A 50-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene in Edale Avenue, Moston, at around 12:10 today afternoon, according to Greater Manchester Police.
According to the police, the woman’s relations have been notified, and they are still conducting inquiries.
Emergency services are still present at the scene, where police have cordoned off a section of the road and closed a portion of it.
A cordon is still in place around the house.
An air ambulance was seen landing in the nearby area, whilst CSI teams conducted searches within the cordon.
In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said: ‘At around 12.10pm today (Thursday 20 July 2023), police were called to a reports of a fire at an address on Edale Ave, Moston.
‘Emergency services attended and sadly a 50-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘Her next-of-kin has been informed and enquiries are ongoing at this stage.
It has been reported that pieces of a dismembered body were discovered at a waste management facility in Greece.
The head of a man was discovered in a blue plastic bag by the Dedisa staff, who work in the suburbs of Chania on the northwest coast of the island of Crete.
According to zarpanews.gr, a set of legs were also extracted from a second bag on Tuesday after further scrutiny.
It is understood the rubbish truck carrying the remains had arrived in Chania from Rethymno, another city in Crete.
According to the medical examiner called to the scene, the skull belongs to a man of Asian descent who had been dead for about 10 days.
An investigation into his death has been launched while the area around the plant has been cordoned off.
DEDISA general manager Kostas Paterakis stressed the workers have been left in a state of ‘shock’.
He said: ‘I was informed by the shift supervisor that a human dismembered corpse was found on the material sorting tape.
‘The production process was immediately stopped and the police department of Chania was duly informed.
‘There were three workers on the sorting line who brought the human limbs. From the side of the business, we will help the families of the employees.’
Authorities in Greece have now forced to restrict highways to prevent wildfires from reaching an oil refinery.
Tonight, low-flying water-dropping aircraft and helicopters battled two wildfires to the west of Athens.
To assist Greece, Italy and France each sent two firefighting aircraft.
Popular vacation destinations were evacuated just yesterday due to wildfires.
The planes and their teams are part of an EU civil protection mechanism, and they will join some 30 Romanian firefighters already stationed in Greece.
Forecasters have indicated more extreme heat is on the way, with temperatures so hot that the Acropolis was closed.
Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said the main fire near Athens rapidly became a major crisis.
‘The Fire Service had to intervene in many instances to get people out of their homes,’ the spokesman said.
Officials cancelled holidays and leave for firefighters, while Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cut short a visit to Brussels and returned to Athens to meet with the heads of the Fire Service and Civil Protection Agency.
Wildfires continued to burn out of control on Tuesday to the north and west of Athens, including a blaze near the resort town of Loutraki, where more homes were damaged and evacuations were expanded.
In Mandra, west of Athens, police ran through narrow streets to help residents into cars as the flames approached.
Earlier, police helped nuns leave a hilltop Orthodox Christian monastery that was also under threat.
Several smaller fires also broke out closer to the capital, where winds remained moderate but where scrub and forest land were dried out by extreme temperatures last week.
Authorities said sections of two motorways linking Athens to the western city of Corinth were closed to give firefighters better access to the fires and to stop the flames from approaching a major oil refinery.
Greece also activated a rapid mapping evaluation system, which uses EU satellite data to assess fire damage.
A second heatwave is expected on Thursday, with temperatures as high as 44C expected in central and southern parts of the country by the end of the week.
During Europe’s oppressive summer, a storm that affected much of the Balkans claimed at least six lives and injured dozens of others.
The region had experienced two strong storms in as many days, the most recent of which made landfall yesterday. The continent was experiencing an extremely hot and dry spell at the time.
In Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, two men—ages 50 and 48—died after being struck by falling trees.
Elsewhere, in the eastern town of Tovarnik, a firefighter died but no other details have been revealed about this.
There is one other person known to have died in Croatia, another in Slovenia and one more in Bosnia.
Meanwhile, a 36-year-old man in Zagreb was severely injured after a construction crane collapsed in the chaos.
In the Serbian city of Novi Sad, a tree fell on a 12-year-old girl and she had to be taken to hospital.
The country’s emergency services have had to put out 20 fires caused by thunder and lightning.
Meteorologists have warned that more storms may hit over the next few days, before the next upcoming wave of hot weather they are expecting.
It comes as there is no sign of Europe’s heatwave slowing down anytime soon, with temperatures set to climb even higher.
After days of sweating through Cerberus, people in the south of the continent – with Greece, Italy and Spain bearing the brunt of the weather – have now begun to feel the effects of its equally scorching successor Charon.
And it’s expected to peak in Italy, where temperatures of up to 47°C are expected to roast Sardinia on Wednesday, July 19.
The unprecedented weather has had a dramatic effect, with holidaymakers evacuated from resorts in the area surrounding Athens after wildfires broke out – made worse by a cooling wind that provided some respite for locals and visitors.
Reports have suggested the Charon heatwave – which has replaced the original Cerberus spell of hot weather – will stick around until at least the end of July.
Experts from the UN agency have suggested the hot weather could even last for weeks, saying: ‘A further continuation into August is likely.’
There may however be some respite for people in some parts of Spain and Italy – where things are about to become a little less stifling.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that red alerts will be removed from some cities in the north of Italy on Thursday – although other regions will continue to experience soaring temperatures.
Sicily holds the record for Europe’s highest official temperature ever, after meteorologists measured 48.8°C in the town of Floridia in August 2021 – and the World said yesterday it is possible this record may be broken in the coming days.
A wildfire in Greece that authorities are working to contain has been fueled by evening winds.
The enormous wildfire, which began on Tuesday to the west of the nation’s capital Athens, has so far consumed 35 square kilometres (13.5 square miles) of forest and shrubland.
Although authorities had the wildfire under control, recent strong gusts have caused it to start expanding once more.
Many residents have ignored an evacuation order from fire authorities in an effort to try and save their homes.
Resident Chrysoula Renieri, 72, tried to save her family home with some help but the wildfire cut off water in the area.
‘It’s all gone. We have suffered too much damage,’ she said.
Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the fire service and civil protection authority would remain on alert as a new heat wave moved east across the country.
‘The hard times are clearly not over yet,’ Mr Mitsotakis said. ‘We are facing another heat wave and a possible strengthening of the winds. So, absolute vigilance and absolute readiness are required over the next few days.’
The country is set to hit 45C on Sunday.
The wildfire has been caused by stiffling heat which has gripped many Mediterranean countries like Spain, Italy and Greece.
A state of emergency was declared on the Greek island of Rhodes on Thursday, where evacuation orders were issued in several mountainous regions.
Meanwhile in Murcia, Spain, temperatures peaked at 44C and a man died from a heat-related issue, Spain’s public news agency EFE reported.
Temperatures in Spain are expected to rise again on Sunday like in Greece and Italy.
In Italy, temperatures of 44C were recorded in Sicily, while public health warnings to protect children, older adults and people with health problems remained in place on the island and mainland.
An upsetting video that surfaced on social media depicting two women being forced to walk naked by a baying mob in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur aroused outrage and prompted the nation’s leader Narendra Modi to speak out about the area’s protracted sectarian war.
According to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), the viral video shows an event that happened on May 4. However, police didn’t make any arrests until this week, after the video had already gone viral.
On Wednesday, Manipur Police called the event “a case of abduction, gang rape, and murder” on Twitter.
Officials said Thursday that four people have been arrested and that police raids are ongoing. Authorities are interrogating more than three dozen men in relation to the apparent sexual assault, Reuters reported.
The video, which has been seen by CNN, shows two terrified women being forced to walk naked through a crowd of clothed men. The victims appear to be being groped and sexually assaulted while surrounded by a mob of men, many brandishing long canes or sticks as weapons.
The horrific footage emerged amid ongoing ethnic violence in the northeastern Indian state.
Modi addressed the situation in the state for the first time on Thursday, saying: “My heart is filled with grief and anger. The incident in Manipur is shameful for any civil society.”
“What happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Modi continued, adding the “law will take its course with all its might.”
The Upper House of Parliament was adjourned minutes into reconvening after opposition MPs sparked an outcry over the refusal to discuss the issue of Manipur.
The ITLF issued a statement on Wednesday, writing: “A video which went viral today shows a large Meitei mob parading two Kuki-Zo tribal women naked toward a paddy field to be gang-raped.”
The statement continued saying the “despicable incident” took place in B. Phainom village in Kangpokpi district and “shows the men constantly molesting the helpless women, who cry and plead with their captors.”
In recent months, Manipur has grappled with violence. Clashes broke out in the state capital Imphal on May 3 after thousands of students, mostly from the Kuki tribe, took part in a rally against the majority Meitei ethnic community, who have petitioned for special tribal status. Among other things, tribal status would enable the Meitei to buy land and provide more opportunities for government jobs.
Over 100 people have been killed and tens of thousands more displaced since then.
The incident on May 4 occurred after the women’s village was burnt down and two men were beaten to death, according to the ITLF.
India’s main opposition Congress party has been a vehement critic towards Modi’s handling of the issue, with the party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeting Thursday, before the opening of Parliament: “Humanity has died in Manipur. Modi Govt and the BJP has changed democracy and the rule of law into Mobocracy by destroying the delicate social fabric of the state.”
Tagging Modi, his tweet continued: “India will never forgive your silence. If there is any conscience or an iota of shame left in your government, then you should speak about Manipur in the Parliament and tell the nation on what happened, without blaming others for your dual incompetence – both at the Centre and the State.”
Soon after, the state’s chief minister, N. Biren Singh, tweeted that an arrest had been made.
“After taking a Suo-moto cognisance of the incident immediately after the video surfaced, the Manipur Police swung to action and made the first arrest this morning,” he wrote. Suo-moto cognisance is a procedure in Indian law allowing the court to take action in a case without a complaint being filed.
He added that “a thorough investigation is currently underway and we will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment. Let it be known, there is absolutely no place for such heinous acts in our society.”
Manipur police later said that it had made three more arrests of people accused “of the heinous crime of abduction and gang rape.”
The Indian government has issued an order to Twitter and other social media platforms, instructing them not to share the viral video, a source familiar with the matter told CNN Thursday, adding it is “imperative for social media platforms to adhere to Indian laws as the matter is currently under investigation.”
Following a recent wave of vicious assaults, Australian officials fined two visitors who took selfies with dingoes more than $1,500 each for making the “extremely dangerous decision” to connect with the local wild dogs.
The two women were fortunate not to have been attacked in the separate events on the well-liked tourist island of K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, according to a statement released on Friday by Queensland Department of Environment and Science compliance manager Mike Devery.
A 29-year-old unidentified New South Wales lady was pictured resting near to a group of sleeping dingo puppies in a department photo. She was fortunate that the pups’ mother wasn’t close by, according to Devery.
The other tourist, a 25-year-old Queensland woman, appeared in a selfie video posted to social media that showed her with a growling dingo, “which was clearly exhibiting dominance-testing behaviour,” he said.
“It is not playful behaviour. Wongari are wild animals and need to be treated as such, and the woman is lucky the situation did not escalate,” he added, referring to dingoes by their indigenous name.
In an update Friday, the department said a 23-year-old woman was hospitalized with serious injuries to her arms and legs after she was bitten by dingoes while jogging on an island beach Monday.
Tourists Shane and Sarah Moffat jumped in to rescue her, CNN affiliate Nine News reported.
“There was a big piece missing out of her arm there and there was puncture wounds all up the side of her legs,” Shane Moffat told Nine News.
The leader of that dingo pack was later euthanized, the department said. It had also been involved in recent biting incidents that led to the hospitalization of a 6-year-old girl, the department said.
“It was also clear from its behaviour that it had become habituated, either by being fed or from people interacting with it for videos and selfies,” the update said.
“Our number one priority is to keep people on K’gari safe and conserve the population of wongari (dingoes), and those who blatantly ignore the rules for social media attention can expect a fine or a court appearance,” Devery said.
A cluster of rocks has been seen by the Hubble Space Telescope surrounding the asteroid Dimorphos, which NASA’s DART probe purposefully collided with last autumn.
On September 26, 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, which weighs roughly 1,200 pounds (544 kilogrammes), collided with Dimorphos head-on at a speed of 13,000 miles per hour (20,921 km per hour) to alter the space rock’s velocity.
The results demonstrated how this kinetic impact technique could be used to divert asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth. It was the first time humans attempted to alter the motion of a celestial object. There is no danger to Earth from either Dimorphos or Didymos, the larger asteroid it circles.
The DART impact was successful, changing Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos by 33 minutes. This first test of planetary defense, which took place 7 million miles (11.3 million kilometers) from Earth, also released over 1,000 tons of material into space.
Some of that material includes 37 boulders, ranging in size from 3 feet to 22 feet (0.9 meters to 6.7 meters) in diameter, according to new data captured by Hubble. The rocks, likely shaken loose from Dimorphos’ surface after impact, are drifting away from the asteroid at about a 0.5 mile per hour (0.8 kilometer per hour), or the walking speed of a giant tortoise, according to a Hubble news release.
Scientists estimate the boulders represent about 0.1% of Dimorphos’ mass.
“This is a spectacular observation — much better than I expected. We see a cloud of boulders carrying mass and energy away from the impact target. The numbers, sizes, and shapes of the boulders are consistent with them having been knocked off the surface of Dimorphos by the impact,” said planetary scientist David Jewitt, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in a statement.
“This tells us for the first time what happens when you hit an asteroid and see material coming out up to the largest sizes. The boulders are some of the faintest things ever imaged inside our solar system.”
Jewitt and his colleagues have used Hubble to track changes in Dimorphos both during and after the DART impact, but another mission will take an even closer look.
The European Space Agency’s Hera mission is set to launch in 2024. The spacecraft, along with two CubeSats, is expected to arrive at the asteroid system in late 2026.
Hera will study both asteroids, measure physical properties of Dimorphos, and examine the DART impact crater and the moon’s orbit, with the aim of establishing an effective planetary defense strategy.
“The boulder cloud will still be dispersing when Hera arrives,” Jewitt said. “It’s like a very slowly expanding swarm of bees that eventually will spread along the binary pair’s orbit around the Sun.”
Surface boulders and other possible theories
Researchers believe the boulders were already sitting on the surface of Dimorphos, based on the final close-up photos taken by the DART spacecraft before impact. It’s much less likely that the rocks are shattered pieces of the asteroid, according to the Hubble observation team monitoring Dimorphos.
Jewitt estimated that 2% of the boulders on the surface were released into space after the crash. The rocks were likely ejected at the same time as the debris trail, also captured by Hubble. It’s also possible that a seismic wave from the impact lifted the rocks.
“The boulders could have been excavated from a circle of about 160 feet across (the width of a football field) on the surface of Dimorphos,” he said.
Future observations from Hera could help scientists pin down the actual size of the impact crater left by DART.
Scientists think Dimorphos may have formed from material shed by Didymos as it collided with another object, according to the European Space Agency. The material from Didymos would have formed a ring that eventually came together due to gravity, so Dimorphos may be what’s known as a rubble pile asteroid — rocky debris loosely held together by gravity, rather than a solid space rock.
Studying the DART experiment’s aftermath can help space agencies determine whether this impactor technology is the right approach to deflecting asteroids that may pose a threat to Earth in the future — or if it may result in creating more rocky hazards heading toward the planet.
On Friday, voters in two parliamentary elections rejected the party of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, dealing a serious political blow to the embattled leader.
In Selby and Ainsty, a region in the north of England where Sunak’s party had held a dominating majority, the Conservative Party fell short of victory against the resurgent Labour Party.
The Liberal Democrats, a moderate party, won Somerton and Frome, a second seat.
The Conservatives just managed to hold on to a third seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, the constituency held by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson until his resignation from parliament last month, although Labour significantly grew its share of the vote.
The results will put Sunak’s leadership under pressure, and suggest his government is on course for an electoral defeat at the next general election, expected next year.
Sunak has struggled to reverse the Conservatives’ plummeting fortunes in the nine months he has held office; a series of scandals, a stuttering economy and a decline in Britain’s public services have left his party deeply unpopular.
But the results indicate that the opposition Labour Party, which under the leadership of Keir Starmer is on course to clinch power when Sunak calls a general election.
By law, a general election must take place by January 2025. Most observers think Sunak will call it in the fall of 2024, if not before, to avoid trying to persuade voters to cast their ballots in the middle of winter.
Thursday’s three by-elections provided the sternest mid-term test yet for Sunak, who took power after Liz Truss’s shambolic six-week premiership last fall.
The ruling Conservatives survived a scare in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, where Labour was hoping to claim the seat Boris Johnson had held for eight years. Conservative Party’s candidate Steve Tuckwell won 45.16% of the vote there, according to Britain’s Press Association (PA).
Johnson quit in anger after a committee of fellow lawmakers found that he had lied to Parliament over “Partygate,” the scandal of lockdown-era parties in his government that tanked his popularity and contributed to his political downfall.
But in Selby, in the north of England, Labour overturned a huge deficit to win the seat with 46% of the votes, according to PA.
Both seats were viewed as the kind of regions that Labour needs to be targeting if it is to have a hope of claiming a parliamentary majority at the next election.
Both those votes were triggered after a committee of lawmakers found Johnson lied to Parliament, in a damning and unprecedented verdict against a former Prime Minister. Johnson was set to be suspended from Parliament for 90 days, but avoided that penalty by resigning instead.
Nigel Adams, the former Conservative lawmaker for Selby and a close ally of Johnson’s, quit hours later in an apparent move of solidarity.
Adding to the Conservatives’ woes was a thumping loss in Somerton and Frome, an affluent area in south-west England, to the Liberal Democrats which won nearly 55% of votes. The centrist party has been picking up former Conservative support in the so-called “Blue Wall,” a well-off portion of southern England that typically opposed Brexit.
The results amount to a significant rejection of Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power for 13 years and has seen its opinion poll ratings nosedive towards the end of Johnson’s tenure, and since.
Sunak will now look to steady his leadership and fight off any growing murmurs of a challenge within his party.
But time is running out for him to reverse his government’s fortunes. A cost of living crisis, creaking public services, stubbornly high inflation and an endless list of Tory scandals have turned opinion firmly against his bloc, and intensified calls by buoyant opposition parties for an early general election.
Ghana’s eighth parliament has been labeled the worst in the nation’s history by First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, due to the recent actions of the minority caucus.
Earlier this week, the Minority announced their decision to intensify their protest against the prosecution of Gyakye Quayson.
The newly adopted approach involves consistently raising concerns about quorum, effectively causing disruptions in the House each time.
According to the First Deputy Speaker, he thought a Parliament with equal numbers will be better but it turned out to be the worst than the other parliaments.
Speaking to JoyNews on July 20, he said, “We have decided to do politics instead of business. This equal number in parliament has brought the worst in MPs, I have repeated it, I will repeat it again – this parliament, the eighth parliament has made the least number of laws.”
On Thursday, whilst the House considered bills including the Ghana UNESCO bill, it was evident that the House lacked a quorum to continue. This forced an early adjournment.
On the back of this, Mr Osei-Wusu said this parliament has not been effective as was the case in previous parliaments.
According to him, with more than a decade in parliament, there has never been a time where the absence of other colleagues in the house hindered the business of the day.
He stressed that the current parliament made it difficult for the leadership to control affairs in the house.
“Young people are in control; they look at things differently from the rest of us, so it is even good for them when their leaders agree to do it.
“Check the current parliament, it is always people from the back bench who come to raise this thing and not the leaders. What it means is that at this time in the parliament of Ghana, leaders don’t have control, the back bench has control,” he said.
Also, Trades and Industry Minister, KT Hammond expressed concern about the current trend adding that if this continues, parliament will be unable to get business done.
He described the action of the minority as mischievous and a clear sabotage of government business.
Mr Hammond stressed that the move by the minority has made it difficult for committee meetings to take place which has greatly affected the business of parliament.
However, the Chief Whip of the minority, Kwame Governs Agbodza says the minority caucus was doing the best it can to let the business of the house go on.
He added that his side of the house was not to be blamed for the delay in parliamentary business. He stressed that if all members of the minority were present, the agenda of the house would have continued.
Also, Tamale Central MP, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed said it is unfair for the majority to describe the actions of the minority as a frustration to the business of the house.
According to him, the business of the house is guided by the constitution and the standing orders, therefore, describing them as a hindrance to parliamentary business is wrong.
He added that on the contrary, the Majority Chief Whip has failed to get all members of the majority into the house for the business of the day to proceed.
The Chief Executive Officer of Cruise People Limited, Daniel Vanderpuye, the company responsible for Black Sherif’s arrest on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, disclosed how his actions triggered a response from Black Sherif’s booking agents after months of silence in an interview with Kwame Dadzie on Joy Prime.
According to Vanderpuye, on Thursday, July 20, 2023, the day following the arrest, he received a notification via email from the United Talent Agency, indicating that his recent actions had rekindled their communication after a prolonged dormant period, implying potential developments in the artist’s booking arrangements.
Vanderpuye said, in the mail, the accountant of the agency was ordered to refund to Cruise People Limited, the $20,000 that was paid to Black Sherif as partial fulfilment of their financial commitment of $40,000 for his performance at the Afro Cruise Jam slated for August 19, 2023 in Greece.
“This morning when I woke up, an email trail that truncated some time on 19th of May had just resurrected and what do I see? A message to the account department to send the money to Ghana. So it took this for that to happen? So if Black Sherif wasn’t arrested they weren’t going to do this?” he said.
Daniel noted that prior to this, he had served the agency a letter on the refusal of Black Sherif to record a video to confirm his availability for the Afro Cruise Jam. However, according to him, neither the agency nor the close team members of the artistes responded to the content of the letter.
The 21-year-old music star was picked up by the police when he got to the Kotoka International Airport on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, after performing at the biggest music festivals across the US and Europe this summer.
According to him, because Black Sherif and his team were unyielding to the agreement to produce a promotional video for their event, he decided to hand him over to the police and the immigration.
The Cruise People Limited boss mentioned that some time in June 2023, “we petitioned the director CID and asked that he be arrested. You how many calls came from the police that he ignored. You don’t wanna know that.”
“The police will just not wake up and arrest Black Sherif on a baseless or flimsy excuse from us. We submitted everything. So based on that the police secured an arrest warrant from the court and then informed the immigration because where were we going to find him. So it was either when he is leaving or he is coming. So the immigration stopped him, handed him over to the police,” he further stated.
Daniel said Black Sherif was later taken to the police station to assist in the investigation of the matter.
Asked if he could not have resorted to other means apart from the police, he said his lawyers had earlier written to the United Talent Agency, and that other stakeholders had also reached out to Black’s team but to no avail.
In the meantime, he is seeking to take a civil action against Black Sherif, to get a refund of his money and damages for the losses he made.
Member of Parliament for Afigya Kwabre North, Collins Adomako-Mensah, has praised Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, for his remarkable display of tolerance in the face of adversity.
Speaking in an interview on Sompa FM, monitored by The Independent Ghana, the NPP legislator noted that despite the challenges and pressures that come with holding the high office of the Vice President, Dr Bawumia has consistently exhibited an unwavering commitment to maintaining composure and dignity.
He stressed that the Vice President has demonstrated an exceptional level of tolerance and resilience, earning admiration from both supporters and critics alike.
“He’s the first person I’ve seen in my political career who is extremely humble. Since 2008 when he came into the political stream, he’s been insulted but not a single time has he responded to any being. The level of temperament is unmatched,” he added.
In the world of politics, it is not uncommon for politicians to face heated debates, criticism, and even personal attacks, however, Dr Bawumia has chosen not to engage in tit-for-tat responses, opting instead to maintain a dignified silence, the MP argued.
“His shock absorbers are unmatched and that’s the kind of character of a leader. He comes down to everybody’s level. As a political leader, his human relation, his character, is unmatched,” he added.
Dr Bawumia is one of the ten candidates participating in the upcoming presidential primaries. He will be contesting with others including the former Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen; the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong; a former Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko, who was the first to pick the form, a former NPP General Secretary and presidential spokesperson, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong; a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Mampong, Francis Addai-Nimoh.
The rest are a former Minister of State, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku and a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto; a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General and MP for Essikado-Ketan, Joe Ghartey, and a businessman and energy expert Kwadwo Poku.
November 4, 2023, has been selected as the date for the NPP’s much anticipated presidential primaries which will result in the selection of a flag bearer for the general election in 2024.
Businessman W. Wong from Hong Kong can still clearly recall the day in 1972 when he first overheard neighbourhood children raving about a man who seemed to be larger than life: Bruce Lee.
Before his death at the age of 32, Lee was one of the first Asian men to achieve Hollywood superstardom. He was a master martial artist whose films started a kung fu craze around the globe.
Fans are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s passing this week with exhibitions and martial arts classes in Hong Kong, where he spent his formative and final years.
“Every child needs some kind of role model, and I chose Bruce Lee,” said Wong, 54, who has led the city’s largest fan club devoted to the star for nearly three decades.
“I had hoped my life would resemble the Bruce Lee I saw: handsome, strong, with great martial arts skills and a heroic image.”
At a studio for Wing Chun — a style of martial arts Lee practised before inventing his own Jeet Kune Do method — the martial arts master is revered as something akin to a patron saint.
Studio owner Cheng Chi-ping, 69, told AFP his cohort began their training under the shadow of Lee’s cultural influence but “we could never match his speed, strength or physique”.
Lee’s appeal had not diminished for the next generation, said Mic Leung, 45, who trained at the same studio and, as a teenager, sought out Lee’s movies on old videotapes.
“When we talk about the ‘god of martial arts’, we could only be talking about Bruce Lee. There is no one else,” he said.
Smashing barriers
Born in San Francisco in 1940, Lee was raised in Hong Kong and had an early brush with fame as a child actor, supported by his father, who was a famous Cantonese opera singer.
At 18, he continued his studies in the United States and over the next decade taught martial arts and scored minor parts in Hollywood, before landing the role of Kato in the television series “The Green Hornet”.
But it was not until Lee returned to Hong Kong that he landed his first lead role in the martial arts film “The Big Boss”, which made him a household name in Asia after its 1971 release.
The next year saw two more box office hits — “Fist of Fury” and “The Way of the Dragon” — cementing Lee’s persona as a relentless, lightning-fast fighter.
Lee had completed filming his fourth star vehicle, “Enter the Dragon”, and was halfway through his fifth when he died on July 20, 1973 from swelling of the brain, attributed to an adverse reaction to painkillers.
Film scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park, who taught Lee’s movies at the University of Hong Kong, said Lee expressed a kind of Chinese identity that transcended national borders.
“I would call Bruce Lee a paragon of Sinophone soft power success with Hong Kong characteristics,” he told AFP.
In Hollywood, Lee represented a rebuke to racist stereotypes, showing that Asian men were more than just servants and villains.
The scenes where he bares his torso and flexes his muscles — what Magnan-Park called the “kung fu striptease” — were essential because they show how ripped bodies can belong to Asian heroes as well.
“He made Asian men sexy, and that is something I don’t think we talk about enough,” he said.
Preserving legacy
Despite Lee’s enduring fame, preserving his legacy in Hong Kong was no easy task, fan club chairman Wong told AFP. Government support was intermittent at best, he said.
Fans in 2004 successfully petitioned to set up a bronze statue of Lee on Hong Kong’s famed waterfront, but a campaign to revitalise his former mansion could not save it from demolition in 2019.
At a government-run museum exhibit commemorating Lee’s life, a woman surnamed Yip told AFP she wanted to share “a symbol of the old Hong Kong” with her two children.
Wong, who had organised a smaller exhibit in Sham Shui Po district, acknowledged a decline of interest among young people but said Lee’s philosophy always has the potential to become relevant again.
He pointed to how protesters in Hong Kong’s 2019 democracy movement cited the martial artist’s mantra — “Be water, my friend” — as a reminder to adopt flexible tactics of resistance.
That discussion has largely tapered off after authorities cracked down on dissent, but Wong remembers the public at the time wondering why young protesters were so taken by Lee.
“As long as everyone still remembers (Lee), once your interest is piqued, you will have a chance to rediscover him,” he said.
Ghanaian music Patapaa has made a compelling argument, during an interview on Ayekoo Ayekoo on Accra 100.5 FM, on Thursday, July 20, 2023, stating that individuals abroad who are involved in certain types of work often regarded as less prestigious in Ghana, actually earn more money than even local music stars.
Addressing a rumor brought up by host Nana Romeo, Patapaa clarified that when he travels outside the country, he engages in various tasks, including menial jobs like car washing. This discussion shed light on the financial opportunities available abroad, challenging societal perceptions of certain occupations while highlighting the potential for earning higher incomes beyond the borders of Ghana.
“Let them send you a video to verify,” Patapaa reacted.
He said he sleeps so much it bothers his manager but his response always is, “I rise only to go play a programme.”
Sitting up, he argued: “Excuse me to say an artiste who is a star [in Ghana] and throws their weight about does not earn or have the same opportunities as a car wash worker in America.”
He added that people who wash cars in “in America, UK, or Germany” are better of “in terms of money and life in general compared to an artiste in Ghana.”
“We Ghanaians when we become stars, we become pompous and we don’t respect. When we see others, we think we’re bigger than them,” he bemoaned, challenging: “Travel and see.”
Abroad, he said, it is usual to see local musicians who “have better jobs” and want nothing to do with music.
“They even get upset when you mention music because the money they would make in seconds is more than a week, two weeks or a month’s worth of an artiste’s work here in Ghana,” he asserted.
He refused to comment on Stonebwoy and his likes in light of the conversation, saying: “Stonebwoy is my boss so let’s not bring him into this.”
Patapaa said it is necessary for artistes who visit “outside countries to get some work behind [besides] your music”.
The only work that one must not add another to is clergy work, he remarked.
Patapaa’s fame was established within and across the world due to the success of his One Corner song and Scopatomana catchphrase.
MP for Okaikoi Central and a member of the majority, Patrick Yaw Boamah, rebuked Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the MP for South Dayi and a member of the minority, for expressing reservations about the quorum shortage in the House.
During a recent parliamentary session conducted on Wednesday, July 19, a debate over quorum in the House arose between two Members of Parliament, one representing the majority and the other representing the minority.
The session had to be adjourned because the required number of 92 legislators were not present for business activities to proceed, and this adjournment was initiated by Dafeamekpor’s application.
During the debate in Parliament, Mr. Boamah accused Dafeamekpor of engaging in mischievous behavior by leaving his committee meeting, which was being televised, and entering the chamber to raise the issue of quorum.
The Okaikoi MP argued that this action portrayed Parliament in a negative light and suggested that such conduct should be addressed.
Mr. Dafeamekpor, representing the minority, defended his motion for adjournment and refuted the allegation of being mischievous.
He pointed out that records indicated the House was not adequately formed for business activities, emphasizing the importance of adhering to the quorum requirement as determined by the Supreme Court.
“My brother Patrick Boamah makes the point that members come to sign and go for committee meetings, but he has forgotten that when you attend committee meetings, your attendance is marked again so that is not the argument because the Supreme Court says that anytime Parliament is convened there should be a quorum to be determined,” stated Dafeamekpor in response to the accusation.
A suspected motorbike thief was lynched in Obuotumpan, a community close to Nyamekrom in the Eastern Region.
Information gathered by Starr News indicates that, somewhere in May 2023, an unregistered motorbike belonging to Samuel Awuku alias Nana Yaw Abodee was stolen but he failed to report to police.
However, came across the motorbike on July 2, 2023, at about 4:00pm, ridden by one Ayawa with 26-year-old Augustine Minta alias Kwaku Attah as a pillion rider.
The owner of the motorbike immediately pulled a gun and shot at the moving motorbike causing it to crash.
But the rider Ayawa managed to escape with the motorbike leaving the pillion rider who was violently accosted and arrested.
Samuel Awuku grabbed and dragged the pillion rider to his uncle’s house and threatened to deal with him.
Shortly, a mob of young men wielding single-barrel guns, sticks, and clubs joined Samuel Awuku and dragged the victim to the father’s house of Ayawa who escaped to search for him and the motorbike.
However, on their way from Ampedwe to Obuotumpan they subjected the victim to severe beaten until he became unconscious and was abandoned.
Police proceeded to the scene and found the victim in a supine position dead with the right wrist almost cut off, with bruises all over his body.
He was conveyed to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was medically confirmed dead.
Post mortem report by Dr. Collins Osei Kissi gave the cause of death as “a Multiple blunt force trauma to the head II. Chop would to the right wrist”.
Samuel Awuku was arrested on July 17, 2023, and arraigned before Koforidua District Court “A” the following day on charge of murder.
The prosecutor Sergeant George Defia prayed the Court to remand the accused person to enable police conduct further investigation to arrest six other identified accomplices.
The court granted the request and remanded the accused to reappear August 2, 2023.
Popular Nigerian actress, Kate Henshaw, has clocked the new age of 52.
The actress took to her social media account to celebrate her 52nd birthday in style.
Sharing a series of stunning photos from her birthday shoot, the fitness enthusiast expressed gratitude to God for preservation.
Captioning her first post, she wrote, “Committed to a lifestyle of total wellness. Body, mind & spirit. She is a warrior, undaunted, unrelenting.
“I will not be silent. As long as I am breathing, I will always worship my God and King!
“He kept me till this day, and I am standing here ONLY because He made a way.
Her second photo slides read: “2. FAB KB…Style is what I make of it….I am not under any pressure to follow trends just because I have come to own who I am, and the grace of God upon me has led me to a place of contentment. I am my only competition… I am grateful and loving life at 100 daily.”
While the third was captioned “3. FUN K8…Definitely one to laugh till tears roll down my eyes and my veins pop in my neck…It’s from deep within me..It comes without caring who sees or not.. It’s what brightens me from the inside out.”
“God has made me laugh in spite of it all, ups n downs, lows & highs. He will make it remain till I leave this world, and nothing, no one will take it away.”
Temi Otedola, the daughter of billionaire Femi Otedola of Nigeria, has used social media to celebrate her engagement to music superstar Mr. Eazi.
Temi refers to Mr. Eazi as the kindest person in a touching message to her cherished fiance in which she professes her love and admiration for him.
Temi shared lovely photos of the two of them and gushed about how excited she was to spend her life with him.
Taking to her instastory, she wrote:
“Happy birthday to my favorite person. Ever, I’m so blessed to have met you- can’t believe I get to spend this life with the kindest, warmest, and most genuine person I know, mine forever. I love you.”
Temi and her fiance got to know each other through her elder sister, cuppy, dated for a while, and finally got engaged last year.
Their love story has continued to blossom ever since.
The eight-part television series follows four female teenage superheroes who are trying to save their city in a futuristic version of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital.
The series’ Zambian writer and creator, Malenga Mulendema, hopes it pave the way for more African narratives to be featured on streaming services like Netflix.
“The story is the same all over the continent; there is talent and there are stories, but there are few and far between opportunities.
“With partnerships with companies like Netflix, you have more chances to create and have the world see your stories.”
Malenga Mulendema created the series after becoming one of the winners of a pan-Africa talent search by animation company, Triggerfish and Disney.
Zambian rapper, singer and songwriter, Sampa the Great, has also lent her voice to the series, singing the show’s theme song.
“Animation series shaped our childhoods and to know young Zambians get to see what they’ve never seen on TV before is amazing!” she posted on Instagram.
A criminal with a sweet taste who stole 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
On February 11, Joby Pool, 32, broke into an industrial building in Telford, Shropshire, using a metal grinder.
Before police could rush to the scene, he had already driven off with a variety of chocolate items valued more than £31,000.
Pool, of Dewsbury Road, Tingley, near Leeds, was given a year-and-a-half sentence by Judge Anthony Lowe at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Thursday, with half of that time serving a prison sentence and the other half serving a licence.
The six months he has already spent in custody will count towards the nine months behind bars.
Pool had used a stolen tractor unit to tow away a trailer-load of Creme Eggs from an industrial unit belonging to SW Group Logistics in Stafford Park, Telford.
The stolen chocolate was then driven onto the northbound M42, where Pool later surrendered by walking towards police ‘with his hands up’ near junction 11, a court hearing previously heard.
Pool, who appeared in the dock wearing a grey long-sleeved Adidas shirt on Thursday, had previously admitted theft, criminal damage to a lock at the trailer park and driving without insurance.
Defending, Debra White said he has shown ‘genuine remorse’ for what he had done.
She said: ‘There were two significant losses in his life, then a third loss in terms of his relationship, and a fourth in terms of the loss of his business.
‘There were difficult things he was dealing with and he turned to drugs and alcohol as a crutch, which made things much worse for him.
‘He has taken full responsibility. He is not self-pitying, he feels remorseful for the company involved and his family because he knows he has let them down.
‘He has been away from them for nearly six months now and they have had to try and cope with that.
‘The action he took getting involved with this has impacted on so many people and he is genuinely sorry for that, but he has been punished already by the fact he has been in custody for five and a half months.’
Judge Lowe said he was not convinced Pool was the only person involved in the planning of the theft.
He said: ‘Whatever the reason as to why you got involved and whether or not you appreciated the seriousness of what you were doing at the time, in my opinion, you got involved in very serious offending.
‘If one looks at what must have happened here, we are looking at a significant degree of planning.
‘There was the taking of a tractor unit that was driven from Castleford down here to carry out the theft. There must have been inside information or a recce to identify the trailer and if it was worth taking.
‘An angle grinder was taken and false plates were obtained to put on the trailer. I am pretty sure others would have been involved in this enterprise. I don’t know what you intended to do with the trailer.
‘You are not a man of good character as you have committed theft before in 2019.’
As well as the jail sentence, Judge Lowe added one month to be served concurrently for the criminal damage offence, and added six points to Pool’s driving licence for driving without insurance.
In a series of tweets posted two days after the theft, West Mercia Police told how they ‘helped save Easter’ after foiling the thief.
They said: ‘West Mercia Police has helped save Easter for Creme Egg fans after almost 200,000 of the chocolate treats were stolen from a unit in Stafford Park in Telford.
‘The eggs-travagent theft took place on Saturday 11 February with the chocolate collection box thought to be worth around £40,000. Along with the Creme Eggs a number of other chocolate varieties were also stolen.
‘Shortly after the theft a vehicle, presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny, was stopped northbound on the M42 and a man was arrested on suspicion of theft.’
On Wednesday, a tornado damaged severely a Pfizer factory in North Carolina.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a tornado watch for a significant area of coastal North Carolina and southern Virginia on Wednesday morning.
An Enhance Fujima Scale-2 (EF2) tornado, which touched down slightly west of the anticipated warning zone near the village of Dortches at around 12.30 p.m., was confirmed by the NWS in Raleigh.
An EF2 tornado can sustain wind speeds of up to 135 miles per hour.
The aftermath of the E3 tornado that hit Rocky Mount, North Carolina (Picture: via REUTERS)
The tornado then traveled east towards the city of Rocky Mount. A survey conducted after the storm determined that the damage was consistent with an EF3 tornado, which can sustain wind speeds of up to 150 miles per hour.
Pfizer confirmed that their factory, located just 7 miles north of the city, was damaged by Wednesday’s twister.
Photos from the aftermath of the storm show the factory building devastated, as well as numerous semi-trailer trucks flipped over and damaged from the heavy winds.
‘I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind,’ Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said.
The Rocky Mount factory produced about 25% of Pfizer’s injectable drugs used in the United States (Picture: via REUTERS)
According to the company, employees at the factory ‘followed established safety protocol’ and safely evacuated. They reported no deaths or injuries from the storm.
‘The city had to transport the employees to the Rocky Mount Senior Center,’ Rocky Mount Fire Chief Darvin Moore later confirmed at a press conference.
‘We are assessing the situation to determine the impact on production,’ Pfizer said in a statement ‘Our Thoughts are with our colleagues, our patients, and the community as we rebuild from this weather incident.’
The large plant produces anesthesia, as well as almost 25% of the company’s injectable drugs used in American hospitals.
The storm also caused damage to ‘numerous’ homes in the northern part of the city, Fire Chief Moore said at a press conference on Wednesday evening. Only two residents suffered injuries as a result of the damage.
‘We are relieved that the storm did not have any major loss or damage to life,’ Moore said.
After being tossed from a funfair ride at a festival in Illinois, a 10-year-old child was seriously hurt.
The horrific occurrence occurred on Sunday during the Taste of Summer festival in Antioch, an Illinois-Wisconsin bordering suburb of Chicago.
The festival’s Moby Dick attraction, which appears to swing riders back and forth many feet above the ground, is where the victim was riding.
The victim was identified by police as a a 10-year-old boy who suffered multiple facial and jaw fractures, as well as ‘significant’ injuries to one of his legs. He was rushed to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, then flown by medevac to Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago due to the extent of his injuries.
Family members identified the injured child as Huntley Daniels, of TKTKTK. They have set up a GoFundMe campaign for Daniels, who they said was ‘flung’ about 10-20 feet into the air from the ride.
‘He’s a strong kid,’ Daniels’ uncle wrote in a post on the crowdfunding site. ‘He once broke his arm and pushed the bone back in, on his own because “it didn’t hurt”. Truly remarkable kid.’
Antioch Police immediately secured the ride to prevent any further ‘tampering,’ the department said in a news release.
The Illinois Department of Labor is responsible for annually inspecting carnival rides in the state. If they do not pass their inspection, they are not allowed to operate or be insured in the state’s borders.
An inspector from the Department of Labor was sent, who quickly issued a stop order for the attraction. The department is currently investigating the ride ‘bolt by bolt,’ authorities said.
Police are currently conducting an investigation alongside the State Attorney’s office into any criminal wrongdoing at the festival.
Antioch Mayor Scott Gartner later issued an executive order to halt all rides at the festival after the incident.
The former president Donald Trump was found guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming author E Jean Carroll, and he unsuccessfully sought a new trial.
Trump’s attorneys failed to demonstrate that the decision in his civil trial in May was a “seriously erroneous result,” according to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
The former president intends to appeal the case once more, according to his attorneys.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in Manhattan in the 1990s in 2019.
Although the statute of limitations passed for Carroll to press criminal charges, she sued Trump under New York’s Adult Survivors Law in 2022.
A jury found Trump liable for sexual assault, battery, and defamation, but did not find him liable for rape.
The jury rewarded Carroll about $3million in damages for the defamation charge, and about $2million for sexual battery.
Trump’s attorneys tried to argue that the $2million sum was ‘excessive’ because he was ultimately found not liable for rape.
‘Such abuse could have included groping of the Plaintiff’s breasts through clothing or similar conduct, which is a far cry from rape,’ Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopino told the court.
In ruling against the retrial, Judge Kaplan explicitly rejected Tacopino’s comparison.
‘This jury did not award Ms Carroll more than $2 million for groping her breasts through her clothing, wrongful as that might have been,’ Kaplan wrote in his decision.
He continued: ‘there was no evidence at all of such behavior. Instead, the proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm.’
Judge Kaplan rejected the arguments, stating that that the jury only found him not liable based on the New York penal code’s narrow definition of rape.
According to Kaplan, the jury did find him liable for actions that would fall under the ‘common’ understanding of the word ‘rape.’
‘Mr Trump’s argument therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury’s verdict, and (ignored) evidence of what actually occurred between Ms Carroll and Mr Trump,’ he wrote.
Recently, at Drake’s concert held at the Barclays Center in New York, USA, Ghaianian rapper Sarkodie and Canadian pop star Justin Bieber were spotted engaging in what seemed to be a friendly and casual conversation,
This has caused a wave of excitement and curiosity to surge among their fans who are eagerly anticipating a potential collaboration between the two music sensations.
The encounter also highlights the global reach and influence of African artistes like Sarkodie, who continue to make waves on the international music scene.
The rapperholic was not just a visitor but an honoured guest who was ushered into the VIP section with A-list artistes including Vinicius Junior and Lil Durk.
A new commercial featuring Rema and NBA legend Michael Jordan has returned him to the trending list.
Rema and Chicago Bulls legend Jordan could be seen posing for the “JUMPMAN 23” advertisement in the star-studded picture.
Some of the iconic stars in the commercial included Luka Doncic, Gabby Williams, Teyana Taylor, Ryota Brown, Zion Williamson, and Jayson Tatum.
In February, Rema had alongside Burna Boy and Tems headlined the NBA All-star game halftime show.
The Afrobeats-themed event which took place in Utah, United States of America saw the trio further spread the ‘gospel’ of Africa’s most popular music genre on the global stage.
With new domestic violence legislation that have been suggested, partners who murder their ex-partners after a breakup will receive lengthier terms.
If they are approved by Parliament, judges will use the murder of an ex-partner as an aggravating circumstance when determining punishment.
The suggestions, which were made public on Thursday by Alex Chalk KC, the justice secretary, will also take abuse allegations against those found guilty of outbursts into account.
Domestic abuse victims will receive lighter punishments if they did experience it, including campaigns of coercive and controlling behaviour.
The Government commissioned an independent review into domestic homicide sentencing in 2021 and Clare Wade KC made her suggestions in a report published on March 17 this year.
Along with the additional measures suggested this week, ministers are also set to ask the Law Commission to to review the use of defences in domestic homicide cases.
This will include the partial defences of ‘loss of control’ and ‘diminished responsibility’.
Lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice Alex Chalk KC announced the reforms (Picture: Shutterstock)
‘Loss of control’ is often used to try and reduce a charge from murder to manslaughter.
It is a complicated defence and the details of it would change with each case but, in the context of domestic violence, it is usually argued by proving the defendant had a ‘serious fear of violence’ from the person they commited a crime against.
Reforming ‘diminished responsibility’ will broadly mean asking the court to take into account whether a defendant has suffered mental health problems because of domestic abuse.
Essentially, this review will be looking at whether the law adequately considers circumstances where a victim of domestic abuse acts in self-defence.
Justice secretary Alex Chalk KC said: ‘Cowards who murder their partners should face the full force of the law.
‘Our reforms will give judges the power ensure that those who coercively control their victims or kill them at the end of a relationship face longer behind bars.’
The lord chancellor also said he wanted to make it easier for courts to enforce severe consequences on murderers who ‘add pain and trauma through “overkill”‘.
This is when excessive force or action is taken beyond what is necessary to commit the murder.
Domestic homicide is defined as a death that occurs due to violence, abuse or neglect by a partner, ex-partner, relative or member of the same household.
Controlling or coercive behaviour was introduced as a criminal offence in the Serious Crime Act 2015 and can include economic, emotional or psychological abuse and threats alongside physical or sexual violence.
More than half (51%) of the murder cases looked at in the Wade Review involved controlling or coercive behaviour.
Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, urges both sides of the house’s leadership to take responsibility and ensure their members’ presence in Parliament to facilitate business activities.
The chamber has been forced to adjourn sittings on multiple occasions due to insufficient numbers for parliamentary business to proceed.
During the parliamentary session, and in response to quorum concerns raised by the Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who presided over the sitting, emphasized the importance of MPs taking their legislative duties seriously.
“I think that we have to take the house seriously. If you have been following the media over the weekend, they all descended on Parliament; the fact that we don’t get the members to do business and I think it is becoming unbecoming. So, honourable members, today will be the last day that we will raise this issue, so I am urging you to do more,” he said.
Head of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Dr Kwame Amponsah-Achiano, has stated that there is an urgent necessity for increased awareness about COVID-19 at this time.
According to him, this is because the pandemic remains prevalent in society, contrary to the widespread belief that it has been completely eradicated.
Speaking in a video clip shared by UTV Ghana on Twitter, Dr. Amponsah-Achiano said that there is the need for people to still be cognisant of the preventive measures for the disease.
“COVID is not a disease that is gone. It has come to stay and that is something we must accept but rather protect ourselves from it. And I keep saying that it is when there is no sickness or disease that its protection is most important,” he said.
There is an ongoing COVID-19 vaccination exercise for citizens of the country.
It was earlier reported that the Ghana Health Service had announced that it will begin its 7th National COVID-19 Vaccination Exercise from Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
The exercise is expected to end on Sunday, July 23, 2023.
According to a tweet by UTV, this exercise is aimed at immunising about one million persons.
So far, 10 million people out of the more than 30 million population in the country have fully received the vaccines.
In reaction to what Moscow described as London’s “hostile actions,” they will be compelled to give five days’ notice if they want to travel more than 75 miles away.
This occurs shortly after the charge d’affaires, Tom Dodd, was called into the foreign ministry.
He received criticism for the UK’s backing of the ‘terrorist activities‘ of Ukraine and for impeding Russian diplomatic efforts.
‘The British side was also informed of the decision to introduce a notification procedure for the movement of employees of British diplomatic missions on the territory of our country as a response to London’s hostile actions,’ the ministry said.
Restrictions will not apply to the ambassador and three other senior diplomats.
Other officials will have to send notification of any plans to travel beyond this ‘free movement zone’.
‘Such a document should contain information about the timing, purpose, type of trip, planned business contacts, accompanying persons, type of transport, places of visit and accommodation, as well as the route of the trip,’ the ministry said.
‘We reiterated to the British side that any of its efforts aimed at continuing the destructive line in international and bilateral affairs, attempts to demonize our country, complicate the work of Russian foreign agencies will inevitably receive a decisive response.’
Nine out of the ten presidential aspirants vying to lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 election have jointly requested the party leadership to centralize the special delegates’ congress slated for August 26th.
The nine candidates, in expressing their opposition to the idea of conducting the election on a regional level, stated that it is not favorable for the party.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is the sole candidate who does not endorse the proposal.
They contend that distributing the election among a mere 900 voters would not be a prudent choice.
They are therefore urging the party to allow all 900 delegates to converge at one venue for the polls.
The NPP will on August 26th cut down the list of its presidential aspirants from 10 to five as stipulated in its constitution.
Meanwhile, the NPP says it is compiling a new register for its August 26th special delegates’ congress.
The party says a new register will be needed for the register since some of the delegates had passed.
General Secretary of the party, Justin Kodua Frimpong Koduah says a new register will be out by the end of the week.
“We are in the final stage of doing the compilation. Basically, we are not going to exceed 1000 so between 900 and 1000 delegates will form the special electoral college.”
“Some of the founding members have died, so we have to take their names out. We also have to look at past national officers. I am sure before the week ends we should have the final list for the special delegates’ election,” he stated.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is in the process of creating a fresh register for its upcoming special delegates’ congress scheduled for August 26th.
The party states that a new register will be necessary for the upcoming congress as some of the delegates have passed away.
“We are in the final stage of doing the compilation. Basically, we are not going to exceed 1000 so between 900 and 1000 delegates will form the special electoral college.”
“Some of the founding members have died, so we have to take their names out. We also have to look at past national officers. I am sure before the week ends we should have the final list for the special delegates’ election,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the national executive council of the NPP has directed all regional executives of the party to stop charging parliamentary aspirants unapproved fees.
A statement signed by Kodua Frimpong indicated that though the intentions of the regional executives may be positive, it is only the national executive of the party that can direct such charges and therefore called on them to cease such charges with immediate effect.
“While the national executive body acknowledges and appreciates the otherwise good intentions behind these decisions, you are hereby reminded that directives governing the conduct of elections of the Party can only be issued by the National Executive Committee, the appropriate body constitutionally mandated to do so.
“Accordingly, all Regional Executive Committees are, by this letter, directed to cease forthwith, the issuance of any directives on the conduct of parliamentary primaries unless and until the same have been approved by the National Executive Committee in accordance with the Constitution of the Party.”
Nine out of ten flagbearer hopefuls have allegedly threatened to withdraw from the New Patriotic Party’s Presidential primaries following an impending decision by the party.
According to reports, the party is yet to decide on whether or not to centralise the upcoming super delegate congress scheduled for August 2023.
Majority of the NPP presidential hopefuls want the congress to be held at a central location. However, one candidate, who is reportedly supported by the government and is advocating for the congress to be conducted in various locations based on the respective regions.
The other nine have raised concerns over conducting the primaries in various parts of the country, with claims that this would allow for intimidation of the party’s delegates, thus, have threatened to bare their teeth to the party if it fails to heed to their plights.
Also, according to a UTV report, the steering committee of the party and the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, want the congress to be held in the 16 regions.
The UTV report added that the committee has garnered the backing of the party’s regional chairmen and will strongly advocate for the super delegate congress voting to be conducted at the regional level during the meeting, however, the decision does not sit well with the nine candidates who have threatened to withdraw from the race.
In furtherance to this, a meeting has been scheduled for all aspirants who have reportedly halted their campaigns to attend a crucial meeting in Accra, today, Thursday, July 20, 2023, to decide on the matter.
“If the NPP would go into opposition or break the 8, it depends on this meeting which would be held tomorrow, July 20th,” a UTV reporter said in Twi on Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
In a video allegedly welcoming his soldiers to Belarus, the Wagner Group’s Russian head made an appearance.
According to reports, Yevgeny Prigozhin blasted the front line situation in Ukraine and told his forces they would “stay there for some time.”
According to Sky News, it’s thought to have been filmed last evening at the Tsel military facility in the south of the nation.In a video allegedly welcoming his soldiers to Belarus, the Wagner Group’s Russian head made an appearance.
It comes after an ex-US military official claimed he was ‘probably dead’.
Prigozhin’s plane arrived in Belarus on Tuesday morning and he is believed to have said: ‘Welcome lads… welcome to Belarusian soil.
‘We fought honourably. You have done a great deal for Russia. What is going on at the front is a disgrace that we do not need to get involved in.’
He also reportedly said the Wagner Group would take no further part in the war for now.
One Twitter user translated Prigozhin’s speech, explaining that he said his troops will remain in Belarus before ‘gathering our strength and heading off for Africa’.
He reportedly added: ‘We may return to [fight in Ukraine] when we will be certain that we won’t be made to disgrace ourselves and our experience.’
Prigozhin staged a coup against Vladimir Putin in late June by ordering his soldiers to travel towards Moscow.
The rebellion against the Kremlin ultimately failed and the Russian president said his former caterer’s actions amounted to ‘armed mutiny’.
Many experts predicted that Prigozhin was likely to be dead following the march on Moscow and he has not been seen in public since.
After the brief uprising against Putin, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko reportedly made a deal to welcome Wagner forces across the border to join the military in Belarus.
Earlier this month, Mr Lukashenko claimed Prigozhin had returned to Russia and his fighters had decided against the offer of relocating to Belarus.
However, satellite images taken on Monday appeared to show a huge convoy arriving at a previously abandoned military base in the town of Osipovichi, around 45 miles from the capital Minsk.
The site had been offered to Wagner by local authorities and more than 100 vehicles with Russian flags and Wagner insignia were seen heading towards the camp, according to Belaruski Hajun, an activist group that monitors the movement of troops.
The Worldwide Miracle Outreach’s founder and president, Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh, says the death of Ghanaian dancehall/afrobeats artist, Ebony, brought her family a breakthrough.
In his opinion, the female singer was still in the early stages of her career and faced financial instability, as did her family.
“Ebony had nothing, you can quote me anywhere, she was not 21 years yet when she died, her biggest contract with Bullet and the team had not materialized before she died, Ebony had also never gone to Europe before when she died.”
“The only privilege she had to go abroad was what connected me to her at the Hungarian embassy three days after which she died, so she never really had a breakthrough, she was in a pipeline for a major breakthrough but it never happened.”
“So when she died, there was nothing at home, the truth was that it was rather the death of Ebony that even opened certain doors,” he said.
Dr Lawrence Tetteh played a crucial role in arranging Ebony’s funeral, especially when he realized the family needed assistance.
“I did help financially; in fact, I took charge of the funeral. Everything concerning Ebony’s funeral was planned in my house; everybody came to my house, her record label, MUSIGA, her family, they were all in my house.”
“We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner in my house; we became like a family. Ebony’s father became like my brother. Anytime he flares up, I’m the only one who could calm him down, and I took him to every place and I introduced him to all the Presidential leaders.”
“And then also, I helped in making sure we secured the forecourt of the State House for the funeral. I also bought and paid for her coffin,” he recalled.
The death of Ebony did not surprise Lawrence Tetteh; rather, he was thrilled that she had received salvation 72 hours before she died.
“Shock is an understatement. I thanked God rather for her, that at least she met Christ 72 hours before she was called into glory,” he said.
On February 8, 2018, while travelling from Sunyani to Accra after seeing her mother, Ebony tragically died in an accident. She died eight days before her 21st birthday.
The fatal incident also claimed the lives of her assistant and longtime friend Franklina Yaa Nkansah Kuri and a soldier named Atsu Vondee.
The driver, Phinehas, who lives in Teshie, Greater Accra, was the only person to survive the collision.
After a shooter stormed a construction site close to the Women’s World Cup squad staying at a hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, one person is thought dead.
Following the gunshot near Lower Queen Street at around 7.20am local time, police in the city centre are allegedly blocking off a number of streets and warning people to stay away from the area.
The US Women’s Football team, who are staying at the SO hotel next to Britomart, released the following statement: “All of our players and staff are present and safe.”
‘Our security team is in communication with local authorities and we are proceeding with our daily schedule.’
The New Zealand Herald reported that at least six people had been injured, including a police officer, who was able to walk to an ambulance with assistance from colleagues.
Police described it as a ‘significant incident’ but said the situation had been contained to a single building that was under construction in lower Queen Street.
Officers were urging people to avoid the area or stay inside their buildings if already there.
New Zealand Police said in a statement: ‘The serious incident in Auckland CBD this morning is currently contained to a building in lower Queen Street, which is under construction.
‘Police ask all members of the public to avoid the lower Queen Street area and for those in downtown inner-city buildings to remain inside.’
The wife of well-known Nigerian billionaire Senator Ned Nwoko, Regina Daniels, a Nollywood actress, has been named the Social Secretary of the 10th Assembly Senators’ Wives Forum Executive Council.
Her appointment was announced on Tuesday at the 10th Senator’s Wives Association of Nigeria’s inaugural gathering, which was hosted by Ekaette Akpabio, the wife of the Senate President.
The delighted actress expressed her commitment to helping Nigeria grow when she announced her appointment on her Instagram page on Wednesday.
Ghanaian Comedian Waris has been threatened with legal action by Quick Credit Investment Micro-Credit Limited for allegedly misusing its brand to create an unrelated video skit that contradicts what the company stands for.
In a viral video titled “Birthday Delivery Guy”, the comic actor was seen wearing a Quick Credit T-shirt threatening another actor with a cutlass to pay back a supposed loan.
The company responded quickly on Wednesday July 19, 2023, saying it had no involvement in the comedian’s content and it would take legal action against him.
It further urged the general public to seek accurate information through its website.
“Management of Quick Credit Investment and Micro-Credit Limited is outraged by this misrepresentation of its image and wishes to categorically state that this person has no affiliation with Quick Credit Investment and Micro-Credit Limited. The company’s management claimed that it does not use its brand for comedic activities.
Some Ghanaians, however, do not seem to be keen on Quick Credit Investment. There were a number of comments under the said release on their official Facebook page that didn’t go in their favor.
A follower, Adwoa Konadu wrote, “That is what ur workers are doing. He has observed them and he’s also using it as a comedy skit”.
Tina Andy Hayes had this to say, “Your people they do more than this wai”.
In the words of Fiester Harrison, “What are u disassociating from this primitive and inhuman behavior your staff are doing to ur customers…. Hmmmm one day one day ….yooo”
However, checks indicate that the video which went viral since it was posted days ago has since been deleted from the comedian’s social media pages and it is unclear whether the action is in relation to the company’s threat to issue legal action.
Meanwhile,the comedian clarified the act was only intended for entertainment and has nothing to do with how the institution functions using the same channel he used to distribute it on Twitter.
He expressed his regret to the laywers, clients, management, and anyone else he had offended with his skit.
Despite now having the privilege of driving his own cars and having access to the highest corridors of power, Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey, the Member of Parliament for Keta, remains deeply connected to his humble upbringing.
Recalling his early life in Anlo-Afiadenyigba, Volta Region, he shared that despite his parents being teachers, life was far from easy for him.
As an example, he mentioned that he had to make a barefoot journey of three miles to school daily.
Also, Kwame Gakpey noted that to survive and support his mother, he had to trade in selling crabs at a point.
He recounted how those trading years took him from Anloga to places like the Afram Plains.
“I was going into even petty trading where I have to take crabs from Anloga Market all the way to Afram Plains in the 90s where my mom, though a teacher, would go into such trades, and I would follow her. And we would have to go to such places as Nkawkaw, Afram Plains, Kwesi Fante, Maame Krobo, those days… it was a good business,” he said.
Kwame Gakpey also recounted other stories about his life in the interview on GhanaWeb.
A former girlfriend of a previous Spanish king has claimed before a judge in London that she was the target of a “sinister” plot by a “particularly ruthless” guy.
Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, a 58-year-old Danish businesswoman, has accused Juan Carlos of harassing her and filed a claim for damages in excess of £126 million, claiming the alleged harassment has had a “catastrophic” effect on her life.
In the case, Ms. zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn accuses the former king of harassing her, which she alleges caused her “great mental pain.”
Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn says Juan Carlos caused her ‘great mental pain’ by harassing her (Picture: EPA)
Mr Carlos has denied the allegations.
Legal proceedings are currently underway at the Royal Courts of Justice complex in central London, presided over by Mrs. Justice Collins Rice.
Lawyers representing Juan Carlos have requested the dismissal of Ms. zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s claim, who insists that the case should proceed.
Jonathan Caplan KC, leading Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s legal team, said his client had described the former king as ‘exceptionally ruthless’ in a witness statement.
Mr Caplan said Juan Carlos had begun a ‘sinister campaign to control her’ and argued that a trial is inevitable due to the substantial factual disputes between the parties involved.
‘There are a series of substantial issues of fact here between the parties,’ he told the judge.
‘They cannot be decided without hearing evidence.’
He added: ‘The applications by the defendant are misconceived.’
Meanwhile, barrister Adam Wolanski KC, representing Juan Carlos, told the judge that Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s case had ‘no realistic’ prospect of success and that his client emphatically denies any harassment allegations.
A number of other judges have overseen earlier hearings in the litigation.
Ms. zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, a Danish national, resided in Monaco from 2008 to 2019 and currently has homes in London and Shropshire.
Mr. Wolanski also seeks a ruling from Mrs. Justice Collins Rice stating that English judges have ‘no jurisdiction’ to consider certain allegations.
Judges have been told that Juan Carlos ruled from 1975 until his abdication in 2014 and the succession of his son, King Felipe VI.
Notably, Juan Carlos won a previous round of the case when the Court of Appeal judges in London concluded that pre-abdication conduct was outside the jurisdiction of English courts.
However, this ruling does not affect claims made by Ms. zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn regarding Juan Carlos’s behavior after his abdication in December.
The High Court hearing is expected to conclude later this week as the legal battle between the two parties continues.
Ghanaian musician Kofi Kinaata has opened up about a significant life-changing moment from his childhood, where he vividly recounted a poignant encounter with his class 4 teacher who expressed deep concern over his troublesome and truant behavior during his school days, leading the teacher to be emotionally moved to tears due to his persisting deviant attitude.
Fearing that Kinaata’s future might not be as promising as it could be, the dedicated teacher went above and beyond to make a lasting impact on his young student’s life by taking him on a meaningful stroll around the neighborhood and showing him two houses, highlighting the distinct traits exhibited by both owners, undoubtedly leaving a profound and enduring impression on the budding talent.
“I remember my class 4 teacher used to cry several times because I was very troublesome and truant. One day she took me out to see a nice building in the neighborhood and asked me if I would like to build a nice house like this.
“I answered ‘yes’ and she told me the owner of the house was very obedient, paid attention in class, never worried his teacher, never fought in class and was very smart. Then she showed me a dirty house of one notorious person in our neighborhood and asked which of the two houses I would love to build in future.
“I still answered the first one and she said the person who lives inside never paid attention in class and was behaving like me when he was my age so if I want to be a bigger person in future, I should take everything she teaches me serious. Her advice changed my perspective on a lot of things.”
This profound piece of advice from his teacher deeply impacted Kinaata. He revealed it made him realise the importance of taking his education seriously, paying attention in class, and behaving responsibly.
It was from that moment he revealed his life changed for the better and that experience has stayed with him throughout his journey to becoming a successful musician.
He made the revelation while contributing to a discussion by actress Lydia Forson on the need for teachers to be highly enumerated.
The Coalition of Ghanaians Without Ghana Cards (GWiGC) has expressed concerns over the Electoral Commission’s decision to exclusively use theGhana Card for voter registration. They believe this insistence raises suspicions of a potential sinister motive aimed at suppressing the votes of certain Ghanaians.
According to a statement signed by Convening Team, the group said that it is concerned about all the processes involved in this arrangement, calling for a ceasefire from the EC.
The statement, for instance, called for an immediate stop to the ongoing ‘premium express’ registration of National Identification Authority (NIA) cards at a fee across the country.
“The Coalition has also become aware of a rather surprising ongoing silent registration of Ghana Card at various regional offices of the National Identification Authority (NIA) under the operational name ‘premium express” where ordinary Ghanaians are required to pay an amount of two hundred and eighty Ghana cedis (Ghc280) apart from having to travel from various parts of a particular region to its regional capital.
“In fact, what is more worrying is that Ghanaians who even make efforts to move to district offices of NIA seeking to register are unable to register with several excuses from officials including network challenges and lack of printing cards among other flimsy excuses. Clearly, the commercialisation of the Ghana card acquisition is given a premium than its national use as we are made to believe,” the statement said.
It also said that should the NIA and the EC go ahead with its insistence that the Ghana Card becomes the sole document for elections, it would disenfranchise a lot of citizens and as such, that move should be re-looked at.
“It’s important to note that theElectoral Commission ‘s unpopular position to make Ghana Card a sole document for registration or acquisition of a voter register means a huge number of Ghanaians will not be able to register and vote in total contravention of the provisions as contained in Ghana’s 1992 Republican Constitution.
“… That the premium registration exercise ongoing by the NIA at a commercial value of Ghs280 should be stopped immediately due to the already burdened harsh economic challenges faced by Ghanaians,” it added.
Read the full statement, dated Thursday, July 20, 2023, below:
20/07/2023
PRESS STATEMENT:
For Immediate Release.
EC’s insistence on the use of ECOWAS Travel Certificate (Ghana Card) as the sole source document for voter registration is politically dangerous and must be stopped.
The Coalition of Ghanaians Without Ghana Card (GWiGC) has taken note of the ongoing efforts by the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to review the existing Constitutional Instrument (CI) particularly portions pertaining to registration of voters.
The Coalition has also become aware of a rather surprising ongoing silent registration of Ghana Card at various regional offices of the National Identification Authority (NIA) under the operational name “premium express” where ordinary Ghanaians are required to pay an amount of two hundred and eighty Ghana cedis (Ghc280) apart from having to travel from various parts of a particular region to its regional capital.
In fact, what is more worrying is that Ghanaians who even make efforts to move to district offices of NIA seeking to register are unable to register with several excuses from officials including network challenges and lack of printing cards among other flimsy excuses.
Clearly, the commercialisation of the Ghana card acquisition is given a premium than its national use as we are made to believe.
It is worth noting that the entrenched position taken by the Electoral Commission and the National Identification Authority further reinforces our suspicion of a sinister move to suppress votes of some Ghanaians for whatever reason.
For the purposes of clarity, we therefore pose the following questions to the NIA and EC to answer;
1. Is it correct that the so-called Ghana card is an ECOWAS travelling certificate intended for use within the ECOWAS Sub-region? If yes, why is it being pushed down the throats of Ghanaians as a form of identification for elections in Ghana?
2. What becomes of the poor Ghanaian who do not have money to register for the card?
3. What becomes of the people leaving in the hither lands and do not have access to regional capitals for the registration exercise?
It’s important to note that the Electoral Commission’s unpopular position to make Ghana Card a sole document for registration or acquisition of a voter register means a huge number of Ghanaians will not be able to register and vote in total contravention of the provisions as contained in Ghana’s 1992 Republican Constitution.
We wish to strongly state that though the NIA law requires mass registration, you will recall that the period within which such mass registration was organised, we were in a COVID-19 pandemic and due to government’s restrictions, it was practically impossible for all Ghanaians to participate in the registration exercise.
In line with the above, the Coalition of Ghanaians Without Ghana Card is calling for the following reviews on behalf of the Ghanaian people;
1. That having taken cognisance of the numerous challenges regarding the acquisition of the Ghana Card, it must not be made as the sole source document for the voter registration card;
2.That the premium registration exercise ongoing by the NIA at a commercial value of Ghs280 should be stopped immediately due to the already burdened harsh economic challenges faced by Ghanaians;
3. That Government, NIA should make provisions to enable Ghanaians access Ghana card registration through a nationwide mass registration at various district levels minimum and further decentralized to electoral area registrations if possible.
4. We are calling for an all-inclusive stakeholder discussions by NIA to make its services more progressive, accessible and affordable to all Ghanaians at all times.
Economist Kwame Pianim has voiced criticism against MPs who abstain from their parliamentary responsibilities to protest issues they dissent with.
According to Mr Pianim, such actions are not acceptable, and has advocated for the removal of allowances for MPs engaged in boycotts.
“A parliamentarian has no business to boycott parliament. If they boycott parliament their allowances should be taken off,” he said on the News 360 on TV3 Wednesday, July 19.
“Parliament is young, there is a tendency now to put a lot of burden on the fledgling judiciary which is not fair,” 3news.com quoted.
He emphasized that lawmakers should fulfil their responsibilities and not refrain from participating in parliamentary sessions as a means of protest.
Mr. Pianim further pointed out that the parliament is still in its nascent stages, and he believes that undue burdens are being placed on the fledgling judiciary, which he considers unfair.
The discussion was sparked by the decision of the Minority in Parliament to abstain from parliamentary sessions as a form of protest against the ongoing trial of James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament for Assin North.
The Minority justified their decision by stating that it is in response to what they perceived as the government’s escalating “persecution” of Mr Quayson.
In their statement, the opposition lawmakers highlighted their concerns about the High Court’s ruling to continue the daily trial of Mr Quayson, even with a pending application before the Court of Appeal requesting a stay of proceedings.
The Minority questioned the practicality of expecting the accused MP to attend court daily while also fulfilling his parliamentary duties and representing the people of Assin North effectively.
The trial of James Gyakye Quayson has drawn attention due to the unique circumstances surrounding his parliamentary tenure.
Having been elected twice within a single parliamentary term, he initially won the 2020 Parliamentary election in the Assin North Constituency, which the Supreme Court later nullified after two and a half years.
Subsequently, a by-election was held, in which he emerged victorious with an overwhelming 57.56% majority.
Despite Mr. Quayson’s application to halt the criminal trial until the outcomes of the pending appeals in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, the Accra High Court dismissed the stay proceedings application on Tuesday, July 18.
In order to launch a significant attack in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, Russia is apparently building up a battle force of some 100,000 soldiers, according to reports from Kyiv.
The substantial Russian presence in the area, which the Ukrainian army’s spokesman Col. Serhi Cherevaty says is concentrated on retaking the city of Kupyansk, was confirmed.
Up until Kyiv’s counteroffensive in the autumn of last year, the city was an essential supply route and centre for Russia’s eastern invasion forces.
‘The enemy has concentrated a very powerful group,’ said Col Cherevaty told Ukrainian media. ‘More than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 550 artillery systems and 370 rocket salvo systems.’
Keep up with the latest news on the Russia-Ukraine war on our live blog.
A Ukrainian military spokesman confirmed Russia had been amassing a huge fighting force to retake the city of Kupyansk (Picture: Getty)
He added: ‘They are concentrating everything in order to break through our defence. Our soldiers are firmly on the defensive. They do not allow the enemy to seize the initiative.’
Moscow’s troops have reportedly been in the area, but the recent uptick in attacks is seen to be a recent development.
‘This issue is not recent; it has been ongoing for many months, and our defense forces have consistently thwarted their progress with strong counterattacks,’ Chervaty said.
‘The presence of 100,000 personnel is not a recent development. The approximate number has been known [to Ukrainian military intelligence] for a considerable time.’
Cherevaty claimed the Russian attacks, though significant in scale, have been ineffective due to the low quality of Russian unit training and lack of real motivation.
‘Yes, it is big. We have to take into account its size. However, this number does not indicate a direct threat or a cause for concern,’ he added.
His comments come following reports that Vladimir Putin has increased the maximum age elegible for military service to 70 as he seeks to regain the intiative in the conflict with a big win.
Cherevaty’s claims were backed up by Ukrainian Army Land Forces Commander General Oleksandr Syrsky, who confirmed via Telegram that Russia had concentrated its forces to attack in the Kupyansk direction but has been unable to make a breakthrough thus far.
Syrsky, who commands Ukraine’s forces in the east, said Russia had recently reinforced its positions around Bakhmut with additional forces, but were steadily losing ground to the Ukrainians.
Meanwhile, Hanna Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, suggested that the Kupyansk attack may be a diversionary tactic used to lift pressure on sectors of the battlefield in the south where Ukraine has been taking ground.
‘As soon as we seize the operational initiative and start moving forward, the enemy immediately activates in other directions to distract and drag in our forces,’ she said.
Kremlin sources also appeared to confirm movement in the direction of Kupyansk, although there is no consensus on the size and shape of the attacking force.
According to a report on Tuesday, the Russian military had claimed that its troops had advanced on a ‘limited section of the front’ near Kupyansk, after ‘successful offensive operations.’ The announcement did not say when the attack or attacks took place.
‘On the Kupyansk front, units from the Western group of troops continue successful offensive operations,’ a Kremlin statement said. ‘The total advance was up to two kilometres along the front and up to one and a half kilometres in depth’.
The Lyman-Kupyansk sector has experienced a period of relative calm in recent months, marked by sporadic air strikes, intermittent artillery fire, and occasional ground exchanges. The current front line in the sector was set in October 2022 after a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive and has seen minimal movement since then.
But over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces in the Kupyansk-Lyman sector registered a distinct upturn in Russian barrages, counting 536 strikes throughout the day with all calibers of artillery.
The news comes as Kyiv has softened its rhetoric regarding the effectiveness of their counter-offensive against Russia, with commanders now alluding to ‘slow but steady’ progress against the invaders instead of a lightning push towards the Sea of Azov.
On Tuesday, Sysrky told BBC’s Today programme that ‘our advance is really not going as fast as we would like.’
However, the US’s top general said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s counter-offensive was ‘far from a failure’, but that the fight ahead would be long and bloody.
‘I think there’s a lot of fighting left to go and I’ll stay with what we said before: This is going to be long. It’s going be hard. It’s going to be bloody,’ Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence also announced on Tuesday that it plans to spend an extra £2.5 billion on army munitions and create a new ‘global response force’, vowing to learn lessons from the war in Ukraine.
The MoD said the additional investment in stockpiles would cover the coming decade, and be paired with other spending and reforms intended to bolster ‘warfighting resilience’ and deterrence.
Vladimir Putin had vowed retaliation to the alleged attack on the Kerch bridge, which connects Russia to Crimea, earlier this week
African Giant, Burna Boy, has at last responded to Davido calling him a “new cat” in the music business in a way that demonstrates his assurance and self-assurance.
The “new-cats vs. old-cats” feud that developed in response to Davido‘s remarks appeared to be centred on the standing and hierarchy of musicians in the Nigerian music industry.
In Dvaido’s opinion, Wizkid and other “old cats” like himself deserve praise for having paved the way for artists like Burna Boy, Rema, and others who are currently in charge of the music industry.
But Burna who has achieved significant success and international recognition for his music, likely felt the need to establish himself as one of the top-tier artistes in the industry.
Weeks later, in a recent chat with Apple Music’s Ebro, Burna Boy finally opened up on his thoughts regarding the matter.
He emphasised that it is a good thing to be called a ‘new cat’ since it gives him a sense of youthfulness.
“It is a good thing that people think my movement is new. I love that. Because it keeps me young. It means like, I can do so much more, you know. It stretches my life span.
‘I’m living longer than I thought I would than I even planned to, you know,” he said.
Nonetheless, the debate stirs on as his fans have argued on his behalf that he is among the old cats, if not, even better than them.
The Belarusian Defence Ministry announced that close to its border with NATO member Poland, Belarusian soldiers will conduct joint military drills with Wagner fighters.
After the private military group’s brief rebellion last month, Wagner fighters arrived in Belarus. Its creator Yevgeny Prigozhin was reportedly seen in a video on Wednesday wishing his fighters in the nation well.
According to a statement from the defence ministry, “The Armed Forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of PMC ‘Wagner’.”
“During the week, units of the special operations forces together with representatives of the company will work out training and combat tasks at the Brestsky training ground,” it added.
The ministry didn’t say when exactly the exercises would take place.
Poland said its borders were secure and that it was monitoring the situation, Reuters reported.
At the beginning of July, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko invited Wagner forces into Belarus to help train his country’s military. The invite came shortly after the failed armed insurrection by Wagner forces against Moscow, which Lukashenko was credited with helping diffuse.
A CNN analysis of satellite imagery and social media videos found that Wagner fighters arrived at a previously abandoned military base in Belarus earlier this week. The footage showed hundreds of vehicles on the move.
Then on Wednesday, a video emerged that appeared to show Prigozhin greeting his fighters in Belarus, in what would be his first public appearance since he led an armed rebellion in Russia last month. CNN geolocated the video to a previously disused military base in Asipovichy, roughly 80 kilometers (49 miles) southeast of the capital Minsk.
“Welcome guys! I am happy to greet you all. Welcome to the Belarusian land! We fought with dignity! We have done a lot for Russia,” a man resembling and sounding like Prigozhin says in the video, which was posted on pro-Wagner Telegram channels on Wednesday and then shared on Prigozhin’s account.
Prigozhin’s whereabouts has been hotly debated following his short-lived rebellion.
The rebellion by his group posed one of the biggest threats yet to the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Also this week, the head of the UK intelligence service MI6 said Putin had no choice but to reach an agreement with the Wagner leader in order to end the uprising, saying he “cut a deal to save his skin.”
A significant agreement between the European Union and Tunisia was reached on Sunday, guaranteeing the North African nation up to €1 billion ($1.12 bn) in investment, financial assistance, and loans in exchange for restrictions on migrants arriving in Europe from Tunisia.
The agreement is a big victory for Tunisia’s President Kais Saied, an increasingly autocratic figure who has spent the last few years destroying his nation’s democracy – ten years after a revolution there deposed a longtime leader and ignited a regional uprising against dictatorship.
The sole democracy to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring movement was previously stated to be Tunisia.
“Since 2011, the European Union has been supporting Tunisia’s journey of democracy,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after signing the agreement. “It is a long, sometimes difficult road. But these difficulties can be overcome.”
Several European lawmakers and human rights organizations have warned that any agreement that doesn’t include human rights assurances would be seen as an endorsement of Saied’s anti-democratic policies.
“In short, we are doing a deal with a dictator who is cruel and unreliable,” Dutch Member of the European Parliament Sophie in ‘t Veld said at a meeting of the body’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on Tuesday. “This deal does not align with our values, it will not be effective, and it is not concluded in a transparent and democratic way.”
That the EU signed it anyway is a testament to how desperate some European leaders have become to curb migration, analysts say.
“This is an agreement with a leader who is showing increasingly authoritarian tendencies,” Camille Le Coz, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Brussels, told CNN. “The priority is given to fixing the problem in the short term, and curbing arrivals. Values lose.”
Saied rose to power in 2019 after the death of Tunisia’s first democratically elected president Beji Caid Essebsi.
Running as an independent, he won a landslide victory after positioning himself as a political newcomer standing up to a corrupt elite.
But democratic ideals were pushed aside in 2021, when the president embarked on a major power grab at the height of the Covid-19 crisis. He ousted the government, dissolved parliament, and began ruling by decree.
Since then, he has cracked down on freedom of the press and judicial independence, even appointing himself as attorney general. Last year, he forced through a new constitution that cemented his one-man rule and dissolved any last hopes for a democratic government. He has also been accused of being responsible for the wave of anti-Black racism in the country amid an influx of migrants.
But Tunisia’s descent into authoritarianism was not on the agenda during the high-profile European visit over the weekend and journalists were not allowed to ask questions during the event.
Instead, Saied was all smiles while posing for photos alongside von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte after signing the agreement.
Rutte’s presence was particularly striking. Just days before the trip to Tunis, he announced that he would be leaving Dutch politics after his government collapsed over migration policy.
A spokesperson for the European Commission told CNN the agreement signed with Tunisia “focused on macro-economic stability, trade and investment, green energy transition, people-to people contacts, and migration” and that the EU is addressing human rights issues in Tunisia through other channels.
The EU has long championed democracy in the Arab world, describing itself as a “firm promoter and defender of human rights and democracy across the world.” But it has in the past decade witnessed a flood of irregular migration that has seen it prioritize reducing numbers, analysts say, sometimes at the expense of its goal to promote human rights.
Around 100,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe so far this year, most of them arriving in Italy, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Many made the dangerous journey on small boats operated by people smugglers who have little regard for safety. Since 2015, more than 23,000 people have either died or gone missing while trying to reach Europe, according to the UN.
The issue has pitted EU member states against each other. On one side are receiving countries like Italy that have seen an influx of tens of thousands of people per year and have asked the EU for help to resettle them. On the other side are states like Hungary and Poland which refuse to cooperate and take their share of refugees. Both countries are governed by populist right-wing leaders who argue that they should have control over whom they admit to their territory
But whether the deal with Tunisia could actually lead to a meaningful result is another question.
For one, the pact remains vague. While von der Leyen promised last month the agreement would be worth as much €1 billion in financial aid and loans, the text doesn’t mention that figure.
“The agreement that has been published is almost entirely numberless, and it is extremely broad and unspecific, despite the fact that it is covering a lot of topics where the devil really is in the details,” Max Gallien, a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the UK, told CNN.
To dispense a substantial amount of money to Tunisia, the European Commission would also need to get support from the European Parliament and the European Council, which is made up of representatives of all EU member states.
That could be tricky. The parliament has repeatedly criticized the Tunisian leader, even adopting a resolution in March to express concern about what it called “President Saied’s authoritarian drift” and his “racist discourse against sub-Saharan migrants.”
There are also questions about the Commission’s mandate. The agreement hints that the EU will make it easier for Tunisians to get visas to come to Europe legally.
“This is a prerogative of EU member states. So the Netherlands and the [European] Commission can go to Tunis and commit to this and say the EU is going to make Vague progress on this, but if France or Germany decides that they don’t feel like it, well, they just won’t do it,” Le Coz said.
Gallien said that the lack of exact commitments in the text of the agreement means the deal is mostly symbolic.
“It is designed to show progress, to signal that they’re working together on these issues, because both sides have domestic audiences that have an interest in this, but I think it is very doubtful or very unclear at this point how much will come out of it,” he said.
But signals matter, critics say. The EU is cooperating with Tunisia on migration despite serious allegations of human rights abuses against migrants on Tunisia’s part. Tunisian forces have been accused of arbitrary detentions and inhuman treatment of migrants. And Saied himself has stoked tensions by describing migration into Tunisia from other parts of Africa as “criminal enterprise hatched at the beginning of this century to change the demographic composition of Tunisia.”
The Tunisian government didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment.
This isn’t the first time the EU has struck a deal with a North Afrian regime that has been accused of human rights abuses in order to stem migration. It brokered a similar agreement with Libya in 2017 despite documented human rights violations there. It announced additional support for Libya last year.
Gallien said Europe’s position on Tunisia’s descent into autocracy is worrying.
“We should not fall into the trap of just looking at other countries in the region and going ‘well, you know, there’s a lot of authoritarianism and consequently, Tunisia’s authoritarianism is less concerning’,” he said.
Tunisia’s democracy was not perfect, Gallien said, but “it did have a genuine attempt at developing democratic institutions.”
“This is a genuine destruction of something that has been built and consequently a narrowing of the options of a country of over 10 million people,” he added. “So, I think that is that is one reason we should be very concerned.”
After nearly ten years of military-backed government, Thailand’s parliament on Wednesday vetoed Pita Limjaroenrat’s nomination for prime minister, dealing a setback to his progressive opposition party.
The house speaker said that, of the 715 members of parliament present, 395 voted to reject the second nomination, 312 voted in favour of it, eight abstained, and Pita himself did not participate in the vote.
Following a complaint from the Election Commission against the Move Forward Party leader accusing him of breaking election regulations for allegedly owning interests in a media company, the country’s constitutional court temporarily barred him from his position as a lawmaker.
Pita has denied he broke election rules and previously accused the Election Commission of rushing the case to court.
Move Forward Party had pledged deep structural reforms to how the Southeast Asian country of more than 70 million people is run: changes to the military, the economy, the decentralization of power and even reforms to the previously untouchable monarchy.
The May election, which saw a record turnout, delivered a powerful rebuke to the military-backed establishment that has ruled Thailand since 2014, when then-army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha seized power in a coup.
Pita Limjaroenrat spoke to CNN after winning national elections this May
The court and parliament’s decision will likely add fuel to the fire of Move Forward’s young support base, with the potential for mass street protests.
The party’s platform for change proved enormously popular with the party winning by far the largest share of seats.
A group of opposition parties then formed a coalition aimed at forming a majority government and put forward Pita as a prime minister candidate. Pita, a 42-year-old Harvard alumni, called the coalition “the voice of hope and the voice of change” and said all parties had agreed to support him as the next prime minister of Thailand.
Last week Pita failed to failed to secure enough parliamentary votes to become prime minister in a political system that was created by the previous junta and heavily favors the royalist, conservative establishment that has long held the levers of power in Thailand.
In Thailand, a party or coalition needs to win a majority of 375 seats in both lower and upper houses of parliament – currently 749 seats – to elect a prime minister and form a government.
But the conservative establishment has a head start. The unelected 250-member Senate was appointed by the military under a post-coup constitution and has previously voted for a pro-military candidates.
Pita received just 324 votes out of the 376 needed for a majority and the kingdom is still without a prime minister as the political jostling continues.
He addressed parliament on Wednesday to bid “farewell,” while the investigation is underway.
“Due to the Constitutional Court has ordered me to temporarily suspend my duty, I would like to use this opportunity to bid my farewell to Mr. Speaker, until we meet again,” Pita said in parliament.
“I would ask my fellow members to continue using the parliamentary system to take care of the people. I think Thailand has already changed and won’t turn back since May 14. The people have already come halfway, for another half even though I can’t perform my duty, I would ask my fellow members to continue taking care of the people.”
The court ruling now threatens his status as a lawmaker.
Thailand’s powerful conservative establishment – a nexus of the military, monarchy and influential elites – has a history of blocking fundamental changes to the status quo.
Over the last two decades Thailand’s Constitutional Court has repeatedly ruled in favor of the establishment, dissolving several parties that had challenged the political elite.
The military also has a long track record of toppling democratically elected governments and seizing power during moments of instability.
Thailand has witnessed a dozen successful coups since 1932, including two in the past 17 years.
It was a unique occasion when the Kremlin‘s outward appearance and the truth behind its doors coincided.
According to the head of the British intelligence agency Mi6, who revealed this in a rare speech in Prague, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private military company Wagner, did indeed strike a deal with Putin to halt his advance on Moscow during the foiled uprising of June 24. And it appeared that he had been welcomed into the Kremlin days later when he met with Putin.
The Mi6 chief, identified only as C, also voiced some perplexity at the tremors that shook the Kremlin that weekend and the quickness with which allegiances were discarded and won back.
“If you look at Putin’s behaviors on that day”, Richard Moore said of June 24, “Prigozhin started off I think, as a traitor at breakfast. He had been pardoned by supper and then a few days later, he was invited for tea. So, there are some things and even the chief of MI6 finds that a little bit difficult to try and interpret, in terms of who’s in and who’s out.”
Moore also gave a rare indication of the continued health and whereabouts of Prigozhin himself, whose characteristically profane and frequent audio messages published on Telegram have recently stopped. Asked by CNN if Prigozhin was “alive and healthy”, Moore replied the Wagner leader was still: “floating around”, per his agency’s understanding.
Western intelligence agencies have been reticent to comment on the failed rebellion, for fear of providing a false backbone to Russia’s familiar excuse for internal dissent – that it is arranged and fueled by western spies. Yet the on-camera speech provided an opportunity for Moore’s expression to convey how shocking the weakness betrayed by Putin that weekend had been.
“He really didn’t fight back against Prigozhin”, Moore said. “He cut a deal to save his skin, using the good offices of the leader of Belarus”, he said, referring to the intervention of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko who struck the deal. “So even I can’t see inside Putin’s head”, he added. “He has to have realized, I am sure that something that is deeply rotten in the state of Denmark – to quote Hamlet – and he had to cut this deal.”
Moore added it was difficult to make “firm judgments” about the fate of Wagner itself, as a mercenary group, but they “do not appear to be engaged in Ukraine”, and that there “appears to be elements of them in Belarus.”
Moore chose the city of Prague, which he remarked as the last European capital to have Russian tanks roll into it before Ukraine, as a venue for a speech. He began with an unusually open appeal to Russians “silently appalled by the sight of their armed forces pulverizing Ukrainian cities, expelling innocent families from their homes, and kidnapping thousands of children” to spy for the United Kingdom.
“I invite them to do what others have already done this past 18 months and join hands with us. …Their secrets will always be safe with us, and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end.”
It was an abnormally public appeal that fit the upended global geopolitics forged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While Moore maintained that China is “absolutely complicit in the invasion” because of its continued support of the Kremlin head, he added that Iran’s support for Russia has caused division in its most senior officials. “Iran is clearly keen to make as much cash as it can out of this situation”, he said. And while Iran is notably selling drones that usually hit civilian targets, he added: “It will sell anything it can spare and it thinks it can get away with.”
Richard Moore urged Russians who were “wrestling with their conscience” to rebel against the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin when speaking in Prague, and he gave them the chance to “share secrets with MI6.”
As Moore continued, “there are many Russians today who are silently appalled by the sight of their armed forces pulverisingUkrainian cities, expelling innocent families from their homes, and kidnapping thousands of children.”
“They are watching in horror as their soldiers ravage a kindred country. They know in their hearts that Putin’s case for attacking a fellow Slavic nation is fraudulent,” he added.
In response, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said that any citizens disaffected by the Putin regime who are tempted to spy for western intelligence should think again, warning of an outcome similar to that of the Skripals.
“As for ‘open doors and keeping secrets’, you perhaps would be believed if you showed us the Skripals. Usually those who believe you and trust you, end up being destroyed by you in the first place,” said Maria Zakharova in a statement posted on her Telegram channel on Wednesday.
In March 2018, a former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, convicted in Russia for treason, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury, England. Moscow has denied any involvement as the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was lack of any evidence of Russia’s guilt in the case.
Zakharova also made light of Moore’s claims that Russia will not be able to regain momentum in the war after the MI6 chief said he was”optimistic” Ukraine would prevail against the Russian invasion. “If Russia had a ‘little chance’ to regain ground, you, Richard Moore, wouldn’t make such a fuss,” she said.
These comments come as Putin continues to escalate his war in Ukraine, with Russian forces mounting an aerial assault on the city of Odesa overnight into Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s termination of a crucial deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain has further ramped up diplomatic tensions, and the aftermath of an armed uprising by the Russian mercenary group Wagner last month – ended by a pardon for leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his departure to Belarus – continues to raise questions for Putin.
The MI6 chief told CNN that Prigozhin is alive and at liberty following the group’s 24-hour mutiny against the Kremlin, and that Putin is clearly under pressure.
“You don’t have a group of mercenaries advance up the motorway towards Moscow and get to within 125 kilometers of Moscow unless you have not quite predicted that was going to happen.”
Moore said that Putin “didn’t really fight back” against Prighozhin but instead had to cut a “humiliating deal” to bring the mutiny to an end. “He has to have realized, I am sure that something that is deeply rotten in the state of Denmark – to quote Hamlet – and he had to cut this deal.”
He also issued a warning to African states with connections to the Wagner Group that if Prigozhin could “betray” Putin, then it will betray them in turn.
Wagner mercenaries have been present in the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mozambique, and Syria. Over the years they have developed a particularly gruesome reputation and have been linked to various human rights abuses.
On Wednesday, a Russian weapons storage facility in occupied Crimea was rocked by a series of explosions that drove thousands of locals from their homes and forced local authorities to divert traffic from a nearby roadway.
The site near Stary Krym in Crimea’s Kirorvsky region was shown on video to be engulfed in smoke and flames, and blasts continued there for at least six hours after the original explosion. According to Russian official media, the head of the Crimean parliament indicated that it might take two days to completely put out the fire.
The cause of the blasts has not yet been confirmed. The Russian-backed leader of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said on Telegram that “a fire occurred at a military training ground.” Askenov said residents of four surrounding villages – more than 2,000 people – were being evacuated.
The explosions are the latest in a series of recent incidents to roil Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula illegally seized by Russia in 2014. On Monday, Ukraine claimed responsibility for an attack that damaged part of the bridge linking Crimea to Russia, a vital supply line for Moscow’s invasion and a personal project for President Vladimir Putin.
Kyiv has not commented on Wednesday’s explosions at the Crimea training ground. The pro-Russian Grey Zone Telegram channel claimed that a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile struck the depot, which could not immediately be confirmed, while a rebel Ukrainian group in Crimea called Atesh celebrated the fire but said it was not responsible.
Putin’s spokesman said he had been briefed on the blasts at the ammunition dump.
Russia has retaliated against the Ukrainian strike on the bridge by launching a brutal two-day aerial assault on the strategic port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine, damaging key infrastricture and injuring civilians.
The Kremlin’s barrage overnight included Kalibr, Kh-22 and Oniks cruise missiles, and Iran-made Shahed-136/131 UAVs, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that it destroyed 14 cruise missiles and 23 drones.
CNN journalists in Odesa heard an intense bombardment early Wednesday local time.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it targeted military and fuel facilities in Odesa with “high-precision sea and air-based weapons.”
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow deliberately leveled strikes at key “grain deal infrastructure,” after the Kremlin on Monday pulled out of an agreement that allowed grain to be exported by sea from Ukrainian ports otherwise blockaded by Russia.
He said it was the “largest” attempt by Russia to “inflict pain on Odesa” since the invasion began in February 2022, adding that about “a million tons of food” is stored in the ports that were struck on Wednesday.
“Everyone is affected by this Russian terror,” the Ukrainian leader added.
The Ukrainian Agriculture Ministry said the damage, which hit grain export infrastructure in Odesa and the nearby port of Chornomorsk, would take at least a year to fully restore.
“This is a terrorist act not only against Ukraine, but against the whole world. Its food security is once again under threat. Humanity is being held hostage by a terrorist country that is blackmailing the world with hunger,” the Ukrainian Agricultural Minister Mykola Solskyi said in a Wednesday statement.
Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov called the bombardment “one of the most horrible nights” of the war.
“We do not recall such a scale of attack since the beginning of a full-scale invasion,” he said on Facebook.
There were no casualties reported. But the city was shaken by explosions and several people were wounded by a downed Russian missile, including a nine-year-old boy, officials said.
Further east, two civilians were killed and seven others injured by Ukrainian shelling in parts of separatist-controlled areas of the eastern Donetsk region, according to a Russian-backed official.
Several homes, two schools and a hospital were damaged, the head of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said on Telegram.
Ukraine’s attack on the Crimea bridge dealt a logistical and symbolic blow to Moscow’s faltering military campaign. The bridge is a critical artery for supplying the peninsula with both its daily needs and supplies for the military, in addition to fuel and goods for civilians.
The $3.7 billion-dollar corridor, which is 12 miles long, is a critical artery for supplying the peninsula with both its daily needs and supplies for the Russian military, in addition to fuel and goods for civilians.
The strike was a joint operation of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and Ukraine’s naval forces, an SBU official told CNN. The attack killed a couple and left their daughter injured.
