TIG Post

Author: Abigail Ampofo

  • 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.

  • China lockdown: 21 million people locked down in Chengdu after COVID outbreak

    Following an epidemic of COVID-19 cases, officials in Chengdu, a city in southwest China, have announced a lockdown of its 21.2 million citizens and four days of citywide testing.

    Residents of Chengdu must “remain home in principle” starting at 6 p.m. Thursday, according to a statement from city officials, non-essential workers are being requested to work from home to help fight a fresh wave of diseases. If a household can present a negative test result within the last 24 hours, they will be permitted to send one person each day to go shopping for essentials.

    The statement went on to say all residents would be tested for the infection between Thursday and Sunday. They were urged to not leave the city unless “absolutely necessary.”

    It was not clear how long the lockdown would last. The Reuters news agency reported most of the restrictions were intended to last a few days at this point, although two provincial cities in northern China extended curbs slightly beyond initial plans.

    Similar measures have seen millions of people confined to their homes in the northeastern city of Dalian, as well as Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province that borders the capital city, Beijing.

    State media report the economic center of Shenzhen, the most populous district in Baoan, and tech hub Nanshan, suspended large events and indoor entertainment for a few days and ordered stricter checks of digital health credentials for people entering residential compounds.

    China’s state media reported Wednesday the restrictions will affect the start of the new school year in at least 10 cities as pandemic controls force schools to switch to measures like online learning.

    China’s state-run news outlet China Daily reports, citing Chengdu’s Health Commission, that as of Wednesday there were 665 confirmed cases and 293 asymptomatic carriers under treatment or medical observation.

    The restrictions reflect China’s rigid adherence to its “zero-COVID” policy that has exacted a major toll on the economy, with lockdowns, business closures, and mass testing requirements.

  • Foul lake smell: A rekindle of memories of Cameroon disaster

    According to Randy Joe Sa’ah of the BBC, some of the local residents have been alarmed due to a bad smell coming from Lake Kuk in North-West Cameroon.

    An unexpected gas breakout from beneath Lake Nyos in 1986 resulted in the deaths of over 1,600 people and tens of thousands of cattle. The lake and the surrounding Kuk settlement are close to that location.

    Villagers in Kuk who went to investigate the smell found that the water had changed colour.

    Some then started to leave the area but others stayed put, linking the natural phenomenon to the recent death of a traditional ruler. In other words, the ancestors were responding to his passing.

    Kahn Elvis, a geology expert from the University of Yaoundé, said the smell could have been caused by the sudden release of magma from beneath the lake’s surface.

    The local authorities have urged people to be calm and said the strange smell and change in the water colour were due to the recent heavy rains, Journal du Cameroon reports.

  • No evidence of election fraud in Kenya, say Ruto’s lawyers

    The proceedings for the presidential petition were ended by Kenya’s Supreme Court on Thursday.

    Lawyers representing the electoral commission and President-elect William Ruto challenged the petition by presidential candidate Raila Odinga and six others seeking to overturn the result of the 9 August election.

    The legal teams urged the court to dismiss pleas made by Mr Odinga and others saying they lacked merit because they had not tabled evidence to support their claims.

    They challenged the petitioners to provide proof to demonstrate that the results transmission system was compromised.

    The court was told that the allegations made about the dispute between the commissioners and the chairperson were merely sensational and do not warrant a nullification of the election outcome.

    They accused petitioners of engineering a constitutional crisis to achieve their political objectives.

    Lawyers will respond to questions and clarifications sought by the seven-judge bench on Friday.

    The judges will then write the judgment over the weekend and deliver the ruling on Monday.

  • Japan declares ‘war’ on old technology like floppy disk

    In an effort to bring Japan’s government into the digital era and cut down on red tape, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono has vowed to do away with antiquated technologies like the floppy disk, CD, and MiniDisc.

    A Japanese minister has declared “war” on old-fashioned technology, including the humble floppy disk, in a determined bid to drag the government into the digital age.

    Almost 2,000 government procedures still rely on the business community using the now obsolete storage devices.

    Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono said existing regulations would be updated to allow people to use online services.

    He also hopes to eliminate the use of outdated technology such as the CD and MiniDiscs.

    “We will be reviewing these practices swiftly”, Mr Kono told a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.

    “Where does one even buy a floppy disk these days?” Mr Kono joked.

    He also vowed to get rid of the fax machine during his speech.

    He later tweeted: “There are about 1,900 government procedures that require [the] business community to use discs, i.e floppy disc, CD, MD, to submit applications and other forms.

    “(The) digital agency is to change those regulations so you can use online.”

    A committee found about 1,900 law, government, and ministerial clauses stipulating that specific storage devices, including floppy discs, are used to make administrative applications and keep data, the Japan Times reports.

    The government is considering abolishing this requirement to reduce bureaucracy.

    Any opposition from ministers or agencies would be “pushed down”, Mr Kono said.

    Japanese technology giant Sony halted production of floppy disks after 30 years in 2011.

    But their legacy continues, with the square-shaped device still commonly used as the “save icon”.

  • Photos: Flood-hit Pakistan now fights waterborne diseases

    Diarrhea, skin conditions, and eye infections are on the rise in areas affected by the most recent record-breaking floods.

    In areas affected by recent record-breaking floods, Pakistani health officials have reported an outbreak of waterborne infections. Authorities are stepping up efforts to ensure that hundreds of thousands of people who lost their houses in the tragedy have access to clean drinking water.

    Diarrhoea, skin diseases, and eye infections are spreading at relief camps set up by the government across the country. More than 90,000 diarrhoea cases were reported from one of the worst-hit provinces, Sindh, in the past 24 hours, according to a report released by the health officials on Thursday.

    The latest development comes a day after the government and the World Health Organization raised concerns over the spread of waterborne diseases among flood victims.

    Pakistan blames climate change for unusually early and heavy monsoon rains, which since June have caused flash floods that have killed nearly 1,200 people and affected 33 million people. About a million homes have also been damaged or destroyed.

    Flood waters continued to recede in most parts of the country, but many districts in southern Sindh province remained underwater.

    Nearly half a million flood-displaced people are living in relief camps. In Sindh, thousands of medical camps have been set up in flood-stricken areas to treat victims, said Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, the provincial health minister. Mobile medical units have also been deployed.

    WHO says it is increasing surveillance for acute diarrhoea, cholera, and other communicable diseases and providing medical supplies to health facilities.

    Doctors say initially they were seeing mostly patients traumatised by the flooding, but they are now treating thousands of people suffering from diarrhoea, skin infections, and other waterborne ailments. Many pregnant women living in flood-affected areas were also exposed to risks.

    According to the UN Population Fund, 6.4 million flood victims need humanitarian assistance. It said about 650,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas, including 73,000 expected to deliver in the next month, need maternal health services.

    A man carries his son as he wades through floodwaters in Charsadda in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. [Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo]
    Pakistani health officials report an outbreak of waterborne diseases in areas hit by recent record-breaking flooding. [Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo]
    Flood waters continue to recede in most parts of the country, but many districts remain underwater. [Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo]
    A family takes some rest after salvaging belongings from their flood-hit home in Charsadda. [Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo]
    Flood victims use an inflatable tube as they travel in flood waters in Dera Allah Yar. [Amer Hussain/Reuters]
    Flood victims wade through water in Dera Allah Yar. [Amer Hussain/Reuters]
    General view of the submerged houses in Dera Allah Yar, Jafferabad. [Stringer/Reuters]

  • Oldest dinosaur in Africa discovered in Zimbabwe

    Scientists have unearthed in Zimbabwe the remains of Africa’s oldest dinosaur, which lived more than 230 million years ago.

    The Mbiresaurus raathi was one metre tall, ran on two legs, and had a long neck and jagged teeth.

    Scientists said it was a species of sauropodomorph, a relative of the sauropod, which walked on four legs.

    The skeleton was discovered during two expeditions, in 2017 and 2019, to the Zambezi Valley.

    “When we talk of the evolution of early dinosaurs, fossils from the Triassic age are rare,” Darlington Munyikwa, deputy director of National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, and who was part of the expeditions, told the BBC.

    He said that fossils from that era – which ended more than 200 million years ago – had been unearthed in South America, India, and now Zimbabwe.

    The find is expected to shed more light on the evolution and migration of early dinosaurs, back when the world was one huge continent and Zimbabwe was at the same latitude as those countries, he said.

    Zimbabwe has been aware of other fossils in the area for decades and Mr Munyikwa said there were more sites that needed further exploration in the area, subject to funding availability.

    “It shows that dinosaurs didn’t start out worldwide, ruling the world from the very beginning,” Christopher Griffin, another scientist involved in the expedition, told the BBC.

    “They, and the animals they lived with, seem to have been constrained to a particular environment in the far south – what is today South America, southern Africa and India.”

    Christopher Griffin in 2017, excavating part of the Mbiresaurus raathi skeleton
    STEPHEN TOLAN/VIRGINIA TECH

    Christopher Griffin 2017, excavated part of the Mbiresaurus raathi skeleton

    He added that the find was the “oldest definitive dinosaur ever found in Africa”.

    Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, a paleontologist at the University of Cape Town, told the BBC that the discovery was important because it was part of the lineage that gave rise to the sauropod dinosaurs, which includes the diplodocus and the Brontosaurus.

    “It tells us that when dinosaurs were evolving, they were found on different continents, but they seem to have followed a hot humid environment rather than dry inhospitable one,” she told the BBC. “We hope there is more coming out of that area.”

    She added that the area where the discovery took place had seen recent gas mining exploration.

    “I hope that there is a strict policy in place to ensure that if they encounter fossils, they hand them over to the museums, so we don’t lose that material,” she said.

    The near-complete skeleton of the Mbiresaurus raathi is stored in a room in a museum in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Bulawayo. It is thought to date to the Carnian stage of the Triassic period when today’s Zimbabwe was part of the massive supercontinent Pangaea.

    Dinosaurs were believed to be well adapted to the high latitudes where today’s Zimbabwe is located, which were humid and had ample vegetation.

  • Civil war in Ethiopia: Why has fighting resumed in Tigray and Amhara

    The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government of Ethiopia are once again at war. The path toward discussions is at best unclear.

    The southern boundaries of Tigray, where it borders the neighboring Amhara state at the town of Kobo, are where the first bullets were fired, according to both sides, early on August 24. Each team holds the other accountable for those shots.

    What is clear – from information obtained from Western diplomats – is that the Ethiopian National Defence Force and its allied Amhara militia, known as the Fano, had mobilized a huge force to that location over prior weeks.

    Meanwhile, mass conscription by the TPLF had swelled its ranks and it had devoted much of its resources to training and rearming, although it has denied forced recruitment.

    It captured a huge arsenal from the federal army in last year’s fighting, and there are rumours that it had also bought new weapons from abroad.

    Tensions were building. And yet, just a few weeks ago there was optimism that peace talks might soon be underway.

    Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had authorized his deputy, Demeke Mekonnen, to head a peace committee, which began work in July.

    Even before that, Mr Abiy had reportedly sent senior officials to secretly meet the TPLF.

    In sessions in the Seychelles and Djibouti, it appears that an agreement was reached that Ethiopian forces would lift their blockade of Tigray, that Eritrea would withdraw the troops it had sent to support the government, and that the two sides would open full talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, hosted by President Uhuru Kenyatta. The first agenda item would be a permanent ceasefire.

    Behind the scenes, the US was strongly backing these talks and was working in partnership with Kenya.

    Nearly five million people are in need of aid in Tigray

    Visiting the Tigrayan capital Mekelle on 2 August, US Special Envoy Mike Hammer and envoys of the European Union and United Nations called for “a swift restoration of electricity, telecom, banking, and other basic services”, and “unfettered humanitarian access”, hinting that Mr Abiy had agreed to do these things.

    However, the African Union envoy, Olusegun Obasanjo, remained silent on the siege. Briefing the envoys, Gen Obasanjo insisted that he was the sole mediator and surprised them by proposing to invite Ethiopia’s ally, Eritrea, to the talks.

    The TPLF accuses the government of reneging on its commitments. The government doesn’t admit that any meetings took place. International envoys are also staying silent on exactly why the talks broke down.

    Throughout July and August, Addis Ababa largely kept the blockade of essential services in place, permitting only a trickle of food, medicine and fertilizers for this season’s crops.

    The TPLF is unimpressed by international praise for a five-month “humanitarian truce”, which allowed the World Food Programme (WFP) to resume operations in Tigray, albeit on a limited scale.

    It insists that Addis Ababa’s continued blockade amounts to using hunger as a weapon of war and that the aid operations were pitifully insufficient.

    The WFP says it was reaching “tens of thousands” of people. That was a start, but far short of the 4.8 million in need.

    In an open letter to international leaders on the eve of the fighting, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said: “We are fast approaching the point at which we face death whichever way we turn. Our choice is only whether we perish by starvation or whether we die fighting for our rights and our dignity.”

    Mass starvation is decimating the Tigrayans. No one knows how many have perished but an investigation by a Belgian-led academic team earlier this year estimated that as many as 500,000 Tigrayans had died of hunger and related causes since the war began in November 2020 following a massive fall-out between the TPLF-controlled regional government and Mr Abiy’s federal administration.

    With the sole exception of a French TV crew from the channel ARTE, there’s been no foreign news correspondent in Tigray since the TPLF regained control of most of the region in June 2021.

    The few aid workers permitted to enter have not been able to collect basic data on child deaths, with the WFP spokeswoman conceding that “we just don’t know”, whether there was a famine or not.

    In the short term, the humanitarian disaster can only deepen. Those limited aid operations are now at a halt. The first meager crops won’t be harvested for more than a month and fighting will cause further devastation.

    The Ethiopian air force bombed Mekelle last week, hitting a kindergarten and killing seven, including three children, according to medical staff. The government denied the account and insisted it targeted military sites only. A second air strike was reported on Mekelle on Tuesday night.

    People inspect a damaged playground following an air strike in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia"s northern Tigray region, August 26, 2022 in this still image taken from videoTIGRAI TV/REUTERS

    Tigrayans say an air strike caused civilian casualties when it hit a kindergarten

    The Tigrayans requisitioned 12 tankers of fuel from the UN, drawing irate condemnation from senior humanitarian officials.

    The TPLF said they had loaned the UN fuel some months ago and were only reclaiming it, but the manner and timing of their act suggests it was not for delivering routine services, as their spokesman claimed.

    The Ethiopian air force claimed to have shot down a plane bringing arms to Tigray from Sudanese airspace. The TPLF denied it.

    On the morning of 1 September, the TPLF claimed that Eritrean artillery began a barrage of shells, while Ethiopian ground forces poised for a ground attack across the border. The Eritrean government has, characteristically, remained silent.

    Fighting has also been reported in western Tigray towards the border with Sudan.

    Through the fog of war, the news filtering out is that the battle for Kobo was huge. Tigrayan sources report a decisive victory against a massive force of 20 divisions, in which an enormous arsenal was captured. There’s no independent confirmation of this.

    The Ethiopian government denies that it has suffered losses. It has also instructed the media to “carefully manage their reporting and access to information in times of crisis in order to reflect the country’s national interest”.

    It said it had evacuated Kobo, and reports from the city of Woldia, 50km (30 miles) to the south, indicate that the army is nowhere to be seen.

    So far, the TPLF has not moved its forces south, saying that it has no intention of repeating last year’s advance that reached within 200 km of the capital. In fact its spokesman made a point of denying reports that it had captured Woldia.

  • Hackers target politicians with fake news website

    Hackers created a fake news website to harvest data from Australian government officials, journalists, and others, according to a top US security company.

    The targets received emails claiming to be from Australian news outlets, which linked them to a malicious website.

    The website, populated with articles stolen from BBC News, would then install malicious code on their device.

    Proofpoint said it had “high confidence” the hackers were aligned with the Chinese government.

    “We take attribution very seriously,” Proofpoint threat research and detection vice-president Sherrod DeGrippo said.

    “We specifically don’t release attribution unless we have high confidence.

    “Essentially, a big part of our attribution capability comes from the fact that the United States Department of Justice agrees with the attribution and data that we have released.

    “The reason that we have such high confidence in this particular attribution really goes back to the DoJ indictment, which mentions these defendants and specifically calls out the Proofpoint name identifier of ‘Leviathan’.”

    ‘Espionage-motivated threat’

    Proofpoint said the hackers were part of a group of which four members had been charged by the US in 2021 when the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said it was “almost certain” they were linked to the Chinese government.

    It said the group was “a China-based, espionage-motivated threat actor that has been active since 2013, targeting a variety of organisations in response to political events in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on the South China Sea.”

    The Australian Cyber Security Centre has been approached for comment.

    In the group’s latest hack, between April and June, victims had received emails claiming to be from someone who had started a news website, Proofpoint said.

    They had then been asked to review the site and consider writing for it.

    ‘Anglo-styled names’

    “What I think is quite novel about it is they went so far as to create these fake media websites, by scraping legitimate sites, including the BBC, in their efforts to appear real,” Ms DeGrippo said.

    “And further, they created multiple identities that they were sending from.

    “There’s about 50 of them… all of the very Anglo-styled names you might imagine Australians to be named.

    “They created all of these sorts of pseudo identities to launch the attack from, making them more believable.”

    The fake names – each with their own unique Gmail address – included Daisha Manalo, Blair Goodland, and Bethel Giffen.

    A screengrab of an email from someone who claims to work for a fake website called Australian Morning News. The emails says the writer "loves your unique opinions and writing style" and urges the reader to "browse the website and decide whether to cooperate with us or not".PROOFPOINT

    Victims were invited to write for a new news website, which was fake

    The fake website was filled with malware that would infect the victim’s computer with a tool called Scanbox, checking their profile, device and web pages visited.

    “Scanbox essentially is a web reconnaissance and exploitation framework,” Ms DeGrippo said.

    “When we think about that, in conjunction with the actor who is a China-based espionage group, it makes sense.”

    ‘Sensitive role’

    The attack seemed to focus on people involved in energy production, such as offshore energy exploration in the South China Sea, wind-turbine manufacture, and alternative energy but also defence contractors and individuals involved in healthcare and financial services.

    “Consumers generally are not on the radar of Chinese espionage services,” Ms DeGrippo said.

    “However, anyone who has a sensitive role within their professional employment, even if they’re dealing with things such as engineering, things that might not seem like state secrets… the reality is China sees them as secrets and as important espionage information.”

    People should ensure their browsers were updated and firewall and antivirus software turned on, Ms DeGrippo said.

    But she added: “Organisations professionally must think about the kinds of data that their employees have access to and if they have the correct technological means in place to protect their employees from these kinds of attacks.

    “By the time it gets to a human, it’s really too late.”

    Source: bbc.com

  • Unidentified drone over island near China shoot down by Taiwan

    Over one of its islands, which is only a few kilometers from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan claims to have shot down an unidentifiable civilian drone.

    A little after noon on Thursday, a drone was seen flying over the waters near Lion Islet, a small island in the Kinmen County grouping that is governed by Taiwan and is located about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the coast of Xiamen, China.
    The Kinmen Defense Command, a branch of Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, said the drone was shot down after warning flares failed to drive it away.
    This is the latest in a string of similar incidents to have taken place near the offshore group of islands.
    Unidentified drones have been reported in the Kinmen area for four days in a row but this is the first time one has been shot down by Taiwan.
    On Tuesday, Taiwanese soldiers fired flares at three unidentified drones that flew near Kinmen and warning shots at one that re-entered the area.
    It is not clear who is flying the drones, though China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday it was “not aware of the situation” and that it was “pointless for (Taiwan) to exaggerate the tension.”
    After Tuesday’s incident, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said she had ordered the Defense Ministry to take “forceful countermeasures” against what she said were Chinese grey zone warfare tactics.
    On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reinforced that message at an international press conference called in response to Chinese military exercises in August, saying it will “act in accordance with operational orders to exercise our rights of self-defense.”
    Tensions between Taiwan and mainland China have been raised since a visit by US Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei in August. China’s Communist Party claims Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, as part of its territory despite never having governed it and has long vowed to “reunify” the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.
    China responded to Pelosi’s trip by ordering days worth of military drills around Taiwan.
    On Monday, asked about reports of private drones flying in the Kinmen area, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded: “Chinese drones flying over China’s territory — what’s there to be surprised at?”

  • Mass hunger strike: Palestinian prisoners to protest living conditions from Israel

    Palestinian media has reported that some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel would go on a hunger strike to protest their living conditions.

    Israel tightened restrictions after a dramatic jailbreak by six inmates last September, which led to widespread protest.

    On Wednesday, a high-profile prisoner ended a six-month hunger strike after a deal with authorities.

    Palestinians consider prisoners held by Israel one of their top issues.

    There are some 4,500 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian officials. About 700 of them are held without charge under what is known as administrative detention.

    Israel says the measure is necessary for its security, but civil liberty groups say the practice is a violation of human rights.

    The head of the Palestinian Authority’s prisoners’ committee said a further 1,000 detainees would join the hunger strike if the prisoners’ demands were not met.

    The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, said the action was a resumption of a hunger strike postponed in March after an agreement was reached between prisoners and the prison service. It accused the prison service of attempting to backtrack on the deal.

    Palestinian prisoners have periodically staged or threatened hunger strikes as a tactic to pressure Israeli authorities to improve their conditions. They say conditions have got worse since six Palestinians were recaptured after tunneling out of a high-security jail last September and going on the run for nearly two weeks.

    The episode was a severe embarrassment for Israeli authorities.

  • New China export regulations hit US chip manufacturers

    Concerns over new US limitations on the selling of artificial intelligence chips to China have caused shares of major chipmakers Nvidia and AMD to decline.

    To address the possibility of chips being “used in, or diverted to a’ military end use’… in China and Russia,” according to Nvidia, the US government needs a new license, starting immediately.

    There are worries that the rule will result in millions of dollars in revenue being lost.

    Shares of both chipmakers slipped in after-hours trading in New York.

    Nvidia’s shares were down by 6.6% while AMD slipped by 3.7%.

    The new restrictions are a “gut punch for Nvidia”, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities told the BBC.

    Chinese officials have firmly opposed the latest move. According to state media, “actions from the United States deviated from the principle of fair competition and violated international economic and trade rules”.

    In a statement, Beijing said, “The US side should immediately stop its wrongdoing, treat companies from all over the world including Chinese companies fairly, and do more things that are conducive to the stability of the world economy.”

    The US Commerce Department told the BBC it was “not in a position to outline specific policy changes at this time”.

    “We are taking a comprehensive approach to implementing additional actions necessary related to technologies, end-uses, and end-users to protect US national security and foreign policy interests,” a Commerce Department spokesperson said.

    “This includes preventing China’s acquisition and use of US technology in the context of its military-civil fusion program to fuel its military modernization efforts, conduct human rights abuses, and enable other malign activities.”

    In a US regulatory filing on Wednesday, Nvidia said the new license requirement would hit exports of its A100 and H100 chips, which are designed to speed up machine learning tasks, and the systems which include them.

    Around $400m (£345.2m) in sales to China could be affected, Nvidia added, “if customers do not want to purchase the company’s alternative product offerings or if the (US government) does not grant licenses in a timely manner or denies licenses to significant customers”.

    An Nvidia spokesperson told BBC it was liaising with customers in China “to satisfy their planned or future purchases with alternative products”.

    Meanwhile, an AMD spokesperson said the rules, which would prevent the shipment of its MI250 chips to China, were not expected to have “a material impact” on business.

    Both Nvidia and AMD halted sales to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February.

    Analysts said the US requirements could make it more difficult for China to acquire chips for advanced computing.

    It could also affect the earnings of US manufacturers such as Nvidia and AMD, said Mario Morales, a California-based analyst at market intelligence firm IDC.

    “Both companies have a large exposure to China and could see more impact going forward, especially if China chooses to retaliate,” Mr Morales said.

    Rising tensions

    Last week, Nvidia reported revenue of $6.7bn in the second quarter, which was significantly lower than forecasts.

    However, it said revenue from its data center business – which produces computer chips – surged by 61% from a year earlier.

    “This is really a shot across the bow at China and it’s really going to fan those flames in terms of geopolitical (tensions). Nvidia’s caught in the crossfire,” Mr Ives said.

    US and China have been locked in a long-running dispute over trade and technology.

    Tensions between the world’s two biggest economies rose earlier this month after US politician Nancy Pelosi made a controversial visit to Taiwan.

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

  • Russian Lukoil chief, Ravil Maganov dies in ‘fall from hospital window’

    Reports indicate that Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russia’s largest oil company, Lukoil, passed away after falling from a Moscow hospital window.

    Although the company acknowledged his passing, it simply stated that Maganov, 67, had “passed away following a severe illness.”

    According to Russian media, he passed away from his wounds while receiving treatment at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.

    Maganov is the latest of a number of high-profile business executives to die in mysterious circumstances.

    Investigating authorities said they were working at the scene to establish how he died. Tass news agency quoted sources saying he had fallen out of a sixth-floor window early on Thursday morning, adding later that he had taken his own life.

    Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Lukoil board called for the conflict to end as soon as possible, expressing its sympathy to victims of “this tragedy”.

    Its billionaire president, Vagit Alekperov, resigned in April after the UK imposed sanctions on him in response to the invasion.

    Several Russian energy oligarchs have died in unusual circumstances in recent months:

    In May, a former Lukoil tycoon Alexander Subbotin died of heart failure, reportedly after seeking alternative treatment from a shaman.

    Lukoil is Russia’s biggest private company. In its statement, it said it was down to Maganov’s managerial talent that it had evolved into one of the world’s largest energy firms.

    He began working for the private oil company in 1993 and took over as chairman two years ago. Three years ago he was given a lifetime achievement award by President Vladimir Putin.

    Maganov had been receiving treatment at a hospital on the western outskirts of Moscow, which is known for having Russia’s political and business elite among its patients.

    Mikhail Gorbachev died at the Central Clinical Hospital on Tuesday and President Putin visited the site on Thursday morning to lay flowers beside his coffin.

  • Police on manhunt: Girl,11 sexually assaulted near Stamshaw Park

    After a girl was attacked on a path heading out of Stamshaw Park in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on August 29, police have published images of a suspect they want to speak with.

    An urgent appeal has been launched after an 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in Portsmouth. She was approached when walking on a path leading out of Stamshaw Park on Monday, 29 August at 4.30 pm

    A man grabbed her arm as she walked in the direction of Rudmore roundabout before making inappropriate comments and touching her over her clothing.

    The girl managed to get away, but the man followed her.

    He fled once she reached the roundabout and called the police.

    The girl is now being supported by specialist officers, Hampshire Police said.

    The suspect is described as being black, aged between 18 and 25, of a slim build, and with black hair.

    He was dressed in black, apart from a white t-shirt with a black vest over the top.

    He was also carrying a small black bag.

    Hampshire Police said in a statement: “We have been conducting inquiries since this incident was reported to us and now have these images of a man, seen in the area at the time, who we would like to speak to in connection with our investigation.

    “We would like to hear from anyone who was in the area at the time who saw what happened, the moments leading up to it or the aftermath.”

    Anyone who can provide information, no matter how small, or may have dashcam footage is asked to call the force on 101 quoting reference 44220351818.

    Alternatively, visit the Hampshire Police website or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

  • Saudi launches investigations following girls’ orphanage beating

    After footage surfaced online that appeared to show security personnel abusing young girls at an orphanage, Saudi authorities claim they have launched an investigation.

    The unverified video appears to show officers in plainclothes searching the Social Education House in Khamis Mushait.

    A police officer strikes the screaming girl with a belt as one official appears to pull her along the ground by her hair.

    Other girls are shown being chased and beaten with wooden sticks.

    The circumstances and the timing of the incident were not clear, but a Twitter user who claimed she edited the videos wrote that the girls had been staging a “strike against corruption and injustice” after they “demanded their rights from the orphanage and were rejected”.

    She later posted photographs showing what she said were bruises some of the girls had sustained in the raid and alleged that a senior official had threatened them if the videos were not taken down from social media.

    Human rights activists and dissidents expressed outrage at the footage after it emerged on Tuesday night, while the hashtag “Khamis_Mushait_Orphans” began trending on Twitter in Saudi Arabia.

    The UK-based rights group ALQST said the footage was “disturbing” and that Saudi authorities “must hold the perpetrators accountable”.

    The opposition National Assembly Party, which is composed of exiled dissidents, condemned the “vicious attacks” and demanded, “the protection of girls in shelters and orphanages in order to let them exercise their basic rights”.

    The governor of the southwestern Asir region said in a statement on Wednesday that he had formed a committee to investigate the footage and that its findings would be referred to the competent authorities.

    The incident comes at a time of increasing international concern about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, where in recent years the government has lifted a ban on women driving and relaxed male guardianship rules while also imprisoning prominent female activists as part of a crackdown on dissent.

    US-based human rights group Dawn reported this week that a Saudi woman had been sentenced to 45 years in prison over social media posts criticizing the kingdom’s leaders.

    Court documents showed that Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was convicted of “using the internet to tear the social fabric” and “violating public order by using social media”, it said.

    Another Saudi woman, Leeds University Ph.D. student Salma al-Shehab, was jailed for 34 years over her Twitter activity earlier this month.

  • Schedule constraints: Vladimir Putin will not attend friend Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral

    The Kremlin has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral because of his “work schedule.”

    Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader and one of the most significant figures of the 20th century, will be laid to rest on Saturday.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the ceremony will have “elements” of a state funeral, including a guard of honour, and the government was helping with the organization.

    Mr Peskov said Mr Putin had paid his respects on Thursday morning by visiting and laying a wreath at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow, where Mr Gorbachev died on Tuesday.

    However, he confirmed the president will not be attending the funeral.

    Mr Putin paid tribute to Mr Gorbachev on Wednesday as a leader who had a “huge impact on the course of world history” and found his “own solutions to urgent problems”.

    The Russian president said in a statement: ” “He led our country during a period of complex, dramatic changes, large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges.

    “He deeply understood that reforms were necessary, he strove to offer his own solutions to urgent problems.”

    Mr Putin also noted the “great humanitarian, charitable, education activities” carried out by Mr Gorbachev in the years before his death aged 91.

    Mr Gorbachev was known for ending the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

    When Mr Gorbachev became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, he set out to revitalize the communist system and shape a new union based on a more equal partnership between the 15 USSR republics.

    However, he attempted political and economic reforms simultaneously and on too ambitious a scale, unleashing forces he could not control.

    As pro-democracy protests swept across communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using force – unlike predecessors who had deployed tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

    The demonstrations fuelled aspirations for autonomy in the republics, and the last Soviet leader failed to anticipate the strength of nationalist feelings.

  • Low income earnings: Snapchat readies to lay of 20% workers

    Snapchat will cancel a number of new projects and lay off 20% of its workforce.

    As a result of the restructuring, which was anticipated following a year of subpar financial outcomes, around 1,200 staff would lose their employment.

    A year ago, the corporation had a $130 billion (112 billion) value. It is now only worth around $20 billion (£17 billion).

    Snapchat said the cuts would help the company save an estimated $500m (430m) in annual costs. The company’s CEO said the changes would be “difficult”.

    Despite reducing spending in some areas, Snapchat must now “face the consequences of our lower revenue growth and adapt to the market environment,” its CEO Evan Spiegel said.

    Mr Spiegel said he wanted to focus the company’s attention on its traditional lifeblood – making money from advertising.

    It means the jettisoning of projects like mobile games and Pixy, the small drone designed to take selfies.

    Social media companies like Snapchat, Meta, and Twitter have all struggled recently as the vast majority of their revenues are based on advertising.

    However, high inflation and nervousness around the state of the global economy have left many advertisers reluctant to spend.

    Snapchat has also been affected by privacy updates by Apple – introduced last year.

    The changes have made it more difficult for advertisers to track people on their phones – which makes targeted adverts less focused.

    The reason why social media companies can charge so much to advertisers is that they hold so much information about their users. Without that information, advertisers are less willing to spend.

  • Trump’s legal team trivialize sensitive files at Mar-a-Lago

    The storage of confidential documents at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, according to his attorneys, “should have never been cause for alarm.”

    The FBI search last month, according to his legal team, was “unprecedented, unnecessary, and legally unsupported.”

    Their filing comes on the eve of a court hearing about Mr Trump’s call for a third-party official to oversee the evidence taken from Mar-a-Lago.

    Officials say the search was necessary due to obstruction by the Trump team.

    The 19-page legal filing posted by the former president’s team on Wednesday night did not respond to the justice department’s claims of obstruction.

    Upon leaving office, US presidents must transfer all of their documents and emails to the National Archives, which maintains historic White House records.

    Mr Trump’s legal team contended he had been engaged in a “standard give-and-take” with the National Archives over the return of his files when the search warrant was executed.

    “There is no question… that the matters before this court centre around the possession, by a president, of his own presidential records,” says the court filing.

    Apparently classified files on the floor of Trump's Mar-a-Lago officeUS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

    Apparently classified files on the floor of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office in the 8 August search, released by the Department of Justice

    His lawyers argue: “The notion that Presidential records would contain sensitive information should have never been cause for alarm.”

    The court filing came less than 24 hours after the justice department alleged that Mr Trump’s aides had probably tried to conceal secret documents inside the West Palm Beach estate.

    A National Archives team visited the seafront golf club in January and retrieved 15 boxes of White House records that contained “highly classified reports”, said the filing.

    The justice department began investigations which found evidence that “dozens of additional boxes” probably containing sensitive material still remained at Mar-a-Lago.

    On 3 June, three FBI agents and a justice department lawyer arrived at Mar-a-Lago to collect materials but were “explicitly prohibited” by Mr Trump’s representatives from searching any boxes inside a storage room at the property, according to the 54-page filing.

    Evidence was also found that records were “likely concealed and removed” from the storage area and that efforts were “likely taken” to obstruct the investigation, officials said.

    On Thursday, a judge will hold a hearing on whether an independent legal official known as a special master should be appointed to oversee the evidence and determine whether any of it is protected under executive privilege – a rule which shields some presidential documents.

    The justice department has argued that a special master is not necessary, given that it says most of the evidence has already been inspected by investigators.

    In Wednesday’s court papers, Mr Trump’s lawyers accused the justice department of “gratuitously” including a photograph in its Tuesday filing of “allegedly classified materials” that had been “pulled from a container and spread across the floor for dramatic effect”.

    “Left unchecked, the DOJ will impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation,” Mr Trump’s lawyers wrote, arguing why a special master was necessary.

  • Alleged abuse of Uyghur Muslims and others: UN reports China’s crimes against humanity in Xinjiang

    In a long-awaited assessment examining charges of abuse in the province of Xinjiang, the UN has charged China with “serious human rights abuses.”

    China has pleaded with the UN to withhold the report, referring to it as a “farce” orchestrated by Western powers.

    According to the report, China disputes allegations of abuse against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

    But investigators said they found “credible evidence” of torture possibly amounting to “crimes against humanity”.

    The report was released on Michelle Bachelet’s final day on the job after four years as the UN’s high commissioner for human rights. Her term has been dominated by accusations of abuse against the Uyghurs.

    Her team’s report accused China of using vague national security laws to clamp down on the rights of minorities and establishing “systems of arbitrary detention”.

    It said prisoners had been subjected to “patterns of ill-treatment” which included “incidents of sexual and gender-based violence”.

    Others, they said, faced forced medical treatment and “discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies”.

    The UN recommended that China immediately takes steps to release “all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty” and suggested that some of Beijing’s actions could amount to the “commission of international crimes, including crimes against humanity”.

    While the UN said it could not be sure how many people have been held by the government, human rights groups estimate that more than a million people have been detained at camps in the Xinjiang region, in north-west China.

    The World Uyghur Congress welcomed the report and urged a swift international response.

    “Despite the Chinese government’s strenuous denials, the UN has now officially recognized that horrific crimes are occurring,” Uyghur Human Rights Project Executive Director Omer Kanat said.

    The long-standing accusations have prompted protests around the world, including this one in Jakarta in January

    There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang. The UN said non-Muslim members may have also been affected by the issues in the report.

    The US and lawmakers in several other countries have previously denounced China’s actions in Xinjiang as a genocide, but the UN stopped short of making the accusation.

    Beijing – which saw the report in advance – denies allegations of abuse and argued that the camps are a tool to fight terrorism.

    China has always insisted that Uyghur militants are waging a violent campaign for an independent state, but it is accused of exaggerating the threat in order to justify the repression of the Uyghurs.

    Its delegation to the UN human rights council in Geneva on Thursday rejected the findings of the report, which it said “smeared and slandered China” and interfered in the country’s internal affairs.

    “This so-called ‘assessment’ is a politicised document that ignores the facts, and fully exposes the intention of the US, Western countries and anti-China forces to use human rights as a political tool,” it said in a lengthy statement.

    The ball is now in the global community’s court. Already, Uyghur rights activists are calling for a commission of inquiry to be set up, and asking businesses around the world to cut all ties with anyone abetting the Chinese government in its handling of the Uyghurs.

    Whether increased international pressure will result in concrete change is debatable. Beijing has doubled down on its stance, denying that atrocities have taken place and insisting it is a victim of a Western-led smear campaign. It says Xinjiang is now socially stable and economically developed and has even called it “the greatest human rights achievement”.

    The UN report is no doubt embarrassing, further chipping away at China’s insistence that it is a responsible member of the international community.

    But this investigation is just the latest in a long series of damning reports that Beijing has summarily dismissed.

    Domestic pressure is also unlikely. The issue of Uyghur human rights abuses has never been a top concern for many in China, mostly because it has long been a taboo topic and heavily censored – as of Thursday afternoon, the UN report had yet to be mentioned in Chinese mainstream media or social media platforms.

    The fate of the Uyghurs depends on when the Chinese government decides it has fully vanquished what it sees as the threat of terrorism and radicalism in the community.

    It is anyone’s guess when it will reach that conclusion – if ever.

    Ms Bachelet’s office indicated that an investigation into allegations of genocide in Xinjiang was underway over a year ago.

    But publication was delayed several times, leading to accusations by some Western human rights groups that Beijing was urging her to bury damaging findings in the report.

    Last week she admitted that she was under “tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish” the report. But she defended the delay, arguing that seeking dialogue with Beijing over the report did not mean she was “turning a blind eye” to its contents.

    Amnesty International condemned “the inexcusable delay” in publishing the findings.

    Tom Tugendhat, chair of the UK’s foreign affairs select committee, said the findings of the report represented an “extremely serious charge” and rejected Beijing’s argument that the allegations were stoking anti-Chinese sentiment.

    Earlier this year, the BBC obtained leaked files that revealed an organized system of mass rape, sexual abuse, and torture of Uyghur Muslims at a network of camps.

    The Xinjiang Police Files were passed to the BBC and revealed targeting of the community on orders leading all the way up to Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.

  • Briton medic dies while volunteering in Ukraine

    A British man was killed in Ukraine while serving as a volunteer doctor, his sister reports

    According to Lorna Mackintosh, Craig Mackintosh of Thetford, Norfolk, passed away on August 24 “in the line of duty.”

    Ms Mackintosh has raised more than £5,000 on a GoFundMe page to bring her brother’s body back to the UK, asking: “Please help us bring this war hero home.”

    The Foreign Office said it was supporting the family.

    Writing on the fundraising page, Ms Mackintosh said: “Our brother bravely volunteered to go to [Ukraine] as a medic to help save lives in this war-torn country.

    “This selfless man is currently stranded in a morgue in Ukraine and there is no help to get him home.”

    She said it would cost around £4,000 to return his body to the UK.

    “We have spoken to an international funeral provider and it’s going to cost around £4,000 to have him repatriated back to the UK,” she said.

    “He gave his life to save others and he needs to come back home to have the service he deserves.

    “A true hero’s service surrounded by his family and friends. Please, please help to bring our hero home.”

    As of Thursday morning, the family had exceeded its target, raising more than £5,000.

    A Foreign Office spokesperson told the PA news agency: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Ukraine and is in contact with the local authorities.”

  • Camilo Guevara, son of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara dies

    Camilo Guevara March, the 60-year-old son of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, a revolutionary leader born in Argentina, has passed away.

    He died of a heart attack brought on by blood clots in his lungs, according to Cuban officials.

    Camilo Guevara dedicated much of his career to documenting his father, who fought with Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution.

    He opposed using his father’s image – made famous by an Alberto Korda photograph – for marketing purposes.

    Camilo is one of four children Che Guevara had with his second wife, Aleida March.

    While his older sister Aleida took on the role of spokeswoman for the family, Camilo led the Centre of Che Guevara Studies in the Cuban capital, Havana.

    The centre, where Che Guevara’s personal archives are stored, promote the revolutionary leader’s “life, work and thought”.

    Cuban officials said Camilo Guevara died while on a visit to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

    Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel paid tribute to him in a tweet, saying that “with deep sorrow, we say goodbye to Camilo, Che’s son and promoter of his ideas”.

    Born in Argentina, Che Guevara arguably became the most famous face of the Cuban revolution after joining brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro in their successful fight to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista.

    Camilo Guevara was the second of four children born to Che Guevara and his fellow rebel, Aleida March.

    He was five years old when his father was shot dead in Bolivia, where he had travelled to set up a guerrilla group.

    He studied law but spent much of his life looking after the documents and memorabilia left behind by his father.

    Unlike some of Fidel Castro’s close relatives who became vocal critics of the aftermath of the Cuban revolution, such as his sister Juanita Castro and his daughter Alina Fernández, Camilo Guevara remained loyal to the Castro brothers.

    Fond of photography, he could often be seen clutching a Leica camera in one hand and a cigar in the other.

    He is survived by his 85-year-old mother Aleida, his 61-year-old sister – also called Aleida – who works as a paediatrician, his younger sister Celia, who is a vet, and his younger brother Ernesto. He runs motorcycle tours of the Communist-run island.

    He also leaves behind a daughter from his marriage to the late Cuban singer Suylén Milanés and two daughters from his subsequent marriage to Venezuelan Rosa Aliso.

  • BBC Tv presenter, Bill Turnbull dies at 66

    For 15 years, Bill Turnbull hosted Think Tank, Songs of Praise, and BBC Breakfast. More recently, he had a program on Classic FM.

    He is a former host of BBC Breakfast, passed away at age 66 following a prolonged battle with prostate cancer, according to his family.

    They said the presenter and journalist died “peacefully” at home in Suffolk on Wednesday, surrounded by his family following a “challenging and committed fight against prostate cancer”.

    Turnbull had announced his battle with the disease in 2018, following his diagnosis the previous year.

    BBC Handout photo dated 05/04/12 of presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid on the BBC Breakfast set in Salford
    Image: Turnbull with former BBC Breakfast co-host Susanna Reid

    His former BBC Breakfast co-host Susanna Reid paid tribute on Twitter, writing: “Bill was the kindest, funniest, most generous man in the business. I feel lucky to have worked with him and he taught me everything.

    “But above all, he was devoted to his family and I am heartbroken for them. RIP Bill. We will miss you so much.”

    A favourite with viewers, Turnbull hosted BBC Breakfast for 15 years, also presenting alongside journalists including Sian Williams, Kate Silverton, Natasha Kaplinsky, and Louise Minchin during that time.

    Turnbull went on to present Songs of Praise and the game show Think Tank.

  • ‘This is why fighting should stop’: Red Cross calls for end to fighting near nuclear plant

    Fighting must stop immediately in the area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility, according to the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

    “In the event of a nuclear leak, it will be difficult if not impossible to provide humanitarian assistance… and this is why fighting should stop,” Robert Mardini told a news conference during a visit to Ukraine.

    “The scenario could be a massive incident, and… there is very little anyone can do to mitigate the dire consequences of this.”

    A mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) set off for the plant this morning, but a Ukrainian official claimed they were unable to reach the facility due to Russian shelling along the route.

    Mr Mardini welcomed the planned visit, saying: “It is, therefore, time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete measures to protect this facility, and others like it, from military operations.

    “The slightest miscalculation could trigger devastation that we will regret for decades.”

    He added the Red Cross was not stockpiling or distributing iodine tablets to people near the plant to avoid sowing panic.

    “We don’t want to give a signal that this is inevitable,” he said. “This is totally self-inflicted risk that should be totally stopped.”

  • We are destroying the Ukrainian ‘sabotage group’ with helicopters – Russia

    Up to 60 Ukrainian soldiers, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, had allegedly crossed the Dnipro River in boats and were attempting to retake control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station.

    It stated that the “sabotage gang” was being eliminated with helicopters in its most recent statement.

    State-owned news agency RIA cited the ministry as saying the group had launched an attack from two boats but both had been sunk.

    A Reuters news agency reporter near the plant in Russian-controlled Enerhodar saw increased military activity this morning with soldiers running about and helicopters flying overhead.

    They said a residential building had been hit by shelling and people were forced to take cover in a basement.

  • Video: Inspectors from the IAEA getting set to fly to Zaporizhzhia

    Nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been pictured here just before departing for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

    The local mayor has since said the mission was unable to reach the nuclear plant due to Russian shelling.

    However, there has been no official confirmation of this yet from the IAEA so it is unclear what is happening.

     

  • Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: UN nuclear inspectors depart regardless of ‘significant’ risks

    Despite the “severe” dangers of their mission, a group of international experts is headed to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant for a scheduled inspection of the facility on Thursday, according to Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

    Upon arrival at the plant, the team will start an immediate “assessment of the security and safety situation,” Grossi told reporters, with the ultimate goal of “establishing a continued presence of the IAEA at the plant.”

    The plant is near the front line of the war in southeastern Ukraine and was captured by Russian troops in March. Both sides have accused each other of shelling it.

    “I have been briefed by the Ukrainian regional military commander about the inherent risks but weighing the pros and cons and having come so far, we are not stopping, we are moving now,” Grossi said. “We know that there is a so-called ‘gray zone’ where the last line of Ukrainian defense [ends] and the first line of Russian occupying forces begin; where the risks are significant.
    “At the same time, we consider that we have the minimum conditions to move, accepting that the risks are very high. Still, myself and the team feel we can proceed with this, we have a very important mission to accomplish.”

    It is uncertain how long the IAEA visit will last.

  • Train strikes: More drivers ready to walk out on 15 September

    Aslef union has reported that train drivers at 12 rail companies are set to strike again as part of an ongoing dispute over pay, the Aslef union says.

    It will be the biggest strike that the drivers have taken part in so far.

    Staff will walk out on 15 September, after talks broke down over pay, with the union seeking wages to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

    Union general secretary Mick Whelan said workers did not want to go on strike but said the train companies had forced their hand.

    The strike is the latest of several in the rail industry in recent months.

    Aslef drivers have previously walked out on 30 July and 13 August, causing disruption and cancellations to train services across the country.

    Train drivers at the following companies are set to strike:

    • Avanti West Coast
    • Chiltern Railways
    • CrossCountry
    • Greater Anglia
    • Great Western Railway
    • Hull Trains
    • LNER
    • London Overground
    • Northern Trains
    • Southeastern
    • TransPennine Express
    • West Midlands Trains

    The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, has previously said it wants to give its workers a pay rise but added “to fund it unions must recognize that as an industry that has lost 20% of its revenue, we can either adapt or decline”.

    Mr Whelan said when taking into account rising prices, the companies “want train drivers to take a real term to pay cut – to work just as hard this year as last, but for 10% less”.

    “We want the companies – which are making big profits, and paying their chief executives enormous salaries and bonuses – to make a proper pay offer to help our members keep up with the increase in the cost of living,” he said.

    A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “For the ninth time this summer, union leaders are choosing self-defeating strike action over constructive talks, not only disrupting the lives of millions who rely on these services but jeopardizing the future of the railways and their own members’ livelihoods.

    “These reforms deliver the modernizations our rail network urgently needs, are essential to the future of rail, and will happen; strikes will not change this.”

    If it goes ahead, this will be the biggest and most disruptive yet of the recent wave of walkouts by train drivers.

    It involves more operators than their two previous large-scale stoppages in August and July and will affect much of England.

    Those two were on Saturdays, affecting leisure passengers during the school summer holidays. The September strike, on a Thursday, will affect more commuters.

    Judging by previous strikes, train companies affected will either be able to run very few trains or none at all.

    This is separate from the ongoing dispute involving the RMT union – whose members have taken part in six days of national strikes this summer.

    Talks between Aslef and the Rail Delivery Group, representing the train companies, only started fairly recently.

    Clearly, not enough progress has been made to avert another large-scale walkout.

    For 2021, the median salary for train and tram drivers was £59,189 according to the Office for National Statistics.

    Aslef says it represents 96% of train drivers – most of the remaining 4% are not union members at all.

    The cost of living is rising at the fastest rate for 40 years, with inflation at 10.1% and forecast to hit 13% before the end of the year.

    The increase has led to many unions calling for pay rises to help workers cope. Several industries, including rail, telecoms, ports, and the postal sector, have voted to go on strike.

    But the government and the Bank of England have warned against employers handing out big increases in salaries over fears of a 1970s-style “inflationary spiral”, where firms hike wages and then pass the cost on to customers via higher prices.

  • Suellen Tennyson, kidnapped US Catholic nun freed in Burkina Faso

    The US Catholic nun who was abducted by armed men in April in Burkina Faso has been released, according to the local bishop of Kaya, in the country’s north-east.

    “Sister Suellen is currently in a safe place and in good health,” Bishop Theophile Nare said in a statement.

    Suellen Tennyson, 83, was taken hostage from a local parish in the middle of the night, leaving behind her glasses and blood pressure medication.

    The identity of the kidnappers is not known.

    However, several militant groups have carried out attacks in Burkina Faso.

    Bishop Nare said he did not have any information on the circumstances leading to Sister Suellen’s release. The FBI had put out a missing person notice after the kidnapping.

    Several militant groups allied to al-Qaeda and Islamic State operate in the Sahel region and are known to carry out attacks and kidnappings against civilians in Burkina Faso and neighbouring countries.

    Regional nations continue to launch several offensive operations against the militant groups.

  • Record breaking: Saudi Arabia seizes 46 million amphetamine pills hidden in flour

    It is a record for the country, according to Saudi Arabian authorities, to have recovered 46 million amphetamine pills hidden inside a consignment of flour.

    The shipment was followed by security personnel as it entered the Riyadh Dry Port and was transported to a storage facility, according to the General Directorate of Narcotics Control.

    Six Syrians and two Pakistanis were arrested in a raid on the warehouse.

    The GDNC did not name the amphetamine, but Saudi Arabia is the largest market for tablets bearing the captagon logo.

    Captagon – typically a mix of amphetamine, caffeine, and various fillers – is reportedly one of the most popular drugs among affluent youths in the Gulf.

    A 2021 Foreign Policy article cited researchers as saying that “boredom and social restrictions”, as well as easy availability, were driving the use of captagon in Saudi Arabia.

    The drug has also been consumed by combatants in the civil war in Syria, who say it dims fear on the battlefield.

    The global trade in captagon is growing rapidly and was worth an estimated $5.7bn (£4.9bn) last year, according to a recent New Lines Institute report.