The Kenyan authorities will disconnect about 12.5 million Sim cards this weekend as the registration window draws to a close.
Kenyans who have not verified their Sim card details will see services suspended from Sunday. They will not be able to make or receive calls, send or receive messages or even access mobile internet services.
In April, the Communications Authority of Kenya extended the deadline for verification by six months.
By Thursday, only 53 million subscribers had verified their registration data. Of these, 38 million were Safaricom subscribers, the largest telecoms company in the country. Airtel and Telkom Kenya saw 13.4 million and 1.8 million subscribers, respectively, verify their details two days to the deadline.
Sim card owners can update their registration details by presenting their national identity card to a merchant, or register through online portals set up by the service providers.
The verification drive is aimed at weeding out Sim cardsthat have been fraudulently registered and reduce cases of theft and insecurity in the country.
“We don’t want criminals to have a field day out there,” Liston Kirui, from the Communications Authority of Kenya said on Friday.
Zanzibar’s government is investigating why thousands of dead swimming crabs have washed up on the beaches of the Tanzanianislands.
Since 28 September, there have been reports of the dead crabs washing ashore at Mtoni, Mizingani and Forodhani public beaches.
The government is urging people not to worry it might be caused by pollution.
Reports indicate climate change leading to an abrupt change in the temperature of the sea might be to blame.
“Some living things like the swimming crabs cannot resist sudden changes in the sea, and they die and wash ashore,” Dr Salum Soud, a marine biologist and Zanzibar’s director of development and fisheries, told the BBC.
“Ocean waters have layers of temperatures and so the waves force water underneath to go up, thus may cause low oxygen hence the crabs are likely to face death,” he added.
The mass deaths of the crabs is not an isolated incident, according to Sheha Mjaja Juma, Director General of the Zanzibar Environment Management Authority (Zema), who told Tanzania’s The Citizen paper it had also happened in Seychelles.
Authoritiesin Taiwan have charged a university administrator and nine others over a scholarship scam that saw Ugandan students forced to work in a factory instead of studying, the AFP news agency reports.
It follows local reports in January of student complaints of being ordered to “intern” at factories, AFP adds.
Chung Chou University of Science and Technology has since been banned from recruiting foreign students.
Prosecutors on Friday charged the school’s dean of student affairs, the deputy chief of the county government’s youth development department and eight others with human trafficking, fraud and corruption among other charges.
The dean and two others allegedly “tricked” the Ugandans with “fake promises of hefty scholarships and high-tech industry internships”, district prosecutors are quoted by AFP as saying.
The students are reported to have been informed that they owed the school travel and other expenses, and had to do work at labour-intensive local factories.
The university is quoted as having told a local news agency in January that “there was a major difference in understanding between foreign students and school administration”.
Kenya’s law society has condemned the country’s public prosecutor for withdrawing corruption cases against high-profile individuals, including a cabinet nominee.
Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Eric Theuri on Thursday called on the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Noordin Haji to publicly reveal the reasons behind the successive withdrawal of high-profile cases.
“We are… alarmed by the recent decisions by the DPP as they point to either two disturbing scenarios; that the prosecutions were mounted for the ulterior purpose whose end has been achieved or overtaken by events, or that the DPP has withdrawn the cases to aid an ulterior motive,” Mr Theuri said.
The LSK has threatened to pursue legal action against Mr Haji “so as to avert the abuse of the prosecutorial powers donated to Mr Haji by Kenyans through the constitution”.
Opposition legislators have also questioned why the withdrawal of cases came a few days before the commencement of the vetting of cabinet nominees by parliament next week.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor said he was dropping a $157,000 (£140,000) corruption case against the nominated minister for public service, Aisha Jumwa. Another $3.3m corruption case against a former managing director of state utility firm Kenya Power was also dropped.
The authorities in Lagos say they are investigating the conduct of nurses at a private Nigerian hospitalafter videos emerged of them filming a dying man.
In videos that were then posted on social media, the nurses filmed Big Brother Naija reality TV star Rico Swavey, whose real name was Patrick Fakoya, as he lay unconscious on a chair where he had been propped up. He was taken to hospital after he had been involved in a car accident.
On the recording, one nurse is heard telling the others to stop the recording.
Gbenga Omotosho, Lagos state commissioner of information, told the BBC that the hospital risked being shut down by the government after it concluded its investigation.
International athletics officials have provisionally suspended the Kenyan winner of the 2021 Boston marathon, Diana Kipyokei, for violating anti-doping rules.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) also suspended her compatriot Betty Wilson Lempus.
In addition, both athletes were charged with tampering with the doping control process.
The AIU launched an investigation after a banned substance – triamcinolone acetonide – was found in samples they had provided.
Eight other Kenyan athletes have tested positive for the drug, compared with only two other runners in the rest of the world since 2021.
The Ugandan capital, Kampala, remains Ebola-free despite a 45-year-old man dying from the virus in the city a week ago, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
The victim – the 19th death from Ebola in the current outbreak – had fled from Mubende district.
On Thursday, the Ugandan authorities said that his wife had tested positive before giving birth at a clinic in the hospital, AFP reports.
“I want to state very clearly that this does not mean Kampala has Ebola,” Dr Aceng said.
“Cases that were already listed in Mubende remain cases of Mubende. Unless Kampala generates its own cases that start within Kampala, we cannot call that a Kampala case.”
Uganda has recorded 58 cases of the Sudan strain of Ebola since last month. There is no vaccine available for this strain.
President Yoweri Museveni’s office has announced that on Saturday he will be addressing the nation on Ebola for the second time this week.
Ghanaian rapper, singer and songwriter Black Sherif is one of the fastest rising stars in African music.
At the age of just 20, he already has several awards under his belt. He’s just released his debut album The Villain I Never Was.
Born Mohammed Ismail Sharrif in Konongo in the Ashanti region, he started making music in high school putting out freestyles recorded on his friend’s smartphone.
Quote Message: When I realised I wanted to go with music, I needed a stage name, and something heavy. But I didn’t want to switch my whole name, so I needed the Sherif, because Sharrif is my name.”
When I realised I wanted to go with music, I needed a stage name, and something heavy. But I didn’t want to switch my whole name, so I needed the Sherif, because Sharrif is my name.”
He explains that the name means noble and that black is his identity – so together Black Sherif means a noble African.
He got people’s attention with the first of his “Sermon” freestyles.
When he followed First Sermon up with the street anthem Second Sermon, he went mainstream and then remixed it featuring Nigerian star Burna Boy.
Earlier this year, his single Kwaku the Traveller reached number one on the Ghanaian and Nigerian Apple Music charts. By August it was the most Shazamed song in the world across genres.
His latest single is Soja.
“I am soldier, you are soldier,” he explains. “Everyone is a soldier in this world, because we all have different battles we are fighting. I sacrifice, you sacrifice, everyone sacrifices.”
In the song he talks about his fears and insecurities in a very open way.
Quote Message: If we hop on the streets you will see the kids that are running to me right now. There are kids listening to me, and I don’t want them to know I’m perfect. I’m not perfect. I have fears. I have anxiety. I want them to know that I’m a person.”
If we hop on the streets you will see the kids that are running to me right now. There are kids listening to me, and I don’t want them to know I’m perfect. I’m not perfect. I have fears. I have anxiety. I want them to know that I’m a person.”
When asked about his main source of inspiration his answer is surprising:
Quote Message: It’s my pain. I have lots of pains in my heart, mostly from things I’ve seen. There’s pain on the streets. There’s pain in the air. I do have doubts in so many things about what I do. Life has happened to me. People have disappointed me. Music is my safe haven.”
It’s my pain. I have lots of pains in my heart, mostly from things I’ve seen. There’s pain on the streets. There’s pain in the air. I do have doubts in so many things about what I do. Life has happened to me. People have disappointed me. Music is my safe haven.”
Black Sherif says his main musical influences come from the Highlife music his mother used to play. Then at the age of eight his father turned him on to reggae.
“That was the first time living with my Dad. When I was growing up my Dad was living in Greece. I love reggae so much because you know what elements come with reggae; consciousness, it’s raw, it’s real. And Highlife is melodious, soulful. That’s my main sound inspiration.”
He says he loves all his songs on the album, but he singles out O Paradise, a moving track inspired by his first girlfriend who sadly passed away. He’s certainly not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve.
He says the main message on the album is one of perseverance.
“It’s inspirational, motivational. It’s about self realisation. Listen. It will speak to you.”
The man who led the latest coup in Burkina Faso has been named interim president until elections in July 2024.
A national forum declared that Capt Ibrahim Traoré would not be allowed to stand in the polls.
He seized power two weeks ago from Lt-Gen Paul-Henri Damiba, who staged a coup in January accusing the authorities of failing to deal with Islamist militants.
The insurgency intensified after the general’s takeover, prompting Capt Traoré to remove him by force.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will provide support to African countries hit by food price rises, the institution’s Africa head Abebe Aemro Selassie has said.
“The surge in food prices has meant that there are a lot of people that have become food insecure.
“Global economic issues have also become difficult. Access to financing has dried up,” he told Focus on Africa, the BBC’s flagship radio programme for the continent.
“Countries have been hit much worse than we expected.”
Responding to criticism from listeners that the IMF imposes programmes seeking its help, Mr Abebe defended the IMF’s record.
“This is not your grandfather’s IMF,” he said adding that solutions are not brought in from outside and African ministers know they now have agency when dealing with the IMF.
Usually, when a movie is created for a particular group of people, actors who belong to that community are called for the roles to ease into character and better express the idea and concept of the story being told.
Even when an indigenous member of the community can’t be used the actor is offered a consultant in that field to solidify the character being played.
It’s like an actor called up to play the role of a police officer. If an actual police officer is called up to offer guidance to the actor it comes as no surprise and the representation of what police officers do is important, it matters and perhaps, that is what Sesame Street missed out on when it started rolling, but at least they got with the program.
According to a study, inner-city children were months behind middle-class children in kindergarten, and the gap widened and advanced through later grades. Because youngsters are known to spend a lot of time watching TV, the TV served as a sort of babysitter. It was considerably worse for inner-city children whose parents worked long hours and so exposed their children to meaningless programming.
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Lloyd Morrisett collaborated with Joan Ganz Cooney, a producer and activist at the time. They believed that young children might be taught through television. Cooney conducted a feasibility study, which was used to persuade the Department of Education, the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, and individual benefactors to provide $8 million to the Children’s Television Workshop (now the Sesame Workshop).
Cooney approached Jon Stone, a Yale University graduate with experience in children’s television, as a writer and TV producer. He shared her enthusiasm for social activism and agreed to participate in the show because of its emphasis on educating Black and brown youth and so influenced by the African-American neighborhoods of Harlem and beyond, the renowned children’s television show debuted in 1969. From the witty slang to the jazz and groove music to the set and performers, everything about Sesame Street was Black, but the puppets were not.
The idea and thought and target audience of the series at the time was not reflected in what was shown. There were noblackpuppets even though some of the puppeteers were black and predominantly male. So on many fronts, representation was a problem. Representation entails viewing tales and performances in movies that portray and resonate with an audience, which was lacking in this case.
Over the years, this issue was resolved in the 1980s when Kevin Clash was cast, but while his puppet sounded black it did not look black. However, he did set the pace, and eventually, in 2021, a full-time black female puppeteer, Meghan Piphus Peace, was cast. This time, not only is the voice of the puppet black, but its physical appearance is black too. Gabrielle, the 6-year-old puppet not only has melanin skin, but she has kinky hair too.
Representation matters especially for children, who relate, grasp and understand better when what they say on screen is what they see in their immediate surroundings. For a program that was built on the life and gaps found among black and brown kids, it took Sesame Street way too long to get here, but the important thing is the representation is being factored in the casting of the show.
A lot of things kids learn at a tender age are picked up from what they see on TV. For young girls especially who have to deal with the issues of their kinky hair not being accepted even to this day, Meghan Piphus’ puppet is an amazing representation of black girls that can go a long way to letting young girls understand that they are okay just the way they are and there are people like them even on TV.
Today, it is not just black and brown children who watch Sesame Street, but children of different races worldwide watch the program and are duly represented although the representation is progressive. Like the viral photo of the young boy who while watching a cartoon saw a male character that looked just like him and was so connected, little black and brown girls who watch Sesame Street will be happy to see 6-year-old Gabrielle in all her melanin skin and kinky glory.
Van Lathan Jr., the former TMZ staffer who confronted Kanye West in 2018 after he suggested slavery sounded “like choice”, recently alleged that the controversial rapper and fashion designer also expressed his love for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during the same encounter at the company’s office, Forbes reported.
The allegations against West come after both Twitter and Instagram restricted the 45-year-old’s accounts after he shared anti-Semitic posts over the weekend. In his Higher Learning podcast on Tuesday, Lathan claimed his former employer edited out the section of the 2018 interview where West expressed love for Hitler and the Nazis.
Lathan reportedly said that West making anti-Semitic comments on Twitter and Instagram did not come as a surprise to him because their 2018 encounter made him get to know the College Dropout rapper’s line of reasoning.
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Lathan alleged that West “said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis,’ something to that effect. And they took it out of the interview for whatever reason—it wasn’t my decision.” He added that the section in question was edited out after West was spoken to.
He also claimed that a producer at the office spoke to West and condemned his comments. Lathan said the producer told West, “I’m Jewish and that is offensive to me, what you just said.”
Lathan alleged producers edited out portions of his conversation with West. He added that they allegedly scrapped a part of the confrontation where he spoke about the people who lost their lives “because of Nazism and Hitler” because “it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis.”
During the conversation, Forbes reported that West mentioned Jews and the Holocaust when he connected that genocide’s link with Jews to slavery’s connection to Black people. The 45-year-old also claimed “prison is something” that brings together “Blacks and whites as one race.”
This allegation also comes after The Shop talk show announced it wasn’t going to broadcast a recent interview with West because he allegedly came on the platform “to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”
For anyone, the sculpture would pass as an iconic throne that will sit beautifully in any palace or an imposing edifice to meet its standard. But, the Throne of the Present Owner is more than that. It rather embodies the losses, pain and resilience of the people of Mozambique to look into the future and say never again to war.
The throne represents the childhood memories of Mozambique artist Goncalo Mabunda, of the destruction caused by the guns and bullets in the country’s civil war which lasted over 15 years.
Mabunda is noted for constructing thrones, but, what makes the Throne of the Present Owner different is that it was built from pistols, rocket launchers and AK47s, according to Jack and Bell gallery. They are arms handed over to him after the Christian Council had collected arms used in the Mozambique civil war.
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The Mozambique civil war commenced barely two years after the country had gained independence from Portugal. It is believed that Mozambique was a pun caught in the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States who were supplying feuding factions with ammunition, according to Black Past. The war claimed one million lives in a country whose population was 14 million at the time.
Mabunda’s art is meant to send a strong political message to the governments that the fledgling peace must be protected and made as beautiful as the throne. It also represents the change art could inspire as well as the tenacity and creativity of the African art space.
The throne also stands for the power in weaponry, tribal representations of the Mozambique people, and the rarity of African art.
These themes have a strong influence on the worldview of Mabunda whose childhood was replete with blood and pain caused by a war fought without a basis. He is always in touch with the memories of where Mozambique is from and where they are heading to.
As much as the sentiments that drove the country into civil strife hold sway in its politics today, he seeks to remind them with the throne as a stark reminder to use dialogue instead of arms to resolve their differences.
Art curators have argued that Mabunda’s work is steeped in traditional art, when it is looked at from the modern perspective, it shares a connection with the works of Braque and Picasso.
When the Throne of the Present Owner is looked at symbolically, the guns and bullets which are the main construct of the throne are supposed to evoke fear, but they are rather in a sphere that preaches change and hope.
Mabunda was born in Maputo, Mozambique in 1975. Over the years, his works have shot him into international prominence, according to Rdn Arts.
His work has made it to many international exhibitions, chief among them being the first Mozambican artist at the Venice Biennale. Former U.S. president Bill Clinton is a great fan of Mabunda’s works and is known to have purchased some of his art.
The international media considers his work as representing African identity and culture. He is also known for using his work to promote development and uplift local communities.
The Baye Fall is a Senegalese Muslim sect that is most easily identifiable by their dreadlocked hair, bright patchwork garbs, spiritual amulets, and well-known tenet of hard work. Learn more about them below.
While the Baye Fall are often confused with the Rastafarians of the Caribbean due to
the Baye Fall harken back to the year 1883, when founder Amadou Bamba Mbacke founded the Mouride Brotherhood.
The Baye Fall would be named after “fierce” disciple Ibrahima Fall (pictured below) who is known as the “architect” of the sect’s philosophies of sustainable economics.
As the story has been told, when Ibrahim Fall would come to one of the areas that he would later establish for his people, he noticed that they spent most of their time praying and fasting. Ibrahim Fallwould soon promulgate that working for the Serigne Toube and Amadou Bamba Mbacke is a higher level of prayer and devotion.
That decree — including humility — would serve as one of those key principles of Baye Fall’s emphasis on physical labor.
Consequently, in addition to working on farms, the Baye Fall have established a number of textile, metal, and carpentry workshops, which employs nearly 5,000 people from a number of different villages about an hour from Dakar.
Yaye Fall (the women of Baye Fall)
Serigne (Holy One) Abdoul Aziz Fall is the grandchild of Serigne Ibrahima Fall and the current holy leader of the movement. Of his standing and place in the movement, Abdoul Fall explains, “I was born in it, inherited it, and am also a follower of it.”
Shedding more light on the precepts of the Baye Fall, Abdoul Fall says, “Our command is also the way of Serigne Touba, which is also the way of Ibrahim Fall. It is the same way of life that you see on the farms today. It’s all about educating the people in the way of Islam: hard work, perseverance, and discipline and giving your heart and services to the people.
“The serignes are the living legacies of the founder of sect and the people charged with continuing the work of grandfathers of the Baye Fall movement.”
Credit: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
As for their hair, Leader Ibrahima Fall reportedly wore dreadlocks in the flattened-lock style that many present-day followers wear today.
Credit: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
The Baye Fall aren’t all work in no play, though. They are also known for a vibrant art and music scene that combines reggae instrumentation with traditional drumming and singing.
Today, one can visit the final resting places of Amadou Bamba and Ibrahima Fall in the holy city of Touba, Senegal’s second-largest city.
An Ohio woman,who went on a birthday trip to Florida with three other women, was killed by a nail when Hurricane Ian ravaged a home they were lodging in. According to WHIO-TV, the deceased, identified as Nishelle Harris-Miles, was in Fort Myers with her sister, cousin, and friend when the hurricane tore down the roof of their Airbnb.
The fatal incident happened a week after the deceased mother turned 40. And she had traveled to the city with her three female companions to celebrate her new age.
“We talked to them Tuesday [September 27] and we were actually on the phone with them,” Harris-Miles’ cousin told the news outlet. “We were getting them in good spirits and we were telling them to be safe and all that. And then Wednesday, we just didn’t hear back from them.”
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Fort Myers was one of the Florida locations the hurricane severely hit. “Went for peace and came back broken, lost, confused, guilty,” LaQuitta Heard, who went on the trip, said.
In an interview with WLWT, Chanel Maston, who is Harris-Miles’ cousin, also recalled the events leading to the tragic incident.
“We strapped ourselves to each other with a sheet, laid on the mattress. That water came out that floor so fast, so quick. The roof was smashing us,” Maston said. “We tried to kick off the roof and lay on the mattress. It kicked off that roof, so that roof wouldn’t smash us and the roof went, and we went.”
Maston also said they tried contacting authorities for help, but nobody responded. “We started calling people before the water really started rising,” she said. “We called 911. We called 211. We called everybody to get us out of there, and nobody came.”
Maston said a nail fatally pierced her cousin as the roof continued to collapse. “She got trapped under. A nail pierced her main artery,” Maston said. “She just turned 40. Sept. 23, she just turned 40. She died nine days after her birthday.”
Maston also shared fond memories of her cousin, saying that the deceased mother “loved everything.”
The familyof a man who died after jumping into the River Thames to save a woman who fell from London Bridge says the search for him ended too soon. 20-year-old Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, known as Jimi, was on his way home from work with a friend, Bernard, when they heard a woman had fallen into the Thames.
Jimi and another man entered the water at 00:10 BST on Saturday in an effort to rescue the woman. The coastguard and the Met Police’s marine unit rescued the woman and the other man. Jimi was however not found after an hour-long search. A body, believed to be that of Jimi’s, was discovered six hours later.
Jimi’s parents Michael Adewola, 63, and his mother Olasunkanmi Adewole, 54, say they want “justice” for their son. “I feel bad because my son was trying to rescue a woman. I feel so bad.. and I want people to help me. I want justice for my son,” Jimi’s mom told Sky News.
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His father, Mr. Adewola, said the search for his son was “not enough”, adding that the search teams could have done more to save his son.
In another interview with the Sun newspaper, he said his son deserved a medal for his bravery. “He is a very unique and angelic soul, and I am proud of him, so proud, and I want the world to know he is the deepest and most wonderful man,” Mr. Adewola said. “He is a hero, and always will be,” he continued. “I can’t bring him back but I want him to be remembered forever for what he did. It was just like him to want to always try and help others.”
Jimi’s friend Bernard narrated what happened to Sky News. He said while he and Jimi were on their way home that Saturday, they heard the woman screaming “help me, help me, I’m gonna die”.
“Instantly Jimi looked at me and I said, ‘all right, we can look for her’. But we couldn’t see her, it was pitch black.”
Bernard said Jimi dived into the water along with the other man to try and rescue the woman, “because that’s how Jimi is – Jimi is pure at heart”. Bernard said he later heard Jimi shouting his name.
“Someone should have been there, someone should have jumped in and tried to rescue both of them,” he said. “At least rescue my friend…”
A spokesperson for the City of London Police said: “Our officers arrived extremely quickly to the scene but two members of the public had already entered the water. One man had managed to swim to the woman and they were both seen above water by the Coastguard.”
“Sadly, there was no sign of the other rescuer,” Detective Chief Supt Oliver Shaw said. “We remained on scene to assist the marine units and police helicopter with the search in the water. This was stood down by the Coastguard over an hour later.
“We continued to search the shore of the river, in person and using our network of CCTV cameras, and unfortunately, at 05.46 a body was discovered.”
The Maritime & Coastguard Agency told Sky News that it suspended its own search before Jimi was found. “Despite our best efforts, the sad decision was made to suspend the search at 1.20 am when no sign of the person was found,” Matt Leat, HM Coastguard’s Strategic Maritime Commander, said.
At the moment, police have not said how the woman fell into the river. On Monday, Jimi’s school, Harris Academy Peckham, held a two-minute commemorative clap in his honor, according to BBC.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan posted on Twitter after the tragicincident that Jimi “was the best of us”.
“A true hero of our city who gave his life trying to save another,” he wrote.
“My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time of tragic loss.”
A Florida woman is mourning the tragic loss of her husband and their two children after they drowned in their family pool.
According to WSVN, local officials responded to the family’s Hollywood residence on February 24 after Anne Marie Dolce found her husband, Jean Wisly Fontus, and their two children unresponsive in their family swimming pool.
The deceased minors were identified as five-year-old Emmie and Tyler, 2.
“Just after 3:30, the Hollywood Police Department received a 911 call for a possible drowning. When officers arrived on scene they found 3 people who were unresponsive. It was an adult and two children,” Hollywood Police Spokeswoman Deanna Bettineschi said, per CBS Miami.
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Officers who arrived attempted resuscitating Fontus and his two children by performing CPR and other life-saving techniques. They were later pronounced dead after they were transported to a hospital.
“They were all full of love, it’s the only word I can use to describe it: love,” Dolce told WSVN. “The reality of the situation is what’s really heavy and hard.”
The grieving wife and mother also said it was typical of her husband and kids to take daily afternoon dips in the pool. “They typically play in the yard and the pool, painting activities, they would ride their bikes on the patio or on the sidewalk,” Dolce said.
The tragic incident is being investigated by Hollywood Police. And though officials are yet to establish the circumstances surrounding their deaths, they said they do not believe there was any foul play.
A GoFundMe that was set up by Dolce provided further insight into the incident. “Like any other day, Wes, Emmie and Tyler went for their last swim together in the family’s pool. We imagine that they played in the pool, Emmie and Tyler climbing onto and splashing water at dad as always,” she said.
“At some point, something happened that caused that fun time to come to a sudden end. We may never know how, and we will surely never understand why, but we are comforted in knowing that Dad, Emmie, and Tyler are together in Heaven in the loving hands of God.”
Dolce also shared fond memories of her deceased husband and children. “‘I like your hair. I like your dress. That baby is so cute.’ It’s just the way she spoke and who she was, very loving,” she said about Emmie, adding that her brother Tyler was a usual two-year-old.
“He [Tyler] thought he was some sort of superhero, but he was my superhero,” she said. Dolce also referred to her husband as the life of the party.
“This was a party. It was always a party here. Music was blaring, and everyone was always invited,” she recalled.
The GoFundMe account has so far raised over $50,000, surpassing the $40,000 goal.
A Florida mother, whose teen son died after he tried to save his autistic brother from drowning in a hurricane-flooded canal, said she would have also jumped into the water to try and save the minor if she was the first person to arrive. The minor, identified as 6-year-old Tahjir Burrowes, also drowned.
According to NBC News, the tragic October 5 incident occurred after Tahjir walked out of their Lehigh home and headed towards the hurricane-flooded canal. The minor’s mother, Lachera Burrowes, said her son’s autism was very serious and he was attracted to water. He was also non-verbal.
The minor’s relatives were unaware he had left the home. The hurricane had also torn down the fence surrounding their home – which made it easy for Tahjir to wander off. The minor’s big brother, Tahjon, noticed his brother had gone out after he returned from the bathroom.
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And sensing something wasn’t right, the 17-year-old knocked on his mother’s door to alert her. “Mom, mom, mom! Tahjir got out of the house!” Tahjon said before leaving the home to look for his brother.
Burrowes also drove to the canal. But when she arrived, she said she did not see anything. “I saw nothing,” she said. “Quiet.”
Burrowes notified the police and continued searching for her sons. But hours after the siblings went missing, a detective came to Burrowes’ home to tell her that the bodies of her sons had been found. The detective said they drowned in the canal.
Burrowes believes Tahjon tried to save his younger brother from drowning. “I don’t know if one could be without the other. He could not stand there and not jump in,” she said.
A Lee County Sheriff’s Office said they do not suspect any foul play in their deaths.
Despite being financially unstable, Burrowes rented a hotel room so that she and her family could be safe during the hurricane, NBC News reported. She also said she did not want a repeat of what Tahjir went through during 2017’s Hurricane Irma. Burrowes said the minor suffered constipation for days after they lost power as a result of the hurricane.
Over 130 people have reportedly died from Hurricane Ian. The numbers make it the deadliest hurricane in Florida in about 87 years.
The eldest son of NBA star LeBron James has followed in his father’s footsteps and signed a multi-million dollar NIL deal with Nike. Bronny James signed the deal days after he turned 18 years, as his father did 20 years ago, according to BET.
The sportswear giant made the announcement after signing Bronny and four other athletes to their brand. The four other athletes include Caitlin Clark, DJ Wagner, Haley Jones and JuJu Watkins.
“To serve the future of athletes and sport, Nike is teaming up with inspiring young athletes who are leading the way now– both on the court ad in their communities,” Nike said in a statement. “Just as we support them in pursuing their foals, they push us to think even bigger about the change we can create together.”
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The deal now makes him an official member of the family although Bronny is not a stranger to Nike as he has been wearing LeBron’s shoes on the court.
“For as long as I can remember, Nike’s been a part of my family,” Bronny told Complex. “Getting a chance to team up with them and continue my family’s legacy both on the court and in the community is wild—it really means a lot to me.”
The Nike deal is Bronny’s second NIL deal. In February this year, he signed a deal with underwear brand PSD in which he designed his own underwear.
With 6.6 million followers on Instagram, Bronny is said to be earning over $ 5 million from NIL deals and the number is expected to increase with the Nike deal, according to On3 Projects.
Marca reports that Bronny is currently deciding on the college he will play at before heading to the NBA. Sports Illustrated quoted Bronny’s mother as saying he is more likely to play college basketball instead of going directly to the NBA.
“Bronny wants to have a college career,’ Savannah James said in August. “I think it would be really cool for him to start with collegiate basketball, just to start his legacy there.”
Bronny is ranked 34th in the ESPN 100 and 41st in the 2023 class by 247Sports. Meanwhile, the latter reports that Bronny has offers from Ohio State, USC and Memphis.
In an interview with The Athletic in February, LeBron revealed his desire to play his final NBA season with his oldest son.
“My last year will be played with my son,” he said. “Wherever Bronny is at, that’s where I’ll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. It’s not about the money at that point.”
Authorities in Georgia said an inmate allegedly impersonated a California billionaire and made away with $11 million while he was being held in a maximum-security lock-up. According to FOX News, the heist is said to be one of the biggest to be executed from inside a prison in the United States.
The inmate, identified as 31-year-old Arthur Lee Cofield Jr., allegedly stole the money from billionaire film producer Sidney Kimmel. Cofield allegedly carried out the act while he was being held at the Georgia Department of Corrections’ Special Management Unit. The suspect, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for armed robbery, allegedly used smuggled cell phones to open a bankaccount in the name of the 94-year-old billionaire.
The inmate allegedly bought 6,106 American Eagle one-ounce gold coins with some of the stolen $11 million. That was after he had the funds transferred from Kimmel’s Charles Schwab account into an Idaho-based company.
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And following that transfer, federal prosecutors said they believe the inmate allegedly had a private jet fly the coins to Atlanta. He is said to have used $4.4 million of the stolen money to purchase a home in Buckhead.
The bank ultimately repaid Kimmel in full after the heist was unfolded. But the incident cast a spotlight on the corrections department’s shortcomings in clamping down on unlawful activities in its prisons, FOX News reported.
Cofield was reportedly moved to the Special Management Unit after he allegedly instructed his fellow gang members to fatally shoot a rival. The 31-year-old suspect was locked up when he ordered that hit.
Besides Cofield, two other individuals – a father and daughter – have also been indicted in connection with the $11 million heist. The three suspects, who have been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering, have pleaded not guilty.
Federal prosecutors at a past bond hearing said that Cofield may also have likely stolen $2.5 from the wife of a Florida billionaire after he gained access to her account, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. That victim was identified as Nicole Wertheim. She is married to Herbert Wertheim.
The Dominican Republic is home to several cultural dances of African ancestry. It is unusual to visit a socialgathering or walk the streets of the island community without witnessing a display of gestures characteristic of the traditions of the people.
The cocktail of the rich cultural dances in the Dominican Republic is not the focus of this article, but, the origins of Merengue, the national dance of the Dominican region. There are conflicting histories of how Merengue originated to become a much-loved dance by the people of the island city. One fact that cannot however be challenged is Merengue is part of the national identity of the Dominican Republic, according to flodance.
Oral history has it that the genesis of the Merengue can be traced to the enslaved who lived in the region in 1700. Historians claim that the basics of the dance were an adaptation of African and French minuet.
It was developed through the ingenuity of the enslaved who were enthralled by the ballroom dances of their owners during festive periods. An attempt to mirror the ballroom dance and regular practice of its movement gave birth to the Merengue.
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Parts where their owners were rigid and boring in their dance moves, they made fun and flexible. They fast-tracked the rhythms to make the dance exciting and danceable. Traditionally, Merengue focuses on groups rather than placing emphasis on individual participation in the dancing. It is choreographed with dancers forming a round-like arc with their arms locked and dancing facing each other.
Another school of thought on the origins of the traditional dance holds that Merengue came about following a war veteran who had been maimed in one leg after a battle. In recognition of his heroic exploits while he was returning home, the townsfolk danced dragging one leg reminiscent of the reality that had befallen him as a result of the war.
Another origin of Merengue that has come up strongly in the Dominican Republic is that the dance came about as a result of slaves trying to get familiar with the chains on their legs on slave plantations and ended up developing a rhythm while dancing. They used the cane sticks for the drumbeats as they cut them on the sugar plantations, but, that camaraderie developed into the dance that evolved to be known as Merengue.
It is easy to follow the dance moves of Merengue because of its popularity among the people. According to UNESCO, Merengue is woven into the identity of the Dominican Republic’s social fiber. From the streets to schools and social gatherings, people incorporate the traditional dance into these events.
On November 26, 2005, the Merengue became recognized as the national dance of the Dominican community. In communities such as Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata, the traditional dance has festivals where it is displayed as part of efforts to nationalize it.
The eldest son of NBA star LeBron James has followed in his father’s footsteps and signed a multi-million dollar NIL deal with Nike. Bronny James signed the deal days after he turned 18 years, as his father did 20 years ago, according to BET.
The sportswear giant made the announcement after signing Bronny and four other athletes to their brand. The four other athletes include Caitlin Clark, DJ Wagner, Haley Jones and JuJu Watkins.
“To serve the future of athletes and sport, Nike is teaming up with inspiring young athletes who are leading the way now– both on the court ad in their communities,” Nike said in a statement. “Just as we support them in pursuing their foals, they push us to think even bigger about the change we can create together.”
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The deal now makes him an official member of the family although Bronny is not a stranger to Nike as he has been wearing LeBron’s shoes on the court.
“For as long as I can remember, Nike’s been a part of my family,” Bronny told Complex. “Getting a chance to team up with them and continue my family’s legacy both on the court and in the community is wild—it really means a lot to me.”
The Nike deal is Bronny’s second NIL deal. In February this year, he signed a deal with underwear brand PSD in which he designed his own underwear.
With 6.6 million followers on Instagram, Bronny is said to be earning over $ 5 million from NIL deals and the number is expected to increase with the Nike deal, according to On3 Projects.
Marca reports that Bronny is currently deciding on the college he will play at before heading to the NBA. Sports Illustrated quoted Bronny’s mother as saying he is more likely to play college basketball instead of going directly to the NBA.
“Bronny wants to have a college career,’ Savannah James said in August. “I think it would be really cool for him to start with collegiate basketball, just to start his legacy there.”
Bronny is ranked 34th in the ESPN 100 and 41st in the 2023 class by 247Sports. Meanwhile, the latter reports that Bronny has offers from Ohio State, USC and Memphis.
In an interview with The Athletic in February, LeBron revealed his desire to play his final NBA season with his oldest son.
“My last year will be played with my son,” he said. “Wherever Bronny is at, that’s where I’ll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. It’s not about the money at that point.”
Authoritiesin St. Louis said a 12-year-old girl fatally shot her teen cousin before turning the gun on herself.
And though police initially ruled the deaths of Paris Harvey and 14-year-old Kuaron Harvey as a murder-suicide, family members said the Friday incident, which happened during a family party, was an accident, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Family members also said the two cousins were playing with a gun on Instagram Live when the incident occurred. “It wasn’t a situation where they were arguing or anything like that. They were playing with the gun, when they shouldn’t have been. Of course, they shouldn’t have been doing it. I think it just went off. It went off by mistake,” Paris’ grandmother, Susan Dyson, said, adding that she had watched the video.
The incident happened at an apartment the family had rented for birthdays in March. And family members said the deceased cousins were making a video in the bathroom mirror when the shootings happened. The two were alone at the time.
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“Everybody was getting together to celebrate, and so the younger kids, they got a bed and breakfast,” Paris’ mother, Shinise Harvey, told KSDK. “They were making a video, and (Paris) was playing with the gun, but it went off and hit him.”
Family members said Paris may have accidentally shot herselfafter unintentionally killing Kuaron. Both cousins died from a gunshot wound to the head.
“It was no murder. It wasn’t a suicide,” Paris’ mother said. “It was a freak accident. It happened.” Harvey also said she hadn’t seen the video, but family members who did, narrated what happened to her, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Harvey also said the deceased cousins were “trying to be too hip.”
The eldest son of NBA star LeBron James has followed in his father’s footsteps and signed a multi-million dollar NIL deal with Nike. Bronny James signed the deal days after he turned 18 years, as his father did 20 years ago, according to BET.
The sportswear giant made the announcement after signing Bronny and four other athletes to their brand. The four other athletes include Caitlin Clark, DJ Wagner, Haley Jones and JuJu Watkins.
“To serve the future of athletes and sport, Nike is teaming up with inspiring young athletes who are leading the way now– both on the court ad in their communities,” Nike said in a statement. “Just as we support them in pursuing their foals, they push us to think even bigger about the change we can create together.”
Related stories
The deal now makes him an official member of the family although Bronny is not a stranger to Nike as he has been wearing LeBron’s shoes on the court.
“For as long as I can remember, Nike’s been a part of my family,” Bronny told Complex. “Getting a chance to team up with them and continue my family’s legacy both on the court and in the community is wild—it really means a lot to me.”
The Nike deal is Bronny’s second NIL deal. In February this year, he signed a deal with underwear brand PSD in which he designed his own underwear.
With 6.6 million followers on Instagram, Bronny is said to be earning over $ 5 million from NIL deals and the number is expected to increase with the Nike deal, according to On3 Projects.
Marca reports that Bronny is currently deciding on the college he will play at before heading to the NBA. Sports Illustrated quoted Bronny’s mother as saying he is more likely to play college basketball instead of going directly to the NBA.
“Bronny wants to have a college career,’ Savannah James said in August. “I think it would be really cool for him to start with collegiate basketball, just to start his legacy there.”
Bronny is ranked 34th in the ESPN 100 and 41st in the 2023 class by 247Sports. Meanwhile, the latter reports that Bronny has offers from Ohio State, USC and Memphis.
In an interview with The Athletic in February, LeBron revealed his desire to play his final NBA season with his oldest son.
“My last year will be played with my son,” he said. “Wherever Bronny is at, that’s where I’ll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. It’s not about the money at that point.”
The eldest son of NBA star LeBron James has followed in his father’s footsteps and signed a multi-million dollar NIL deal with Nike. Bronny James signed the deal days after he turned 18 years, as his father did 20 years ago, according to BET.
The sportswear giant made the announcement after signing Bronny and four other athletes to their brand. The four other athletes include Caitlin Clark, DJ Wagner, Haley Jones and JuJu Watkins.
“To serve the future of athletes and sport, Nike is teaming up with inspiring young athletes who are leading the way now– both on the court ad in their communities,” Nike said in a statement. “Just as we support them in pursuing their foals, they push us to think even bigger about the change we can create together.”
Related stories
The deal now makes him an official member of the family although Bronny is not a stranger to Nike as he has been wearing LeBron’s shoes on the court.
“For as long as I can remember, Nike’s been a part of my family,” Bronny told Complex. “Getting a chance to team up with them and continue my family’s legacy both on the court and in the community is wild—it really means a lot to me.”
The Nike deal is Bronny’s second NIL deal. In February this year, he signed a deal with underwear brand PSD in which he designed his own underwear.
With 6.6 million followers on Instagram, Bronny is said to be earning over $ 5 million from NIL deals and the number is expected to increase with the Nike deal, according to On3 Projects.
Marca reports that Bronny is currently deciding on the college he will play at before heading to the NBA. Sports Illustrated quoted Bronny’s mother as saying he is more likely to play college basketball instead of going directly to the NBA.
“Bronny wants to have a college career,’ Savannah James said in August. “I think it would be really cool for him to start with collegiate basketball, just to start his legacy there.”
Bronny is ranked 34th in the ESPN 100 and 41st in the 2023 class by 247Sports. Meanwhile, the latter reports that Bronny has offers from Ohio State, USC and Memphis.
In an interview with The Athletic in February, LeBron revealed his desire to play his final NBA season with his oldest son.
“My last year will be played with my son,” he said. “Wherever Bronny is at, that’s where I’ll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. It’s not about the money at that point.”
Family members also said they believed Kuaron owned the gun. “No matter how good we try to raise our kids, they still are going to venture off,” Harvey said.
Florence Griffith Joyner, known as “Flo Jo” is considered to be the fastest woman of all time. She was a superb sprinter who completely dominated the women’s track season in 1988.
Joyner, who was the seventh of 11 children, began racing when she was seven years old but had to give up sport at 19 in order to help support her family.
She was working as a bank teller by day and styled hair in the evenings when Sprint coach Bob Kersee discovered her and helped her enroll at U.C.L.A.
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“I saw something I’ve never seen before in Indiana. I saw a sixth gear,” Coach Kersee said.
“I’ve never seen anyone with that speed and that fluidity. She’s wasting very little motion. There’s very little bounce in her stride. She and Jackie believe they can do the unbelievable.”
Four months later at the 1984 Olympic Games, in her hometown of Los Angeles, Joyner won 200m silver at the world championships in Rome, and she just kept on improving.
Before she travelled to Indiana, her personal best was 10.96 but in 15 months she transformed from an average sprinter to a taut world-beater.
She married Al Joyner, the 1984 triple jump Olympic champion and changed her name to Florence Griffith Joyner and eventually picked up the nickname “Flo jo.”
She was part of track royalty family. Her husband was a gold medal winner in the triple jump during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Her sister-in-law, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was also an all-time great in the heptathlon and long jump who won six Olympic medals.
At the U.S. Olympic Trials on 16th July 1988 Joyner achieved a spectacular breakthrough when she set two world records for 100m and 200 sprints; both still stand till today.
Pic Credit: Getty Images
Flo Jo won gold in the 100m, the 200m and the 4x100m, and silver in the 4x400m. She ran the 100m in 10.49 and 10.54 seconds respectively, breaking the Olympic record twice.
In the 200m semi-finals she beat the world record by 0.15sec, and less than two hours later she beat it again in the final, by another 0.22sec.
The following day she won her semi-final in 10.70, and emerged victorious in the final, winning in 10.61. In 24 hours she had run the three fastest legal women’s 100m races in history, and before the trials finished she smashed the US 200m record as well.
In an era where runners were strictly advised not to wear long hair, jewelry or grow long nails, Flo Jo did the contrary and stood out. She reportedly had four-inch decorative nails; one-legged leotards: long, flowing hair which she carried with an extraordinary flair.
Her style inspired so many people in the field. After her retirement in 1989, she was commissioned by the Indiana Pacers to design their uniforms.
Pic Credit: Pinterest/thecut.com
The designs were named “Flo-Jo’s” and are still an icon of the 90s basketball, reminiscent of Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds and the team’s battles with the Knicks.
She was at a point accused of using banned substances. A former teammate even claimed he sold Griffith human growth hormone (HGH).
“In 1988, at the Seoul Olympics, I saw a side-by-side video of Flo-Jo from 1984 and that present time,” he said on NPR in 2013.
“She looked and sounded like a different person. The comparison was so shocking that the producer told me he feared it would be an ugly bombshell back in the USA, if such incriminating evidence were shown about an American heroine. So NBC shelved the tape,” Sports Illustrated Frank Deford who covered the 1988 Olympic Games told NPR in 2013.
Flo Jo was subjected to an arduous drug testing program before and after her Olympic meets in 1984 and 1988 and she passed every single test.
Alexandre de Mérode, the chairman of the IOC’s medical commission for 35 years, was resolute that Griffith was wrongfully targeted but in the end, no evidence whatsoever was found.
“We performed all possible and imaginable analyses on her. We never found anything. There should not be the slightest suspicion,” de Mérode said after the 1988 Olympics.
Her career as a top-level 100m runner was only three months and eight races long, but she still has all of the top three and five of the top 10 fastest times in history. Since then, not only does Joyner’s time still stand, nobody has even got close to it.
Joyner’s 200m record is also clearly unbeaten. The only person to have got within 0.30 of it since is Jones.
Flo Jo was regarded as one of the most incredible athletes in the world but it all came to an end too soon. She abruptly announced her retirement in February 1989, at the age of 29.
“I have decided to run on a different track and to strive for the best of which I am capable in a different field. Life has many things to offer all of us and, since the Olympics, many challenges and opportunities have been presented to me. I want to pursue them,” she said at a press conference.
According to the Guardian, in retirement, she designed clothes, wrote a couple of romance novels and a series of children’s books. She set up a cosmetics firm, recorded fitness videos, and turned her hand to acting.
Flo Jo and her husband – Pic Credit: Getty Images
A couple of years later she announced her intention to return to athletics. “I always had a love for distance running, and it’s been a dream of mine to compete in the Olympic marathon,” she said, setting her sights on the 1996 Atlanta Games.
“A lot of people will laugh about this, but you don’t laugh at Florence Griffith Joyner,” her husband said.
Florence Griffith Joyner could not compete in a marathon. In 1996, while on a flight from California to St Louis, she suffered a seizure. Two years later when Flo Jo was only 38 years old, she died suddenly in her sleep. She was said to have asphyxiated herself on her pillow during an epileptic seizure.
Even in death, her husband wanted to prove Joyner’s critics wrong and requested that her body be rigorously tested for signs of steroid use.
None was found. “My wife took the final, ultimate drug test,” Joyner said, “and it’s what we always said: there’s nothing there. So please, please, just let my wife rest in peace.”
Seven-time Grammy award winner, songwriter, actress and singer Gladys Knight is widely known for belting out soulful hits in the 1960s and 1970s and was famously part of the group, “Gladys Knight & the Pips.”
Knight was born on May 28, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia. She gained slight prominence by her appearance on “Ted Mack’s The Original Amateur Hour TV.” Moving forward, she formed a singing group that included her brother Merald, cousins Edward Patten and Elenor Guest and sister Brenda named The Pips.
In 1966, the group gained a record deal with Motown Records and scored several hits such as, “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye) and the first released version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”
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In 1973, the group joined the roster of Buddah Records and reigned even more success with several hits.
Gladys Knight and the Pips perform during the special Suzanne Somers show aboard the aircraft carrier USS RANGER (CV-61).
In 1987, Knight pursued a solo career. The group was inducted into the Georgia Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Knight’s move to become a solo artist proved to be a lucrative one as she appeared and sang on hits of her own and with other artists such as Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis and Lenny Kravitz.
She has been bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate in Performing Arts from Shaw University, Soul Train Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and a BET Lifetime Achievement Award to list a few accolades.
To celebrate her birthday and legacy, Face2Face Africa shares with you 10 of her greatest hits.
A Georgia pastor is mourning the loss of his wife after he woke up to find her fatally hit by a stray bullet. In a Facebook Live video on Sunday, Mac Ellison, a pastor at Temple of Faith Ministries, said the fatal October 5 incident happened in the middle of the night, The Telegraph reported.
Ellison’s wife, identified as Lashunda Heath-Ellison, was fatally struck at the back of the head after the bullet pierced through their Decatur residence. Ellison said his wife was sleeping at the time of the incident.
“My wife Lashunda Heath-Ellison gained her wings. I believe to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,” Ellison wrote. “Please give us a moment to process this. My Perfect Angel is gone but forever in our hearts.”
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An investigation into the fatal incident has been launched by the Dekalb County Police Department. Authorities also said the case is being investigated as a homicide.
Police said the projectile pierced through the back of the couple’s residence, adding that it hit Heath-Ellison while she was sleeping.
Ellison also said he woke up from his sleep after he noticed his wife was breathing heavily. Ellison said he initially thought his wife was snoring, but noticed there was a problem after he switched on the lights, The Telegraph reported. He then alerted his children.
The family then called 911 and turned Heath-Ellison over. “When we rolled mama over so she could breathe, we saw that the back of her pillow was full of blood, but looking at her, we didn’t see any blood,” Ellison recalled. “There was nothing we could do for mama.”
An X-ray, that was done on Heath-Ellison at the hospital, showed bullet shrapnel was lodged close to her brain, the pastor said. Ellison said he and his children found a bullet hole at their home following their trip to the hospital.
The grieving pastor also said his wife recently turned 50.
“I asked my wife, I said ‘What do you want for your birthday?’ And she said, ‘I just want to be with you,’” Ellison said in the Facebook Live video. “I’m trying to say all this without tears.”
Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked as chancellor three weeks after his mini-budget unleashed chaos in the economy.
He was appointed to the role by Liz Truss only 38 days ago, making him the second-shortest serving chancellor after Iain Macleod, who died a month after being handed the job by Edward Heath.
Mr Kwarteng’s downfall was set in motion by the mini-budget on 23 September, in which he announced £45bn in unfunded tax cuts.
The mini-budget pushed the pound to a record low against the dollar, sent the cost of government borrowing and mortgage rates up and led to an unprecedented intervention by the Bank of England.
In Mr Kwarteng’s letter to Ms Truss, he said: “You have asked me to stand aside as your chancellor. I have accepted.”
He said he accepted the job “in full knowledge that the situation we faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices”.
One of the oldest and best-documented Africankingdoms is that of Kongo. According to historians, the territory of the kingdom at its peak stretched from what is now Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo. The locals’ version of events, however, encompasses all of modern-day Gabon, Namibia, and even Zambia.
The cultural parallels between the countries involved tend to back up this claim. It is believed that the kingdom was formed from the disintegration of an ancient kingdom called Bangu, found on the north bank of the Congo River.
As indicated earlier, the Kingdom of Kongo is arguably one of the largest kingdoms on the African continent yet its expansion was not a result of military conquests, according to a report by Rebecca Bayeck, Ph.D. The kingdom didn’t have an army and mercenaries but royal guards who protected the court.
The kingdom grew by persuading neighboring states to join it. As long as they promised to abide by the rules, other kingdoms were welcome to join the Kongo Kingdom and become provinces. They could also withdraw from the monarchy without interference.
Also, intermarriages among the people contributed to this expansion. Per oral traditions, in 1390 C.E., Nima a Nzima of the Mpemba Kasi married Luqueni Luansanze of the Mbata in a political marriage that sealed the union between the two KiKongo-speaking peoples and led to the establishment of the Kingdom. In the middle of the 1600s, the kingdom’s might peaked.
With a population of over 2 million, the kingdom of Kongo benefited greatly from the exchange of ivory, copper, salt, cattle hides, and slaves. The kingdom’s weavers, who made the renowned Kongo raffia fabrics, potters, and metalworkers, did not only import goods but also produced their own.
The Kongo kingdom was highly centralized, with a single monarch known as the nkani selecting regional governors across his domain. These governors in turn nominated regional leaders and procured tribute from regional chiefs, including ivory, millet, palm wine, and leopard and lion skins, which they then delivered to the monarch at Mbanza Kongo, the capital of the Kongo.
Governance
There was no line of succession to the throne among the Bakongo, therefore any Mukongo (a citizen of the Kongo kingdom) may run for and be elected king. There were a total of 12 provinces in the kingdom, each of which was governed by a governor appointed by the monarch. The provinces were Soyo, Ngoyo, Kakono, Loango, Mpumbu, Matamba, Ndongo, Nsundi, Mbamba, Mpemba, Mpangu, and Mbata.
The kingdom provided positions to each of the 12 finalists for the throne. All twelve nominees were promised a noble title, including Mani—a term for a monarch or other person in a position of authority— or Ne.
“The title Mani or Ne was either followed by the name of the candidate’s district, province, or function for those who held positions in the royal court. For instance, Ne Mampandu was the Ne of Mampandu,” Bayeck writes.
Decline of Kongo Kingdom
Around the sixteenth century CE, the Portuguese, frustrated by Kongo’s trade laws, shifted their focus south to the region of Ndongo, hastening the decline of the kingdom, as stated by worldhistory.org. Ndongo’s army had already defeated Kongo’s in 1556 CE, the platform added. Also, popular unrest was brewing against the Kongo rulers as the populace hated the fact that they were being taxed so much by an aristocracy eager to purchase imported luxury items.
What’s more, as the number of European traders in the region grew, particularly after the arrival of the Dutch in the early 17th century, it became problematic for the king to maintain the loyalty of the regional governors, leading to Kongo’s drastic power decline.
Coolio may be gone, but he’ll continue to remain close to his family and loved ones in a very personal way.
According to Daily Mail, a representative said the cremated ashes of the Gangsta’s Paradise rapper will be placed in jewelry for his ten children and loved ones.
As reported by Face2Face Africa the 59-year-old passed away at a friend’s Los Angeles home on September 28. TMZ also reported this week that he has since been cremated.
And besides keeping his cremated remains in an urn, portions of his ashes will be encased in pendants that will be given to his children and loved ones.
The pendants will come with necklaces, and the deceased rapper’s children will have the opportunity to customize the jewelry with inscriptions.
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Coolio had four children with his ex-wife, Josefa Salinas. He shared the other six children with different women. And prior to this death, the Grammy winner was dating his long-time girlfriend Mimi Ivey.
In an interview with Daily Mail, Ivey described her reaction when she was informed about her partner’s passing.
“I just remember all of the air and life coming out of my body,” she recalled. “I was outside, getting ready to take my son to football practice. All I remember was dropping to my knees. I collapsed.”
Real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr., Coolio was born in Pennsylvania on August 1, 1963. He relocated to Compton, California, where he became a member of the WC and the Maad Circle rap group in 1991. The deceased rapper rose to fame in the 90s with his Gangsta’s Paradise single. The 1995 hit song was the soundtrack for the Dangerous Minds film, and it took the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, per Variety. The song also earned the rapper a Grammy award for best rap solo performance.
Coolio also released several albums including his debut album It Takes a Thief, Gangsta’s Paradise, and My Soul. Outside music, the 59-year-old also featured in several movies and TV shows including Martin, Batman & Robin, Tyrone, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Futurama, and Charmed.
Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission has ordered broadcastersto take swift action to ensure they don’t transmit any recorded material that encourages and/or glorifies unlawful activity, Loop Jamaica reported.
The Caribbean nation’s Broadcasting Commission oversees radio, television, and cable services on the island. In a news release, the Commission said broadcasters should immediately stop transmitting “any audio or video recording, live song, or speech which promotes and/or glorifies scamming, illegal use or abuse of drugs (for example ‘Molly’), illegal or harmful use of guns or other offensive weapons, ‘jungle justice’ or any other form of illegal or criminal activity.”
The Commission also ordered broadcasters to stop airing “any edited song which directly or indirectly promotes scamming, illegal drugs, illegal or harmful use of guns or other offensive weapons, jungle justice, or any form of illegal or criminal activity.”
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The regulatory body said that includes “live editing and original edits (eg edits by producer/label) as well as the use of near-sounding words as substitutes for offensive lyrics, expletives, or profanities.”
“To be clear, the broadcast of a sampling of any song which promotes or glorifies scamming, illegal drugs, illegal or harmful use of guns, or other offensive weapons, ‘jungle justice’ or any other form of illegal or criminal behaviour is strictly prohibited,” the Commission added.
The Commission said the directive was issued in an effort to reaffirm its commitment to ensuring such content isn’t transmitted on the Caribbean nation’s airwaves.
“The use of the public airwaves to broadcast songs that promote/glorify illegal activity could give the wrong impression that criminality is an accepted feature of Jamaican culture and society,” the commission said in the release.
“It could also unwittingly lend support to moral disengagement and further normalise criminality among vulnerable and impressionable youth, and the young adult demographic.”
Cordel Green, who is the executive director of the Commission, said the directive was given after the regulatory body scrutinized certain expressions.
“Part of the difficulty in dealing with music, especially that which emerges from a subculture, is that it takes time to identify, understand and verify the slangs and colloquial language used. Understandably, new street lingua may take some time before they are normalised, or their meanings become well entrenched,” Green said, per Loop Jamaica.
“The Commission also has to be circumspect in its actions, knowing that regulatory attention can have the unintended consequence of giving exposure to and popularising subcultural phenomenon.”
Green also said that while there shouldn’t be an issue with regard to the right to freedom of expression in content regulation, any audio or visual material that encourages illegal activities does not go in line with the principles of responsible broadcasting.
Samira Mohammed Ibn Moro has become the first-ever DAC Scholarship recipient to St Antony’s at Oxford university. The St Antony’s DAC Scholarship, established by the Governing Board of Oxford University in October 2021, aims to help undergraduate students in nations that receive development assistance (as identified by the OECD) reach their academic potential, regardless of their upbringing or financial situation.
Samira, who was raised in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region of Ghana, is adamant that outdated cultural customs be changed so that the region can advance. An advocate for women’s rights, Samira says earning an MSc in African Studies at Oxford University would help her gain a deeper understanding of the various aspects that are unique to the African continent and offer a comprehensive, practical solution to gender inequality and other significant cultural problems in Africa.
Samira earned First-Class honors and was the top graduating journalism student from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in April 2022. (Top-up option). After receiving her MSc, she wants to continue working as a journalist for the people of Ghana while also pursuing a doctorate in African studies.
Samira speaks about the scholarship and what it means to her in this interview with Face2Face Africa:
Can you give a brief introduction about your background?
My name is Samira Mohammed Ibn Moro. I was born in Bolgatanga in the upper east region. It all started in Bolgatanga for me because I started my education there and I moved to Accra when I was in class three. This particular move wasn’t easy moving from a public school to a private school. This shift for me wasn’t easy because I was bullied, I had issues with my spelling in class and so at a point, I had to repeat the class. A teacher took a special interest in me and helped me academically and since then I haven’t looked back.
You studied journalism at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. What informed that decision?
My passion drove me to GIJ. I believe the media is a strong tool for change and I’m a development enthusiast as well. GIJ offers most of these courses. So I decided to come to GIJ because I want to be a journalist and not just that, I like the combination of communication studies and this was in sync with my long-term plan, I decided to come to GIJ.
What motivates you?
First of all, my late father. I lost him when I was fourteen and as the only child, there was this responsibility bestowed on me to ensure that his name doesn’t die. And as a girl child, I have to do it two or three times to stay relevant. So I add my dream and my late father’s dream as motivating factors. He keeps me moving
Can you take me through the entire process and challenges you faced while trying to acquire this scholarship?
I was asked to send my transcripts and a couple of materials. I think a lot of people applied but by God’s grace, I got it. I put in a lot of hard work I must say, knowing I didn’t want to have my masters in Ghana, it had always been in my plan.
What are you going to study at Oxford university?
I am going to offer a master of science in African Studies
Why African studies?
It is because I’m African first before I’m Ghanaian, it is important to understand the various dynamics that hold the African continent together. Also, it feeds into my long-term passion for academia.
What does this win mean to you? Being the first recipient ever to get it.
Sometimes I still can’t believe it, it means a lot to me.
What’s the plan after completing your MSc?
I look forward to getting a doctorate after my MSc.
What do you have to say to women who are reading this and are motivated by your achievements?
Everyone should follow their dreams, nothing is impossible, and big things can happen from little things, don’t despise little beginnings.
Tre’shawn Pittard is an 11-year-old who has taken an unorthodox path to achieve his dream as an entrepreneur.
For an 11-year-old, it is fair to say that running a lawn care business is a tedious job but Pittard is enjoying it while it lasts.
A student at Riverside Elementary School in north Toledo, Pittard’s work begins as soon as the bell rings for a break or leisure time. For the last couple of years, he has been cutting grass in his mother’s yard and that of some neighbors, according to WTOL.
He got into mowing by simply asking questions, typically of young kids. “I had started when I was in the house and I asked my mom’s boyfriend, ‘could I cut grass?’” Pittard said. “He said yes.”
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He was given the mower to cut the grass and it was smooth sailing for him. He enjoyed what he did, adding that it lets him focus on nothing but his singular goal.
“I just have to get this yard perfect,” he said about his experience cutting grass. What started from a simple question soon became a passion. He mowed the lawns of people he had never met and from there, he turned it into a business.
“I start with the front and then go slowly to the back,” Pittard said of his lawn-mowing process.
Ambitious and intelligent as he is, Pittard decided to rebrand his services and one of the first things he did was to take his business to the big leagues and also made professional business cards at the nearby LaGrange Branch Library to spread the word of his services.
“We were thrilled,” library spokesperson Kelsey Rader said. “We want people to know about our resources, we want them to come in and use them. We were so happy he was doing it in such a positive way too.”
According to Pittard, when he first posted his services on Facebook, he had only 7 requests but this has now gone up by 11 to 12.
The sun doesn’t always shine, Pittard is aware of this fact. In relation to this, he is already making arrangements to welcome the snow.
Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures has backed a Nigerian financial data and insights company called Stears to raise $3.3 million in a seed round. The investment falls in line with her post-retirement plan after she quit tennis last month.
The seed round was led by MaC Venture Capital with the participation of Melo 7 Tech Partners, Omidyar Group’s Luminate Fund, Cascador, and Hoaq Club.
“One of the reasons I invested in Stears is not because of my love and appreciation for Africa, but because Stears has strategically thought of how to increase the investment community on the continent,” she was quoted by Bloomberg.
“Better and more transparent business and financial data is expected to lead to more investment on the African continent. Stears has shown a deep appreciation of the complexities involved in solving this problem for globalprofessionals. Through a combination of technology and data, Stears is well placed to leverage the massive data opportunity on the continent,” she added.
The startup was founded in 2017 by Preston Ideh, Abdul Abdulrahim, Foluso Ogunlana, and Michael Famoroti. They met at the London School of Economics and Imperial College in the UK.
The startup offers subscription-based data and insight to businesses and professionals. According to the founders, they established the company because of challenges in getting data-driven insights on the African continent. The company focuses primarily on Nigeria.
According to Bloomberg, Stears is a rare subscription success story in a country where subscription services are quite low. The company said its user base has grown at around 6.5% month-on-month.
“Enterprise customers make up more than 75% of revenue, up from 45% in 2021. The company said its revenue in the first half of 2022 surpassed that for all of 2021,” Bloomberg reported.
Premium Times Nigeria reports that the company plans to use the seed round to enhance its data collection and analytics capabilities, talent acquisition and expansion to East and Southern Africa.
“We know global professionals need our data and insight because banks, research firms, development organizations, and investors are already using our early products. Our customers tell us we are building a ‘systemically important’ company to address Africa’s data problem,” co-founder Ideh said about the funding round.
“Globally, information providers like Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters have built data powerhouses, which act as information gateways to Western markets. We are executing an African version of this model, focused on the often missing, outdated, or poorly digitized African datasets needed by operators, finance and policy professionals, researchers, and even regulators,” he added.
Last month, Stears was among 60 startups that got accepted into the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund 2022 cohort.
Twins appear to be unusually abundant in Nigeria’s southwestern city of Igbo-Ora.
Nearly every family here has twins or other multiple births, says local chief Jimoh Titiloye.
For the past 12 years, the community has organized an annual festival to celebrate twins. This year’s event, held earlier this month, included more than 1,000 pairs of twins and drew participants from as far away as France, organizers said.
There is no proven scientific explanation for the high rate of twins in Igbo-Ora, a city of at least 200,000 people 135 kilometers (83 miles) south of Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos.
But many in Igbo-Ora believe it can be traced to women’s diets. Alake Olawunmi, a mother of twins, attributes it to a local delicacy called amala which is made from yam flour.
John Ofem, a gynaecologist based in the capital, Abuja, says it very well could be “that there are things they eat there that have a high level of certain hormones that now result in what we call multiple ovulation.”
While that could explain the higher-than-normal rate of fraternal twins in Igbo-Ora, the city also has a significant number of identical twins.
Those result instead from a single fertilized egg that divides into two — not because of hyperovulation.
Taiwo Ojeniyi, a Nigerian student, said he attended the festival with his twin brother “to celebrate the uniqueness” of multiple births.
“We cherish twins while in some parts of the world, they condemn twins,” he said. “It is a blessing from God.”
Kenya on Thursday denied it had defaulted on interest repayments on a loan advanced by China for the construction of a railway line from the port city of Mombasa that opened in 2017.
The $5 billion project, financed 90 percent by China, replaced the so-called “Lunatic Express” — a line built more than a century ago by colonial power Britain which was notorious for lengthy delays and breakdowns.
Kenya’s Business Daily reported that the government failed to repay interest on the loan in the financial year ended June, attracting a fine of 1.312 billion Kenyan shillings ($10.8 million).
But Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani rejected the report as “misinformation”, saying the financial position of the East African economic powerhouse was “sound and robust”.
Currently snaking from Mombasa via the capital Nairobi to the Rift Valley town of Naivasha, it is planned to eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi and Ethiopia.
The railway was to be managed by the Chinese contractor for five years before being handed over to the Kenyan government.
But it has posted losses, with analysts worrying the trend could continue after newly elected President William Ruto last month reversed a policy that made it mandatory for cargo to use the railway.
China is Kenya’s second-largest lender after the World Bank and has funded a number of costly infrastructure projects that have raised concerns about Nairobi taking on more debt than it can afford.
The country’s public debt load in June stood at 8.6 trillion shillings ($71.1 billion), an 11.5 percent rise from a year earlier, according to government figures.
Loan interest repayments have however shot up in recent months as the value of the shilling rapidly loses ground against international currencies, trading at 121 to the dollar on Thursday.
Yatani said there was no cause for alarm as the country frequently undergoes independent sovereign rating reviews which are published widely.
“At no time has Kenya been flagged as a country defaulting on its external debt obligations,” he added.
A Nigerianseparatist leader accused of terrorism and instigating violence in the country’s southeast was acquitted Thursday by a local court, his lawyer told The Associated Press.
The Nigerian Court of Appeal dismissed the government-filed charges against Nnamdi Kanu in Abuja, the nation’s capital, after a jury faulted the legality of the case against him, according to Ifeanyi Ejiofor, his lawyer. Kanu is yet to be released from custody.
The Indigenous People of Biafra separatist group that Kanu leads has been pressing for the southeast region to break away from the West African nation and become independent. But the Nigerian government said he uses the group known as IPOB to instigate violence, leading to the deaths of many in the country’s southeast.
Kanu had been facing trial for alleged treason and terrorism but escaped Nigeria in 2017 while on bail. He was rearrested in June last year and brought back to Nigeria from an undisclosed country.
The separatist leader, who also holds British citizenship, pleaded not guilty at the resumption of his trial which his group has said is being used to stifle his secessionist campaign. The campaign reminds many of the short-lived Republic of Biafra that fought and lost a civil war from 1967 to 1970 to become independent from Nigeria. An estimated 1 million people died in the war, many of starvation.
After he was acquitted, Emma Powerful, a spokesman for the Biafra group, told the AP, “Our next target is to ensure that Biafra liberation is materialized and no human being can stop it.”
Kanu’s trial reechoed allegations of marginalization in Nigeria’s southeast region made up of the Igbos, Nigeria’s third-largest ethnic group who are mainly Christians. Nigeria’s more than 200 million people are almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.
Amid the calls for a referendum, the IPOB secessionist group became more violent, authorities and experts have said. The formation of the Eastern Security Network, its paramilitary arm, in December 2020 coincided with a spike in criminal attacks in the region.
IPOB has also been outlawed as a terrorist organization by Nigerian authorities. Many of the group’s members have been arrested. A jailbreak in Imo state led to the escape of nearly 2,000 inmates earlier this year.
When reading the label of a beauty product, you may feel like you need a translator to figure out the laundry list of ingredients.
Even products with few ingredients may still have words you’ve never heard of. You may be unable to pronounce them, let alone understand what they do.
Then there’s marketing copy and social media, which speak of newly-trending ingredients that you (apparently) can’t live without. Hyaluronic acid, plant-based ceramides, and CBD are just some of the must-have ingredients that have popped up on feeds recently.
Of course, you can live without any beauty product, but can some of these ingredients actually make a difference in the health of your skin?
Get the scoop on what buzzwords live up to the hype and which you can skip below.
Mary Sommerlad, MD, is a London-based consultant dermatologist for Vichy. She describes skin care on social media as a double-edged sword.
“On the one hand, it’s fantastic to receive free information that’s easily accessible to a wide-ranging audience,” says Sommerlad. “However, the information gleaned is only as reliable and accurate as the person making the content.”
Sommerlad recommends getting skin care advice from verified dermatologists or skin care brands that work closely with skin care professionals.
She also advocates for treating your skin with compassion and respect.
For Sommerlad, being compassionate toward your skin means understanding “that skin is a reactive organ that reflects our general health and well-being … and that being patient is more effective long term rather than having expectations that skin concerns can resolve within a week or 2.”
Respecting the skin means avoiding habits that can damage the skin and lead to long-term problems, like sunbathing or harsh products and procedures.
“I’d like to see people treat their skin like any other organ,” says Sommerlad. “If there’s something that isn’t right … see a medically trained doctor to get a diagnosis.”
Morgana Colombo, MD, a board certified dermatologist and co-founder of Skintap, says it’s important to know which ingredients really matter.
Social media “creates the idea that people need so much to achieve results, and a lot of time less is more,” she says.
“Many people feel compelled to use every ingredient shown to be helpful for the skin, but that’s not necessary,” says Elaine Kung, MD, a clinical assistant professor at Weill-Cornell Medical College and dermatologist with Future Bright Skin. “In fact, one or several ingredients has the ability to help many skin concerns.”
Plus, your skin is unique.
“What you need should be targeted toward your skin,” Colombo says. All the hype “is dangerous because [it] makes younger people overdo things that aren’t beneficial or necessary for them.”
This knowledge can help you achieve better skin and save you money.
According to a Statista report, the global skin care market is estimated to be worth 189.3 billion U.S. dollars, or 160.9 British pounds sterling, by 2025.
With consumers investing this much in skin care, it’s important to get the most out of your dollar. To get that return on investment, you’ll need to decipher the ingredients on the label.
You’ll also want to consider:
how they’re used
the amount of certain ingredients in the product
what elements don’t mix well
Otherwise, products may be ineffective or cause adverse reactions.
When evaluating whether or not to recommend an ingredient to a patient, dermatologists use an array of criteria. Here’s how to think like a dermatologist when considering products and trendy ingredients.
Keep these four questions in mind:
Is it effective?
How do you apply it?
Does it penetrate the skin?
Is it tolerable for your skin?
Is it effective?
It should go without saying: You want your products to work. Your dermatologist does too.
“The number one thing that makes an ingredient matter to a dermatologist is, ‘Is it efficacious to achieving the end result?’” Colombo says.
If you’re trying to nix dryness, you don’t need to invest in retinoids designed to aid in acne and aging support if you don’t have these issues.
Kung and Colombo suggest looking to dermatologists and peer-reviewed studies rather than social media to pinpoint whether or not an ingredient is suitable for you.
Can it be applied topically?
Generally, Colombo suggests trying topicals — or products applied to the skin — before trying oral medications.
In some cases, oral medications may interact with other medications. For example, oral tranexamic acid can increase the risk of blood clots if taken with some types of birth control.
However, oral medication may be the best first-line treatment for some issues. For instance, it may prevent permanent scarring from acne.
Sometimes a combination of oral and topical treatments is the best route. Talk with your dermatologist to learn more about what treatment is right for you.
A 2019 studyTrusted Source suggested that topical application of peptides combined with oral supplementation helped improve skin qualities like elasticity.
Another 2019 studyTrusted Source indicated that oral supplementation helped with skin appearance, including firmness.
Does it penetrate the skin?
Colombo says that for some ingredients to be effective they need to penetrate the skin. Others, like the zinc in sunscreen, should stay on the skin’s surface to ward off as much of the sun’s rays as possible.
Colombo suggests you ensure a product’s ability to penetrate the skin — or not — aligns with your desired beauty goal.
Is it tolerable for your skin?
Colombo looks at potential side effects when evaluating a product.
“We don’t want [the ingredient] to cause a bigger problem,” Colombo says.
She also cautions that the answer to this question often varies by patient.
“Tolerability is going to have a lot to do with skin type,” Colombo says. “Some people have more sensitive skin. Some people have more resistant skin.”
For example, not everyone who uses retinoids experiences dryness. Those who do may be able to combat it with a moisturizing regimen. Others may want to avoid them altogether.
Allergies also play a role. For example, some people may be allergic to fragrances in products, according to the National Health Service (NHS).
Trends may come and go, but Kung and Colombo say these ingredients have earned their place as mainstays in skin care.
Azelaic acid
Colombo says azelaic acid has anti-inflammatory properties that make it an effective treatment for acne and rosacea.
A 2020 review of acne treatmentsTrusted Source indicated this ingredient was not as effective as benzoyl peroxide, but about as effective as tretinoin when treating acne.
A 2022 reviewTrusted Source suggested azelaic acid was effective in rosacea treatment. It also indicated that off-label use of the ingredient helped with acne.
Colombo says products containing 15 percent azelaic acid need a prescription, but those with 10 percent or less are often available over the counter.
Zinc
Kung says zinc’s anti-inflammatory properties make it an effective ingredient for treating:
acne
rosacea
eczema
According to the NHS, zinc can help speed up wound healing. Kung also notes that zinc oxide is a common ingredient in sunscreen.
A 2018 studyTrusted Source suggested topical zinc was a promising low cost alternative to acne treatments like retinoids, and a 2014 reviewTrusted Source indicated topical and oral zinc could help treat rosacea and eczema.
A 2021 studyTrusted Source of zebrafish suggested topical zinc oxide becomes toxic and loses effectiveness in protecting the sun’s rays after 2 hours of UV radiation exposure. Researchers called for care when formulating sunscreen with zinc oxide.
Before taking oral zinc, speak with a physician to ensure appropriate dosing.
Ascorbyl palmitate
Kung explains that this ingredient is a form of vitamin C. It’s used in skin care products to help:
protect against free radical damage
support collagen production
reduce hyperpigmentation
An older study from 2013Trusted Source supported the idea that ascorbyl palmitate decreased free radicals on the skin.
A 2017 studyTrusted Source suggested that topical use of vitamin C had anti-aging (or as we like to say “pro-aging”) effects.
Vitamin E & C
Kung says vitamin E is a potent antioxidant that can protect the skin cells from free radical damage and strengthen the skin’s barrier.
It’s found in foods, like spinach and broccoli, as well as supplements and topical creams and serums.
A 2016 review of vitamin E applications in dermatology indicated that topical uses of vitamins E and C in pharmaceuticals are often ineffective. In certain situations, however, vitamin E can combine with vitamin C to reduce skin cancer risks and sun damage.
Kung agrees that vitamins C and E can effectively team up to protect the skin. She adds that zinc oxide, niacinamide, vitamin C, and vitamin E work well together in sunscreens.
Individuals should always speak with a health care professional before taking supplements. Too much vitamin E obtained by supplements may lead to a small but increased chance of prostate cancer in men, according to one 2014 studyTrusted Source.
Retinol and retinoids
Retinol is an over-the-counter form of vitamin A, Kung explains. Retinoids, on the other hand, may need to be prescribed by a physician or dermatologist. However, Differin gel is one retinoid available over the counter.
Kung says they are often used for:
wrinkle prevention
smoothing fine lines
acne treatment
A 2017 reviewTrusted Source indicated support for using topical retinol in acne treatment, partly for its anti-inflammatory benefits.
A 2016 studyTrusted Source suggested retinols have “anti-aging” benefits.
Kung says retinols and retinoids work to treat acne by exfoliating the skin at the cellular level.
Peptides
Kung recommends peptides to patients seeking to slow down the visible signs of aging. These amino acids support collagen and elastin and can help achieve firmer skin.
A 2020 clinical studyTrusted Source of 22 Asian individuals indicated that using peptides topically for 2 weeks may help reduce wrinkles.
Kung says using peptides and retinol together is generally safe and effective.
Niacinamide
Better known as vitamin B-3, Kung says niacinamide can:
reduce redness
act as an anti-inflammatory
treat acne
brighten the skin
reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
provide UV protection
A 2021 reviewTrusted Source suggested niacinamide could help with a number of skin concerns, including:
signs of aging
psoriasis
hyperpigmentation
the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer
Green tea extract
Colombo says social media is right about this trendy antioxidant. She notes that green tea extract can:
soothe the skin
lessen free-radical and sun damage
help with rosacea
A 2019 reviewTrusted Source suggested green tea extract had anti-aging benefits and could protect against harmful effects of UV radiation.
Ceramides
Though Kung explains the body naturally produces the fatty acid known as ceramides, she says it’s useful in beauty products too. Ceramides may moisturize the skin and offer protection from environmental factors, like pollutants and extreme weather.
A 2020 study of individuals with eczema indicated that a cream or lotion with ceramides could relieve dryness and hydrate the skin after one topical application.
Hyaluronic acid
Sommerlad says this buzzy ingredient lives up to the hype by providing hydration.
“I recommend hyaluronic acid (HA) as it really helps keep the skin well hydrated which is key to a healthy skin barrier,” she says.
Kung says it can also help the skin appear plumper.
Why? Kung explains that hyaluronic acid traps water to the skin and attaches to collagen.
The body naturally produces HA to retain water to keep your tissues hydrated, but you can give your skin a boost by adding this ingredient to your routine too.
According to a 2021 study of 40 women ages 30 to 65 with signs of photoaging, HA was effective at improving:
smoothness
plumping
hydration
fine lines
wrinkles
It’s also known to help with wound healing, as noted by a 2022 review.
According to Kung, HA also works well with retinol.
Kojic acid
Colombo recommends kojic acid to patients who want to improve hyperpigmentation.
Kojic acid “inhibits melanin production, so it’s good for hyperpigmentation,” she says. Colombo notes that kojic acid is particularly beneficial to those sensitive to hydroquinone.
A 2019 study indicated that kojic acid was an effective treatment for hyperpigmentation when used in creams and lotions and could provide UV protection.
Tranexamic acid
Like kojic acid, Colombo says this ingredient can aid in treating hyperpigmentation. She says it’s also effective when used in combination with hydroquinone.
A 2019 studyTrusted Source suggested that tranexamic acid and hydroquinone were about equally effective, but patients reported higher satisfaction and fewer side effects when using tranexamic acid.
Dermatologists say the ingredients you need depend on your skin type. Even some that are tried-and-true won’t work for everyone.
That said, some ingredients can generally be skipped altogether, including:
synthetic fragrances
synthetic color
propylene glycol
coconut oil (for face)
CBD oil
Perfume and fragrance
Artificially-scented products may make a product smell more appealing, but Kung says these items often cause irritation.
Added colors
Further, if a product is not clear, it probably contains coloring. This ingredient only serves to make the product look more attractive to the consumer but has no other value.
Propylene glycol
Propylene glycol is often used to extend shelf-life and prevent caking. It can be irritating, which may be why the Contact Dermatitis SocietyTrusted Source named it the 2018 Allergen of the Year.
Coconut oil on the face
Colombo warns that coconut oil clogs pores. While it may offer some benefits for the skin, it can also lead to breakouts on the face. It’s best to leave it as a body moisturizer, especially if you’re prone to acne.
CBD oil
Though CBD oil may reduce inflammation, Colombo says its use as an “anti-aging” tool is unproven and overstated.
Ingredient interaction is highly individual. “In certain skin types, certain combinations can lead to increased irritation,” Columbo says.
She often sees irritations in patients who combine retinols with ingredients like:
salicylic acid
glycolic acid
benzoyl peroxide
It’s best to avoid the sun if using retinol or applying it at night because of an increased burn risk.
But other times, patients do fine with these ingredients, particularly if used at different times.
Kung says that patients often note skin irritation after using an AHA or BHA cleanser with vitamin C and retinol.
“At a minimum, the AHA or BHA can ‘exfoliate’ the outer layer of the skin, causing more penetration of other [active ingredients],” Kung says. “Furthermore, the AHA or BHA products may even change the pH of the other skin care ingredient products, which will change their penetration.”
Kung suggests discussing skin care product combinations with a dermatologist and stopping use if you notice irritation.
There’s a ton of noise in the beauty industry, with new trending ingredients constantly popping up on social media and through other marketing avenues. But ingredients only scratch the surface of a product’s efficacy.
Dermatologists say it’s also essential to evaluate potential side effects, skin type, and whether the ingredient is most effective when applied topically or taken orally.
You can nix ingredients like synthetic fragrances, colors, and CBD oil from your regimen. Though they may enhance the smell and look of a product, items with these ingredients are more likely to cause allergic reactions.
Corned beef stew is best served with rice or yam or even plantain.
Ingredients
Tinned Corned beef
Pepper mix (a combination of blended 3 tomatoes, 1 red bell pepper, 1 onion and 2 scotch bonnet chillies)
Vegetable oil
Beef bouillon cube
Pinch of salt
Curry
Thyme
Parsley
1 small onion
1 green bell pepper
Method
Place a pan on medium heat, add vegetable oil, heat for about 2 minutes, add chopped onion and fry till translucent.
Add pepper mix, curry, thyme and parsley and cook for another 5-8 minutes
Add seasoning and chopped bell pepper to the sauce and stir till well combined, reduce the heat and stir in between to avoid the sauce burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook sauce till almost well done and oil floating on top.
Do not add salt to the sauce yet as corned beef is a bit salty on its own and the salt content might just be enough for the sauce.
Add corned beef chunks to the sauce, and leave for about 1 minute on low heat before stirring the sauce. Make sure the sauce is well combined with the corned beef. Check if you need to add salt, then either add or do not.
Reduce the heat and cook for another 2 minutes. Take it off the heat.
Women are always trying to understand the reasons why guys choose bad girls. In the end, they usually discover they wanted a good girl all along.
So why dating a bad girl, to begin with? While we may not like the reasons why guys choose bad girls, they do actually make sense.
Whether you consider yourself good or bad, these reasons might help you understand guys just a little better.
Bad seems hotter
One of the biggest reasons why guys choose bad girls is sex appeal. Honestly, which is hotter – the quiet good girl in the backgroundin jeans and a tee or the bad girl in the ripped jeans, tight tank and leather jacket flirting with all the guys? Guys think bad means hot. Sometimes it’s hard for them to look past it. It doesn’t mean you’re not attractive, but bad girls tend to stand out.
They’re more outgoing
The one thing I’ve always envied about bad girls is they really don’t seem to care what everyone thinks. While that’s not usually true, it does help them seem more confident and outgoing than most good girls. Guys love confidence. They also love extroverts. Don’t be afraid to show how confident and outgoing you are. Guys might just skip the bad girl for the good girl.
It’s an exciting risk
Good girls are sometimes a little predictable. They’ll be a nice girlfriend, but where’s the excitement? Guys are natural risk-takers. Bad girls are unpredictable. Guys have no idea whether they stand a chance or if the relationship will last. It’s like an extreme roller coaster ride. The thrill may only be temporary, but guys will risk it every time.
No thoughts of the future
While you might look for a guy based on how mature he is, most guys take the opposite approach. They aren’t thinking about the future. All they see is here and now. You might be great as a wife and mother, but a bad girl comes off as someone into having fun. Guys are often drawn to women who don’t seem like the future matters to them. It takes the pressure off and just lets them have fun.
It’s a challenge
Guys love challenges. Just look at how they act around their friends and you’ll instantly see how competitive they are. Bad girls offer a fun, unique challenge. They play hard to get and make guys really work for it. What guys don’t understand is good girls are usually harder to get. Still, bad girls seem like a bigger challenge, so they’re instantly more appealing.
They are rebels
Guys love rebellious girls. This is especially true during the teen and college years. What’s more exciting than a girl who shuns authority, skips classes, sneaks out and parties when they’re not supposed to? The answer of course is a good girl, but guys don’t see it that way. They like the rebellious spirit, even if it’s not what’s best for them. Give the guy some time to mature and he’ll soon see good is just as sexy
Not as intimidating
Bad girls often seem more like one of the guys. Good girls tend to be smart, mature and focused. Guys tend to find all of those traits a little intimidating. Plus, if you seem like you have your life in order, it doesn’t seem like you really need him. The bad girl looks like she needs to be tamed. To them, it’s a fun, exciting adventure instead of an intimidating wall they don’t understand.
Fewer strings
Until a guy is really ready to settle down, he’s not that interested in women who seem like the serious type. Good girls often come off as instantly ready to settle down and have a family, even if that couldn’t be further from the truth. The bad girl seems flighty and just as afraid of commitment as he is. To him, it’s the perfect match. Sadly, it’s a match that usually never lasts.
Wigs come in all different styles, types and brands, so choosing a wig can be both exciting and overwhelming.
Wigs simplify your everyday appearance without cutting, dying, or styling your natural hair. While the differences between human hair and synthetic wigs are significant, your choice comes down to preference and lifestyle.
Human hair wigs
A key difference between synthetic hair and human hair is that human hair wigs offer the most natural look and feel. The hair is soft and has a shine and movement that is hard to replicate synthetically.
Although one main difference between synthetic and human hair is the natural appearance of human hair wigs, synthetic hair wigs have come leaps and bounds in recent years. In some cases, the texture and denier almost feel like human hair
Understanding the basics of synthetic wigs vs human hair wigs is key to selecting the right wig for you. Let’s take a look at the difference between synthetic hair and human hair to help you to look out for the right things whilst wig shopping.
Costs
If you’re on a budget, synthetic wigs are a favourable choice. You can purchase multiple synthetic wigs for a lower price and play around with different looks daily. As for human hair wigs, they cost considerably more, but the quality is often worth the investment. You can find a wide range of prices in both categories.
Longevity
What makes human hair wigs more appealing than synthetic wigs is their lifespan. At the same time, human hair wigs can last up to a year or longer; synthetic wigs sometimes only last a few months, even with proper care. So, if you’re looking for a wig that lasts a long time, a human hair wig will be your best friend.
Maintenance
When choosing between synthetic and human hair wigs, the maintenance each requires should factor into your decision-making process. Human hair wigs require more care and maintenance, while synthetic wigs make for easy grooming and storage. All you need to do is carefully wash, dry, and shake it out. Its style memory will revive its natural shape.
Appearance
Another difference between synthetic and human hair wigs is their appearance. Synthetic wigs have a more noticeable appearance due to their unnatural high shine, texture, and often bright colours. However, time and use can give synthetic wigs a more natural appearance. As for human hair wigs, the hair often appears more natural right away, even if the hair goes through the dyeing process.
This recipe is easy to make and requires few ingredients.
Make this classic recipe by following these simple steps.
Ingredients
Sausages
4 skewers
4 cubes cheese
6 cherry tomatoes
Red onion, cut into squares
Bell pepper, cut into squares
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup barbecue sauce
Method
Soak skewers in water for 30-60 minutes so that they do not catch fire in the oven.
Cut the sausages into 4 equally sized pieces. Each skewer will need 4 sausage pieces, 2 tomatoes, 2 onion squares and 4 pieces of pepper.
Arrange the kebabs in this order per skewer: 2 pepper squares, 1 piece of sausage, 1 onion square, 1 cherry tomato, 1 piece of sausage, 2 pepper squares, 1 piece of sausage, 1 onion square, 1 cherry tomato and finish with 1 piece of sausage. Brush with olive oil.
Put the sausage kebabs in a baking dish and in the oven for 15-20 mins or until the veggies are soft and the sausage browns.
Brush barbecue sauce liberally over your kebabs and return to the oven and broil for 2-3 minutes.
Remove kebabs from the oven; thread a cheese cube onto the end of each kebab.
For several years, blond hair was attributed to Caucasians but the Melanesians of Solomon Islands are one of the few groups with blonde hair outside Europe.
Melanesians are black island people in the south pacific that migrated over thousands of years ago, long before the blacks that came to the Americas as slaves.
Melanesia is a sub-region of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia, including the countries of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Island, and New Caledonia. The name Melanesia was first used by Jules Dumont d’Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia.
Until recently, the indigenous melanesian peoplepractised cannibalism, head-hunting, kidnapping and slavery, just like the Asmat tribe, but with contact with Europeans, the population is now predominantly Christian. However, more than 90% lead rural lives.
Vaginal health is surrounded by a lot of myths and misconceptions.
Vaginal elasticity is one such common topic that is not talked about a lot and thus, it is surrounded by misconceptions.
The vagina is elastic and can stretch or shrink to accommodate in situations. Some events in your life like pregnancy affect your vaginal stretchability but like any other muscle, they are good at expanding and retracting. Nothing will cause your vagina to become ‘loose’ permanently.
Can the vagina get loose from having too much sex?
It is important to note frequent sex or lack of it will not cause it to change. It’s a myth many people believe that too much sex can result in a loose vagina.
Many women face the issue of vaginal dryness, this can also be solved through vaginal tightening.
Experts say that vaginal tightening decreases friction during intercourse and reduces any pain.
If you want to take certain steps to tighten and strengthen your vaginal muscles, there is nothing better than exercise. Some exercises specifically help with it. Find them below:
Squats
Doing squats a great way to tone your pelvic area and tighten your vaginal muscles. To do this, you have to stand with stretched legs and hips turned out, then lower yourself as if sitting on a bench. Repeat this procedure several times. What’s more? It can also give you a rounder butt. You can also perform squats with weights (dumbbells) in your hands.
Legs up exercise
Raise your legs against the wall. It is an excellent exercise to tighten up the vagina and develop pelvic muscle strength. You can perform this exercise in the morning before leaving your bed.
Yoga
The contraction and expansion of the pelvic floor muscles are assisted by yoga. This will help your vagina healthy. Yoga poses that include the pelvis can also help in tightening the vagina.
Kegel exercises
The pelvic floor supports the uterus, bladder, small intestine and rectum and kegel exercises are used to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. To engage in Kegel exercises, you need to first identify pelvic floor muscles. Kegels involve clenching and releasing these muscles to build strength which aids in vaginal tightening.
The Afro-Brazilian community, Little Africa, is home to thousands of Africans, but, it is a region where its Black heritage continues to suffer an onslaught from the local authorities. Some historians have traced it to attempts initiated by colonial authorities to shift the Black history of the enslaved who have made Rio de Janeiro port city their home to the back burner.
But, folktales of Little Africa have been used in poems, music, and cultural narratives, with the site attaining UNESCO status, according to rioonwatch.org. Known traditionally as Peda Sal Dol in Portuguese which literally means large and salt, the community inhabitants of African descent feel they are not in bondage. That is why they call the city Little Africa.
In the early 1800s, the region was popular in trading activities in salt because the stones on the beach played a significant role in crystallizing the salt. But, over the years, the story of the region changed when the presence of enslaved Africans made it a hub of their survival when slavery was outlawed in Brazil in 1831. The slaves earned their keep working in Little Africa and it became a safe refuge for freed Africans from Bahia.
The enslaved Africans entertained all and with time Little Africa became a community on its own. Despite the huge presence of the African community in Brazil, there are concerns there are attempts by the authorities to overshadow their identity and culture. Historians argue that despite recent renovations of the port city through the Porto Maravilha project and the African Heritage Circuit, the presence and role of enslaved descendants were subtly buried.
In 2005, Little Africa was recognized as a city endowed with a rich African heritage and acknowledged as the home of samba. This linkage was drawn because Little Africa is known for popularising samba and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Despite attempts to dim the African heritage, the people of Little Africa have been preserving their culture through oral tradition and their music, according to Riotur.
It is a region with a high Black population and recognized by London’s TimeOut magazine as one of the nice places for tourists to visit with lively pubs and serene beaches.
The history of Pedra do Sal is largely linked to the transatlantic slave trade where many slaves were transported to the region to work in the plantations. Little Africa is also home to monuments representing the slave past of Brazil and rich Afro-Brazilian culture, history, handicrafts, and food. The city virtually thrives on its colonial past and customs passed on from generation to generation.
Eighteen African countries abstained from voting for or against a United Nations resolution that condemned Russia over its illegal annexation of four Ukrainian territories.
Four others did not cast a vote at all meaning as many as 32 African countries voted in favour of the resolution that garnered 143 YES votes, 5 NO votes and 35 ABSTENTIONS.
A UN statement on the vote read: “The results were 143 Member States in favour, with five voting against, and 35 abstentions. The countries who voted against were Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Russia and Syria.
“A majority of those countries abstaining were African nations, alongside China and India.
“The resolution “defending the principles” of the UN Charter, notes that the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia are temporarily occupied by Russia as a result of aggression, violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence,” it added.
The quartet that did not vote at all were, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome e Principe.
“Black Adam”, the first-ever feature film to explore the story of DC antihero Teth Adam is coming to the big screen featuring Dwayne Johnson and other Hollywood big names.
The 2 hour-9-minute film tells the story of a slave gifted with almighty powersthat he uses for vengeance. Imprisoned for 5,000 years he is freed and wields his dark sense of justice onto the world.
At the world premiere in Times Square Wednesday, lead actor and co-producer Johnson was happy looking how far he’s come.
“When I saw my first Black Adam comic and he was intense, he looked bad ass, he looked cool. And he had brown skin. And then I start to realize he has all the powers of Superman. And he looks like me”, Johnson revealed.
“That’s why I was important to me. So I fought for this thing. And ten, 15 years ago, the studio had said, Hey, are there any other superheroes that you’re interested in playing? Because Black Adam, depending on your interpretation, was a secondary character. I said, No, it’s always got to be Black Adam. I fought for 15 years. Here we are.”
Revered material source
Former James Bond Pierce Brosnan enjoyed his time as a modern superhero.
“There’s such a wealth of stories there. I’ve stood in the in the wings of wonderment, wondering if I would ever be asked to play in a movie, to be a superhero. Because I grew up on comics. Batman was the dude that I loved…..”
The 2 hour-9-minute film is based on characters from DC comics created by Parker and Beck. A source material revered by cast members.
“This film was made by fans for the fans. This film was made with the passion and the respect of what that source material is”, actor Aldis Hodge said.
“For me, it was really a monumental moment of being able to step into my own and really fully form a character, but also really realize my dreams in terms of what this looks like as an actor. This is the grandest stage I’ve ever been on with the greatest cast. It’s amazing!”, he exclaimed.
“Because we put our heart, literally blood, sweat and tears into this”, Hodge concluded.
“Black Adam” lands in South Africa on 21 October 2022 as well as in the U.S. and U.K. theaters.
The Black Adam Theme (from “Black Adam”) by highly respected Grammy Award-winning and Emmy-nominated composer Lorne Balfe (“Mission Impossible: Fallout,” “The Lego Batman Movie,” “Black Widow”).
Tens of thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in Fatima, Portugal for the traditional pilgrimage.
But this year, their prayers and thoughts are also with the Portuguese Catholic church which has been in the spotlight due to cases of alleged sexual abuse but also possible cover-up maneuvers.
One of the clerics targeted has been Bishop José Ornelas, a senior official who has been named in investigations involving alleged cover-ups of sex abuse by priests. Earlier in the day Ornelas said his conscience was clear.
The head of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference denied any wrongdoing or improper conduct in the cases dating from 2011 and 2014. Ornelas also presides over Portugal’s world-famous shrine at Fatima.
“I’m not worried,” Ornelas said of the investigations. But he conceded about what happened years ago that “these kinds of cases are handled differently now.”
He didn’t elaborate. Ornelas, authorities recently revealed, is being investigated by Portugal’s attorney general’s office on suspicion he covered up for abuser priests in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony. He also faces accusations he covered up for an abusive priest in northern Portugal several years later.
“There was no cover-up” in those cases, Ornelas told a televised press conference in Fatima, 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Lisbon, the capital. Ornelas said he took “appropriate measures” at the time. He said he did not want to comment at length on the cases because “it’s time for justice to take its course.”
Scandals over alleged child sex abuses in the Portuguese church have been swirling for months.
A lay committee looking into historic child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church said Tuesday the problem in the past had been “widespread” and on some occasions reached “truly endemic” proportions.
The panel has compiled a list of 424 alleged victims. Before the committee started its work in January, senior church officials had claimed that only a handful of cases had occurred. Ornelas acknowledged that the victims found by the committee so far represent “a big number.”
He urged other victims to come forward and speak to the committee, which the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference created. The lay committee aims to provide a voice and dignity to the victims and “ensure that something that never should have happened, never happens again,” he said.
Masked and helmeted Chinese and Nigerian workers hoist giant steel pipes over mounds of earth. Farther away, smoke billows from blowtorches. Camouflaged in the millet fields, heavily armed soldiers are on the lookout.
In Gaya, in southwestern Niger, near Benin, the largest oil pipeline in Africa is taking shape. Nearly 2,000 km long – 1,250 km of which is in Niger – the pipeline is to link the oil wells of the Agadem field in the far east, the scene of deadly jihadist incursions, to the Beninese port of Sèmè, from where Nigerien crude will be evacuated for the first time.
With a modest production of 20,000 barrels per day, Niger, one of the poorest states in the world, became an oil producer in 2011.
The black gold extracted by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is so far transported by pipelines to Zinder (south-central Niger), where it is refined.
Initially, Niger had planned to evacuate its crude through the Cameroonian port of Kribi via neighboring Chad, before opting for the Benin corridor.
Launched in 2019, the project was supposed to be completed in 2022, but the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed it down, Nafiou Issaka, the deputy general manager of the West African Oil Pipeline Company (Wapco), the project owner, told AFP.
Wapco, a subsidiary of CNPC, is now working hard: more than 600 km of pipes have already been laid, “i.e. a 51.5% completion rate”, and Niger could sell its crude on the international market in “October or November 2023”, he hopes.
More than 700 soldiers are deployed to ensure “permanent security” of the work even if a large part of the areas it crosses is so far spared from jihadist violence, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
With the continued collapse of revenues from uranium, of which Niger is a major producer, the country is counting on black gold to boost its budget, much of which is being injected into the fight against jihadist groups in the southeast and west.
“Six billion dollars will be invested in the construction of this pipeline. It is the biggest investment of Niger (a former French colony) since its independence (in 1960),” observes Kabirou Zakari, the director of Hydrocarbons at the Nigerien Ministry of Oil.
Smuggling” from Nigeria
By 2023, oil production will be increased to 110,000 barrels per day, of which 90,000 barrels will be exported, he said.
Oil will thus “generate a quarter of the country’s GDP” (more than 13.6 billion dollars in 2020 according to the World Bank) and “about 50% of Niger’s tax revenue”, compared to 4% and 19% respectively at present, notes Mr. Zakari.
According to him, Niger’s reserves “are around two billion barrels”. And according to official projections, Niger will produce 200,000 barrels per day in 2026 and 500,000 barrels in 2030.
Sonatrach, the Algerian state-owned oil group, announced that it had made an “encouraging discovery” of oil in Kafra (north), a vast area of 23,737 km2 near the border with Algeria, which adjoins the Algerian oil basin of Tafassasset, also operated by Sonatrach.
The British company Savannah Petroleum claims to have discovered new deposits in Agadem, where the Chinese already operate.
Despite local production, the black market in hydrocarbons is flourishing in Niamey and the major cities.
According to Nigerien customs, this market “is regularly supplied by networks from neighboring Nigeria” and giant oil producer.
On the black market, a liter of gasoline costs 300 CFA francs (0.4 euros) compared to 540 CFA francs (0.8 euros) at the pump, a rate “considered expensive” by the unions.
On Tuesday, Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, denounced the extent of “fuel smuggling” from neighboring Nigeria, which has become a source of “supplies for terrorists” via the “Niger River (in dugout canoes) and on motorcycles” to Mali.
“We must find a good answer” to cut off “the terrorists” from this source of “fuel supplies”, urged the Nigerien president, who was speaking to security forces in Dosso, the large southwestern city near Nigeria.
African health ministers attending a high-level meeting following the Ebola outbreak in Uganda want two regional health bodies to set up an Africa Ebola co-ordination task force.
They said this would oversee preparedness and response to the current outbreak as well as other epidemics in the continent.
The latest Ebola outbreak has so far killed 19 people in Uganda, including four health workers. The virus has now spread to five districts.
Acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, Ahmed Ogwell, says Africa needs to stop seeking international assistance, as it is on its own during pandemics.
“This is not the first outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebolavirus here in Africa and particularly here in Uganda,” he told the gathering in the Ugandan capital, Kampala
“As Africa, we must now do things differently, appreciating that for the most time we will be on our own. Knowing that we are on our own, though, needs to motivate us so that we can do things on our own but not alone,” he added.
Plans are under way to test two vaccines in a small group of people who had contact with Ebola patients.
The Africa CDC says the continent is dealing with 11 different public health outbreaks. They are monkeypox, cholera, flooding, influenza, lassa fever, measles, yellow fever, hepatitis E, and the Crimean – Congo haemorrhagic fever.
