley: “We do seek a retrial in respect of Mr Giggs.

    “The matter has been considered at a senior level within the Crown Prosecution Service and also the willingness of the complainant to give evidence, although that is not determinative on the matter, has also been canvassed.

    “They indicate a preparedness so to do.”

    Judge Manley approved a retrial and told Mr Giggs’ lawyers in court that his bail would be extended until the trial next year.

    It means Mr Giggs will have been on bail for more than two and a half years before his case goes to trial again, following a pre-trial hearing scheduled for 3 July.

    He quit as Wales’ manager in June.

  • A Hong Kong judge convicts five people for children’s books

    Five speech therapists were convicted guilty of publishing seditious children’s books by a Hong Kong judge.

    Authorities believed that their novels, which are about sheep attempting to keep wolves out of their hamlet, included a blatantly political message.

    After a two-month trial, a government-picked national security judge said their “seditious intention” was clear.

    It comes amid part of a wider crackdown on civil liberties by Chinese authorities in the city.

    The group of five speech therapists, who were founding members of a union, produced three cartoon e-books that some interpreted as trying to explain Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement to children.

    “The seditious intention stems not merely from the words, but from the words with the proscribed effects intended to result in the mind of children,” wrote Judge Kwok Wai-kin in his judgment.

    Lai Man-ling, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan, and Fong Tsz-ho, who were all found guilty, had already been held in jail for more than a year ahead of Wednesday’s verdict.

  • Holiday Inn hotels rocked by cyber-attack

    Holiday Inn owner, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), has verified the company has been hit by a cyber-attack.

    IHG, which has some of the world’s largest hotel chains, issued a statement saying it was investigating “unauthorized access” to a number of its technology systems.

    The UK-based company said its “booking channels and other applications” had been disrupted since Monday.

    It manages the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and Regent hotels.

    “IHG is working to fully restore all systems as soon as possible,” the company said.

    IHG confirmed it was assessing the nature, extent, and impact of the incident and had implemented its response plans, including appointing external specialists to investigate the breach.

    The company is also in the process of notifying regulatory authorities.

    In a statement, the company said: “We will be supporting hotel owners and operators as part of our response to the ongoing service disruption. IHG’s hotels are still able to operate and to take reservations directly.”

    But many people trying to book accommodation have been complaining.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View the original tweet on Twitter

    IHG did not say there had been any loss of customer data.

    It also did not specifically say it was a ransomware attack, but most of the speculation points in that direction.

    Last month, a Holiday Inn in Istanbul was breached by LockBit, which released data stolen from the company.

    It is not known if there is a connection between the attacks.

    The hotel chain was also the target of a three-month security breach in 2017 when more than 1,200 of its franchised hotels in the US were affected.

    The hack comes amid increased scrutiny on appropriate defences against cyber-attacks, particularly on Western financial institutions, in the wake of heightened geopolitical tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early this year.

     

  • UK ticket buyer claims £110 million jackpot in EuroMillions

    The record-holder won £195 million in July, making only 15 UK players the only ones to ever win a jackpot above £100 million.

    A UK ticket holder has filed a claim for Friday’s draw’s £110 million EuroMillions jackpot prize.

    Only 15 UK players have ever won a jackpot of more than £100m, with the record-holder winning £195m in July.

    Other winners of more than £100 million this year included the biggest National Lottery win of £195 million from the EuroMillions draw on 19 July and a £109 million jackpot from the draw on 4 February in which both winners remained anonymous.

    Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at The National Lottery, said: “This is absolutely incredible news and we’re delighted that we’ve received a claim.

    Gloucestershire couple, Joe and Jess Thwaite celebrated a £184 million win from the draw on 10 May, exactly a month before a UK ticket-holder, who also chose to remain anonymous, scooped £54 million in the draw on 10 June.

    The Thwaites said they are “not materialistic” and were not planning to spend too much of their winnings on items – may be a “new car or something like that”.

    Instead, they said they want to spend the money on experiences.

    They revealed they had to buy suitcases to get to the news conferences as they “never go on holiday”.

    Their children have been excited at the prospect of a holiday, they say, and their youngest has “always wanted to go to Hawaii”.

    “I think YouTube’s to blame for that,” Mr Thwaite said.

    Meanwhile, Frances Connolly, who won £115m in the 2019 EuroMillions, and says she is ‘addicted to helping’ said she has given away more than half of her £115m lottery winnings and busted her budget for the next decade.

     

  • Journey to climb Russian volcano: Eight die, survivors evacuated

    Authorities in the area report that survivors of an eight-person climbing trip on Eurasia’s tallest volcano have been rescued by rescuers.

    The deceased was part of a group of 12 individuals, including two guides, who have been climbing Klyuchevskaya Sopka in the northeastern Kamchatka peninsula region of Russia since August 30, Russian state news agency, RIA Novosti, said. A rescue group began climbing to reach the survivors Monday, Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief told state media.
    At 4,750 meters (15,580 feet), Klyuchevskaya Sopka is one of the world‘s highest active volcanos.
    The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that as of Tuesday morning the survivors had been transported by helicopter to the nearest village, Klyuchi, in the Ust-Kamchatka district. RIA Novosti noted that one of the survivors had contacted frostbite by the time rescuers reached them.
    According to local media, the plan is to ultimately evacuate the survivors to Petropavlovsk on a Regional Center of Disaster Medicine plane.
    Izvestiya, one of Russia’s main daily newspapers, reported that some of the rescue groups remained on the volcano after the survivors were evacuated. The remaining rescuers will decide on how to evacuate the dead bodies, located at a height of 4158 meters (13,641 feet) after the weather forecast is determined.
    Conditions on the volcano are treacherous and unpredictable, with strong winds, bitterly cold temperatures, and snow at high altitudes.
    Previous search and rescue attempts to reach the trapped individuals were unsuccessful, as strong winds prevented a helicopter from landing on the volcano Sunday, a day after five members of the group fell to their deaths. By Monday morning, three more had died, Russian Deputy Prime Minister of Kamchatka Roman Vasilevsky told RIA Novosti.
    The Minister of Emergency Situations for the region where the volcano is located has opened an information hotline for relatives of the climbing party, a spokesperson told RIA Novosti.
    “Relatives can find out information about the progress of search and rescue operations, as well as, if necessary, get psychological help,” the ministry’s press service said.
    A criminal case has been initiated to look into the cause of the deaths, RIA Novosti reported.

  • New rule: Russians to pay €45 more to enter EU under new rule

    The European Union wants to increase the cost and difficulty of obtaining a visa for Russian nationals.

    The application process would take longer and the charge will increase from €35 (£30; $34) to €80 (£69; $79) for Russians seeking entry to the EU.

    This should continue as long as Moscow wages its war of aggression

    against Ukraine, the EU Commission said.

    More than a million Russians have travelled to EU countries since the invasion of Ukraine in February.

    Margaritis Schinas, an EU Commission vice-president, said Russia had “completely undermined” the trust on which the existing EU-Russia visa agreement was based.

    Under that agreement, Russians had for 15 years enjoyed a streamlined process for getting EU visas.

    EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted to say that the visa agreement should be suspended as there “can be no business as usual” with Russia.

    Tuesday’s move follows a decision last week by EU foreign ministers when they agreed in principle to suspend the existing visa agreement with Moscow.

    The plan had been seen as a compromise, with Ukraine and some EU member states calling for a blanket ban – but others like France and Germany opposed to going that far.

    Some EU countries bordering Russia had already begun to tighten border controls.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week admitted that the EU decision would make life more difficult for Russian travelers, calling the proposal “another ridiculous decision in a series of ongoing absurdities”.

    Under the proposals, Russian citizens will face:

    Separately, the EU Commission is proposing that the member states refuse to recognize Russian passports issued in occupied Ukraine.

    “Russians should not have easy access to the European Union and traveling to the EU as a tourist is not a human right,” said EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson.

  • China quake: Tremor hits Sichuan city in lockdown

    A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit southwestern China, killing at least 65 people state media said.

    The quake struck at 13:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Monday in Sichuan province at a depth of 10km (6 miles).

    The impact severed telecommunications lines and triggered mountain landslides that caused “serious damage”, local media reports say.

    Some 21 million people in Sichuan’s capital Chengdu were last week ordered to stay at home because of Covid rules.

    The epicentre of the quake was Luding, a town in a remote mountain region located about 226km southwest of Chengdu, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.

    State broadcaster CCTV said 17 people died in the city of Ya’an, while 29 deaths were reported in the neighboring prefecture of Ganzi.

    “Another 16 people were missing and 50 were injured,” CCTV said late on Monday.

    Tremors shook buildings in Chengdu and the neighboring mega-city of Chongqing, leaving roads blocked and cutting communication lines in areas home to more than 10,000 residents.

    The shocks also forced some power stations to shut down in the areas of Garze and Ya’an, CCTV said.

    IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES
    Image caption,
    The aftermath Hailuogou in China’s south-western Sichuan province

     

    More than 500 rescue personnel have been despatched to the epicenter, while workers laboured to clear roadblocks caused by landslides, according to state broadcaster CGTN.

    Chengdu residents reported seeing people running out of their high-rise apartments in a panic after receiving earthquake alerts on their phones.

    “There were many people who were so terrified they started crying,” Laura Luo, an international PR consultant, told news agency Reuters.

    When the shaking began, “all the dogs started barking. It was really quite scary”.

    “Some of my neighbors on the ground floor said they felt it very noticeably,” Chen, a resident of Chengdu, told AFP news agency.

    “But because Chengdu is currently under epidemic management, people aren’t allowed to leave their residential compounds, so many of them rushed out into their courtyards.”

    On Friday, Chengdu became the latest city to be locked down by Chinese authorities, in an attempt to stem the rise in Covid cases.

    The latest disaster comes months after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake tore through Sichuan in June. Sichuan is an earthquake-prone area, as it lies along the eastern boundary of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.

    The earthquake also called into memory an 8.0-magnitude quake that hit Wenchuan county in northwest Sichuan in 2008, which killed 70,000 and caused widespread destruction.

  • Madhya Pradesh: Indian mother injured while defending her 15 months baby from a tiger

    Serious injuries were sustained by a mother in the Madhya Pradesh state of central India as she fought off a tiger to protect her 15-month-old child.

    Archana Choudhary grappled with the tiger with her bare hands for a couple of minutes before villagers heard her cries for help and intervened.

    Before villagers responded to Archana Choudhary’s calls for assistance, she wrestled the tiger for a few minutes using only her bare hands.

    Both mother and son are receiving treatment in the hospital.

    The attack took place on Sunday on the outskirts of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.

    Animal attacks on people living around the tiger reserve aren’t uncommon. Villagers BBC Hindi spoke to said apart from tigers, elephants have also been entering their villages and damaging their crops.

    Across India, people living in areas close to forests and national parks have been witnessing a rise in man-animal conflicts.

    Experts say this is because rapid urbanization is destroying natural habitats, forcing animals to enter villages and towns in search of prey and shelter.

    In the latest attack, the woman, Archana Choudhary, and her toddler were in a field when a tiger came out of the bushes and attacked the infant.

    Archana Choudhary's son - seen here with his father

    Her son – seen here with his father – suffered wounds to his head

    The Times of India reported that the tiger had sunk its teeth into the baby’s head and was trying to pull the child away when the mother intervened and attempted to fight off the tiger. Her screams for help attracted villagers from nearby areas who reached the spot with sticks and drove away the tiger.

    The mother is reported to have a punctured lung and has received deep wounds on her body while her son has wounds on his head.

    A doctor told BBC Hindi that the wounds on the child’s body were not serious, but those on the mother were.

    Civil surgeon Dr Misthi Ruhela in the city of Jabalpur said that the mother and child were being treated in the intensive care unit and had been given anti-rabies injections.

    Meanwhile, the tiger attack caused panic among the villagers.

    A forest official told reporters that the biggest challenge for the department was to locate and capture the tiger that had strayed into the village.

    Senior government official Sanjeev Srivastava told BBC Hindi that arrangements were also being made to ensure that more tigers didn’t escape from the reserve.

  • Eliza Fletcher: Body identified by Police in search for heiress

    Officials have reported that a body discovered during the hunt for Eliza Fletcher has been recognized as the missing Memphis heiress.

    The 34-year-old was kidnapped early on Friday morning while jogging close to the University of Memphis campus.

    Cleotha Abston, 38, has been charged with kidnapping and killing the mother-of-two.

    Fletcher was the granddaughter of the late Joseph Orgill III, a billionaire local businessman and philanthropist.

    The Memphis Police Department said on Monday that officers had found a body at around 17:07pm local time (23:07 BST) – but stressed no identification had been made.

    Then on Tuesday, officers said the deceased “located yesterday in the 1600 block of Victor has been identified as Eliza Fletcher”.

    At the time of the discovery, Abston, who was arrested on Saturday, had been charged with aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

    Additional charges for him have now “been added for first-degree murder and first-degree murder in perpetration of kidnapping,” police said in the update.

    Abston was arrested after his DNA was detected on a pair of sandals found near where Fletcher was last seen, according to an arrest affidavit.

    Officers also found a vehicle at the address Abston was staying at that matched CCTV footage of Fletcher being forced into an SUV.

    He attempted to flee when US Marshals arrived at the residence but was captured, the affidavit said.

  • Truss addressing nation from Downing Street after rain delay

    Liz Truss is delivering her address to the nation after being appointed the country’s new prime minister by the Queen.

    The Tory leader, who became the UK’s third female prime minister today, begins by paying tribute to Boris Johnson who she says was a “hugely consequential prime minister”.

    She says the UK now finds itself facing “global headwinds” caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine and now is the time to “tackle the issues that are holding Britain back”.

    Ms Truss says she has a “bold plan” to “grow the economy through tax cuts and reform” and says she has three priorities.

    “I will cut taxes to reward hard work and boost business-led growth and investment,” she says.

    The new prime minister says she will deal “hands-on” with the energy crisis caused by Vladimir Putin‘s war and will “secure our future energy supply”.

    “I will make sure that people can get doctors appointments and the NHS services they need. We will put our health service on a firm footing by delivering on the economy, on energy and on the NHS,” she says.

    She adds: “As strong as the storm maybe I know that the British people are stronger.

    “Our country was built by people who get things done. We have huge reserves of talent, energy, and determination. I am confident that together we can ride out the storm, we can rebuild our economy and we can become the modern, brilliant Britain that I know we can be.”

    Source: skynews.com

  • Biden quick to congratulate Truss

    US President Joe Biden has wasted no time in congratulating Liz Truss after her first speech as prime minister. 

    He said he looked forward to “deepening the special relationship” between the US and the UK.

    Ms Truss and Mr Biden will be close allies in supporting Ukraine over the coming months as it continues to fight back against Russia’s war.

    Source: skynews.com

  • Burkina Faso blast: Convoy attacked, killing dozens

    In the north of Burkina Faso, where jihadist militant groups are active, a bomb struck a convoy of vehicles, killing at least 35 civilians, according to the authorities.

    Dozens of others were wounded.

    There were numerous other injuries.

    Deadly attacks have been on the rise in Burkina Faso, despite a coup in January led by soldiers who said they would tackle the insecurity.

    Monday’s blast took place on a stretch of road between the towns of Djibo and Bourzanga, an area where militants have attacked villages, police, and military positions for the past seven years.

    The local authority said that one of the vehicles in the convoy ran over an improvised explosive device. No group has said it was behind the killings.

    The victims were mainly traders who were going to buy supplies in the capital, Ouagadougou, and students who were returning to the city before the start of term next week, one resident told the BBC.

    In an effort to deal with the militants, the government has said it has intensified the army’s “offensive actions” and also initiated dialogue with certain armed groups.

    It argues that this strategy has allowed dozens of young people to lay down their arms and for some communities to go back to their villages.

    This latest attack comes days after military ruler Lt-Col Paul-Henri Damiba met with his counterparts from Mali and Ivory Coast to discuss ways to work together to tackle the region’s security problems.

    In January, Burkina Faso’s President Roch Kaboré was ousted by military men driven by concerns over the government’s inability to deal with growing militant Islamist violence.

    “We have more than what it takes to win this war,” Lt-Col Damiba said when he was sworn in as president in February.

    But going by the number of attacks in recent months, citizens are not safer.

    On Monday, a group of aid organisations said about a tenth of the population had been displaced by conflict. More people fled during the first half of this year than in the whole of 2011, they added.

  • Russians continue to shell Donetsk region but no change on ground

    Russian forces continue to shell Ukrainian towns and villages across the Donetsk region but have made no progress on the ground, according to Ukrainian regional authorities.

    Several towns in Donetsk were shelled on Monday, including Bakhmut and Avdiivka, and four civilians were wounded. No information was provided on Ukrainian military casualties.

    The regional administration said that a mandatory evacuation in much of Donetsk was still in force.

    Despite daily bombardments by Russian artillery, air strikes, and tank fire, there has been virtually no change on the front lines in Donetsk for several weeks. Analysts say that after a string of losses in June on the border of Luhansk and Donetsk, Ukrainian forces have largely held their positions — and almost daily Russian assaults have been rebuffed. In recent days, Ukrainian units even advanced in one area across the Siverskiy Donets river, but it’s unclear how much resistance they met.

    Ukrainian officials say the latest Russian assault was towards Bakhmut overnight Monday.

    “The occupiers launched two rocket strikes, eight artillery shells, and 17 mortar shells. The Russians used MLRS three times, a tank — twice, and an infantry fighting vehicle.”

    Further south in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, the Russians shelled the Nikopol district across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the regional administration. Regional administrators said 11 homes and 20 high-rise buildings were damaged.

     

    Source: skynews.com

  • Inhaled Covid vaccine: China, first country to approve

    China is the first country to approve the COVID inhalation vaccine.

    It is produced by CanSino and uses a safe adenovirus as a carrier for the genetic information that instructs the body on how to combat Covid.

    Inhaled as a fine mist, Convidecia Air can provide good protection after just one breath, the company says.

    Other researchers, including teams in the UK and the US, have been investigating nasal spray vaccines.

    Scientists say these may give added immunity to the lining of the nose and upper airways, where Covid typically enters the body.

    The National Medical Products Administration of China granted CanSino approval for its inhaled vaccine to be used as a booster dose.

    It can top up protection in those who have previously had a jab, trials suggest.

    Meanwhile, the latest Covid vaccine booster programme has begun in England, Wales, and Scotland.

    Infections are falling around the UK – but health bosses predict a resurgence of Covid and flu this autumn and winter.

    They are urging those eligible to protect themselves from serious illness by being vaccinated against both.

  • Extreme heat, save power: Californians urged to conserve energy for sixth day in a row to avoid blackouts during heatwave

    The afternoon and evening hours are when the grid is under the most strain due to heavy demand, thus the flex warnings advise individuals to use less energy during those times.

    As the state swelters in record-breaking temperatures, the manager of California’s electricity grid has for the sixth day in a row urged residents to practice energy conservation.

    The California Independent System Operator (ISO) said there could be rolling blackouts in the state if the guidance in the “flex alerts” isn’t followed.

    During a flex alert, consumers are urged to reduce their energy use in the afternoon and evening hours when the grid is most stressed because of high demand.

    People have been asked to use less power between 4 pm and 10 pm local time on Monday (midnight and 6 am UK time on Tuesday) under the latest alert.

    The California ISO had earlier asked people to use less energy between 4 pm and 9 pm local time on Saturday and Sunday as demand spiked and temperatures were still on the rise.

    Speaking at a news conference when alerts were announced for Saturday and Sunday, the California ISO’s president Elliot Mainzer said: “When we’re in a situation like this, where we’re right up against the margin of system capability and you have the kinds of threats to reliability from fires and generation plants coming offline, that consumer flexible demand, that response, can be the difference between the lights staying on or not.”

    The latest alert comes after multiple generators were forced out of service due to extreme temperatures in the state, the Los Angeles Times reports.

    Meanwhile, the California ISO has warned ongoing wildfires and potential new blazes could further strain the power grid by crippling lines and further generators.

    “Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, in particular, are shaping up to be the most difficult of this heat wave,” the agency said in a news release.

    The National Weather Service has warned temperatures in California could reach 115F (46C) by the middle of the week.

    It comes after the southern California city of San Diego sweltered in a record temperature of 95F (35C) on Saturday.

    Meanwhile, firefighters in Northern California’s Siskiyou County have been battling a fire that has left two people dead and caused thousands to evacuate their homes.

  • Another rabies death in Kerala: Stray dog bites and kill girl,12

    The death of a 12-year-old girl after being bitten by a stray dog has sparked fury in Kerala, an Indian state.

    Abhirami, who was bitten in August, died on Monday in hospital. This is the 21st rabies death in Kerala this year.

    She had received three doses of the anti-rabies vaccine and was set to take the fourth soon, reports said.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) says rabies is endemic in India, which accounts for 36% of the world’s rabies deaths.

    “True burden of rabies in India is not fully known; although as per available information, it causes 18,000-20,000 deaths every year in the country,” the WHO says.

    Animal rights activists, however, have questioned this, pointing out a “huge difference” between the WHO’s tally and Indian health ministry numbers

    The question of stray dogs is a sensitive one in India and often leads to arguments between animal lovers and local residents over the issue of feeding and sterilizing them.

    A federal minister told parliament in August that there were 15.3 million stray dogs in India in 2019, according to the Livestock Census. The total number, the minister said, had reduced by 10% from 17.1 million recorded in 2012.

    Kerala, which has 290,000 stray dogs, has seen a number of campaigns aimed at getting them off the streets.

    In 2016, a campaign to kill stray dogs, promoted by some people in Kerala after a rise in dog bites, angered activists. A year before that, dog lovers had trended #BoycottKerala on social media against a proposal to cull strays – the plan was never implemented.

    On Friday, India’s Supreme Court will hear a petition seeking action by federal and state governments against stray dogs.

    The court decided to move up the date of the hearing after lawyer VK Biju on Monday highlighted the issue of dog bites in Kerala and mentioned Abhirami’s condition (this was before she died).

    The plea also calls for canceling the ABC [Animal Birth Control] rules which were introduced in 2001 – under this, stray dogs are collected, sterilised, vaccinated, and returned to the same area from where they were picked up.

    Animal rights activists argue that this is the most humane and effective way of keeping the stray dog population in check and reducing dog bites.

    Critics, however, allege that the programme isn’t being implemented properly and say the solution is to cull dogs.

  • Vladimir Putin backs foreign policy doctrine to ‘protect ideals of Russian World’

    Hardliners have exploited the idea of a “Russian World” in foreign policy to defend acting abroad to help Russian speakers, such as in areas of Ukraine.

    It indicates that although it was initially proposed as a soft power strategy, the concept is now firmly established in government policy.

    The new policy stated that Moscow should further deepen its ties with the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic – two breakaway entities in eastern Ukraine, where the war continues to rage.

    It also said it should strengthen its links more with Abkhazia and Ossetia, two Georgian regions recognized as independent by Moscow after its war against Georgia in 2008.

    And the policy stated Russia should increase cooperation with Slavic nations, China, and India, and further push its ties to the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.

    West Slavs are in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, East Slavs are in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, while South Slavs are in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia.

    With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of Eastern Bloc countries broke away from the USSR and became independent, but around 25 million ethnic Russians found themselves living outside Russia.

    Mr Putin called the collapse of the USSR the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” and for years he has been highlighting what he sees as the tragic fate of those millions.

    It was one of his predecessors, Mikhail Gorbachev, who failed to prevent the break-up and who died aged 91 last week.

    Moscow has continued to view the former Soviet lands, from the Baltics to Central Asia, as its legitimate sphere of influence – a notion strongly resisted by many of those countries as well as by the West.

    The new policy said the Russian Federation “provides support to its compatriots living abroad in the fulfillment of their rights, to ensure the protection of their interests and the preservation of their Russian cultural identity”.

    It said that Russia’s ties with its compatriots abroad allowed it to “strengthen on the international stage its image as a democratic country striving for the creating of a multi-polar world”

  • ‘Fat Leonard’ escapes house arrest after US navy bribery scandal with ‘wild sex parties’

    A Malaysian contractor at the centre of the US navy’s worst corruption scandal escaped house arrest in California over the weekend after cutting off his GPS anklet, federal agents have said.

    Leonard Francis, known as “Fat Leonard”, who admitted to offering $500,000 in bribes to US navy officers, has reportedly gone on the run before his sentencing in three weeks.

    Police found his home in the city of San Diego empty on Sunday morning.

    Francis was arrested in 2013, accused of plying navy officers with cash, expensive food and cigars, rare cognac, and wild sex parties in luxurious hotels in exchange for contracts.

    Two years later he pleaded guilty to bribing navy officials as part of a massive fraud and bribery scheme involving his ship-servicing company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, in Singapore.

    Local officials and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are now understood to be searching for him.

    Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Omar Castillo told the San Diego Union-Tribune, a local newspaper: “He was planning this out, that’s for sure.”

    Francis’ neighbours reportedly saw U-Haul moving lorries going in and out of his home in recent days.

    Francis had suffered from ill health in recent years and was placed under house arrest in 2018 while cooperating with investigators and acting as a witness for the prosecution.

    He was due to be sentenced on 22 September.

    The US Justice Department previously called Francis’ scheme a colossal fraud.

    They later brought charges against more than 30 others.

    Many of those charged have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial.

  • Murder in Dublin: Man charged with murder of three siblings

    Early on Sunday morning, Lisa Cash, 18, and her identical twin siblings Christy and Chelsea Cawley, 8, passed away in their Tallaght home.

    The murder of three siblings in Dublin has been blamed on a man.

    Lisa Cash, 18, and her eight-year-old twin siblings Christy and Chelsea Cawley died during an incident at their home in Tallaght in the early hours of Sunday.

    A man has been charged with the murder of three siblings in Dublin.

    Lisa Cash, 18, and her eight-year-old twin siblings Christy and Chelsea Cawley died during an incident at their home in Tallaght in the early hours of Sunday.

     

    Andrew Cash, 24, of Rossfield Avenue, Tallaght appeared at a special sitting of the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on Monday evening charged with their murder.

    The court heard he replied “no comment” to each charge, and he was remanded into custody.

    Garda Robert Whitty told the court the accused was cautioned and charged with three counts of murder at 7.51 pm on Monday.

    Judge Patricia McNamara remanded Cash in custody at Cloverhill Prison to appear in court via videolink on Friday at 10 am.

    Earlier, a vigil was held in Tallaght in memory of the siblings with a large crowd gathered outside the house to mourn alongside family and friends.

    Balloons were released and candles were lit along the wall outside the house in their memory as songs were played to the crowd.

    Dozens of bunches of flowers, teddy bears, and candles have been placed along the wall as well as photographs of the three, showing Christy and Chelsea making their first Holy Communion.

    Officers had been called to the property in the Rossfield estate in Tallaght at about 12.30 am on Sunday.

    The victim’s 14-year-old brother was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries after the incident.

    Their mother, a woman in her 40s, was released from the hospital on Sunday and is being supported by her family.

    People attend a vigil after the deaths of three siblings in Tallaght

    Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin expressed his “deepest sympathies” to the victims’ families, and said that the “terrible tragedy” had “left the nation shocked and very saddened”.

    Ireland’s Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, described the deaths as “dreadful and traumatic”, saying it was “one of the worst incidents that I’ve heard of or come across in my service”.

    The commissioner appealed to anyone who was in the area at the time, and who may have any information, to come forward to aid the gardai with their investigation.

  • Pakistan floods: Struggle as officials try to stop biggest lake from overflowing

    Pakistan authorities are struggling to contain their biggest lake from bursting its banks after a last-ditch attempt to drain it failed.

    The attempt to breach it displaced up to 100,000 people from their homes.

    But on Monday, the province’s minister for irrigation told Reuters the water level of the lake had “not come down”.

    Sindh province produces half of the country’s food supply, exacerbating fears that many will face serious food shortages in a country already struggling with an economic crisis.

    Floods in Pakistan have affected some 33 million people and killed at least 1,314, including 458 children, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency said.

    Estimates suggest the floods have caused at least $10bn (£8.5bn) of damage.

    On Sunday, officials breached the lake after it had flooded two rural towns, in hopes that it would prevent it from further bursting its banks and inundating more densely-populated areas.

    But the move risked affecting an estimated 400 villages – a total of 135,000 people – who would be left without homes. Officials told villagers to evacuate at the weekend.

    On Monday however, officials said water levels at the lake had remained dangerously high.

    Jam Khan Shoro, the provincial minister for irrigation told the news agency Reuters that water levels had not come down but declined to say if there would be subsequent attempts to relieve the lake of its bloated banks.

    Pakistan is facing one of its worst climate-induced natural disasters in years, as record torrential rainfall and melting glaciers in the country’s northern mountains have caused devastating floods and submerged almost a third of its territory underwater.

    Meanwhile, the UN children’s agency Unicef said more children were at risk of dying from the disease in Pakistan due to the shortage of clean water.

    The disaster has also highlighted the stark disparity between countries that are the largest contributors to climate change and countries that bear the brunt of its impact.

    Pakistan produces less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions but its geography makes it extremely vulnerable to climate change.

  • Ukraine war: North Korea arming Russia – US reports

    As a result of Western sanctions, Russia apparently has been obliged to purchase weapons from North Korea in order to maintain its invading force in Ukraine.

    Russian media reports that it has purchased millions of rockets and artillery ammunition from Pyongyang.

    Last week it received the first order of new Iranian drones, US reports said.

    New Russian missile strikes have been reported across Ukraine, with a fuel depot set on fire in the Kryvyi Rih area and deadly attacks on Kharkiv.

    In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, a woman’s body was found after a strike destroyed the upper part of a block of flats, local authorities said.

    Firefighters near a damaged building in Kharkiv, 6 September
    GETTY IMAGES

    Flats were destroyed in Kharkiv

    In Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, thick black smoke billowed from the depot in a photo posted by the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

    It was attacked with two missiles on Monday evening, Valentyn Reznichenko said, adding that there was no immediate information about casualties.

    In another development, Russian-backed separatists controlling Donetsk said parts of the eastern city had been shelled by Ukrainian government forces on Tuesday, with one civilian wounded.

    A US official said Russia would be forced to buy additional North Korean weaponry as the war dragged on.

    Iran and North Korea, themselves both the targets of significant Western sanctions, have sought to deepen ties with Russia since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February.

    Kim Jong-un’s government has blamed the US for the conflict and accused the West of pursuing a “hegemonic policy” that justified Russia’s use of force.

    Last month, North Korea recognized the independence of two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine – the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics – and vowed to deepen its “comradely friendship” with Moscow. Mr Putin said the two countries would expand their “comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations”, according to North Korean state media.

    The exact size and scale of the new weapons deliveries reported by the New York Times and Associated Press news agency remain unclear.

    But a US official said turning to North Korea for support demonstrated that “the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine, due in part to export controls and sanctions”.

    Broad economic sanctions have done little to damage Russia’s income from energy exports, according to a Finnish think tank the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. It estimates Russia has made €158bn (£136bn) from surging fossil fuel prices during the six-month invasion, with EU imports accounting for more than half of that.

    However, the US and EU believe that Moscow’s ability to resupply its military has been impaired.

    Last week, officials in the Biden administration told US media that the first shipments of Iranian-made drones had also been delivered to Russia.

    US intelligence officers believe that Russian operators have travelled to Iran to receive training on the Mohajer-6 and Shahed series weapons.

    But they told reporters recently that many of the drones had been beset by mechanical and technical problems since delivery.

    Iran has officially denied delivering weapons to either side of the conflict, but in July US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tehran was planning to supply Moscow with potentially hundreds of drones for its war in Ukraine, some with combat capabilities.

    On Tuesday, UK defence officials said in a daily update that Russia was struggling to maintain its supply of battlefield drones in the face of significant “combat losses”.

    “It is likely that Russia is struggling to maintain stocks of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], exacerbated by component shortages resulting from international sanctions,” the update said.

    “The limited availability of reconnaissance UAVs is likely degrading commanders’ tactical situational awareness and increasingly hampering Russian operations,” the officials added.

  • Car chase: Man shot dead by police after in south London

    At 9:51 p.m. on Monday in Kirkstall Gardens, Streatham Hill, a “suspect” vehicle was stopped after “tactical contact,” according to police.

    After a chase across south London, an armed policeman shot and killed a man in his 20s. He died in the hospital

    The Met Police said in a statement: “At 9.51 pm on Monday specialist firearms officers were in pursuit of a suspect vehicle in the Lambeth area.”

    Officers used a tactic where they deliberately collide with a car to force it to stop to bring the pursuit to an end in Kirkstall Gardens, Streatham Hill, shortly before 10 pm on Monday.

    Locals reported hearing gunshots and the police helicopter hovering overhead.

    A 39-year-old man, who lives on nearby New Park Road and asked not to be named, told the PA news agency: “The (driver) drove up New Park Road and turned up Kirkstall Gardens.

    “Another police car came in behind him and they had him locked in at the bottom of Kirkstall Gardens.

    “The car was immobile when he was shot.”

    Officers gave the man first aid while they waited for the London Ambulance Service and air ambulance to arrive.

    He was then taken to hospital where he died at 12.16 am.

    Rachel Cook, who lives on nearby Kirkstall Road, said it was a “very quiet residential street” and that people were “very shook up about it”.

    Cordons were in place on Kirkstall Gardens and New Park Road on Tuesday, with a forensic tent put up and officers gathering evidence at the scene.

    Friends of the deceased have also gathered in Kirkstall Gardens, with a few groups of young men congregating on the street.

    The statement said the Independent Office for Police Conduct has been contacted and an independent investigation launched.

    The charity Inquest, which works with bereaved families, said on Twitter it was seeking to make contact with relatives of the man who died.

  • Stabbings in Canada : One suspect discovered dead

    The body of one of two brothers sought by Canadian police in connection with a Sunday night mass stabbing in the Saskatchewan province that left 10 people dead and 18 injured has been discovered.

    Damien Sanderson, 31, had injuries that did not appear to be self-inflicted, an officer stated, without going into further detail.

    He was found at the James Smith Cree Nation, the indigenous community where most of the victims lived.

    Sanderson’s brother Myles is at large and dangerous, police say.

    The stabbing spree has rocked the usually peaceful province, with police investigating 13 different crime scenes.

    The suspects’ motives remain unknown. Both were charged with murder, despite not being arrested.

    On Monday police said Damien Sanderson’s body had been found “in a heavily grassed area in proximity to a house that was being examined”.

    His injuries were “not believed to be self-inflicted at this point”, police Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore told reporters.

    His 30-year-old brother might also have sustained injuries and police have warned the public he might seek medical assistance. But police did not say whether he was responsible for his brother’s death.

    Myles Sanderson, who was previously known to the police, is described as having an “extensive and lengthy criminal record” dating back a number of years.

    On Monday evening, chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents all 74 First Nations of Saskatchewan, urged residents to report any information about the attacks,

    “Someone out there knows something,” he said in a statement. “We beg you to come forward for the sake of the families.”

    In Regina, the province’s capital where the suspects were last seen alive, communities are on edge.

    But in the city center on Monday evening, there were no obvious signs of a manhunt. The city was mostly quiet as families gathered to enjoy the Labour Day holiday, the unofficial end to summer.

    Every so often, that calm was interrupted by alerts ringing on mobile phones, warning of two adult male suspects, and then just one, still on the run.

    “Every time a new alert is a broadcast… the families and communities are holding their breath for fear of new fatalities or injuries,” Mr Cameron said.

    “This kind of violence or any kind of violence has no place in our country,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

    He said that “tragedies like these have become all too commonplace” – adding that Saskatchewanians and Canadians would be there for each other in “times of difficulty and anguish”.

    Many of the victims were residents of the remote James Smith Cree Nation, home to about 2,000 people – leaving members of Canada’s indigenous community especially shaken. A state of emergency was declared in Saskatchewan.

    Canadian media have identified some of the victims, although no official details have been provided by authorities.

    Saskatchewan’s 1.2 million residents are scattered across 250,000 square miles. Clusters of tight-knit communities, separated by stretches of highways, dot the flat expanse of farmland. Most places feel remote.

  • The Kenyan Supreme Court validates William Ruto’s victory in the presidential election

    Following the election commission chair’s declaration of William Ruto as the winner, protests temporarily erupted in a number of the strongholds of Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate. It’s unclear if there will be any additional demonstrations.

    The highest court of Kenya has dismissed a challenge to the official results of the presidential election.

    Opposition candidate Raila Odinga had alleged irregularities in the otherwise peaceful election on 9 August, which was won by deputy president William Ruto.

    The court found there was little or no evidence for various claims, including accusations of misconduct, and called some of them “nothing more than hot air.”

    Protests briefly broke out in several of Mr Odinga’s strongholds after the election commission chair declared Mr Ruto the winner on 15 August, but Mr Odinga urged his supporters to stay peaceful.

    It is not clear whether the court’s decision could lead to further protests.

    The court overturned the results of the previous presidential election in 2017, a first in Africa, and ordered a fresh vote after Mr Odinga filed a challenge to that year’s result.

    He then boycotted the fresh election that was ordered, allowing President Uhuru Kenyatta to take power.

    At the time, about 100 people were killed in election-related clashes.

    This time, Mr Odinga was backed by Mr Kenyatta, his former opponent, illustrating how political alliances can shift in East Africa’s most stable democracy.

    Mr Ruto had been declared the winner even though four of the seven election commissioners had disowned the result announced by the commission chairman, claiming the count had been opaque.

    Image:Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga

    The supreme court criticised the commission, saying it “needs far-reaching reforms” before questioning whether “are we to nullify an election on the basis of a last-minute boardroom rupture?”

    Mr Ruto will become Kenya’s fifth president at a time when the east African nation faces several challenges, including billions of dollars in loans and surging prices of basic commodities such as food and fuel.

  • COVID-19 virus voice detecting app ‘more accurate than lateral flow tests’ – Researchers

    Users will have to record certain respiratory sounds, like coughing and reading a short sentence, as well as information about their demographics, smoking history, and medical history.

    Researchers claim that a mobile phone app can identify COVID in people’s voices with “possibly high precision” using artificial intelligence (AI).

    An AI model was said to be 89% accurate and cheap to use, which means it could be adopted in low-income countries where PCR tests are more expensive.

    Results can be provided in less than a minute and are said to be a “significant improvement” on the accuracy of lateral flow tests, scientists said.

    Infection normally impacts the upper respiratory tract and the vocal cords and so researchers decided to analyze changes in voices using an AI model to detect COVID.

    Wafaa Aljbawi, a researcher at the Institute of Data Science at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said: “These promising results suggest that simple voice recordings and fine-tuned AI algorithms can potentially achieve high precision in determining which patients have COVID-19 infection.

    “They could be used, for example, at the entry points for large gatherings, enabling rapid screening of the population.”

    Data was used from the University of Cambridge’s crowd-sourcing COVID19 Sounds app. This included 893 audio samples from 4,352 healthy and non-healthy people.

    Users need to give information about their medical history, smoking status, and demographics and record some respiratory sounds, such as coughing and reading a short sentence.

    A voice analysis technique – called Mel-spectrogram – identified different voice features to “decompose the many properties of the participants’ voices”.

    Ms Aljbawi added: “These results show a significant improvement in the accuracy of diagnosing COVID-19 compared to state-of-the-art tests such as the lateral flow test.

    “The lateral flow test has a sensitivity of only 56%, but a higher specificity rate of 99.5%. This is important as it signifies that the lateral flow test is misclassifying infected people as COVID-19 negative more often than our test.

    “In other words, with the AI LSTM model, we could miss 11 out of 100 cases who would go on to spread the infection, while the lateral flow test would miss 44 out of 100 cases.”

    The AI model is also being used for an app to predict exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

    The research is due to be presented to the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona on Monday.

  • Liz Truss will become UK’s next prime minister after beating Rishi Sunak in race to succeed Boris Johnson

    The foreign secretary has won the contest to become the next Tory party leader – and therefore prime minister – in a ballot of Conservative members.

    Liz Truss will become the next prime minister after defeating Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership contest.

    Ms Truss, who was the favourite to win, will succeed Boris Johnson on Tuesday and become the nation’s third female leader.

    The foreign secretary used her victory speech to indicate she would not trigger an early general election, instead pledging to secure “a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024”.

    She won by a comfortable margin, but her victory was slimmer than in other recent leadership contests.

    Ms Truss said it is an “honour to be elected” as she thanked her party for organizing “one of the longest job interviews in history”.

    “You got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin,” she said.

    Mr Johnson, who was forced to resign after a wave of ministers left his government over a series of controversies, will visit the Queen at Balmoral to formally tender his resignation tomorrow.

    Shortly after this, Ms Truss will meet the Queen, who will invite her to form a government.

    Ms Truss is expected to make a speech outside Number 10 once she takes office and will then get to work on appointing her cabinet.

    She faces the immediate challenge of coming up with a package of support to help households weather a worsening cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy bills.

    Ms Truss reiterated her promise to “deliver a bold plan” to cut taxes and grow the economy in her victory speech.

    “I will deliver on the energy crisis dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply,” she said.

    Ms Truss has remained tight-lipped about what kind of support package she might introduce – though speculation is mounting it could be a freeze in the energy price cap.

    Reacting to her victory, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said she “needs to show that she actually understands and can meet the challenges that are there after 12 years of failure of this Tory government”.

    Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, also called on her to “freeze energy bills for people and businesses, deliver more cash support, and increase funding for public services”.

    Conservatives have also been reacting to her victory.

    Theresa May said: “I look forward to supporting the government in that task.”

    And former leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby that Ms Truss is the strong character the UK needs to “take our country forward”.

    Mr Sunak and Ms Truss were whittled down to the final two candidates after five rounds of voting by Tory MPs.

    The pair went head-to-head over a summer of hustings and live television debates, during which they clashed repeatedly over their plans for the economy.

    Party members had from 1 August to 2 September to cast their votes, which were counted over the weekend.

    Source: skynews.com

  • Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s murder: Fourth man arrested in Liverpool

    Officers looking into the death of nine-year-old Olivia have detained four individuals in the past 24 hours.

    In relation to the Liverpool slaying of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, a fourth man has been detained.

    The suspect, 34, was stopped on the M42 near Leamington Spa on Sunday evening.

    The man, who is from Liverpool, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and is in police custody.

    Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Kameen said: “I continue to urge anyone who has information that can help our investigation into Olivia’s tragic murder to please come forward so we can bring those responsible to justice.

    “A number of people have been arrested in respect of this investigation. However, we still need the public‘s help in ensuring that we can build a strong evidential picture so justice is served for Olivia and her family.

    The latest development comes after a man, also 34, was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with Olivia’s killing.

    Two other men, a 41-year-old from Knowsley and a 29-year-old from Liverpool, are being questioned on suspicion of assisting an offender.

    Olivia died after being shot in her home in the Dovecot area of Liverpool when a gunman chased Joseph Nee, a convicted burglar, into the property at about 10 pm on 22 August.

  • Ferry operators apologize for the lengthy waits in Calais

    Travelers waiting in line at the Port of Calais experienced delays of up to six hours.

    The lengthy lines at the UK border controls on Saturday have been apologized for by the ferry companies DFDS and P&O Ferries.

    Passengers shared their “misery” at being stuck in their cars for hours as they headed back from mainland Europe, especially as some had children with them.

    DFDS said queues in Calais have been down to about 45 minutes on Sunday.

    A spokesperson told BBC News: “Calais was affected by ‘the perfect storm’ of summer volumes in combination with post-Brexit border checks, causing six hours of queuing.

    “We worked together with partners to reduce the queues as quickly as we could.”

    Jo Van Herwegen, from Surrey, said she “felt lucky” to have water with her while she waited for five hours in the French heat with her two children.

    Speaking to BBC News, she said: “It was little to do with the amount of people but with the poor layout and no traffic control.

    “We were traveling back from Belgium and expected to be delayed, so arrived early.

    “There weren’t many cars but an hour later we had moved just two cars. The way this terminal is designed is the problem.”

    Passenger Josh Williams added he was also stuck waiting in Calais for five hours on Saturday to get a ferry back to the UK.

    He shared pictures of long lines of cars filled with families trying to get back to Dover ahead of the new school year starting for many in England next week.

    Cars are stuck in queues at the Port of Calais as night time approaches
    JOSH WILLIAMS

    People at the port reported delays lasting nearly six hours

    Leanne Wood, from near York, and her two children arrived home in the early hours of Sunday morning because of the queues at Calais.

    She said: “We arrived early and the queues started forming but it was taking too long because there was no space for the cars.

    “The reason for the delay seemed to be British passport control – they seemed to be on a ‘go slow’.

    “They knew there would be British families coming back but it was as though they wanted to create misery – to make a point.”

    ‘The port can’t cope’

    Earlier on Saturday afternoon, DFDS warned on social media the queues could potentially last for six hours for people traveling from Calais.

    P&O added extra vessels were used for passengers who had missed their booked sailings, to “help with the passengers that have been stuck at border control”, as queues continued into the evening.

    The issue appeared to be improved on Sunday when DFDS said at 12:00 BST there were 45-minute queues at border control, and no waits at check-in.

    It earlier said traffic at the ports in Dunkirk, in France, and Dover, in the UK, was “free-flowing through check-in and border controls” throughout the day.

    P&O Ferries tweeted that queues were at about an hour.

    Passenger Craig Price, from Essex, told the BBC he spent five hours at Calais Saturday afternoon after driving through Italy and France.

    “We arrived at 3 pm and got through at 8 pm,” he said.

    “The design of the port does not seem able to cope with the need for French and UK border control,” he said, adding that two-thirds of UK border control booths were manned.

    The BBC has approached the Home Office and Border Force for comment.

    There were similar wait times in Calais just days earlier on 24 August due to extra traffic arriving from the Eurotunnel.

    Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passengers had to leave their vehicles and walk through an emergency service tunnel when the train’s alarms went off.

  • Refugees losing ‘hope for future’ due to barriers to higher education in UK, charity warns

    Language barriers, complex enrolment processes and a lack of awareness among colleges and universities on asylum applications are leading to delays and postponements for more and more young people.

    For the period September 2021 to August 2022, the total number of inquiries increased by 45% compared to the previous year.

    And this figure has more than doubled (a 125% increase) compared to the total three years previously (September 2018 – August 2019).

    The charity says students are waiting for several rounds to join the next academic year due to language barriers, complex enrolment processes and a lack of awareness among colleges and universities on asylum applications.

    Ahmed Mohammed, 21, is a refugee from Eritrea and says a delay in enrolment means he is years behind his age group.

    “Enrolment is a very hard process,” he told Sky News.

    “Sometimes they say you need an online application and as a person that doesn’t know English, you cannot do this and so you just give it up and the whole year goes by. It’s just wasted.”

    ‘I felt I was in the wrong place’

    Ahmed Mohammed talking to Sadiya Chowdhury about struggles with the education system in the UK as a refugee
    Image:Ahmed Mohammed says he is years behind his age group

    Ahmed says he was already behind because of the time it took to flee Eritrea and get enrolled in a UK school.

    “I couldn’t even write my surname. My mathematics was very basic because my last education was in grade 4 (9-10 years old).”

    “I remember being in a high-level GCSE class but the only thing I knew was plus, minus and multiplication. Everyone else was answering the teacher’s questions with ease.

    “I was thinking it’s because of me. I felt like I’m not smart or that I’m in the wrong place.”

    Gobika, 24, is from Sri Lanka and struggling to get into university because she is yet to pass GCSE English.

    “I’d already taken a GCSE in Sri Lanka, but when I came here I was asked to take it again. So I’m doing GCSE English. It’s almost been five years,” she told Sky News.

    ‘I’m not able to plan my future’

    Gobika, 24, from Sri Lanka talking to Sadiya Chowdhury about struggles with the education system in the UK as a refugee
    Image: Gobika, 24, was forced to re-sit her GCSE in English

    “It’s very frustrating. People my age have started working in good jobs. For me, I’m still doing English GCSE. I need to go to university, and that’s for three years. So I’m not able to plan my future. I’m almost 25.”

    Refugee Education UK’s Chief Executive, Catherine Gladwell, says when students cannot start their education, it removes hope for the future.

    “We often have young people say to us that so much of what they get asked about is backward-looking.

    “A solicitor trying to establish their claim for asylum in the UK is going to be asking, ‘What happened to you in order for you to be referred to here?’ If they’re referred to a counselor, it’s about unpicking previous experiences.

    “Education is often the one thing in their lives that is actually forward-looking. So when you take that away, what you’re doing is taking away that young person’s chance to imagine and envision and be equipped for the future that they should have.”

    Most vulnerable

    A government spokesperson said it recognized that refugee and asylum-seeking children were among the most vulnerable in society – and that being in a school was vital to help children integrate into their communities.

    A statement added: “Local authorities are responsible for providing enough school places for children in their area, and should consider their linguistic and cultural needs.

    “Our Free Schools programme and capital funding for school places are also making sure every child has the opportunity of a place at a good school, whatever their background.”

    Source: skynews

  • Ukraine war: Zelensky warns that Russia intends to disrupt Westerners’ normal way of life

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, says Russia intends to ruin every European citizen’s ability to live a normal life.

    In his regular address on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky stated that “it is trying to attack with poverty and political disarray where it cannot yet attack with missiles.”

    A few hours earlier, Russia had announced that its main gas pipeline to Europe would not reopen as scheduled.

    Europe accused Russia of using its gas supplies to blackmail Europe amid the Ukraine conflict, which Moscow denies.

    Energy prices have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February and scarce supplies could push up costs even further.

    There are growing fears families in the EU will be unable to afford the cost of heating this winter.

    Governments across the continent are contemplating what measures to take to alleviate the crisis.

    Germany – one of the countries worst affected by the Russian supply disruption – announced a €65bn (£56bn) package of help on Saturday.

    Chancellor Olaf Scholtz said Russia was no longer a reliable energy partner.

    The Nord Stream 1 pipeline in Lubmin, Germany
    REUTERS

    The Nord Stream 1 pipeline in Lubmin, Germany

    The stand-off with Russia has forced countries to fill their own gas supplies, with Germany’s stores increasing from less than half in June to 84% full today.

    Europe is attempting to wean itself off Russian energy in an effort to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance the war.

    Russia’s state energy firm Gazprom announced on Saturday the Nord Stream 1 pipeline could be closed indefinitely.

    The pipeline, which runs to Germany, had been shut for three days for what Gazprom described as maintenance work and had been due to reopen.

    The interruption of the service was “sadly no surprise”, EU Council President Charles Michel said.

    “Use of gas as a weapon will not change the resolve of the EU. We will accelerate our path towards energy independence. Our duty is to protect our citizens and support the freedom of Ukraine,” he tweeted in response to Gazprom’s announcement.

    Moscow denies using energy supplies as an economic weapon against Western countries supporting Ukraine.

    It has blamed the sanctions for holding up routine maintenance of Nord Stream 1, but the EU says this is a pretext.

    Gazprom’s announcement came shortly after the G7 nations agreed to cap the price of Russian oil in support of Ukraine.

    The G7 (Group of Seven) consists of the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

    Their introduction of a price cap means countries that sign up to the policy will be permitted to purchase only Russian oil and petroleum products transported via sea that are sold at or below the price cap.

    However, Russia says it will not export to countries that participate in the cap.

    The gas pipeline stretches from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany and can carry up to 170 million cubic metres of gas a day.

    This is not the first time since the invasion that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been closed.

    In July, Gazprom cut off supplies completely for 10 days, citing “a maintenance break”. It restarted again 10 days later, but at a much-reduced level.

    In his address, President Zelensky said: “This winter, Russia is preparing for a decisive energy attack on all Europeans.”

    He said only unity amongst European countries would offer protection.

  • Two “Israel collaborators” executed by Hamas in Gaza

    The Hamas-run interior ministry has announced that two Palestinian males allegedly working with Israel have been executed in the Gaza Strip.

    The individuals were not identified in the statement; it just provided their names and ages, but it said they had provided intelligence that had resulted in the deaths of Palestinians.

    On the grounds of murder, three further people were also put to death.

    Human rights groups have previously condemned such executions by Hamas – the militant group which runs Gaza.

    Since 2007 when they asserted control over Gaza, the Hamas-run authorities have carried out at least 27 executions, most recently in April 2017.

    The two men accused of spying for Israel were arrested in 2009 and 2015 and “convicted by a court of treason and conspiring with foreign parties”, the interior ministry statement said.

    It added that four were hanged and one was executed by the firing squad because he was a policeman.

    Security sources told the BBC that one of those executed was a Hamas policeman who used his weapon to kill his father-in-law and a 13-year-old girl after a family dispute last July.

    The crime sparked protests in the Beit Lahia area, north of Gaza, during which houses and shops were burned.

    Israel occupied the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Middle East war. In 2005, it withdrew its troops and some 7,000 settlers.

  • Rising cost of living: Bus fares in England will be fixed at £2 between January and March

    Everyone in England will be able to affordably travel to work, school, the store, and doctor’s appointments thanks to the £60 million project, according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

    To help people cope with the growing cost of living, bus fares in England will be set at £2 between January and March of the following year.

    According to the Department of Transportation, some travellers may save more than £3 on a single bus ticket thanks to the proposal.

    The average fare for a three-mile journey is around £2.80, the DfT said, adding that this means passengers will save 30% each time they travel.

    Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who announced the scheme, said: “This £60m boost will mean everyone can affordably get to work, education, the shops, and doctors’ appointments.

    “We know people will be feeling the pressure of rising costs this winter, and so we have been working hard this summer to provide practical concrete help that will lower daily expenditure.”

    Bus operators representing 90% of the market have expressed support for the plan, the DfT said.

    Paul Tuohy, chief executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: “This will be very welcome news for the millions of people who rely on the bus to get to work, to the shops, to medical appointments, and to connect with friends and family.

    “Buses have great potential to cut traffic and carbon emissions, connect communities, and ease loneliness.

    “This £2 fare cap – which we have called for – will help set buses on the road to a bright future.”

    Alison Edwards, policy director at the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said the idea was “eye-catching” – adding that she is looking forward to “understanding in detail how the proposed fare cap will work in practice to ensure it supports the long-term sustainability of bus networks”.

    In August, the government announced £130m in funding to keep England’s bus services running in the face of severe cuts.

    Labour said the fare cap plan was an inadequate “half measure”, with shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh adding: “This weekend Labour mayors will be lowering bus fares for millions of people for the long-term.

    “The government’s temporary 90-day reprieve after years of soaring fares fails to match the scale of the crisis.

    “Passengers across the country facing a cost of living emergency need more than half measures.”

  • Zimbabwe: Anti-vaxxers hinder the fight against measles

    Over 150 children have died in Zimbabwe due to a measles outbreak. To stop the spread, the government has started a widespread vaccination drive, but unvaccinated households are fiercely resisting because of their religious convictions.

    Zimbabwe has reported at least 2,056 cases of measles as of mid-August. Virtually all of the 157 recorded deaths were in children who had not been vaccinated, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said last week.

    The outbreak began in the eastern Manicaland province at the beginning of August, spreading rapidly across the country. Health authorities are scrambling to contain the spread.

    The government has announced a mass vaccination campaign targeting children between the ages of six months and 15 years. Authorities are also trying to engage traditional and faith leaders to support the drive.

    Zimbabwe has continued vaccinating children against measles during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the drive has been hampered by religious groups preaching against vaccines.

    Rejection of modern medicine

    The Christian sects in question are against modern medicine and have told their members to rely on self-proclaimed prophets for healing.

    DW caught up with one of the religious groups on an annual pilgrimage in Manicaland, where thousands of members of the Johane Marange Apostolic sect had gathered to listen to an oracle. The church doctrine does not allow its members to be vaccinated or seek medical treatment when they fall sick.

    A preventable fatal disease

    Measles is among the most infectious diseases in the world. Childhood infection is caused by a virus that can be fatal for small children. It primarily spreads in the air by coughing, sneezing, or through close contact. Symptoms include coughing, fever, and a skin rash. However, a vaccine can easily prevent the disease.

    But 56-year-old sect member Kuziva Kudzanai told DW it was a sin to seek medical treatment. “If anyone gets sick, they will go to the church elders for prayers,” he insisted.

    Church gatherings that have resumed following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions have themselves “led to the spread of measles to previously unaffected areas,” the Health Ministry said in a statement last week.

    Added pregnancy risks

    The prohibition on medical care also applies to pregnant women, sect member Janet Hanyanisi told DW. “We are not allowed to be vaccinated or even to go to a hospital for treatment. Instead, we go to our church midwives for delivery,” she said.

    Health authorities have struggled to break down some religious communities’ resistance to vaccinating their children, who they believe are speeding up the spread of the disease.

    “So far what we have seen is that almost all the dead are unvaccinated children,” said Cephas Hote, a medical officer in Mutasa District, one of the worst-affected regions. He added that there were a few infections among vaccinated children, but only with mild symptoms.

    Scramble to contain measles

    The government has reacted to the outbreak by launching a national measles vaccination blitz. July Moyo, a minister in the local government, said several government departments and the police are enforcing the vaccination to “tackle the emergency.”

    Moyo hopes the involvement of the entire government will ensure that “people, especially children, get vaccinated.”

    Before the current outbreak, Zimbabwe had not recorded a single measles case for more than 10 years. Public health authorities are hoping the current outbreak can be contained before it becomes an epidemic.

    Scientists estimate more than 90% of the population needs to be immunized to prevent measles outbreaks.

    In April, the World Health Organization warned of an increase in measles cases in vulnerable countries as a result of a disruption of services due to COVID-19.

    UNICEF has said about 25 million children worldwide have missed out on routine immunizations against common childhood diseases, calling it a “red alert” for child health.

  • Olivia Pratt-Korbel: The police have revealed footage of a different man captured on CCTV

    Merseyside Police say that they “think he may have significant information that could help us capture her killer.”

    In an effort to find her killer, detectives looking into the death of Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool have released surveillance footage of a different guy observed in the area.

    Merseyside Police released a video of a short-haired man wearing a colorful jacket and issued a request for help from anyone who may have seen him or knows his identity.

    “We believe he may have important information that could help us catch her killer,” the force said on Twitter.

    Officers have also revealed that two guns were used in the shooting, in which her mother Cheryl Korbel, and the gunman’s intended target, Joseph Nee, were both injured.

    The nine-year-old girl was killed after she was shot by the masked attacker who had chased Nee into Olivia’s family home on Kingsheath Avenue in the Dovecot area at around 10 pm on Monday 22 August.

    Separate CCTV previously released shows what police believe to be the gunman running away from the scene.

    A service will be held for the nine-year-old in Liverpool on 15 September, according to a funeral director’s notice.

    “Family requested everyone to wear a splash of pink,” the message on the website of Debbie Bennett Funeral Directors said.

    “Olivia will be sadly missed by all her family and friends.

    “Funeral Mass at St Margaret Mary’s Church, Pilch Lane, Dovecot on 15 September at 11 am, followed by a private burial.”

    The church, next to her school, held a vigil for Olivia on Wednesday.

  • More shelter beds promised as part of strategy to end rough sleeping

    The spring spending review initially revealed that £2 billion will be allocated over the next three years to pay for the proposals.

    As part of a plan to abolish rough sleeping, England will add thousands of additionally supported living apartments and shelter beds.
    The Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities have announced that this year, as part of a three-year £500 million strategy, 14,000 additional emergency beds for rough sleepers will be made available, along with 3,000 new positions for support employees (DLUHC).

    A further 2,400 long-term supported homes for those with the most complex needs, including young people, will also be delivered by March 2025 through a £200m accommodation programme.

    The plans will be paid for with £2bn of funding over the next three years which was initially announced in the spring spending review.

    Of this sum, £764m has been allocated to councils and government partners.

    It said this would be achieved through an extension of the Rough Sleeping Initiative which began in 2018, Housing First, and using local services to meet the health and housing needs of people living on the streets.

    The government says the funding will “exhaust all options” to ensure no one leaves a public institution – such as hospitals, prisons, the care or asylum systems, or the armed forces – for the street.

    Pilots in the West Midlands, Manchester, and Liverpool will be extended.

    Leveling Up Secretary Greg Clark said: “Ending rough sleeping in this parliament is an important manifesto commitment.

    “We’ve made great strides towards that goal in the last few years and today’s strategy backed by £2bn of support will give some of the most vulnerable people in our society a roof over their heads and targeted support so they can rebuild their lives.

    “The full weight of government is behind this very necessary pledge and this landmark strategy will give us the right tools to identify people at risk of rough sleeping earlier and provide the help they need.”

    Rough sleeping minister Eddie Hughes added that the government “will pull every lever at our disposal so councils, working hand in hand with the voluntary, faith and community sectors, can intervene swiftly when someone is sleeping rough”.

    Homeless Link, the national membership charity for frontline homelessness organizations in England, said the strategy is a “step in the right direction”.

    But Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, called the plan a “missed opportunity”, adding: “It’s good that this strategy recognises that, fundamentally, not being able to afford anywhere to live is the main driver of homelessness.

    “It’s disappointing that it does next to nothing to address it. In the face of a major crisis – with people already struggling to keep the lights on and pay their rent – this plan is wholly inadequate.”

  • Seven weeks after fleeing, the former president of Sri Lanka returns

    In the early hours of Saturday, Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned home after fleeing the nation in July due to its catastrophic economic position.

    He had gotten aboard an air force plane with his wife, two bodyguards, and a destination of the Maldives before continuing on to Singapore, where he formally resigned, and Thailand.

    It was believed that he planned to depart the nation before quitting because presidents in Sri Lanka are only shielded from arrest while in office, not after they leave.

    Mr Rajapaksa returned to Colombo’s Bandaranaike international airport on Saturday from Bangkok.

    The economic crisis has seen shortages of staples such as cooking oil, fuel, and medicine for months; while foreign debt amounts to more than £44bn, of which £24bn has to be repaid by 2027.

     

    The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been among the factors, but many blame the once-powerful Rajapaksa family for mismanaging the economy and tipping it into crisis.
    Around the time that Mr Rajapaksa departed, his brother resigned as prime minister, and three other family members stepped down as cabinet members.
    On Tuesday, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over as president, reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a £2.5bn bailout over four years.
    The package is aimed at helping Sri Lanka recover from the economic meltdown.

  • Colombia: Seven police officers killed following president’s bid for peace

    In Colombia, there was an explosion and shooting that resulted in the deaths of seven police officers.

    Their car struck a road mine while it was leaving a social gathering in Huila’s southwest.

    Then, according to a police spokesperson, they were ambushed and killed by gunfire.

    It is the worst attack on security forces since former guerrilla Gustavo Petro was sworn in as Colombia’s first left-wing president less than a month ago.

    Images obtained by the newspaper El Tiempo showed bodies strewn around a police pickup truck.

    Eight deaths were initially reported but the government later revised the figure, to seven dead and one injured.

    According to the national police and attorney general’s office, three of the officers who were killed were aged 20 or younger.

    Mr Petro condemned the attack, calling it “a clear act of sabotage against peace” in a tweet.

    Late on Friday, he traveled to the regional capital of Neiva for a security meeting.

    No group has said it was behind the attack, but Colombia’s Blu Radio pointed the finger at guerrilla groups operating in the area.

    And security sources have said that dissidents from the now disbanded communist guerrilla group, Farc operate in the area, Reuters news agency reports.

    Mr Petro was elected on a radical manifesto to fight inequality by providing free university education, pension reforms, and high taxes on unproductive lands – a departure for Colombia that had previously voted only conservative presidents into office.

    He also pledged to fully implement a 2016 peace deal that ended a 50-year-long conflict with Farc and to seek negotiations with the still-active National Liberation Army (ELN) who are widely seen as the last organized guerrilla group operating in Colombia.

  • Court would find committee’s probe into whether Boris Johnson lied over partygate ‘unlawful’, peer says

     

    Privileges Committee has stated that it will continue its investigation into whether Mr. Johnson violated the Parliamentary Privileges by repeatedly informing MPs that there were no lockdown-busting parties taking place in Downing Street.

    A probe into whether Boris Johnson lied to parliament over the partygate scandal would be found “unlawful” by a court, a top barrister has said.

    In a published legal opinion commissioned by the government, Lord Pannick – a crossbench peer who sits in the House of Lords – described the Privileges Committee’s approach to its investigation into whether the PM misled MPs as “unfair” and “flawed”.

    Lord Pannick’s advice states: “We advise Mr Johnson that the committee is proposing to proceed by reference to substantive errors as to the ingredients of contempt and the standard of proof required, and is proposing to adopt an unfair procedure.

    “But for the parliamentary privilege, a court hearing a judicial review application brought by Mr Johnson would declare the committee’s report to be unlawful.”

    His advice says that “the committee has failed to understand that to prove contempt against Mr Johnson, it is necessary to establish that he intended to mislead the House”.

    The top barrister also warned that “the threat of contempt proceedings for unintentional mistakes would have a seriously chilling effect on all members”.

    The publishing of legal advice commissioned by the government is a highly unusual move.

    Labour MP Chris Bryant, who chairs the privileges committee but is not leading the partygate inquiry having recused himself, dismissed the government-commissioned legal opinion by Lord Pannick as “disgraceful bullying” and “wrong on several counts”.

    “Firstly, he fails to mention that the motion that charged the committee makes no mention of ‘intentionally misleading.

    “Nor does he acknowledge that many aspects of standards processes have changed over the years, including the introduction of the right of ministers to correct the record through a written ministerial statement – which was used 200 times last year.”

    He continued: “It’s time this disgraceful bullying stopped. Let’s hear and see the evidence. If Johnson has a good case to make, he’ll be vindicated. If not, he should take his punishment.”

    Lord Pannick QC arrives at the Supreme Court, London, where judges are considering legal challenges to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to suspend Parliament. PA Photo. Picture date: Thursday September 19, 2019. The Supreme Court is hearing appeals from two separate challenges brought in England and Scotland to the prorogation of Parliament. See PA story COURTS Brexit. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire
    Image:Lord Pannick said the committee’s approach to the probe into whether the PM lied to Parliament over partygate is ‘unfair’

    Meanwhile, shadow leader of the House of Commons Thangam Debbonaire told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme that not allowing the Commons inquiry to investigate whether Mr Johnson corrected the record over his party gate denials would amount to a cover-up.

    Lord Pannick is a crossbench peer who has previously acted against the government for anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller and Shamima Begum over the removal of her British citizenship.

    Although Mr Johnson is due to leave Number 10 next week, the Privileges Committee has said it will go ahead with its inquiry into whether Mr Johnson committed a  bcontempt of parliament by telling MPs on several occasions that there were no lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street and across Whitehall.

    If the committee finds there has been contempt, it can recommend a sanction on the PM – but it is up to the House of Commons to accept or reject that recommendation.

    Such a sanction could include Mr Johnson being suspended from the Commons or even kicked out in a by-election after a recall petition.

  • Myanmar has imprisoned former British diplomat Vicky Bowman

    The country’s military authorities have each handed out a one-year prison sentence to the former British ambassador to Myanmar and her husband.

    A former political prisoner named Htein Lin and Vicky Bowman was accused of violating immigration regulations.

    The couple was detained last week at their Yangon residence.

    The case is likely to be about wider political concerns than immigration offenses, for which foreigners are rarely prosecuted in Myanmar.

    Ms Bowman, a fluent Burmese speaker, is a well-known member of Myanmar’s small international community.

    She first served in what was then called Burma in 1990 as a junior diplomat and returned as ambassador from 2002-2006. She now runs the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB), based in Yangon, which said it was “shocked” by the sentences.

    In its statement, it added that Ms Bowman had “dedicated many years of her life to strengthening social and economic development in Myanmar”.

    “We hope it will be possible for her to be reunited with her family in the UK soon,” it said.

    Ms Bowman and her husband were detained when they returned to the city from a home they have in Shan State. Military authorities charged them both with failing to register her as living at a different address.

    Htein Lin is a prominent artist and former political prisoner who was a member of the All Burma Student’s Democratic Front, an armed resistance group that was formed after the popular student-led uprisings against the military junta in 1988.

    The couple got married and moved to London before returning to Yangon in 2013.

    The pair’s arrest came as the UK recently announced sanctions against the military authorities in Myanmar – coinciding with the fifth anniversary of its deadly crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the country. The onslaught in 2017 left more than 6,000 people dead, and displaced hundreds of thousands in just the first few months, with most of them fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.

    Earlier on Friday, a military-run court in Myanmar also sentenced former leader Aung San Suu Kyi to a further three years in jail on election fraud charges.

    Myanmar’s military regime has been accused of widespread violations of human rights.

    Early in August, generals extended their emergency rule until 2023, with the country riven by internal fighting.

    The junta seized power last year after overthrowing Aung Sung Suu Kyi’s democratically-elected government.

    After last year’s coup, Ms Bowman chose to stay in Myanmar and appears to have been careful to avoid any public comment which might provoke the military government.

  • US permits $1.1 billion arms sale to Taiwan, upsetting China

    China is upset that the US has agreed to sell Taiwan $1.1 billion (£955 million) worth of weapons.

    The planned agreement comprises an anti-ship and anti-air missile tracking radar system.

    It follows the speaker of the US House of Representatives,  Nancy Pelosi, who visited Taipei last month as the highest-ranking US official to do so in the previous 25 years.

    The Chinese embassy in Washington called on the US to revoke the deal or face “counter-measures”.

    Spokesman Liu Pengyu said the deal “severely jeopardises” relations between Washington and Beijing.

    “China will resolutely take legitimate and necessary counter-measures in light of the development of the situation,” he added.

    Beijing sees the self-ruled island as a part of its territory and insists it should be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

    It launched large-scale military drills around Taiwan last month, following the American delegation’s visit.

    The US arms sale agreed on Friday still needs to be voted on by the strongly pro-Taiwan US Congress.

    The package includes a $655m radar warning system and $355m for 60 Harpoon missiles, which are capable of sinking ships.

    It includes $85.6m for Sidewinder surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

    A spokesperson for the Department of State said the deal was “essential for Taiwan’s security”, and called on Beijing “to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue”.

    “These proposed sales are routine cases to support Taiwan’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability,” the spokesperson said.

    The Pentagon last month created a task force to help streamline the sale of American weaponry to foreign allies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

    US lawmakers say that orders placed by Taiwan years ago have gone unfulfilled. Among the backlog are Harpoon and Stinger missiles, which have been sent to Ukraine instead, according to Defense News.

    In another move likely to irk Beijing, the Biden administration said it would keep in place, for now, billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese imports that were enacted during the Trump administration.

    The US Trade Representative’s office said it had received requests to maintain the 2018-19 duties from businesses and other interested parties.

    US officials had been considering revoking the tariffs, citing the need to ease inflation.

    On Friday, meanwhile, President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve $13.7bn in emergency funding for Ukraine, amid the ongoing war with Russia.

    The Pentagon said last week that total US military aid to Ukraine had already topped $13bn.

  • Hollywood icon Jane Fonda is undergoing treatment for cancer

    Actress Jane Fonda announced her cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy treatment.

    The 84-year-old said she has non-lymphoma Hodgkin’s in a post to her 1.9 million Instagram followers.

    Fonda described it as “a very treatable cancer… so I feel very lucky”.

    The Hollywood icon used her post to highlight the state of healthcare in the US and said she will continue with her climate activism.

    She wrote she felt “lucky because I have health insurance and access to the best doctors and treatments.

    “I realize, and it’s painful, that I am privileged in this.

    “Almost every family in America has had to deal with cancer at one time or another and far too many don’t have access to the quality health care I am receiving and this is not right.”

    Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a less common cancer that develops in the lymphatic system – the vast network of vessels and glands in the body.

    Fonda wrote that she will undergo six months of chemotherapy but “will not let any of this interfere with my climate activism”.

    The Oscar-winning actress made her debut in 1960, becoming famous for starring in films including Barbarella, Nine to Five, and On Golden Pond.

    Her most recent performance was in the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie.

    Fonda is also well known as a political activist. In the 1960s she vocally opposed the Vietnam War.

    More recently she became a campaigner against climate change. In 2016, she spent Thanksgiving among the protesters at Standing Rock, demonstrating against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

    In her post, Fonda said her diagnosis has highlighted the importance of community to her.

    “Cancer is a teacher and I’m paying attention to the lessons it holds for me.

    “One thing it’s shown me already is the importance of community.

    “Of growing and deepening one’s community so that we are not alone. And cancer, along with my age – almost 85 – definitely teaches the importance of adapting to new realities.

    “We’re living through the most consequential time in human history because what we do or don’t do right now will determine what kind of future there will be and I will not allow cancer to keep me from doing all I can.”

    Ending her post, Fonda highlighted November’s midterm elections – in which all seats in the US House of Representatives and just over one-third of those in the Senate, are up for grabs.

    “The midterms are looming, and they are beyond consequential so you can count on me to be right there together with you as we grow our army of climate champions,” she wrote.

  • Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: Argentina rallies following a failed murder attempt

    After the vice president of Argentina narrowly escaped an attempted assassination, thousands of her supporters gathered to condemn political violence.

    Crowds in Buenos Aires’s capital city chanted, “We are all Cristina,” in reference to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

    The gunman’s rifle jammed as he was aiming at the 69-year-old on Thursday night, allowing her to flee uninjured.

    Ms Fernández de Kirchner has not spoken publicly about it yet but waved to supporters as she left home on Friday.

    Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández declared Friday a national holiday to allow Argentines time to “express themselves in defense of life, democracy and in solidarity with the vice-president”.

    Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving supporters descended on the capital’s historic Plaza de Mayo, next to the presidential offices.

    “Thank God and the Virgin that the bullet didn’t come out,” 58-year-old teacher Santiago Bianco told Reuters news agency.

    “For us, the possibility that something like that could happen to Cristina is unthinkable,” said Claudia, 37, who declined to provide her surname. “We were saved last night from something terrible that we can’t even comprehend,” she added.

    A career politician and a divisive figure, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015, and its first lady for four years before that. She has been the vice president since 2019.

    Footage shows the moment she found herself face-to-face with the loaded weapon.

    Ms Fernández de Kirchner was outside her home in Buenos Aires, surrounded by a mob of supporters who back her in her fight against corruption charges.

    As she greets them, the gun can be seen emerging from the crowd. She initially appears confused by what is going on, ducking down to retrieve an object dropped on the floor.

    Videos from other angles show people in the crowd appearing to try to block her from the suspected gunman, who came within inches of the politician.

    President Fernández has revealed the gun was loaded with five bullets but failed to fire when triggered.

    Police named the suspect as 35-year-old Fernando Andrés Sabag Montiel, Brazilian-born but with an Argentine mother, who has lived in Argentina since he came to the country as a child in 1993. He had previously been arrested in 2021 while carrying a 35cm knife.

    Pictures of him taken from his social media posts and published on Argentine news websites depicted him with tattoos associated with neo-Nazi groups.

    After searching his apartment, police seized two boxes containing 100 bullets, according to investigators quoted by La Nación newspaper.

    Authorities are working to establish a motive for the attack on the left-leaning politician.

    It took place against a backdrop of a severe economic slump driven by sky-high inflation – it hit 71% in July – and the disintegrating value of the peso currency.

    President Fernández said the attempt on Ms Fernández de Kirchner’s life was one of the “most serious” incidents since the country returned to democracy in 1983.

    Crowds of people have been gathering outside her home in Buenos Aires for the past few nights in a show of support, as she fights charges of defrauding the state and being involved in a scheme to divert public funds while she was president.

    If convicted at trial, prosecutors have asked that she face 12 years in prison and a lifetime ban from politics.

    However, Ms Fernández de Kirchner is the Senate president and so enjoys parliamentary immunity. She would not be imprisoned unless her sentence was ratified by the country’s Supreme Court, or she loses her Senate seat at the next elections at the end of 2023.

    Ms Fernández de Kirchner has faced numerous other corruption trials following her time as president. The verdict of this trial is expected to take some months.

  • Mikhail Gorbachev: Mourners line up to pay homage to the final Soviet leader

     The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to peacefully end the Cold War, is being remembered by mourners in Moscow.

    There is somber music playing within the House of Unions’ Columned Hall. On the balcony, a sizable Gorbachev image in black and white is displayed.

    In an open casket, the former president is surrounded by a guard of honor.

    As they pass by, the people lay flowers. There is a sea of red carnations.

    It was here that Gorbachev’s predecessors, Soviet leaders like Lenin, Stalin, and Brezhnev, lay in state, too.

    Many Russians blame Mikhail Gorbachev for launching reforms that caused economic chaos and for letting the Soviet Union fall apart.

    But in the streets around the Hall of Unions, long lines of Muscovites – young and old – are queuing up to pay their respects.

    Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky is there and he says: “These people came to Gorbachev to say ‘Thank you Mr Gorbachev. You gave us a chance, but we lost this chance.”

    One man who is not here is Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin’s official explanation: No space in his schedule. However, this is widely seen as a snub.

    Mr Putin once called the dissolution of the USSR the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”.

    Mr Gorbachev took power in 1985, introducing bold reforms and opening the USSR to the world.

    But he was unable to prevent the collapse of the union in 1991, and many Russians blame him for the years of turmoil that ensued.

    Outside Russia, he was widely respected, with the UN Secretary-General António Guterres saying he had “changed the course of history”, and US President Joe Biden calling him a “rare leader”.

    But Saturday’s ceremony is not a state funeral – a sign that the current Kremlin leadership has little interest in honouring Mr Gorbachev’s legacy.

    It was well known that Mr Putin and Mr Gorbachev had a strained relationship – their last meeting was reportedly in 2006.

    Mourners attend a memorial service for Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, at the Columned Hall of the House of Unions in Moscow, Russia September 3, 2022.REUTERS

    Former Soviet leaders who died lay in state in the same imposing Columned Hall of the House of Unions

    Most recently, Mr Gorbachev was said to have been unhappy with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even though he had supported the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.

    The hospital in Moscow where Mr Gorbachev died on Tuesday said in a short statement that he had been suffering from a long and serious illness. It did not reveal the cause of death.

    In recent years, his health had been in decline and he had been in and out of the hospital. In June, international media reported that he had been admitted after suffering from a kidney ailment.

    He is seen in the West as an architect of reform who created the conditions for the end of the Cold War in 1991 – a time of deep tensions between the Soviet Union and Western nations, including the US and Britain.

    He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 “for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations”.

    But in the new Russia that emerged after 1991, he was on the fringes of politics, focusing on educational and humanitarian projects.

    Gorbachev made one ill-fated attempt to return to political life in 1996, receiving just 0.5% of the vote in presidential elections.

    Reagan and Mikhail GorbachevGETTY IMAGES

    Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987

  • War in Ukraine: Russia to keep a vital gas route to the EU shut

    National energy company Gazprom has disclosed that the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany won’t resume on Saturday as scheduled.

    The Nord Stream 1 pipeline would be permanently shut down after the company claimed to have discovered an oil leak in one of its turbines.

    For the past three days, the pipeline has been closed for what Gazprom has referred to as maintenance work.

    The news comes amid growing fears that families in the EU will not be able to afford the cost of heating this winter.

    Energy prices have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine and scarce supplies could push up the cost even further.

    Europe is attempting to wean itself off Russian energy in an effort to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance the war, but the transition may not come quickly enough.

    EU Council President Charles Michel said the Russian move was “sadly no surprise”.

    “Use of gas as a weapon will not change the resolve of the EU. We will accelerate our path towards energy independence. Our duty is to protect our citizens and support the freedom of Ukraine,” he tweeted.

    Moscow denies using energy supplies as an economic weapon in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed following Russia‘s invasion.

    It has blamed the sanctions for holding up routine maintenance of Nord Stream 1, but the EU says this is a pretext.

    Germany’s network regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, said the country was now better prepared for Russian gas supplies to cease, but it urged citizens and companies to cut consumption.

    Gazprom’s announcement came shortly after the G7 nations agreed to cap the price of Russian oil in support of Ukraine.

    The G7 (Group of Seven) consists of the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

    Their introduction of a price cap means countries that sign up to the policy will be permitted to purchase only Russian oil and petroleum products transported via sea that are sold at or below the price cap.

    However, Russia says it will not export to countries that participate in the cap.

    The gas pipeline stretches from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany and can carry up to 170 million cubic metres of gas a day.

    It is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose majority shareholder is Gazprom.

    Germany had also previously supported the construction of a parallel pipeline – Nord Stream 2 – but the project was halted after Russia invaded Ukraine.

    Gazprom said the fault had been detected at the Portovaya compressor station, with the inspection carried out alongside workers from Siemens, the German firm that maintains the turbine.

    It said that fixing oil leaks in key engines was only possible in specialized workshops, which had been hindered by Western sanctions.

    However, Siemens itself said: “Such leaks do not normally affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed on site. It is a routine procedure within the scope of maintenance work.”

    This is not the first time since the invasion that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been closed.

    In July, Gazprom cut off supplies completely for 10 days, citing “a maintenance break”. It restarted again 10 days later, but at a much-reduced level.

    Speaking to the BBC from the Swiss capital Bern, an economist and energy analyst, Cornelia Meyer, said the gas shutdown would have a major impact on employment and prices.

    “That really has huge ramifications for gas in Europe which is about four times more expensive than it was a year ago and this cost of living crisis will really soar because it’s not just gas,” she said. “Gas becomes fertilizer and it’s used in many industrial processes, so that will affect jobs, and it will affect costs.”

    The flow of gas through Nord Stream 1 had already been reduced to a relative trickle. Now, once again, it has been halted completely.

    An oil leak, claims Gazprom – which has previously attributed reduced flows through the pipeline to technical issues related to sanctions.

    Europe, though, believes President Putin is weaponizing gas supplies – deliberately limiting flows through the pipeline to push up prices, in order to test the resolve of Russia’s critics.

    The result, as we’ve already seen, is soaring energy costs – with businesses and consumers paying a heavy price.

    The timing of Gazprom’s move is certainly interesting. It comes on the same day the G7 announced moves to cap the price of Russia’s oil exports.

    But it also comes shortly after Germany – which is heavily reliant on Russian gas – revealed that its winter storage was filling up faster than expected.

    A cynic might say this was the last opportunity to tighten the screw, in order to inflict maximum damage over the colder months.

  • Different strain of monkeypox discovered in UK after patient returned from West Africa

    According to the UK Health Security Agency, the patient has been admitted to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital’s High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) ward.

    Health officials in the UK have reportedly found the second strain of monkeypox.

    A person who recently traveled to West Africa has been diagnosed with a different strain of monkeypox to the one circulating during the current outbreak, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced.

    The agency said the variant may have been seen in the UK before and that tests are being done to establish this.

    The unnamed person has been admitted to the High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) unit at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

    Contact tracing is now being done to establish if there are any further linked cases.

    Dr Sophia Maki, it is incident director, said: “We are working to contact the individuals who had close contact with the case prior to confirmation of their infection, to assess them as necessary and provide advice.”

    The risk to the public is “very low” due to “well established and robust” infection control procedures, which will be strictly followed, she added.

    Anyone who is traveling to West and Central Africa is urged to be alert for the symptoms of monkeypox, which include a high temperature, headache, muscle and backache, swollen glands, shivering, and exhaustion.

    Single genital lesions and sores on the mouth or anus have also been identified as symptoms of the virus by an international collaboration of clinicians across 16 countries.

    Some of the symptoms were so severe they required patients to be admitted to the hospital.

    Gay and bisexual men are disproportionately affected by the spread of the disease, with sexual closeness the most likely route of transmission.

    However, it can be spread via any close contact, scientific research revealed.

    Chloe Orkin, professor of HIV Medicine at the Queen Mary University of London, where the data was collated, said in July: “Viruses know no borders and monkeypox infections have now been described in 70 countries and more than 13,000 people.”

    Anyone returning to the UK with monkeypox symptoms is urged to call 111.

    The discovery of a new strain comes days after it emerged the UK is facing a 100,000 shortfall of monkeypox vaccine doses because the UKHSA grossly underestimated how many were required.

    An NHS pilot scheme is now underway offering “fractional” doses to stretch stocks of the jab in a bid to protect five times as many people.

  • Scottish school and bin strikes, called-off by unions

    Next week, there won’t be any strikes that would have forced the closure of hundreds of schools and prevented garbage cans from being emptied throughout Scotland.

    For the lowest paid employees, a new offer will result in a 10% pay increase rather than the special cost of living payments for this year and next.

    In 11 council regions, non-teaching school personnel were scheduled to walk out for three days the next week.

    Refuse workers had also been due to begin a fresh round of strikes.

    The Unison, GMB, and Unite unions all said they had suspended their industrial action while they consult their members on the pay new offer, and that they were recommending the deal be accepted.

    It follows an 11-hour meeting between unions and council leaders that was hosted by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in Edinburgh on Thursday.

    The unions had rejected an increased pay offer earlier this week.

    Cosla said at the time it was disappointed that the unions had turned down a deal that was at the “absolute extremes” of affordability, while Ms Sturgeon warned there was no “bottomless pit” of money to pay for an improved offer.

    Presentational grey line

    What is included in the new offer?

    • An increase of £2,000 for those earning up to £20,500
    • An increase of £1,925 for those earning between £20,500 to £39,000
    • A 5% increase for those earning between £39,000 to £60,000
    • A maximum increase of £3,000 for those earning above £60,000
    • The removal of social care registration fees
    • One extra day of annual leave
    • All increases will be based on a 36-hour week calculator

    Councillor Katie Hagmann, Cosla’s human resources spokeswoman, said the revised offer showed that councils had “listened to the concerns of our workforce and have responded positively”.

    She added: “Council leaders have said consistently throughout these negotiations that we very much value and are grateful to the local government workforce.”

    Nicola Sturgeon
    GETTY IMAGES

    Nicola Sturgeon intervened in the pay dispute between unions and Cosla

    Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish government would have to make difficult choices to help pay for the pay deal.

    She told BBC Scotland: “I hope union members will now accept this offer, I think this is a good deal for workers in really difficult circumstances.

    “People are struggling and obviously it is a good deal for the public because it averts any possibility of industrial action and I’m particularly grateful to trade unions for suspending the strike action planned for next week.

    “The Scottish government has a finite budget so there are going to be some difficult decisions to support this deal but it is important we do support the best deals for workers.”

    Scottish Labour’s local government spokesman Mark Griffin said it was “simply not good enough that it took weeks of industrial action to embarrass the SNP government into action”.

    Scottish Conservative Party Chairman, Craig Hoy MSP, said Nicola Sturgeon was “missing in action for weeks” and the strikes should have been stopped a lot sooner.

    ‘Not a perfect offer’

    Bin strikes began in Edinburgh on 18 August after unions rejected an initial pay offer equivalent to a 3.5% increase.

    The action escalated last week when workers at a further 20 local authorities walked out despite a revised 5% offer.

    Unison said 80% of its members would now get pay rises of between 5% and 10%, which it described as a victory.

    Johanna Baxter, the union’s head of local government, said: “It is only through the collective action of our members in school and early years staff threatening strike action and our waste and recycling workers taking action that we have forced these extra funds out of government and the employer.”

    A GMB Scotland spokesman said the new offer was a “significant amount of consolidated money” for workers including the “frontline refuse and school staff that everyone depends on”.

    Keir Greenaway, the union’s senior organiser for public services, said: “It is not a perfect offer but it is the view of GMB Scotland’s local government committee that it’s worthy of members’ consultation and their acceptance”.

    Unite said the direct intervention of the first minister had been a primary reason for the breakthrough, and that it now had a “credible offer which our local government representatives can recommend to the membership for acceptance.”

    Meanwhile, Scotland’s largest teaching union is recommending that its members vote in favour of strike action in a dispute over pay.

    The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has started a consultative ballot on the current 5% pay rise offered by council employers.

  • Race to decide next British PM: Voting closes

    The Conservative leadership election to choose Boris Johnson’s successor as prime minister is now over.

    At 12.30 BST on Monday, the two candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will learn who has won the vote of Tory members.

    The winner will be formally appointed prime minister on Tuesday by the Queen.

    They will then begin appointing ministers to their new cabinet.

    Mr Johnson, who led the Tories to a landslide victory at the 2019 election, will remain in office until the transfer of power is complete.

    The fractious campaign to replace him has seen the candidates regularly attack each other’s policies as well as the Tories’ record in government.

    Ms Truss, the foreign secretary, is the clear favourite to win, according to polls of Tory members. She has promised to deliver billions of pounds in tax cuts in an emergency Budget if she wins power.

    Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said he would cut VAT on energy bills for a year, but permanent tax cuts should wait until inflation goes down.

    With the cap on domestic energy prices set to soar in the autumn, what to do about rising living costs has dominated the contest in recent weeks.

    Both candidates have come under pressure to spell out how they would protect households from the rises, as well as give help to businesses, which are not covered by the price cap.

    Mr Johnson left big spending decisions to his successor after his resignation in July, leading opposition parties to accuse the government of paralysis.

    Ms Truss has said she would reverse April’s rise to National Insurance and cut green levies on energy bills to help households with costs. She has signalled she would provide more support on top of this but has offered no details.

    Mr Sunak has said he would make further payments to pensioners and the low-paid over winter, on top of the payments they are already due to receive.
    Michael Gove and Rishi Sunak's family at the London hustingsPA MEDIA

    Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy (c) cheered him on at campaign hustings in London

    The contest began in mid-July when Mr Johnson was forced out by a ministerial revolt over a string of scandals.

    The original field of 11 contenders was whittled down to two in a series of Tory MP ballots, with the final two going into a run-off to be decided by the membership, which stands at around 160,000.

    Although Mr Sunak had the most support among Tory MPs, opinion polls have suggested Ms Truss enjoys more support among party members.

    As the campaign drew to a close, Mr Sunak thanked his supporters and said he had “loved every second” of his “six weeks on the road”.

    Ms Truss also thanked volunteers on her campaign, and said if she is elected she would “do everything in my power to make sure our great nation succeeds”.

    In a break with tradition, the winner will travel to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to be appointed by the Queen, rather than at Buckingham Palace.

    She has been suffering from mobility issues and it is understood the change was made to prevent the need for any last-minute rearrangements.

  • Extinction Rebellion: Climate demonstrators arrested after protest in Commons chamber

    After gluing themselves together around the Speaker’s chair in the House of Commons, eight climate activists were detained.

    Extinction Rebellion UK protesters were touring Parliament at the time of the action, according to a spokesman.

    MPs are currently on their summer break and are due to return next week.

    The Met Police said it had launched an investigation into the “full circumstances of the incident”.

    The protesters read out a speech demanding a “citizens’ assembly” on climate issues, the group said.

    Other demonstrators were pictured draping banners outside Parliament.

    Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Nuala Lam told BBC News around 50 people had taken part in the action in and around the Palace of Westminster.

    She added the activists were calling for a “democratic system” that allows “ordinary people to be consulted” on climate change issues.

    “I understand there is some singing going on, and I think that security and police are there,” she added.

    Following the arrests, the Met Police said in a statement: “Four protesters who were present in the chambers and had glued themselves to each other were de-bonded and arrested.

    “None of these protesters were glued to the Speaker’s chair and there has been no damage to the Speaker’s chair.

    Two others – one who had climbed onto scaffolding outside Parliament and another who had glued themself to the pavement inside parliamentary premises – were also arrested, the force said.

    Another two protesters who had locked themselves to the Carriage Gates were removed and also arrested.

    A Met spokesperson said: “A police investigation into the incident is now taking place in close liaison with our parliamentary security colleagues to establish the full circumstances of the incident.”

    Earlier, a House of Commons spokesperson said: “We are aware of an incident on the Parliamentary Estate and are currently dealing with the situation as a matter of urgency”.

    Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle added there would also be an investigation by parliamentary security.

    He said: “It is a real shame that those visitors who made arrangements to join tours of the Palace of Westminster today had their visit disrupted and cancelled.”

    Sir Lindsay added that tours would still take place on Saturday and said he would provide an update to the Commons at the start of business on Monday.

  • Give metering contract to ECG – Kejetia traders to management

    Traders at Kejetia Market in Kumasi are urging managers of the facility to hire the Electricity Company of Ghana to install new single meters.

    The traders contend that ECG is better equipped to deliver the service and are opposed to awarding contracts to a private company.

    It has been more than two years since the Kejetia traders began their campaign to have separate power meters installed

    They have been resisting payment of utility bills, claiming the shared cost from a single meter at the market is expensive.

    Management says they have opened tender for prospective bidders.

    Chairman of the Federation of Kumasi Traders, Nana Akwasi Prempeh, says a petition has been sent to Management and other stakeholders appealing for the award of contract to ECG to fast-track the procurement of the meters.

    According to Nana Prempeh, ECG has indicated they are capable of delivering, following a meeting between them and Kumasi City Markets Limited.

    He observed the ECG would have to validate and certify metres to be procured by a private entity.

     

    Long term fears
    About 10 thousand meters are expected to be installed at the market.

    But the traders fear unexpected costs in the future that may arise as a result of servicing the meters if procured by a private firm.

    If that happens, they will be cut off from the national grid which they cannot afford.

    The traders believe they will have no cause to worry if the contract is awarded to ECG.

    Nana Prempeh says if the private entity would agree to their concerns without inflating the cost of procurement, they are ready to cooperate.

    The operations manager of the Kejetia Traders Association, Ahmed Kwarteng, says the rising cost of utilities at the market gives no room for further delay on the metering challenges.

  • GSS: Majority of employed Ghanaians engaged in vulnerable employment

    A survey from the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed that about two-thirds of the country’s employed population is engaged in vulnerable employment.

    Additionally, 1.8 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 are not enrolled in any type of training, work, or education (NEET).

    The finding of the report dubbed “Ghana 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES)” also indicated that about 390,000 persons 15 years and older unemployed in quarter 1 remained unemployed in quarter 2 of 2022 while between the first and second quarters of 2022, about 445,000 persons 15 years and older outside the labour force joined the number of unemployed persons.

    The labour statistics also indicated that about two-thirds of the employed population is engaged in vulnerable employment with significant variation across urban areas (56.4%) and rural (80%).

    The report also highlighted gender inequalities in the labour force indicating that the unadjusted gender pay gap in the first quarter of 2022 is 37.3%, with males earning a mean hourly pay of ¢11.00 and females ¢6.90.

    Furthermore, about 390,000 persons 15 years and older unemployed in quarter 1 remain unemployed in quarter 2 of 2022.

    Similarly, between the first and second quarters of 2022, about 445,000 persons 15 years and older outside the labor force join the number of unemployed persons.

    Likewise, close to 850,000 persons 15 years and older employed in quarter 1 transitioned to unemployment status in quarter 2 while more than 500,000 unemployed persons gain employment over the same period.

    44.1% of Ghanaians are multidimensionally poor

    On average the poor individual is deprived in 47.3% of weighted indicators in the first quarter and 46.6% in the second

    The Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) is the first nationally representative high-frequency household panel survey in Ghana.

    The AHIES is conducted to obtain quarterly and annual data on household final consumption expenditure and a wide scope of demographic, economic, and welfare variables including statistics on labour, food security, multidimensional poverty, and health status for research, policy, and planning.