The UN estimates that more than 1.3 million people have been forced from their homes as a result of the fighting in Sudan.
After more than six weeks of fighting, the Sudanese military and a potent paramilitary organisation are still engaged in combat.
Per the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) of the UN, over a million people have been compelled to leave their homes and relocate within the nation to safer locations.
An additional 320,000 people have fled to Egypt, South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, and Libya, which are nearby nations.
Clashes between rival forces even broke out today in Khartoum, despite a ceasefire being agreed on Monday – albeit a fragile one.
Sporadic fighting continued in several areas and residents reported hearing gunshots and explosions in central Khartoum, as well as areas close to military facilities in Omdurman.
Both sides blamed each other for violating the cease-fire.
Just five days ago, houses were left shaking after the capital was hit by airstrikes and the civil war has led to a collapse in law and order, with looting that, again, both sides have traded blame for.
Violence erupted on April 15 this year after months of escalating tensions between the military, led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The situation has worsened an already existing humanitarian crisis and right now, stocks of food, cash, and essentials in the North African nation are rapidly dwindling.
Hopes of restoring the country’s fragile transition to democracy have been completely shattered by the conflict.
At least 863 civilians have already been killed, including at least 190 children, while more than 3,530 people have been wounded, according to the most recent data from the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which mainly tracks civilian casualties.
It has pushed the country to near collapse, with urban areas in Khartoum and its neighbouring city of Omdurman turning into battlegrounds.
Egypt is hosting the largest number of those who have fled, with at least 132,360 people, followed by Chad with 80,000 and South Sudan with more than 69,000, the agency added.
All but one of Sudan’s 18 provinces has experienced displacement, with Khartoum at the top of the list with about 70% of the total number of displaced people, according to the IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix.
The weeklong ceasefire was brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia and was the latest international effort to push for humanitarian aid delivery to the conflict-torn country.
A joint statement from the US and Saudi Arabia yesterday evening warned that neither the Sudanese military nor the Rapid Support Forces observed the short-term ceasefire.
The fighting has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian conditions in Sudan. According to the UN, the number of people who need assistance this year has increased by 57% to reach 24.7 million people – more than half the country’s population.
The international body said it would need £2.1billion ($2.6bn) to provide them with much-needed humanitarian assistance.
Shortly after the civil war broke out, British nationals were desperately trying to escape in terrifying circumstances.
One student who managed to flee Khartoum likened scenes in the city to that of the horror movie The Purge, while another Brit risked being shot to walk four hours to an airstrip for an evacuation flight.
The Ghanaian musician DJ Azonto has admitted that he makes a lot of money by attending social events dressed as a woman.
The Fa Ne Fom hitmaker stated in a Graphic Showbiz report that he is aware of the merits and demerits of what he is doing and that there is no cause for alarm.
According to him, he is old enough to be able to distinguish between good and bad and hopes to become an ambassador for a fashion brand soon, based on his style of dressing.
“As an adult who is a husband and father of three kids, I know the merits and demerits of what I am doing, I can distinguish what is bad from good, so there is no cause for alarm,” he said.
In response to how his family is taking his crossdressing brand, he said they aren’t pleased with the way he dresses, but he can’t stop because it provides him with food.
He went on to reveal that on Mother’s Day, he went to his hometown to see his mother, and the only thing she would want him to do for her is stop wearing female clothing.
“On Mother’s Day, for instance, I went to my hometown to see my mother, and she said the only thing she would want me to do for her is stop wearing female clothing. She also added that even if I don’t want to stop, I should stop using handbags and wearing heels,” he added.
According to DJ Azonto, he responded by telling his mother that if she wants to enjoy life by being well catered for, then he has to keep working, and this is all part of it.
“I responded that if she wants to enjoy life by being well catered for, then I have to keep working, and this is all part of it.
“I used to wear a brassiere, but I stopped. The truth is that my entire family, including my wife, is not happy with the things I wear, but they want money, and this brings money,” DJ Azonto said.
It has been reported that a shooting and stabbing attack by gunman in central Japan resulted in at least three fatalities.
Residents of the central Nagano prefecture’s Nakano city were told to stay indoors after a bystander reported seeing a man wearing a “camouflage outfit, a hat and mask, and sunglasses.”
According to NHK national television, the suspect stabbed a woman with a knife before police were called.
Few details were immediately available about the incident, but two police officers also died, and one person was injured.
Nakano authorities warned people to remain indoors (Picture: NHK)
It remains unconfirmed whether the victims had been stabbed or shot.
The gunman, who currently remains at large, shot what appeared to be a hunting rifle when officers arrived at the scene.
Police confirmed the attacker was now barricaded in a building.
Local authorities warned on Twitter earlier today: ‘Emergency, Currently, there is an incident in which a shotgun is fired in the Ebe area.
‘The suspect is currently on the run, so citizens should stay indoors.’
Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan, where ownership is tightly regulated and anyone seeking to own one must go through a rigorous process before a licence is granted.
Mark Kwesi Arthur, better known as DJ Azonto is of the view that he is currently the most booked and most expensive Ghanaian artiste.
In an exclusive interview with YEN.com.gh, the artiste said he could barely get enough sleep because his blessings from God in the past few months concerning his musical journey have been enormous.
The Fa No Fom hitmaker said that he is currently the hottest and most valued Ghanaian artiste as he is booked for shows at fees above every other artiste’s in the country.
According to DJ Azonto, he charges GH₵100k for a show.
“When I go to shows, I am paid GH₵100k. There is this show I am about to attend and the person has sent me half payment. I am currently waiting for the full payment which has been promised to be settled soon. I am currently the hottest and highest-paid artiste in Ghana. Nobody takes the amount I take for shows,” he said.
DJ Azonto added that he loves what he does and is happy and appreciative of his fans for their continuous support and streams of his bangers.
He has a new song out with actor cum musician Kwadwo Nkansah Lil Win dubbed “One Prayer” which is currently a street anthem.
An economist, Dr Ebo Botchway, has called for a relook at the allowances that are paid to teachers and nurses in training as they continue to put economic pressure on the government.
He made this known while speaking on TV3’s New Day.
According to him, the current economic situation cannot support the continued payment of an allowance for nurses and teachers in training.
Again, he added that the concept of paying nurses and teachers in training has outlived its existence, hence the need to have it abolished.
“Things like giving allowances to nurses and teachers to go to training colleges In previous years, people were not enticed to go to nursing and teacher training schools. So, you can entice them with those kinds of allowances. I mean they teach nursing in the universities, they teach education in Winneba and Cape Coast, but they don’t get those kinds of allowances. All those are things we are supposed to abolish. And now we have a situation where rotational nurses talk about their allowances and all. And so, yes, we have to do a whole lot of things,” he said.
His comment was a contribution to prudent ways the government can utilize the recently acquired $600 million International Monetary Funds (IMF), Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to revamp Ghana’s economy.
Ghanaian musician Mr Drew has accused the media of the rise in fame of the lookalikes.
In an interview with DGN TV, Mr Drew noted that while artistes struggled for media attention, look-alikes enjoyed the rare opportunity to appear like celebrities.
“If we stop giving these lookalikes attention, all this will stop. For now, there is nothing I can do since we are still giving them attention and making them feel like what they are doing is right.
“If we stop giving them attention, they will put a stop to impersonating us,” he shared his thoughts.
Earlier this year, four young men claimed to be lookalikes of popular Ghanaian musicians Kuami Eugene, Mr Drew, Medikal, and King Promise.
The four men, who identified themselves as lookalikes of the famous musicians, went viral after a video of them surfaced online.
The resemblance of the three young men to the celebrities matching their hairstyles to their fashion caught the eye of Ghanaians, who found them amusing while others didn’t.
On April 16, 2023, at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Xperience concert, which was held in Ho, Medikal addressed the impersonation issue of the same four Ghanaians cashing out money using the images of himself and other artistes.
During his performance at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Xperience 2023, Medikal made it clear that these individuals are not to be mistaken for the real artistes and called them impersonators.
“Those look-alike guys are impersonators. That’s what they are,” Medikal stated firmly, “If you want to make it in this life, don’t be like someone else because you can be better than them. Be your pop ur f**king self.”
In a shooting and stabbing attack in central Japan on Thursday, three people were killed, including two police officers, according to authorities, as reported by NHK.
A “man stabbed a woman,” according to reports, the police received a complaint in the late afternoon, a Nakano City police official told CNN.
The individual fled the area and barricaded himself in a building after firing what seemed to be a hunting rifle at four persons as police arrived on the scene, the officer said.
The woman was taken to hospital where she was subsequently pronounced dead.
Public broadcaster NHK later reported that two police officers also died from their injuries and that one other person was injured.
NHK reported the suspect was wearing a camouflage hat, top and bottoms with sunglasses and a mask.
Nakano City urged citizens to stay indoors in a statement posted onto social media Thursday.
Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan. The country has one of the lowest rates of gun crimes in the world due to its extremely strict gun control laws.
In 2018, Japan, a country of 125 million people, only reported nine deaths from firearms – compared with 39,740 that year in the United States, according to data compiled by the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney.
However, Japan was rocked by a shooting last year that reverberated around the world.
Shinzo Abe, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot dead during a campaign speech in Nara in July.
His murder sent shock waves through Japan and the international community, and also sparked questions about whether enough security was in place to protect him despite Japan’s track record for being a safe place.
Getting hold of a firearm in Japan is extremely difficult and the suspect in Abe’s shooting used a homemade weapon.
The Board Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has described calls for his head and that of the immediate of the Ag. CEO by some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as unfortunate.
According to Freddie Blay, the CSOs are in pursuit of an ulterior motive that is not in the best interest of the country.
His comment follows a press conference organized on Tuesday, May, 23, urging him and the acting CEO to be removed from post.
Among other things, the 29 CSOs had alleged that GNPC plans to sell a 50% stake in Jubilee Holdings Limited (JOHL), which is a subsidiary of the GNPC to PetroSA, disregarding the significant revenue potential it holds for the state.
Again, the Board Chairman was accused of offering interest in Ghana’s oil fields to PetroSA.
They alleged that Mr Blay had written to PetroSA offering it an equal split in the interest held by GNPC’s subsidiary Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited.
But rubbishing the claims, the former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said GNPC is yet to outline the specifics for finality on the matter.
“….this compromise is subject to confirmation, and subsequent advice of the Minister. We are still in the stage of ongoing discussions,” a statement by Mr Blay added.
The GNPC boss said he is open to investigations on the issue so as to ascertain the facts without misinforming the public.
“GNPC’s doors remain wide open to all Civil Society Organizations and individuals alike. I extend an invitation to investigate and ascertain the facts before succumbing to orchestrated and futile frenzies.”
Mr Blay concluded by stressing that he has also taken note of the libellous statements made against him by his detractors including the CSOs.
He was emphatic that he “reserves the right to take legal action against these organisations and anyone engaged in this diabolic exercise of destroying my name and reputation.”
Find the full statement from Mr Freddie Blay below:
PRESS RELEASE
RE: “Pre-emption of Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited acquisition of Anardarko interest”
Recently, Ghana’s media landscape has been inundated with unfounded and malicious allegations surrounding Freddie Blay, the Chairman of GNPC.
These baseless claims propagated through statements attributed to a purported group of 29 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), have gone so far as to demand my resignation as Board Chairman.
My detractors, without verifying the facts with GNPC, make baseless claims suggesting my involvement in a supposed “scandalous” transaction aimed at offloading 50% of GNPC’s existing stake in the Deepwater Tano Contract Area (DWT). Furthermore, they assert that this action constitutes a divestment of the State’s beneficial interest.
Interestingly, there are others who assert, quite sadly, that they have uncovered a secretive and covert endeavour by GNPC and its board chairman to sell the 7% shares acquired by the Republic of Ghana from Anadarko West Cape Three Points Company (Anadarko) to Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (Petro SA). To present the truth, I provide the following information for those seeking accurate insight.
Sale and Divestment of 7% “Shares” Acquired from Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited (JOHL)
Ghana is a country of law, and there are laws and procedures governing the sale and transfer of shares, under Ghana’s Companies Act 2019 (Act 992), even for private companies. I encourage all my accusers, and the public to Google “what is the procedure for share transfers in Ghana”, educate themselves, and draw their own conclusions on the veracity or duplicity of the allegations. Shares of a company are not a pack of cigarettes anyone, and for that matter, the Chairman of GNPC can keep in his or her pocket and vend by the street!
The allegations surrounding the supposed “surreptitious,” “clandestine,” and “scandalous” sale of so called GNPC shares are unequivocally false. There is no intention by GNPC or me as its Chairman, to divest 7% shareholding in JOHL nor has there been any claim by PetroSA to acquire shareholding interests in JOHL. Such claims can only stem from an uninformed and malevolent mind.
The Matter of The Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (“PetroSA”)
In March 2006, the Government of the Republic of Ghana (“The State”) represented by the Minister for Energy (“Minister”), the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (“GNPC”), executed a Petroleum Agreement (“PA)” in respect of the Deepwater Tano Contract Area (“DWT”), with Tullow Ghana Limited (“Tullow”), Sabre Oil and Gas Limited (“Sabre”), Kosmos Energy Ghana HC (“Kosmos”) and Anadarko Offshore Holding Company, LLC (“AOHC”). These companies are hereinafter collectively referred to as “Contractor”. GNPC as is mandatory in the PA holds a 10% carried interest in DWT.
PetroSA, in July 2012 completed the acquisition of the shares of Sabre after receiving the consent of the Minister of Energy, the Honourable Joe Oteng-Adjei, earlier in February of the same year. By the acquisition of the assets and liabilities of Sabre, PetroSA legally assumed the equity interests of Saber as a Contractor in the PA relating to the DWT.
Specifically, PetroSA bought out Sabre’s interest in three assets i.e., the producing Jubilee field (1.7%), the Deepwater Tano Block at (4.05%), and the West Cape Three Points Block at (1.854%). Also, and by virtue of becoming a Contractor under the PA, PetroSA also, became a party in the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) relating to the DWT.
As a party to the DWT JOA, PetroSA like all other parties in the Agreement, is entitled to the benefits and rights granted in the said agreement. This includes the ability to exercise a right to pre-empt any divestments to any unidentified third party for any intended transfers of all or a portion of and Participating Interests, whether directly or indirectly by assignment, merger, consolidation, or sale of stock or shares or other conveyance.
In 2021, AOHC created and incorporated a new Company i.e., Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited (“JOHL”), in Cayman Islands. JOHL, and Anadarko assigned to JOHL (“JOHL Transfers”) a 7% Participating Interest in the DWT JOA and a 5.95% interest in the DWT Petroleum Agreement. It also entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Kosmos Energy for the sale of Anardarko, and with the GNPC for the sale of JOHL.
Post the acquisition of JOHL by GNPC, after serving a notice to pre-empt rights to purchase the 7% Participating Interest in the DWT JOA currently held by JOHL, PetroSA has since engaged GNPC to acquire said Interests.
As a compromise solution, we have proposed the option of a 50:50 split of the 7% shares GNPC was holding. It is important to note that we have yet to outline specifics for the finality on the matter, and this compromise is subject to confirmation, and subsequent advice of the Minister. We are still in the stage of on-going discussions.
GNPC’s doors remain wide open to all Civil Society Organizations and individuals alike. I extend an invitation to investigate and ascertain the facts before succumbing to orchestrated and futile frenzies.
The call for my resignation, as well as that of the CEO, in relation to this matter is deeply regrettable and unfortunate. CSOs, are expected to protect the interests and rights of civil society, seek the public good and national interest. Instead, the 29 CSOs that have called for my resignation, chose to engage hastily in this matter without seeking the facts, and rather misinform the public, in pursuit of ulterior motives and a vested interest. This is detrimental to the public good, and the national interest.
I have taken due note of the libellous statements against me by my detractors including the said CSOs, and reserve the right to take legal action against these organizations and anyone engaged in this diabolic exercise of destroying my name and reputation.
FREDDIE WORSEMAO ARMAH BLAY
CHAIRMAN
Dated: Thursday, 24 May 2023 for release to all Media Houses and Relevant Internet Portals
Akosua Agyapong, a highlife musician, has urged Rex Omar to stop criticising her personally and concentrate on resolving problems with transparency at the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO).
In a Graphic Showbiz report, she warned that she has secrets about him and will reveal them if he continues to attack her after Rex Omar came out to call Akosua Agyapong a lair over a claim that GHAMRO neglected Akwaboah during his illness, providing only a meagre amount of ¢250 for medicine.
“I want Rex Omar to know that I have a lot of secrets about him, and if I start talking, he cannot stay in Ghana.
“I said there is no transparency at Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), and if you don’t agree with me, the best thing is to prove me wrong and not attack my personality. Is Rex Omar’s name GHAMRO?” she said in the interview.
In addition, she warned Rex to stop attacking her personality and noted that he had once claimed that her actions were due to menopause.
“There was a time he told me that my actions are influenced by menopause, but such remarks are not relevant to the issues at hand. I need transparency about our welfare, and if you don’t have any better answer, attacking my personality is not right. Rex Omar, I have so many secrets about you, so stop attacking me,” she added.
On May 23, 2023, the chairman of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), Rex Omar, denied allegations made by Akosua Agyapong, regarding the late Kwadwo Akwaboah’s medical treatment.
Rex Omar, in a Facebook post shared on May 22, 2023, vehemently refuted the allegations made by Akosua, calling them false and emphasizing that there is no record of such assistance in their welfare books.
“Akosua is the biggest liar! So why didn’t she speak about it until now that the man is dead? We have no such records in our welfare books. Kwadwo was a very proud man and will never say any such thing to anyone,” he wrote in a Facebook comment.
To clarify the situation, Rex Omar explained that Kwadwo Akwaboah Senior had only requested assistance from GHAMRO once, and when he did, GHAMRO Welfare led him to the hospital in their vehicle, where he met with his doctor.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is preparing to hold another by-election in Assin North as several national executives have arrived in the constituency.
This comes after the Supreme Court, on May 17, ordered Parliament to remove James Gyakye Quayson’s name as a Member of Parliament.
In its ruling, the apex court barred Mr. Quayson from assuming the role of a Member of Parliament, stating that he was not qualified at the time he contested the 2020 election.
The ruling party has announced its preparations for the upcoming election, pending the decision of the Electoral Commission regarding the scheduling of a by-election in the region
Mr. Quayson is currently facing five criminal charges, including Deceit of a public officer (contrary to section 251 (b) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29), Forgery of Passport or Travel Certificate (contrary to section 15 (1)(b) of the Passports and Travel Certificates Act, 1967, NLCD 155), Knowingly making a False Statutory Declaration (in contravention of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1971, Act 389), Perjury (as per section 210 (1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29), and False Declaration for Office (against section 248 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29).
Given the high stakes involved, it is expected that both major parties will go to great lengths to secure the seat.
The NPP, in particular, appears to be taking the fight seriously, as the General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong, and the National Organizer, Henry Nana Boakye, arrived in Assin North yesterday ahead of the polls, as reported by Daily Guide.
Despite being only 22 years old, Mastiura Ishakh Yousouff has spent the majority of her life in the Darfur region of Sudan. But even for someone who has never known a permanent home, this is unfamiliar territory: a refugee camp in eastern Chad, one of the world’s poorest nations.
After conflict in West Darfur grew more intense, she was compelled to cross the border with just her newborn and the few personal belongings she could fit.
“I’m concerned about everyone who was left behind, especially my mother, who was unable to cross the border because she was in too poor of health to do so. She spoke to CNN at the Gaga Refugee Camp in the Ouadda region of the central African nation. “I keep asking myself how I can get her to Chad,” she said.
Hundreds of people have died in West Darfur, as fighting escalated between the country’s two rival military factions locked in a deadly power struggle. At least 60,000 Sudanese have crossed into Chad since fighting broke out in mid-April, UN figures show.
Even before the fighting intensified, years of political instability meant Sudan had several millions of people internally displaced; the country also hosted 1.13 million refugees from other conflict-ridden countries, including South Sudan, Eritrea and Syria, according to UNHCR data.
The new outbreak of violence forced nearly 850,000 more civilians so far to leave their homes and move elsewhere in Sudan, while more than 250,000 people left the country in search of safety, UNHCR data shows.
Chad is feeling the strain of the displacement on its resources and was already home to 400,000 Sudanese refugees before this latest conflict.
The current surge has humanitarian workers scrambling to provide services to new arrivals, relocate them away from border towns and deliver aid to mushrooming refugee cities in a remote part of a poor nation that has its own security challenges.
Money is tight to take care of all of them but the people keep coming, afraid that they will be killed if they stay in Sudan.
Close to 90% of the new arrivals at the Gaga Camp are women and children, UNHCR, the United Nations’ Refugee Agency, told CNN.
“The young and the men told us to take the children and cross the border for now so that they can stay behind to defend themselves and our property, if necessary,” Yousouff explained.
They may have escaped the conflict back home, but some are so traumatized that even the guns that police and security carry around the camp trigger painful memories, humanitarian workers say. They’re scared of men in military fatigues, a reminder of the horrors they witnessed back home.
CNN traveled to eastern Chad with USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who announced $103 million to support the over 1 million people who have been displaced in Sudan and neighboring countries since the conflict broke out.
It was a full-circle moment for the US official, who is a former journalist who reported from Chad in 2004 as Sudanese civilians fled from the Janjaweed Arab militias who were accused of major human rights violations and atrocities in Darfur.
On this latest trip, she heard harrowing stories from refugees who were forced to cross over into Chad in the face of unprecedented violence.
One group of nearly 200 families left at 3 a.m. as they feared that they would get attacked imminently.
“You talk to them, you feel like you’re in a time warp, because they’re describing Janjaweed coming in with their knives and their machetes, killing people, raping women. We met one woman whose eye had been gouged basically, with somebody just attacking her,” Power told CNN.
General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, was a commander of the Janjaweed during the bloody years of the Darfur conflict.
Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during the violence two decades ago by Janjaweed fighters who murdered, raped and tortured the people of Darfur in what is widely recognized as a genocide.
Hemedti now leads the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling the Sudanese Armed Forces in this latest conflict. Their representatives signed a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire agreement in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, over the weekend that begins on Monday night local time. But the two sides have violated each of the previous truces they agreed to since they started fighting on April 15.
“Nowhere in the world, is there a humanitarian solution for a political problem. Nowhere in the world, is there a humanitarian fix for generals who are willing to destroy their country in the interests of seizing power, or consolidating power,” Power told CNN.
As she spoke, some children gathered behind her, curious about the scene and likely bored in a newly built camp with no recreational facilities.
Countries that “might be tempted” to support one faction or the other should keep their faces in mind, she said. The ambassador wants the generals isolated and pressured to end the conflict.
Koubra Abdallah, 23, told CNN she left Geneina in West Darfur so suddenly that she got separated from her young son, who got lost in the chaos.
“My brother is still back there, I heard he was injured. I was forced to come to Chad to seek safety,” she said as she sorted vegetables for lunch in the Gaga camp. She stressed that she wouldn’t go back to Sudan except to bring her son and brother back to safety.
“There has been too much insecurity for too long,” she said in a mixture of the Masalit and Arabic dialects spoken in western Sudan.
Like Yousouff, many of the refugees were already internally displaced thanks to decades of conflict in Sudan. “Some of them have been in a cycle of displacement,” explained Patrice Ahouansou, the Deputy Representative in Chad of the UNHCR.
“So they were living in Internally Displaced Persons camps in Sudan and have now crossed into Chad to seek asylum.”
Chadian law requires refugees to be housed at reasonable distances from border towns, the UN official says. So they are moved to camps like Gaga further away from the border to begin the difficult process of figuring out the rest of their lives.
About 1,000 people had been relocated when CNN visited. Tens of small one-room iron sheet structures wrapped in UNHCR logos had sprung out of the desert.
The women and their toddlers sat or slept under trees to escape the 45 degree heat while some children played near a tap as water flowed. It’s basic, no piped water or power in the dwellings that host one family each, but they feel safe in this refugee city.
The people crossing into Chad are the poorest, most vulnerable victims of Sudan’s instability.
They’re mostly farmers, village folk with simple lives who yearn for the chance to build a safe future. Unlike the thousands who have been evacuated through Port Sudan or flown out of the country, they don’t have dual nationalities or foreign visas. “I’ll go back for any leader that brings peace to Sudan,” one of the men told USAID’s Power.
They don’t care about which general wins in this power struggle.
“What’s sad is that while there was hope for a civilian-led transitional government, and while there was hope for a time that the military and these militia would recede, for many of these individuals, it’s just proof that the militia will never go away in their minds,” she told CNN.
Russian dissident fighters who had just returned from a raid in their own country paraded around Ukraine with an armoured car as a prize, but they had trouble explaining their actions in line with Kyiv‘s official line.
In a two-day attack that was extensively documented on social media, Ukrainian authorities claim the fighters were acting independently when they sped across the Russian border and started shooting up Russian communities in the Belgorod region earlier this week.
The Ukrainian security forces are in charge of the members of the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom for Russia Legion, both of which are made up of Russian citizens waging war in Ukraine against their motherland.
“Was this an independent action uncoordinated with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, or did they give you instructions?” I asked Dennis Nikitin, leader of the far-right Russian Volunteer Corps on Wednesday.
He replied, “Obviously, everything we do, every decision we make behind, beyond the border [in Russia] … is our own decision.”
But he went on to admit a certain “encouragement and help and aid.”
“What we do, obviously, we can ask our, let’s say, [Ukrainian] comrades, friends for their assistance in planning. What do you think about this? Could you tell us if this is a plausible mission? Would it help Ukraine in this fight or would it make things worse?” Nikitin said.
“They will say ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘this is a good idea’, ‘this is a bad idea’. So this is a kind of encouragement and help and aid.”
Nikitin didn’t actually do a stage wink, but he might as well have.
Similar signals came from “Caesar,” the nickname of the spokesman for the Freedom for Russia Legion, a more moderate anti-Putin formation of a few hundred men which is also dedicated to ending the war in Ukraine and to toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked whether it was true that the Russian dissidents had used some US-made MRAP armored vehicles – perhaps even vehicles donated by the United States to Ukraine – Caesar said: “We used Humvees also. We buy them in international shops, war shops. Yeah … everyone who has some money can do it.”
He was wryly and consciously repeating a Russian propaganda trope dating back to Moscow’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when the Kremlin denied its troops were on the ground and suggested that pro-Moscow rebels had bought Russian vehicles on the open market.
The use of US vehicles in the operation has provoked minor consternation in Washington.
“The US government has not approved any third party transfers of equipment to paramilitary organizations outside the Ukrainian Armed Forces, nor has the Ukrainian government requested any such transfers,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Tuesday, emphasizing that the US would “keep a close eye” on the issue.
The West has insisted that Ukraine not use weapons it receives from members of the NATO security alliance inside Russia. A strike against a Russian target inside Russia itself using the UK-provided Storm Shadow cruise missile, for example, would risk the appearance of bringing NATO into direct conflict with Moscow.
But MRAP armored vehicles are armored trucks. It’s the weapons systems that really matter.
Ukraine doesn’t want any credit for the raid into Russia. So it has used Russians to do the job, and claimed they’re not under Ukrainian orders, this time.
Nevertheless, Kyiv will be delighted by the result. The dissident raid has had the desired effect – destabilizing Russia.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary company that’s been fighting in Ukraine alongside Russia’s military has already seized upon the raid as a proof of the military’s ineptitude.
“Sabotage and reconnaissance forces calmly enter Russia and march, uploading videos, driving their tanks, armoured infantry vehicles. Where’s the guarantee that they will not enter Moscow?…So far as I understand, nobody gives a sh*t about residents of Belgorod region,” thundered Prigozhin on Tuesday in an interview with pro-Russian blogger Konstantin Dolgov.
“I say to the elite of the Russian Federation – you sons of bitches, gather your children. Send them to war. When you come to a funeral and start burying them, people will say: ‘It is all fair now.’”
If not, warned the mercenary leader who still claims to back Putin, “All these divisions can end in what is a revolution, just like in 1917.
It’s safe to assume that the scions of Moscow’s nomenklatura will not suddenly be flooding through the doors of recruitment offices for either the armed forces or Prigozhin’s dogs of war.
But chaos in the ranks of the enemy amounts to victory, according to the eponymous doctrine of Russian armed forces general Valery Gerazimov.
And Caesar is confident that Moscow’s been rattled.
“They [Russians defending Belgorod] were too stupid and too slow. About five hours, about five hours [to react]. They only try to understand what’s happened. It was about one mechanized company to, to force the counterattack. Yesterday, we destroyed those mechanized company. We bring them heavy casualties,” he said in English picked up in his school in Russia.
“It’s just a little beginning, just for reconnaissance,” he added.
Amanfrom, Tetegu, and other of the Greater Accra Region, will experience a power cut today, Thursday, May 25, 2023 as a result of a planned maintenance exercise to be carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The Electricity Company of Ghana in a press statement Wednesday announced that it is undertaking planned maintenance on Thursday which will affect power flow to some areas.
The outage is expected to last from 9 am to 4 pm.
“ECG regrets the inconvenience that will arise out of this exercise,” the power distributor added.
The areas to be affected include Katamanso Police land, ECG quarters, Paradise Estate, Sweden Medical Centre, Amanfrom, Ashieyie Reservoir, Adom Gate, Ashieyie Fulani, Tetegu, White Cross, Sampa Valley and surrounding areas.
As reported by Japan‘s national broadcaster NHK, a man shot what seemed to be a hunting rifle in Nakano City, Nagano Prefecture, on Thursday, injuring at least four persons.
In the late afternoon, a “man stabbed a woman,” according to NHK, and the police were called.
The man opened fire on four individuals before fleeing and barricading himself in a building when police got on the scene, according to NHK.
NHK reported the suspect was wearing a camouflage hat, top and bottoms with sunglasses and a mask.
Nakano City urged citizens to stay indoors in a statement posted onto social media Thursday.
Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan. The country has one of the lowest rates of gun crimes in the world due to its extremely strict gun control laws.
In 2018, Japan, a country of 125 million people, only reported nine deaths from firearms – compared with 39,740 that year in the United States, according to data compiled by the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney.
Ghanaian singer, songwriter Efya Nocturnal has revealed that she’s been an independent artist for the past 10 years without external help.
According to the award-winning musician, she has been pushing her music carrier single handedly.
“…I’m fighting a good fight, I’ve been an independent artist for 10 years. I never got signed to a label because I want the best deal for myself. Now, my catalogue is very tight right now, so at this point I will get the best value for my catalogue. But for the ones coming, we want to make it that they won’t go through the same thing that we went through because God put us here for a purpose. I pray that as we move forward, there will be more support,” Efya Nocturnal told Kwame Bee, Host of Diwulane Mu show on Kasapa 102.5FM.
The sensational vocalist returned to the music business in May 2022 with his single called “Super Super”.
The head teacher of Benkum Senior High School (SHS) in the Eastern Region, Emmanuel Nyarko has been interdicted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) over allegations of sexual misconduct.
Mr. Emmanuel Nyarko was directed to step aside for investigations following allegations of his sexual involvement with about 15 female students of the school.
Some teachers in the school who were reported to have engaged in a similar act cited his sexual misconduct after he attempted to facilitate their transfers to different schools.
Teachers who were queried as part of the probe mentioned the head teacher, leading to his interdiction.
The incident is reported to have happened last year [2022] and has been under investigation since.
Speaking to Citi News, a deputy spokesperson for the Education Ministry, Yaw Opoku Mensah, said the Ministry would keenly monitor the progress of the investigations.
“The investigation has started and the regional education outfit is in charge and the school has paved the way for investigations to start for the headmaster to give out the space or step aside for the committee to have the atmosphere to carry on with the investigations as per the code of conduct of GES.
“The Ministry is monitoring the development, and we urge the public to stay calm and help with the investigative process. And eventually, a report of the outcome of the investigations will be communicated to the GES in headquarters for other actions to be taken,” Yaw Opoku Mensah, deputy spokesperson for the Education Ministry noted.
The Queen of Rock and Roll, Tina Tuner, who was 83 years old, died on May 3, 2023, and her influence on music has since been honoured.
American singer and songwriter, Wilson Pickett’s Soul to Soul Concert train landed on the shores of Ghana in 1971, with some of the best musicians including Ike & Tina Turner on board.
Tina and her team received a warm welcome amidst cheers and cultural displays when they touched down in Ghana.
The Soul to Soul Concert also dubbed the ‘African Woodstock’ was widely attended by an estimated 30,000 people on March 6, 1971, at the Black Star Square in Accra.
Other performers included Staple Singers, Santana, Roberta Flack, Guy Warren, Damas Choir and others.
A statement by Tina’s representative that confirmed her death revealed that she had battled with a long illness. On May 24 she gave up the ghost in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland.
As the world celebrates the life of his iconic singer and dancer, we take a look at her visit to Ghana with her former husband, the late Ike Tuner who was also a singer.
Ike & Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and produced monster hits including ‘River Deep – Mountain High’ and ‘Proud Mary’ which were later inducted into the Grammys Hall of Fame.
Following Tina Tuner’s divorce from Ike, she became a powerhouse and released hit songs including ‘The Best’, ‘What’s Love Got To Do With This’, ‘Acid Queen’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Fight’.
The Queen of Rock and Roll will be remembered for her energetic and wild performances that kept her audience on their feet.
After years on the run, authorities say the most sought fugitive suspected of taking part in the 1994 Rwandangenocide has been captured in Paarl, South Africa.
According to a statement, Fulgence Kayishema was apprehended on Wednesday in a combined operation involving South African law enforcement and a UN team tasked with tracking down the remaining fugitives.
Kayishema initially denied being him when he was apprehended, according to the investigators. At night’s end, he did, however, confess to them, saying, “I have been waiting a long time to be arrested.”
Investigators said he used multiple identities and forged documents to evade detection.
“The arrest was the culmination of an intense, thorough and rigorous investigation,” a senior official at the prosecutor’s office involved in the case told CNN.
“Family members and known associates were exhaustively investigated. That ultimately led to identifying the right location to search and finding the critical intelligence that was needed.”
Kayishema allegedly orchestrated the killing of more than 2,000 Tutsi refugees – women, men, children and the elderly – at Nyange Catholic Church during the genocide. He has been on the run since 2001.
“Fulgence Kayishema was a fugitive for more than 20 years. His arrest ensures that he will finally face justice for his alleged crimes,” said Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz of the United Nations’ International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).
“Genocide is the most serious crime known to humankind. The international community has committed to ensure that its perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished. This arrest is a tangible demonstration that this commitment does not fade and that justice will be done, no matter how long it takes,” Brammertz said.
In recent years, the IRMCT prosecutor has complained about the lack of cooperation from South African authorities and there have been a series of near misses capturing Kayishema. But on Thursday, Brammertz lauded the cooperation and support of the South African government.
The events in Nyanga, Rwanda, were one of the most brutal of the genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed over the period of 90 days.
The tribunal alleges that Kayishema directly participated in the “planning and execution of this massacre.” The indictment says he bought and distributed petrol to burn down the church while refugees were inside. Kayishema and others are also accused of using a bulldozer to collapse the church following the fire, while refugees were still inside.
The office of the IRMCT says the investigation spanned multiple countries across Africa and in other regions.
A reward of up to $5,000,000 was offered by the US War Crimes Rewards Program for information on Kayishema and the other fugitives wanted for perpetrating the Rwandan genocide.
Kayishema is due to be arraigned on Friday in a Cape Town court.
The Rwandan genocide saw Hutu militias and civilians alike murder vast numbers of members of the Tutsi ethnic minority: men, women and children, many of whom had been their neighbors before the conflict began.
The killings finally came to an end 100 days later, when Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) troops, led by Paul Kagame, defeated the Hutu rebels and took control of the country.
The couple went viral sensation after various videos of them engaged in some questionable actions surfaced on the TikTok platform.
Among other things, Godpapa The Greatest, who was said to be a one-time pastor, and his wife were seen engaging in various acts, such as smoking, on social media.
In an interview with Kofi TV, the couple confessed to killing one of their two children because he was possessed by an evil spirit.
According to the mother of the children, Empress Lupita, her husband saw the future of the boy as a demon who would grow up to birth more demons and potentially destroy Ghana if he was allowed to live. Therefore, they believed it was necessary to sacrifice him to save the nation.
In another interview by Kofi TV, the surviving child, who managed to escape from his parents, confirmed that his brother, El Waa, was murdered by his mother and father.
The 8-year-old said his parents poisoned his brother through gari soakings, and when he “refused to die,” he was buried alive by them.
The boy further made various allegations of maltreatment against his parents.
According to him, his mother and father would sometimes defecate inside a bucket and later blend it to prepare soup for them to eat with banku.
Based on the revelations made by the boy and the contents of the viral video, the Tema Community Two police have reportedly apprehended the couple.
Reports indicate that the couple will be assisting the police in their investigations into the matter.
Rescue organisations claim that two boats in the Mediterranean Sea, each with over 1,000 people on board, are in peril, but neither the Italian nor the Maltese governments have reacted to appeals for assistance.
The boats are gaining water, according to Maurice Striel, the founder of Alarm Phone, a non-profit organisation that receives calls from migrant boats in peril and warns authorities and rescue ship operators.
He claimed that each vessel was carrying about 500 individuals, and that his organisation had yesterday informed Maltese and Italian authorities of their predicament.
“The people report that they fled from Libya several days ago & that their engine has stopped. Authorities are informed – rescue efforts are needed urgently & without delay,” Alarm Phone tweeted.
Neither Malta nor Italian maritime control centers have responded to multiple requests for information by CNN through Wednesday.
Multiple human rights organizations have been racing to track the boats.
“The situation on board one of the boats seems dire, with reports of the boat taking on water and a woman having given birth,” Doctors Without Borders tweeted of the boats Wednesday.
The NGO Emergency, which runs the rescue vessel Life Support, said it is heading to the area despite not being dispatched by either Italian or Maltese authorities.
“The situation seems very critical, we are trying to contact #MRCCMalta #coastguard without success,” they tweeted late Tuesday.
The group warned that “it may be too late” by the time Life Support reaches the troubled boats.
Every year, tens of thousands of migrants fleeing war, persecution and poverty risk the treacherous route in search of better economic prospects. They travel in dinghies that are unfit for the journey and can be left stranded, sparking major diplomatic rows between European countries in the region.
There has been an uptick in migrant arrivals by sea to Italy. Italian interior ministry figures show that 46,656 people arrived in the country by boat this year as of May 24, 2023.
In the same period last year, 17,972 people had arrived by boat.
International watchdogs have denounced Iran after it murdered three more individuals in response to recentunrest that shook the nation.
Per the judiciary news source Mizan News, Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi were put to death in Isfahan on Friday. Three security personnel were killed in an incident that the three were accused of carrying out in Isfahan in November 2022 while there were anti-government demonstrations.
The US State Department requested Iran to postpone the executions on Thursday, labelling the procedures “sham trials.”
And Amnesty International said the men were “fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system” without due process being observed.
“These executions are meant to prolong the Islamic Republic’s rule and only a high political cost can stop more protester executions,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights, wrote on Twitter.
“Unless the Iranian authorities are met with serious consequences by the international community, hundreds of protester lives will be taken by their killing machine,” he said.
Iran executed at least 582 people last year, a 75% increase on the previous year, according to human rights groups who say the rise reflects an effort by Tehran to “instill fear” among anti-regime protesters.
It was the highest number of executions in the Islamic republic since 2015, according to a report released last month by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) groups.
More than half of the executions last year took place after the protests erupted in September.
The US State Department condemned the latest planned executions of Kazemi, Mirhashemi and Yaqoubi on Thursday.
“The execution of these men, after what have been widely regarded as sham trials, would be an affront to human rights and basic dignity in Iran and everywhere,” said State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel at a press briefing.
“It is clear from this episode that the Iranian regime has learned nothing from the protests that began with another death, the death of Mahsa Amini in September of last year,” Patel added.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, another NGO that monitors human rights violations in Iran, said on Twitter that the three men “had the minimal defense rights of an accused.” The group decried what it called an “unfathomable wave of executions in Iran.”
Nationwide protests rocked Iran last fall, as decades of bitterness over the regime’s treatment of women and other issues boiled over after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s so-called morality police.
Authorities violently repressed the months-long movement, which had posed one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.
Net migration to Britain hit record highs in 2017, according to official data released on Thursday. This puts pressure on the UK government, which has made the issue a political focal point.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 1.2 million individuals entered Britain in 2022, while approximately half of them left, for a net migration of 606,000 people.
That is in spite of promises made by previous Conservative administrations to significantly restrict immigration to the UK, especially in the wake of Brexit, which its proponents hailed as a crucial step for Britain to “take control” of its borders.
Thursday’s figures forces difficult questions for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and his embattled Home Secretary Suella Braverman, both of whom have pledged to reduce migration figures.
“The main drivers of the increase were people coming to the UK from non-EU countries for work, study and for humanitarian purposes,” Jay Lindop, Director of the Centre for International Migration at the ONS, said Thursday.
As reported by the state news agency TASS, which cited emergency services, Russia has rejected allegations of a fire at the Ministry of Defence building in central Moscow after the agency claimed that a blaze had started on the balcony.
An emergency services source was first quoted by TASS as stating, “A fire broke-out on a balcony at the Ministry of Defence building on Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya,” adding that emergency services are on the site.
Later, according to local officials, the building had no sign of a fire, according to TASS.
“The presence of a fire has not been confirmed, as no fire was detected by the fire brigade upon arrival. Neither is there any information about victims,” TASS quoted Moscow’s Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Video seen by CNN showed smoke surrounding the Defense Ministry building and a woman heard saying, “The smell of burning is horrible.”
Earlier this month, a small explosion apparently caused by two drones took place at the Kremlin, which Moscow described at the time as an attempt on the life of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a gushing opening speech at a stadium on Tuesday, AustralianPrime Minister Anthony Albanese praised his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and compared him to the American rocker Bruce Springsteen.
As he prepares to run for office, Modi is paying his first visit to Sydney in nine years. At the same time, Australia is looking to strengthen its commercial ties with the world’s most populated market as its relations with China have deteriorated.
Tuesday, Albanese served as the host and warm-up act while performing on stage at the Qudos Bank Arena, a large entertainment complex located in the city’s Olympic Park.
“The last time I saw someone on the stage here was Bruce Springsteen, and he didn’t get the welcome that Prime Minister Modi has got,” Albanese said.
“You have brought the spirit of the world’s biggest democracy to Australia,” Albanese said of his “dear friend,” adding the Indian leader has helped strengthen Australia’s democracy.
“Prime Minister Modi is the boss!” he added, to thunderous applausefrom a crowd dominated by Australia’s Indian diaspora.
Originally planned as a summit for leaders from the Quad, which includes the United States and Japan, Modi’s trip to Australia comes as Canberra is trying to bolster its relationship with New Delhi in a bid to grow economic ties and reinforce their strategic partnership, as the West attempts to thwart the rise of an increasingly assertive China.
“In the language of cricket, our ties have entered the T20 mode,” Modi said during a joint appearance with Albanese. “Our democratic values are the foundation of our ties. Our relations are based on mutual trust and respect. The Indian community in Australia is a living bridge between our countries.”
Modi also met with several “prominent Australian personalities,” according to a statement from the Indian government, including international chef Sarah Todd and Australian singer Guy Sebastian.
In a series of videos published to Modi’s Twitter account, several of these personalities were filmed praising the leader.
“He was so warm and so kind,” Sebastian said of their interaction.
His warm welcome is symbolic of his immense public appeal among many Indians living overseas, as well as his emergence as a key player in the global order.
But the leader and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also come under increasing scrutiny for a clampdown on free speech and discriminatory policies toward minority groups in the secular democracy of 1.4 billion, something Western leaders rarely address publicly when Modi visits.
When asked by reporters whether Albanese will press Modi on some of these issues, the Australian leader skirted the issue, saying he had a “respectful” relationship with his Indian counterpart.
“India is, of course, the world’s largest democracy. Here in Australia, of course, people have a right to express their views in a peaceful way, and people, we all have different views about people in politics,” Albanese said. “Australia, of course, always stands up for human rights, wherever it occurs anywhere in the world.”
India has also repeatedly abstained from votes condemning Russia at the United Nations, instead reiterating a need for “diplomacy and dialogue,” while buying up huge amounts of Moscow’s oil despite western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
Albanese said he respected that India “is responsible for its own international relations” and acknowledged the South Asian nation’s history of non-alignment.
“India is a great supporter of peace and security and stability in our region,” he said.
Modi’s Australia visit caps a busy week of diplomatic activity and travel.
Over the weekend, he was in Papua New Guinea, where he met with Prime Minister James Marape and pledged his support for the Pacific Islands.
Days earlier Modi had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Japan – the first time they had come face-to-face since Russia’s invasion began.
And next month, US President Joe Biden will host Modi at the White House.
Modi’s diplomatic flurry comes in a pivotal year for the leader.
India has assumed the Group of 20 (G20) presidency this year, playing host to a series of important events in the country, while marketing itself as a leader of the Global South. Modi is also gearing up for an election year in 2024, seeking to secure a momentous second decade in power.
And while India grows increasingly close to the West and its allies, critics have accused Western leaders of turning a blind eye to some of New Delhi’s alleged human rights abuses playing out at home.
Earlier this year, India banned a BBC documentary critical of Modi’s alleged role in the deadly 2002 Gujarat riots, in which more than 1,000 people – mostly Muslims – were killed, in a move lambasted by free speech advocates.
In March, Rahul Gandhi, the former leader of India’s main opposition political party and one of the few figures that has the kind of star power and name recognition needed to challenge Modi, was stripped of his lawmaker status after he was handed a two-year jail sentence for defamation.
Critics of the BJP and Gandhi’s supporters say the case is politically motivated.
Earlier this month, Modi’s party lost its only stronghold in the country’s south after Karnataka state voted in favor of Gandhi’s Congress Party.
Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to Sydney as Australia’s capital. Canberra is the capital.
A statement from the head of the private military organisation Wagner, if Russia’s stalling war effort in Ukraine continues, a new “revolution” might shake the nation. His critical evaluation of Moscow’s military readiness may further reveal gaps in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military hierarchy.
Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed in an interview with pro-Russian blogger Konstantin Dolgov that even when Ukrainian forces invade Russian territory, Moscow’s troops are unprepared to confront them.
Additionally, he commended the Ukrainian army‘s capabilities and encouraged Moscow to step up its military efforts in order to prevent a protracted and expensive battle.
“I believe Ukrainians today are one of the strongest armies in the world,” Prigozhin said. He called Kyiv’s forces “highly organized, highly trained and their intelligence is on the highest level, they can operate any military system with equal success, a Soviet or a NATO one.”
In recent days Moscow suffered embarrassment when a group of anti-Putin Russians entered the Belgorod region in an incursion that caused anger and confusion among Russia’s influential military analysts. Asked about the incident, Prigozhin said Russian defense forces are “absolutely not ready to resist them in any shape or form.”
“Here we are with Ukraine, that is our enemy, in the middle of the war, Russian Volunteer Corps groups come in effortlessly and go through (the border) in tanks and APCs without any repercussions and make their own videos if it,” the Wagner chief vented.
Prigozhin has frequently criticized Russia’s traditional military hierarchy as he sought to win a power struggle against military commanders to lead Putin’s ground effort in eastern Ukraine. Earlier this month he blamed Russian defense chiefs for “tens of thousands” of Wagner casualties because they didn’t have enough ammunition.
But his comments to Dolgov were alarmist even for the free-wheeling Putin ally. As he has frequently done, Prigozhin urged Moscow to step up its war in order to defeat Ukraine – urging Putin to “declare a martial law and a new wave of mobilization.”
He warned that if Russian losses continue to mount, “all these divisions can end in what is a revolution, just like in 1917.”
“First the soldiers will stand up, and after that – their loved ones will rise up. It is wrong to think that there are hundreds of them – there are already tens of thousands of them – relatives of those killed,” he said. “And there will probably be hundreds of thousands – we cannot avoid that.”
Russian forces, primarily made up of Wagner troops, have labored for months over the capture of Bakhmut – a city in Ukraine’s east of relatively insignificant strategic value, where Russia has suffered vast losses – and its larger ground campaign has been in stalemate since a string of successful Ukrainian counter-attacks last autumn.
In a case that has long captured the nation‘s attention, a coroner has released her findings more than two years after the rotting foot of an alleged conman washed up on an Australian beach.
Melissa Caddick, a self-declared financial consultant, may have eluded police by fabricating her own death, according to fantastical ideas, but the evidence points to her being dead, according to New South Wales deputy state coroner Elizabeth Ryan’s findings on Thursday.
According to court filings, Ryan stated that the absence of communication between Ms. Caddick and her son “may be the most compelling evidence that Ms. Caddick is deceased.”
“Deeply attached to him as she was, it seems to me most unlikely that she would not have reached out to him in some way, were she still alive.”
However, Ryan was unable to say how and why Caddick died, leaving questions in a mystery that inspired a hit podcast and TV dramatization, along with hours of speculation by amateur sleuths.
Ryan said it was “possible” Caddick fell from the cliffs near her home into the sea with the intention of taking her own life, having seen it was the only way out of the “personal and professional catastrophe which overtook her.”
What is known is that Caddick worked hard at the illusion of financial success – she was well-dressed in high-end luxury brands and jewelry, lived in a spacious suburban house and went on overseas holidays – to create an image “clearly integral to the confidence which Ms Caddick inspired in her clients,” the coroner found.
But in the months leading up to November 2020, her carefully crafted image began to unravel as police investigated her for financial fraud.
According to the coroner’s findings, Caddick used a fraudulent investment scheme to cheat her family and friends out of huge sums of money – $13 million to $19 million (20 to 30 million Australian dollars) – to fund her “very expensive” lifestyle.
“Ms Caddick’s clients were shocked and felt a profound sense of betrayal when they discovered that the money they had invested with her had gone,” Ryan said.
“For many, their losses represented all the money they had saved for their retirement or for their children’s education. The financial and emotional harm they have suffered will reverberate for many years to come.”
Caddick likely knew her business dealings were about to be exposed when police and the corporate regulator raided her suburban Sydney home on November 11, 2020, the coroner found.
Australia’s financial watchdog had been tipped off that she had been using a friend’s financial adviser’s license, and that Caddick had faked her documents to run the alleged con operation.
As police closed in, Caddick disappeared, leading to months of speculation that she had fled the country, was hiding or was dead.
The case took a gruesome turn in February 2021 with the discovery of a decomposing foot inside a sports shoe on Bournda Beach, 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Sydney.
Forensics experts matched the body part to Caddick using DNA tests but an autopsy couldn’t determine if it was deliberately severed or separated through decomposition.
The coroner’s findings – though uncertain about the circumstances of Caddick’s death – contained scathing comments aboutCaddick’s husband, Anthony Kolleti, a hairdresser and part-time DJ.
He only reported her disappearance to police 30 hours after his wife went missing, the coroner said.
Koletti frequently contradicted himself as to when he last saw his wife following the police raid, and told officers he was too busy with work to go the station to give further information, according to court documents.
“He appeared strangely unperturbed about his wife’s disappearance,” Ryan said in her findings.
She added that the lack of reliable information made it difficult for police to conduct a search, as they were unable to identify a time and place to start looking.
At the inquest, Koletti denied withholding information from police or the court, and he said he “most definitely did not” help his wife to disappear or delay reporting her absence to give her time to vanish, according to court documents.
Director for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Water Research Institute (WRI), Professor Mike Osei-Atweneboana, has cautioned illegal miners and other stakeholders of illegal mining against the practice, citing its adverse impact on the environment.
Speaking in an interview with The Independent Ghana, the Professor asked illegal miners to prioritise national interest over personal gains since their activities have long-term effects which will come back to bite them in the near future.
“People who engage in illegal mining must know that when you throw a ball to the wall, it will always come back to you. Now they may be enjoying the booty of the illegal mining but what is happening is that the impact, when it comes in the major scale, it will not be the people alone that will suffer. They [illegal miners] will pay and they will pay dearly,” he said.
Appealing to the conscience of illegal miners, he urged them to adopt responsible and sustainable practices in the conduct of their activities to ensure minimum impact on the environment.
“They must know that this is a country that our forefathers have built. If they cannot add something to it, they shouldn’t destroy the country. They should think about Ghana and not their pockets and the money they are going to get,” he said.
As Ghana continues its battle against illegal mining, the Professor’s comment serves as a reminder of the collective responsibility to safeguard the nation’s natural resources for future generations.
Highlighting the long-term environmental and societal impacts of illegal mining, he noted that Ghana risks losing its water bodies in a few years to come if the activity does not stop.
“…and they should know that if we lose those water bodies they will not get water to drink. Most of the animals in water bodies – the fishes and other primary producers that sustain life- are being killed.
“Fishes cannot stay in these water bodies. Even those that stay become completely polluted. So the fish that you eat may have an accumulation of the chemicals that we do not want because when they get into our system, they are going to kill us. So going forward, we need to do something, otherwise in the next 10 years we will have a lot of rivers but we cannot use them and we need to change and now,” he noted.
Tina Turner, the American-born singer who left a hardscrabble farming community and abusive relationship to become one of the top recording artists of all time, died on Wednesday at the age of 83.
She died peacefully after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, her representative said.
Turner began her career in the 1950s during the early years of rock and roll and evolved into an MTV phenomenon.
In the video for her chart-topping song “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” in which she called love a “second-hand emotion,” Turner epitomized 1980s style as she strutted through New York City streets with her spiky blond hair, wearing a cropped jean jacket, mini skirt, and stiletto heels.
With her taste for musical experimentation and bluntly-worded ballads, Turner gelled perfectly with a 1980s pop landscape in which music fans valued electronically-produced sounds and scorned hippie-era idealism.
Sometimes nicknamed the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Turner won six of her eight Grammy Awards in the 1980s. The decade saw her land a dozen songs on the Top 40, including “Typical Male,” “The Best,” “Private Dancer” and “Better Be Good to Me.” Her 1988 show in Rio de Janeiro drew 180,000 people, which remains one of the largest concert audiences for any single performer.
By then, Turner had been free from her marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for a decade.
The superstar was forthcoming about the abuse she suffered from her former husband during their marital and musical partnership in the 1960s and 1970s. She described bruised eyes, busted lips, a broken jaw and other injuries that repeatedly sent her to the emergency room.
“Tina’s story is not one of victimhood but one of incredible triumph,” singer Janet Jackson wrote about Turner, in a Rolling Stone issue that placed Turner at No. 63 on a list of the top 100 artists of all time.
“She’s transformed herself into an international sensation – an elegant powerhouse,” Jackson said.
In 1985, Turner gave a fictional turn to her reputation as a survivor. She played the ruthless leader of an outpost in a nuclear wasteland, acting opposite Mel Gibson in the third instalment in the Mad Max franchise, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”
Most of Turner’s hit songs were written by others, but she enlivened them with a voice that New York Times music critic Jon Pareles called “one of the more peculiar instruments in pop.”
“It’s three-tiered, with a nasal low register, a yowling, cutting middle range and a high register so startlingly clear it sounds like a falsetto,” Pareles wrote in a 1987 concert review.
‘ONE-HORSE TOWN’
She was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in the rural Tennessee community of Nutbush, which she described in her 1973 song “Nutbush City Limits” as a “quiet little old community, a one-horse town.”
Her father worked as an overseer on a farm and her mother left the family when the singer was 11 years old, according to the singer’s 2018 memoir “My Love Story.” As a teenager, she moved to St. Louis to rejoin her mom.
Ike Turner, whose 1951 song “Rocket 88” has often been called the first rock and roll record, discovered her at age 17 when she grabbed the mic to sing at his club show in St. Louis in 1957.
The band leader later recorded a hit song, “A Fool In Love,” with his protégé and gave her the stage name Tina Turner, before the two married in Tijuana, Mexico.
Tina employed her strong voice and strenuously rehearsed dance routines as lead vocalist in an ensemble called the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. She collaborated with members of rock royalty, including The Who and Phil Spector, in the 1960s and 1970s and appeared on the cover of issue two of Rolling Stone magazine in 1967.
Ike and Tina Turner bounced between record labels, owing much of their commercial success to a relentless touring schedule. Their biggest hit was a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.”
Turner left her husband one night in 1976 on a tour stop in Dallas, after he pummelled her during a car ride and she struck back, according to her memoir. Their divorce was finalized in 1978.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Ike and Tina Turner in 1991, calling them “one of the most formidable live acts in history.” Ike Turner died in 2007.
EUROPE BOUND
After leaving her husband, Turner spent years struggling to regain the limelight, releasing solo albums and singles that flopped and gigging at corporate conferences.
In 1980, she met new manager Roger Davies, an Australian music executive who went on to manage her for three decades. That led to a solo no.1 – “What’s Love Got to Do With It” – and then in 1984 her album “Private Dancer” landed her at the top of the charts.
“Private Dancer” went on to become Turner’s biggest album, the capstone of a career that saw her sell more than 200 million records in total.
In 1985 Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach who became her long-term partner and in 1988 she moved to London, beginning a decades-long residency in Europe. She released two studio albums in the 1990s that sold well, especially in Europe, recorded the theme song for 1995 Bond movie “GoldenEye,” and staged a successful world tour in 2008 and 2009.
After that, she retired from show business. She married Bach, relinquishing her U.S. citizenship and becoming a citizen of Switzerland.
She battled a number of health problems after retiring and in 2018 she faced a family tragedy, when her oldest son, Craig, took his life at age 59 in Los Angeles. Her younger son Ronnie died in December 2022.
Her name continues to draw audiences years after her retirement. Musical stage show “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical,” with Adrienne Warren initially acting and singing the star’s life story, was a hit first in London’s West End in 2018, and later on Broadway, and is still running. And in 2021 HBO released a documentary about her life, “Tina.”
She is survived by Bach and two sons of Ike’s that she adopted.
A 63-year-old man, Efo Kokuvi, has had machete wounds inflicted on his head and other parts of his body by a friend, Nicolas Cudjoe, at Kwashie-Amabo in the Awutu Senya West District of the Central Region.
Information gathered by Kasapa News’ Yaw Boagyan indicates that a friend of the suspect gave two packets of roofing sheets to the victim to keep for him, but a few days later, the suspect and his friend went for the roofing sheets without consulting Efo.
After Efo Kokuvi returned from work, the roofing sheets were nowhere to be found, so he confronted the suspect, which led to a heated argument on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.
Later in the night, the suspect, Nicolas Cudjoe, sneaked into Efo’s room and allegedly inflicted cutlass wounds on him.
The victim was rushed to the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital, where he’s receiving treatment, and the matter was reported to the Awutu Bereku Police Command.
Police investigation led to the arrest of the suspect, who is in custody assisting investigations.
At least three Ghanaian Catholic Bishops are expected to resign this year.
The resignation of the prominent Ghanaian Catholic Bishops is in line with the dictates of the Catholic Church as they turn 75 years this year.
These Bishops who have been serving the Church for decades are mandated by the Canon Law of the Catholic Church to resign their position through letters presented to the head of the Church, the Pope, for consideration.
“Diocesan Bishop who has completed the seventy-fifth year of age is requested to present his resignation from office to the Supreme Pontiff, who will make provision after he has examined all the circumstances,” the Canon Law [Can. 401 §1.] of the Catholic Church stipulates.
According to a January 2023 report by Catholic Trends, “the oldest crop of Bishops/Archbishops who have served the church dutifully and nearing their period of retirement are Most Rev. Philip Naameh of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale (He will be 75 years in September 2023) Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Bishop of Konongo-Mampong Diocese ( He was 75 years in February 2023) and Most Rev. Gabriel Akwasi Ababio Mante, Bishop of Jasikan Diocese (He will be 76 years old in July 2023).”
Meanwhile, Most Rev. Gabriel Akwasi Ababio Mante, Bishop of the Jasikan Diocese, has taken ill, and the Church has called on the faithful to remember him in their prayers.
In May 2020, The Bishops, Archbishop Philip Naameh, Bishop Gabriel Mantey, Bishop Joseph Osei-Bonsu, and Bishop Anthony Adanuty, marked 25 years in their ministry.
Five persons have escaped death by a whisker after a dilapidated two-storey building collapsed at Winneba Junction in the Effutu Municipality of the Central Region.
The caretakers and children who were staying in the building had gone to work at the time of the collapse on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, at around 4:00 PM.
Report gathered by Kasapa News Yaw Boagyan revealed that the building situated on a water-logged plot along the Winneba to Cape Coast High got residents calling for its demolishing due to how weak it looked.
According to eyewitnesses, they saw some of the roofing sheets falling down, and the wall collapsing making people around the building run helter-skelter.
A few moments later, the whole building came crashing down with properties worth thousands of Cedis destroyed.
Information gathered indicates that the owner of the building had on several occasions asked the caretakers to vacate the dilapidated facility as it posed great danger to them but they refused to leave.
Fortunately, nobody was injured when the building collapsed.
Fire Service Personnel were informed and rushed to the scene for possible rescue efforts and assessment.
ADO1 Ebenezer Fiifi Dadzie advised the general public to seek for building permits from the Fire Service before raising up any structure as the collapsed facility was on a water-logged area.
Police were informed of the incident and have commenced investigation.
Some portions of the Konongo-Accra highway are currently in a bad state as defects on the road continue to pose threats to persons who ply that stretch of road if not checked in time.
According to a newspaper report by the Chronicles dated May 24, 2023, the six-year pit that has emerged on the pavement of the road keeps widening, putting road users at risk of plying that stretch.
The metallic crash barrier has been corroded, leaving it hanging. The highway has been affected by the deterioration.
A resident who spoke to the newspaper under the name Gabriel Agyapong expressed concern about the inability of the Assembly responsible for the area to get the issue addressed.
He said the defects stated are because of erosion, which has gradually become a threat to highway users.
Another person who also spoke to the newspaper under the name Nana Amofa pleaded with the government to fix defects.
The news story further stated that in a conversation with the Municipal Chief Executive of the area where the road crashes are heavily affected, Robert Yaw Kwakye indicated that what his outfit can only do to help the situation is notify the Ghana Highway Authority.
“We have sent letters and petition upon petition to the Highway. We have a week to assess the situation and we are waiting that them to come, but fortunately for us, the GHA were here last week to assess the situation and we have been promised the next week they would be done,” the newspaper quoted the MCE.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Highways Authority, Mark Okyere, noted that they are aware of the situation, describing it as a washout challenge.
“We are aware of the situation and steps are being taken to address the problem as soon as possible,” he was quoted to have said.
Justice Jones Dotse has assumed the role of Acting Chief Justice following the retirement of Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, who served as a judge for 21 years.
The transition took place today, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in accordance with Article 144 (6) of the 1992 Constitution. graphiconline.com reports.
This article states that when the position of Chief Justice is vacant or the Chief Justice is unable to perform their duties, the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court shall act as Chief Justice until a substantive Chief Justice is appointed.
Justice Dotse, being the most senior Justice on the Supreme Court bench, has taken on the responsibility of Acting Chief Justice.
He will continue in this role until Parliament approves the nomination of Justice Gertrude Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo as the substantive Chief Justice.
Justice Torkornoo is scheduled to appear before the Appointment Committee of Parliament on Friday, May 26, for vetting.
The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jr, has contrary opinions about the victory of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the just by-election that took place in Kumawu.
NPP’s Ernest Yaw Anim, emerged winner in the Kumawu by-election with 15,264 representing 70.91% of the valid votes, whereas the NDC candidate polled 3,723 representing 17.29%.
The independent, Kwaku Duah, an independent candidate secured 2,478 representing 11.51%, while the next Kwaku Duah who also stood as an independent candidate managed some 62 votes representing 0.29%.
According to Kwesi Pratt, the percentage clocked by the NPP cannot be described as a landslide victory after it lost up to about 10,000 votes in this by-election compared to the total votes in the 2020 election.
“Today, I was looking at the headlines and they are all talking about the landslide victory, I don’t see any landslide victory in this election. What is landslide about this election? If you do the analysis, clearly, more than 10, 000 people who voted in the last election did not vote in this election and NPP lost substantially,” he said.
He further explained that the third independent candidate on the ballot paper, Kwaku Duah, was a force that contributed to the loss of the NPP.
“In fact, all those who did not vote in this election if you look at the numbers, normally would have been counted as NPP voters. If you do the analysis of the last elections, you will realize that the independent candidate was getting his votes from NPP supporters and the guy who won was also getting his votes from the NPP supporters.
Then we will realize that more than 10,000 votes have been lost. What is interesting is that the NDC gained a little over 1000 votes so if you are trend analysis, that should inform you about the performance of the NPP in this election,” he added.
Kwesi Pratt Jr was speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana.
The Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) has commenced stakeholder engagements on the proposals for tariff revision and restructuring by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).
This was after the GPHA notified the GSA of its decision to restructure the tariff regime as a result of the rising cost of providing port services.
As required by law, the GSA on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, commenced what would be a series of engagements with key stakeholders, the first of which was a meeting with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) at Shippers’ House in Accra to collate opinions and report back to the GHPA.
According to the GSA, the engagements would enable the GPHA to factor in the concerns of key stakeholders in the final decision-making to enable a smooth implementation of the tariff review.
In his presentation, the Head of the Freight and Logistics Department of the GSA, Fred Asiedu Dartey, said that the proposals from the GPHA for the review would affect thirteen (13) tariff schedules, including port dues, port operator license fees, vessel handling charges, stevedoring charges, receipt and delivery charges, among others.
He assured GUTA that the GSA will provide them with the information required to enable them to have fruitful deliberations to provide feedback.
“This is an effort to ensure that your businesses don’t suffer. We are open for further deliberations on the proposed tariff review and so the information you require will be provided,” he said.
On his part, the President of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng, asked for ample time to enable members to discuss the pros and cons of the proposals by the GPHA before implementation.
“We will need some time, maybe two (2) weeks for us to have internal deliberations on the proposal. We will also require assistance from the GSA to identify the areas in the proposal which directly affect us to enhance our deliberations,” he noted.
The NPP parliamentary candidate for Kumawu Ernest Yaw Anim has refuted allegations that the NPP has sanctioned individuals in the viral videos distributing items such as rice, cloth, and other goods to influence voters in the upcoming Kumawu by-election.
According to him, the said videos are propaganda orchestrated by the opposition party.
He said it was a kind gesture some people in the constituency were doing for their mothers on the Mother’s Day celebration.
Speaking in an interview with OTEC FM extended programme in Kumawu Monday May 22, 2023, ahead of today’s by-election Mr Anim said he doesn’t see anything wrong with your people showing appreciation to their parents for all they are doing for them.
He explained that the NPP had no involvement in such activities and stated that the party’s approach to distributing items like rice would entail a more organized and inclusive method.
“What is wrong with people trying to honor their parents during such occasions?” he asked the programme’s host, Dr. Cash.
Rather, he said the hard work and track record of the late MP and the achievements of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will win the elections for them.
“NDC is behind this propaganda to give NPP a bad name but it won’t fly. We will retain the seat after the election,” he added.
Ghanaian dancehall artiste Stonebwoy, has revealed that his greatest wish is to see everyone happy and be able to make money.
According to the award-winning artiste, making money isn’t about everyone becoming a billionaire in their lifetime because it’s impossible.
“My greatest wish is to see everyone happy and for everyone to be able to make money but money making is not about everyone becoming a billionaire.
“That’s a lie which is impossible for all of us to be billionaires but money making is that by God’s grace for everyone to be able to provide for their needs,” Stonebwoy told Amansan Krakye in an interview. We ought to be able to provide for our needs accordingly in order to be happy in this life and that is my ultimate wish and that’s how I see it to be,” he stated.
The reggae and dancehall sensation added that he has highlighted this desire on the first track of his 5th Dimension album.
“That’s what I used in singing track one of my 5th Dimension album and I said we should laugh, we should cry because it’s all part of life which is full of ups and downs,” Stonebwoy said on the show.
The Member of Parliament-elect for Kumawu has said that his massive victory in the by-elections shows that his party, the New Patriotic Party, is in a pole position to win power for an unprecedented third successive term.
Speaking to the media after the declaration of the by-election results, Ernest Yaw Anim said that his win shows that the NPP can achieve anything with unity.
He added that his victory was also a testament to the good works of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.
“My victory is proof that unity can change anything. The unity I brought has translated into the results we saw today. The number of votes that I got is so significant. This was a landslide victory – over 71 per cent of the votes cast.
“I also said earlier that the success of the NPP government and the good works it continues to do for the people of Ghana will make us win this election. I knew that the NPP was heading for a big victory.
“Every Ghanaian has accepted that NPP is the only party that can lead the country to the promised land; NPP is the only party that fulfils its promises. We said we would fix the roads in Kumawu, and today it is evident to everybody,” he told reporters in Twi.
“… this victory is also a sign that the ‘breaking the eight’ agenda is possible. This is a total statement that the NPP is ready to break the eight,” he added.
Ernest Yaw Anim polled 71 per cent (15,264 votes) of the total votes cast to retain the seat for the ruling party.
In a distant second was the National Democratic Congress candidate, Akwasi Amakwaa, who garnered only 17 per cent (3,783) of the votes.
The by-election was held after the Kumawu seat was declared vacant following the demise of the Member of Parliament for the constituency, Philip Basoah.
The gospel singer Ark Erico has made some accusations against the well-known Ghanaian producer Bandex, who produced his songs for the first time after winning TV3 Mentor.
Now Ark Erico, the season three winner of Mentor, a music reality show, has said that he didn’t make money at the peak of his career.
On the account of Erico, his former boss, Bandex, who produced music for several artistes in Ghana worked without a contract adding that there was no agreement that stated the benefits musicians were expected to gain from CD sales.
At the time, the young singer who stood his ground and called for a fair share ended up with chicken change.
Erico in an interview with Kwaku Manu Manu on the ‘Aggressive Show’ announced that he had to beg for money at a time when his music was being played on radio and television.
“Bandex never give me huge money during my time with him. There was no agreement or contract when I worked with him. He can go like, there is Waakye or Banku, let’s go eat. I hope you understand, there was no contract. During our productions, we never sat down to deliberate on proceeds or on how things were going to be executed.
“Those who were already working with Bandex equally didn’t have a contract and so I couldn’t call for that. I wanted to initiate that. When I met a man called Socrate Safo, he made me aware of the benefits of music. To be honest, the biggest money I got from Bandex was not up to GH¢500…you can confirm this from Socrate,” he revealed.
Erico recalled the time when he had to live from hand to mouth despite his popularity.
“I was always hungry even though I was famous and had hit songs…I was supposed to get my cut from CD sales but that never happened at least 20% or 30% …I realized that my colleagues, Cee and Isaac never had a contract…I used to beg money from Socrate and he didn’t understand why I was broke…when I stood up to Chairman (Bandex), he saw me as a rebel leader and so I had to leave…I, however, give credit to Bandex for helping me get my hit songs. God bless him,” the ‘Twen Nyame’ hitmaker acknowledged the efforts of his former producer.
The Austrian Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that the home where Adolf Hitler was born will be transformed into a training facility for police personnel in human rights.
The facility will be housed in the building in the town of Braunau am Inn, in the northwest, together with a police station, for which the Austrian government revealed plans in 2019.
The decision was taken in accordance with the recommendations of a multidisciplinary expert commission concerned with removing the property’s “mythical appeal to extremist circles,” according to a statement from the ministry.
“We have to face our past and give this historically burdened place a life-affirming perspective,” historian Oliver Rathkolb, a professor at the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Hitler was born in an apartment in the building on April 20, 1889 and lived there until his family left when he was three years old.
The building belonged to Gerlinde Pommer, whose family owned the building before Hitler’s birth, for decades until the Interior Ministry began renting the site from her in 1972.
It was sublet to various charities. However, the three-story house has been empty since 2011, when the tenant, a disability center, vacated the premises.
The government said in 2016 that the property would be demolished. It then set about forcibly acquiring it from Pommer, with the interior ministry invoking “special legal authorization” to expropriate the property.
Legal wrangling over the seizure and compensation followed, during which time plans to tear the building down were shelved.
After securing the site, the Austrian government remained concerned that it might attract neo-Nazis and others sympathetic to Hitler’s ideology. When announcing the decision to transform it into a police station in 2019, Austria’s then-Interior Minister, Wolfgang Peschorn, said that “the future use of the house by the police will be an unmistakable signal that this building will never serve to commemorate National Socialism.”
“It will be an office for the largest human rights organization in Austria – the police – and it will also be a center for training in this fundamentally important topic,” commission member Hermann Feiner, the former head of construction and real estate projects at the Ministry of the Interior, said in the statement Wednesday.
The conversion – which will cost an estimated €20 million ($21.5 million) – is expected to be completed in 2025, with the police moving in the following year.
Ghanaian musician Piesie Esther has candidly shared her experience of how her friend not only sabotaged her opportunity to marry someone from abroad but also became a financial burden in her life.
In a recent report by adomonline.com, Piesie Esther revealed that she had been dating two men and was not intimate with either of them because she was still studying them and confided in her friend about everything she did with them.
She said, “I told her I was considering the partner in Ghana because he was caring and respectful, unlike the one overseas. Suddenly, the one abroad began showing a negative attitude, and I told my friend about it too.”
Unbeknownst to Piesie Esther, her friend secretly communicated with her foreign lover and recorded their conversations, which she shared with him, making him hostile.
“Unknown to me, she had the number of my foreign lover, and they were having discussions behind me. All the times I spoke about him, my friend either recorded me or secretly called my lover to listen to some of my opinions of him.
“He heard me say I was considering the one in Ghana over him, and since then, he started being rude to me,” she disclosed.
In addition to ruining her relationships, Piesie Esther indicated that her friend also became a financial burden on her, claiming to have an ailing mother that she needed to take care of, after which she informed her that her mother had passed away.
“My friend became my financial burden. Every penny I get, I have to set some aside for her ailing mother. I took care of her mother until she told me her mom had passed away,” she recounted.
In the days leading up to her wedding, Piesie Esther mentioned that she received donations and pleaded with her friend to withdraw the money for her, however, her friend vanished along with her phone.
According to Piesie Esther, she followed her friend to her house and met a woman who claimed to be her biological mother.
“During my wedding, I had donations, and I pleaded with my friend to withdraw the cash for me. She vanished with both my phone and money.
“I trailed her to her house and met a woman who claimed to be her biological mother. The woman denied ever being in critical condition or dead, as my friend had told me,” she said.
The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has advised people to “avoid contact” with a well-known beluga whale to prevent unintentionally harming or killing it.
The whale, known as Hvaldimir, gained notoriety throughout the world in 2019 after it was noticed donning a custom camera harness, which led experts to speculate that the whale may have been taught by the Russian military.
The directorate stated that Hvaldimir has “been travelling along the Norwegian coast” since 2019 with a few stops along the route, and that it “tends to stay at farms where it has been able to catch fish, grazing on surplus feed.”
Hvaldimir is known to follow boats and play with those on board.
The whale, which is a protected species in Norway, now lives in inner Oslofjord, the directorate said.
This “means that it has arrived in a very densely populated area, and the risk that the whale may be injured due to human contact has become significantly greater,” it added.
In a statement on Wednesday, Fisheries Director Frank Bakke-Jensen said that “so far there have only been minor incidents where the whale has suffered minor injuries, primarily from contact with boats.”
But he urged people to keep their distance, “even though the whale is tame and used to being around people.”
“We especially encourage people in boats to keep a good distance to avoid the whale being injured or, in the worst case, killed by boat traffic,” said Bakke-Jensen.
Given the dangers, Bakke-Jensen was asked whether the whale should be placed in captivity.
“We have always communicated that the whale in question is a free-living animal and we see no reason to capture it and put it behind barriers,” he said.
However, now that the whale is “in a more vulnerable area and access to food may be limited, we will consider different measures,” added Bakke-Jensen. “But it is too early to say anything concrete about that yet.”
The Directorate of Fisheries will monitor the whale’s movements in the hope that it turns around when it reaches the end of the Oslofjord.
In 2019, experts told CNN that Hvaldimir was a trained animal, and evidence suggested that it had come from Russia.
Jorgen Ree Wiig, a marine biologist at Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries, told CNN that the harness appeared “specially made” and had “mounts for GoPro cameras on each side of it.”
And the harness clips read “Equipment St. Petersburg,” contributing to a theory that the whale came from Murmansk, Russia, and was trained by the Russian navy.
The navy has “been known to train belugas to conduct military operations before,” Wiig said, “like guarding naval bases, helping divers, finding lost equipment.”
King Promise endured three years of defeat at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), but he never let that stop him from continuing to create music for his devoted followers.
Promise has indicated that he has a higher calling, which is to stay constant in music production. His music speaks to the soul of listeners and inspires them for this, he will not give up.
Despite the disappointment, he knew that his time was going to come and on May 6, 2023, he won the Album of the Year with ‘5 Star’ at the VGMA.
“I always get going regardless. I feel like I have a higher calling than just letting things get to me because a lot of people listen to me and it brings joy into their lives. Put a smile on their faces, it makes them feel good and lifts them up when they are down.
“That is like a higher calling. In 2019, I won at VGMA and since then I’ve not won until this year, The years I hadn’t won, I was still going hard…I just kept going, just kept dropping music. It is funny when those things happen, I always come back with a smash,” he stated in an interview with Andy Dosty on Daybreak Hitz.
King Promise added that he is not moved by what critics do or say but focuses on his music career.
The Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency, Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has said the concerns of Ex-gratia which is paid to government appointees after their service cannot be scraped unless it goes through a constitutional review.
His comments were in reaction to the pronouncement by the former President, John Dramani Mahama, who, during his acceptance speech after the primaries of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said he will scrap off Ex-gratia when he comes into office come 2025.
In an interview, the majority leader stated that gratuity which is due to every government appointee is entrenched in the constitution hence it cannot just be scrapped.
“I think that what the former president is saying should be one of the things that we should have a national conversation on. I have personally had some discussions with him on that. Indeed in 2020, during the electioneering campaign time, he raised it. This is not the first time he is talking about that. He raised it in 2020, that when he was elected, he was going to go away with it. I told him, that he didn’t know what he was talking about. Because the gratuity is part of the chapter on the executive and the who chapter on the executive in the constitution is entrenched. So, you can’t wake up one day to say, I have cancelled it,” he said.
According to him, the change can be possible if it’s part of a holistic constitutional review.
“So, I told him that unless it is part of a holistic review of the constitution I will subscribe to it but you going out on a political platform to say that you are going to cancel it, how are you going to cancel it, he asked.
Based the latest research, the famous ice rings of Saturn may no longer be visible to astronomers in the future.
per the new analysis of data from NASA’s Cassini mission, which orbited the gas giant planet between 2004 and 2017, the rings have been around for how long and when they might disappear from view. Three studies that were released in May shared the findings.
About 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system and its planets were formed, and scientists have long argued over the age and origin of Saturn’s rings. Because the brilliant, ice rings haven’t been damaged and darkened by encounters with meteoroids over billions of years, some astronomers claim they may be younger than anticipated.
The Cassini data has led to a new finding, published May 15 in the journal Icarus, that supports this theory of the rings appearing long after Saturn’s initial formation. Additional studies published on May 12 in Science Advances and May 15 in Icarus, respectively, arrived at similar conclusions.
“Our inescapable conclusion is that Saturn’s rings must be relatively young by astronomical standards, just a few hundred million years old,” said Richard Durisen, professor emeritus of astronomy at Indiana University Bloomington and lead author of both Icarus studies, in a statement.
“If you look at Saturn’s satellite system, there are other hints that something dramatic happened there in the last few hundred million years. If Saturn’s rings are not as old as the planet, that means something happened in order to form their incredible structure, and that is very exciting to study.”
It’s likely the seven rings were still forming when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, according to the researchers.
Saturn’s rings are largely comprised of ice, with just a small percentage belonging to the rocky dust created in space by broken asteroid fragments and micrometeoroids. The pieces, similar to sand grains, collide with particles in Saturn’s rings and create floating debris as the ring material orbits the planet.
During Cassini’s Grand Finale, when the spacecraft completed 22 orbits in which it passed between Saturn and its rings, the researchers were able to obtain data about how many meteoroids pollute the rings, the mass of the rings themselves and the rate at which material from the rings rains down on the planet. All the data seemed to point to the same finding about the younger age of Saturn’s rings.
The researchers were able to gauge how much cosmic dust, which moves through our solar system on a regular basis, has built up on the icy rings. Over 13 years, Cassini’s bucketlike Cosmic Dust Analyzer was able to scoop up 163 grains of dust that originated from beyond the Saturn system as they whirled around the gas giant. The rings were surprisingly “clean,” which suggested that they must not have been around long enough to accumulate an excess of cosmic dust.
Meanwhile, as meteoroids infiltrate the rings, they push material within the innermost rings toward Saturn at a rapid rate. Cassini observed that the rings were losing many tons of mass per second, which means the rings don’t have much time left, astronomically speaking. The researchers estimate that the rings will only be around another few hundred million years at most.
Previous research has suggested that the rings may disappear within 100 million years.
“We have shown that massive rings like Saturn’s do not last long,” said Paul Estrada, research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and a coauthor of all three studies, in a statement.
“One can speculate that the relatively puny rings around the other ice and gas giants in our solar system are left-over remnants of rings that were once massive like Saturn’s. Maybe some time in the not-so-distant future, astronomically speaking, after Saturn’s rings are ground down, they will look more like the sparse rings of Uranus.”
It’s possible that the dark rings around Neptune and Uranus were once larger and brighter, similar to how Saturn’s rings are now, the researchers said.
But what created Saturn’s rings in the first place? Scientists still don’t know for sure, but it’s possible that gravitational instability destroyed some of the icy moons orbiting the giant planet, creating enough material to be pulled into rings of material encircling Saturn.
“The idea that the iconic main rings of Saturn might be a recent feature of our solar system has been controversial, but our new results complete a trifecta of Cassini measurements that make this finding hard to avoid,” said researcher Jeff Cuzzi, a principal investigator at NASA Ames and coauthor of the Saturn research paper that appeared in Science Advances, in a statement.
Future missions to study some of Saturn’s moons could uncover more information about what events created the rings — and lead to other discoveries.
“If we can discover what happened in that system a few hundred million years ago to form the rings, we may just end up discovering why Saturn’s moon Enceladus is spewing out from its deep ocean plumes of water, ice and even organic material,” Durisen said. “We may perhaps even end up finding the building blocks of life itself on Enceladus.”
Residents of Denkyira Atobiase in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality of the Central Region has appealed to the government through the Ministry of Energy to provide a new electricity transformer to improve power supply in the area.
They said the community has been experiencing low power voltage and total darkness due to the unavailability of a reliable power supply.
“We need a new transformer to access electricity in our community, in this 21 century do we have to beg for electricity?” they lamented.
The community records various power cuts, deficit among others which was affecting the daily activities especially businesses in the area.
The provision of the transformer was necessary due to the fast-growing nature of the town and demand for supply of electricity for their business purposes.
They alleged the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had refused to repair or replace their main transformer which caught fire a year ago.
In an interview with Ghanaweb, Kwame Appiah, a resident noted that a lot of their electric appliances have been destroyed due to the situation.
Describing the situation as ‘disheartening and ‘unfortunate’ he said the community had tolerated that for a year and could not bear it any longer and would hit the street soon to vent their anger on authorities if the situation was not resolved.
He pleaded to the ECG to come to their aid and help them resolve the current agony facing the community.
Thomas Oppong, the Unit Committee member noted that letters and reports made to the Assembly and other bodies had proved futile and was necessary to go further with their appeal.
He said the circumstance had resulted to nurses and teachers refusal to accept postings. Oppong disclosed that the workers run away if they realised there are no light in the community.
“Many government workers posted to serve the community have either packed out or run away after noticing the problem”, he said.
He added that thieves have taken advantage of their predicament to step up activities since the community faces total darkness.
Denkyira Atobiase community has a population of over 600 where most of the residents are engaged in farming activities.
The National Organiser of the largest opposition NDC, Joseph Yamin, has praised the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare for delivering on his promises about security matters in the Kumawu by-election.
According to him, the IGP on the eve of the Kumawu election gave assurances in a meeting that no other security agency will be involved in the election as has been the practice in other previous by-elections and delivered.
“Let me first commend the police for their professionalism. Going into the election my party knew I didn’t believe we should put our hopes in the police. Even at the meeting with them before the polls, I still didn’t pay attention. At the meeting, I asked the IGP what the military involvement in the election will be as has been the case in previous by-elections like Ayawaso and other places and he gave us the assurances that he has enough men and logistics at Kumawu and so he wouldn’t need other security agencies and true to his words he delivered on that.
“We didn’t see the military or the national security at Kumawu, it was the Police fully in charge. So today it will be unfair for me not to commend the IGP. He proved that indeed he wants the police to be the best institution in Ghana.”
He commented in an interview on Kumasi-based Hello Fm on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate, Ernest Yaw Annim won the Kumawu by-election with over 70 percent of the valid votes cast.
The votes were collated by the Electoral Commission (EC) and declared Wednesday night with Ernest Yaw Annim winning with 15,264 votes which represented 70.91 percent.
Vibrant Ghanaian actress and astute entrepreneur, Fella Makafui, fearlessly asserts that GHC 50,000 is not a substantial sum for her.
During an animated interview with blogger Zion Felix, the seasoned actress confidently expressed her willingness to generously give away such an amount without breaking a sweat.
The discussion centered around a recent claim made by Fella about a former employee who had allegedly absconded with the exact sum.
Explaining her emotional reaction, she clarified, “The reason why I was venting was not even about the fact that she stole the money. It was about the fact that, na me y3 no papa paa [I was good to her]. Like I was so good to her, so coming from someone like her, I was just hurt. I did not expect an employee that was so good to hurt you like that. I was venting out of pain but at the end of the day, it’s money. That money, I could dash it to anyone,” she said.
Zion Felix, taken aback by her candid admission, probed further into her ability to give away such a substantial sum. To this, she confidently responded, “I have employees I pay—a lot. GHC 50,000 is no money to dash. If you are blessed and have the means, you can give it out,” she said.
Fella’s comment was a response to a question posed by the blogger regarding the recent claim that an employee had swindled the actress out of GHC 50,000. Fella revealed this on her Twitter page.
Providing more insight into the situation, she revealed that the said employee had been arrested. She also mentioned that she could have easily let the lady, known only as ‘Gina,’ get away with the act. However, she chose to vent her frustration on social media because she never expected such behavior from her.
Sharing further updates, she disclosed that the lady is currently under a bond to repay the money in monthly installments.
“She has been arrested, and we have come to an agreement. The law is taking its course, and she is making monthly payments. I didn’t want to prolong the drama because we are all human, so I decided to remove it from social media,” she added.
Russian fighters supporting Ukraine cross the border into the Belgorod region of Russia, seize a checkpoint, and incite rage and uncertainty in Moscow.
As authorities continue “clearing the territory” following the cross-border incursion that started in Ukraine, residents of the settlements under attack in the Belgorod region of Russia have been relocated to other places, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on Tuesday.
But questions linger about the groups behind the attack, how it took place, and what it means for the war: Was this a classic piece of a military sleight-of-hand, a brief show of force meant to confuse and distract Russian commanders? Does it signal the emergence of serious armed opposition inside Russia? Or are there murkier forces at work?
Here’s what you need to know.
A group of anti-Putin Russian nationals, who are aligned with the Ukrainian army, claimed responsibility for an attack in Russian’s southwestern region of Belgorod, which borders north-eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s Investigative Committee announced an investigation into the attack on Telegram, claiming: “Residential and administrative buildings and civilian infrastructure were subjected to mortar and artillery fire. As a result of these criminal actions, several civilians were wounded,”
Two areas of the region were then hit overnight by drones, according to regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, causing two houses to catch fire. On Tuesday night, drone attacks sent nine people to hospital, Gladkov said.
One civilian from the village of Kozinka has died as a result of the cross-border fighting, Gladkov said on Tuesday. He added Wednesday that six districts of the Belgorod region, as well as the city itself, were targeted, but that a counter-terror operation launched in response had been lifted.
About 100 people were evacuated from the Russian border settlements of Glotovo and Kozinka in the Belgorod region, local authorities said.
Aleksey Baranovsky, a representative of the Kyiv-based Russian Armed Opposition Political Centre – the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion – told CNN that the operation had started Sunday night and fighting was “ongoing.”
He would not specify the number of fighters who had crossed the border into Russia. Baranovsky said the group wanted to “liberate our motherland from the tyranny of Putin.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed in a daily briefing on Tuesday that its forces repelled attackers back into Ukrainian territory using air strikes, artillery fire and military units. It added: “The remnants of the nationalists were driven back to the territory of Ukraine, where they continued to be hit by fire until they were completely eliminated.”
The attackers appeared to have achieved surprise, apparently taking control of a border post and giving the world dramatic images of Russian nationals actively taking up arms against the Kremlin.
Smoke was also seen rising from apparent explosions in the regional capital of Belgorod, where local authorities confirmed what they described as two drone strikes.
The ground operation was far more ambitious than an incursion earlier this year into Russia’s southern Bryansk region that the Russians blamed on “armed Ukrainian nationalists.”
In a discussion with CNN’s Erin Burnett, retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling characterised the Belgorod operation as a raid — a surprise attack meant to keep the Russian military on the back foot ahead of a much-anticipated offensive by Kyiv.
“This is all part of shaping operations,” Hertling said. “What occurred today and it’s a magnificent tactic, is these Liberty of Russia Legion or Russian Volunteer Corps, the so-called little green men are going in the opposite direction, they’re trying to free Russian territory.”
“Little green men” was common shorthand for Russian special-forces troops who appeared in Crimea during Russia’s forcible annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.
Pro-Ukrainian activists on social media are already having a field day, posting memes that compare the Belgorod incident to Russia’s not-so-covert operations to prop up separatists in the Donbas region, joking the attackers would set up a Russian-style statelet called the “Bilhorod People’s Republic.”
The Freedom for Russia Legion said on Telegram early on Tuesday that it and another group, the Russian Volunteer Corps, “continue to liberate the Belgorod region!” The post described the groups as “patriot volunteers” and claimed that Russia was vulnerable to attack as “Russia has no reserves to respond to military crises. All military personnel are dead, wounded or in Ukraine.”
As one of its fighters, who goes by the call-sign “Caesar,” says in a video statement he recorded with his comrades before joining a cross-border raid into his motherland: “Russia will be free.”
CNN’s Sam Kiley interviewed that same fighter in December, while the group was fighting for Ukraine against Russian attacks on the frontline city of Bakhmut.
“From the first day of the war, my heart, the heart of a real Russian man, a real Christian, told me that I had to be here to defend the people of Ukraine,” Caesar said. CNN agreed not to reveal his name to protect his identity.
“It was a very difficult process,” Caesar said of joining the Ukrainian effort. “It took me several months to finally join the ranks of the defenders of Ukraine.”
Now with his family in Ukraine – where he considers them to be safer – Caesar said he was one of about 200 Russian citizens currently fighting alongside Ukrainian troops, against their own country’s armies. CNN has been unable independently to confirm this number.
The Ukrainian government, however, has distanced itself from the Russian fighters, saying they are operating independently in Russia.
“We can confirm that this operation is carried out by Russian citizens,” said Andriy Yusov, Ukrainian Defense Intelligence representative, in a comment to CNN: “In Ukraine these units are part of defense and security forces. In Russia they are acting as independent entities.”
As Russian officials condemned the attack, analysts noted widespread confusion in Russia’s information space about how the attack was allowed to take place and how Moscow should respond.
Russian bloggers and pundits reacted with a “degree of panic, factionalism, and incoherency as it tends to display when it experiences significant informational shocks,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank wrote in its daily briefing on the conflict.
“The attack took Russian commentators by surprise,” the ISW assessed.
It has the potential to be embarrassing for President Vladimir Putin, who has for 15 months been leading an invasion he baselessly claimed was needed to keep Russia safe. With limited returns on the battlefield, Putin may now face discontent that the war is disrupting life at home.
Earlier this month, the Kremlin publicized an incident which saw two drones fly above the Kremlin. It remains unclear who was responsible – Moscow blamed Ukraine for what it called an attack on Putin’s life; Ukraine and the US denied any involvement – but the dramatic video could be framed by Putin’s internal critics as a visual example of the unraveling nature of Moscow’s war.
In a separate incident Monday evening, the Freedom of Russia Legion posted a video on Telegram that appears to show the blue and white so-called flag of free Russia flying over Moscow State University.
Other videos posted by the group also appear to show another Russian opposition flag flying over various areas of the Russian capital.
The group did not claim direct responsibility for the incidents and CNN could not independently verify the reports.
As has often been the case following supposed violence on Russian soil since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the incident has drawn sharply different accounts from the Kremlin and Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday described the instigators as “Ukrainian militants, from Ukraine,” despite the fact that the group claiming responsibility is made up of Russian nationals. Peskov had previously said the Kremlin’s forces were working to push out a “sabotage and reconnaissance group,” according to state media TASS.
A Ukrainian official acknowledged that the units had carried out an operation in the area but insisted they were acting independently.
The Ukrainian National Security Adviser Oleksiy Danilov has told CNN those responsible for the cross border-raid in Belgorod are Russians who want to get rid of “the darkness” in their country, denying any involvement from Kyiv.
“They are Russians, it is their country and they have the right to be there,” Danilov told CNN Senior International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen in an exclusive interview Tuesday. “There are some Russians who are on the side of the light and who went to deal with the darkness that exists in Russia now.
Danilov rejected accusations of Ukrainian involvement levied by Moscow against Kyiv and said the incident in Belgorod was solely a Russian matter.
Kyiv was, however, given advance warning about the cross-border raid, a Ukrainian defense source told CNN on Wednesday.
It is not entirely clear how the Russian formations fighting on the side of Ukraine are organized and equipped and how they answer to the Ukrainian military’s chain of command.
Some of the fighters appear to be operating up-armored Humvees and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles that are apparently of US origin, although the vehicles have been widely exported and sold to different end-users around the globe.
In response to a query from CNN, Ukraine’s International Legion — which incorporates volunteers from around the world — said neither the Russian Volunteer Corps or the Freedom for Russia Legion belong to the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It’s also a mystery how many fighters the Russian groups can actually muster. Open-source sleuths have scoured recent videos for clues to the identities of some of the individuals who appear to be fighting in Belgorod, including some with apparent far-right and extremist beliefs.
The attacks are unlikely to force a shift in momentum in the wider war in Ukraine, which has been largely focused in Ukraine’s eastern regions and has seen little territory change hands for several months. The conflict has been in a virtual stalemate and is more likely to be affected by Ukraine’s spring counter-offensive against Russian forces, which may already be underway.
But as with previous flashpoints away from the frontlines, it has the potential to shape the narrative surrounding the conflict in both Russia and Ukraine.
Moscow has always been eager to paint a picture of Russian victimhood as a pretext for ramping up attacks on Ukraine, given its public pretense that the invasion is an act of self-defense and is necessary to keep Russia safe. Putin will no doubt look to use these attacks to bolster that narrative, despite Kyiv’s denials that it had any official involvement.
It is possible that a short-term show of anger may also follow. After previous incidents that have embarrassed Russia – such as the murky drone incident above the Kremlin this month, and the strike on the bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea in October – Moscow has responded with a barrage of missile attacks across Ukraine, including on the capital Kyiv.
Putin will likely be eager to focus Russian attention on incidents away from the frontlines, where his forces have been struggling to land a significant blow against Ukrainian defenses – most clearly shown by the months-long, costly effort to capture the relatively insignificant city of Bakhmut.
Police in New South Wales said on Wednesday that a 95-year-old lady who was tasered by officers in her Australian nursing home last week has passed away.
Great-grandmother Clare Nowland was in critical condition in the hospital after suffering severe head injuries when she collapsed to the ground after being tasered.
According to a statement from the police on Facebook, “Mrs. Nowland passed away peacefully in hospital just after 7pm this evening, surrounded by family and loved ones who have requested privacy during this sad and difficult time.”
Charges against the officer who allegedly tasered Nowland include assault and recklessly causing great bodily harm.
New South Wales (NSW) Police Commissioner Karen Webb announced the charges against the unidentified 33-year-old senior constable Wednesday.
Last week, NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter told reporters that police were called to Nowland’s care home in the town of Cooma, New South Wales, around 4:15 a.m. to reports of a resident with a knife.
“At the time she was tasered, she was approaching police. It is fair to say at a slow pace. She had a walking frame. But she had a knife,” Cotter told reporters on Friday.
Video of the incident was captured by two police body cameras but the footage hasn’t been publicly released.
NSW police guidelines say that tasers should only used on elderly or disabled people in “exceptional circumstances.”
Family friend Andrew Thaler said before the incident Nowland was frail and unable to stand unaided. She weighed just 43 kilograms (95 pounds) and was 5-foot-2 (1.58 meters) tall and was suffering dementia.
After charges were laid, he questioned why it had taken police so long to act.
“Why has it taken so long? Anyone else would have been charged straight away,” Thaler said.
Earlier this week, Nowland’s family released a statement asking for privacy, and thanking people for their support.
“Clare is the loving and gentle natured matriarch of the Nowland family,” said the statement according to CNN affiliate 9 News.
“This is a most worrying and distressing time for our family and we are united in our support for Clare and for each other.
“We stand together. We thank everyone here in Cooma, the wider region and, in fact, the whole country and around the world for the outpouring of support for her and her ongoing battle with dementia – which touches so many.”
