Renowned Ghanaian musician Shatta Wale created a buzz when he unexpectedly appeared at the Kuchoko Festival 2023, organized by Blakk Rasta and held at the Alliance Française. This surprise appearance delighted fans and added an exciting twist to the event.
The unexpected reunion between the two artistes comes after they engaged in a prolonged social media feud, capturing the attention of fans and followers.
For quite some time, Shatta Wale and Blakk Rasta have been embroiled in a social media brawl, exchanging heated words and making headlines.
The public feud had left fans wondering if the tension between the two artistes would ever dissipate.
However, their unexpected reunion at the Kuchoko Festival brought a pleasant surprise to both attendees and fans alike.
In the video shared by Sammy Flex, the atmosphere was filled with anticipation as Shatta Wale took the stage.
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause as he delivered a remarkable performance, captivating the audience with his energy and talent.
The highlight of the evening came when Shatta Wale and Blakk Rasta embraced in a heartfelt hug, signifying the end of their social media feud.
Following the event, fans took to social media to express their excitement and appreciation for the unexpected reunion.
Many commended both Shatta Wale and Blakk Rasta for their maturity and willingness to move past their differences.
The display of unity and camaraderie sent a positive message to the music community, encouraging other artistes to resolve conflicts and focus on creating memorable experiences for their fans.
Sarkodie, has refuted allegations of pressuring actress Yvonne Nelson into undergoing an abortion back in 2010.
Stating his side of the story in a new song, Try Me, which has since gone viral since it was released Tuesday, June 27, 2023, the Country Side hitmaker disclosed that even though he wasn’t prepared at the time, he wanted her to keep the baby but Yvonne refused on grounds of being in school.
With his emotions highly visible on the song, Sarkodie talked about how he was deeply in love with Yvonne Nelson but turned out he was probably just one of the many guys in her life at the time on the 3:16 minutes song.
He mentioned that he didn’t want to disclose that side of his life till death but has been forced to come out since Yvonne Nelson told a story which favours her.
“I’m not going to lie, we had a thing. First, I thought we had a think until I had the hint that there were many guys. I tried to stay away but then you came that you were pregnant. But then I wasn’t ready but I told you to keep it.
“You told be you were schooling so you needed to complete it but till today, I don’t believe it. I told you to let my doctor take care of you and you sent a text later that your friend has recommended a one of the best doctors…
“So don’t you make it seem like I was the one pushing you for abortion. Baby girl make you no try me”, he raps on Ty Me.
But it seems the Princess Tyra actress is not having any of this as she tweeted this morning, June 28.
“Insults won’t work Michael, Respect womanhood. I’m happy the world gets to see how you are playing this and the real you. Young women get to learn from this. You would get the applause for a rap. still doesn’t change the truth,” she posted.
Award-winning actress, Yvonne Nelson revealed in a book that she aborted a pregnancy for Sarkodie in 2010 after a short relationship.
According to her, she took the decision following Sarkodie’s decision not to take responsibility of the child since he was young and not financially sound at the time.
Narrating the incident on pages 88-95 of Chapter eight of her memoir, Yvonne said Sarkodie and his manager at the time accompanied her to a clinic at Mamprobi to get the foetus removed. That was after a failed attempt with pills recommended by a friend.
An authority on Russian private military contractors has suggested that Vladimir Putin cannot just “kill his way out” of his conflict with the rebellious Wagner group.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the militia’s head, recently abandoned an advance on Moscow, and the president is attempting to quell his disobedience.
Prigozhin has been expelled to Belarus, and his old ally has threatened retaliation against the Wagner officials who are to blame.
But Alec Bertina, an all-source analyst at the Grey Dynamics private intelligence firm, said that the financier and his commanders still exert significant influence.
Assassinations and mysterious deaths routinely befall high-profile Russians who fall out of favour with the Kremlin, but this option would cause more problems than it would solve for Putin, Bertina told Metro.co.uk.
Prigozhin’s forces captured the city of Rostov-on-Don, a key Russian military centre, before a Wagner convoy headed north in the biggest challenge to Putin in more than 20 years.
Yevgeny Prigozhin makes a speech af the HQ of Russia’s southern military district in Rostov-on-Don (Picture: Wagner/Anadolu Agency via Getty)
‘Vladimir Putin knows he cannot simply kill his way out of this situation by liquidating Prigozhin and the Wagner leadership,’ Bertina said.
‘There is a real mess for everyone in the Kremlin to clean up.
‘This was very well planned and the question remains about the people who masterminded this with Prigozhin.
‘They were seemingly able to come up with a significant operation involving the seizure of the southern military command of Rostov, an important command and control node.
‘For the MoD to kill its way out of the problem they would need to liquidate and reconstitute those Wagner units, which is resource-intensive at a time when they are short of capable officers.’
Speaking from the Kremlin in a pre-recorded televised address yesterday evening, Putin said that those involved in the ‘criminal activity’ would be brought to justice. He is now inviting the mercenaries to sign over to Russia’s Ministry of Defence, but it remains to be seen if the battle-hardened fighters are prepared to abandon Prigozhin, who is reportedly staying at a hotel in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
‘A lot of the Wagner operators will be upset at Prigozhin for ending this, as almost every combat element that has served in Ukraine has some animosity towards the MoD,’ Bertina said.
‘There is a balance between ensuring loyalty in your forces and not taking cut-throat measures that will backfire and make Russia look worse and more incapable than it already is. Putin does not have unity of command; he is a wartime leader who can’t control his men and has been left informationally vulnerable with Ukraine compelling Russian soldiers to surrender rather than fight for a regime on its last legs. In Russia, the elites are panicked and the existing discontent among the oligarchs will only grow.’
Prigozhin had repeatedly launched blistering video attacks on Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and army chief Valery Gerasimov for failing to provide his mercenaries with enough ammunition during the bloody fight for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut.
On Friday, he accused the Russian Ministry of Defence of launching a missile attack on one of his camps, before seizing Rostov, headquarters of Russia’s southern military district, the following morning. His units then advanced within 125 miles (200km) of Moscow.
Putin said the ‘rebellion’ was a ‘stab in the back’ before his former chef stood his troops down and apparently agreed to go into exile under a deal brokered via Belarussian president Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Wagner, along with all Russian private military companies, now has until July 1 to sign a contract bringing the group under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Defence.
In his speech, Putin tried to persuade the militia’s estimated 50,000 fighters and leaders in Ukraine to come under the ministry’s command. The other stated options were to retire and go home or to go to Belarus.
The military’s supreme commander also praised Wagner commanders, which was framed by the US Institute for the Study of War as ‘likely critical’ to retaining them and maintaining the group’s effectiveness.
The research organisation said: ‘‘The future of the Wagner Group is unclear, but it will likely not include Yevgeny Prigozhin and may not continue to exist as a distinct or unitary entity.’
Putin further spoke at a speech in a Kremlin square today, praising the country’s military and law enforcement, who he said had ‘essentially prevented a civil war’.
However Bertina, a researcher on Russian non-traditional security actors, is sceptical about the president’s attempts to shore up his power.
‘One of Russia’s most effective forces will now have to undergo some element of reconstitution and possible liquidation of its leadership, which will be expensive as you don’t build up an organisation like Wagner overnight,’ he said.
‘Putin can still say he’s in power but it’s not much to go on, with even people on the pro-war side viewing their president as pathetic and questioning if he can lead effectively.
‘While there is no longer any kinetic conflict, this is far from finished, there are still difficulties getting Wagnerites to subordinate to the Ministry of Defence, and there is a lot of uncertainty about what the actual deal struck between Prigozhin and the Kremlin was.
‘The external statements put out by the Kremlin cannot be taken as indicative of what the deals actually contain.’
The Kremlin has said that Wagner is handing over its heavy weapons to the conventional military, but questions remain over its lucrative sphere of operations in Africa and its fighters’ willingness to join regular units.
‘Some Wagner elements might, while other elements will find it very hard to do,’ Bertina said. ‘While another kinetic confrontation is hard to see, the Wagnerites going to the front will be meeting their force counterparts who will be viewing them with suspicion and there will be a tension and uneasy relationship that might have a significant impact on the battlefield.
‘They went to Wagner to get paid more and also because they were led by a command structure outside of the Ministry of Defence, and that’s been taken away from them.’
In an 11-minute audio address released yesterday, Prigozhin said no one had agreed to sign a contract with the defence ministry and his firm was due to cease existence on the contract deadline day.
He portrayed his decision to turn his heavily armed convoy around on the road to Moscow as a move to avoid ‘shedding Russian blood’, with his actions borne of anger directed at the defence ministry rather than being an attempt to overthrow the government.
Rory Stewart, an independent MP and former House of Commons Defence Committee chair, speculated that Prigozhin had acted first because his ‘back was against the wall’ after an apparent ‘bungled attempt’ by the FSB, the KGB’s successor, to abduct him.
Bertina said: ‘Prigozhin was quite willing to take risks, and they were dangerous risks, but I’m not sure he was as cornered as some would suggest. It’s difficult to be certain about, but who knows?’
On the battlefield, Ukrainian Airborne forces ‘highly likely’ recaptured one of the first areas of territory occupied by Russia since 2014, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. The ‘small advances’ were made eastwards from the village of Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk region, according to the intelligence update this morning.
More than 24,000 consultants in England participated in the election, with a 71% turnout, and 20,741 voting in favour of a strike.
It will happen just a few days after the junior physicians’ five-day strike, which is scheduled to end on the 18th.
BMA consultants committee chair Dr Vishal Sharma said the vote showed how ‘furious’ they were at being repeatedly devalued by the government – and calls for a ‘credible’ pay offer.
The BMA says take-home pay for consultants in England has fallen by 35% since 2008/9.
The industrial action will take the form of ‘Christmas Day cover’, meaning most routine and elective services will be cancelled but full emergency cover will remain in place.
Dr Sharma added: ‘We know consultants don’t take the decision around industrial action lightly, but this vote shows how furious they are at being repeatedly devalued by government.
‘Consultants are not worth a third less than we were 15 years ago and have had enough.
‘Consultants don’t want to have to take industrial action, but have been left with no option in the face of a government that continues to cut our pay year after year.
‘However, it is not too late to avert strike action and the government simply needs to come back to us with a credible offer that we can put to our members.
‘We are simply asking for fairness to ensure there is a pay settlement that begins to reverse the real-terms pay decline we have suffered and a commitment to fully reform the pay review process to ensure it can make truly independent recommendations in the future that take into account historical losses so that we don’t find ourselves in this situation again.
‘But if they refuse, it is with a heavy heart that we will take action next month. We will prioritise patient safety and continue to provide emergency care, in-keeping with the level of services available on Christmas Day.
‘Consultants are the NHS’s most experienced, highly-skilled clinicians, and are responsible not just for providing specialist care patients, but also leading entire services and training the doctors of the future.
‘The government can and must fix consultant pay now and for the future. Failure to do so will lead consultants to leave the NHS and the country, or towards retirement before their time.
‘The loss of this expertise would be devastating for services, patients and the future of the NHS.’
Earlier today the threat of further strikes by Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members ended because a ballot on further industrial action failed to meet the legal threshold.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We hugely value the work of NHS consultants and it is disappointing the BMA consultants have voted to take strike action.
‘Consultants received a 4.5% pay uplift last financial year, increasing average earnings to around £128,000, and they will benefit from generous changes to pension taxation announced at budget.
‘Strikes are hugely disruptive for patients and put pressure on other NHS staff.
‘We’ve been engaging with the BMA consultants committee on their concerns already and stand ready to open talks again – we urge them to come to the negotiating table rather than proceeding with their proposed strike dates.
‘We urge the BMA to carefully consider the likely impact of any action on patients.’
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: ‘Trust leaders, staff and patients are dreading industrial action by consultants next month hard on the heels of a five-day strike by junior doctors.
‘A double whammy of consultants resorting to two days of Christmas Day cover and a full walkout by junior doctors days earlier in the longest single strike ever seen in the NHS means disruption for many thousands of patients and yet more pressure on overstretched services. This is a huge risk for the NHS to manage.
‘July will be the eighth consecutive month of industrial action across the NHS.
‘More than 651,000 routine operations and appointments have had to be postponed already since December due to industrial action across the NHS with knock-on delays for many thousands more.
‘We understand how strongly doctors feel – the high turnout in the consultants’ vote shows just how strongly – and why they are striking.
‘Trust leaders will continue to do everything they can to limit disruption and keep patients safe, but that’s getting harder and more expensive with every strike.
‘These strikes don’t have to go ahead. There’s still time for the government and the doctors’ unions to settle their differences and find a way through.
‘The urgency can’t be overstated. Trust leaders want the government and unions to sit down, facilitated by a third party if necessary, to find a way to end strikes.’
Millions of individuals have been urged by The Money Saving Expert to submit their energy metre readings before the end of the month.
On Saturday, July 1, the energy price cap will be lowered, and Martin Lewis advises customers to take metre readings to prevent their supplier from overestimating how much energy they’ve consumed.
The price cap will decrease from £3,280 to £2,074, implying that a typical household’s annual expenditure should decrease by about £450.
However, suppliers will estimate your usage if you don’t send them regular readings, so you might find up spending too much or too little.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, Martin Lewis said: ‘It’s meter reading week.
‘On July 1 we see prices drop an average of 17% – the effect is you’ll drop more than that if you’re a high user who uses a lot of gas, you’ll drop less than that if you’re a low user.
‘The reason is if you are on a monthly direct debit and don’t have a smart meter you should be doing a meter reading sometime around the next week.
‘If not, your bill will be estimated which bit came at the higher rate and which bit came at the lower rate and that could move against you.
‘So you get a meter reading done at the moment and it says “well everything before this point is at the higher rate, everything after this point, roughly, should be at the lower rate”, and it just makes sure, if there is a discrepancy, it doesn’t go against you.’
This advice only applies to people with a standard meter – as people with smart meters don’t need to submit readings.
In Russia under Vladimir Putin, this simply does not occur. particularly in public.
The greatest challenge to the Russian president‘s hold on power has ever existed throughout his 23 years in charge of the nuclear state. The final selling point of his dictatorship, the veneer of complete control he had upheld all these time, has now fallen apart, and it is astonishing to watch.
Inevitable and impractical at the same time. Unavoidable because only a system as tightly controlled and impervious to criticism as the Kremlin could survive such a horrific misadventure due to the poorly managed war. Furthermore, it’s difficult since Putin’s detractors either disappear, jump out of windows, or are brutally poisoned. Nevertheless, the fifth-largest army in the world is now halfway through a weekend during which fratricide—the use of firearms against one’s own soldiers—was momentarily the only thing that could prevent the collapse of the Moscow elite.
At the time of writing, 24 hours of extraordinary shark-jumping culminated with Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin agreeing to reverse his advance to within 120 miles (200 kilometers) of Moscow’s city limits and send his columns back to “field camps, according to the plan.” It is a last-minute reversal intended, he said, to avoid “bloodshed.” Shortly before this audio statement, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko apparently contacted Prigozhin, with the permission of Putin, to negotiate this remarkable climbdown, according to a statement from Belarusian officials and Russian state media reports.
Much of this sudden resolution is as curious and inexplicable as the crisis it solved. Prigozhin appears – thus far – to have had none of his demands heeded. The top brass of Russia’s defense ministry is still in place. He has done incalculable damage to Putin’s control over the Russian state, and shown how easy it is to take control of the key military city of Rostov-on-Don and then move fast towards the capital. And it took the intervention of Lukashenko, an ally whom Putin treats more as a subordinate than an equal, to engineer an end to this ghastly of weekends for the Kremlin.
More details of how this came to be will emerge. And the lasting damage done to Putin by this armed insurrection will be compounded by some key decisions the Kremlin head must now make. Will he pardon Prigozhin, and his fighters, or retract his statement about “inevitable punishment” for “blackmail and terrorist methods?” Does he make changes in the defense elite to placate Wagner’s head? What does all of this say to the Russian military, elite and people about who is really in charge of the country?
The rage and tension that has been building for months has not suddenly been assuaged. It has instead been accentuated.
So accustomed are we to viewing Putin as a master tactician, that the opening salvos of Prigozhin’s disobedience were at times assessed as a feint – a bid by Putin to keep his generals on edge with a loyal henchman as their outspoken critic. But what we have seen – with Putin forced to admit that Rostov-on-Don, his main military hub, is out of his control – puts paid to any idea that this was managed by the Kremlin.
It is likely however Wagner’s units planned some of this for a while. The justification for this rebellion appeared urgent and spontaneous – an apparent air strike on a Wagner camp in the forest, which the Russian Ministry of Defense has denied – appeared hours after a remarkable dissection of the rationale behind the war by Prigozhin.
He partially spoke the truth about the war’s disastrous beginnings: Russia was not under threat from NATO attack, and Russians were not being persecuted. The one deceit he maintained was to suggest Russia’s top brass was behind the invasion plan, and not Putin himself. Wagner’s forces have pulled themselves together very fast and moved quickly into Rostov. That’s hard to do spontaneously in one afternoon.
Perhaps Prigozhin dreamt he could push Putin into a change at the top of a ministry of defense the Wagner chief has publicly berated for months. But Putin’s address on Saturday morning has eradicated that prospect. This is now an existential choice for Russia’s elite – between the president’s faltering regime, and the dark, mercenary Frankenstein it created to do its dirty work, which has turned on its masters.
It is a moment of clarity for Russia’s military too. A few years ago, Prigozhin’s mild critiques would have led to elite special forces in balaclavas walking him away. But now he roams freely, with his sights openly on marching to Moscow. Where were the FSB’s special forces during this nightmare Saturday for the Kremlin? Decimated by the war, or not eager to take on their armed and experienced comrades in Wagner?
This is not the first time this spring we have seen Moscow look weak. The drone attack on the Kremlin in May must have caused the elite around Putin to question how on earth the capital’s defenses were so weak. Days later, elite country houses were targeted by yet more Ukrainian drones. Among the Russian rich, Friday’s events will remove any question about whether they should doubt Putin’s grip on power.
Ukraine will likely be celebrating the disastrous timing of this insurrection inside Russia’s ranks. It will likely alter the course of the war in Kyiv’s favor. But rebellions rarely end in Russia – or anywhere – with the results they set out to achieve. The 1917 removal of Tsar Nicholas II in Russia turned into the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin and then the Soviet Empire.
Listen to Wagner chief vow revenge over deadly attack of his camp
As this rare Jacobean drama of Russian basic human frailty plays out, it is not inevitable that improvements will follow. Prigozhin may not prevail, and the foundations of the Kremlin’s control may not ultimately collapse. But a weakened Putin may do irrational things to prove his strength.
He may prove unable to accept the logic of defeat in the coming months on the frontlines in Ukraine. He may be unaware of the depth of discontent among his own armed forces, and lack proper control over their actions. Russia’s position as a responsible nuclear power rests on stability at the top.
A lot more can go wrong than it can go right. But it is impossible to imagine Putin’s regime will ever go back to its previous heights of control from this moment. And it is inevitable that further turmoil and change is ahead.
Maada Bio, the president of Sierra Leone, was sworn in for a second term on Tuesday, just hours after the country’s electoral body recognised his victory over competitors’ protests.
Samura Kamara of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party came in second with 41% of the vote, while Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) garnered approximately 1.6 million votes, or 56.1% of the total ballots.
“By the authority granted to me… President Bio Julius Maada has been legitimately elected, I hereby certify, said Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Konneh.
Just hours after the results was announced, Bio was sworn in at the State House where he gave a speech thanking citizens for their “trust and dedication.”
“Our triumph belongs to every Sierra Leonean,” he added.
Kamara however rejected the results and described it as a “frontal attack on our fledgling democracy.”
His APC party had on Monday rejected provisional results that showed an early lead for Bio, describing then as “cooked-up figures.”
APC alleged a lack of transparency by the electoral body in tallying the ballots, adding that its agents “were neither allowed access to participate (at tally centers) nor were they allowed to verify results prior to the announcement.”
The vote count was fraught with controversies and some international observers expressed concerns about the integrity of the process.
“Carter Center observers reported that the tabulation process lacked adequate levels of transparency,” the observer group said in a statement ahead of the declaration of the final results.
“Carter Center observers directly observed instances of broken seals and inappropriately open ballot boxes in three of the five tally centers,” it added in its preliminary report issued Tuesday.
The electoral commission described the weekend poll as relatively peaceful but acknowledged pockets of violence and delays in polling in some areas.
On Sunday, Kamara’s APC party accused the country’s security forces of laying siege to its head office in the capital Freetown, and firing live rounds into the property while it held a press conference after the polls.
He described it as an “assassination attempt,” however police denied firing live rounds.
The June 24 vote was the fifth election since the end of the country’s brutal civil war in 2002. Key among voter concerns were high inflation rates and unemployment levels, as well as political violence and corruption.
A physical education instructor from Australia who killed his wife to start a new relationship with a teen pupil was found guilty of sexual assault.
On Wednesday, Chris Dawson was found guilty by Sydney Downing Centre District Court Judge Sarah Huggett of “carnal knowledge upon a girl above the age of 10 and under the age of 17.”
After killing his wife Lynette in 1982, Dawson started a new life with the same student who is now charged. He then wed the pupil, with whom he had a child, but they later got divorced.
Dawson was found guilty last year of murdering his first wife Lynette in a conviction that ended one of Australia’s longest-running cold cases.
He had long denied the murder, claiming Lynette had left him and their two young children before disappearing.
The student, who can be identified only as AB, alleged Dawson had sexually abused her in 1980, when she was a 16-year-old pupil in one of his classes at Cromer High School in Sydney.
Dawson, who appeared in court via video link from Sydney’s Long Bay jail, had denied that, claiming he began the relationship with AB when she was 17 and no longer his student.
Judge Huggett sided with AB, finding that Dawson had groomed the teenager while she was still his pupil.
AB said she began babysitting for Dawson when she was 16, often staying the night at Dawson’s house.
“He asked me to marry him when I was 16, many, many times, I always felt obligated,” AB had alleged.
Judge Huggett said she accepted the evidence that Dawson had proposed to AB at least once in 1980, when AB was 16.
The judge established there was “powerful evidence” within a 17th birthday card sent by Dawson to AB in early 1981, in which “the accused, a mature man, as opposed to an immature teenager, was confident in the existence of a reciprocal and permanent relationship. And that was because a sexual relationship had commenced” in 1980.
Dawson dedicated the card to “the most beautiful girl in the world” and wrote “knowing we will share all the birthdays to follow.”
The body of Dawson’s wife has never been found. He is not eligible for parole as long as the body remains missing.
AB had testified against Dawson in the murder trial, which saw Dawson jailed for 24 years. The judge in that case found allegations that Dawson had sexually abused his 16-year-old student in 1980 were “truthful and reliable” and that Dawson’s obsession with the teenager was enough to motivate him to kill Lynette.
Dawson responded to Wednesday’s verdict by swearing repeatedly.
He will be sentenced on the “carnal knowledge” charge on September 15.
Speaking of his participation in quelling the mercenaries’ military uprising that sparked crisis in Russia over the weekend, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko asserts that he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to “destroy” the Wagner organisation and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
On Tuesday, Lukashenko gave his perspective on the negotiations that caused Prigozhin to halt his march towards Moscow and said the oligarch is now in Belarus in accordance with the agreement.
According to Belarussian official media, Lukashenko stated that “the most dangerous thing, as I understand it, is not what the situation was, but how it could develop and its consequences.”
“I also realized there was a harsh decision taken – to destroy. I suggested Putin not to hurry. Let’s talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders.”
Lukashenko – a longtime ally of the Russian President – said Putin told him: “Listen, Alex, it’s useless. (Prigozhin) doesn’t even pick up the phone, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
But Lukashenko said he managed to get hold of the Wagner boss and, according to his account, warned he would be “crushed like a bug” if Wagner troops continued their advance to the Russian capital.
“We talked for the first round of 30 minutes in a swear language. Exclusively. There were 10 times more swear words (I later analyzed them) than normal vocabulary,” Lukashenko added, describing his interactions with a foul-mouthed Prigozhin.
“Of course, he apologized in advance, and began to tell me everything using these obscene words.”
The Kremlin has credited Lukashenko with helping to deescalate the situation, though the Belarus leader’s account of events has not been corroborated by Putin or Prigozhin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Lukashenko was able to draw on a personal relationship with Prigozhin to reach the deal, which would also see Wagner troops and equipment absorbed by the Russian military.
Russia’s Federal Security Service meanwhile said it would drop a case against Wagner fighters over the apparent uprising.
Prigozhin’s rebellion marked a sudden and dramatic escalation of his long-running feud with Russia’s military commanders.
He seized control of a southern military headquarters and directed his private Wagner troops towards Moscow, and demanded the resignation of defense minister Sergei Shoigu – a call that Lukashenko says he eventually backed down from during discussions.
While Putin survived the events, his standing appears significantly weakened. In an address on Monday, the Russian leader thanked the mercenaries for making the “right decision” in halting their advance, and offered them contracts to join the Russian ministry of defense’s force. He also claimed that the “armed rebellion would have been suppressed anyway,” without specifying how.
Lukashenko said Tuesday that Prigozhin has received his personal assurances of safety, and the safety of his men, in order to defuse the rebellion on Saturday evening.
“At five o’clock in the evening he called me and said: “…I accept all your conditions. But … What should I do? We stop – they will destroy us.” I say: “They won’t. I guarantee you. I’ll take it upon myself,” Lukashenko recalled.
In the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Monday, a building collapsed, killing at least five people—including a child—and injuring four more, according to the official newspaper Al-Ahram.
According to Al-Ahram, a 28-year-old man named Mohamed Hussein was found among the debris on Tuesday. He was the fifth victim. The search is still going on.
The names of one person retrieved from the rubble on Tuesday but not yet identified were Abdullah Mahfouz, 13, Mostafa Othman, 22, and Hamdy El-Sayed, 40.
A total of 16 families lived in the 14-story building, which was built about 50 years ago, while other apartments were used by domestic tourists spending the summer in Alexandria, the city’s governor Mohamed El Sherif said.
One of the residents told reporters on site about the harrowing moments when her missing family members fell with the building around 8 a.m. local time on Monday.
“I placed my younger siblings under the couch as bricks were falling,” said the young woman in tears. “I went back and called for my mother to leave with me, she said she was coming. So, I walked a few steps forward to find the ceiling falling along with them [my mother and brother]. I was facing the sky and they were down.”
A live video posted on the city’s Facebook page showed civil defense units attempting to put out a small fire in the rubble on Monday.
Egypt’s Public Prosecution has issued an order to detain the owner of the collapsed 14th floor and a contractor for four days pending investigations over involuntary manslaughter and unauthorized construction charges. According to Al-Ahram, the contractor carried out the constructions on the top floor despite a demolition order.
About 7,000 old, inhabited buildings in Alexandria are at risk of collapse, Al-Ahram reported, citing a member of Egypt’s House of Representatives.
Per to the legislation, on Wednesday, more than 51 million people in South Korea awoke to find themselves one or two years younger.
A law that took effect on Wednesday mandates that “all judicial and administrative areas” in the East Asian nation adopt the “international age” system used by the majority of the world. This puts an end to years of debate over the issues raised by the problems caused by the formerly widespread use of “Korean age” and “calendar age.”
Standardising ages will “reduce various social confusions and disputes,” according to Lee Wan-kyu, the Minister of Government Legislation, who made the statement during a news briefing on Monday.
The law, passed by South Korea’s Parliament last December, is also expected to “greatly reduce social costs that have been unnecessary due to the mixed use of age standards,” Lee said, adding this had been a major pledge by President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office last May.
In South Korea, “international age” refers to the number of years since a person was born, and starts at zero – the same system used in most other countries.
But when asked their age in informal settings, most South Koreans will answer with their “Korean age,” which could be one or even two years older than their international age.
Under this system, which has its roots in China, babies are considered a year old on the day they’re born, with a year added every January 1.
In some circumstances, South Koreans also use their “calendar age” – a mash-up of international age and Korean age – which consider babies as zero years old on the day they’re born and adds a year to their age every January 1.
Take “Gangnam Style” singer Psy, for example. Born on December 31, 1977, he is considered 45 by international age; 46 by calendar year age; and 47 by Korean age.
If this sounds confusing, it is, with daily life in the country often switching between the hodgepodge of different systems.
Even with the new standardization, the old systems will still be used in some circumstances, the government said on Wednesday.
For instance, children typically enter elementary school in March of the year after they turn 6 years old (in international age), regardless of which month their birthday falls – which will continue.
Laws on age-restricted products like alcohol or tobacco will also be based on the year someone is born, regardless of month. This means two people born in January and December 1990 are judged to be the same age.
Under this law, people are allowed to buy alcohol starting in the year they turn 19 (in international age).
The same method will continue to be used for South Korea’s mandatory military service – meaning people are eligible based on the year they were born, rather than their specific age or birth date.
“The government decided to contain such exceptions even after the revisions go into effect, as it is easier to manage such issues on a yearly basis,” minister Lee said on Wednesday.
Many residents are likely to continue using the traditional Korean age system in day-to-day life and social scenarios, as is common.
But others may welcome the change; in a poll by the Ministry of Government Legislation, 86.2% of respondents had said that they would use the international age system. And it marks a victory for lawmakers who have spent years campaigning to standardize international age, fed up with the multiple systems.
A woman who was sexually assaulted by a man she met on a dating app wrote to him to tell him that she doesn’t hate him, despite feeling ’empty’ and ‘unsafe’ after the incident.
On March 21 of this year, the 25-year-old was the target of Ryan Mulhern‘s 41-year-old attack, which she referred to as a “tragedy that could have been avoided.”
After confessing to both rape and attempted rape, he has been behind bars for almost nine years.
The victim was found crying by a passerby in Highgate, north London, telling them she had just been raped.
She later told police she had gone to Mulhern’s home where he repeatedly raped her, despite her pleading with him to stop.
A man hunt was launched before he was arrested in Islington, north London, on March 22.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, wrote to her attacker in a victim impact statement read aloud at Snaresbrook Crown Court, where Mulhern was sentenced to eight years and nine months behind bars on Friday.
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She told him: ‘I reported you because it was the right thing to do.
‘Even now, I do not feel hatred towards you and am saddened that we are in such a situation.
‘However, I hate that your actions have made me feel unsafe, empty, and unworthy of others’ respect.
‘I have to deal with the impact of your violence for the foreseeable future.
‘This rape is a tragedy that could have and should have been avoided.
‘Even if you struggle to feel remorse towards me, I hope you can understand the hurt you have caused to the ones closest to you and yourself.’
Speaking after the sentence was passed, Detective Sergeant Sam Lockstone, who led the investigation, said: ‘I hope the significant sentence handed down encourages other victims of rape to come forward, and brings the rape survivor in this case a sense of closure and justice.
‘Arresting, charging and seeing Mulhern jailed within just three months of the incident shows the dedication and commitment our teams have in pursuing justice for these horrific offences.’
Matt Hancock, a former health secretary, has expressed his “profound regret” for each death brought on by Covid-19.
At the height of the pandemic, the UK was recording tens of thousands of deaths every day.
An investigation on how the government handled the pandemic and what may be learned from it is currently under progress.
Mr. Hancock expressed his regret for each tragedy that occurred when testifying today, saying, “I am profoundly sorry for the impact that it had.”
‘And I also understand why, for some, it will be hard to take that apology from me. I understand that, I get it.
‘But it is honest and heartfelt, and I’m not very good at talking about my emotions and how I feel. But that is honest and true.
‘And all I can do is ensure that this inquiry gets to the bottom of it, and that for the future, we learn the right lessons, so that we stop a pandemic in its tracks much, much earlier.
‘And that we have the systems in place ready to do that, because I’m worried that they’re being dismantled as we speak.’
For the families gathered outside the Inquiry – many who held photos of loved ones lost – Mr Hancock’s comments were deemed ‘disingenuous.’
Jean Adamson’s father Aldrick Adamson died of Covid-19 aged 98 in a care home in April 2020.
Ms Adamson, 59, said of the former health secretary: ‘He just hasn’t taken any responsibility whatsoever for his actions. It’s just essentially a self-serving exercise from him trying to save his own skin.’
Asked about Mr Hancock’s apology for those who died during the pandemic, she said: ‘He’s only sorry that he got caught. He happened to be the one in charge at the time, and he’s now being held accountable.
‘I felt it was disingenuous.’
The MP, who has sat as an independent since having the whip removed in November 2022, was directly rebuffed by one of the relatives outside the Inquiry when he approached them on his way out.
He walked up to Amanda Herring Murrell and started to tell her: ‘I just wanted to say I’m sorry’, before she cut him off and turned her back, saying: ‘Go away! Get your face out of it.’
Charles Persinger, who lost both his mother and wife to coronavirus one month apart in 2021, dressed as the Grim Reaper for the event and sarcastically shouted after Mr Hancock: ‘I’m a big fan of your work.’
During his questioning, Mr Hancock seemed to divert some blame to a lack of preparation done by those who came before him.
Doctrinal failures had ‘consequences’ in areas such as ‘stockpiles, testing, antivirals, contact tracing, and much more widely’ when Covid-19 struck.
He said that, instead of focusing on preventative measures like large-scale testing and contact tracing, the ‘attitude, the doctrine of the UK was to plan for the consequences of a disaster’.
Giving examples, he added: ‘Can we buy enough body bags?
‘Where are we going to bury the dead?
‘And that was completely wrong.’
He added: ‘The problem with the UK plan was that once we got to community transmission, it was wrongly assumed it wasn’t possible to stop the spread.’
Mr Hancock argued that the country needed to be prepared to lockdown early in future to stop a virus spreading, adding that to accept it will just pass between people is ‘implicitly an assumption and a decision that those most vulnerable to it will be hardest hit’.
He said there are ‘costs of lockdown’ and ‘you’ve got to work out whether the impact of the virus is going to be worse than the cost of lockdown, and if it is going to be worse, as was the case with Covid-19, you’ve got to hit it hard and very, very early.’
The Government’s ‘VIP Queue’ for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts dominated headlines in early 2022.
Mr Hancock added that distinguishing between a flu pandemic and coronavirus pandemic was ‘second order’ when it came to stockpiling PPE.
He also said he asked for more information on pandemic preparedness – in particular vaccine manufacturing in the UK – when he started his role at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Examining a ‘day one high-level briefing’, he said he recalled asking for more detail on emergency preparedness.
Mr Hancock said: ‘I wanted to know about the department’s preparation and its planning processes,’ he told the public inquiry.
‘And I recall receiving a note, I think it was in August 2018, and continued to ask questions.
‘For instance, one of the areas that I pushed hard on was the lack of UK domestic vaccine manufacturing given the importance of a vaccine to responding to any pandemic.
‘And that was an area that I worked on intensively up until the pandemic struck and, obviously then, thereafter, so this was a programme of work for me, on which I iterated with the with the team.’
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been set up to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the pandemic, and learn lessons for the future.
Mr Hancock also admitted there was a ‘colossal scale of failure’ in the assumption that the spread of disease cannot be stopped.
He told the Covid inquiry: ‘There’s an irony there as well which is that we were dealing with a live ebola epidemic, with the potential threat that would come to this country as a pandemic.
‘And yet at the same time the paperwork was all focused on a flu pandemic.
‘So the theory written down in these strategies was actually not what was playing out in the day-to-day practice of infectious disease management that we were undertaking as a department and the PHE was undertaking.’
Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, replied: ‘But Mr Hancock, it’s not just a question of irony, is it? These failings materially hampered the United Kingdom’s ability to prevent death.’
Mr Hancock said: ‘The central failing that hampered the UK’s response common with the rest of the Western world, was the refusal and the explicit decision that it would not be possible to halt the spread of a new pandemic – that is wrong and that is at the centre of the failure of preparation.
“I know that because I was the person responsible, as the category one responder, when this pandemic struck, and all of the other considerations are, are small, important but small compared to the colossal scale of failure in the assumption that it will not be possible, and the lack of ambition, in the assumption that you can’t stop the spread of a disease. We can.’
A member of the public discovered a woman deceased on a well-known beach.
After a bystander saw the woman this afternoon at Pevensey Bay Beach in East Sussex, emergency services were contacted.
After the terrible finding, police are now trying to identify the woman.
A member of the public discovered a woman’s body at Pevensey Beach this afternoon, according to a spokeswoman for Sussex Police.
‘She was sadly confirmed dead at the scene.
‘Enquiries are ongoing to identify her and establish the full circumstances of the situation.’
The beach is popular among tourists for its links to William the Conqueror’s landing in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (Picture: Getty Images)
The rural shingle beach runs along the East Sussex coast around five miles from Eastbourne.
It’s popular with tourists for being the spot where William the Conqueror landed in 1066 before the Battle of Hastings.
Earlier today, an inquest into the death of mum Nicola Bulley who disappeared while walking her dogs found that she drowned after accidentally falling into a river.
Actor Julian Sands, who went missing five months ago, has been confirmed dead by police.
The 65-year-old A Room With A View star disappeared in January of this year after hiking in California’s San Gabriel Mountains.
Police have officially identified the actor whose remains were discovered nearby earlier this week.
Earlier this week, his family released a statement expressing their gratitude for the search teams while adding that they continued to hold him ‘in our hearts’.
It said: ‘The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood. The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results.
‘We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands.’
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has now said that civilian hikers contacted the authorities on Saturday morning after the human remains were found in the Mount Baldy area.
In the statement released by Sands’ family this week, his loved ones said: ‘We are deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian.
‘We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer.’
It has not yet been determined how he died, authorities said.
Sands, who was born, raised and began acting in England, worked constantly in film and television, amassing more than 150 credits in a 40-year career.
During a 10-year span from 1985 to 1995, he played major roles in a series of acclaimed films.
After studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, Sands embarked on a career in stage and film, playing small parts in films including ‘Oxford Blues’ and ‘The Killing Fields.’
He landed the starring role of George Emerson, who falls in love with Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch while on holiday in Tuscany, in the 1985 British romance, ‘A Room With a View.’
The film from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for best film, and was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three.
In the wake of its success, Sands moved to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood.
He played the title role in the 1989 horror fantasy ‘Warlock’ and its sequel. In the 1990 horror comedy ‘Arachnophobia,’ with Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, Sands played an entomologist specializing in spiders.
The following year he appeared in director David Cronenberg’s surreal adaptation of the William Burroughs novel ‘Naked Lunch’ in 1991.
In 1993, Sands starred in the thriller ‘Boxing Helena,’ a movie that drew major media attention during production when Madonna and Kim Basinger each accepted the title role before backing out.
The part would go to ‘Twin Peaks’ actor Sherilyn Fenn. The film flopped.
Author Anne Rice championed Sands to play the titular Lestat in the much-hyped 1994 Hollywood adaptation of her novel ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ but the role would go to Tom Cruise.
In 1995’s ‘Leaving Las Vegas,’ Sands played an abusive Latvian pimp alongside Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue. The film was nominated for four Oscars, with Cage winning best actor.
Sands touted his love of the outdoors in a 2020 interview with the Guardian, saying he was happiest when ‘close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning’ and that his biggest dream was scaling ‘a remote peak in the high Himalayas, such as Makalu.’
The actor said in the interview that in the early 1990s, he was caught in an ‘atrocious’ storm in the Andes and was lucky to survive when three others near his party didn’t.
After ‘Leaving Las Vegas,’ the quality of the films Sands was cast in, and the size of his roles, began declining. He worked steadily, appearing in director Wim Wenders’ ‘The Million Dollar Hotel’ and director Dario Argento’s ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’
He also appeared as a guest star or in recurring roles on TV series including ‘24,’ ‘Medici,’ ‘Smallville,’ ‘Dexter,’ ‘Gotham’ and ‘Elementary.’ His final film was 2022’s ‘The Ghosts of Monday.’
Sands was born in Yorkshire, the middle child of five brothers raised by a single mother. He had three children of his own.
He had been married since 1990 to journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, with whom he had two adult daughters, Imogen Morley Sands and Natalya Morley Sands.
His eldest child was son Henry Sands, who he had with his first wife, journalist Sarah Harvey.
The building has been left with extensive damage on the façade panning through several floors.
There were no immediate reports of injuries from the incident, but UAE officials are yet to comment on what happened.
Ajman Police arrive at the scene of the incident (Picture: Reuters)
A statement from Ajman Police said in a statement on Twitter: ‘Civil defence teams managed to put out a fire that broke out in a residential tower in Ajman.’
Ajman News, a local media outlet, later reported that the blaze had been brought under control.
A video shared on its Instagram showed the blackened exterior of the tower, while firefighters remained on the street below.
In occupied Berdyansk, two Ukrainian teens who were murdered in a confrontation with Russian soldiers have been praised as heroes.
Tihran Ohannisian, 16, is shown holding a Kalashnikov gun in his lap and is shown in a video clip that surfaced over the weekend covered in blood.
The boy performs patriotic songs for his country with fervour despite his health and claims to have killed two Russian soldiers in the conflict.
‘Two for sure, that’s death, guys. Farewell! Glory to Ukraine!’ Tihran declares proudly as he raises his fist in solidarity before later succumbing to his injuries.
Tihran Ohannisian filmed a video of himself bloodied and clutching a rifle before dying from his injuries
Russian authorities in Berdyansk confirmed the deaths of Ohannisian and his 16-year-old classmate, Mykyta Khanhanov, on Saturday.
They claimed the boys had killed a civilian and labelled them ‘pro-Ukrainian terrorists’.
Human rights activists are now trying to understand the exact circumstances of the boys’ deaths after they became the subject of a European parliament resolution.
In September last year, Tihran was arrested at his home in Berdyansk by Russian forces who tried to accuse him of sabotaging a railway to disrupt military logistics. Mykyta was also blamed but he was able to escape the arrest.
It is said Tihran was beaten and tortured as the Russian forces tried to elicit a confession from him.
Media and human rights campaigners – largely headed up by the Ukrainian body Media Initiative for Human Rights – eventually helped secure his release. Tihran and Mykyta were placed under house arrest and ordered to check in at a local police station daily.
‘My son was tortured with electric shocks,’ Tihran’s mother, Oksana Starovierova, told journalists, The Times reported.
The teens had been repeatedly targeted by Russian occupiers and labelled as terrorists
‘They took him to a field and carried out a mock execution,’ she said. ‘Russians asked him, “Are you going to become a guerilla?” They ordered him to prepare to die.’
Ms Starovierova, her husband, and Tihran’s younger sister had left for Germany following the invasion, but Tihran had chosen to stay and look after his grandmother.
The family returned in January to try and get Tihran out of the country but were prevented from doing so by Russian forces.
The boys were formally charged by Russia’s Investigative Committee in May 2023, and if convicted would have faced 20 years in prison.
Their arrests were condemned by the European parliament and a range of human rights organisations, who introduced a resolution on the case calling on Russia to ‘end grave violations against children affected by armed conflict’ and to transfer the boys to Ukrainian territory.
It also called on Russian authorities to allow the boys access to lawyers and international organisation representatives, although it was later revealed they were denied access to legal representation.
The exact circumstances of the boys’ death are shrouded in mystery.
The teens are belived to have killed at least two Russian soldiers before succumbing to their injuries
The pair are believed to have fled their homes last week, fearing another interview by Russian officials.
Ohannissian is known to have contacted his mother in Germany, saying that they were alone and needed help.
It is not known exactly what triggered the violence of the boys’ last moments, although Ohannissian’s defiant video suggests he had, indeed, killed two Russians and knew he was about to die himself.
The Russian authorities say the boys killed a civilian: Ukrainian sources say they shot two collaborationist policemen.
Whatever the truth, by 7pm on Saturday the boys were both dead.
Aleksandr Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, has announced Yevgeny Prigozin, the founder of the Wagner Group, has arrived in the nation.
The Kremlin had earlier declared Prigozhin’s exile in Belarus as a condition of the agreement that put an end to his weekend insurrection against the Russian military.
The mercenary leader is rumoured to have flown into Belarus on a plane on Tuesday morning from Rostov, Russia, and Lukashenko has confirmed his arrival in remarks to state media.
‘I see Prigozhin is already flying in on this plane,’ Lukashenko was quoted as saying by BELTA. ‘Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.’
He added that Prigozhin and his troops would be welcome to stay in Belarus ‘for some time’ at their own expense, and that ‘security guarantees have been given’ regarding their stay.
Lukashenko told state media that Belarus is not building any camps for the group, but will accommodate them if they want.
‘We offered them one of the abandoned military bases. Please – we have a fence, we have everything – put up your tents,’ he said.
Lukashenko was also quoted as saying there were no plans to open any Wagner recruitment centres in Belarus.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin praised Russia’s armed forces for preventing a civil war as he sought to reassert his authority after the mutiny led by Prigozhin in protest against the Russian military’s handling of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian authorities also dropped a criminal case against his Wagner Group mercenary force, state news agency RIA reported, apparently fulfilling another condition of the deal brokered by Lukashenko late on Saturday that defused the crisis.
Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and ex-convict whose mercenaries have fought the bloodiest battles of the Ukraine war and taken heavy casualties, had earlier said he would go to neighbouring Belarus at the invitation of Lukashenko, a close Putin ally.
Prigozhin was seen on Saturday night smiling and high-fiving bystanders as he rode out of Rostov in the back of an SUV after ordering his men to stand down. He has not yet been seen in public in Belarus.
Putin meanwhile told some 2,500 security personnel mustered for a ceremony on a square in the Kremlin complex that the people and the armed forces had stood together in opposition to the rebel mercenaries.
‘You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our Motherland from upheaval. In fact, you have stopped a civil war,’ he said.
Putin was joined by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose dismissal had been one of the mutineers’ main demands.
Putin also requested a minute of silence to honour Russian military pilots killed in the revolt. The fighters had shot down several aircraft during their run towards Moscow, although they faced no resistance on the ground.
On Monday night, Putin said in a televised address that the mutiny leaders had betrayed their motherland, although he did not mention Prigozhin by name. Wagner fighters would be permitted to establish themselves in Belarus, join the Russian military or go home, he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing on Tuesday the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented. He also said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the Defence Ministry.
He dismissed the idea that Putin’s grip on power had been shaken by the mutiny, calling such thoughts ‘hysteria’.
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address that the military had made advances on Monday in all sectors of the front line, calling it a ‘happy day’.
Kyiv hopes the chaos caused by the mutiny attempt in Russia will undermine Russian defences as Ukraine presses on with a counteroffensive to recapture occupied territory. It claimed on Monday to have captured a ninth village in the south where it has been advancing since early June.
Two months after Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the conclusion of Ramadan, Muslims around the world will observe Eid-Al Adha, the second of their yearly Eid holidays.
The Haji pilgrimage, a five-day trek to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the holiest city in Islam, occurs around the same time as Eid-al Adha for many Muslims.
Have a blessed Eid is the English translation of the Arabic phrase “Eid Mubarak,” but did you know there are more ways to wish your friends or family a merry Eid?
Here is how to send your best wishes for Eid in 11 languages.
How to wish someone a Happy Eid in different languages
Arabic
عيد مبارك (Eid Mubarak) – ‘Have a blessed Eid’
تقبل الله مناومنكم (Taqabalallahu minna wa minkum) – ‘May Allah accept your and our right doings’
عيد سعيد (Eid Saeed) – ‘Happy Eid’
Bosnian
Bajram Šerif mubarek olsun – ‘Happy Eid’
Turkish
Bayramınız kutlu olsun – ‘May your Eid be blessed’
Zazaki (eastern Turkey)
Roşanê Şima Bimbarek Bo – ‘Happy Eid’
Indonesian
Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri – ‘Happy celebration day of Eid ul Fitr’
Based on reports, a Russian missile strike in Ukraine resulted in the death of a 17-year-old girl and injuries to an eight-month-old infant.
The young youngster is one of four people who killed and at least 42 people were injured in the incident, according to the prosecutor general’s office in Ukraine.
Moscow launched two missiles into Ukraine today, striking a mall that was populated with restaurants and cafes in the cities of Kramatorsk and Bilenke, both close by.
A favourite dinner spot for local war reporters, according to journalists, was a pizza shop that was damaged in the assault.
Reporter Arnaud De Decker posted a photo of his pizza and beer from inside the venue, saying it was taken just 20 minutes before the explosions.
He said ‘people were still screaming underneath the rubble’ an hour after the rockets had hit.
Emergency services worked into the night to search for victims who may have still been stuck.
Governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, told Ukrainian TV: ‘This is the city centre. These were public eating places crowded with civilians.’
Iuliia Mendel, the spokesperson for President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted a clip of a building almost completely destroyed with smoke billowing from the top of it.
The attacks are believed to have been carried out with two S-300 missiles.
Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska said: ‘Terrorists from RF attack civilians again. Kramatorsk, missile attack on a restaurant in the city center. Crowded place, evening — enemy do not want normal life in Ukraine.
‘There are a lot of wounded. It is painful. Evil must be punished.’
She also highlighted that today’s strike has happened on the anniversary of a deadly attack on Amstor mall in the centre of Kremenchuk.
More than 20 people were killed and 59 injured in the tragedy which took place exactly a year ago.
More than 1,000 people were inside the building when it was hit by a Russian Soviet-era Kh-22 missile carrying over 900kgs of explosives, Mr Zelensky said at the time.
Just hours after exiled founder of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin touched down in Belarus, Russia launched another missile attack on a Kramatorsk neighbourhood that was home to civilians.
Rocket attacks that demolished a cafe frequented by journalists and charity workers resulted in the deaths of four persons, including a 17-year-old girl, and 42 injuries.
Earlier today, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko told state media, “I see Prigozhin is already flying in on this plane,” that his visitor had arrived. He is, in fact, currently in Belarus.
Prigozin is believed to have boarded a plane from the Russian city of Rostov this morning, as part of a deal made to end his short-lived mutiny against the Russian military over the weekend.
Mr Lukashenko said Prigozhin and his troops would be welcome to stay in Belarus ‘for some time’ at their own expense, and that ‘security guarantees have been given’.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has spent most of today pushing the notion that his leadership has not been weakened by the rebellion.
He claimed that Wagner Group mercenaries, responsible for the attempted coup, were ‘entirely funded’ by the government, saying Russia has given them $1 billion in the last year.
According to data projected by the Electoral Commission of Ghana (as of 19:18GMT or 7:18pm) Mr Quayson had amassed over 50% of votes cast in 31 out of 99 Constituencies.
Mr Quayson was leading the race with 52.31%, while the New Patriotic Party candidate, Charles Opoku followed with 47.45% and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) followed with 0.18% of the votes.
It appears the NDC candidate who had been embroiled in a legal battle over alleged illegalities regarding his citizenship, has managed to rally his supporters and regain their trust as he vies to represent the constituency once again.
As the polls opened early this morning, voters from Assin North turned out in significant numbers to cast their ballots and have their voices heard. The atmosphere at polling stations was filled with enthusiasm and a sense of determination as constituents eagerly participated in the democratic process.
Party supporters from all sides were optimistic that their candidate will win, however, the Electoral Commission remains the institution to issue the final verdict.
The Independent Ghana will keep you posted on any development regarding this election.
James Gyakye Quayson wins back Assin North seat for NDC
National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) James Gyakye Quayson is set to make his triumphant return to Parliament after being stripped of his position by the Cape Coast High Court over his dual citizenship.
Mr Gyakye Quayson on Tuesday, June 27, beat his closest contender, Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Assin North by-election by obtaining 17,245 votes out of the total valid votes of 29,962, representing 57.56 per cent.
Mr Charles Opoku, on the other hand, garnered 12,630 of the votes cast, representing 42.17 per cent while Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) secured 87 votes.
Tuesday’s election was marked by electoral malpractices such as bribery and vote-buying, as well as the arrest of some recalcitrants who posed as security officers.
For the opposition National Democratic Congress, their candidate’s victory drums home the dissatisfaction in the incumbent government by the people of Assin North due to the lack of developmental projects.
Assin North only observed the rehabilitation of some bad roads by the government a few weeks towards the by-election.
However, the government refuted claims suggesting that the initiative was to influence the electorate to swing towards the government.
For over two years, Assin North Constituency could not boast of a stable representative in Parliament, as Mr Quayson, who emerged winner in the 2020 Assin North Parliamentary election, was dragged to court by one Michael Ankomah Nimfah for contesting while in possession of Canadian and Ghanaian citizenship.
The Cape Coast High Court after hearing both the petitioner and respondent in July 2021, nullified the Assin North election on the basis that Mr Quayson had dual citizenship.
Nonetheless, Mr Quayson continued to parade himself as a legislator, prompting the petitioner to take his case to the Supreme Court for interpretation of Article 94 (2) (a).
In April 2022, the apex court instructed Mr Quayson to stop holding himself as an elected MP until the determination of the suit challenging his election.
The court also ordered him to abstain from any Parliamentary business and also refrain from engaging in activities pertaining to an MP. Mr Quayson’s lawyers subsequently filed an appeal but the Supreme Court dismissed it.
In its ruling on May 17, the Supreme Court directed Parliament to expunge Mr Quayson’s name from its records, arguing that it would not ignore the submissions on the continued disregard of the orders of the High Court which have not been suspended or overturned.
According to the court, allowing Mr Quayson to remain in the capacity as MP “will be an indictment of the administration of justice.”
Following this, Parliament declared the Assin North seat vacant and a by-election was scheduled by the Electoral Commission (EC).
The NDC believes their triumph in the by-election is a stepping stone to an assured victory in the upcoming polls.
Despite Mr Quayson’s re-election, he risks losing his freedom as he has been accused of forgery and perjury related to certain offenses during the lead-up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election.
An Accra High Court has ruled that the trial involving James Gyakye Quayson will proceed on a day-to-day basis starting from Tuesday, July 4, 2023.
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) appears to have given up the fight so quickly in the ongoing Assin North by-election as its Director for IT, Eric Ntori, has conceded defeat even before the official results of the elections have been declared by the Electoral Commission (EC).
In an interview with JoyNews monitored by The Independent Ghana, Mr Ntori disclosed that data available at the EC strongroom indicates that the NPP is lagging behind in terms of the results.
Director for IT, Eric Ntori
“It hasn’t been easy but it’s all good. Looking at our preparation, it’s been good but this is an election and it didn’t go well for us but it doesn’t matter that we lost it all. I think we will go back to the drawing board again and come back in 2024 and make sure we can snatch the seat again,” he said.
He made the remarks while the EC was still compiling the results. He, however, expressed high optimism that the party will bounce back better in the 2024 general elections.
An unprovoked attack against the National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Opare Addo, by some thugs believed to be members of the New Patriotic Party, resulted in the destruction of his plush 4×4 vehicle.
Assin North: Pablo(NDC National Youth Organiser) speaks on his attack#RepublicNews
The windscreen of the vehicle, one of the front window frames and the rear window have been damaged after the men attacked the vehicle.
The by-election in Assin North was held to fill a vacant parliamentary seat, drawing significant attention from political parties and constituents alike.
It was supposed to be a peaceful exercise of democratic rights, however, this incident appears to have tainted the image of the election.
A young man believed to be in his twenties has confessed to taking a sum of GHC 200 from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as an incentive to vote for the party.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, he disclosed in the video above that he did not cast his ballot in favor of the NPP candidate in the Assin North by-election since he is an astute member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
There were earlier claims that both parties were engaging in vote buying but these claims were treated as mere speculations since there were no substantial evidence to
This young man’s revelation, however, adds a new twist to the discourse since it confirms the claims. back them.
Meanwhile two executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were attacked on Tuesday in Assin Praso amidst the Assin North by-election.
Per reports, NDC Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, and his deputy, Malik Basintale were victims of an attack allegedly orchestrated by members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
In a viral video on social media, the vehicle said to be that of Sammy Gyamfi’s had its rear window damaged in what looked like a gunshot. Mr Malik Basintale’s vehicle was in a far more devastating state.
“I took their 200Ghc and still voted against them(NPP)”
Founder and leader of Glorious Word Power Ministry International Reverend Isaac Owusu Bempah, has come forward with disturbing allegations of mistreatment and police brutality while in custody.
Reverend Bempah in 2021 was arrested for creating “multiple videos containing threats, brandishing of a weapon and the assault of some police personnel,” a statement from the Ghana Police Service said.
The widely circulated circular by the Ghana Police Service said Rev Owusu Bempah was arrested together with three other suspects namely; Michael Boateng, Frederick Ohene and Nathaniel Agyekum, on Sunday, September 13, 2021, at his church premises.
The police indicated that two other suspects were on the run and they [police] were pursuing them.
During his stay in custody there were reports that he fell ill. It was reported that he was rushed to the hospital barely five hours after a court denied him bail and remanded him into police custody for one week. Rev Owusu Bempah has confirmed this in a video circulating on social media, adding that he was manhandled by the police officers.
He said he was subjected to torture on his hospital bed, disclosing that, he suffered physical injuries as a result.
“While on the hospital bed, I was placed on drip and handcuffed as well. The handcuffs were pressed tightly to my wrist to the extent that I sustained a cut and was bleeding as a result,” he disclosed while addressing some members of his church, including his junior pastors.
He said he questioned why he was subjected to that gruesome treatment and the officer-in-charge said it was ‘an order from above.’
He said his fierce anger was kindled against the police service, especially the IGP, and planned to hold him to ransom in the spiritual realm. However, due to several pleas from big guns in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he forgave the IGP.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service is yet to respond to the allegations.
The police are maintaining a zero-tolerance approach to unruly behavior and are fulfilling expectations by making a series of arrests in response to the incidents surrounding the Assin North by-election.
In a video making rounds on social media, a young man is seen in the grips of two hefty policemen.
The unidentified young man dressed in a black police uniform is said to be an imposter and received a lot of hooting and shouting from some Assin North residents when he was being escorted by the police.
Meanwhile, in another turn of events, according to a 3news.com report, a military impostor has also been arrested with some weapons in his possession.
The arrest comes after the security forces were tipped off about his suspicious behaviour as voting commenced at Assin North.
The Ghana Police Service has, however, assured the people of Assin North of unflinching security and protection throughout the by-election slated for today, Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
Hajia4Reall has shared her prediction that she may be in Ghana by July of this year. During a conversation with her publicist, GH Hyper, he mentioned her as the potential “Guest of honour” for the upcoming launch of his lounge, indicating her possible presence at the event.
Hajia4Reall has been granted $500,000 bail following her arrest and extradition from the UK to the United States, in a $ 2 million fraud case.
But in a conversation with GH Hyper during an Instagram live session on her birthday, Hajia stressed that once there is life, every good thing is possible.
This is what ensued between them,
GH Hyper: I was pained you were not around to grace the VGMA red carpet
Hajia4Reall: Whatever happens is good. Whatever God does is good. Once there is life, there is hope.
Hajia4Reall: Maybe by that time I should be in Ghana you know. With God, everything is possible. Nothing is impossible.
GH Hyper: You should be in Ghana by then for the opening of my lounge. You are the one opening it, I told you.
Background
Mona Faiz Montage, widely known as Hajia4Reall was extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom over alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam targeting older, single Americans.
According to US federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old musician cum businesswoman appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, May 15 for her alleged involvement in a series of romance schemes.
The news has since flooded social media, topping Twitter trends amidst massive reactions from netizens online.
Hajia’s jail requirements
‘Hajia4Reall’ has pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against her.
She is also said to have been released on home detention to her aunt’s New Jersey residence on a $500,000 bond with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor, her lawyer, and the prosecutor’s office had confirmed.
Cardi B, a popular American musician, has responded to the public accusations of adultery made by her husband, Offset. The situation has garnered attention as both parties navigate the challenges within their relationship.
Offset stated in an Instagram post uploaded on his official Instagram account that his wife slept with a man behind his back.
“My wife fcked a nigga on me gang yall nigga know how I come,” Offset said.
Cardi B fashioned a song out of her answer on Twitter, implying that her husband was accusing her of the same thing he does.
The couple’s relationship has been rocky in the past, with multiple public breakups and reconciliations.
Cardi B recently stated that if she ever divorced her spouse, she would write hit songs about the event. She further stated that if they divorced, she would marry another wealthy man.
Cardi B went on to advise her fans not to lend their ears to Offset’s words. She emphasized that he was attempting to shift blame onto her for actions he knew he was guilty of. Urging her followers not to pay attention to Offset’s words, she dismissed him as a mere “country man.”
She asserted her identity as Cardi B and reminded everyone that she was not just anybody.
Cardi B confidently stated that if she were involved with anyone intimately, she would make it known, highlighting her refusal to engage in clandestine amorous affairs.
In her words:
“You can’t accuse me of the things you know you are guilty of and I see that it’s easy for you to blame everything on me.
“Don’t pay attention to that country man you all.
“Come on now, I’m Cardi B and I think motherfuckers forget I’m Cardi B. If I was giving out my body to anybody, it would be out. I’m not just anybody.”
Netizens have reacted to the incident, with many expressing sympathy for Cardi B and condemning her husband’s actions.
Others said Offset can’t handle everything he throws at her and that he should be more understanding of his wife’s career.
authentik_fitwears said: “She said she’s gon upgrade dude.”
callmedamy said: “Let the divorce begins.”
captain__linda said: “Did I hear her say upgrade.”
ndukauba_anthonia commented: “So he can’t work it out with her? Seek counselling, maybe he’s gained extra weight or maybe doesn’t know better ways of satisfying her…”
king_mayorblack reacted: “Man had a taste of his medicine.”
iam_veekee_ reacted: “Most Nigerian men deserves a character like cardi B.”
evelyn_ xX said: “Pray for your wife. Be a good husband.”
worha sonia said: “The day offset married Cardi B he married both gold and thorn, he should pick which one he wants to live with.”
Ghanaian socialite turned musician, Hajia4Reall, also known as Mona4Reall, recently marked her birthday amid heightened attention due to her arrest and extradition to the United States. She faces allegations related to a $2 million romance scam.
Despite the controversy surrounding her, netizens took to social media to mark her special day with birthday messages and greetings.
Among the numerous comments and wishes, one message that caught the attention of Ghanaians was from Richard Nii Armah Quaye, whom Hajia4Reall had previously referred to as her ‘partner’ in a post while celebrating his birthday.
In his birthday wish to Hajia4Reall, the CEO of Quick Angels Limited expressed, “Happy Birthday My Dear. I can’t believe it’s been one year already. Memories don’t lie. Make a wish and consider it done.”
In response to this birthday wish, Hajia4Reall playfully expressed her desire for a brand-new Ferrari upon her return home.
She said, “When I return home, I want a brand new Ferrari.”
Her comment sparked conversations among Ghanaians, who reacted to her extravagant wish in light of recent events.
Hajia4Reall’s birthday celebration took place against the backdrop of her ongoing legal situation.
Her arrest and extradition to the United States in connection with an alleged $2 million romance scam have attracted significant media attention and scrutiny.
Per the Kremlin’s defence ministry, the Wagner paramilitary group is handing over its combat equipment to the Russian Armed Forces amid rumours that it is being disbanded.
The private army played a key role in one of the most dramatic days in recent Russian history over the weekend when leader Yevgeny Prigozhin ordered it to march on Moscow in a fit of wrath over perceived mismanagement of the war in Ukraine.
Before Prigozhin abruptly called off the march on Saturday, Russians and nations all over the world were ready for the potential for a coup.
His soldiers left the southern military HQ at Rostov-on-Don, which they reportedly took over without much resistance, and he is believed to have left for Belarus under the terms of a deal brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
It now appears that the deal might also have involved the end of Wagner as a military force.
Russia’s RIA news agency reported that the country’s official army was taking possession of hardware used by the private military company (PMC) in the field.
The defence ministry was quoted saying: ‘Preparations are underway for the transfer of PMC Wagner heavy military equipment to the active units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.’
As for the group’s other valuable asset – its fighters, many of whom are violent criminals hired directly from prison – the future also looks to be unexpectedly free of serious consequences.
Under the deal, they could choose to either join the Russian army, return to their families or leave the country for Belarus.
The FSB, Russia’s top security agency, recently announced that nobody who took part in the armed insurrection would face prosecution because ‘the participants had ceased actions directly aimed at committing the crime’.
That is despite at least a dozen members of the Russian armed forces being killed by Wagner troops during the uprising, which took place over a period of less than 24 hours.
In a speech to his security services this morning, Vladimir Putin said the country’s military and law enforcement ‘essentially prevented a civil war’ by acting ‘clearly and coherently’.
The people of Russia were not on the side of the ‘mutineers’, he told the audience – although videos taken at the weekend showed crowds of people cheering on Wagner fighters as they moved north towards Moscow.
The president announced a minute’s silence for the pilots who were shot down and killed during Saturday’s mutiny.
A viral video featuring four women showing off their dance moves at Cape Coast Castle in the Central Region has generated a wide range of responses on Twitter.
The women could be seen twerking at a portion of the impressive space in the video that SikaOfficial posted on his page.
The women, identified as Black Americans, were said to be on a visit to Ghana and as part of their activities, visited some interesting tourist sites in the country.
Amidst the twerking, one said “for the ancestors” while the others cheered on.
Because the place is known to be a former slavery site and referred to as the home of the ancestors, social media users who saw the video shared mixed reactions.
According to some tweeps, it was disrespectful for the women to dosplay that way at such a sacred place while other netizens saw nothing wrong with twerking at the slave tourist site.
A netizen with the user name LMAO GPT shared his perspective and wrote: “I don’t know about y’all but if I were a slave ghost haunting a castle where my ancestors were tortured, the last thing I would want to see is some tourist twerking on my pain. That is just disrespectful in so many ways”.
“Are we really surprised that people who had the strength to survive centuries of slavery can also have some fun and twerk for their ancestors? Let’s them live a little and honour their ancestors in their own way”, a view shared by another netizen.
The life expectancy of the NHS is performing “substantially less well,” according to a report, which the Prime Minister has defended.
In order to encourage individuals to undergo on-the-spot chest scans in trucks in supermarket parking lots, the government has created a pilot programme.
According to Rishi Sunak, the extended screenings have already made a “enormous difference” and will save thousands of lives. It is hoped that the programme will boost the frequency of early lung cancer diagnoses.
A report by The King’s Fund found the NHS ’lags behind our peers’ on healthcare outcomes including cancer, and is ‘not by any means where we should be’.
Visiting one of the screening facilities in Nottinghamshire today, Mr Sunak said: ‘As well as our immediate priority to invest record sums in the NHS to cut waiting lists, I want to make sure that the NHS is fit for the future.
‘Today’s announcement – the expansion of lung cancer screening – is a good example of that.
‘Lung cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in the UK and we know that if you catch it early then you can much more improve the chances of people surviving it.’
Pressed about the findings of The King’s Fund report, Mr Sunak conceded that there is ‘work to do’ but insisted he could ‘fix’ outstanding issues.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay refused to say whether the number of cancer deaths could be linked to austerity policies pursued by the Conservatives during the past 13 years.
Asked whether spending cuts were one of the reasons behind deprivation and poor health, he said: ‘There’s a range of factors why this programme is targeted in communities like this, it’s because there are high rates of smoking and we know there are often high rates of smoking in deprived communities, and that is what this programme enables us to do, is to target the checks together with early intervention into the most deprived communities.’
The report found the UK is ‘significantly’ lagging behind its peers in terms of cancer survival rates, which in turn is dragging down life expectancy.
The NHS performs poorly on outcomes across several major disease groups and health conditions linked to avoidable death.
Siva Anandaciva, the report’s author and chief analyst at The King’s Fund, said: ‘On healthcare outcomes specifically, both for the outcomes that a system can control and those wider measures that rely on services that keep us healthy… we lag behind our peers. We are not by any means where we should be.’
Sally Mann, a vocal advocate, is calling for Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie to face consequences for what she perceives as mistreatment towards Yvonne Nelson in the past. Mann is specifically urging for the termination of all Sarkodie’s endorsement deals as a form of punishment. It’s worth noting that discussions regarding endorsements and consequences are subjective and vary based on individual perspectives and opinions.
The controversial entertainment pundit said, for Sarkodie to have abandoned Yvonne Nelson at the hospital to bleed and not offering her the needed support while aborting their baby was a detestable action, adding that the rapper should be taught an unforgettable lesson.
According to Sally, all brands associated with Sarkodie must withdraw their deals if the rapper isn’t willing to offer an apology to Yvonne Nelson and women in general.
She added that the rapper isn’t fit to be a role model.
“You left someone’s daughter at the hospital to go through an abortion procedure in your name? What was he thinking? I am advocating that all endorsement deals Sarkodie have should be stripped off and the reason I am doing that is because he leftYvonne Nelson to her fate on that very day at the hospital. Yvonne was bleeding when they got to the hospital for the abortion and he left her. This alone means he is not fit to be an idol for anybody.
“What if Yvonne Nelson died? Morally he is not fit to be a role model to anyone. Someone will say nobody put a gun to Yvonne’s head. But sometimes when a woman gets pregnant and her parents reject it and her man accepts it, it gives her that hope that he will take care of her. Sarkodie is not fit to be called a celebrity. He should apologize to Yvonne Nelson. He should apologize for abandoning her at the hospital,” she fumed in a discussion on PowerFM.
Sally, however, cited an example of international stars who have once been stripped of their endorsement deals due to some controversies they were involved in.
“When Chris Brown beat Rihanna, he was stripped of all his endorsement deals. Tiger Woods went through same. T.I, was stripped off his endorsement deals for drug possession,” she stated.
Background
Earlier after narrating how Sarkodie impregnated her and denied responsibility, Yvonne Nelson, in her memoir also detailed how he drove her to a health facility where she bled profusely in his absence.
In a chapter titled ‘Abortion’, in her book, ‘I Am Not Yvonne Nelson’ the actress disclosed how Sarkodie accompanied her to the Mamprobi polyclinic for abortion and since never bothered to find out how the procedure went.
Yvonne narrated the pain and horrifying encounter during the procedure when she underwent the abortion.
“Keeping the pregnancy was not an option. Undertaking another self-medication was also not an option. I agreed with Sarkodie that, this time, we had to do it in a hospital or health facility. Again, that friend of mine had a recommendation. It was a facility in Mamprobi, and on the appointed day, Sarkodie drove me there with his manager and they left.
“I hoped and prayed that I will be lucky with this second attempt. The pain, again was intense and I bled profusely. I felt worse because Sarkodie left me to my fate. He did not call or check up on me to find out how the procedure had gone,” parts of the chapter read.
The Deputy Accra Regional Commander of the Narcotics Control Commission (NCC), Reas Hakim Oduro, has sounded the alarm about a concerning surge in drug addiction among the youth in Ghana. The revelation made by Deputy Commander Oduro shed light on a growing problem that demands immediate attention and effective interventions.
He found it worrying that some youth have become dependent on hard drugs which, to them, give them an inexplicable euphoric feeling.
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme, Mr. Hakim Oduro disclosed that the drug addicts are not just using marijuana and herion but have advanced to using other products that contain psychoactive elements.
He shocked the panel on ‘Kokrokoo’ Monday morning revealing that the addicts are now sniffing sanitary pads and petrol to “get high”.
He stated they use sanitary pads “because of the chemical they use to produce it. It has some elements of psychoactive that people are now shifting to that one too. New substances keep coming up…even with female nail polish, people are using it. Petrol, people are using it; anything that can penetrate your brain to make you high or give you a euphoric feeling but the effects are also there”.
He also revealed that some of them are now blowing “laughing gas” from balloons.
“They use nitrous oxide which is contained in small canisters like fire extinguisher . . . So, they will pour the laughing gas into a balloon and blow it into their mouths,” he said.
Mr. Reas Hakim Oduro however noted that the drug addicts can be rehabilitated through awareness and patiently advising them to stop their addiction.
Following a storm system that delivered tornadoes and thunderstorms to the midwest and southeast on Sunday, one person died in Indiana and two people died in Arkansas.
Following a string of severe storms that moved east across the country, hundreds of thousands of people are without power from Louisiana to Michigan.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a tornado watch for the majority of Indiana, as well as smaller portions of Michigan and Ohio, on Sunday afternoon.
The storm system was also expected to bring damaging winds and ‘very large hail’ to an even greater area across the Midwest, stretching across Ohio into parts of northern Kentucky.
A tornado strikes a row of houses (Picture: Twitter/ @thrillsbill)A tornado devastates a neighborhood in Greenwood, Indiana (Picture: via REUTERS)
Around 4.30pm, a tornado struck a two-storey log cabin in rural Martin County, Indiana, killing one occupant and seriously injuring a second, who was airlifted to a local hospital.
Martin County Emergency Management Director Cameron Wolf described the storm damage as both ‘random’ and ‘widespread’ in the rural parts of the county.
Closer to Indianapolis, officials reported damage from fallen trees and large pieces of hail.
Another tornado struck Johnson County, causing damage to about 75 houses in the city of Bargersville. No deaths or injuries have been reported from the twister as of Monday morning.
Remains of a home in Greenwood, Indiana (Picture: AP)A man surveys the damage to a home in Johnson County, Indiana (Credits: AP)A family surveys the damage to their home in Greenwood, Indiana (Picture: AP)
‘This is a very dangerous scene for the area,’ Bargersville Fire Chief Erik Funkhouser said at a news conference. ‘We have power lines that are down all throughout that 3-mile area.’
Meanwhile in the southeast, severe storms swept through parts of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
In Arkansas, falling trees killed two people and injured a third in the town of Carlisle, located about 35 miles east of the state capital in Little Rock.
Large portions of both Arkansas and Tennessee also lost power, with over 100,000 customers in each state reporting outages on Monday.
Major parts of the Esuoso community in the Tarkwa Nsuaem have been disconnected from electricity following a massive flood.
The community, which has been submerged by flood for three days now has displaced several hundreds of households.
In an interview, the Assembly Member of the Area, James Kojo Yeboah noted that “the flood started from Friday, June 23, 2023, slowly, that we never thought it could get to this level. We woke up on Sunday to see that everyone in the area has been affected by the flood”.
“We also realized that some houses have begun collapsing, so there was the need to call the ECG to disconnect the light to prevent people from being electrocuted, which can breed another disaster”.
Folks are seen parking their things on higher grounds in order to perch with family and friends.
Aside from this, the road leading to the Esuoso community has also been blocked by the flood making commuters stranded.
People moving from Tarkwa to Bonsawire or Esuoso will have to alight on the road, take a canoe and move to the other side of the road, pick “okada” (motorbike) to their destination.
One of the canoe operators said “We charge ten Ghana cedis to transport the people from one side of the flood to the other. For those who cannot afford it, we charge them ten cedis. And this is our contribution to help the people in this hard time”.
Community folks have attributed the roadblock to the minor nature of the bridges on the road.
We need the help of the government to deal with this perineal flooding of the road and our communities every year. As we speak, no car is going and coming, how can we feed our families? In fact, if they don’t do anything about this situation, we will not vote in 2024.
Parts of Esuoso community disconnected from electricity due to flood
While it’s important to approach others with respect and consideration, the suitability of places to pursue romantic or sexual connections may vary depending on personal preferences and cultural norms. It is generally advisable to avoid making advances in locations where consent and appropriate social behavior may be compromised, such as:
Here are six places you should never, ever, hit on someone:
A funeral
While the death of a loved one doesn’t necessarily turn off one’s genital functioning, we think it’s just good manners to keep the conversation clean when there’s an open casket.
If there’s ever a time and place to strip away the ego and focus on someone else (i.e., the dead), it’s at a funeral. So leave that top button fastened and focus on the eulogy. Thanks.
The gym
Yes, every single one of us has been hit on at the gym. To a slice of the population, a sweaty cesspool of exhausted and sore bodies just spells S-E-X.
This may work for some, we’re sure of it, but most people we’ve talked to would rather drop a dumbbell on their foot than make flirty conversation when they have pit stains the size of Texas. We’re just here to work out.
A job interview
This sounds like a no-brainer, but we’ve heard stories. We don’t care if your interviewer makes Ryan Reynolds or Megan Fox look like Quasimodo, this isn’t the time to be giving sideways glances and half-smiles.
Your therapist’s office
While, yes, we’re all a little screwy in the head, it probably isn’t an awesome idea to slip your number to someone leaving your therapist’s office.
While you may have a harmless garden variety of job/life/anxiety, lest you forget that in Sex and the City where Carrie dates and beds her therapist’s patient who’s seeking help for womanising. Yikes.
On a plane
Joining the mile-high club is absolutely a life goal (if you haven’t already accomplished it), but like the perfect dirty martini, too much of this or that can throw the whole concoction off and make it utterly horrendous.
Similar to getting into compromising situations with strangers on a boat, it’s a great rule of thumb to keep to yourself when there isn’t a clean-cut exit strategy a few feet away.
The emergency room
This tops the list of places to never hit on someone. We were once doubled over in agonising pain, certain our death would be met while staring at ugly, beige walls and sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair when Mr. Skeeze sidled up to us like we were at a speed dating event.
If emergency situation sickness people do it for you, then we’re sure there’s a fetish website out there somewhere. Search for that. Just please leave us alone. Yours and our lives depend on it.
The Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) has bemoaned the delay in the release of funds to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) from the Controller for the disbursement to trainees across the Public Colleges of the country.
This comes on the back of the recent release of GHS241 Million for the payment of allowances to teacher trainees across the 46 public colleges of the country for the payment of the 2022/2023 academic year.
Despite the release of the funds, however, the trainees are yet to receive their allowances.
In a statement issued on Monday, 26 June 2023, co-signed by its President, Jephthah Nana Kwame, and General Secretary John Edem Avedzi, the TTAG said the delay is “causing untold hardships to teacher trainees particularly on feeding and purchase of teaching and learning materials.”
Shedding more light on challenges faced by teacher trainees who currently endure the absence of their stipend payments, the association noted: “The teacher trainee allowances serve as a vital lifeline, enabling trainees to meet their basic needs and alleviate the financial burden of tuition fees.
“Unfortunately, the prolonged delay in disbursing these allowances has left trainees in a state of distress and uncertainty,” it said.
According to the association, its members have been “patient on this issue since the start of the academic year in January 2023 (5 months) but we cannot guarantee it if the funds are not released immediately.”
It, therefore, urged the authorities to “urgently address the matter and ensure the prompt and seamless disbursement of the allowances.”
One of the most common cancer symptoms is hair loss. Along with being an upsetting physical symptom, it can also be distressing emotionally. Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy etc. impact cell growth leading to hair loss. These treatment methods may be used for treating different kinds of cancers such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, and prostate cancer.
For some, the hair loss may be sudden or gradual. Additionally, it may affect hair all over your body including the head, face, arms, legs, and pubic area. Managing these side effects can help you stay positive through your cancer treatment.
Hair loss with cancer is almost inevitable. However, taking active steps at different parts of your treatment can help you cope with this situation better and lessen the stress of it.
Before Treatment Avoid styling products and procedures
Using chemicals or subjecting your hair to excess heat and other styling procedures can further weaken them.
Shift to natural and gentle products and avoid styling your hair in any way to maximize their strength before the treatment.
Get a cooling cap Lacing a cold cap on your head can reduce the effect of chemotherapy on your hair follicles. However, as people tend to feel cold when they have cancer, check that your care team at the best cancer hospital in Bangalore has the setup to support this.
Cut your hair short Thinning hair appears less of a problem in shorter hair. Further, the clumps of hair may be more in longer hair which can also affect your emotional state. Get a neat no-fuss cut to make your hair appear fuller.
Consider a wig Hair loss may occur in different ways but it is practically inevitable. Ask your care team for alternatives such as a wig and don’t wait till later to buy one as you may be too weak. Also, look into financial help as some insurance policies may cover this expense.
During Treatment Every time you comb or brush your hair, you may notice more of it falling out. At this time, try and be as gentle as you can. Use mild shampoos and let your hair air-dry.
Cancer is not just a physically exhausting disease but an emotional one as well. The emotional stress of the condition can further elevate this condition. Look for support in cancer groups, friends, and family. You can also ask your care team for stress relief solutions such as meditation or yoga based on your health condition. Research has shown that social support is of utmost importance in patients to cope with cancer and hair loss to avoid long-term depression.
After Treatment Cover your scalp Your scalp may be highly sensitive to temperature changes after chemotherapy. Consider using hats and scarves to protect it when you step out. A cotton cap may also help you sleep better at night.
Wash your hair gently Unless you choose to shave your head, you will have some sections of hair left. Use mild and gentle cleansers to wash your hair. Also, use a baby brush to gently comb them. Check with your care team about which products are allowed and which should be avoided.
Don’t lose hope After your cancer treatment, your hair will start to grow back, though it may take some time. You may also notice a different texture than before. Be patient as it happens. Continue your gentle care and avoid any rough movements or styling products at this time.
Hair loss is a common cancer symptom often caused by chemotherapy treatment. While this cannot be prevented, it can be managed to help you cope better. For a lot of people, hair loss can be devastating at an emotional level as it can hamper one’s self-esteem and confidence. Additionally, it often serves as a constant reminder of having to deal with cancer.
Talk to your care team honestly about your concerns and possible solutions to manage it better. There are several solutions in the market. Your care team can help offer you the resources to make an informed decision that best suits you.
Dr. C N Patil, HOD and Lead Consultant – Medical Oncology & Haemato-Oncology, Aster RV Hospital
Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has leveled serious allegations against fellow journalist Paul Adom-Otchere, accusing him of consistently spewing falsehoods against him.
Manasseh claims that Mr Adom-Otchere’s motive for these alleged lies stems from the cancellation of a $74 million contract awarded to the Jospong Group of Companies, a prominent waste management company in Ghana.
In a Facebook post, Mr Azure, however, said he was not surprised by Mr Adom-Otchere’s conduct towards him, given the fact that he was once an employee of the Jospong Group.
“I know deep down my heart that you don’t hate me. We don’t have any personal issues or disagreements. You started your attacks and editorials on me in 2017 when my investigation resulted in the cancellation of a $74MILLION fraudulent contract awarded to Jospong. As an employee and longtime defender of Jospong, I don’t expect you to praise me,” he said.
The investigative journalist responded to allegations made by the host of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana that he was dismissed from the Multimedia Group due to unethical journalism. Presenting a letter from the Multimedia Group refuting the claims, Mr. Azure maintained that the allegations are untrue.
“Dear Paul Adom-Otchere, You have consistently told your viewers that I was sacked from The Multimedia Group for unethical journalism. Here is a media release from The Multimedia Group in response to your lies. It is not meant for you. It is meant for your viewers who believe what you repeat all the time.
“I say it is not for you because, with a pinch of elementary intelligence, any sane human being would realise that The Multimedia Group would not dismiss a journalist for unethical works and still work closely with him, publishing his freelance stories and his works as the leader of The Fourth Estate,” he said.
He further noted that Mr Adom Otchere’s claims are unfounded, given the fact that he still maintains a cordial relationship with the company and the company publishes his works, even though he now works with a different media house.
“I know you’re intelligent enough to know this. And I know you know the truth because everybody in The Multimedia Group, from the CEO to the cleaner, knew that I resigned but still have a cordial working relationship with The Multimedia Group, a relationship so cordial that if I wanted to go back there to work, I don’t believe there would be a hindrance. You know this so this letter is not meant for you.
“Kindly share it with your audience who may not have the benefit of knowing what you know. And after sharing this letter with them, you may proceed to tell them every day that I was dismissed. You have a job to do and, if constantly lying about me is what will put food on your table, I’m kind enough to permit you to continue,” he said.
“…so keep up your “good work” for Elder Agyepong, but kindly let your audience see this letter. Have a good day,” the letter added.
In a bold move, gospel musician Joyce Blessing surprised her fans by undergoing a dramatic transformation. She bid farewell to her four-year-old dreadlocks hairstyle and excitedly announced the imminent release of new music, creating anticipation among her dedicated fan base.
The artist, known for her exceptional musical talent, unveiled her new look to her fans on Instagram.
Joyce Blessing’s decision to shed her locks, she noted in her post, marks a significant change in her life and personal style. Adorned with a new hairstyle, she took to social media to share images of her makeover.
As fans eagerly admired Joyce Blessing’s new look, they were met with another intriguing announcement from the acclaimed musician herself.
“Life is a journey that has no destination, as we journey through it, we will fall and we will rise, God never promised us a soft life…I am Joyce Blessing and I am in at the chapter 2 of my Journey,” the singer wrote.
Some fans speculated that the singer may be releasing new music while others suggest it may represent a significant personal or professional milestone.
Rising rapper JBEE, recognized with a MOBO nomination, has unveiled his latest single titled ‘DTB’ and thrilled fans with the announcement of his highly anticipated debut mixtape ‘HBK’ (Heartbreak Kid). The mixtape is set to release in July, generating high anticipation among music enthusiasts.
Having garnered worldwide support for his music amongst rap fans and beyond, JBEE has been busy in the booth and ‘DTB’ is another example of what to expect from his debut mixtape.
Produced by multi-platinum producer Hargo (Central Cee/Digga D), ‘DTB’ embodies his signature sound that we have got to know and love from the rising North London rapper.
The Hargo production gives JBEE a license to express himself and contemplate the struggles of his newfound fame, trusting people and showing love and appreciation to God and his family.
The Ghanaian-UK based artist broke onto the scene in 2021 with his viral hit ‘4 am’, which caught the attention of Lo-fi Drill lovers and has now racked up over 80 million streams.
He followed the success with a ‘Next Up’ freestyle which has become the third most watched ‘Next Up’ and has accumulated 79 million streams and counting.
Only 20 years old, JBEE hasn’t wasted any time and has steadily become his generation’s voice and a positive role model.
His cult following is multiplying daily, bagging over 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, with his fanbase stretching to Australia and dedicated support throughout Europe.
JBEE has given a teaser of what is to come this year with his highly anticipated debut mixtape, ‘HBK’ about to drop there is no telling how far this young artist can go.
With a top 100 single, a nomination for MOBO’s best newcomer and co-signs from tastemakers including BBC Radio 1xtra & Kiss Fresh, global success is within JBEE’s reach.
Listening to his music catalogue is like flipping through his diary, and the Lo-fi charm he has pioneered is infectious. JBEE has already performed alongside A1xJ1 at the O2 Islington, and performances at Wireless, Reading & Leeds Festivals followed.
Following his recent collaboration with Ghanaian singer Gyakie on ‘Scar’, JBEE has announced that he will perform at Listen Out Festival in various locations across Australia and New Zealand alongside Ardee and Ice Spice.
Renowned actress Angela Bassett is finally set to claim her well-deserved Oscar as she receives an honorary statuette at the prestigious 2023 Governors Awards, as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) on Monday.
Bassett made history in 2023 when she was nominated for best supporting actress for her powerful performance as Queen Ramonda in the 2022 “Black Panther” sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
The nod made her the first person of colour, the first woman and the first Marvel Studios actor to be nominated for a performance in a comic book adaptation.
Her first nomination came in the mid-90s when she earned a best actress nod for her portrayal of the late rock and soul icon Tina Turner in the 1993 Turner biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It?
“Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting,” Academy president Janet Yang said in Monday’s news release.
Bassett has starred in many other iconic movies such as “Boyz n the Hood,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” “Malcolm X,” “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” and has portrayed Queen Ramonda in three Marvel films.
Her television career has equally spanned decades as she’s appeared in “American Horror Story,” “ER” and “9-1-1,” among others.
Honorary Oscar statuettes are awarded to a select few recipients, as voted on by the Academy’s Board of Governors, for the annual Governors Awards to honour those with extraordinary distinction and exceptional contributions to the film industry.
Mel Brooks and Carol Littleton are also 2023 Governors Award honorees, while Sundance Institute exec Michelle Statter is set to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
The 2023 Governors Awards will be held in Los Angeles on November 18.
Lord Kenya, a renowned Ghanaian rapper turned evangelist, has criticized the poor stage performances of young artists, likening them to “concert parties” and expressing his disappointment.
In a viral video sighted by Graphic Showbiz where the Sikabaa hitmaker was in the studios of Akoma FM in Kumasi, he said they didn’t make good money in their days but the young artistes are charging huge monies and giving poor performance on stage.
“…it is difficult…look at the boys who don’t even know how to perform yet see the amount of money they’re charging nowadays …what they’re doing now is concert party. Don’t you see them? They only run from one point of the stage to the other, constantly out of breath. They don’t have the craft,” Lord Kenya said.
His comment has started a conversation on social media particularly when he was largely admired as a showstopper in his heyday.
Lord Kenya’s desire to become a professional musician began at age 17, although he had always nurtured the desire since childhood.
He joined Slip Music in 1998 and released his debut album Sika Card which instantly became one of his biggest hits in his career.
Among his albums are Sika Card, Sika Baa, Yeesom Sika (which topped charts in Ghana), Sika Mpo Fane Ho, Akasieni, Born Again and God Dey.
His awards include Hiplife Album of the Year at the 2001 Ghana Music Award 2001 and Best Ghanaian Rap Music Award at Anansekrom Festival in Canada in 2000.
After being chased away by angry constituents at Abuakwa Sepase, a Member of Parliament for Atwima Nwabiagya South Constituency narrowly escaped what he claimed could have resulted in his death.
The MP, Emmanuel Adjei Anhwere, was chased out by an enraged crowd after the death of a lotto seller who was swept away by flood water.
When the MP learned of the man’s death, he went to the scene to inspect the collapsed bridge that caused his death.
When angry constituents saw their MP, they began throwing stones at him in protest.
It took the timely intervention of the Abuakwa district command of the police to control the angry crowd that wanted to attack the lawmaker and whisked him away to safety.
After escaping the angry constituents who pelted him with stones, the MP questioned whether it was his responsibility to build roads.
“The construction of this road did not begin today. Why are they refusing to finish it? I’ve also expressed concerns about this bridge, but no one has responded.
“I would have been killed if it hadn’t been for the intervention of the police. Why should this happen? Do I make roads? This road project began under Kufour but stalled.
On Monday evening, June 26, Ghanaian socialite Hajia4Reall, who is currently undergoing a criminal trial in the US over her alleged participation in a US$2 million romance scam, gave her Snapchat followers a birthday gift.
She had earlier in the day put up an Instagram post meant to celebrate her birthday on June 26, 2023, stating that she will soon be vindicated.
In portions of the Snapchat broadcast, she repeats her innocence and in a bubbly and lively mood, danced to some of her hit songs whiles speaking about how she misses Ghana and her native Tamale.
“Today is my birthday guys, I am coming to play it for you. God, you see God, God is alive,” she says to the camera stationed in a place that looks like a kitchen.
Wearing a white top with jeans trousers, she intermittently reads some of the comments on her live and dances occasionally in a very cheerful mood. “I miss Ghana, I miss Tamale,” she stressed.
In her earlier birthday post, she stated:
“Happy Birthday to me, and a big thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes and, above all, your love and prayers showed to me during these difficult times.
“One thing that my father has always told me since I was young is that “only the good die young, “and now I truly understand what that statement really means. There is a time for everything, and the world will come to know the truth, and my story will be heard,” her post read.
The post garnered tens of thousands of likes and 1,000s of comments from scores of netizens including celebrities on social media.
Well wishes and commiserations from the likes of Stonebwoy, Abeiku Santana, Bobrisky, Prince David Osei, Edem, Tracey Boakye and many others, have swamped her comment section.
Mona Faiz Montage, widely known as Hajia4Reall was extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom over alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam targeting older, single Americans.
According to US federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old musician cum businesswoman appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, May 15 for her alleged involvement in a series of romance schemes.
The news has since flooded social media, topping Twitter trends amidst massive reactions from netizens online.
‘Hajia4Reall’ has pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against her.
She is said to have been released on home detention to her aunt’s New Jersey residence on a $500,000 bond with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor, her lawyer, and the prosecutor’s office have confirmed.
