What Jeremy Hunt sets out later is going to be a stark contrast to the “new era” promised by Kwasi Kwarteng just eight weeks ago. Taxes will go up; spending will be cut.
The aim is to reassure the markets that he can balance the books and to start to bring down the high rate of inflation, which the chancellor will call “the enemy of stability”.
He is expected to blame rising prices for higher mortgage rates, “industrial unrest” and for cutting funding for public services.
Hunt is doing this with a recession looming and in the knowledge that there are concerns on his own backbenches – so he will also promise to be “compassionate” and “fair”.
Ministers have been preparing the ground for weeks; the chancellor is likely to have headed off some big potential flashpoints – albeit not cheaply – with the expected increases to pensionsand benefits, and an expectation that the health budget will be protected.
A decision to defer some of the pain to later years – and so beyond the next election – is also likely to pose a challenge for Labour.
The Prime Minister’s plane from the other side of the world has just landed after a 17-hour shlep from the G20 Summit in Bali in Indonesia.
It’s fair to say none of us are rivalling daisies in the freshness stakes.
Today is likely to be a defining moment for the Prime Minister– as he maps out the contours of his governing strategy.
Rishi Sunak spoke to the Chancellor every day while he was away, despite the time difference, and his back to back appointments with world leaders.
“We will face into the storm,” Jeremy Hunt will tell the Commons later.
Not exactly the “let sunshine win the day” optimism of David Cameron all those years ago.
The brutal truth is that what sounds like good news to the financial markets – that the government is economically credible – will sound like bad news for millions of households.
Bad news is rarely politically popular and Conservative MPs in particular are no fans of tax rises.
But after the near death experience for the Tories in recent months they are – in the most part – likely to swallow it, and hope that being seen as competent, if they are, is the start of repairing their reputation and opinion poll ratings.
Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, says the Chancellor has to strike the right balance to reassure the markets and help the economy grow.
He’s been telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, that the markets are looking for confirmation that the UK is restoring its economic reputation, putting government finances on a sound footing and promoting economic growth.
“It is going to be tricky, striking the right balance because there are so many economic and political judgments here,” Dr El-Erian says.
Large tax rises and spending cuts could be seen as “excessive austerity”, he adds, while measures to boost economic growth are absolutely critical.
“The answer to all the issues that the UK faces today from inflatio… to a damaged economic reputation, is high, sustained, inclusive growth,” Dr El-Erian says.
The economywas in a precarious state when Liz Truss became PM in September.
The government borrowed huge amounts during the coronavirus pandemic, to support the NHS, businesses and individuals.
Then prices started increasing sharply, partly driven by problems with supply chains in the wake of pandemic restrictions, and then by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which pushed up energy prices as Western countries shunned Russian oil and gas.
The cost of living is now rising at its fastest rate in 41 years.
Truss’s solution was to help with energy bills and also to boost economic growth, which she wanted to do by cutting taxes – lots of them. But she didn’t say how she would fund her plans, and didn’t release an independent economic forecast alongside them.
The governmentborrows from financial markets. Put very simply, investors need to be confident the government’s sums add up in order to keep lending to it. Investors lost confidence, the value of the pound slid downwards, the interest charged on government borrowing soared, and the Bank of England had to intervene. Interest rate rises followed, increasing mortgage costs for millions.
It’s complicated – but our simple guide to why the mini-budget was scrapped explains what happened.
The government wants to avoid what happened a few weeks ago with the mini budget – where the markets were spooked.
So there has been a lot of what is called pitch rolling; preparing the ground for bad news.
There’s going to be a lot to chew over later. But there are a few things I think will be key.
Freezing thresholds means millions will be paying more tax on their incomes
Millions of households will be paying more for energy as support is scaled back from April
There will be targeted support with the cost of living, focused on those on low incomes and pensioners
There will be spending squeezes in government departments. Health will be protected though – and will see rises in real terms (ie when accounting for inflation
Pensions and benefits will be increased in line with inflation (so 10%)
The leader of a Tunisianopposition party and prominent critic of President Kais Saied announced Wednesday he had been barred from leaving the country, without any prior notice.
“This morning at Tunis-Carthage airport, I was banned from leaving the Tunisian territory without having been previously notified of any judicial decision,” wrote Fadhel Abdelkefi, an economist and former minister, on Twitter.
According to this party, “this illegal measure is further evidence of the tightening of political control and the accelerated drift of the regime of President Kais Saied to a dictatorship.
Afek Tounes also denounced a “repressive procedure that is part of the instrumentalization of state apparatus to repress the opposition and target political figures.
Contacted by AFP, the Ministry of the Interior said it was not aware of this case.
Several NGOs and political parties accuse President Saied, who has taken full powers since July 25, 2021, of repressing freedoms in Tunisia and of wanting to restore an authoritarian regime.
The power grab by President Saied, who also had the constitution amended this summer by referendum to reinstate an ultra-presidentialist regime, has shaken the young democracy in Tunisia, the country from which the Arab Spring revolts began in 2011.
Kuwait has carried out its first executions in five years, hanging seven people including two women despite pleas for clemency from international rights campaigners.
The state-run KUNA news agency described those executed as all being convicted of premeditated murder and other charges in the sheikhdom.
It identified those killed as three Kuwaiti men, one Kuwaiti woman, a Syrian man, a Pakistani man, and an Ethiopian woman.
Kuwait said the executions took place at its Central Prison. It did not identify the method it used to carry out the executions, though the sheikhdom typically hangs its condemned prisoners.
“They deprived the victims of their most sacred right in this world, which is the right to life,” Kuwait’s publicprosecution said in a statement.
Kuwait hadn’t held an execution since 2017, when it similarly carried out a mass execution of seven prisoners, including a ruling family member.
Executions are fairly rare in Kuwait, which has the world’s sixth-largest oil reserves. The last before 2017 were carried out in 2013, when a Pakistani, a Saudi, and a “Bidoon” — a name used in the emirate for people without citizenship — were hung.
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The European Union immediately criticized the executions, which it said coincided with a visit by European Commission official Margaritis Schinas to the country.
“The EU calls for a halt to executions and for a complete de facto moratorium on carrying out the death penalty, as the first step towards a formal and full abolition of the death penalty in Kuwait,” the EU said in a statement, calling the death penalty “a cruel and inhumane punishment.”
Schinas separately warned in a statement that the EU “will draw the consequences this will have on discussions on the proposal to put Kuwait on the visa-free list.”
The European Parliament had been scheduled to vote on the proposal to lift visa requirements for Kuwaitis and those in neighboring Qatar in the EU on Thursday.
The EU separately planned to summon Kuwait’s ambassador to Brussels.
Amna Guellali, an official with Amnesty International, also earlier called for the executions to be halted.
“The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” she said.
Gordon Lawshe, the co-chairman and treasurer of the Caldwell Republican Party, called the police on a 9-year-old girl who was spraying lanternflies to save trees in her neighborhood. In the wake of the incident, Bobbi Wilson’s mother, Monique Joseph, said that race played a factor in the October 22 call their neighbor made to the police, TheProgress reported.
One of the trees Bobbi was trying to save was planted by her grandmother. Joseph opened up about the incident during a mayor and council meeting on November 1.
“The morning of October 22, our neighbor called the police, identified himself and reported, ‘There’s a little black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees. I don’t know what the hell she is doing, it scares me though,’ and included that she was wearing a hoodie,” Joseph said at the event.
“It is sickening and scary to hear my neighbor use triggering words that have resulted in the deaths of too many Black and Brown children and adults at the hands of police. ‘Black,’ ‘hooded’ and ‘I’m scared’ – those are trigger words.”
The recording of the conversation between Lawshe and the police was obtained by Joseph. And though she said the officer who responded to the scene handled the situation well, she said the incident has negatively impacted her daughter.
“Based on everything that has transpired, I am concerned and outraged. I want this to be a teachable moment for our town on racial bias, diversity, equity and inclusion and how we together can ensure going forward little black and brown children in this town can feel safe in this community,” said Joseph.
“This is a very personal matter for my family. This is not political and I am not here for a party. I am here for my 9-year-old, my 13-year-old and myself.”
Joseph and Lawshe have been neighbors for over seven years. “Racism, intentional or not, is racism,” Joseph said. The mayor of Caldwell, John Kelley, said he was “troubled” by the incident, adding that he was “so sorry” Joseph’s daughter “had to experience that and thank you for sharing.”
“This is not something that is a part of Caldwell, it’s just not. It saddens me and I’m glad you shared this with us and with the public,” he added.
Joseph attended the meeting with her two daughters. Her 13-year-old daughter, Hayden, also addressed the attendees at the meeting. “She was not only doing something amazing for our environment, she was doing something that made her feel like a hero,” said Hayden. “I can confidently assure you that Bobbi will not forget this.”
Joseph also said Lawshe refused to have a dialogue with her after she asked Caldwell police to arrange for them to meet at the police station, The Progress reported. She also said they’re yet to talk to each other.
“I just wanted to have a conversation with him as a neighbor, as Bobbi’s mom and as the woman who lives across the street from him,” Joseph said. “He needs to understand what he did. Whether he is aware of it or not, he needs to understand the hurt it has caused.”
Following the incident, the West Caldwell Police Department invited Joseph and Bobbi to the station for a tour. They also spoke on matters pertaining to race relations.
“They wanted her to know they heard about what had happened and she has no reason to be afraid and to know what they do as a police department,” Joseph said. “They also do really good things. They are a service of help, not just to stop the bad guys. It was a really good experience and it was impactful.”
Olamide Olowe, 26, is the co-founder of Topicals skincare, a brand she was inspired to start because she grew up with skin conditions. Since then, the popularity of her skincare product has grown exponentially, appealing mostly to Gen-Z via Tiktok and Instagram marketing.
Olowe launched Topicals skincare in 2020 and saw its revenue increase three-fold. In 2021, the product sold out in 48 hours at a market launch despite the effect of the coronavirus pandemic.
She subsequently got investors to back her business in fundraising. She raised over $2 million in venture capital with some big-name investors such as the CEO of Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John and Insecure actresses Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji. The fundraising made her the youngest entrepreneur to raise such a fund, as per Face2face Africa’s previous feature.
She also made a debut on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for 2022 for her previous fundraising of $2.6 million. The 26-year-old recently announced a $10 million financing round led by CAVU Consumer Partners, making her the youngest Black woman ever to raise $10 million in funding, according to Forbes.
The outlet said Topicals will harness the CAVU funding to expand the company and fuel brand awareness. The brand will also commit funds towards raising awareness around the link between mental health and skin conditions.
“To date, Topicals has donated more than $50,000 to support nonprofits providing mental health resources to marginalized communities. Now the company will be able to launch a 12-month accelerator program to support nonprofits in the mental health space,” Forbes wrote.
Olowe grew up with post barbae folliculitis (a skin inflammation) while her co-founder, Claudia, grew up with eczema. Olowe told Fortune that she knows what it feels like to live with skin conditions and the effect they have on one’s mental health, hence the creation of Topicals.
She is mindful of the role social media plays in how people feel about themselves or their skin. “That’s why it is important to us to create a brand that doesn’t focus on perfection or unattainable beauty standards. We want to transform the way people feel about skin and we do that on social media by showcasing people with visible skin conditions living life in full color,” she told Fortune.
Prior to starting her own skincare product, she spent two years as an intern at Shea Moisture where she learned how to build a brand following for underserved consumers. “At Shea Moisture, there was an ethos of doing well by doing good,” she told Forbes. “That inspired me to build Topicals with a social mission.”
Despite her success in fundraising to revamp her business, Olowe’s entrepreneurial journey has not been smooth sailing. According to her, she has to fight against the industry norm, which demands that beauty companies constantly roll out new products, she said to Forbes.
For others who want to be like her, the Nigerian-born entrepreneur said they should not hesitate to get started. “If you psych yourself out, even just a little bit, you won’t do it. Don’t even think about what you can’t do. Just ask, ‘Why not me?’”
Danai Gurira definitely takes her job seriously and leaves no stone unturned when she’s preparing for a movie. In a recent interview with The Cut, the Zimbabwean-American actress revealed that she hired an Olympic swimming coach to train her for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever after she was informed that a handful of the scenes for the Marvel sequel will be ocean-set.
The 44-year-old, who is said to be a good swimmer, revealed she wanted to polish her swimming prowess for the box-office hit movie. “I was like, ‘teach me everything,’” Gurira, who plays Okoye, said in the Monday-published interview. “It wasn’t really necessary to go in like that, but I went all in. It was really fun to really work at improving my stroke and to see improvement and transformation in my technique and in my speed.”
“I sent a little video to [the movie’s director Ryan Coogler], and he was in shock,” she revealed. “He was like, ‘What the hell?’”
And besides wanting to improve her swimming talents in preparation for the sequel, Gurira said she decided to take up that initiative because she wants to look into “this aspect of the fact that there’s an issue with Black kids and swimming.”
“I saw the stat that a Black child is five times more likely to drown than a white child, and that got me. I just got more interested in trying to bring awareness to it, and I’ll be looking into that more,” she added. “There’s a lot that goes into the fact that we as Black folks don’t often get that skill, but it is a very important skill and people lose their lives around it when they don’t have to.”
“I tried to help a couple of my friends learn to swim — grown-ass women like me,” the 44-year-old said, adding that there is “sometimes a panic around water.”
“It takes effort. For a lot of people, if their family doesn’t do it, they end up not doing it,” Gurira continued. “It’s a whole thing. That stat really hit me hard.”
Besides Gurira, other Wakanda Forever stars also took swimming lessons to prepare for the sequel. Prior to the shooting of the movie, Coogler could not swim. But in an interview with Variety, the 36-year-old director said that he eventually took swimming lessons in an effort to be close to his cast while on set.
“A lot of us were raised to have fear of water,” he said. “I had to figure out how to swim so I could direct this movie.”
Coogler also revealed that there are “a lot of Black and Mesoamerican folks in water in this movie.” He noted that he was “excited for people to see” what Angela Bassett and Letitia Wright “did in the water.”
“I was just impressed by how much stunt work they all did, how everybody showed up ready to go, ready to learn how to free dive,” he said.
And leading up to the movie shoot, Bassett and fellow cast member Lupita Nyong’o also told Variety that they were not swimming experts.
“You know, Black girls have this history with water and their hair,” Bassett said. “Some of us can’t swim all that well, because it’s going to mess up that press and curl. It’s a whole thing.”
“Before we started this film, I knew how to swim, but I wasn’t a confident swimmer,” Nyong’o revealed. “I didn’t need to swim in public, that’s for sure. That’s a lifelong skill that I now have.”
The 2023 Grammy Award nominations have been announced and African stars Tems, Burna Boy, Rocky Dawuni, and Angélique Kidjo are all up for awards.
Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems has been nominated for her writing on Beyonce’s Renaissance album and for rapper Drake’s Wait For U song which is nominated for Record of the Year.
Burna Boy has bagged his third Grammy nomination in a row for Best Global Music performance and is also nominated for his album Love, Damini.
Beninese superstar Angélique Kidjo has also been nominated for several awards including Best Global Music Album making her a now 12-time Grammy nominee.
Afropop dancehall star, Eddy Kenzo has become the first Ugandan artist to be nominated for the Grammys, and South African artists Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode have also been nominated for their performances of hit single, Bayethe.
The 65th edition of the awards will take place next February, in Los Angeles.
A residential building under construction collapsed on Tuesday in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
Construction workers are feared trapped under the rubble and rescue operations have begun.
According to witnesses, some people who were injured during the collapse are being treated in a nearby hospital.
“It was at 2 p.m. when we noticed that the building’s pillars had begun to crumble. We then started screaming to alert the people who were inside the building to escape. Some of them managed to escape while others did not”, said witness John Muli.
In 2015, eight buildings collapsed in Kenya killing 15 people.
An audit by the National Construction Authority found that 58% of the buildings in Nairobi were unfit for living.
Another witness, Isaiah Maina, added that “the structure is just poor. Looking at the columns, looking at the materials, they are not as they are supposed to be.”
Building collapses are common in Nairobi, where housing is in high demand and unscrupulous developers often bypass regulations.
A group of Senegalese judges can now place some convicts or defendants on electronic bracelets rather than in prison, as the government inaugurated the center in Dakar on Tuesday to monitor them.
This long-announced judicial device will come into full effect “as soon as we have a court decision in this direction,” an official at the electronic monitoring center said.
The government presents the center, opened in the heart of the capital, as the first in West Africa. It is capable of tracking an individual under an electronic bracelet anywhere in the world to within a meter, he said.
The Minister of Justice Ismaïla Madior Fall invited the magistrates to “appropriate this new device”, the electronic bracelet, during the inauguration. They should opt for deprivation of liberty “only when it is strictly necessary,” he said.
Those convicted of rape, pedophilia, and drug trafficking are excluded from the scope.
Senegal has been talking about introducing the electronic bracelet as an alternative to prison since 2018. It was approved in July 2020 by deputies.
The use of this technology has raised reservations among justice professionals and rights advocates.
The reservations relate to the capacity of the judicial system in this poor country to apply the measure, the unequal access to the means of communication that would allow it to be implemented, or the equity between those who would benefit from it or not.
Objections also focus on the possible unsuitability of the measure to Senegalese mentalities.
Rights advocates also say that the bracelet should not become the solution to the fundamental problem of disproportionate use of detention orders.
Human rights defenders regularly denounce the conditions of detention and overcrowding in Senegalese prisons, the almost systematic use of detention orders, and the length of pretrial detention.
In a bid to sell its conservation credentials, Congohas designated Loango Bay, located on its Atlantic coast, and two other sites with globally important fish species, as marine protected areas.
“The country, together with the Global Environment Facility, has taken the initiative to create protected areas. Studies have shown that in this area of Loango Bay, there are 153 species. this pushes us to preserve the oceans, because the ocean is a climate regulator, said Alex Ngoma from conservation group Renatura.
Other than Loango bay, the Congolese authorities have named Mvassa Bay and Conkouati Douli National Park protected zones.
“In Congo and particularly on this beach, we have four different turtles that come to reproduce and feed and during the dry season, we have huge migrations of humpback whales that come from Antarctica and go up to the park of Conkouati and Gabon. In addition to humpback whales, we also have species of dolphins that are on the red list and therefore threatened with extinction, which is the humpback dolphin,” said Robin Marsac, an ocean activist.
Congo’s Atlantic waters have been the victim of unregulated industrial fishing, which has threatened not just the delicate ecosystems but also the lives of local fishermen.
The United Nations had declared the years 2020 to 2030 as the decade of the oceans.
The UN’s new special envoy for Libya warned Tuesday that the first anniversary of the postponed elections was fast approaching and that further postponement of the polls could lead the country to even greater instability, putting it “at risk of partition.
Abdoulaye Bathily told the U.N. Security Council that the October 2020 ceasefire still held despite escalating rhetoric and the build-up of rival governments’ forces in the east and west of the country.
Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
In the chaos that followed, the country was divided between rival administrations supported by rebel militias and foreign governments.
The current political crisis stems from the failure of elections on December 24, 2021, and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah – who headed a transitional government in the capital, Tripoli – to resign.
In response, the country’s eastern-based parliament appointed a rival prime minister, Fathi Bachagha, who has been trying for months to install his government in Tripoli.
Bathily, a former Senegalese minister and diplomat who arrived in Libya in mid-October and has traveled to all parts of the country, told the council that he has seen Libyans hope for “peace, stability and legitimate institutions.”
“However, there is a growing recognition that some institutional actors are actively impeding progress toward elections,” he said.
He warned that further prolonging the elections “will make the country even more vulnerable to political, economic, and security instability” and could risk partition. And he urged Security Council members to “join efforts to encourage Libyan leaders to work with determination to hold elections as soon as possible.
Bathily urged the Council to “send an unequivocal message to the obstructionists that their actions will not go without consequences.”
He said the Security Council must make it clear that ending the ceasefire and resorting to violence and intimidation “will not be accepted and that there is no military solution to the Libyan crisis.”
Russia requested this preparatory meeting and its deputy ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, described the situation in the country as “very tense” and “rather unstable”, with no sign of an end to the rival governments soon.
This “means that there will be no inclusive national elections or unification of Libyan state bodies in the short term,” he said.
Mr. Polyansky warned that “the situation risks getting out of control under the influence of the divergent interests of external stakeholders.
He accused Western nations, especially the United States, of prolonging the Libyan crisis by using the turbulent situation in the country to pursue their own interests, namely unfettered access to Libyan oil.
Polyansky asserts that Western governments have set themselves the goal of “turning Libya into a ‘gas station’ to meet their energy needs.” And he asserted that the U.S. administration “still views the Libyan political process solely through the prism of U.S. economic interest … with the aim of preventing the growth of ‘black gold’ prices.”
U.S. Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills countered by saying, “The United States rejects accusations that somehow access to Libyan oil reserves is the cause of the political impasse in Libya today.”
Referring to Russia, he said the U.S. was dismayed that a Council member that violated the U.N. Charter by invading and occupying its neighbor continues “to divert the attention of this Council with baseless conspiracy theories.”
“This is simply a failed attempt to shield itself from legitimate criticism,” Mills said. “Libyan leaders must take responsibility for achieving lasting peace, good governance, and ultimately prosperity for the Libyan people. And the United States stands ready to support them.”
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni announced on Tuesday that lockdowns in two districts have reduced the spread of Ebola cases in the country.
Since the start of the outbreak in late September that at least 55 people have died of the disease. The updated toll points to 141 confirmed cases.
“(In Kasanda, Ed.) The cases have now reduced, during the second 21 days restriction, to one to two cases per day. Progress in Kasanda has been slow because of lack of cooperation. In Mubende, for 18 days we did not get a case”, declared Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni.
On November 5th, the government extended the containment measures taken in mid-October in the districts of Mubende and Kassanda, in central Uganda and epicentre of the disease.
Nigeria’s ruling party, All Progressive’s Party (APC) kicked off the presidential campaign in Jos (Plateau State) on Tuesday for the elections to be held at the end of February 2023.
The party’s presidential candidate promised hope to the country’s youth.
“To you, the youth, we made a promise that today may be difficult but hope is not lost. We won’t let you down”, said APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In his speech, Tinubu praised the achievements of current President, Muhammadu Buhari, promising a bright future for all Nigerians.
“Nigeria will be well and our hope will renew again”, promised the presidential candidate.
There are a total of 18 candidates in the presidential elections but only four have a realistic chance of shaping the outcome of the scrutiny: Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC); Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP); Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP); and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard Wednesday, bringing the U.S. a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago.
If all goes well during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the crew capsule will be propelled into a wide orbit around the moon and then return to Earth with a Pacific splashdown in December.
After years of delays and billions in cost overruns, the Space Launch System rocket thundered skyward, rising from Kennedy Space Center on 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of thrust and hitting 100 mph (160 kph) within seconds. The Orion capsule was perched on top and, less than two hours into the flight, busted out of Earth’s orbit toward the moon.
“It’s a great day,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
The moonshot follows nearly three months of vexing fuel leaks that kept the rocket bouncing between its hangar and the pad. Forced back indoors by Hurricane Ian at the end of September, the rocket stood its ground outside as Nicole swept through last week with gusts of more than 80 mph (130 kph). Although the wind caused some damage, managers gave the green light for the launch.
An estimated 15,000 people jammed the launch site, with thousands more lining the beaches and roads outside the gates, to witness NASA’s long-awaited sequel to Project Apollo, when 12 astronauts walked on the moon from 1969 and 1972. Crowds also gathered outside NASAcenters in Houston and Huntsville, Alabama, to watch the spectacle on giant screens.
Cheers accompanied the rocket as it rode a huge trail of flames toward space, with a half-moon glowing brightly and buildings shaking as though hit by a major quake.
“For the Artemis generation, this is for you,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson called out, referring to all those born after Apollo.
The liftoff marked the start of NASA’s Artemis lunar-exploration program, named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister. The space agency is aiming to send four astronauts around the moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025.
“You have earned your place in history,” Blackwell-Thompson told her team following liftoff.
The 322-foot (98-meter) SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, with more thrust than either the space shuttle or the mighty Saturn V that carried men to the moon. A series of hydrogen fuel leaks plagued the summertime launch attempts as well as countdown tests. A fresh leak erupted at a new location during Tuesday night’s fueling, but an emergency team managed to tighten the faulty valve on the pad. Then a U.S. Space Force radar station went down, resulting in another scramble, this time to replace an ethernet switch.
“The rocket, it’s alive. It’s creaking. It’s making venting noises. It’s pretty scary. … My heart was pumping. My nerves were going,” said Trent Annis, one of the three men who entered the blast danger zone to fix Tuesday night’s leak.
Orion should reach the moon by Monday, more than 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) from Earth. After coming within 80 miles (130 kilometers) of the moon, the capsule will enter a far-flung orbit stretching about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond.
The $4.1 billion test flight is set to last 25 days, roughly the same as when crews will be aboard. The space agency intends to push the spacecraft to its limits and uncover any problems before astronauts strap in. The mannequins — NASA calls them moonequins — are fitted with sensors to measure such things as vibration, acceleration and cosmic radiation.
The rocket was supposed to have made its dry run by 2017. Government watchdogs estimate NASA will have spent $93 billion on the project by 2025.
Ultimately, NASA hopes to establish a base on the moon and send astronauts to Mars by the late 2030s or early 2040s.
But many hurdles still need to be cleared. The Orion capsule will take astronauts only to lunar orbit, not the surface.
NASA has hired Elon Musk’s SpaceX to develop Starship, the 21st-century answer to Apollo’s lunar lander. Starship will carry astronauts back and forth between Orion and the lunar surface, at least on the first trip in 2025. The plan is to station Starship and eventually other companies’ landers in orbit around the moon, ready for use whenever new Orion crews pull up.
Reprising an argument that was made during the 1960s, Duke University historian Alex Roland questions the value of human spaceflight, saying robots and remote-controlled spacecraft could get the job done more cheaply, efficiently and safely.
“In all these years, no evidence has emerged to justify the investment we have made in human spaceflight — save the prestige involved in this conspicuous consumption,” he said.
NASA is waiting until this test flight is over before introducing the astronauts who will be on the next one and those who will follow in the bootsteps of Apollo 11′s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Most of NASA’s corps of 42 active astronauts and 10 trainees were not even born yet when Apollo 17 moonwalkers Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the era, 50 years ago next month.
“We are jumping out of our spacesuits with excitement,” astronaut Christina Koch said Tuesday.
After a nearly yearlong space station mission and all-female spacewalk, Koch, 43, is on NASA’s short list for a lunar flight. So is astronaut Kayla Barron, 35, who finally got to witness her first rocket launch, not counting her own a year ago.
“It took my breath away, and I was tearing up,” Barron said. “What an amazing accomplishment for this team.”
Authorities say two people were injured after a police chase ended with a crash near Zeeland.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office said it started around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday when deputies tried to pull over a vehicle. The driver did not stop and drove away northbound on 56th Avenue and then lost control when the road turned gravel just north of Byron Road.
The vehicle went into a ditch and then rolled into a field, according to OCSO.
Both the driver and passenger were taken to the hospital with serious injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
They were not wearing seatbelts, according to OCSO.
The sheriff’s office has not released their names pending further investigation.
The world’s population surpassed the 8 billion mark on Tuesday, according to United Nations’ calculations.
The middle of the month was chosen as the official day to mark the milestone, because it is impossible to keep an exact track of hundreds of thousands of births and deaths each day.
It’s the first time in history that 8 billion people have been alive on our planet. The UN estimates there will be 9 billion by 2037, and 10 billion by 2058.
“The Earth can sustainably and healthily support 8 and also 10 billion people,” said Rolf Sommer, head of agriculture and land use Change at WWF Germany. “But for this to happen, the global community must make better use of the available agricultural land.” Above all, that means less animal products, he said.
“More than 50% of the growth by 2050 is accounted for by just eight countries, most of them in Africaand some in Asia,” said Frank Swiaczny, a scientist at Germany’s Institute for Population Research.
These are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania. In sub-Saharan Africa, women have an average of 4.6 children; in some countries the average is six or more.
The attackers, identified as members of the leading pro-Biafra group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, shot dead Ignatius Asor in his palace in the Oguta council area of Imo State, said Michael Abattam, spokesperson for police in Imo.
The police said the gunmen arrived at the local palace in Imo’s Obudi Agwa village, where they were received by the chief after disguising themselves as “persons in distress” and who had come to report an emergency situation to him.”
“The unsuspecting Royal father allowed them into his palace, sat down with them and in the process of explaining the reason for their visit, they brought out guns, shot and killed the (chief) and two of his aides, and hurriedly fled the palace,” said Abattam.
Emma Powerful, a spokesperson for IPOB, denied the group’s involvement in the attack, accusing the police and government of trying to “implicate us in every criminality going on in our territory.”
There have been a series of attacks blamed on IPOB and its militant arm in recent months. The outlawed separatist group has been pressing for the region to break away from the West African nation and become independent.
Authoritiessay the group is responsible for the deaths of hundreds in the region and many of those targeted in the violent attacks are security forces or their informants as well as local leaders who have spoken against the group’s separatist agitation.
Africa’s most populous nation already faces the deadly threat of Boko Haram extremists and other armed groups in the country’s northeast and northwest regions.
Pollution from an Egyptian oil facility on the Red Sea coast is threatening the survival of some of the world’s last thriving coral reefs, a BBC-led investigation has found.
Experts who analysed satellite imagery of the area say contaminated water has entered the sea since 1985, and was still flowing as recently as September.
Until three years ago, the plant was co-owned by the British oil giant, BP, alongside Egypt’s state-backed Gupco oil company.
Egypt is currently hosting the COP27 climate summit but neither its environment ministry or Gupco would comment on the findings.
Red Sea corals have a unique ability to withstand warming sea temperatures.
The investigation was undertaken by BBC News Arabic and journalists from the group Source Material.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has assured foreign visitors that the Ebola outbreak in the East African nation will be brought under control.
In an address to the country on Tuesday, the president noted that foreign tourists were cancelling bookings and international conferences had been cancelled or moved to other countries.
He said the epidemic was localised – with active cases in just six out of 146 districts across the country.
“Uganda is safe and international guests are welcome,” he added.
He said that a list of people exposed to the virus had been provided to immigration authorities to prevent them from international travel.
Some 141 cases with 55 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak was confirmed in September.
The presidentsaid that progress had been made in controlling the epidemic.
For 18 days, there had been no confirmed cases in Mubende district, the epicentre of the outbreak, although one case was reported on Monday, according to health officials.
Mr Museveni said that efforts to control the epidemic were being hampered by some members of the public who were refusing to adhere to health restrictions.
Motorcycle taxis, known as boda boda, were defying lockdown rules in the affected areas and transporting passengers instead of only cargo.
In Kassanda district, 10 members of an extended family died of Ebola after exhuming a body interred by official burial teams and reburying it according to their religious beliefs.
In Kampala, two contacts linked to separate cases escaped from facilities – one to Masaka city and another to Jinja city – and both have since died.
Even though the epidemic has spread to districts far from the epicentre in the central region, Ugandan officials seem confident that the outbreak can be controlled before it spreads.
A studyconducted by a team of researchers from the University of Ghana has revealed that most farmers in the country sell a large proportion of their produce, including food they reserve to eat for the rest of the year.
Those who produce food crops such as maize, rice, yam and sorghum also sell their produce because they need cash.
A researcher at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Dr Fred Dzanku, said “they [farmers] have children who go to school, and since they do not have any other source of income, they sell [the food] to take care of their needs”.
Unfortunately, he said, after engaging in such commercialisation, those farmers did not have food to depend on in the latter part of the year.
He said most of them also devoted their resources to the production of non-food cash crops, even in highly commercialised regions.
According to the study, those practices could lead to food insecurity in the country.
Dr Dzanku, who was among the nine-member team that conducted the research, made the disclosure at the presentation of findings and observations of the research in Accra yesterday.
The research, which was on land commercialisation, gendered agrarian transformation and the right to food, is a Demeter Project conducted from 2015 to 2022.
Demeter Project
The overall objective of the Demeter Project is to strengthen knowledge on the relationship among food security, the right to food and gender equality to enable the people to claim their rights and also encourage governments to facilitate the realisation of the objective.
Ghana and Cambodia were used for the research, but the presentation in Accra focused on the findings and observations in Ghana.
In Ghana, the study was done in four districts in four regions.
The seven-year Demeter Project is funded by the Research for Development Project of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
On how to deal with the over-commercialisation of farm produce, Dr Dzanku suggested that in the short term, farmers should be educated to devote a certain proportion of their land to food production, while the state must invest in roads, infrastructure and storage facilities, in the long term.
Cassava production
Presenting her work on the political economy of food insecurity in Ghana, a member of the research team, Dr Gertrude Dzifa Torvikey, said industrial cassava production was an important policy imperative.
“The state and policy makers should map out what cassava means in the development of the nation and its position in the future development agenda,” she said.
Earlier, the principal investigator of the team, Prof. Dzodzi Tsikata, had said during the demeter study in 2015, there were 800 million chronically food insecure people, with 50 per cent living on small farms, 20 per cent landless, while 70 per cent were women and girls.
Emerging marketand developing economies account for two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, and many are highly vulnerable to climate hazards.
These economies will need significant financing in coming years to reduce emissions and adapt to the physical effects of climate change.
Many also have high debt and constrained budgets because of the pandemic and face higher government borrowing costs amid rising interest rates around the world, making it especially difficult for public finance to meet pressing climate financing needs.
These factors mean mobilizing private capital on a large scale will be key to achieving their climate objectives. Financial markets alone can’t do the job, but combining public and private capital offers unique advantages by reducing investment risk and attracting greater funding.
Multilateral development banks and international financial institutions can provide support through creating blended financing structures to alter the risk-return profile for the climate transition in emerging economies.
It’s important to start by establishing an attractive investment climate and policies to incentivize private participation. Climate policies and finance are complementary because better policies attract private investment, in turn helping meet policy objectives.
Carbon pricing is the most effective tool to make high emitters pay for the climate costs they impose and thereby channel private investment toward projects that emit less.
More generally, climate policies and commitments like the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions can signal to investors to direct investment to a low-carbon economy. Establishing a strong climate information architecture for data, taxonomies, and disclosures also will help.
Opportunity for impact
Unfortunately, private climate finance faces multiple constraints, from future policy uncertainty and technological costs that raise the cost of capital to other barriers such as data limitations and unattractive risk-return profiles.
Despite these challenges, private climate finance can help emerging economies meet Paris Agreement goals.
Innovative financing instruments can attract investors with different risk profiles and investment horizons, as we noted in our October Global Financial Stability Report.
In larger emerging markets with functioning bond markets, investment vehicles such as green bond funds can help broaden the investor base by drawing in institutional participants like insurance companies and pension funds.
Multilateral development banks and international financial institutions have a crucial role to play to attract much larger sums of private capital.
They can provide technical assistance, helping develop projects, improve governments’ institutional capacity, and build the local currency bond markets to broaden the set of domestic investors.
By agreeing to be first to endure losses in green funding vehicles and securitizations, development banks can increase the expected risk-adjusted return for private investors.
With appropriate governance, public backing can help avoid moral hazard associated with guarantees, which involve risk that gains are privatized while losses socialized.
Advanced economies could back public equity as a way of delivering on their annual $100 billion commitment to emerging and developing economies.
In addition, equity investment can effectively leverage public money. Commitments by development banks are matched by less than a third of the amount from private sources, for emerging and developing economies, on average.
That contrasts with smaller deals by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation and Amundi SA, Europe’s largest asset manager. The IFC-Amundi structured fund attracted 16 times as much private investment.
For less-developed economies, green infrastructure projects will remain a key instrument, and development banks will naturally play a central and enduring role.
More climate financing could be channeled through development banks to support such projects by increasing their capital base and through partnerships with the private sector.
Public money, including from development banks and international financial institutions, can help launch green or climate structured funds where risk is distributed among lower tranches of such funds, which could attract much more private capital to take the senior tranches.
Blended support
In addition, if green or climate funds invest in the equity of climate projects, development banks and commercial lenders may be more willing to lend.
As such, public money provides incentives at the fund and project level, and both can be blended with public and private money.
The IMF can play an important role through its surveillance, capacity development, risk assessments, and climate diagnostic tools.
Our first ever long-term financing tool, the Resilience and Sustainability Trust, now has more than $40 billion in funding pledges, and staff-level agreements with Barbados, Costa Rica, and Rwanda.
Under the RST, lending by the Resilience and Sustainability Facility can help boost private financing.
Fund staff will work with governments, development banks and investors to identify financing constraints and further explore how to scale up private financing.
We’ll also continue to promote carbon pricing, along with alternatives that can achieve equivalent outcomes, such as feebates and regulations.
And, finally, the IMF will continue to strengthen the climate information architecture and help emerging economies promote private climate finance.
Russia is forcing imprisoned Africans into the frontline of their war against Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has alleged.
This accusation was contained in a tweet, by Oleh Nikolenko, a Ukrainian ministry spokesman: “Putin is sending African citizens imprisoned in Russia to the war in Ukraine. A former Zambian student was killed.
“We call on African Union and all African states to demand that Russia stop press ganging their nationals. Africans shouldn’t die for Putin’s sick imperial ambitions.”
Lusaka is seeking answers from Moscow over the death in combat of Lemekhani Nyirenda, a 23-year-old Zambian student at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.
He was serving a jail for a drug offence but was mysteriously killed in Ukraine in September.
The circumstances of his release from prison are unknown, but Russia has offered freedom to some prisoners in exchange for fighting in Ukraine, a BBC Africa report noted.
They have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are on a GH¢300,000.00 self-recognizance bail each.
Justice Clemence Honyenuga officially retired as a Supreme Court judgeon September 4, 2022, when he attained the mandatory retirement age of 70 for superior court judges.
On July 28, before the court rose for the two-month legal vacation, Justice Honyenuga announced that he will return to the case, even on retirement.
“In pursuance to Article 144 (11) of the constitution, 1992, the Chief Justice has granted me a limited time to conclude this case. In the circumstances, this court shall in addition [to Monday, Wednesday and Thursday] sit on Tuesdays at 11 am for early disposal of this four-year-old case,” Justice Honyenuga said in July.
On Monday, November 14, counsel for Dr. Opuni, Samuel Codjoe moved a motion, heard by Justice Honyenuga himself, asking him to stay off the case because he is on retirement. The lawyer also pointed out that the Chief Justice acted unconstitutionally when he asked the retired judge to continue hearing the case.
The lawyer decided to rely on Article 144 (11), as stated by Justice Honyenuga, to make his case that what the Chief Justice did was unconstitutional.
“It is our position that since your order is binding, the Chief Justice’s order is unconstitutional. Since we came back from vacation, we have come to this court not less than three different occasions and this order given on 28th July has never been questioned or set aside by this court.”
Justice Honyenuga promptly drew the attention of the counsel for Dr. Opuni that the article he, the judge, quoted was in error.
“This was an error. You are also an officer of the court, you know it was an error,” the judge interjected.
Retired Justice Honyenuga then took the opportunity, for the first time, to read out the letter from the Chief Justice granting him extension. He therefore pointed out that the correct article he should have cited on July 28 was Article 139 (1c).
But lawyer Codjoe insisted, “my lord it is not an error, we are submitting that the Chief Justice engaged in an unconstitutional act when he purported to extend the tenure of your lordship under Article 144 (11).”
The lawyer also made reference to Attorney General’s affidavit in opposition to his motion, which in paragraphs 3 and 4 stated that “your extension is under Article 144 (11)”.
Mr. Codjoe further argued, “My lord the second leg is that the power to extend the tenure of a Supreme Court judge is not exercised by the Chief Justice who is not the appointing authority. The fact that the Chief Justice is not the appointing authority of a Supreme Court judge, such as your lordship, is contained in 144(2).
“My lord, the only person who can grant extension of your tenure as contained in Article 145 is the president and not the Chief Justice.”
He stressed, “it is only the person who has the power to appoint who can grant extension. The Chief Justice has no power to appoint a Supreme Court judge.”
Lawyer Codjoe although conceded that the Chief Justice is the administrative head of the judiciary, “My lord under Article 297, it is clear that it’s only the person who has the power to appoint who can grant an extension as contained in 145 (4) … The CJ cannot grant an extension of the tenure of the judge who has attained a mandatory constitutional retirement age”.
He therefore stressed, “when therefore the CJ gave the warrant, even if it is not under Article 144 (11), he acted unconstitutionally, he usurped the powers of the president”.
Director of Public Prosecution Yvonne Attakora Obuobisa opposed the application, noting that it has no basis in law.
She argued that the Chief Justice has the power under the constitution to grant the extension to Justice Honyenuga to sit for a limited period of time
“My lord the power of the Chief Justice to do so is found in Article 139 (1c).”
She also cited Article 145 (1, 2 and 4) and argued, “my lord in a very simple term, this means your lordship on attaining the age of 70, you may continue in office for a period not exceeding six months…”
Yvonne Attakora Obuobisa stated, “There is no confusion about the fact that it is the president who appoints the chief justice, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and high court judges. Article 144 deals with such appointments and 146 deals with their removal from office.
“In Articles 144 and 146 the drafters of the constitution clearly said it is the president who appoints and removes justices of the superior court. Nowhere in Article 139 or 145(4) is the president mentioned.”
She, therefore, urged the court to dismiss the application.
Justice Honyenuga subsequently dismissed the application. He stated that the Chief Justice as the administrative head of the judiciary has the power under the constitution to grant an extension to a retiring judge.
“The argument that it is the president who appoints and therefore it is the president who should grant the extension is neither here nor there,” the judged ruled.
The case has been adjourned to November 16 for continuation.
The Electoral Commission has urged stakeholders, particularly the political parties, to support its proposal to close the 2024 polls at 3 p.m. instead of 5 p.m.
A Deputy Chairman of the Commission, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, said the proposal to close the 2024 polls at 3 p.m. was to prevent electoral violence and ensure that results were declared on time before darkness set in.
Speaking at a multi-stakeholder session to strengthen partnership for the prevention of conflict and violence in elections in Ghana yesterday, Dr Asare said most cases of violence that occurred in previous elections happened in the dark after 5 p.m, hence the proposal to change the closing time to 3 p.m. which had been captured in its new constitutional instrument yet to be laid before Parliament.
“Apart from preventing violence, it will encourage counting to be done early and we will be able to announce and declare the results much earlier.
“The Commission has also said that once you are in the queue at 3 p.m., you will be allowed to exercise your franchise,” he said.
He further urged legislators to approve the new constitutional instrument when it got to Parliament.
Stakeholder engagement
Jointly organised by the National Centre for the Coordination of Early Warning and Response Mechanism (NCCRM), the National Peace Council (NPC) and West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), the stakeholder engagement seeks to support stakeholders to identify key challenges within the democratic space and proffer solutions to ensure peaceful electioneering processes in Ghana.
The engagement, which was funded by the European Union and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), is also to strengthen collaboration and partnership among the stakeholders to contribute to peaceful elections and democratic transition in the country.
Representatives from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, National Election Response Group, National Commission for Civic Education, National Media Commission, National Security, Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, Institute For Democratic Governance, Youth Bridge Foundation, among other stakeholders were present.
The Director of NCCRM, Col. Joseph Kelvin Merdiema, explained that it had become necessary for all stakeholders to collaborate on how best to approach the 2024 elections.
He added that the implementation of early warning and response systems was crucial to prevent conflict and violence in elections.
The implementation of the early warning and response systems will help to identify risks and vulnerabilities that impact human security in the country and disseminate warnings timely through standardised and reliable communication systems to reach decision-makers and those at risk.
Legacy issues
The National Coordinator of WANEP, Albert Yelyang, underscored the need to address the legacy issues of the 2020 elections such as the pockets of violence recorded in some constituencies to be addressed ahead of the next election.
All stakeholders, he said, must take strategic measures to avoid violence.
He further urged the National Peace Council to build rapport with the political parties and other key stakeholders ahead of the 2024 elections.
Media
The Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission, Yaw Sarpong Boateng, called on all stakeholders who formulate public policy, particularly in relation to public safety, to mainstream media in the discussion, analysis and in their communication.
“Too often, people see the media as an instrument they need to use; what they do not notice is that the same degree of intellectual analysis resides with the media.
“You will fail if you exclude the media from the analysis and think that you can use them when you are done with all the analysis to project your analysis of the situation,” he added.
An aspiring General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, has called on the party’s delegates to give him the mandate to enable him restore hope in the party in order to win the 2024 general elections.
According to him, the younger generation was beginning to believe that both the NDC and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) were full of people who only sought their selfish interests.
“The fact that the NPP over the past six years has not only collapsed the economy, but has also decayed the very morals of leadership does not mean the NDC is the same”, he explained.
Mr Kwetey, a former Minister of State said that at a press conference held at the NDC national headquarters in Accra yesterday after successfully being vetted to contest for the position of General Secretary.
Mr Kwetey, who also went through the ballotingprocess, would be number two on the ballot paper for the General Secretary position on the voting day at the party’s national elections on December 17, 2022 at the Trade Fair Site in Accra.
The former Member of Parliament for Ketu South stated that the only means to win power and restore the economy of the country to its former glory was to first restore hope in the people through the party.
“We want to restore the faith of our supporters, party workers at all levels and give inspiration to the millions of people who support us from every nook and cranny of the country”, he said.
Track record
Mr Kwetey said unlike the NPP, the NDC had a proven track record of leading the country out of economic turbulence on several occasions.
“In 1982, when this country was on the brink of collapse, our predecessor that was our PNDC, brought us from our point of disaster and set us on a path of stability that brought the stable democracy we have today.
“We did it again when we came to power in both 1993 and again when we came to power in 2009,” he explained.
The youth
Mr Kwetey also pledged, if given the mandate, to establish a strong youth wing to bring out the creativity of the younger generation.
That, he said, was because during his tenure as communications director, some of the best ideas and interventions he put in place that made him successful in his role came from people younger than him.
He, therefore, pledged to institute measures that would celebrate the youth in a manner that their creativity would become a competition for the NPP.
The Founder and 2020 Presidential Candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Kofi Akpaloo, has indicated that a new government under his leadership will implement a child benefit policy to support children.
According to him, as part of the policy, every child would receive a monthly allowance of GH¢300, which would be paid either to their parents or guardians to support their upkeep.
“The allowance will be paid based upon the number of children a parent is having and if a parent is having, for instance, four children, each child will receive GH¢300 every month in line with the policy,” he said.
Conference
Mr Akpaloo said this in an interview with a section of the media during the party’s regional conference in Bolgatanga.
Before the conference, Mr Akpaloo, who was accompanied by some leaders of the party, toured some of the constituencies to interact with party members and energised the party’s base as part of preparations for the 2024 general election.
As part of the conference, new constituency executivesfor the 15 constituencies in the region and new regional executives were sworn into office.
Only 7.2 million children
Asked how a government he leads would find the money to implement the ambitious child benefit policy, he said, “The government will stimulate the economy to generate demand activities out of which taxes will be generated to implement the policy.”
He stated that paying monthly allowance to about 7.2 million children in the country was not a difficult thing to do, stressing “the total number of children is not overwhelming and that the LPG-led government will find the money to support their proper care”.
He stated that the policy was not difficult to implement and that the required policy framework will be put in place to ensure its smooth implementation and added “just as children in other advanced countries are paid monthly, we will learn from that system and do the same thing here”.
New factories
He said a new LPG government would put in place a comprehensive plan towards revamping the defunct Pwalugu Tomato Factory and meat factory in the region to provide thousands of direct and indirect jobs to the youth.
Additionally, he disclosed that five new factories would be built in the region to improve its local economy for the benefit of the people, saying “at least $100 million will be needed to build each factory and that the government will find the money to build the factories”.
He explained that the establishment of the factories in the region would be a game changer, as it would provide decent jobs to the people, thereby preventing the youth in particular from migrating to the south in search of non-existent white-collar jobs.
Change voting pattern
He appealed to Ghanaians to change their voting pattern of alternating between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) since both political parties had taken them for granted for a long time.
He indicated that the NPP and the NDC continue to deceive citizens when they win power and that it was time for Ghanaians to change their voting pattern to allow the LPG to steer the affairs of the country.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has proposed six measures for the transformation of the Commonwealth to enable it to serve rich and poor members equally.
They include policies that will facilitate trade and investment, regulate, yet make the flow of labour within Commonwealth countries easier and lead to greater investment in education, skills training, innovation and entrepreneurship for young people.
Ms Botchwey was speaking on the theme: “The Commonwealth in a Changing World” at the British foreign relations think tank, Chatham House in London, last week.
Measures
She also listed the other measures needed to revitalise the Commonwealth as climate adaptation, paying particular attention to small states and boosting the human and financial resources of the Commonwealth institution itself.
“Our citizens watch as we struggle with policies to raise growth in isolation through austerity and high taxes.
“The pie is simply not capable of feeding everyone, unless consumer-based market expansion considers the potential of our 2.5 billion population, 60 per cent of whom are 30 years or younger,” she said.
The Commonwealth comprises 56 countries from five regions, including some of the world’s largest and wealthiest, such as Australia and Canada, and the smallest, among them Tonga and St Kitts and Nevis.
Ms Botchwey said considering the size of its population, demographic and political profiles, as well as wealth and economic potential, the Commonwealth should be the second most consequential organisation of states globally.
“But the question we must ask ourselves is whether it is,” she said.
Industrialisation
The Foreign Affairs Minister further proposed an industrialisation and economic diversification strategy linked to regional integration agreements and economic partnership agreements within and beyond the Commonwealth.
That, she said, would be “a guarantee against the stagnation that is widespread across our countries”.
She advocated a Commonwealth-wide mobility agreement to help redress labour and skills demand through “safe, orderly and regulated migration”.
Again, Ms Botchwey said what she termed as “a common Commonwealth market” would allow work and services to be exchanged without relocation of workers across borders, as well as have young people trained wherever they lived in the Commonwealth.
Parliamentin Sierra Leone has unanimously approved legislation that will ensure that one in three of its members, and a third of all local councillors, are women.
The bill will now go to President Julius Bio to be signed into law.
Despite it being a key promise in his 2018 election campaign, it took three years for cabinet to approve the draft.
An earlier version was withdrawn over a technicality.
Currently only 19 of Sierra Leone’s 146 members of parliament are women.
Rescue workers are searching for at least 10 people, mostly construction workers, feared trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
The seven-storey building was still under construction when it came down on Tuesday afternoon in Kasarani area, on the outskirts of the city.
A supervisor in charge of the site twice ignored warnings from authorities to stop construction works following concerns over its stability, the Nation news site reports.
The collapse of buildings under construction is uncommon in the city.
Emergency teams were on Wednesday morning still on the site, with heavy machinery moving concrete slabs as rescuers tried to locate those buried in the rubble.
The Nigerian Ambassador to Morocco, Al-Bashir Ibrahim Saleh, has been invited by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.
It was learnt the Ambassador was invited for allegedly spending $200,000 to renovate his official residence at the upscale Souissi in Rabat, Morocco.
A source told Daily Nigerian that the diplomat was expected to appear before the commission on Tuesday.
The source noted that Saleh had been accused of managing the affairs of the embassy without following due process.
According to top sources at Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry, the government had also received petitions on mismanaging the mission’s account and other untoward behaviour that lowered the esteem of his office.
In a letter sent to the ministry of foreign affairs, the ICPC directed the ministry to recall the ambassador for questioning.
“The Commission Is Investigating a case of alleged violation of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and pursuant to Section 28 of the Act, the Ministry is required to recall Ambassador Al-Bashir IS. Al-Hussaini (Head of Mission, Embassy of Nigeria Rabat, Morocco to appear before the undersigned at the Investigation Division, ICPC Headquarters Abuja on Tuesday 15th November, 2022 at 10am,” the statement noted.
Rwandan president Paul Kagame over the weekend had cause to slam the police for not taking action on a Member of Parliament, MP, who was involved in a drink-driving offence.
According to local media reports, the MP was not arrested because he enjoyed ‘immunity,’ as a lawmaker.
MP Gamariel Mbonimana, in Parliament since 2018, belongs to the Liberal Party – which is an ally of the ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, RPF.
The embattled MP resigned from parliament on Monday, and apologized to the lawmaking chamber and the citizens.
On Monday, parliamentapproved his resignation stating that it was for “personal reasons”.
In a statement on Twitter, Mr Mbonimana apologized to Rwandans and the president, adding that he has “decided not to take alcohol anymore”.
Drink-driving carries a fine of 150,000 Rwandan francs ($140), and five days in police custody following an arrest.
The British government announced on Monday the early withdrawal of its military contingent currently deployed in Mali as part of the UN mission to the country.
Behind the decision is the ruling junta’s use of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the commitment was supposed to last three years, but faced with the rising instability in the country, London decided to anticipate the withdrawal of its troops, who should leave the country in the next six months.
France, the main country intervening militarily in Mali, notably through the Barkhane force, alongside its European partners announced in February their withdrawal from the country. The last French soldiers left Mali this summer, after nearly a decade.
Almost 300 British soldiers have been in Mali since the end of 2020, as part of the deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country launched in 2013 (Minusma, Ed.), aimed in particular at stabilising the security situation in a country plagued by jihadist attacks.
Activists on Tuesday urged COP27 summit leadersand major technology companies to take action against climate change misinformation that is undermining efforts to limit the devastating effects of global warming.
In an open letter signed by 550 groups and individuals including former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, the activists called on COP27 delegates to adopt a common definition of climate misinformation and false information and to work to prevent it.
They also called on the bosses of seven digital giants, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, to put in place strict policies to prevent the spread of false climate information on their platforms, as they did with Covid-19.
“We cannot defeat climate change without addressing false information and misinformation about the climate,” the signatories stressed.
“As emissions continue to rise, humanity faces climate catastrophe, but economic and political vested interests continue to organize and fund climate misinformation to stall action,” they added, demanding “swift and robust global action from COP decision makers and technology platforms to mitigate these threats.”
The letter was also signed by diplomat Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which forms the current basis for global goals to curb climate change.
The letter is accompanied by a survey released Tuesday on the extent of belief in climate misinformation in six major countries — Australia, Brazil, Britain, Germany, India, and the United States — lamenting that a large proportion of their populations believed false claims about climate change.
According to the study, at least 20% of respondents in each country believe that the current global warming is natural and not caused by humans. The human causes of global warming are unequivocally documented in the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC).
“There is a significant gap between public perception and science on such fundamental issues as the existence of climate change or its primary cause, namely humans,” said the survey released Tuesday.
A convoy of medical aid, the first since late August, arrived Tuesday (November 15) in the capital of Tigray, following a peace agreement reached in early November to end the war in the northern Ethiopian region, the ICRC said.
“The first ICRC medical supplies have just arrived in Mekele (…) by road,” Jude Fuhnwi, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ethiopia.
After a five-month truce, the resumption of hostilities at the end of August between the rebel authorities in Tigray and the federal army and its allies interrupted most of the delivery of humanitarian aid – already largely insufficient – to Tigray.
Two “trucks have delivered 40 tonnes of essential medical equipment, emergency medicines, and surgical supplies” to health facilities in the region “to treat the most urgent cases,” the ICRC said in a statement.
“Although some health facilities in Tigray are no longer functioning, those still open lack basic medicines and equipment and other essential supplies,” the organization said.
“The ICRC hopes to continue these deliveries on a regular basis and significantly increase the humanitarian response in Tigray,” whose six million inhabitants have been largely deprived of food and medicine for more than a year.
The Ethiopian government and the rebel authorities in Tigray signed a peace agreement in Pretoria on November 2 to end a two-year deadly war in northern Ethiopia.
Military leaders from both sides also initialed a document on Saturday to implement the provisions of the agreement, including the disarmament of rebels and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Tigray.
The European Union on Monday granted 100 million euros to Tunisia, a country in the midst of a political and financial crisis.
The EU support program “aims to support economic recovery efforts and to consolidate the progress already made in the distribution of social aid to needy citizens and businesses,” said the EU delegation in Tunisia in a statement.
The first immediate disbursement of 40 million euros is granted to Tunisia under this program signed by the EU Ambassador to Tunisia, Marcus Cornaro, and the Minister of Economy and Planning, Samir Said.
The disbursement of the rest of the sum will be made “on the basis of effective progress in the implementation of structural reforms initiated by Tunisia,” according to the statement.
“We want to support as best we can the economic recovery following the pandemic of COVID-19, and help Tunisian households that suffer the consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine on energy and food prices,” said Cornaro.
According to the statement, this gift “is part of the reforms agreed by Tunisia with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a future program.
Since the revolution of 2011, Tunisia has sunk into economic difficulties, aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with growth at half-mast and very high unemployment.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February deepened the crisis in a country highly dependent on grain and fuel imports, two sectors where prices are soaring.
Suffocating from a debt exceeding 100% of GDP, Tunisia obtained in mid-October an agreement in principle from the IMF for a new loan of some two billion dollars to be disbursed in installments starting in December.
In return, the government has committed to reforms including a gradual lifting of state subsidies for basic products (food and energy) and a restructuring of state-owned companies that have a monopoly in many sectors.
Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, told parliament on Tuesday that the ceasefire agreement between his government and forces in Tigray would be implemented ‘honestly’.
The two sides signed a further deal in Kenya on Saturday on the full implementation of the truce reached between the warring sides some 2 weeks ago in South Africa.
‘We took the first step. We have discussed, agreed, and signed. We must keep our word by making our promise to peace a reality,’ he said.
No gain from war
Abiy said there was no such thing as a good war or a bad peace, and that war was always bad even if you were winning.
The prime minister added that the agreement was necessary to ensure that peace in the northern Tigray region would be sustainable.
It is hoped it will bring an end to the brutal two-year conflict which has left thousands dead, millions displaced, and hundreds of thousands facing famine.
Almost two weeks since the signing of the ceasefire, international aid is yet to reach those in need in the region. Under the agreement signed on Saturday, both sides have pledged to allow aid workers into the region unhindered.
Old grievances
The origins of the conflict are complex. Prime Minister Abiy came to power in April 2018, pledging a raft of political and economic reforms in Ethiopia after almost three decades of government dominated by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
But in November 2020 he sent troops in to topple the TPLF in their regional stronghold after accusing it of attacking federal army camps.
While this new agreement does not address the deeper political tensions that contributed to the conflict, it’s hoped that the truce will hold, and lead to durable and inclusive peace and political stability in the country, for all Ethiopians.
Zambia has demanded answers over the death of a student who was fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
Lusaka has asked Moscow “to urgently provide information on the circumstances” surrounding Lemekhani Nyirenda’s death.
The 23-year-old, a student at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, had been serving nine years in jail for a drug offence.
His family has unanswered questions and wants to identify the body in Russia.
Mr Nyirenda died in September but Russia has only just informed Zambia’s government.
The Zambian embassy in Russia established that Mr Nyirenda’s body had since been transported to the Russian southern border town of Rostov-on-Don in readiness for repatriation to Zambia, Zambia’s Foreign Affairs MinisterStanley Kakubo said on Monday.
“As minister, I have been personally in touch, and will maintain contact with the family of the deceased in order to provide an update on more details surrounding their loved one’s death,” Mr Kakubo commented.
The student was working as a part-time courier when an unknown person handed him a package containing drugs, his father Edwin Nyirenda told Reuters news agency.
The father also said “we don’t know” who conscripted his son from prison, and added that the family only “received a message from a man we do not know in Russia who told us that there was a will, which our son left, and we should travel to Russia”.
Zambia has traditionally sent students to Russia to study on scholarships, as was the case with Mr Nyirenda.
The circumstances of his release from prison are unknown, but Russia has offered freedom to some prisoners in exchange for fighting in its war in Ukraine.
Zambia has taken a neutral position on the Russia-Ukraine war, as many other African countries have, but says it condemns any form of war.
The former CEO of Algeria’s state-owned oil and gas group Sonatrach, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for corruption in connection with the purchase of a refinery in Italy, a defense lawyer said.
Mr. Ould Kaddour “was sentenced to 15 years in prison,” said Miloud Brahimi.
Ahmed Mazighi, the former assistant to Mr. Ould Kaddour who had piloted the project to buy the refinery, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
A former executive of the oil group was sentenced to three years in prison while another was released by the Algiers court, according to the lawyer.
They were prosecuted in a corruption case related to the purchase by Sonatrach in 2018 of the Augusta refinery and various infrastructure in southern Italy from Esso Italy, a subsidiary of American ExxonMobil.
-Unspecified amount-
The amount of the transfer had not been specified but according to the Algerian media, the oil group has paid $ 720 million, an amount considered excessive for an old refinery that began production in 1950.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the transaction cost Sonatrach a total of 2.1 billion dollars, as the companyalso paid 916 million dollars to acquire the oil stored in the refinery and significant additional sums for renovation work.
The prosecution had requested 18 years in prison against Mr. Ould Kaddour and ten years against Mr. Mazighi, including for “squandering public funds, abuse of office and conflict of interest”.
Mr. Ould Kaddour, a close associate of the late deposed president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was extradited to Algeria in August 2021 after being arrested in the United Arab Emirates under an international arrest warrant issued by the Algerian judiciary.
Appointed head of Sonatrach in March 2017, Mr. Ould Kaddour was dismissed three weeks after the fall of Abdelaziz Bouteflika in early April 2019, pushed to resign by an unprecedented popular protest movement, the Hirak, after 20 years in power.
Mr. Ould Kaddour had led in the past the oil engineering company Brown and Root Condor (BRC), a subsidiary of Sonatrach, and the U.S. oil services company Halliburton.
BRC was dissolved in 2007 after suspicions of corruption in contracts obtained in violation of regulations.
President Trump’s younger daughter Tiffany has kept a lower profile than her older half-siblings in the years since her father’s inauguration, but in November 2022, she tied the knot it an over-the-top wedding. In light of her nuptials, here’s what to know about Donald Trump’s youngest daughter.
Tiffany Trump recently married Michael Boulos, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. His wealthy family apparently owns a company that trades in vehicles, equipment, retail, and construction. Boulos lives in London and reportedly met Trump in Greece in 2018, and as evidenced by photos posted on Instagram, Trump brought him to the White House around Christmastime in 2019 and again in 2020.
Tiffany Trump recently graduated from Georgetown Law
Like so many graduates during Covid, Tiffany celebrated the milestone virtually. She recently posted on her Instagram stories about graduating from law school, but at this point it’s unclear what she’ll do next. Here she is with Mariana Jantz, a friend from Georgetown.
She chose to wear white to the 2019 State of the Union.
At the 2019 State of the Union, many Democratic women chose to wear white to honor of the legacy of women’s suffrage in the United States. Tiffany Trump also appeared at the event in an all-white ensemble, though it’s unclear if she was purposefully trying to send a sartorial message, or if it was an unintentional coincidence.
Tiffany Trump’s relationship with her father has not always been any easy one.
Though she visited her father in the White House and attended Easter services with the President and First Lady last spring at Mar-a-Lago, People reports that “behind the scenes, Tiffany’s already strained relationship with her father has hit new lows since he took office in January 2017, with the pair going months at a time without contact.”
“She went a very long time without seeing him,” a source close to Tiffany told the magazine. “The last time she was at a family function with him, it was awkward for her and she didn’t feel totally welcome.”
She and her longtime boyfriend, Ross Mechanic, split after she started law school.
The two dated for more than two years and broke up when she moved to Washington, D.C. to attend Georgetown Law, Page Six reports. Mechanic, 23, and Trump met as undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania, and he attended her father’s inauguration. He is reportedly a data engineer at Cadre, a New York-based real estate investment platform founded by Jared and Joshua Kushner.
She spent New Year’s Eve in 2017 at a Playboy party.
While Donald Trump and the rest of the first family rang in 2018 at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s youngest daughter celebrated at a Playboy party. She was apparently the guest of honor at an event thrown by Cooper Hefner (the late-Hugh Hefner’s son) in Los Angeles.
She gets along with her siblings—now.
Tiffany and her older half-siblings have always appeared to get along well, but on-air radio conversations between Howard Stern and Donald Trump, unearthed in the Fall of 2017, reveal that Ivanka and Donald Jr. apparently tried to cut their younger sister out of her inheritance. Stern asked Trump, a frequent guest on his show, if Donald Jr. and Ivanka were trying to “bump off a child.” Trump responds, “Tiffany?” “Is there any truth to that? [Inaudible] Tiffany?” Stern asks. “Tell me the truth, though,” the radio host says, after Trump tries to dodge the question. “Yes,” Trump said.
She was the only one of Trump’s adult children not named to his Transition Team.
She did appear with her three older siblings on the then president-elect’s 60 Minutes interview. She had this to say: “I mean, I don’t think we can really prepare for our father becoming president. But we were all there together with everyone that’s worked so hard. And my dad has worked so hard. And it’s just–it’s really awe-inspiring.”
Yes, she was named after the store.
The very Tiffany & Co., located on the corner of Fifth avenue and 57th street in New York City, made famous by Audrey Hepburn. Donald Trump completed his 58-story masterpiece, the Trump Tower skyscraper, on the prime slice of real estate adjacent to Tiffany’s in 1982, 11 years before his fourth child was born.
You may recognize Marla Maples from Dancing with the Stars. When the Donald’s marriage to his second-wife Maples ended, she packed up for the west coast, raising Tiffany in Los Angeles. On Where are they Now?, a 17-year-old Tiffany told Oprah, “My mom and I have always been very close since she did raise me as a single mom… Everyone I know is like, ‘Wow you guys have a really good relationship!’ She’s with me a lot of the time.” Judging from her Instagram feed, the duo hangs out a lot—giving Coachella vibes by the pool, zip lining at Sundance, wearing matching LBDs at the Carlyle. They both broke out some serious tango moves on a recent episode of DWTS.
She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Attending UPenn is a family tradition—her dad, brother Don Jr., and sister Ivanka all went there. (Tiffany, far right, is pictured above with Don Jr., Barbara Walters, Ivanka, and Eric.)
Good grades were a priority.
“She’s got all As at Penn, so we’re proud of her,” the Donald told People in December of 2014. She once arrived a day late to a DuJour photo shoot because she was writing a paper for a summer class.
Big sister Ivanka, who runs a fashion business, reportedly scored her little sister an internship at the fashion title. Rumor has it that Tiffany lunched with Anna Wintour.
She had musical ambitions.
At 17, she released a dance song called “Like a Bird.” It was heavy on the Auto-Tune.
She lent her walk to Just Drew designer (and fellow RKOI) Andrew Warren (that’s him with Tiffany) for his fall 2016 show, modeling a navy blazer and tights.
She spoke at the Republican National Convention.
On day two of 2016’s Republican National Convention Tiffany addressed the delegates. “Please excuse me if I’m a little nervous,” she began. “When I graduated college a few months ago, I never expected to be here tonight addressing the nation.” Despite the nerves, she used her speech to cast a soft light on the then-nominee, highlighting his strengths as a father, “In person, my father is so friendly, so considerate, so funny, and so real,” she said. “I have admired my father all of my life, and I love him with all my heart.”
Diabetes mellitus took the lives of 416,000 people on the African continent last year, thus becoming one of the leading causes of death in Africa by 2030.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Ghana, Mr. Francis Kasolo who disclosed this in a statement read on his behalf at Ghana’s commemoration of the 2022 World Diabetes Day, said 24 million adults in Africa are currently living with the condition.
The number was, however, predicted to swell by 129 percent to 55 million by 2045.
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease typically characterised by high sugar in the blood. Types are ‘Type 1’, affecting usually children with little or no insulin, ‘Type 2’, usually occurring after 18 years with poor response to insulin and ‘Gestational Diabetes’, one that is caused by pregnancy among women.
Mr Kasolo said Diabetes is the only major non-communicable disease for which the risk of dying early is increasing, rather than decreasing.
The commemoration, organised by the Ministry of Health, was on the theme: “Access to Diabetes Care”.
He said epidemiological trends were reflected in Ghana as Type-2 Diabetes affected approximately six per cent of adults, a percentage that is expected to rise.
The WHO Representative said the known factors include family history and increasing age, along with modifiable risk factors such as overweight and obesity, sedentary lifestyles, unhealthy diets, smoking and alcohol abuse.
When left unchecked and without management and lifestyle changes, Diabetes, he said, could lead to several debilitating complications like heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, lower limb amputation, visual impairment, blindness, and nerve damage.
To enhance controlling of the condition, Mr Kasolo appealed to governments of WHO member states to prioritise investment in essential products like insulin, glucometers and test strips, explaining: “This is critical to ensure equitable accessibility for everyone living with diabetes, no matter where on the continent they are”.
Dr Efua Commeh, Acting Programme Manager, Non-communicable Diseases, Ghana Health Service, said Diabetes affected a significant number of children, many of whom were not recognised.
“Children with this condition will live with it for very long time and it will affect productivity. Moreover, there are many who walk around with the condition without knowing about it,” she noted.
In Ghana, she said Diabetes prevalence is between six and seven per cent, adding: “Obesity, hypertension, unhealthy diet and lifestyles are rising and it’s therefore, not surprising that diabetes is also rising among the public”.
Dr Commeh said more than 200,000 people passed through the Out Patient Department of health facilities every year with diabetes, including gestational conditions.
Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah who launched the commemoration, said rate of Diabetes infection is beyond the government health system and called on health development partners to join hands with the government to control the condition in Ghana.
Mr. Steven Arthur, a representative of Roche, a biotech company, who said Diabetes is a lifestyle disorder, encouraged the public to acquire a certified glucometer to check their sugar levels every morning before breakfast and two hours after lunch.
He also asked those with Diabetes to engage in physical activities at least 150 minutes per week, spread within three discontinuous days.
Mr Arthur admonished the public to consume only low, good quality calories, as bad ones affected sugar levels with sweetness and unhealthy fats.
“There are a lot of apps that can help you to track your sugar and calories levels and also try to visit your Diabetes Specialists regularly to enable them modify your treatments accordingly,” he said.
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More than 15 million people in Lagos are already competing for basic amenities of life.
Over the next three decades, the West African nation’s population is expected to soar even more: From 216 million people this year to 375 million, the United Nations says, making Nigeria to the fourth most populous country in the world after only India, China and the United States.
Tuesday marks the UN projection for when the world’s population is expected to hit 8 billion people, though officials are careful to note it’s not a precise milestone.
Nigeria is among the eight countries that the UN says will account for more than half the world’s population growth between now and 2050 – along with Congo, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, among others.
Other countries rounding out the list of those contributing most to the population increase are India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
Such rapid population growth also means more people vying for increasingly scarce water resources and potentially more families facing hunger as climate change increasingly impacts crop production.
The UN has said that slowing population growth“over many decades could help to mitigate the further accumulation of environmental damage in the second half of the current century.”
In sub-Saharan Africa, the population is growing at 2.5% – more than three times the global average.
Some of that can be attributed to people living longer, but family size remains the driving factor.
Women in sub-Saharan Africa on average have 4.6 births each, twice the current global average of 2.3.
Part of that can be traced to the high rate of child marriage, with 4 out of 10 girls married before they reach the age of 18, according to UN figures.
And the rate of teen pregnancy on the continent is the highest in the world, about half of the children born last year to mothers under 20 worldwide were in sub-Saharan Africa.
Omolayo Adeleke, a Nurse in Nigeria’s busiest city believes that customs and traditions in some parts of the country play a major role in the high population figure.
Still, any efforts to reduce family sizes now would come too late to significantly slow the 2050 growth projections, the UN has said.
About two-thirds of it “will be driven by the momentum of past growth”.
There are also important cultural reasons for large families that drive the tradition. In sub-Saharan Africa, children are seen as a blessing and as a source of support to their elders: The more sons and daughters, the greater success for the family and comfort in retirement.
A spokesperson for the presidency in the Central African Republic has denied that President Faustin-Archange Touadéra was evacuated to Rwanda on Sunday for medical treatment after “a serious fall”.
CAR and international media widely circulated the news after a pro-opposition website claimed Mr Touadéra was injured in a “serious fall” in the capital, Bangui, and flown to Rwanda.
The presidency’s spokesman, Albert Yaloke Mokpem, expressed “astonishment” at the claim, and said the president was at work in Bangui.
“The president has just arrived in his office. The information that Corbeau News put online is false and only concerns itself. We are astonished by such information,” he said.
Privately owned station Radio Ndeke Luka said that its reporters saw the president in Bangui on 14 November, a day after he was reportedly evacuated to Rwanda.
The governor of Kenya’s Garissa county has ordered the removal of more than 3,000 false names on the payroll.
The names were discovered following a human resource audit, local media report.
It also found that most directors and their deputies were hired to head departments without having mandatory university degrees. And about 100 drivers were employed yet the county has only 12 vehicles in its transport department.
