Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has responded to the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, regarding the latter’s reply to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining’s (IMCIM) 2021 report on illegal mining.
According to the report, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah was named as one of the government officials involved in the increasing problem of illegal mining in several forest areas across the country.
It alleged that he Mr Oppong-Nkrumah had engaged the services of unnamed journalists to issue reports aimed at damaging Prof Frimpong-Boateng’s reputation and discrediting his work as the chairman of the IMCIM.
In response to the report, Oppong-Nkrumah denied the allegations, describing them as false. He expressed disappointment and offence at the accusations made against him.
“I have had nothing but great admiration for Prof Boateng’s public-spirited works and as an inspirational citizen. I feel gravely offended over the false claims he has made and the hurtful conclusions he has sought to exact about me precisely because of the great esteem in which I have held him,” he said.
Frimpong-Boateng, after seeing this, decided to respond by saying that it was normal for people in high positions in government to deny allegations, and that he had good advice to offer Oppong-Nkrumah.
“When I was part of the government, we were colleagues, and I related to you as such. Now I will advise you as my son, just as I do my children. After all, you are the same age as my fourth-born son. When I returned to Ghana from Germany to start the cardiothoracic project, you were just six years old as my fourth child. I will not lie to you or insult you or be harsh on you. My advice is always to remember that political power is both short-lived and effervescent.”
Frimpong-Boateng also revealed current activity of galamsey close to Oppong Nkrumah’s hometown and urged his former colleague to investigate and take appropriate action.
“I don’t want to believe that what the person said about your role is true. The important thing is that Chinese and their Ghanaian collaborators are engaged in illegal mining at your doorstep.”
Author: Chris Kodo
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It is normal for people in high positions to deny allegations – Prof Frimpong-Boateng to Oppong Nkrumah
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We worked at quarry sites for survival – Tagoe Sisters
Popular Ghanaian Gospel duo, Tagoe Sisters, has shared their survival story.
Speaking in an interview with Nana Romeo on Accra FM, the twins recalled how they managed to soar through life some years ago.
Recounting their struggles, they disclosed that at a point in their lives, they had to mix mortar at construction sites just to survive.
They also worked at quarry sites, one of which has been transformed into the new Achimota station.
Tagoe Sisters said they have to undertake such jobs, including carrying sand and blocks to survive during their school days.
These experiences happened while living with their adopted father, Nana Ekumfi Ameyaw.
They also disclosed how the name ‘Tagoe Sisters’ came about.
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World Bank provides Ghana with $372m guarantee payment for 2030 Eurobond default
The World Bank has set aside $372 million as a guarantee payment for Ghana after it missed its coupon payment on the 2030 Eurobond.
This comes after Government of Ghana on April 14, 2023 defaulted on making the coupon payment after it declared a debt moratorium back in December 2022.
In view of this, the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank has since made the $372 million guarantee payment on behalf of the Government of Ghana on April 20, 2023.
Back in 2015, Ghana engaged the World Bank for financial support following a wave of economic challenges and market conditions particularly on the Eurobond markets. The country at the time lacked access to the international capital markets and was saddled with high debts.
The Ministry of Finance earlier requested a policy-based guarantee and a credit from the IDA to raise the necessary funds to repay upcoming debt.
The International Development Association of the World Bank then provided a policy-based guarantee, which allowed Ghana to issue a $1 billion Eurobond series due in 2030. The guarantee was meant to cover up to $400 million in both principal and interest payments.
According to Finance Ministry, the funds were used to re-finance the country’s existing debt which was nearing unprecedented levels.
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana later bought back and cancelled $70 million of the 2030 Eurobond, thereby reducing the guarantee payment amount to $372 million.
However, the funds raised through the Eurobond issuance helped Ghana to refinance its existing debt at a lower interest rate of 10.75 percent.
The country was also able to extend the maturity of its debt to an average of 15 years, up from 90 days to two years.
As a result of the current socio-economic challenges in the country, the Ministry of Finance on December 19, 2022, declared a moratorium on certain categories of its external debt, including Eurobonds.
This comes after Ghana reached a Staff-Level agreement with the IMF for an economic bailout programme of $3 billion.
Ghana then launched the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme to restructure its debt as well as request for debt treatment under the G20 Common Framework.
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NBCUniversal boss ousted after investigation
The chief executive of NBCUniversal, Jeff Shell, has left the US media and entertainment giant over an “inappropriate relationship” he had with a woman at the company.
The announcement comes after the firm conducted an investigation over a complaint about Mr Shell’s conduct.
“I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down,” he said in a statement.
Parent company Comcast has not yet said who will be the new NBCUniversal boss.
Comcast said in a statement on Sunday that after the investigation it had “mutually agreed that Mr Shell will depart effective immediately”.
The investigation was led by outside counsel, Comcast said, but did not provide further details.
“I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” Mr Shell said in the statement.
NBCUniversal’s senior executives will report directly to Comcast president, Mike Cavanagh, until a successor for Mr Shell is found.
“We built this company on a culture of integrity. Nothing is more important than how we treat each other,” Mr Cavanagh and Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said in a company-wide email seen by the BBC.
“When our principles and policies are violated, we will always move quickly to take appropriate action, as we have done here,” they added.
The company is home to NBC, which is one of America’s biggest television networks, business news channel CNBC, and major Hollywood film studio Universal Pictures.
Mr Shell, who is married, has been at the company for almost two decades and took over as NBCUniversal chief executive in January 2020 – months later, much of the world shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Lockdowns forced the closure of theme parks and cinemas, while film and television productions were halted.
During his tenure, he launched a shakeup of the company, with the aim to make its streaming business and traditional TV operations working more closely together.
As well as owning NBCUniversal, Comcast’s operations also include Europe’s largest pay-TV broadcaster Sky Group.
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CCTV footage of how gang robbed Gold buying agency in Tarkwa
CCTV footage of armed robbers who attacked the KK Gold buying agency in Tarkwa has been released.
In the footage published by ghanaweb.com, three of the robbers entered first with two having backpacks on, followed by two others.
They ordered the workers to lie down at gunpoint which they complied. Those who were trying to challenge the robbers received some knocks on their heads, and one of the workers who was wearing a blue shirt was kicked in the head.
The robbers started searching the office in search of gold. While three were searching, the other two went where the sack of money was kept. They came out with the money dragging the sack on the floor because the money was heavy together with the gold and left, leaving the workers in shock.
They made away with gold weighing 408.5 grams worth Six Hundred and Thirteen Thousand Ghana cedis (GHC613,000.00) and an undisclosed amount of money on three motorbikes.
The Tarkwa Police Command has so far arrested three of these robbers; Samuel Amaeshi, a Togolese, 47 years, Ezekiel Stephen, Nigerian, 45 years and Fataw Awudu, Ghanaian, 42 years.
Intelligence gathered by the police indicated that the robbers used the Tarkwa Banso, Esuso Bonsawire road, so communities within this enclave were informed.
On Tuesday evening the Police Intelligence Department and Police Patrol with the assistance of community folks arrested two suspects Samuel Amaeshi, and Ezekiel Stephen.The sack contains cash sum of three hundred and ninety-seven thousand, one hundred and ninety cedis (GHC 397,190), and gold that weighs 4.7 grams.
The Police Intelligence Department upon intelligence also arrested Fataw Awudu on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.All three suspects are currently in police custody while the police are still investigating to get the others arrested.
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Driver, labourer grabbed for stealing free SHS food items
Police in Atebu in the Bono East Region have apprehended two persons for allegedly stealing food supplies that are suspected to belong to the Atebubu Senior High School.
Okine Kwaku and Bawa Awudu Moro, a driver, and laborer at the Atebubu Senior High School were arrested on Friday, May 21, 2023, following a tip-off.
The arrest follows a series of reported theft cases as far as food items belonging to Senior High Schools in the Municipality are concerned.
A total of 10 bags of rice, 25 bags of beans, 50 bags of 50kg maize, and 25 liters (Kufuor Gallon) of cooking oil were recovered from the residence of one of the suspects.
At the time of the arrest, one of the suspects, Bawa Awudu Moro was busily repackaging the rice, beans, and maize into different sacks.
According to reports, a team of police personnel raided Bawa’s residence where the items were being kept and arrested him along with the food supplies to the police station.
Some eyewitnesses stated that vehicles had been delivering food supplies to the location but they were unaware that the items had been stolen.
“The food supplies have always been delivered to the location but we never suspected that they were intended for the students,” one source said.
When the Municipal Chief Executive for the Atebubu-Amantin Municipality, Edward Owusu, was contacted he confirmed the arrest and the recovery of the food items but declined to give further details until investigations are completed by the police.
“I can confirm the arrest and the recovery of all the food items from where they were been kept but the matter is with the police now so let us allow the police to finish their investigations in line with the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, independent checks by this reporter indicate that the two suspects will be arraigned before the court on Tuesday, May 25, 2023, with the police making frantic efforts to apprehend other suspects.
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Demonstrators “prepared to throw sexual assault alarms at King’s horses” at the coronation
According to senior security officials, protesters intend to disrupt King Charles‘ coronation by hurling rape alarms at the horses in the procession.
If the stunt is performed, there are worries that the horses could become startled and charge into the audience, resulting in severe injuries or even fatalities.
The Mail on Sunday adds that there is concern that members of Just Stop Oil may band together with other organizations to cause widespread disruption.
Republic, an anti-monarchy group, has urged its 41,000 Facebook followers to protest at the coronation.
Just Stop Oil has hinted the coronation could be the ‘final boss level’ for its protests. The group protested at the World Snooker Championship last week, as an activist jumped onto a table and threw orange powder.
Security sources said the rape alarm plan was causing concern because of the unpredictability of the horses’ reaction.
They added that police and other security officials ‘planned to take a robust response with protesters who attempt to disrupt proceedings’.
One source said: ‘It’s not practical to frisk members of the crowd for rape alarms, but we will move swiftly if they try it.’
Just Stop Oil protested at the World Snooker Championships last week (Picture: PA) Former Grenadier Guardsman Julian Perreira described the rape alarm plot as ‘nothing short of terrorism’, saying: ‘If a cavalryman – with the full weight of his gleaming ceremonial breast-plate and helmet – was thrown from his terrified horse, he could easily be killed.
‘And just imagine the horrifying consequences of several 1,500lb horses bolting into a packed crowd of spectators.
‘Dozens of members of the public, including children, could end up dead or seriously injured.’
Former commanding officer of The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, Charlie Lane, said: ‘If rape alarms went off some horses will react more violently than others.
‘I would be distinctly uncomfortable about it. There is a risk that individual riders are going to fall off, there is a risk horses are going to be injured.’
And equine behaviour expert Dr Debbie Marsden added: ‘If a horse spooks, they all have their own way of reacting to it. They are likely to throw their heads up and/or leap to the side away from the object.
‘If one horse reacts, it can cause a bit of a chain reaction. It could lead to an accident.’
The potential danger of bolting horses was demonstrated during a Black Lives Matter protest in London in 2020.
A police horse bolted down Whitehall after missiles were thrown at it, slamming PC Nicky Vernon into a traffic light. She suffered a collapsed lung, broken collarbone and broken ribs.
Scotland Yard said it will clamp down on protesters who try to disrupt the coronation.
Chief Sir Mark Rowley told the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee in January: ‘We will do everything we can to make the coronation the special moment it ought to be.’
Phoebe Plummer, spokeswoman for Just Stop Oil, has vowed that they ‘won’t stop until we win’.
During a Zoom call with fellow activists last Wednesday she said: ‘We know the rapid social change must come from civil resistance… history has proved [it] effective time and time again.’
Meanwhile, Republic’s activists are planning to wear yellow T-shirts and wave yellow placards along the procession route.
When the newly crowned King passes in his gold state coach, they plan to boo and chant: ‘Not my King.’
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Rudebwoy’s Ranking: A comprehensive list of his best songs
Ghanaian Dancehall artist, Rudebwoy Ranking, had been creating waves with his music until his demise. Here’s a list of his popular songs:
Too Know Original Rudebwoy Jah over Dem Yaro Make Money Coco Knockout Wine Up Boby Topchart Turn Me On Pain Dem Smoke My Sorrow Dambanza Gbelemo Holy Ghost Fire Don’t Cry Deh Ah Road Forever ft. Medikal Informer ft. Raga Afrika Enter
,Forking Money Maker Blind Fi Dem Why Me (Warning) Wash Your Face (Bangr Riddim) One Man Millitant (Prod. by Beatzhynex)
Rudebwoy Ranking’s Trending Songs:
Pain Dem (2016): Rudebwoy Ranking‘s “Pain Dem” is one of his coolest songs, with a catchy tune, sweet rhythm, and fitting lyrics. The song inspires people who are discouraged by haters and want to reach higher places. The video is simple yet manages to hold viewers’ attention. Directed by Lex McCarthy of Bullhaus Entertainment, the video has over 270K views on YouTube.
Smoke My Sorrow (2014) : Rudebwoy Ranking’s “Smoke My Sorrow” puts emphasis on the fact that smoking weed does not make you an evil person. The video has been directed by Richmond Amoako Gyasi and produced by Chopstixs of Nigeria. The video has over 137K views on YouTube.
Dambanza (2015): Rudebwoy Ranking’s “Dambanza” was appreciated by dancehall music lovers in Ghana, and it got many airplays and attention from the media. The video for this song was shot in Nima and produced by Leety Creation. The YouTube video has over 108K views.
Gbelemo (2017): Rudebwoy Ranking’s “Gbelemo” is a total dance track made fully for fun. The video was published 8 months ago and has more than 111K views on YouTube.
Holy Ghost Fire (2015): Rudebwoy Ranking’s “Holy Ghost Fire” is a dark-themed song that speaks of freedom and justice. The video has more than 131K hits on YouTube.
Don’t Cry (2016): Rudebwoy Ranking’s “Don’t Cry” is a love song that sounds amazing. The video is well-shot and adds charm to the song. Directed by Bullhaus Entertainment’s Lex McCarthy, this 2016 video has over 64K views on YouTube.
Original Rudebwoy (2018): Rudebwoy Ranking’s “Original Rudebwoy” is a decent dance track that has over 83K views on YouTube.
With such a diverse collection of songs, Rudebwoy Ranking was undoubtedly an artist that could bring joy and happiness to all Dancehall fans. -
Crew of a cruise liner “left a dead passenger to rot inside a drinks cooler
A cruise company is charged with keeping a deceased passenger’s body in a drinks cooler after the ship’s morgue allegedly malfunctioned.
Last August, while sailing on Celebrity Cruises’ Equinox with his wife Marylin, 78, Robert L. Jones, 79, of Florida, passed away after a heart attack.
Despite having Robert off the ship after only six days, the family claims that the amount of rot in his body forced them to forego their “long-standing custom” of open-casket burials.
They have filed a $1 million lawsuit against the business, alleging management of treating Robert’s remains carelessly and willfully, failing to make sure the morgue was operational, and hiding the fact that it was not.
The ship’s crew also allegedly went to lengths to discourage Marylin from taking her husband’s body off the ship until it returned home to Fort Lauderdale.
A local funeral home worker went to collect the body and found it in a bag on a wooden palette on the walk-in cooler’s floor, according to lawsuit papers filed in Florida claim.
The employee allegedly found ‘drinks placed outside of the cooler’, which was ‘not at a temperature which was sufficient nor proper for storing a dead body to prevent decomposition’.
The Celebrity Equinox was supposed to have a working morgue on board (Picture: AP) An intubation tube, sometimes used to try and resuscitate heart attack patients, was still sticking out of the late pensioner’s throat, the papers added.
Some reports claim a deputy sheriff boarded at the same time and also observed the improper storage of Robert’s body.
According to the lawsuit, when Robert died the Equinox’s crew told his wife she could either have his body taken off the ship in Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan or have him stored until they arrived in Fort Lauderdale in six days’ time.
It claims: ‘Celebrity employees told Plaintiff Marilyn Jones that if she had her husband’s body taken ashore in San Juan, she would be required to stay in San Juan with his body and would have to make arrangements for transport for herself and her husband’s body back to the mainland United States.’
The family was allegedly told officials in San Juan might hold Robert’s body to perform an autopsy and that the ship had a working morgue equipped to handle such situations.
The family argues that if Marylin had been informed the morgue was not working, she could have chosen to get off in Puerto Rico with the body and potentially still have an open-coffin service.
A spokesperson for Caribbean Cruises said the company is ‘unable to comment on the matter out of respect for the family, and due to the fact that there is ongoing litigation’.
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Political power is short-lived – Prof Frimpong Boateng to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
Former Minister for Environment Science Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has issued an advice to Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to execute his mandate as a government official with utmost diligence since political power is short-lived.
In a statement, he advised the Minister to eschew all forms of ‘evil tactics’ in the performance of his role in government.
“My advice is, always remember that political power is both short-lived and effervescenti In about 2 years’ time you may no longer be in government and you may experience the real world as former high profile political power holders do.
“I will urge you to do your work diligently and avoid the coded and evil tactics Mr. Paul Adom Okyere boastfully and unashamedly told the world on ‘Good Evening Ghana’ that you employ to deal with your real and perceived enemies,” he said.
The former Minister’s remarks is in reaction to Mr Oppong Nkrumah’s response to the claims in the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report which suggest that Mr Oppong Nkrumah had hatched a grand scheme to tarnish the image of the Professor when he (Prof Boateng) was chairman of the IMCIM, a claim the Minister has vehemently denied.
In a subsequent response, the Minister said he is not surprised that Mr Oppong Nkrumah denied the claims.
“I have read your response to what I wrote about you in the report I sent to the Chief of Staff a little over two years ago. You have denied what I wrote and that is normal. Very few people in your position will own up to their wrongdoings.
“I have good advice for you, though. When I was part of the government, we were colleagues and I related to you as such. Now I will advise you as my son, just as I do my children. After all, you are the same age as my 4th born son. When I returned to Ghana from Germany to start the cardiothoracic project you were just 6 years old as my 4th child. I will not lie to you or insult you or be harsh on you,” he said.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng further revealed that he had received a tip-off from someone from the Minister’s constituency that illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey is going on in the area.
“Let me touch briefly on Illegal mining. Last week someone from your constituency sent me a video recording of illegal mining activities close to your hometown. I don’t want to believe that what the person said about your role is true. The important thing is that Chinese and their Ghanaian collaborators are engaged in illegal mining at your doorstep. I encourage you to investigate it and take appropriate action. The President of the Republic assures Ghanaians again and again that he is serious with the fight against Illegal mining,” he said.
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Tema Oil Refinery will be revived if I become president – John Mahama
NDC presidential candidate hopeful John Dramani Mahama has said that if re-elected as president in the general elections of 2024, he will revive the Tema Oil Refinery.
According to him, the once vibrant refinery which was producing tonnes of oil products has now been left to collapse under the governing New Patriotic Party.
Addressing party delegates in Ashaiman over the weekend, John Mahama gave the assurance of revamping the refinery to its former glory to create jobs and provide oil products for domestic consumers.
“Since we (NDC) left office, TOR has never processed crude oil again. I remember before we left office, we sent to TOR the first batch of Ghanaian crude oil from our own oil fields for TOR to process. That oil sat there for several years, eventually, they discounted the oil and sold it out without processing it. I can assure you, when NDC comes back, TOR will stand on its feet again”.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Energy Policies and Research (INSTEPR) has said about $500 million was needed to revamp the Tema Oil Refinery.
Since 2018, the Tema Oil Refinery has not been operational due to a lack of crude oil which serves as a raw material for the refinery.
Apart from this, TOR is also faced with other challenges like broken equipment, and piled debt, among others.
It would be recalled that the management of TOR in April 2022 sought approval from the Energy Ministry to engage some private sector players to revamp the oil refinery.
The green light on this development was however given on May 2, 2022.
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Decision of the Supreme Court on medication-assisted abortion and Samuel Alito’s dissent
On Friday, the Supreme Court blocked lower courts’ decisions that would have restricted the use of a commonly used abortion medicine.
The order is listed here.
Cite as: 598 U. S. ____ (2023) 1
ALITO , J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 22A901
_________________
DANCO LABORATORIES, LLC v. ALLIANCE FOR
HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
_________________
No. 22A902
_________________
FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, ET AL. v.
ALLIANCE FOR HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[April 21, 2023]
The applications for stays presented to J USTICE ALITO
and by him referred to the Court are granted. The April 7,
2023 order of the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Texas, case No. 2:22–cv–223, is stayed
pending disposition of the appeal in the United States
Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and disposition of a
petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely
sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall termi-
nate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the
stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judg-
ment of this Court.
J USTICE THOMAS would deny the applications for stays.
J USTICE ALITO , dissenting from grant of applications for
stays.
In recent cases, this Court has been lambasted for staying
a District Court order “based on the scanty review this
Court gives matters on its shadow docket,” Merrill v. Milli-
gan, 595 U. S. ___, ___ (2022) (KAGAN, J., dissenting) (slip2 DANCO LABORATORIES, LLC v. ALLIANCE FOR
HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE
ALITO , J., dissenting
op., at 2). In another, we were criticized for ruling on a stay
application while “barely bother[ing] to explain [our] con-
clusion,” a disposition that was labeled as “emblematic of
too much of this Court’s shadow-docket decisionmaking—
which every day becomes more unreasoned.” Whole
Woman’s Health v. Jackson, 594 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2021)
(KAGAN, J., dissenting from denial of application for injunc-
tive relief) (slip op., at 1–2). And in a third case in which a
stay was granted, we were condemned for not exhibiting the
“restraint” that was supposedly exercised in the past and
for not “resisting” the Government’s effort to “shortcut” nor-
mal process. Barr v. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, 588
U. S. ___, ___ (2019) (SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting) (slip op.,
at 5). Cf. Does 1–3 v. Mills, 595 U. S. ___, ___ (2021)
(BARRETT , J., concurring in denial of application for injunc-
tive relief) (slip op., at 1) (warning that the Court should
not act “on a short fuse without benefit of full briefing and
oral argument” in a case that is “first to address the ques-
tions presented”).
I did not agree with these criticisms at the time, but if
they were warranted in the cases in which they were made,
they are emphatically true here. As narrowed by the Court
of Appeals, the stay that would apply if we failed to broaden
it would not remove mifepristone from the market. It would
simply restore the circumstances that existed (and that the
Government defended) from 2000 to 2016 under three Pres-
idential administrations. In addition, because the appli-
cants’ Fifth Circuit appeal has been put on a fast track, with
oral argument scheduled to take place in 26 days, there is
reason to believe that they would get the relief they now
seek—from either the Court of Appeals or this Court—in
the near future if their arguments on the merits are per-
suasive.
At present, the applicants are not entitled to a stay be-
cause they have not shown that they are likely to suffer ir-
reparable harm in the interim. The applicants claim thatCite as: 598 U. S. ____ (2023) 3
ALITO , J., dissenting
regulatory “chaos” would occur due to an alleged conflict be-
tween the relief awarded in these cases and the relief pro-
vided by a decision of the United States District Court for
the Eastern District of Washington. It is not clear that
there actually is a conflict because the relief in these cases
is a stay, not an injunction, but even if there is a conflict,
that should not be given any weight. Our granting of a stay
of a lower-court decision is an equitable remedy. It should
not be given if the moving party has not acted equitably,
and that is the situation here. The Food and Drug Admin-
istration (FDA) has engaged in what has become the prac-
tice of “leverag[ing]” district court injunctions “as a basis”
for implementing a desired policy while evading both nec-
essary agency procedures and judicial review. Arizona v.
City and County of San Francisco, 596 U. S. ___, ___ (2022)
(ROBERTS, C. J., concurring) (slip op., at 2).
The Washington District Court enjoined the FDA from
altering its current practice regarding mifepristone—some-
thing that the FDA had never hinted it was contemplating.
The FDA did not appeal that appealable order, and when
seven States that might take such an appeal asked to inter-
vene, the FDA opposed their request. This series of events
laid the foundation for the Government’s regulatory “chaos”
argument.
Once this argument is put aside, the applicants’ argu-
ment on irreparable harm is largely reduced to the claim
that Danco could not continue to market mifepristone be-
cause the drug would be mislabeled and that distribution
could not resume until Danco jumped through a series of
regulatory steps that would be largely perfunctory under
present circumstances. That would not take place, how-
ever, unless the FDA elected to use its enforcement discre-
tion to stop Danco, and the applicants’ papers do not pro-
vide any reason to believe the FDA would make that choice.
The FDA has previously invoked enforcement discretion to
permit the distribution of mifepristone in a way that the4 DANCO LABORATORIES, LLC v. ALLIANCE FOR
HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE
ALITO , J., dissenting
regulations then in force prohibited, and here, the Govern-
ment has not dispelled legitimate doubts that it would even
obey an unfavorable order in these cases, much less that it
would choose to take enforcement actions to which it has
strong objections.
For these reasons, I would deny the stay applications.
Contrary to the impression that may be held by many, that
disposition would not express any view on the merits of the
question whether the FDA acted lawfully in any of its ac-
tions regarding mifepristone. Rather, it would simply re-
fuse to take a step that has not been shown as necessary to
avoid the threat of any real harm during the presumably
short period at issue. -
Who was Rudebwoy Ranking? Life, Career, Achievements
Ghana’s music industry has lost one of its shining stars, Rudebwoy Ranking, and his fans are still mourning his death.
He was a talented dancehall artist who made significant contributions to the Ghanaian music industry. In this report, we will delve into Rudebwoy Ranking’s life, career, and achievements.
Rudebwoy Ranking, born Mustapha Rahman, was a Ghanaian dancehall artist who gained fame in 2014.
His nickname, Rudebwoy, was inspired by his looks and lyrics, which he once admitted were a bit rude.
He was also called Ranking because he saw himself as climbing up the ranks in the music industry, which meant he “ranked as king.”
Ranking was known for his cool personality and fierce looks, which he used as his brand. He launched his debut album, “Elevation-Time,” on September 12, 2016, and worked with some of the most popular Ghanaian artists such as Shatta Wale, Episode, Samini, Edem, Ras Kuuku, EL, and Luther.
Rudebwoy’s dream was to be one of the big brands in the industry.
He won several awards throughout his career, including the “Discovery of the Year” award at the 2015 Bass Awards and five awards at the 2017 Hausa Music Awards. He was nominated twice at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards for Dancehall Song of the Year and Reggae Dancehall Artiste of the Year. At the 2016 Hausa Music Awards, he received seven nominations and won five awards, including Fan Base of the Year, Dancehall artiste of the year, Collaboration of the year, Most popular song of the year, and Artiste of the year awards.
Rudebwoy Ranking’s music was loved by his fans, and some of his trending songs include “Gbelemo,” “Pain Dem,” “Original,” and “Deh A Road.”
His music was known for being people-friendly, straightforward, and mixed with dancehall. His lyrics were an inspiration to the youth, urging them to work hard and achieve their goals.
Rudebwoy Ranking’s untimely death shocked the music industry and his fans. He passed away on April 24, 2023, after reportedly suffering a short illness.
Tributes have poured in from fans and colleagues in the music industry, who have highlighted his contribution to Ghana’s music industry and his positive impact on the youth.
Despite his death, Rudebwoy Ranking’s legacy in the music industry will always be remembered. He was a talented and charismatic artiste whose music was loved for its positivity, energy, and social relevance.
His music will continue to inspire and influence a new generation of Ghanaian musicians. Rest in peace, Rudebwoy Ranking. -
Change your mentality of doing business – CPA to Ghanaian traders
With the slightest increase in fuel prices, prices for goods and services like transportation go up. The speed and urgency with which the traders raise prices is astounding. It seems as though their fervent wishes for rising fuel prices have always been granted.
In recent times, fuel prices have dropped significantly. However, the Ghanaian buyer is yet to witness an equal drop in prices of goods and services.
In justification of the trader’s behaviour, the Vice President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Clement Boateng, explained, ” in the determination of prices for goods and services, fuel prices is just one of the variables.”
However, speaking on the GTV Breakfast Show, the Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Protection Agency, Kofi Owusu-Hene, also known as Kapito, described the behaviour of traders as an unfair way of doing business and attributed it to their appetite for making instant profits.
“The excuses that traders give the consumers is where I have a problem. It is an unfair way of doing business. When fuel prices go up, instantly you jack your prices which is fair. When fuel price is coming down and you tell me you won’t reduce it because, in three months from now, if you decide to go and buy the goods again, the dollar rate will have gone up, you won’t reduce it. Is it fair?” Mr. Kapito lamented.
Mr. Kapito also cautioned traders to change their mentality about doing business; otherwise, there will be a time when their goods will be left to rot because consumers may not be able to afford them.
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Stop tampering with the Highlife rhythms – Kumi Guitar
Ghanaian hiplife artiste Kumi Guitar has warned upcoming artists against fusing highlife music with foreign beats to make it sound more contemporary.
He argues that the Highlife genre which takes its root from Ghana has its original path and any attempts to change to fit contemporary sounds would be damaging to the genre’s origin.
Kumi Guitar, born Nana Yaw Kumi in a recent interview with Graphic Showbiz voiced concern about how certain up-and-coming acts were creating their own genre and dubbing it “Afrobeats Highlife,” noting that this would be disastrous for Ghana’s highlife music.
“What we are hearing lately is what some artistes call Afrobeats Highlife and it’s even laughable. What are we trying to do to our highlife genre? We can’t take such move. No!
“If we do, in the near future, the next generation may not even know anything about the real Ghanaian highlife. Our pacesetters defined highlife well and we must do all we can to preserve it for future generations”, he added.
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All you need to know about the stylish henna body art
As we all know the Sallah Festival is the time to showcase trendy outfits among our Muslim brothers and sisters. Apart from the show of clothes, one thing that will be outstanding is stylish henna body art among young girls and older women.
Henna is not the same as the permanent tattoos we see on some popular musicians, actors, athletes, footballers, models among others.
There are many differences between henna and a tattoo. As we know, tattoos are permanent and they pierce the skin to carry the ink down to the blood bearing layers of the skin to create a design that is permanent. By contrast, henna is a temporary dye that just sits on the surface of the skin.
Henna tattoos
Henna is a beautiful art that anyone can have. However, in Ghana, it is common within the Zongo communities and it is popularly called ‘leele’. In Muslim communities around the country and other parts of the world, it is a tradition to have ‘leele’ on the fingers and feet of new brides.
History has it that in the time of Prophet Muhammad, women used it on nails and palms but as time went on, people started using it as decorative art.
Apart from special occasions such as weddings, it can be applied any time depending on one’s mood. There are some who have it every Friday just to look good for Jummah prayers (Friday prayers), birthdays and during festivals such as Sallah and Damba.
Due to its painless application, some people even put henna on their baby’s feet and hands. The patterns, however, can reflect the type of function.
Henna comes in only two colours, red and black- red being the original colour. Light skinned brides look good with red henna while the dark-skinned ones with black. Some henna dealers hinted to me that there is a white coloured one that is gradually creeping into the system.
Henna dye is made from plants and the paste can be applied with many traditional and innovative tools, starting with a basic stick or twig. There are people who use the syringe or a plastic cone similar to those used to pipe icing onto cakes.
When it comes to the designs, a light stain may be achieved within minutes, but the longer the paste is left on the skin, the darker and longer lasting the stain will be, so it needs to be left on as long as possible. To prevent it from drying or falling off the skin, the paste is often sealed down by dabbing a sugar/lemon mix over the dried paste or adding some form of sugar to the paste.
If you want your designs to be very stylish and attractive, then you need to get someone who is good at making henna arts on the skin. If you are interested just visit any Zongo and you will be sorted out. These days, you can find some of the henna designers at popular markets such as Nima, Maamobi, Madina, Ashaiman, Kasoa and Mallam Atta all in Accra.
Those in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region can have henna arts at the Aboabo Market or Moshie Zongo. Although it is common to have some family members to do the henna art in most homes in the Northern Region, if you live in Tamale and don’t have anyone to depend on you can go to the Lamashegu Market to get a professional to give you some beautiful patterns.
What you have to know is that henna designs look like accessories on the body, therefore, you don’t have to wear pieces of jewellery all over as it ends up taking away the beauty of the artwork.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
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Biden presents new ideas for environmental justice
On Friday, President Joe Biden unveiled new initiatives for environmental justice, including an executive order that, according to the White House, will make environmental justice a primary goal of government agencies.
At a White House Rose Garden signing ceremony just before Earth Day, Biden promised that “under this order, environmental justice will become the responsibility of every single federal agency – I mean, every single federal agency.”
“Every federal agency must consider the effects of environmental health on communities and work to mitigate those adverse effects,” he stated. The goal of the entire government will be environmental justice, and this goal will be integrated into how we operate with municipal, state, tribal, and territory governments.
The executive order, which will still be up to agencies to implement, will create a new Office of Environmental Justice inside the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Friday’s move comes as as many environmental justice groups have been frustrated at the administration’s recent approval of a major Alaska oil project. CNN also reported Friday that the Biden administration is planning to roll out aggressive new rules to regulate planet-warming pollution from natural gas power plants – a move that could face fierce legal challenges.
Friday’s move also took place as Biden is preparing to announce his reelection bid as soon as next week, CNN reported Thursday. During his last presidential campaign, he worked hard to court environmental justice activist groups.
Biden’s new order directs agencies to work more closely with impacted communities and improve “gaps” in scientific data to try to better tackle the impacts of pollution on people’s health, a White House official said. If toxic substances were released from a federal facility in the future, the order requires federal agencies to notify nearby communities.
The order comes a few years after Biden announced his signature “Justice40” initiative, vowing to direct 40% of federal climate and clean funding from new legislation to disadvantaged communities. On Friday, three additional agencies – the Department of Commerce, the National Science Foundation and NASA – will also join the initiative.
Biden also took a swipe at Republicans in his speech, contrasting his action on environmental justice with the GOP’s policies.
During his remarks on Friday, the president detailed how he’s spent much of his tenure in office surveying damage from extreme weather events, calling the threat of climate change “an existential threat to our nation” and criticizing congressional Republicans for attempting to block his legislative priorities focused on climate.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, recently unveiled provisions in his debt limit proposal that would overturn clean energy tax credits passed in the Inflation Reduction Act last year. The proposal also includes HR 1 – the GOP’s version of an energy permitting bill.
Republicans, Biden argued, would “rather threaten to default on the US economy, or get rid of some $30 billion in taxpayer subsidies … than getting rid of $30 billion in taxpayer subsidies to an oil industry that made $200 billion last year.”
“Imagine seeing all this happen – the wildfires, the storms, the floods – and doing nothing about it,” he continued. “Imagine taking all these clean energy jobs away from working class folks all across America. Imagine turning your back on all those moms and dads living in towns poisoned by pollution and telling them, ‘Sorry, you’re on your own.’ We can’t let that happen.”
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You are same age as my 4th son – Prof Frimpong Boateng’s fatherly advice to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
In the aftermath of the leaked Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report, there have been a series of clarifications and rebuttals from parties mentioned in the report.
Key among personalities who have refuted allegations leveled against them in the report is Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
Mr Nkrumah has dismissed the reports by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng that he (Oppong Nkrumah) hired some journalists to scheme to bring him down while he served as Chairman of the now-dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
In the latest development, the Professor has issued a ‘fatherly advise’ to the Information Minister, urging him to work diligently while in office since political power is short-lived.
“I have good advice for you, though. When I was part of the government, we were colleagues and I related to you as such. Now I will advise you as my son, just as I do my children. After all you are the same age as my 4th-born son. When I returned to Ghana from Germany to start the cardio-thoracic project you were just 6 years old as my 4th child. I will not lie to you or insult you or be harsh on you.
“My advice is, always remember that political power is both short-lived and effervescent. In about 2 years’ time you may no longer be in government, and you may experience the real world as former high-profile political power holders do. I will urge you to do your work diligently and avoid the coded and evil tactics Mr. Paul Adom-Otchere boastfully and unashamedly told the world on ‘Good Evening Ghana’ that you employ to deal with your real and perceived enemies,” he said.
In the report present to the Chief of Staff in March 2021, Dr Frimpong-Boateng said: “On Saturday the 8th of February 2020, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister for information assembled a group of journalists from both NDC and NPP affiliated media houses at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa to discuss a strategy to bring me Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng down.”
He said, after the meeting, a number of media houses published a series of articles to supposedly champion the agenda.
But Mr. Oppong Nkrumah vehemently rejected the allegations describing them as completely false adding that despite being utterly disappointed by the claims he forgives the former minister.
“Over the years, I had nothing but great admiration for Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s public-spirited works and as an inspirational citizen. I feel gravely offended over the false claims he has made and the hurtful conclusions he has sought to exact about me precisely because of the great esteem in which I have held him.
“I trust that in the coming months and years, he will reflect deeply upon his own actions and comments which have led to his challenges. He should kindly leave me out of his personal fights. I am utterly disappointed but I forgive him.”
According to Oppong Nkrumah, the meeting Prof. Frimpong-Boateng referenced was a Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) event, jointly organised with the Bank of Ghana on financial reporting which he attended.
He insisted that the meeting was not to oust anybody from the government.
But instead of rebutting Oppong Nkrumah’s response, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng in a statement said he had a piece of good advice for the minister.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng also attached, to his statement, a video of a galamsey site with someone speaking in the background and accusing Oppong Nkrumah of owning a galamsey site.
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Ghana has taken the tough economic decisions to receive aid – IMF
The IMF Africa Department Director, Abebe Selassie has revealed that Ghana has taken the tough economic decisions needed to win a rescue package from the International Monetary Fund.
He noted that Ghana has increased taxes and imposed losses on domestic investors, as authorities attempt to meet IMF demands for the $3 billion loan. However, informal talks with bilateral lenders have dragged on.
Ghana has “done all of the prior actions that were expected of them for the program,” Selassie said in an interview. “They’ve done a really, really difficult domestic debt restructuring exercise. The country now needs to get the resources required to support reserves.”
Bilateral lenders, including China, are now expected to set up a committee to start formal negotiations with Ghana in the next few days. First on the committee’s agenda will be a written commitment to provide relief to the West African nation, paving the way for the loan from the IMF.
“Provided we have the financing assurances, we would go to the board very quickly after that,” Selassie said. “So within the next three, four weeks. That’s the key hurdle for us.”
The talks are taking place under the Group of 20’s so-called Common Framework, which expands the Paris Club of sovereign creditors to include China and other nations. Just under a third of Ghana’s bilateral debt, $1.9 billion, is owed to China. That is just a fraction of the nation’s 575.7 billion cedis ($50 billion) of public debt at the end of November.
Social Cost
Five days after a surprise interest rate hike to a record 29.5% on March 27, parliament passed a bill to raise an additional 4 billion cedis ($353 million) in revenue this year. That was after a previous 250 basis points increase in value added tax to 15%.
The fiscal measures and restructuring of cedi-denominated liabilities will help the West African economy lower its public debt to 71% of gross domestic product by 2028, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said in a presentation Thursday. The IMF has said it needs be on track to drop to 55% by that year to qualify for support. Before the government’s interventions, it had been projected to reach 109%.
“There’ll be burden-sharing all around,” Ofori-Atta said. “If you join us in this, you really will help us build a robust economy and come back and be able to resume our partnership with you and the markets.”
The adjustments and latest tax increases are taking a heavy toll on Ghanaians. Millions, like Esther Annan, a street vendor in the capital, Accra, have seen their living standards drop as inflation soars.
The mother of six took out a micro loan to fund her cloth and bed-linen business in January but has now missed weekly payments after local demand dried up and interest rates soared.
“I play cat-and-mouse games with the lenders because there is no money to pay them,” she said. “The interest on the loans has become so high.”
Getting Worse
Local lenders, which were the most exposed to the domestic debt, are now expected to skew credit to sectors that can readily pay while those needing it most miss out, said Richmond Atuahene, an analyst at Salman Partners and Financial Consult Ltd. in Accra.
The latest tax increases are “an additional cost and if industry can no longer bear it, it will be compelled to cut costs, including labor and output,” said Humphrey Kwesi Ayim-Darke, president of the Association of Ghana Industries. “Small and medium-sized companies, manufacturing and agriculture are going to be hardest hit because of their high risk premium historically.”
A slowdown in credit growth and an expected drop in consumer spending could decelerate economic expansion this year, according to three economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
“The downside risks to the government’s 2.8% real GDP growth target for this year have increased on the back of the tightened monetary policy stance,” Mark Bohlund, a senior credit research analyst with REDD Intelligence, said.
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41-year-old driver granted GHS 100k bail after allegedly defiling 13-year-old
A driver who allegedly defiled a 13-year-old has been granted bail to the tune of of GHS 100,000 with four sureties by the Tarkwa circuit court.
Anthony Cobbina alias Kabi, 41, pleaded not guilty to the charge of defilement and the case was adjourned to Friday, April 28, 2023.
The prosecutor, Superintendent of Police Juliana Essel-Dadzie, told the court presided over by Mrs Hathie Ama Manu that the complainant, is the mother of the victim and both live at Brenuakyim in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality where she operated a drinking bar.
She said Cobbina, who also resides in the same neighbourhood, is a friend and regular customer of the complainant.
In March, last year, the prosecution said the accused started making sexual advances towards the victim who usually assisted the mother in the bar after school.
Superintendent Essel-Dadzie said in the same month the complainant travelled to Wassa Nkran in the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality and left the victim in the care of her aunt.
According to the prosecutor, while she was away, the accused took advantage and fondled the victim’s breasts and buttocks at the bar.
The victim who was unhappy threatened to inform the complainant when she returned from her trip, but the accused warned her to remain silent or else he would kill her.On another occasion, Superintendent Essel-Dadzie informed the court that Cobbina demanded to have sex with the victim in the bar and promise to buy her a mobile phone and laptop, but she resisted.
The accused person, she said became offended, pulled a small knife to stab the victim and assaulted her sexually.
The prosecution said on December 26, last year, the complainant was celebrating her birthday, decided to dine with the family at Classlink Hotel in Tarkwa and therefore invited the accused person to join them.
She further said, while swimming in a pool, Cobbina allegedly inserted his fingers into the victim’s vagina and also forcibly had sexual intercourse with her in the hotel.
Superintendent Essel-Dadzie said the accused person was not satisfied with the sexual advances, in January, this year, went to the complainant’s drinking bar, lured the victim behind a fridge and had sex with her.
The prosecution said the complainant recently detected changes in the victim’s mood and when she confronted her, she said Cobbina had been having sexual intercourse with her.
She said the complainant reported the incident to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) in Tarkwa and a medical report form was issued to the complainant to send the victim to the hospital.
The victim was examined, and the form was endorsed by a medical officer at the Apinto Government Hospital.
The prosecution said Cobbina was therefore picked up by the police and he admitted the offence in his caution statement.
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Instagram is frustrating my life – Nigerian actress Bimbo
Nollywood actress, Bimbo Ademoye, has jokingly accused Instagram of frustrating her life, by always reducing the length of videos she posts.
Reacting to the trailer of ‘Teropi Secxxion’; a content she recently produced and posted online that was cut short by Instagram, Bimbo revealed she was sick and tired of the recurrence.
“Instagram I’m sick and tired of you always cutting my videos short. You’re frustrating my life!!!!…” Bimbo said, while reposting the trailer.
The nominations list, which was released last Sunday, ahead of the 9th edition of the prestigious event to be held later this year, had Bimbo Ademoye got nominated for the best actress in a comedy (movie/TV series), for her role in the movie, Selina and the best actress in a drama, (movie/TV series), for her role in the movie, Anikulapo.
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Biden campaign team set to finalize plans for reelection
President Joe Biden‘s advisers are working quickly to finish personnel and operational elements of his reelection campaign before what is predicted to be a tough 19-month battle to persuade the public of his accomplishments and his potential to serve deep into his 80s.
After spending the previous weekend at Camp David, according to people with knowledge of the issue, Biden returned to the White House late on Sunday to thoroughly test-run the campaign and personnel preparations, including any decisions that still required his final approval.
But even as officials made final edits to an announcement video likely to be released Tuesday, marking four years since Biden declared himself a candidate in the 2020 presidential election, the challenges of the upcoming contest were coming into sharper view.
An NBC News poll released Sunday found just 26% of Americans think Biden should run for a second term as president, while 70% say he should not. Among Democrats, 51% say Biden should not run for a second term. That mirrors the findings of other recent polls showing tepid support for a Biden reelection bid, including an AP-NORC poll released Friday and CNN polling released earlier this month.
In the NBC poll, nearly half of those who oppose a Biden run say that his age is a major reason for that view.
Advisers are confident those numbers will mean little in the long run. Republicans – and former President Donald Trump’s candidacy in particular – have “a pretty good track record of bringing our people back home – and out to vote,” one senior Democratic official close to the White House said.
Biden’s advisers also believe his age represents decades of experience, which they say has driven legislative wins delivering tangible economic dividends across the country.
“He is a steady hand, when you look at what’s out there right now with Donald Trump and what we’re hearing again. People don’t want that chaos back again,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, when asked by CNN’s Dana Bash about Biden’s age on “State of the Union.”
Still, at 80, Biden’s age is certain to act as a central issue in the coming campaign, a fact even many of his Democratic allies privately acknowledge.
News that Biden had decided to launch his reelection campaign this week came as a surprise to a slew of Democratic officials who had been led to believe in recent weeks that Biden was more likely to wait until the summer to announce his bid.
For weeks, Biden advisers and others close to the White House had insisted the president felt no pressure to announce this spring and was keen to allow an increasingly contentious Republican primary to play out without being in the mix as an official candidate.
But other factors also weighed on Biden’s advisers. A messy debt ceiling fight, anticipated this summer, would not be the ideal time to announce a reelection campaign. The president will travel abroad next month for summits in Japan and Australia, and he plans to travel overseas again in July for a NATO summit in Lithuania, squeezing the calendar.
And high-dollar fundraising tends to be slower during the summer months, which could affect Democratic officials’ desire to deliver a strong first quarter haul for the reelection campaign.
Advisers continued to caution that last-minute changes were possible. And while Biden has finished taping a video declaring his candidacy and outlining his argument for a second term, according to people familiar with the matter, aides warned the timing of its release could shift.
As planning for the reelection launch came into public view in recent days, the number of candidates for campaign manager rapidly narrowed from more than a half-dozen to one name.
Biden is poised to name Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser, to oversee the campaign, two senior Democratic advisers told CNN on Sunday. The choice of campaign chief was among the many outstanding decisions Biden and his team were making as they prepare for the potentially imminent announcement.
Rodriguez, a senior adviser to the president and director of the White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, has seen her star rise in Biden’s White House.
Biden elevated Rodriguez to the role of senior adviser last summer, adding her to the small circle of his senior-most aides.
While Rodriguez will formally manage the campaign, the effort will also be largely guided from the West Wing, where top aides Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti will also play central roles.
Rodriguez, the granddaughter of labor icon Cesar Chavez, has been a longtime Democratic adviser who is close to Biden.
CBS News was first to report the expected decision.
Biden’s final weekend before the expected announcement served as a window into the balancing act to come as he and his top national security officials navigated the complexity of a potentially perilous evacuation of government personnel from the US embassy in war-ravaged Sudan.
Biden has maintained privately that his primary focus is on carrying the duties of the job he was elected to do in 2020.
He gave the order on Saturday to deploy roughly 100 US special operations troops to secure and complete the evacuation of US personnel in Sudan. The operation was successful and no US military and diplomatic personnel were harmed in the roughly hour-long process.
It served as a real-time demonstration of how the next 19 months may unfold for the incumbent running for the White House, where there are no shortage of crises that can turn a message or campaign on its head seemingly overnight.
It also provided a window into another Biden reality, people familiar with the matter said. He will have the ultimate say in the direction of things, even if that say takes longer than some in the party would prefer. That drove some on Biden’s team to warn allies that the Tuesday announcement wasn’t locked in until Biden gave the green light.
The video had been filmed, they noted, and close advisers had accelerated their communications with party officials and donors in the lead up to the announcement. But Biden wasn’t pleased by leaks – and still had much to mull over and discuss about the shape of his nascent campaign over the course of the weekend.
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I will rather gather the $8 to fund my music than pay for Twitter verification – Epixode
Ghanaian reggae dancehall recording artist, Epixode, has said also added his voice to the Twitter verification badge brouhaha.
According to him, his refusal to pay the $8 charge for his verification badge on Twitter doesn’t make him a stingy celebrity.
Epixode stated that he will rather gather the $8 charges and use it to fund a music video at the end of the year.
“Well I don’t think refusing to pay 8 dollars for Twitter blue tick verification means I’m stingy but that’s how some people may see it.
“But if you put together a lot of the payments of the 8 dollars for about a year, that can equally shoot a music video for your next project,” Epixode said on Property FM in Cape Coast.
He continued “Some people might look at this from a different perspective, some might say they have a lot of money so paying 8 dollars isn’t meant anything at all”.
Speaking to Amansan Krakye, the ‘Atia’ hitmaker said getting a blue badge verification on Twitter doesn’t come with any exclusive benefits for celebrities.
He added “If the owner of the app says we should pay for the blue badge and if it comes with exclusive benefits then I know paying will help me reach millions of people when I release something. So that one is beneficial but when I’m paying and it’s the same normal stuff and anybody else who isn’t a celebrity can equally pay and get a blue badge then I don’t think it’s important like that,” he ended.
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Prioritise creativity and innovation to ensure business sustainability – VRA
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The Volta River Authority (VRA) has made it clear that companies must institutionalize creativity and innovation to ensure business sustainability
At a Roundtable Panel discussion in Accra, on creativity and innovation as part of activities towards the 62nd anniversary of the VRA, the Chief Executive of Authority Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa said the Authority has been traditional in the way it operates, therefore adjusting to new trends is critical in a rapidly competitive energy market.
For decades, the VRA was the sole producer of electricity for the country.
Presently, it has about 14 competitors who are also generating power.
The competition continues to pose an existential threat to the Authority.
For it to remain the market leader, Mr Antwi-Darkwa said the power producer cannot continue business as usual.
He urged the workers to remind themselves of the overarching objective of sustaining operations and this can only happen when they all embrace new ways of doing things.
“The world has changed and we also have to change. We have been traditional in the way we do things, COVID-19 has taught us a lot of things and we need to adapt to need trends.”Mr. Antwi-Darkwa stated.
He emphasised the importance to leverage on the data that is generated in the Authority’s operations to enhance its relations with stakeholders and service delivery.
“We invested in ICT, and we need to take advantage of that, and innovation must create value for the Authority. We have to innovate in a way that will reduce our costs. We also need to reduce waste. We have to lead by example, especially from management.” VRA CEO said.
CEO of Phyto-Riker Pharmaceuticals, Madam Theresa Randolph spoke about processes and tools in innovating and getting complacency after innovation.
The MD of Absa Bank Ghana, Madam Abena Osei Poku said it takes deliberate effort by leadership on an innovative journey to get workers’ buy-in to build a culture of creativity and innovation.
Advisor to the Chief Executive of VRA, Dr. Stella Agyenim-Boateng said adjusting to new trends will help to improve VRA’s operations and service delivery in a rapidly competitive energy market.
“VRA has been the benchmark in power generation and we must embrace new things to continue to lead”
A second-panel discussion deliberated on enabling innovation through a transformed human resource management system.
So, the authority says creativity and innovation are the anchor for sustainability.
Impliedly, they cannot continue in a business-as-usual mindset as innovation is change that will unlock new value for the Authority.
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Biden to appoint top White House aide to run his reelection campaign
According to two senior Democratic advisors, President Joe Biden is prepared to appoint Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser, to lead his reelection campaign. This will pave the way for his announcement that he will run for reelection as early as this week.
Although Rodriguez will officially be in charge of the campaign, Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon, and Steve Ricchetti will also play key roles in its management from the West Wing.
Rodriguez, a longstanding Democratic advisor who is close to Biden, is the granddaughter of labor legend Cesar Chavez.
Source: CBS News
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5 health facilities removed from national grid by NEDCo
Outstanding debts worth millions of Ghana cedis (GHS) has resulted in the disconnection of five health facilities in the Bono East Region.
The Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) has cut off power supply to five health facilities in the Bono East Region as part of its debts recovery exercise in the company’s Techiman Operational Area.
The Techiman Operational Area covers the entire Bono East, parts of Ashanti, Bono, Savanna and Northern Volta regions.
The health facilities comprised the Kintampo Health Research Centre in the Kintampo North Municipality, the Saint Theresa Catholic Hospital and the Nkoranza Health Centre at Nkoranza and Nkoranza South municipalities, the Badu Hospital in the Tain District and the Tain District Hospital at Nsawkaw.
Mr John Mumuni Tayari, the Techiman Area NEDCo Manager and leader of the team, bemoaned the unwillingness of power users to pay their bills.
He told the media that power users in the entire area owed about GH¢106,790,230.79 as of February 2023. Residential consumers owed GH¢50,463,322.35, non-residential consumers; GH¢47,288,896.01, while municipal and district assemblies owed GH¢38,276,844.24. Special Load Tariffs accrued a debt of GH¢9,038,012.43.
Mr Tayari said though those health facilities provided essential services to the public, it was also considered that without power they would not be able to work, hence the need to pay for the power used to provide those services.
He said it was not the wish of the company to cut off power to consumers, but it was the only way to recover the debts to enable the company to also service its debts with other stakeholders and partners.
He urged power users to take steps to negotiate for a plan with the company on debt settlement.
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Rap music has endured longer than any other type of music – Lyrical Joe
Rapper Lyrical Joe has stated that rappers must position themselves to deliver on any music genre.
He said the move is necessary because rap music has stood the test of time more than any other genre.
According to the 2022 Best Rap Performance winner at the VGMA, one quality of a good rapper is that he or she should be able to deliver on different types of beats from any of the recognized music genre.
“Rap artistes must find a way to position themselves to be able to burn through every genre and so far, it is rap that has stood the test of time more than any other genre,” he told Amansan Krakye in an interview MyNewsGh.com observed.
We rap on Afropop beats, on Amapiano beats, on Azonto, in fact, anything so when it comes to rap it lives through all of them and people are still doing it, and even with Rock beats we rap on it,” he opined on Property FM in Cape CoastLyrical Joe who recently released his album titled ‘Photo Album’, said rap music is doing far batter than other genres of music.
“Maybe aside reggae but even reggae isn’t booming like rap is right now but rap has lived longer than most of these genres but normally when people see new things they want to downplay what existed before”.
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American diplomats have been evacuated from Sudan by the US
On Saturday, President Joe Biden announced that US government employees had left Sudan.
In a statement, Biden said, “Today, on my orders, the United States military began an operation to withdraw US government officials from Khartoum.
All US diplomats and their families have been evacuated, according to a second statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and operations at the US Embassy in Khartoum have been “temporarily suspended.”
A group of just over 100 special operations forces were involved in the extraction. The operation was led by US Africa Command and conducted in close coordination with the State Department, said Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defense.
The decision to evacuate the American personnel comes after a week of heavy fighting between rival military factions – the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF – which has left hundreds dead and thousands wounded.
Blinken said the “widespread fighting … posed an unacceptable risk to our Embassy personnel,” noting that “suspending operations at one of our embassies is always a difficult decision, but the safety of our personnel is my first responsibility.”
Undersecretary of State for Management John Bass said Saturday that temporarily closing the embassy was “the only really feasible option for us in this case.”
“As a result of the intensity of the conflict, and the challenges that our diplomatic personnel were experiencing in conducting basic operations and the uncertainty about the availability of key supplies like fuel and food going forward, we reluctantly decided it was time to suspend operations,” he told reporters on a briefing call.
Fewer than 100 people were evacuated from the US Embassy, including “a small number of diplomatic professionals from other countries,” Bass said.
“We do not have any US government personnel remaining in Khartoum at this time,” Bass said, but there are still “a substantial number of our local staff supporting the embassy in a caretaker status.”
The planning for the evacuation was “anything but haphazard,” said Lt. Gen. D.A. Sims, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
US special operations forces spent less than an hour on the ground in Sudan during the evacuation, he said. Troops took off from Djibouti at 9 a.m. EST, landing in Ethiopia to refuel before heading to Khartoum.
“The evacuation was conducted in one movement via rotary wing. The operation was fast and clean with service members spending less than an hour on the ground in Khartoum,” Sims said. “As we speak, the evacuees are safe and secure.”
A State Department spokesperson confirmed Sunday that the department has “notified the US citizen community via consular channels about the organization of two convoys facilitated by Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates.”
The message told Americans that they would be traveling at their own risk.
The message sent to US citizens in Sudan comes as a top State Department official had said Saturday that the US government does not “foresee coordinating a US government evacuation for our fellow citizens in Sudan at this time or in the coming days.”
A senior Pentagon official had said that “in the coming days, we will continue to work with the State Department to help American citizens who may want to leave Sudan.”
“One of those ways is to potentially make the overland routes out of Sudan potentially more viable,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Chris Maier said on a call with reporters.
Maier said that the Department of Defense “is at present considering action that may include use of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities to be able to observe routes and detect threats.”
“Secondly, the employment of naval assets outside the port of Sudan to potentially help Americans who arrive at the port, and third, the establishment at the US Africa Command in Stuttgart deconfliction cell focused particularly on the overland route,” he said.
Biden said that he was “receiving regular reports from my team on their ongoing work to assist Americans in Sudan, to the extent possible.” Blinken said the US government “will continue to assist Americans in Sudan in planning for their own safety and provide regular updates to US citizens in the area.”
On Friday, State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said it had been in touch with “several hundred American citizens who we understand to be in Sudan” to discuss “security precautions and other measures that they can take on their own.”
The State Department does not keep official counts of US citizens in foreign countries and Americans are not required to register when they go abroad. Officials told staffers Wednesday that there could be an estimated 16,000 American citizens in Sudan, most of whom are dual nationals.
Following the evacuation and the suspension of operations at the embassy, the State Department updated its travel advisory for Sudan, saying that due to the current security situation, “The US government cannot provide routine or emergency consular services to US citizens in Sudan.” Its travel advisory remains at Level 4: Do Not Travel.
US officials stressed that they would continue their efforts to bring an end to the violence, which Biden called “unconscionable,” and work to extend the ceasefire that both sides agreed to for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Despite the professed commitments to that ceasefire, fighting has continued.
“We remind both belligerents of their obligations under international humanitarian law, including obligations related to the protection of civilians,” Blinken said.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee told reporters Saturday that the US is “in close contact with Sudan’s military and civilian leaders to see if we can help them identify a path to extend and expand the Eid al-Fitr ceasefire to reach a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
Phee praised the efforts of international partners, particularly Ethiopia, for their roles in the success of the US evacuation.
“Late last night, Secretary Blinken consulted with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who offered Ethiopia’s full support for the overflight and refueling capabilities that were critical to the operation’s success,” she said.
The aircraft used in the evacuation refueled in Ethiopia, which borders Sudan, during the mission.
In his statement, Biden thanked Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, saying they “were critical to the success of our operation.”
The SAF said in a statement earlier Saturday that its leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had “agreed to provide the necessary assistance” to facilitate the safe evacuation of foreign citizens from the country in response to “calls from a number of heads of states.”
The RSF said in a statement posted overnight Khartoum time that they had coordinated with the US on the evacuation. Bass, the undersecretary for management, said “that was not the case.”
“They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation,” he said. “I would submit that’s as much in their self-interest as anything else.”
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Spending on digital transformation is expected to hit US$3.4 tn by 2026
With global digital transformation spending expected to reach US$3.4trillion by 2026, Huawei’s Rotating Conference Chairwoman, Meng Wanzhou, has advocated a move from narrow artificial intelligence (AI) to general and super-AI.
She said digitalisation is the new blue ocean for the whole information, communication and technology (ICT) value chain, and it is imperative that the strategic objectives of industry should drive digital transformation rather than the technology itself.
“Digitalisation is a new blue ocean for the whole ICT value chain. Enterprises that are going digital and enterprises that are helping others go digital will have huge addressable markets and huge economic benefits,” Ms. Meng said during Huawei’s 20th Global Analyst Conference held in China.
Against this backdrop, the leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices said it will ramp up its investments in domains like connectivity, computing, storage and cloud – in a bid to deepen its drive to enable productivity and efficiency improvements across industries such as mining, healthcare, ports, transportation and many others.
Huawei has over the years built in-depth partnerships with nearly 200 power enterprises worldwide, and is providing digital services for more than 20 leading oil and gas enterprises and 800 mining enterprises.
In Ghana, government’s strategic digitalisation agenda, if pursued to the letter, could position the country as a fertile ground for data science research and development; and to take advantage of this investment to develop AI solutions for the agriculture, health, education and financial sectors.
It will also provide unique opportunities to accelerate economic growth and connect citizens to services and jobs, a move that could support efforts to restore macroeconomic stability.
Digital infrastructure
Huawei disclosed it is building the digital infrastructure that will support these increasingly diverse and complex industrial scenarios. These networks require ultra-reliable and fast connections between people and intelligent objects, and between home and factories. It is leading the development of next-generation 5.5G infrastructure, developing the technology and networks that will support over 100 billion connections and deliver a 10-gigabit user experience.
Outlining the four distinct characteristics of digital infrastructure that Huawei is delivering to help customers go digital, Ms. Meng said: “We aim to provide our customers with digital infrastructure that has the simplest possible architecture and the highest possible quality, delivering the best possible experience at the lowest possible costs.
“Our goal is to help organisations go digital in four stages: digitising operations, building digital platforms, enabling platform-based intelligence, and putting intelligence to use. The time is ripe to thrive together in this new and exciting digital future.”
An intelligent world needs new networks and new computing
As humans move toward an intelligent world, two key areas were identified during the conference: new networks and new computing. As a result, Dr. Zhou Hong – President of the Institute of Strategic Research – observed that networks and computing are the two key cornerstones underpinning the shift from narrow AI toward general-purpose AI and super-AI.
“To get there, we will need to take three key steps. First, we need to continue driving breakthroughs in theories and technologies to deliver ubiquitous, intelligent connectivity and drive social progress. Second, we need to keep pushing our cognitive limits to better understand and control intelligence. Finally, we need to define the right vision and use the right approach to guide AI development in a way that truly helps overcome human limitations, improves lives, creates matter, controls energy, and transcends time and space. This is how our society as a whole will continue to evolve and thrive,” he said.
The goals of AI must be defined and aligned
He added that as AI’s capabilities are improving rapidly, there’s a need to consider how to make sure the development of AI is what people want and ensure AI execution is accurate and efficient.
“We must create rules and laws to enhance AI ethics and governance.” He believes that from a theoretical and technical perspective these goals present three major challenges: AI goal-definition, accuracy and adaptability, and efficiency.
“If we don’t have an agreed-upon definition, it’s almost impossible to ensure that the goals of AI and human beings will be aligned. It also makes it difficult to make reasonable classifications and computations,” Dr. Zhou explained.
Meanwhile, a panel discussion was held during the summit on the role that digital productivity plays in driving industrial digitalisation, the challenges industries face in their digitalisation process, recommended actions, as well as expectations for industries in the process of building up their digital productivity.
The panellists included Li Peng, Chief Expert of China Southern Power Grid Corporation and Managing Director of its Digital Power Grid Group; Liang Yongji, Executive Director of Engineering and Technology at the Airport Authority Hong Kong; Liu Hong, Head of Technology at GSMA in Greater China; and Charles Ross, Principal of Technology and Society at Economist Impact.
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Fighting galamsey is almost impossible – ILAPI boss
The Executive Director of the Institute of Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), has opined that fighting galamsey, is almost impossible.
According to Mr. Peter Bismark Kwofie, corruption is tough to combat, and galamsey would follow in the same footsteps.
The policy expert stated on Rainbow Radio 87.5 FM’s Frontline that we do not have to deceive ourselves.
He stated, “I want to state on record that the fight against galamsey, like corruption, is never-ending. No amount of institutions established to combat corruption and galamsey will be successful. We have every law. We have all of the state institutions. We have mining rules in place, yet people are still mining illegally. It is really straightforward and simple to do. However, these laws have been broken.”
He was replying to Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s newest findings and the alleged involvement of some key government officials.`
He added that “The Frimpong-Boateng report is not new. As a think tank, we conducted various investigations and discovered that chiefs and politicians are members of the conspiracy. According to a CDD-Ghana study, some politicians indulge in galamsey during election seasons to raise funds for their campaigns. Some clergy, media personnel, and security personnel are among those involved.
However, political influence has grown. We notice that attorneys are now involved. It informs you that fighting galamsey will be incredibly difficult,” he continued.
He defined the war against galamsey as both political and economic, making it difficult for anyone to risk their presidency in the fight.
He stated that some political leaders are so powerful that dropping them is tough.
He also mentioned that the cultural factor and the role of chiefs in galamsey fighting cannot be neglected.
On the question of economics, he stated what the resolution would be in ensuring that people involved in galamsey are offered alternative livelihoods.
One of his disappointments was the report’s failure to identify anyone detained and prosecuted for galamsey.
He would have been relieved to learn that some people had been arrested and prosecuted.
He emphasised that while committing to fight galamsey provides hope, it is not the key tool in the struggle and that the president’s pledge to put his presidency on the line was political hyperbole.
He claimed that the administration had no clear policy in place to combat galamsey.
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Signs you are bipolar – Mental Health Officer reveals
Principal Mental Health Officer in Birim North District, Mr. Rexford Kwakye, has revealed that consistent excessive joy and sadness could be warning signs of bipolar disorder.
The health officer said that “if someone is consistently happy or sad for more than a week, you should be concerned. That could be a symptom of bipolar disorder.”
“Being excessively happy or sad for more than a week could be a sign of bipolar disorder,” he added.
Depression, anxiety, and excessive strength, as well as the ability to work without feeling tired, he explained, could all be warning signs.
“Others may refuse to eat because they have lost their appetite. Others refuse to eat or work unless they are exhausted. These people work with happiness, and if you see too many of these signs, you should be concerned,” he said
According to him, bipolar disorder is also a manic depression classified as a mental illness characterised by extreme highs and lows in mood as well as changes in sleep, energy, thinking, and behaviour.
People with the condition could experience periods of extreme happiness and vigour, as well as periods of extreme sadness, hopelessness, and sluggishness, he added.
People suffering from the condition are overly excited and confident. These emotions can also include irritability and rash or reckless decision-making.
He added that with increased education and advocacy, we could help to reduce it.
He advised people to avoid spiritual camps and instead seek medical attention in the early stages of their illness.
Ghana, in 2022, recorded 1,759 cases of bipolar disorder, Mr. Kwakye disclosed.
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The information you need as the jury deliberates on the Pras Michel case
In the trial of Pras Michel, a former member of the Fugees who the Justice Department claims is the central figure in a multimillion-dollar international conspiracy, jurors will start deliberating on Monday morning.
Leonardo DiCaprio and the former Attorney General Jeff Sessions both testified during the three-week trial, which led the jury through a long seven-year story of alleged corruption, greed, and foiled schemes.
Observe the following:
Michel is charged with working in the US as an unregistered agent of Chinese and Malaysian billionaire Jho Low in an effort to influence politics.
Prosecutors contend that Michel was paid millions by Low to secure access to both the Obama and Trump administrations and that he attempted to use those connections to advocate on Low and China’s behalf.
In 2012, Low paid Michel $20 million to help Low get a picture with then-President Barack Obama, Michel testified last week. Michel funneled over $800,000 of that money to the Obama Victory Fund through various straw donors at several events attended by the President, prosecutors say.
Years later, according to prosecutors, Michel would receive over $100 million from Low to help advocate for the release of Chinese dissident Guo Wengui from the US to China and for the US government to stop its investigation into Low.
Michel – after learning of the Justice Department’s investigation, prosecutors say – sent letters in 2019 to the straw donors he passed money through, telling them the money was a loan they needed to pay back or face legal action.
Michel faces 10 charges including conspiracy, witness tampering and failing to register as an agent of China.
If convicted on each charge, Michel could face over a decade in prison. He has denied the accusations and pleaded not guilty.
Others that prosecutors say were involved with Michel in the alleged conspiracy have pleaded guilty, including George Higginbotham, who was employed at the time as a senior congressional affairs specialist at the Justice Department, and Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser.
Higginbotham pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiring to make false statements to a bank. The former DOJ employee, according to the agreement, helped transfer tens of millions of dollars meant for lobbying efforts to stop US investigations into Low’s alleged role in embezzling billions of dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.
For his part, Broidy pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent in the secret lobbying campaign to try and influence then-President Donald Trump to drop the investigation into Low and 1MDB. Trump pardoned Broidy in January 2021.
Low, Michel’s co-defendant, is believed to be in China.
Michel testified during the weeks-long trial that he viewed the funds given to him by Low as “free money” and chose to spend it how he wanted, not at the direction of Low.
The former rapper testified he wanted to support Obama, who he called a historic candidate, and didn’t know he was breaking any laws by giving money to others for them to, in turn, donate to the campaign.
Again and again, Michel contested that money given to him by Low and other foreign nationals was either for his help in trying to get Low a picture with Obama or for investments into a media business he was building.
Michel also told the jury he was simply a connector, helping Low find counsel for civil charges brought by the US government and by letting government officials, including FBI agents, know that China wanted Guo extradited.
Defense attorney David Kenner stressed in closing arguments that there was no evidence Michel had willfully or deliberately violated any laws in taking the money and was acting largely on the advice of his financial manager and attorneys at the time.
Making money, Kenner argued, is not a crime.
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Netizens react to the death of musician Rudebwoy Ranking
Many people have expressed shock over the reported passing of Rudebwoy Ranking, a Dancehall musician who was once signed to Bullhaus Entertainment, on various social media platforms as tributes have flooded in.
According to a report by myjoyonline.com which referenced sources, “the musician passed away in the early hours of Monday, April 24, 2023, at the Ridge Hospital in Accra where he had been taken to, for treatment”.
It is unclear what his medical condition was.
While no official communication from the family has been made, stakeholders of the music industry are grieving with many sharing photographs of the musician.
Rudebwoy Ranking’s repertoires include ‘Jah Over Dem’, ‘No Drama’, ‘Yaro’, ‘Level Up’, ‘My Time’.
Below are some of the comments on the back of Rudebwoy Ranking’s reported demise.
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Akufo-Addo, wife commends Chief Imam over sterling Leadership, outstanding contribution to religious tolerance
President Akufo-Addo and his wife Rebecca on Sunday, 23rd April 2023, visited the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, at his residence in Fadama, to wish him a happy 104th birthday.
President Akufo-Addo described the Chief Imam’s age as a “blessed and privileged club.”
He described the National Chief Imam’s guidance of the Muslim flock in Ghana as truly exemplary.
“Our country may well be the envy of the rest of the world, when it comes to the question of religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence. His leadership and contribution to this state of affairs have been outstanding,” Nana Akufo-Addo praised and prayed for God’s blessings of wisdom, good health, long life, and prosperity for him.
Biography of Nuhu Sharubutu
Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu was born at Accra cow-lane in April 1919 by reputable parents from a well cultured and knowledgeable House.
His father, Sheikh Imam Nuhu Sharubutu was the Imam-Raatib (regular or residential Imam) of the Accra Central Mosque in the late 1960s to 1982 when he demised.
His mother, Hajja Ayishatu Abbass popularly known as Mma Tasidi, may her soul rest in peace and perfect bliss, also contributed immensely to the moral and psychological development of her son by ensuring that he had the proper home upbringing to go side with Islamic Education.
His mother was the sister of the Greater Accra Regional Imam who also rose to be called the National Imam (from late 1933 to 1960), Sheikh Imam Muhammed Abbas popularly known as Mallam Muhammad Mazawaje.
Young Osmanu started his education at home from his father during the day and with his mother at night.
It was widely reported and confirmed by Sheikh Osmanu himself that his mother was given to the father by his uncle, the late Imam Abbas Mazawaje who saw in his father high degree of fear of Allah and qualities of leadership.
Sheikh Nuhu Sharubutu, the father of young Osmanu was a prominent student of Sheikh Imam Abbas Mazawaje and became a member of the House.
Young Osmanu grew up to be a truly Islamic Model and a Unique Islamic heavyweight in knowledge and wisdom worthy of emulation.
At any point in time since his childhood till date he has been hammering on the need for all Ghanaians, Muslims and Christians to live in peace, saying that any divisive tendencies could leave room for our enemies to penetrate and defeat us.
His journey to Kumasi
When his father saw his true devotion and love for books and knowledge, he decided to send Osman to a new learning environment.
It was later decided that the Garden City and the Capital of Ashanti Region becomes his new learning destination.
The prominent Islamic Scholar Sheikh Abdullah Dan Tano became his next teacher.
That was where he went through a highly advanced course in Arabic Grammar, Arabic Literature and Texts, the study of Islamic Jurisprudence and Al-Hadiths (practices of the Holy Prophet).
He remained there until he graduated with distinction from Kumasi.
The aftermath of his journey to Kumasi
After his advanced studies in Kumasi, Mallam Osmanu became a completely changed and reformed personality.
This is due to the deep knowledge he acquired outside his original environment and his ability to imbibe the moral teachings from his teachers.
After careful contemplation, he later took a decision of devoting his time to teaching the Muslim youth who are keen in learning to become Islamic scholars, thinkers, teachers and imams in future.
Even as a teacher himself, he continued to have the desire and love for the pursuit of knowledge to the extent that anytime he heard of an Islamic Scholar, he rushed to fall on his feet as a student to seek further knowledge thereby benefiting from that scholar.
Among the illustrious scholars and Sheikhs who taught Mallam Osmanu are Sheikh Alhaji Mohammed, popularly known as Baraw, may he rest in peace.
Sheikh Baraw taught the interpretation of the Holy Quran, Classic Arabic Language, Literature and Texts.
Another famous Sheikh who served as a tutor and instructor to Mallam Osmanu was Sheikh Abubakar Fulaaty Al Kanawy who hailed from Nigeria.
It was this Sheikh who taught him Arabic Culture, Al-Hadith of the Holy Prophet, Arabic Texts and Fundamentals of Sufism.
Meeting Alhaji Sheikh Ibrahima Niass Qutbu Zaman
Mallam Osmanu continued with research on Sufism, by often devoting his leisure time in mosques to listen to the preachers of the Tijjaniyya movement and Sufism.
When his maternal uncle Sheikh Imam Alhadji Mohammed Abbas Mazawaje, who was the Accra Chief Imam saw the devotion, interest and handwork in Osmanu he introduced the Tijjaniya Movement’s Special Meditation to him, which he readily embraced.
He pursued the Tijjaniya Meditation till the arrival of the grand pioneer of the movement, the torchbearer and supreme commander of the Tijjaniya of the 20th century, Grand Sheikh Alhadji Ibrahim Nyass from Kaolack in Sénégal.
Sheikh Ibrahim Niass taught Mallam Osmanu the deeper spiritual aspect of Sufism and rudiments of mysticism and eserotics which smoothly paved the way for Mallam Osmanu to become a true leader in the Tijjaniya Movement in Ghana.
His appointment as National Chief Imam
Interestingly in 1974, after lengthy discussions among the traditional and tribal chiefs, academics, Islamic scholars, and religious personalities, a consensus was reached for Sheikh Osmanu to be appointed as the Deputy Regional Chief Imam of Ghana, deputising his cousin, Sheikh Imam Muhammed Mukhtar Abbas who succeeded his father.
The appointment of Sheikh Osmanu as deputy Greater Accra Region Chief Imam was done in consideration of the unique qualities, Intellectual capacity, dedication to teaching and passion for Islam and exemplary lifestyle in him, but he turned down their offer which was forced on him by the Prominent Muslim Chiefs who persistently asked him to give it a serious thought stressing to him that it could be a divine call to serve God.
Subsequently, when it dawned on Sheikh Osmanu that it was a divine call for him to serve Islam and Muslim communities, he finally accepted the position as the acting Greater Accra Regional Chief Imam until 1993, when he was ceremoniously appointed as the National Chief Imam of Ghana to head the Ghanaian Muslim Communities.
His Islamic activities
Sheikh Osmanu was well known for his exemplary lifestyle and generosity to people who called on him with their personal problems. He has built many Arabic Schools, Islamic Centers and Mosques.
Normally he spends huge sums money in Organising conferences, seminars and symposia on thorny Islamic issues prevailing in the Islamic societies and the country as a whole.
From the amounts given on him, Sheikh Osmanu deserves the award given him by the University of Ghana who bestowed on him an honorary Doctorate Degree.
He deserves more of that from any Islamic University or Higher Institution of learning; also he really deserves the accolade of a great Muslim leader due to his immense contribution and love for maintaining peace and development in Ghana.
He is also contributing to the revival of good values and reform in the Muslim youth, Islamic faith and the Moslem communities.
Sheikh Osmanu also taught Islamic scholars and sheikhs.
Among his students were Muhammad Munir Dan Alpha who is now deputising him and even leading national Islamic prayers on behalf of his teacher(Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu), Sheikh Ustaz Abdul Aziz, Sheikh Yahyal-Ameen, Mallam Adam Attah (late), Mallam Saeed, Alhaji Jibril Madaha, Mallam Ibrahima Nyass, Mallam Mustapha Yaa Jalala, Mallam Habibu Gora, Sheikh Musa Abdul Kadir (late) and Mallam Zurkanain, to mention just a few.
To sum up, Sheikh Osmanu ranks high among the erudite and prominent Islamic Scholars Ghana has ever produced, among his contemporaries are sheikh Kamâludeen who was chosen directly by Sheikh Osmanu to serve as his Deputy National Chief Imam of Ghana and the late Sheikh Alhadji Haroun Rasheed.
Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu is the Grand Khalipha of Sheikh Ibrahim Niass from 1972 to date, a title that he personally considers and cherishes more-than the National Chief Imamship position.
In recent times, to climax his passion for education, smooth and mutual interfaith relations and peaceful coexistence, peacebuilding and unity, he founded two organisations that are making great marks and impacting positive changes in the lives of Ghanaians and the World in general.
The works and activities of the Chief Imam
1. Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu Education Trust Fund (SONSETFUND) www.sonsetfundgh.org and the
2. Islamic Peace and Security Council of Ghana (IPASEC) www.ipasecgh.org cannot be overemphasised or overlooked in contemporary Ghana.
Achievements
The accomplishments of Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu at a glance;
1. The establishment of the Office of the National Chief Imam of Ghana in 1992
2. Engineered the realisation and manifestation of two (2) national holidays for Muslims in the official calendar of the Republic of Ghana
3. Establishment of seven Islamic schools; the Answaru-Deen Islamic School Complex, in the Greater Accra region
4. Self-trained, educated, sponsored and empowered over 50 well-disciplined and taught students in Islamic studies and they have become a force to reckon in the Muslim community in Ghana and have excelled in the field of Islamic knowledge and jurisprudence
5. Personally promoted Islamic education and encouraged the establishment of a unique system of education in Ghana, the marriage of traditional Islamic institutions and secular education to promote the acquisition of both.
6. Personally promoted and encouraged mutual understanding, dialogue and peaceful coexistence between religions (Interfaith relations) and interfaith beliefs (sects).
7. Self-sponsored (financially) hundreds of students to attain circular education in Ghana and abroad.
8. The establishment of an educational Trust Fund to support brilliant but needy students; the Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu Education Trust Fund (SONSETFUND) www.sonsetfundgh.org
9. The establishment of an organisation that promotes peace, unity and sustainable peace in Ghana and abroad; the Islamic Peace and Security Council of Ghana (IPASEC) www.ipasecgh.org
10. The establishment of an orphanage to look after the education and welfare of homeless Muslim kids in Ghana; the Nuuru Usmaniya Foundation for Humanitarian Services and Development (NUSMA
11. The establishment of a first-class educational complex in Kasoa, Central Region; Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu Educational Complex
12. Engineered the attraction of the financier organisation (Hunan Development International Foundation-HUDAI from Turkey) on the ongoing construction of the National Mosque at Kawo Kudi, Kanda, Accra.
13. Personally officiated over 5000 marriages in Ghana alone
14. Led funeral prayers on over 4000 Muslims in Ghana
15. Personally officiated over the naming ceremonies of over 10,000 Muslim children.
16. He was decorated with honours by the premier nation’s university, the University of Ghana, Legon in 2006 with doctorate degree for his works in humanities, teaching, imparting knowledge and peaceful activities.
17. Several other local and foreign universities awarded him with doctorate degrees.
Eminent Foreign Personalities
1. Sheikh Alhaji Ahmed Tijjani Ibrahim Niass, Grand Khalipha of Sheikh Alhaji Ibrahim Niass in Madina Kaolakh, Senegal
2. Sheikh Usman Thahiru Bauchi, Prominent Islamic Cleric in Nigeria
3. Sheikh Imam Tijjani Cise, Imam of the Grand Mosque of Sheikh Alhaji Ibrahim Niass in Madina Kaolakh, Senegal
4. Sheikh Alhaji Mudassiru Adeleke Shitu Bulala, the Chairman of Al-Kanz magazine in Nigeria and CEO of a multinational group of companies in Ajay, Lagos
5. Sheikh Hisham Kabani Haqqani, President of the Islamic Supreme Council of America and World Wide Deputy Leader of the Naqshabandiya Sufi order
6. Minister Louis Farakan, Leader of the Nations of Islam in America
7. Minister of the Religion, Dr Khalid Yasin from the United States of America
8. Sheikh Imam Hassan Cisse, Imam of the Grand Mosque of Sheikh Alhaji Ibrahim Niass in Madina Kaolakh, Senegal
Ironically, all the above dignitaries revisited the National Chief Imam several times on their own personal accord on account of his leadership and hospitality.
Official trips
1. Republic of Turkey
2. Islamic Republic of Iran
3. The United Kingdom
4. United States of America
5. Royal Kingdom of Canada
6. Royal Kingdom of Morocco
7. Royal Kingdom of Denmark
8. Royal Kingdom of Finland
9. Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
10. Federal Republic of Nigeria
11. Republic of Senegal
12. Republic of Togo
13. Republic of Benin
Associations
His Eminence Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, as of today, is a member or patron of the following organisations in Ghana and abroad;
1. NATIONAL PEACE COUNCIL (NPC), member
2. TIJJANIYA MUSLIMS MOVEMENT OF GHANA (TMG), Spiritual Leader
3. GHANA CONFERENCE ON RELIGIONS AND PEACE (GCRP), member
4. RELIGIOUS BODIES NETWORK ON CLIMATE CHANGE (RELBONET), member
5. GHANA NATIONAL MEDICAL AWARDS TEAM (1Z GROUP), patron
6. ALFAIDAH INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION (ALIF), patron
7. AFRICAN SUPPORT NETWORK (ASN) GHANA, patron
8. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS FORUM IN GHANA, to mention just a few.
Awards
His Eminence received the following awards among many others that will be mentioned in his comprehensive autobiography Insha Allah;
Honorary Professorial Degree Award by Poltava University, Ukraine 2019.
Muslims Achievers Award by the Ghana Muslims Achievers Awards, 2018.
Ghana Muslim Students’Association Patron Award, (GMSA) 2018.
Martin Luther King Jnr Award for Peace and Justice by the United States Embassy in Accra. 2016.
Muslims Excellence Award by the Yankasa Assoictaion Inc, USA, 2015.
Northern Achievers Award by the Northern Youth for Development, 2015.
Man of the year Award by the Abnaul faida, Lagos, Nigeria, 2014.
Muslims Personality Award by the Ghana Muslims Award, 2013.
Ghana Most Influential Award, 2nd most influential personality of the year, 2012 by the ETV Ghana. 2013.
Yankasa Man of the Year Award by the Yankasa Association Inc. USA, 2013.
Tijjaniya Muslims Movement Highest Man of Personality Award by the Tijjaniya Muslims Movement of Ghana, 2011.
Member of the Star of Volta Award by the Republic of Ghana, 2007.
Member of the Star of Volta Award by the Republic of Ghana, 2006.
Landmarks
1. Brokering of peace between Muslims and indigenes of Hohoe, Volta region in 2012 following a conflict that resulted in the loss of lives and properties.
2. Brokering of peace between Muslims and indigenes of Tafo, Ashanti Region and the Muslim youth of the region in 2016 following a conflict that resulted in the loss of lives and properties.
3. Gracing of programmes of non-Islamic faiths such as his attendance and honouring of invitations of the Catholic Church during their centenary anniversary in Accra.
4. Brokering of peace between Kusasis and Mamprusis in the Upper East Region following a protracted conflict that resulted in the loss of lives and properties.
His Eminence played a key and vital role.
5. Brokering of peace between Muslim youth and the Imams of Nkawkaw, Eastern Region over leadership crisis that resulted in the closure of mosque and the imposition of a curfew by the state security agencies to protect lives and properties.
6. Permission to Pastor Mensa Otabil, the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church, to finance the painting of the National Mosque in 2011.
Compiled by; Alhaji Khuzaima Mohammed Osmanu
Personal Assistant to the National Chief Imam, Executive Secretary of IPASEC and SONSETFUND Grandson of Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu with the assistance of Ustaz Issah Gibriel Abbas.
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GDP growth in Ghana increased to 3.7% in Q4 2022
Ghana’s statistics agency reported that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 3.7% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2022 as opposed to 5.6% in the same quarter of the previous year.
On yearly comparison, Ghana’s economy grew 3.1% year-on-year in 2022, compared with a growth rate of 5.1% the previous year, the country’s statistics agency said on Wednesday.
Having defaulted from its debt repayments, the country is still facing economic pressures amidst fiscal slippage, and an inaccessible external market for borrowing to support large earnings deficits.
The country has been asked to restructure its debt book to access $3 billion in funding support granted by the multilateral lender, the International Monetary Fund. Many foreign banks with exposure to Ghana’s securities have their book discounted.
Data from the Nigerian Exchange shows that Nigerian banks with subsidiaries in Ghana reported large losses due to debt restructuring.
As funding pressures persist among low-income nations, other countries that defaulted include Belarus, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Zambia among others amidst uncertainties in the global economy in 2023.
Last month, Fitch upgraded Ghana’s long-term local currency issuer default rating to ‘CCC’ from ‘RD’, according to a rating note.
The upgrade of the ratings on Ghana’s local currency-denominated debt follows the completion, effective 21 February 2023, of the domestic debt exchange programme by the Republic of Ghana, Fitch said.
Analysts viewed this transaction as a distressed debt exchange in a context of heightened fiscal pressures, with interest costs amounting to 54% of revenues in the first half of 2022, and a lack of access to international capital markets.
Fitch estimates that the domestic debt exchange allows Ghana to reduce its interest payments in 2023 by around 10% of expected revenues, or 1.6% of GDP. It said gross financing needs this year have been reduced by 5% of 2023 GDP.
In 2024, Ghana’s interest payments would be lowered by 6% of revenues or 0.9% of GDP, according to Fitch Ratings. The domestic debt exchange has increased the debt-to-GDP ratio with payment-in-kind coupons corresponding to an increase in the face value of the new bonds compared to the face value of tendered bonds.
Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said last week that he expected the IMF’s board to approve the support package in May.
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Informer newspaper threaten legal action against Prof Frimpong-Boateng
Editor of the Informer newspaper has vowed to drag former chair of the disbanded Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), and former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation Professor Kwabena Frimpong to court for citing him in his report on the fight against illegal mining.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng made a damning revelation about the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, in his bombshell ‘galamsey’ report for assembling a group of journalists at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa to “discuss a strategy to bring me Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng down”.
“He further informed my friend to watch out for headlines in some newspapers in the days following the meeting,” Prof Frimpong-Boateng wrote in his report on the fight against illegal mining.
The report, sighted by Happyghana.com, is dated March 19, 2021.
The former flagbearer aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said true to the words of the journalist, on Monday, February 10, 2020, The Informer newspaper, whose editor was said to have been part of the meeting, had a banner headline: ‘Stolen Excavators Brouhaha. . .Akufo-Addo sacks Frimpong Boateng. . .For Soiling Image of Govt’.
Reacting to the report on the Happy Morning Show (HMS) with Samuel Eshun accused Editor of the Informer newspaper Andy Kankam said if it turns out that he [Prof Frimpong Boateng] is the author of the report, “he should be prepared for a legal showdown”.
“I’m not part of the meeting Prof is talking about, I just came out from a meeting with my lawyers, we are following the appropriate steps, if it turns out that he [Prof Frimpong Boateng] is the author of the report, “he should be prepared for a legal showdown”.
He added that “You can touch me because I don’t have money but don’t touch what I’m left with, that one I will fight you with the last drop of my blood.
I have nothing personal about you [Prof Boateng] I was only discharging my civic responsibilities in that newspaper publication.”The scientist cites Mr Oppong-Nkrumah as one of the ministers who abandoned the IMCIM despite being members.
“It must be noted that Mr Oppong Nkrumah, as Minister for Information, was a member of the IMCIM and he never called me to find out what I knew about ‘missing excavators’ but he found it worthwhile to magnify it in press and also present the falsehood before Cabinet for reasons best known to him and his co-conspirators.
“If Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and the likes of him have presidential ambitions, they should pursue it on merit and not attempt to destroy a hard working patriot, whose only ambition is work to achieve a Ghana Beyond Aid.”
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Dancehall artiste Rudebwoy Ranking reported dead
Ghanaian reggae/dancehall artiste Mustapha Rahman popularly known Rudebwoy Ranking is reported dead.
According to reports, the musician passed away in the early hours of Monday, April 24, 2023 at the Ridge Hospital in Accra where he had been taken to, for treatment.
Rudebwoy who was once managed by Bullgod, has songs like ‘Jah Over Dem’, ‘No Drama’, ‘Yaro’, ‘Level Up’, ‘My Time’, among others.
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Son of John Dramani Mahama, held a party to mark the Eid celebrations
On April 23, 2023, Sharaf Mahama, the son of former president John Dramani Mahama, hosted a celebration for Eid.
In what looked like a garden party, the décor, lightning, and entire set up were captured in a breathtaking scene.
Interestingly, as part of the Muslim culture, it was a ‘jalabia and abaya’ costumed party, as all patrons dressed to match in its various colours and styles.
Held at an unidentified location, the party was attended by friends, family, and some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Notable among individuals present were; Mr. John Mahama’s spokesperson, Joyce Bawa Mogtari, and her husband, Former Chief of Staff Mr. Julius Debrah, and Former NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Suhum, Mandy Otchere among others.
Sharaf Mahama’s girlfriend cum former Miss Malaika winner, Jasmine, the late president Evans Atta Mills’ son, Kofi Mills, and John Mahama’s last daughter, Farida were also present at the party.
Check out videos below
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Duffuor’s govt will align with business community – Presidential hopeful promises
Presidential aspirant for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has pledge to align with businesses if given the nod as President of the Republic.
Dr Duffuor, who served as Finance Minister under the erstwhile Mills government and now a contender in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer race, said the next NDC government (under his leadership) will hold high interest in the business community.
The votes of the NDC in the two previous general elections have seen a significant reduction. This has been attributed to the decreasing votes at the party’s strongholds as well as shying away from floating voters.
Dr. Kwabena Duffuor who is currently on a tour at the Western Region in the build-up to the May 13th NDC presidential primaries says the party would need to enhance its attraction for floating voters who will dominate the business and professionals community.
Speaking at a gathering of party faithful in Sekondi, he pledged that the NDC will invest in businesses to endear itself to the business fraternity.
According to Dr. Duffuor his leadership will not neglect the party’s grassroots as has been the trend for the past years which has led to increasing apathy in the party’s strongholds.
The NDC has fixed May 13, 2023, to elect its flagbearer for the 2024 Presidential election.
The candidates include Ex-President John Mahama, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and Mr. Kojo Bonsu.
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Appointment of Appiahene: Ghana will one day pay for this – Kwesi Pratt
The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has said Ghana will one day pay for appointing persons believed to be party faithfuls into the Electoral Commission (EC).
He said the consequences of such persons suspected to have ties with the ruling New Patriotic Party as commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) will one day be felt in the country.
Speaking in an interview on Hello FM, the senior journalist warned that any attempt aimed at changing an election result in Ghana will lead to a bad situation.
According to him, the government’s refusal to consider the opposition to the said appointments will someday spell doom for the country if care is not taken.
“This issue has come up and everyone is complaining about but you are also not listening, Ghana will face the consequences one day if care is not taken,” he noted.
There has been uproar against two of three newly sworn-in commissioners of Ghana’s Electoral Commission by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to the opposition National Democratic Congress, Dr Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, have deep roots in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and therefore cannot guarantee the neutrality and impartiality of the country’s electoral management body.
According to the NDC, Dr Appiahene has been a patron of the NPP student wing at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) since 2017, and was a member of the party’s 2020 National Research and Data Analysis Team. The NDC expressed concern that his appointment to the EC would hamper public confidence in the institution and undermine the conduct of free, fair, and transparent elections in Ghana.
The NDC also alleges that Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani is an activist of the ruling party, and that her immediate family has deep roots in the NPP. The party contends that her appointment to the Electoral Commission would compromise the neutrality and impartiality required of a member of the institution.
However, pro-government and New Patriotic Party elements have refuted the claims by the NDC.
In their defence, government and officials of the NPP maintain that the two officers have no power to influence election results while others have sought to dissociate the two from the NPP.
But according to Kwesi Pratt, an attempt by any person including EC officials to manipulate election results will have dire consequences on the country.
“I hold the strong belief that whoever attempts to steal an election in Ghana will have the consequences being visited on the entire nation. It will be very dangerous if anyone tries to steal an election in Ghana, something will definitely happen so no one should dare try,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the NDC has petitioned the Council of State to rescind its advice to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the recent appointment of three members to Ghana’s Electoral Commission.
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Yemen crowd surge results in at least 78 fatalities
Officials have reported that dozens of people were killed in a mob surge in Yemen’s capital on Wednesday as poor citizens of the country came there to receive charity donations from local merchants during the holy month of Ramadan.
A chaotic scene with scores of people crammed close together, unable to move, and yelling for assistance could be seen in video of the catastrophe in Sanaa.
The corpses of those imprisoned formed a tangled wall, with some urgently reaching out for assistance. The men who had been liberated could subsequently be seen attempting to rescue other men from the lethal crowd. Images from the aftermath showed scarves scattered on the ground and shoes and slippers piled high.
“What happened tonight is a tragic and painful accident, as dozens of people were killed due to a large stampede of a number of citizens caused by a random distribution of sums of money by some merchants and without coordination with the Ministry of Interior,” the spokesman of the Houthi-run Ministry of Interior, Abdul-Khaleq al-Ajri, said in the statement.
At least 78 people were killed in the crush and dozens injured, Mutahar al-Marouni, the director of the Houthi-run Health office in Sanaa, told the Houthi-run Al-Masirah news agency.
According to Reuters, hundreds of people had crowded into a school to receive donations of about $9.
The incident came just a few days ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. During this time of the month, people start giving away Zakat al-Fitr, or the Zakat of Breaking the Fast of Ramadan, to people who are in need.
Naseh Shaker, a journalist who was at the scene, told CNN there was a “very long line of people” gathered at the entrance to the school, which was being used for distributing food and financial aid. They had begun queuing after sunset with the hopes of receiving the donation, he said.
When officials in charge of the distribution arrived and opened the door, “a lot of people rushed into the school.”
“This is a disaster to find people sacrificed their lives for just 10 dollars,” Shaker said. “People are very hungry people are very poor.”
Another eyewitness who was inside the school when the crush happened told Houthi media that more than 3,000 people had gathered to collect donations, and that they were all “standing, pushing and climbing on top of each other.”
“We tried reasoning with them, told them to go back. But there were too many people,” he said.
Police and rescue teams rushed to the scene, according to the Interior Ministry statement.
“The dead and injured people were transferred to hospitals, and two merchants in charge of the matter were arrested,” the statement added.
The head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, ordered an investigation into the incident on Thursday.
The Houthi-run General Authority for Zakat announced in a statement it would give one million Yemeni Riyal (about $4,000) to each family of the crowd surge victims.
It also said it would take care of the treatment of those injured and pay 200,000 Yemeni Riyal (about $800) to each injured person.
The stampede and its overwhelming death toll reflect the current poverty rate in Yemen, said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.
“Poverty rates have greatly increased and there are more people in need,” Nagi told CNN. “The merchant who used to help 1,000 or 2,000 people now has to help 5,000 or 10,000 people.”
And while the humanitarian situation is dire all over Yemen, it is particularly bad in Houthi-held areas, he said, noting that nearly 65% of Yemen’s population is under Houthi control.
Houthis deal with the economic problems in areas under their control “as if they are not responsible,” attributing the different crises plaguing their cities to the war, the blockade, or other foreign actors in Yemen, Nagi said.
“Assistance is not enough,” he said, “And the authorities are not concerned with society’s conditions … that is the root cause of the problem.”
A top Houthi official last week told CNN that talks with the Saudis were focused on meeting the Houthis’ humanitarian demands, such as removing the blockade on ports, opening Yemen’s airspace and paying the salaries of public sector employees.
Yemeni journalist Shaker said Wednesday’s tragedy was the result of years of economic desperation and the international community should “act now” to stop the war.
“People are no longer killed by air strikes or by shelling of warring parties. Now they are dying because they are rushing to get food,” he said.
Yemen has been described by the UN as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Nine years of war have killed thousands, destroyed the economy and left 21.6 million people – two-thirds of the country’s population – in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Tens of thousands of Yemenis are living in famine, according to the UN.
The country’s conflict began as a civil war in 2014, when Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa and toppled the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed government. It spiraled into a wider war in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to beat back the Houthis.
But it eventually became a proxy war between Iran – which has been accused of arming the Houthis – and Saudi Arabia, and the main arena for their competition for regional influence.
On Sunday, a Saudi delegation arrived in Sanaa for talks with the Houthis aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire. Last Friday, negotiations bore their biggest fruits yet with a three-day prisoner swap of nearly 900 detainees from both sides. Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Friday that talks had been “serious and positive.”
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Asokore Mampong MCE criticises the police officer who killed his girlfriend
The recent murder of a 28-year-old woman by her alleged boyfriend in Kumasi has been described as a cowardly act by Kennedy Kankam, the municipal chief executive for the Asokore Mampong Constituency.
According to the MCE, the decision by the suspect alleged to be a police officer is an act of pure wickedness, influenced by a lack of courage.
“What happened is a very wicked act. I don’t know what thing or property the person may have given to the lady… is he the only person who may have experienced a broken heart? A lot of people have been heartbroken but the way in which he emptied his magazine and shot her with 8 bullets he set out to murder her.
“In all it is wicked, it is barbaric it is something which I cannot even find the right word to describe but when you look at it he is a coward; he is not a man. He is a true coward,” he bemoaned during an interview on Hello FM.
The incident took place on Thursday, April 20, 2023, in Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti Region.
Inspector Ahmed Twumasi stationed at the Manhyia Palace among the Palace security, was declared as the suspect in the alleged murder of a 26-year-old mother of one, Maa Adwoa at Adum in the Ashanti region.
The police Inspector was also a member of the Ashanti regional police command’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit.
He allegedly shot his girlfriend (side chick) five times, according to police sources over cheating.
The deceased, according to a close friend, became furious and broke up with Twumasi Ahmed, the police officer.
The police officer then asked her to forget the issue and begged her to reconsider the breakup decision.
While trying to reconcile with the lady without any sign of progress, the suspect allegedly, pulled a sidearm and shot her five times until she bled and passed on.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service on Sunday, April 23, 2023, announced the arrest of Inspector Ahmed Twumasi who had gone into hiding after committing the crime.
“The Police have this evening arrested a Police officer, Inspector Ahmed Twumasi, who is alleged to have shot and killed a female adult, who was believed to be his girlfriend. The shooting incident occurred in Kumasi, in the Ashanti region, on Thursday, 20th April 2023.
“The suspect, who has been on the run since the incident, was arrested at Sekyere, near Effiduase in the Ashanti Region as a result of a special Police operation, which was launched following the shooting incident,” the Police Service said in a statement.
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Italian minister fumes over ‘ethnic replacement’ policy
Giorgia Meloni‘s brother-in-law, a close political ally, recently warned that Italy’s low birth rate and rising irregular immigration could result in “ethnic replacement,” infuriating the opposition in the nation.
Francesco Lollobrigida’s comments are in response to a recent study that predicted Italy to have one of the lowest birthrates in the world in 2022, with fewer than 400,000 births.
He claimed that the incentives to have more children, as recommended by Meloni, did not require women to stay at home to raise them during a conference on Tuesday.
“The way is to build a welfare system that allows you to work and have a family, supporting young couples to find employment,” he said. “Italians are having fewer children, so we’re replacing them with someone else. Yes to helping births, no to ethnic replacement. That’s not the way forward.”
Elly Schlein, the new head of Italy’s Democratic Party, described Lollobrigida’s statement as “disgusting” and “reminiscent of the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.”
She accused Lollobrigida of reverting to the mentality of the 1930s, saying his words “have a flavor of white supremacism.”
Speaking to reporters at a protest against the state of emergency against migrants in Rome, Schlein added that she hopes Meloni’s government distances itself from the statements, “made on the day when President (Sergio) Mattarella is visiting Auschwitz.”
Lollobrigida said that while he was not against controlled immigration, noting his grandfather emigrated to Italy, irregular migration is a threat.
“If there are requests for a workforce, when you have exhausted the internal demand, you can, you must provide a workforce that also comes from other countries. It must be clarified that the first enemy of regular immigration, made through organized flows, is illegal and clandestine immigration,” he said.
Meloni’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and she has yet to make a public statement. Matteo Salvini, a junior partner in Meloni’s coalition of far-right and center-right parties, had previously tweeted about the threat of “ethnic replacement” in 2017, and Meloni had used the term in political speeches in 2016.
Italy has had a record number of arrivals by sea this year, with 34,715 people arriving as of April 19, according to the Interior ministry.
Far right White supremacist groups and conservative media personalities in both Europe and the US have been widely condemned in recent years for attempting to inflame nativist feelings among conservative White populations by warning that immigrants are “replacing” native born populations.
Replacement theory was first popularized by French writer Renaud Camus with his 2011 essay, “Le Grand Remplacement,” which posited White Europeans were being replaced by Muslim immigration.
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1 dead in mobile crane accident on Mamfe-Adawso Road
One person has been confirmed dead in an accident involving a mobile crane at Amamprobi on the Mamfe-Adawso Road in the Eastern Region on Sunday, April 23, 2023.
The fatal accident occurred on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2023.
According to a statement by the Fire Service, a Xugong mobile crane with registration number GS 8400-11 veered off the road and ended up partially in the bush on the shoulder of the road.
“A telephone call was received at the Akropong Fire Station at 0423 hours reporting a vehicular accident involving a mobile crane at Amamprobi on the Mamfe-Adawso road.
“Upon arriving at the scene at 0429 hours, the crew observed that a Xugong mobile crane with registration number GS 8400-11 was partially in the bush on the shoulder of the road with the occupant (driver or operator) nowhere to be found,” the statement shared via social media said.Officers who arrived at the scene as part of their investigation mounted a search that led them to a nearby bush, where they found the motionless body of one person suspected to be the driver.
“After a quick assessment of the scene, the Officer in Charge detailed two firemen to mount cones to warn oncoming vehicles, control the slow-moving traffic and to comb the area in search of any persons who might have been ejected out of the crane during the accident. One person suspected to be the driver was found lying motionless in the nearby bush and was declared dead upon the arrival of the Police. The body was conveyed to the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital by the Police,” the statement said.
The cause of the accident is still unknown, and investigations are ongoing to ascertain what led to the accident.
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4 escape unscathed after deadly accident on Nsawam road
Four persons, a pastor and three others survived a deadly accident on the Accra-Nsawam road.
Narrating the incident, a Richmond Duafah, a victim of a road accident that occurred at Nsawam on April 22, 2023, has given a narration of how the incident that claimed no life but caused huge damage to a car they aboard happened.
In a Facebook post on April 23, Richmond, a pastor, said he was returning from a church programme “when a car was illegitimately making a U-Turn in the middle of the Nsawam road.”
“I was seated at the front with 2 other pastors at the back. All I heard was ‘boom’. Our car flipped over and landed on the floor till it ended up in the bush after more than 6 to 7 somersaulting (according to the eyewitnesses it was like a movie)”.
According to the survivor, eyewitnesses were surprised no lives were lost after rushing to the scene “expecting dismembered arms and bodies”.
The team, according to Richmond, has since sought medical attention. He said: “All 4 of us are saved and sound. We have received medical attention to check whether there are any internal wreckages and we are back to our ministerial post.”
Below is his full account.
OUR TESTIMONY: DELIVERED, SUSTAINED & SECURED BY THE FINGER OF GOD.
I have watched movies and seen cars flipped on scenes after several thuds on the floor that results in dismemberment of bodies and all sorts of uncomfortable scenes but I have never experienced this until yesterday, 22.04.2023 @ Nsawam.
I had the privilege of preaching for one of the Christian fathers of this land. To do a mini-revival crusade at the Nsawam branch, so the two resident pastors who are my very good brothers in the faith came to pick me up at home to the venue and after JESUS CHRIST was preached and people healed, prophesied to, delivered and SAVED, I was to be driven back to my residence. We were on our way when a car was illegitimately making a U-TURN in the middle of the Nsawam road. This is where it all started.
I was seated at the front with 2 other pastors at the back. All I heard was “boom”. Our car flipped over and landed on the floor till it ended up in the bush after more than 6 to 7 somersaulting (according to the eyewitnesses it was like a movie).
I could only hear the sound of the impact as an echo in the air, whiles we cry out in fear and dispair. As bystanders rushed to the scene expecting dismembered arms and bodies, to their surprised they could hear “Jesus, thank you that there was no loss”, “Jesus, thank you that there was no loss”. After we were brought out of the car. One of the bystanders asked “what happened? And one of the pastors told him “we went to preach “. The bystander said “That’s why God kept you”. Even they knew that this is solely “the finger of God”.
But amidst the wreckage, a glimmer of hope, a hand reached out to us. What a sign of life to cope. The accident scene was tragic and adversed but the word of the Lord “ For he shall keep His Angels charged over you,to keep thee in all your ways , they shall bear thee in their hands let’s thou dash your foot against a stone” prevailed.
The truth is, whether it is a demonic attack or carelessness on the side of the driver who crossed us, I don’t know. What I know is “JESUS CHRIST have prevailed once again and as always”.
All the 4 of us are saved and sound. We have received medical attention to check whether there are any internal wreckages and we are back to our ministerial post. Jesus wins and He always does.
And the Gospel will be preached until the last man standing on earth is born again.
Lord Jesus, thank you once again.
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The World Bank releases a report on the 2023 logistics performance of 139 countries
The World Bank released its 2023 Logistics Performance Index report on April 21. This index gauges a nation’s capacity to swiftly and dependably transport goods across borders.
The seventh edition of Connecting to Compete, the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) report comes after three years of unprecedented supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, when delivery times soared.
The LPI, which covers 139 countries, measures the ease of establishing reliable supply chain connections and the structural factors that make it possible, such as the quality of logistics services, trade- and transport-related infrastructure, and border controls.
“Logistics are the lifeblood of international trade, and trade in turn is a powerful force for economic growth and poverty reduction,” Mona Haddad, Global Director for Trade, Investment, and Competitiveness at the World Bank said. “The Logistics Performance Index helps developing countries identify where improvements can be made to boost competitiveness.”
On average across all potential trade routes, 44 days elapse from the time a container enters the port of the exporting country until it leaves the destination port, with a standard deviation of 10.5 days. That span represents 60 percent of the time it takes to trade goods internationally.
According to LPI 2023, end-to-end supply chain digitalisation, especially in emerging economies, is allowing countries to shorten port delays by up to 70% compared to those in developed countries. Moreover, demand for green logistics is rising, with 75 percent of shippers looking for environmentally friendly options when exporting to high income countries.
“While most time is spent in shipping, the biggest delays occur at seaports, airports, and multimodal facilities. Policies targeting these facilities can help improve reliability,” Christina Wiederer, Senior Economist with the World Bank Group’s Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment Global Practice and the report’s co-author said.
Such policies include improving clearance processes and investing in infrastructure, adopting digital technologies, and incentivising environmentally sustainable logistics by shifting to less carbon-intensive freight modes and more energy-efficient warehousing.
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First abortion medication approved in Japan
After decades of other nations making abortion medication readily accessible, a panel in the health ministry of Japan has approved the nation’s first abortion pill.
According to a representative for the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, the MeFeego Pack, an abortion pill produced by the British pharmaceutical company Linepharma, received permission from the ministry’s pharmaceutical board on Friday.
The ministry first met in January to discuss the medication before inviting the public to provide their thoughts via an online form. It will now be submitted for final clearance to the health minister.
The medication consists of two types of pill, and can be used within nine weeks of pregnancy, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. In a clinical trial in Japan, 93% of participants had a complete abortion within 24 hours, NHK reported.
The medication combines mifepristone and misoprostol, which the World Health Organization has included in its Essential Medicines List, described as safe and effective for pregnant people.
To date, only surgical abortion is available in Japan through two methods: the curettage method, which removes tissue inside the uterus with a metal instrument, and the evacuation method, which sucks out tissue through a tube, according to NHK.
The WHO has described curettage as an “obsolete” method that is less safe and much more painful, and has called for it to be replaced by the evacuation method or by medication like abortion pills.
The move also comes as abortion and reproductive rights have gained revived attention worldwide, with the US Supreme Court reversing overturned Roe v. Wade last year – ruling that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Since then, a number of states have restricted access to abortions, while others moved to increase access.
The Japanese panel’s decision on Friday was celebrated by the country’s medical experts online.
Kanako Inaba, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, wrote on Twitter that the approval of abortion pills was an opportunity to spread greater sex education and awareness about contraceptive methods.
Japanese activists have been pushing for years for approval of the pills, with similar medications made available decades ago in other countries as Japan lagged ever further behind.
For instance, mifepristone was first approved in France in 1988, and in the US in 2000.
But others also pointed to the long road ahead, calling for greater protection for women.
Mihyon Song, another well-known Japanese obstetrician and gynaecologist, pointed to Japan’s controversial abortion laws, which require spousal consent – which activists have long argued denies women the right to make decisions on their own body.
Under Japan’s existing laws, women can only receive an abortion if a pregnancy “may significantly damage the person’s physical health due to bodily or economic reasons” or if they became pregnant due to rape.
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Your client should have been jailed – Frimpong Boateng tells Gabby
Former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, has lashed out at NPP stalwart Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, over his defence to claims by the Professor in the IMCIM report.
In a statement responding to Mr Otchere-Darko, he noted that: “I don’t think you have retrograde amnesia, but I still want to refresh your memory about the destruction of the environment that had been perpetrated by your client over the years with the accompanying videos and pictures from Diaso forest and Apaprama.”
“Even if your clients had all licences and permits, with the destruction that they caused, not only should they have been stopped from operating a mining company indefinitely, but they should also have been prosecuted, probably jailed, made to reclaim the land, vegetate it and clean the water bodies,” he stated.
Former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Frimpong-Boateng, has hit back at Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko for describing details of his report submitted to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on illegal mining as silly.
According to Prof. Frimpong-Boateng who was chairperson of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, while he believes Mr Otchere-Darko does not suffer from memory loss, he finds it necessary to remind him of the illegal mining activities of his client.
“Mr. Otchere-Darko, I don’t think you have retrograde amnesia, but I still want to refresh your memory about the destruction of the environment that had been perpetrated by your client over the years with the accompanying videos and pictures from Diaso forest and Apaprama.” The former minister said in a statement shared by 3news.com.
In a March 2021 report submitted to President Akufo-Addo via his chief of staff, the former Minister recounted an instance when Mr. Otchere Darko called to question his decision to order the dislodgment of equipment of a mining company, Imperial Heritage, which Prof. Frimpong-Boateng argues was mining illegally with a prospecting license in forest reserves.
Excerpts of the report pointed out, “We were ready to dislodge Imperial Heritage from Kobro Forest when Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko called to inform me that he was the lawyer for Heritage Imperial Limited, a company that was destroying the Kobro and Apaprama Forest Reserves and in the process had also polluted and diverted the course of the River Offin, as can be seen in the satellite images below.”
The report further added, “I informed the President about the behaviour of Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and he promised to deal with it.”
But reacting to the claims by the former minister, Mr Otchere-Darko described as silly the decision by the minister to report him to the president who is his cousin.
“He is going to report me to the president as if he is a teacher, and the president is a master and I am what? A school prefect and I have done something wrong. What kind of silliness is that?” He fumed.
Mr Otchere-Darko who is a private legal practitioner contended in an interview with Citi FM’s Vivian Kai Lokko that the Minister only demonstrated his lack of appreciation for his own office.
He explained that contrary to the notion created, his call to the minister was to enquire why the minister had taken action against his client who had painstakingly acquired all the licenses and permits from legally clothed entities to perform legitimate operations at the said location.
“Heritage had a mining exploration permit issued in July 2019, a forest entry permit issued in November 2018, and also an EPA permit yet the soldiers went and seized the equipment of Heritage and so I called the soldiers and was told that it was the Minister who had sanctioned them and so I asked the Minister what the issue was with the equipment seizures and the Minister said they were prospecting and not exploring and that was the conversation that we had.
“My intervention was to understand why a legitimate company with all the requisite permits was stopped from doing their work and that is what lawyers do.” Gabby cleared.
But responding to Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Mr Frimpong-Boateng downplayed his claims that his client had the required license covering their mining activities.
According to the former minister, the company even if it had any license had gone beyond the remits and was actively engaged in illegal mining for which appropriate legal sanctions should have been applied.
The former minister in his response shared and referred to official documents which cited Heritage Imperial Limited for engaging in illegal mining.
Presidency describes Frimpong-Boateng’s galamsey report as hearsay of personal claims and grievances
Meanwhile, the presidency despite failing to act or respond to the report which was submitted to the Chief of Staff some two years ago has reacted to the former minister’s claims after the report was recently leaked to the media.
According to the presidency, the document authored by the former minister is without supporting evidence despite the various allegations implicating government officials as being involved in illegal mining or interfering in the fight against the same.
“Indeed, the allegations contained in the document are at best hearsay. It is instructive that since Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s meeting with the Chief of Staff in March 2021, he has taken no step nor acted in furtherance of the matters contained in the document,” the presidency said in a statement dated April 22, 2023.
The presidency in the rejoinder dated Saturday, April 22, 2023, said “The document being discussed was not an official report formally delivered to the Office of the President. On the contrary, it can only be rightly referred to as a catalogue of personal grievances and claims made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as Chairperson of the IMCIM.
“The document was handed to the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President on March 19th 2021, in an informal meeting, where Prof. Frimpong-Boateng complained about public attacks and criticisms made about his tenure as Chairperson of the IMCIM.”
According to the presidency, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s report did not have any official status and was not supported with any evidence despite the allegations contained in it.
“The document did not have a transmittal or cover letter nor, indeed, an addressee, such as to suggest that it was submitted to the Chief of Staff for action. It is noteworthy that the IMCIM was a creature of Cabinet, and any formal report on its activities would, normally, be submitted to Cabinet through the Cabinet Secretary, or directly to the President of the Republic as Chairperson of Cabinet. Till date, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng has done neither.
“It is important also to point out that, whilst Prof. Frimpong-Boateng makes serious allegations against some government appointees, as having been involved in, supporting or interfering with the fight against illegal mining, not a single piece of evidence was adduced or presented to enable the claims to be properly investigated,” the presidency noted.
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Ghana’s economy was valued at GH¢610.22bn in 2022 – GSS
The value of Ghana’s economy grew from GH¢461.69 billion in 2021 to GH¢610.22 billion in 2022, provisional estimates from the Ghana Statistical Service has indicated.
This represents a growth of 3.1 per cent which is slower than the growth of 5.1 per cent recorded in 2021.
The 3.1 per cent growth is lower than the government’s projected growth of 3.7 per cent in the 2023 budget.
It is also lower than forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank which projected a GDP growth of 3.6 per cent, 3.5 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively.
Non-oil GDP grew by 3.8 per cent in 2022, compared to 6.6 per cent in 2021, while non-gold GDP also grew 2.1 per cent in 2022, compared to 7.1 per cent in 2021.
Ghana’s 2022 GDP growth compares favourably with some of its peers on the continent, with Nigeria, Tunisia and South Africa, recording annual GDP growths of 3.1 per cent, 2.4 per cent and two per cent respectively.
Countries such as Mauritius, Rwanda, Botswana and Namibia,however, recorded higher GDP rates of 8.7 per cent, 8.2 per cent, 5.8 per cent, 4.6 per cent respectively.
Presenting the GDP figures, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, said the services sector continued to dominate GDP growth, contributing 44.9 per cent of the value of the economy in 2022.
This was followed by the industry sector with 34.2 per cent and the agriculture sector with 20.9 per cent.
The services sector grew by 5.5 per cent in the year under review, with the information and communication sub sector recording the highest year on year GDP growth rate of 19.7 per cent.
This was followed by education (10.2 per cent); health and social work (9.2 per cent); public administration, defence and social security (6.1 per cent); financial and insurance activities (5.7 per cent); transport and storage (4.7 per cent); and trade, repair of vehicles, household goods (1.3 per cent).
Some of the sub-sectors which contracted include hotels and restaurants (-1 per cent); other personal service activities (-1.3 per cent); real estate (-7.6 per cent) and professional, admin and support services (-10.9 per cent).
The industry sector also grew by 0.9 per cent in the year under review, with the mining and quarrying sub sector recording the highest year on year annual GDP growth rate of 8.1 per cent.
All the other sub sectors contracted in 2022. The manufacturing sub sector contracted by 2.5 per cent, the electricity sub sector contracted by 3.3 per cent, the construction sector contracted by four per cent and the water and sewerage sub sector also contracted by 4.9 per cent.
The agriculture sector on the other hand also grew by 4.2 per cent in 2022, with the fishing sub sector recording the highest year on year growth rate of 8.8 per cent.
This was followed by the livestock sub sector (5.5 per cent); crops (3.8 per cent) and forestry and logging (1.7 per cent).
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Chinese ambassador fumes over European diplomat comment suggesting former Soviet states don’t exist
After Beijing’s top ambassador in Paris questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet republics, undermining China’s ambitions to be considered as a potential mediator between Russia and Ukraine, European nations have demanded explanations from Beijing.
Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian, French, and European Union representatives have all reacted angrily to comments made by Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to France, who claimed that the Baltic States and other former Soviet states lack “effective status in international law.”
When asked if Crimea, which Russia illegitimately annexed in 2014, was a part of Ukraine, Lu made the remark.
“Even these ex-Soviet countries don’t have an effective status in international law because there was no international agreement to materialize their status as sovereign countries,” Lu said, after firstnoting that the question of Crimea “depends on how the problem is perceived” as the region was “at the beginning Russian” and then “offered to Ukraine during the Soviet era.”
The remarks appeared to disavow the sovereignty of countries that became independent states and United Nations members after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 – and come amid Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine under leader Vladimir Putin’s vision the country should be part of Russia.
China has so far refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or call for a withdrawal of its troops, instead urging restraint by “all parties” and accusing NATO of fueling the conflict. It has also continued to deepen diplomatic and economic ties with Moscow.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell responded Sunday calling the remarks “unacceptable.”
“The EU can only suppose these declarations do not represent China’s official policy,” Borrell said in a statement on Twitter.
France also responded Sunday, with its Foreign Ministry stating its “full solidarity” with all the allied countries affected and calling on China to clarify whether these comments reflect its position, according to Reuters.
Several leaders in former Soviet states, including Ukraine, were quick to hit back following the interview, which aired Friday on French station LCI.
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics called for an “explanation from the Chinese side and complete retraction of this statement” in a post on Twitter Saturday.
He pledged to raise the issue during a meeting of EU foreign ministers Monday, where relations with China are expected to be discussed.
“It is strange to hear an absurd version of the ‘history of Crimea’ from a representative of a country that is scrupulous about its thousand-year history,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s Presidential Administration, also wrote on Twitter.
“If you want to be a major political player, do not parrot the propaganda of Russian outsiders…”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN on Monday.
Beijing has formal diplomatic relations with post-Soviet states, which include Russia.
This is not the first time that Lu – a prominent voice among China’s so-called aggressive “wolf-warrior” diplomats – has sparked controversy for his views.
But they place Beijing under the spotlight at a particularly sensitive moment for its European diplomacy.
Ties have soured as Europe has uneasily watched China’s tightening relationship with Russia and its refusal to condemn Putin’s invasion.
Beijing in recent months has sought to mend its image, highlighting its stated neutrality in the conflict and desire to play a “constructive role” in dialogue and negotiation, further fueling debate in European capitals over how to calibrate its relationship with China, a key economic partner.
That debate intensified this month following a visit to Beijing from French President Emmanuel Macron, who signed a raft of cooperation agreements with China during a trip he framed as an opportunity to start work with Beijing to push for peace in Ukraine.
Voices in former Soviet states, where many remember being under Communist authoritarian rule, have been among those in Europe critical of such an approach.
“If anyone is still wondering why the Baltic States don’t trust China to ‘broker peace in Ukraine,’ here’s a Chinese ambassador arguing that Crimea is Russian and our countries’ borders have no legal basis,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on Twitter Saturday following Lu’s interview.
Moritz Rudolf, a fellow and research scholar at the Paul Tsai China Center of the Yale Law School in the US, said China had been “increasingly successful in being perceived as a responsible power that might play a constructive role in a peace process in Ukraine.”
“It remains to be seen whether the leadership in Beijing realizes how damaging those words may turn out to be for its ambitions in Europe if the Foreign Ministry does not distance the (People’s Republic of China) from the words of Ambassador Lu,” he said.
He added that China’s “official position and practice” contradict Lu’s comments, including as China had not recognized the sovereignty of Russia over Crimea or any territory it annexed since 2014.
Others suggested Lu’s remarks may also shed light on Beijing’s real diplomatic priorities.
For Russia, giving up control of Crimea is widely seen as a non-starter in any potential peace settlement on Ukraine. This means Beijing may have a hard time giving a straight answer on this question, according to Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.
“The question is impossible to answer for China. China’s relationship with Russia is where its influence comes from,” she said, adding that didn’t mean Lu could have given a “better answer.”
“Between sabotaging China’s relationship with Russia and angering Europe, (Lu) chose the latter.”