The National Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, has hinted that the party plans to submit a petition to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) calling for the arrest and prosecution of former President John Dramani Mahama over his infamous “do-or-die” remark.
Nana Boakye said Mr Mahama needs to be arrested for inciting political violence.
He explained that the petition has also cited the National Chairman of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia for asking party supporters to sacrifice their lives for the victory of the NDC in the 2024 general elections
Mr. Mahama before the 2020 general elections said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will face the NPP boot for boot if they attempt to intimidate them with hoodlums.
Mr Boakye gave these hints while speaking in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM on Tuesday, April 2023.
According to the NPP National Organiser, “former President, John Mahama, is on record to have said for the 2020 general elections, it’s boot for boot, and 2024 general elections it’s going to be a do-or-die affair” insisting that those utterances could incite violence in the country.
He disclosed, “We [NPP] are forwarding a petition to the police CID.
“We are calling for the immediate arrest, investigation and prosecution of former President John Dramani Mahama for all these comments that he has made.
“We are of the view that it undermines national security and the peace that we are enjoying, it undermines our democratic stability”.
Ghanaian media personality, Andy Dosty, has disclosed that Shatta Wale has apologized for disrespecting his mother.
This follows Andy’s outburst on live radio. During a discussion on his ‘Daybreak Hitz’ show, Andy was peeved about the fact that Shatta publicly insulted his mother, yet fans were expecting him to promote his new ‘Maali’ album.
“You want me to talk about it? An artiste that stands on stage and insults my mother and talks anyhow and foolishly to my mother, and you want me to what? If you don’t have sense, I do. If you don’t respect, don’t come here. The woman who gave birth to me has lived a good life and has a good place to live. That’s all I have said. I love my mother, and nobody, nobody… I won’t speak ill of anyone’s mother; she raised me well. You can fool around. The fooling is too much in this country.
“You will be sitting there, and they will want to come and sit here and say they want to promote their stuff. What do you want to promote? If that woman didn’t give birth to me, where would you know me from? Foolish guy,” he fumed with rage.
But in a new twist to events, Andy has disclosed that Shatta has channeled an apology to him.
In a discussion with Sally Mane and DJ Slim, Andy Dosty said Shatta reached out through someone, with whom he spoke for more than 50 minutes.
“All I can say is that we have spoken, he called a big man and that person called me. He channeled the apology through someone and we spoke for more than 50 minutes. He also expressed some of my actions he didn’t like. Even my mother called and said we are brothers so we shouldn’t let this go far,” the Hitz FM presenter said.
Andy, however, emphasized that although they had spoken, the issue won’t be trashed just like that.
“He has spoken to me. Shatta Wale has spoken to me. He has apologized but that isn’t all. I won’t let go just like that,” he added.
A group of irate youth has gone on a rampage to attack a police station at Sefwi Bekwai in the Western North region to demand the release of a motorised tricycle (Pragyia) rider, Kwabena Gyapong, 20, arrested by Police.
The rider reportedly headbutted a police officer to resist a search in the evening while riding to Sefwi Sorano, but was overpowered by the patrol team and sent to the police station.
Upon hearing of the incident, the youth, mostly ‘Pragyia’ riders, mobilized to attack the police station with stones and clubs, damaging a service vehicle. It took the intervention of the reinforcement team amid sporadic warning shots to bring the situation under control.
Two of the irate youths were injured, while four were arrested. The Sefwi Bekwai District Police Command denied the injuries suffered by the victims were gunshots. Nana Gyebi, the father of the suspect Pragyia rider, alleged his son was badly injured, but instead of the police sending him to the hospital, they caged him in the cells.
Mr. Paul Andoh, the Bibiani Ahwianso Bekwai Constituency 1st vice chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), on behalf of the MP for the area, Hon Alfred Obeng Boateng, MP, and other opinion leaders in the town, visited the police station to help deescalate the tension.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is traveling to China this week on a state visit, and it is anticipated that his discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping would mostly center on trade and the conflict in Ukraine.
Originally scheduled to travel to Beijing last month, 77-year-old Lula was instead admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. The trip was reinstated, according to a Monday announcement from his office, with Brazil’s goal being “to renew its relations with the country that has been its main commercial partner since 2009.”
Businessmen, state governors, congressmen, and ministers are among the Brazilian team that Lula is traveling with as they attempt to sign over 20 bilateral agreements with China on topics including travel, tourism, IT, and agriculture.
Government figures show that China imported the equivalent of over US$89.7 billion in Brazilian products last year, and exported almost US$60.7 billion to Brazil, setting the trade value between the two countries at US$150.4 billion.
According to the Brazilian presidency, trade between the two countries has “increased 21 times since Lula’s first visit to China in 2004.” Lula previously served two terms as Brazilian president, and has already made two official visits to the country.
Among the dozens of accords expected to be finalized during the visit is one regarding the joint Brazilian-Chinese construction of CBERS-6 satellites, a model that “has improved technology that allows for efficient monitoring of biomes such as the Amazon Rainforest even on cloudy days,” according to a handout from the Brazilian government published Monday.
While in China, Lula will also attend former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s inauguration in Shanghai as head of BRICS’s New Development Bank, a commercial bloc formed by the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Xi and Lula are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine, with both leaders having previously positioned their countries as potential mediators for the conflict.
Like many leaders in middle income and developing countries, Lula has adopted a policy of non-intervention over the war in Ukraine, rebuffing efforts led by US President Joe Biden to unite the global community in opposition to Russia’s invasion.
In a February interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Lula – who in his previous term played an important role during nuclear discussions between the US and Iran – predicted that he would “talk a lot with President Xi Jinping about the role that China has to play on the peace issues (in Ukraine).
“This is my work. This is the work that I have to do. I started with the German Chancellor (Olaf Scholz). I talked with (French President Emmanuel) Macron on the phone. I’ll talk with President Biden now. I’ll talk to Xi Jinping, with the Indians, with the – with all the countries. We have to have a group of people and countries that talk about peace.”
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira hinted at hopes for a potential consensus among some countries emerging from Lula’s trip, AFP reported earlier this week.
“By the time Lula returns home, a group of mediator countries will have been created,” Vieira reportedly said.
His visit to China comes amid wider efforts to booster Brazil’s international relations, including a recent trip to Argentina for a meeting of CELAC – a bloc of Latin American and Caribbean states – that also included a delegation from the United States.
The trip will “usher in a new era and a new future for China-Brazil relations,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said.
After his visit to China, Lula is scheduled to go to the United Arab Emirates for a state visit as well.
Nigerian superstar David Adeleke popularly known asDavido keeps making waves with the level of reception and recognition his fourth studio album “Timeless” has garnered.
After the release of the album on Friday, March 31, the album has topped numerous music charts and has also made its way into the global markets.
Davido, while promoting the album on various platforms, revealed that he wants the album to be classical to the point that it will forever be remembered and it appears that his wish is coming to pass.
Following the investments Davido made in the promotion of the album, Nigerian record producer Michael Collins Ajereh, also known as Don Jazzy has praised the singer for his dedication and hard work.
Don Jazzy claimed in a tweet that Davido did not depend on the fact that he is “OBO” and that his album will undoubtedly be successful after its release.
Instead, he took steps to make sure the record would be a success once it was released by heavily promoting the album.
Don Jazzy asked other musicians to learn from Davido’s promotion of his record and incorporate it into their daily lives in order to further the international recognition of the Nigerian music industry.
He added that marketing the beautiful project artistes worked hard on does not reduce their swag hence they should always promote their songs in the best way possible.
He wrote: “Dear artists hope you can see how Davido is marketing his album. He didn’t form oh I’m OBO so everybody will cop my shit. Marketting your beautiful project that you worked hard on does not reduce your swag.”
According to the city council of Boyaca, Colombian police are looking into an acid attack committed against a human rights activist named Lilia Patricia Cardozo.
Cardozo is the director of Plataforma Feminista Boyacense (Boyacense Feminist Platform), a women’s rights NGO that aims to abolish gender violence, domestic abuse, and discrimination through rescuing victims from abusers.
On Monday, Cardozo was walking in a park when an unidentified assailant flung a toxic substance at her. Cardozo, who is still being monitored by doctors, had injuries to the left side of her face, the NGO’s Facebook spokesman noted.
Cardozo has been a target of death threats since 2022, which led the country’s National Protection Unit to approve a safety protocol to protect her last September.
But the Boyacense Feminist Platform has accused Tunja’s local authorities of leaving Cardozo exposed by activating the safety protocol too slowly.
Tunja’s Mayor, Alejandro Funeme, said the protocol was implemented late on February 14, due to the lack of funds.
Local police are investigating the incident and working to identify the attacker, who faces a charges of femicide.
Women and human rights defenders are particularly at risk in Colombia. In 2022, 614 cases of femicide were reported, according to Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office.
Since 2016, more than 500 human rights activists have been killed in the country, making it one of the deadliest countries for human rights defenders worldwide, according to Human Rights Watch.
Tamale North Member of Parliament Alhassan Suhuyini has blasted national leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for shirking their core responsibilities and rather focusing on policing the Minority Caucus.
The MP is worried about the manner in which the national leadership continue to meddle in affairs of the caucus in parliament describing their actions as that of coaches.
He warned during a discussion on Pan African TV that the 2024 elections will be lost if the executives fail to recognize that their responsibility is to deal with core party issues and to run the NDC along with parliament.
He said instead of coaching MPs, the leaders should be working on piling pressure on government from outside the House by among others organizing street protests to back their opposition to bad laws and policies.
“So, when they have debate in parliament and the parliamentarians win that debate, you expect the national organisers and the women’s organisers and the chairmen and the secretary to be massing people up on the street.
“To complement what parliament is doing, but when what we have is executives sitting on the bench coaching parliament and that will not take us to victory.
“Our party leaders must begin to wake up and understand that the 2024 elections will not be won in parliament. It will not be won by the work of any parliamentarians,” he stressed.
Suhuyini is one of the open opponents of a change in the leadership of the Minority Caucus dictated via a statement from the party headquarters early this year, barely a month after Johnson Asiedu Nketiah took over as National Chairman.
The changes saw the removal of Haruna Iddrisu as Minority Leader and Cassiel Ato Forson, coming in as his replacement.
A large cyclone is strengthening off the coast of Western Australia, and forecasters are warning that it might be the storm with the strongest winds to make landfall in the region in more than ten years.
Cyclone Ilsa is anticipated to make landfall between the cities of Broome and Port Hedland, a significant port hub for the export of iron ore, late Thursday or early Friday, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
By Thursday evening, the storm is predicted to produce wind gusts that are more than 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour), which is the equivalent of a Category 4 or 5 hurricane in the US.
“Winds of this strength not only have the ability to bring down trees and power lines but lift items from your yard and home – caravans, trampolines,” said BOM’s senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury.
Local authorities warned residents to tie down anything that could become airborne in strong winds.
Tourists staying along the portion of coast between Broome and Port Hedland have been told to move from the projected path of the storm. Others have rushed to supermarkets to stock up on food and other supplies.
Broome and Port Hedland are relatively small towns with a combined population of around 30,000 people. Many people employed by the iron ore mines live and work in Port Hedland.
On Tuesday, the Pilbara Port Authority said it was clearing boats from all berths in the inner harbor of the Port Hedland port, and urged recreational boat owners to secure their vessels.
Cyclones are common on the west coast of Australia, with the Bureau of Meteorology logging seven of them last year.
Australia uses a five-tier system to gauge the intensity of tropical cyclones, with Category 4 representing those reaching a mean wind speed of between 160 and 199 kph – with typical wind gusts of over 225 kph (140 mph).
Darren Klemm, Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner of Western Australia, said it had been 10 years since a cyclone of that size had hit the WA coast.
“There’ll be many people up there who haven’t experienced a Cat 4 cyclone before,” he said.
The northern coast of Western Australia has been hit by 13 storms equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane since 1960, but this would be the first since Tropical Cyclone Laurence in 2009, which hit in a very similar location with winds of 150 mph (240 kph) at landfall.
The strongest storm ever to hit any part of Australia was Tropical Cyclone Monica, which arrived in 2006 with sustained winds around 180 mph (290 kph), as it swept across the eastern and northern part of Australia.
Australia has experienced a series of natural disasters in recent years. Last year, flooding affected parts of the states of New South Wales and Queensland.
“With the last album, I spent so much on just nonsense,” he said.
“Not only the features, trying to shoot videos, trying to get something cleared, you know,” he explained.
On “my last album” titled ‘A Better Time’, “I’m telling you, I probably spent US$2 million,” Davido revealed. “That’s with everything [it involved].”
On the latest called ‘Timeless’, he disclosed that, “I even spent US$300,000 on this album.”
Chuckling a little, he, however, added that: “I made more [than that investment] already in three days.”
To Davido, this “shows me the level [and where] Africa music is going to.”
He noted how the music business, especially marketing and promotion, is changing given the advent and popularity of social media.
Artistes now have to bear in mind that: “We gotta get this TikTok, we gotta do these challenges…”
The 54-minute ‘A Better Time’ album showcased collaborations with stars such as the US’ Nas, Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, Lil Baby, Young Thug and Hit Boy; Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage, C-kay, Mayorkun and Bella Shmurda; Ghana’s Mugeez; Kenya’s Sauti Sol; and South Africa’s Sho Madjozi.
The 49-minute ‘Timeless’ has features from Nigeria’s Morravey, Fave and Asake; The Cavemen and Logos Olori; South Africa’s Musa Keys; Jamaica’s Dexta Daps, Benin’s Angelique Kidjo; the UK’s Skepta; and South Africa’s Focalistic.
Upon release, ‘Timeless’ chalked the record of being the first African album to top the US iTunes chart.
It also debuted at number 37 on the US Billboard 200 [album] chart becoming Davido’s highest charting album with 17,000 units sold in the North American country alone.
Across the Atlantic, the album appeared at number 10 on the Official UK Albums Top 100 chart.
On April 3, streaming platform Audiomack revealed that the album had set a 12 million first-day streaming record.
The official music video for the viral ‘Unavailable’, track 5, premieres on YouTube today, Tuesday night, April 11.
Tokyo police say suspects were allegedly running phone scams from Cambodia and targeting people in Japan.
Nineteen Japanese men detained in Cambodia in January on suspicion of participating in phone and online scams have been deported to their homeland, according to the police.
The group boarded a chartered flight organised by the Japanese government on Tuesday at Phnom Penh International Airport, Cambodian National Police spokesperson General Chhay Kim Khouen said.
The Immigration Police, part of Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior, said in a statement that the men were deported because they violated immigration law by living and working in Cambodia illegally. They will not be allowed to re-enter the country for three years, it said.
Tokyo police have obtained arrest warrants for the 19 men on suspicion of running phone scams from Cambodia that targeted people in Japan, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.
NHK said Cambodian authorities searched the men’s hotel rooms and “discovered a list of Japanese citizens believed to be targets in a fraud scheme”.
The suspects were taken into custody in the southern city of Sihanoukville on January 24 and sent to the capital, Phnom Penh, where they were held after being investigated by the interior ministry.
A Cambodian official at Phnom Penh International Airport who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media said the men were taking a chartered Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur, where they would transfer to a waiting Japanese plane.
He said a group of Japanese policemen came from Japan to escort the 19 men home.
At Phnom Penh’s airport, a convoy of several vehicles with heavy protection from Cambodian and Japanese police quickly drove directly to the waiting plane on the tarmac.
In an effort to fortify its defenses in the face of rising tensions with its neighbor China, Japan on Tuesday unveiled plans to develop and manufacture a variety of sophisticated long-range missiles.
According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, contracts have been inked with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to create and mass-produce the weapons through 2027.
The agreements, totaling more than $2.8 billion, come after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida declared in December that he intended to increase defense spending and give Japan “counterstrike capabilities”—the capacity to attack another country’s territory directly in an emergency and under specific conditions.
In taking the new defense initiatives, Japan is bending the interpretation of its post-World War II constitution, which put constraints on its Self-Defense Forces in that they can only be used for what their name implies, defending the Japanese homeland.
Under the deals, MHI will begin mass production this year on two types of already developed missiles – ground-launched Type 12 guided missiles designed to target ships at sea and hypersonic glide missiles designed for island defense, the ministry said. Deployment of those weapons is scheduled for 2026 and 2027, it said.
The Defense Ministry news release did not say how many of each missile would be acquired.
Meanwhile, MHI will this year begin development of advanced versions of the Type 12 that can also be launched by aircraft and ships. Defense industry news site Janes reported that the updgraded Type 12 will have a range of up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), five times the reach of the current version.
At the same time, MHI will begin development of submarine-launched missiles that could be fired by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s fleet of conventionally powered boats.
In December, Kishida instructed his defense and finance ministers to secure funds to increase Japan’s defense budget to 2% of current GDP in 2027.
Along with the development of Japan’s own missiles, Kishida said in February the country planned to buy as many as 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States. Tomahawks can hit targets as far as 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away.
Japan’s military buildup comes amid increasing tensions with China, which has been growing its naval and air forces in areas near Japan while claiming the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited Japanese-controlled chain in the East China Sea, as its sovereign territory.
Meanwhile, China has been upping its military pressure on Taiwan, the self-ruled island whose security Japanese leaders have said is vital to that of Japan.
Just this week, Japan scrambled fighter jets as a Chinese aircraft carrier group came within 230 kilometers (143 miles) of the southern Japanese island of Miyako while it simulated strikes on Taiwan.
Chinese military exercises around Taiwan last August including the launching of ballistic missiles, some of which landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
Three persons have died in an accident on the Kumasi-Techiman road in the Ashanti Region.
The incident happened on Tuesday morning when a BMV saloon car with registration number GR 6211 -V heading towards Techiman collided with a tipper truck coming from Sunyani at Nkenkaasu.
According to eyewitnesses, the tipper truck veered off its lane and crashed into the BMV
The driver and the other two in the BMV saloon car died on the spot while the tipper truck driver got severely injured.
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) officers rushed to the scene to help with extrication and to allow the free flow of traffic.
Meanwhile, Police at Akumadan have confirmed three deaths and one severe injury.
The bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the Nkenkaasu government hospital morgue, awaiting autopsy.
The bond market witnessed a significant increase in volume as trades in the new bonds experienced an uptick last week, reaching GH¢227.44million – a 459 percent increase from the previous week’s GH¢40.72million.
Despite the increase in volume traded, liquidity on the fixed-income secondary market was lower than in the previous week.
The secondary market yields on the new bonds rose over the week due to the ripple-effect of the hike in policy rate from 28 percent to 29.5 percent, while the old bonds – those which were not traded in during the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) – recorded a slight decrease in yield.
The old bonds market was nearly inactive, with only GH¢10.37million in volume traded, making up only 2.12 percent of the market share. The volume traded for old bonds fell by 47.43 percent from the previous week’s GH¢927.9million.
Although the old government bonds, Treasury-bills and corporate bonds recorded a total of GH¢487.8million in volume traded, the money market instruments – particularly the 91-day variant, still dominated the market with a 97.44 percent share.
Treasury-bills remain the preferred investment option for risk-averse investors, with the recent Treasury-bill auction seeing government raise GH¢1.88billion – exceeding their target of GH¢1.77billion by 6.57 percent. Government plans on raising GH¢1.67billion at next week’s auction.
However, market activity has been comparatively uninspiring over the last two weeks, with total trading volumes falling to GH¢62.31million from GH¢299.58million the previous week. Market participants were less active last week due to the unexpected policy rate hike of 150 basis points (bps) to 29.5 percent in March 2023.
The policy rate increase resulted in the Bank of Ghana (BoG) issuing its 14-day and 52-day bills at 29.5 percent and 30.25 percent respectively last week. As a result, the attention of market participants was drawn to the primary auction, reducing trading volumes on the secondary bond market.
Despite the recent policy rate hike and reduced market activity, the market is expected to improve with the March inflation report’s release, which is expected to show a marginal drop in the inflation rate. This drop could further boost investor confidence in the market.
However, analysts are bearish on the market this week; predicting that activity on the market will remain lifeless as investors seek better investment alternatives. The holiday-shortened trading week is also expected to weigh on trading volumes.
This comes as government is seeking to secure a US$3billion facility for balance of payment support, and the passing of three revenue tax bills by parliament moves government closer to securing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board’s approval.
Government has also begun negotiations with Ghana’s Eurobond holders, of which financial assurances are required by the IMF board before approval of the pending extended credit facility programme. These developments could further boost investor confidence in the market.
Elon Musk has revealed that running Twitter has been “quite painful” and “a rollercoaster”, in an interview with the BBC.
The multi-billionaire entrepreneur also said he would sell the company if the right person came along.
The interview, aired live from Twitter HQ, covered the mass lay-offs, misinformation and his work habits.
Mr Musk, who also runs car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44bn (£35.4bn) in October.
In the conversation – in which Mr Musk tried to do the interviewing as much as the other way around – Mr Musk defended his running of the company.
Asked whether he had any regrets about buying Twitter, the world’s second richest man said the “pain level has been extremely high, this hasn’t been some kind of party”.
Talking about his time at the helm so far, Mr Musk said: “It’s not been boring. It’s been quite a rollercoaster.”
It has been “really quite a stressful situation over the last several months”, he added, but said he still felt that buying the company was the right thing to do.
Things are going “reasonably well”, he said, stating that usage of the site is up and “the site works”.
The workload means that “I sometimes sleep in the office”, he said, adding that he has a spot on a couch in a library “that nobody goes to”.
And he also addressed his sometimes controversial tweets saying: “Have I shot myself in the foot with tweets multiple times? Yes.”
“I think I should not tweet after 3am,” he added.
Asked about the decision to add a label to the BBC’s main Twitter account describing it as “government funded media”, Mr Musk said: “I know the BBC is generally not thrilled about being labelled state media.”
Earlier this week, the corporation contacted the social media giant over the designation on the @BBC account to resolve the issue “as soon as possible”.
“The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee,” it said.
Mr Musk said Twitter was adjusting the label for the BBC to “publicly-funded”. “We’re trying to be accurate,” he said.
“I actually do have a lot of respect for the BBC,” Mr Musk added, stating that the interview was “a good opportunity to ask some questions” and “to get some feedback on what we should be doing different”.Media caption,
Watch: Elon Musk on labelling the BBC “government funded” on Twitter
Discussing Twitter’s finances, Mr Musk said the company is now “roughly breaking even”, as most of its advertisers have returned.
He also said that cutting the workforce from just under 8,000 at the time he bought the firm to about 1,500 had not been easy.
He admitted he did not fire everybody in person, saying: “It’s not possible to talk with that many people face to face.”
The exit of many of Twitter’s engineers since Mr Musk bought the company has raised concerns about the stability of the platform.
He acknowledged some glitches, including outages on the site but he said the outages have not been for very long and the site was currently working fine.
In the interview – which was broadcast live on Twitter Spaces from San Francisco – Mr Musk was also challenged over misinformation and hate speech on the platform.
He claimed there was less misinformation on Twitter since the takeover, and that his efforts to delete bots – automated accounts – will decrease fake news.
But many outside experts disagree. One study – and there are quite a few others along the same lines – found engagement with popular misinformation-spreading accounts spiked after Mr Musk’s takeover.
He repeatedly questioned whether journalists were fair arbiters of truth and said he had more trust in “ordinary people”.
On the issue of legacy-verified blue ticks on the platform, Mr Musk said they would be removed from accounts by the end of next week.
Former Twitter executive Bruce Daisley – who ran the business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for eight years – said the interview “gave us some insight into the strange life of this billionaire”.
“He confessed today that the only reason he went through with buying Twitter was because he believed a judge would force him to go through with the transaction. He’s never admitted that till now, so it was a very whimsical interview.”
Mr Daisley also suggested the interview showed he was not always consistent in what he says.
Mr Musk has an estimated personal fortune of almost $190bn, making him the world’s second richest person, according to the Forbes billionaires list.
Bryan Acheampong was born on November 27, 1972. He is a Ghanaian politician and Member of Parliament of Abetifi constituency in the Eastern Region of Ghana. He is a member of the New Patriotic Party of Ghana. He succeeded Peter Wiafe Pepera, who died while in office. He was the Minister of State at the Ministry of Interior between February 2019 to 2020. In 2016, he bought Okwawu United F.C.
Dr. Bryan Acheampong is the current Minister for Food and Agriculture.
He is currently the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs; a Member of the Defence and Interior Committee; a Member of the Appointments Committee, and a Member of the Selection Committee in Parliament.
He is a past Minister of State at the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of National Security.
Dr. Acheampong’s experience spans from Security, Intelligence, Politics, and Business leadership. He is a retired soldier of the US Air Force with training in Anti-Terrorism, Force Protection, Laws of Armed Conflict, Conventional Defence Training, Weapons, Small Arms, and Fuels.
He is a serial entrepreneur – having founded many successful businesses in Technology, Real Estate, Hospitality, and Media landscape.
He has a bachelors degree, three Masters degrees, and a Doctor of Philosophy. Bryan holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Ghana Business School, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Johnson and Wales University- USA, a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Applied Intelligence from Georgetown University- USA, a Master of Arts (MA) in Security and Intelligence from the University of Leicester-UK, and a Bachelors degree in Business Management from Johnson and Wales University, USA. H
The lawmaker holds a certificate in Building, Leading, and Sustaining the Innovative Organization from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Effective Leadership in Management and Administration from the University of Ghana Business School, and Public Relations, Advertising, and Marketing from the Ghana Institute of Journalism.
He has 14 scholarly publications and Articles to his credit.
His foundation, The Bryan Acheampong Foundation, constantly embarks on Poverty Reduction, Health, Education, and Agriculture programs.
He is not married. He is a Christian and worships as a Presbyterian.
China and the World Bank are exploring compromises over how to restructure billions of dollars of debt held by poor nations, seeking a long-sought breakthrough that could unlock desperately needed aid.
Discussions on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, in Washington, during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings, are aimed at ending a deadlock among the world’s biggest creditor nations on how to renegotiate several poorer nations’ debt, which had become unsustainable amid surging inflation and a stronger dollar.
A proposal under discussion this week would see the World Bank provide fresh low-interest loans — known as concessional lending — and other grants to countries on the verge of default, in exchange for China dropping a key demand and agreeing on a timeline for debt relief. The talks were described by people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private and the outcome is still uncertain.
Key to the compromise is the World Bank increasing its emergency assistance to countries in debt distress, something its outgoing president, David Malpass, said on Tuesday that the lender was already intending to do.
Officials from a number of countries cautioned, however, that a major breakthrough is unlikely this week, that China’s position remains unclear and the discussions are focused largely on the overall process.
People’s Bank of China governor Yi Gang is the highest-level official expected from Beijing to attend the talks this week, along with Deputy Governor Xuan Changneng, according to a person familiar with the matter. Finance Minister Liu Kun didn’t travel to Washington, with Beijing opting to send Vice Minister Wang Dongwei instead, said a second person.
The World Bank and US Treasury Department declined to comment, while the PBOC and IMF didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Tuesday on the possible compromise in the talks. Reuters reported late on Tuesday that China would drop its demand on multilateral loans, citing a source it didn’t identify.
The debt-relief efforts, begun by the G20 in late 2020, were intended as a way to coordinate traditional creditor nations, like the US and France, with emerging creditors, particularly China, the biggest lender to emerging economies.
Yet that mechanism, known as the Common Framework, has faced repeated delays over differences about how to treat various forms of debt. Beijing has been pushing for loans from multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, to be treated the same as other debt — meaning everyone takes a similar “haircut”, or loss, on what’s owed.
That condition has been rejected by the US and others, who argue that such a move would harm multilateral banks’ preferred creditor status, which allows them to borrow and lend cheaply.
Debt distress
More than 70 low-income nations face a collective $326-billion burden. About 15% of low-income countries are already in debt distress and another 45% face high debt vulnerabilities, and the list is growing.
Among the compromises under discussion is a three-month deadline from when the IMF reaches a staff-level agreement with a debtor country for creditors to offer financing assurances, said two of the people. Such assurances are essential for the IMF’s board to sign off on any loans.
If consensus isn’t reached in that time frame, the IMF would be able to invoke its so-called lending into official arrears policy to disburse money. That provision seeks to prevent a creditor from blocking assistance to a cash-strapped country that’s shown commitment to meet loan conditions.
To help the Common Framework process work more smoothly going forward, Malpass said this week that the IMF and World Bank also might provide their joint debt sustainability analysis for debtors with all creditors at the same time, increasing transparency. China had earlier raised questions about the institutions’ analysis, further slowing the efforts to reach a consensus.
A breakthrough in talks this week could open the way for restructurings in nations including Zambia — the first African nation to default on its debt during the pandemic era — and help speed up the deployment of billions of dollars in IMF aid. The African country has been in talks to rework $12.8-billion in loans for more than two years.
Following the Taliban’s ban on female Afghan humanitarian workers, the United Nations instructed all of its employees in Afghanistan to avoid the organization’s offices in the nation and claimed that this forced it to make a “appalling choice.”
“UN national personnel, both genders, have been advised not to report to UN offices, with only restricted and calibrated exceptions provided for vital activities,” the agency said in a statement.
It happens after Afghan men who work for the UN in Kabul last week choose to stay at home in support of their female coworkers.
The UN said the Taliban’s move was an extension of a previous ban, enforced last December, that prohibited Afghan women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations.
The decree forced the UN “into having to make an appalling choice between staying and delivering in support of the Afghan people and standing by the norms and principles we are duty-bound to uphold,” the organization said in a statement Tuesday.
It added that the ban was “the latest in a series of discriminatory measures implemented by the Taliban de facto authorities with the goal of severely restricting women and girls’ participation in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan.”
The UN will continue to “assess the scope, parameters and consequences of the ban, and pause activities where impeded,” the statement said, adding that the “matter will be under constant review.”
Several female UN staff in the country had already experienced restrictions on their movements since the Taliban seized power in 2021, including harassment and detention.
“The lives of Afghanistan women are at stake,” he said, adding, “It is not possible to reach women without women.”
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, is engaging with the Taliban at the highest level to “seek an immediate reversal of the order,” the UN said last week.
“In the history of the United Nations, no other regime has ever tried to ban women from working for the Organization just because they are women. This decision represents an assault against women, the fundamental principles of the UN, and on international law,” Otunbayeva said.
Other figures within the organization also condemned the move, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calling it “utterly despicable.”
After the Taliban banned female aid workers in December, at least half a dozen major foreign aid groups temporarily suspended their operations in Afghanistan – diminishing the already scarce resources available to a country in dire need of them.
The Taliban’s return to power preceded a deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, worsening issues that had long plagued the country. After the takeover, the US and its allies froze about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cut off international funding – crippling an economy heavily dependent on overseas aid.
Ghanaian actress and business owner, Beverly Afaglo is the latest to claim that youth in the country sleep on the job when offered employment.
Recounting her ordeal, she said young men and women who cry out for being unemployed fail to deliver when offered an opportunity by business owners and instead collapse the market with their unprofessional attitude.
A number of employers have labelled Ghanaian youth as lazy. This has attracted backlash from a section of the public who have refuted the claim.
Beverly who is operating a shawarma business in Accra narrated how some employees exhibit poor performance and yet expected higher salaries from her.
In a 2023 interview with blogger Zionfelix, she shared the struggles of setting up her business after a fire destroyed her Tema residence back in August 2021.
“It is not easy running a business in Ghana. People will sabotage you and getting workers is tough. People are always crying on social media about unemployment. It is all a lie because they don’t need any job, they are lazy.
“The youth are lazy because they think that once you are born, you start walking…it is a process but without any experience, they expect so much…we consider transportation and all that but the people after experiencing the pressure at work are quick to quit after two weeks…riders can also stress you,” she disclosed.
The mother of two explained how she deals with unserious employees who exhibit a lack of commitment.
She added: “When you show such an attitude I will fire you but I am the kind of person who will embrace you.”
Presidential staffer apologises to Asiedu Nketia for spreading falsehood about him
Director of Local Government Services at the Office of the President, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has rendered an apology to the Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress for sharing an altered video of him.
In a video shared by the Presidential staffer of the Chairman, Mr. Asiedu Nketia was purportedly admonishing members of the NDC to risk their lives for the 2024 elections no matter the cost.
But after realising the video he put out had been doctored, he has come out to apologise to General Mosquito.
He subsequently withdrew the earlier post and expressed remorse for any misunderstanding caused.
He tweeted: “I sincerely apologise and have subsequently removed the Asiedu Nketia Video I shared earlier. My attention has been drawn to an original video which clearly shows the earlier one I viewed and shared was doctored. Obviously, this version I saw and shared had been tempered with, which isn’t right. I withdraw accordingly, with apologies.”
Mr. Aboagye had shared the visual as a counter to the NDC’s reaction towards Bryan Acheampong’s comments to the fact that the NPP was not ready to bequeath power to the umbrella family under any circumstance.
A Professor at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Godfred Bokpin, says the global geopolitics is affecting “vulnerable” countries like Ghana, making the application for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) difficult.
Prof Bokpin said the West African nation needs assurances from its bilateral and multilateral partners before the IMF’s Executive Board can be convinced to approve the request for the $3 billion extended credit facility (ECF).
The Minister of Finance, Kenneth Ofori-Atta, is joining the Spring Meetings of the Fund in a last-ditch attempt to secure a bailout for the country’s ailing economy.
Speaking on TV3‘s News 360 on Tuesday, April 11, Prof Bokpin conceded that “this week is a critical week for Ghana” as a result of the Meetings.
He pointed out that by the close of the Meetings, there will be clarity in terms of timelines for Ghana’s application submitted on Friday, July 1, 2022.
But for him, it will be difficult for the country to secure a deal by the end of April.
“It’s going to be difficult for us to get [the IMF deal] by the end of this month,” he stressed, predicting middle of May as a possible date to get the deal.
Already, a staff level agreement has been reached between Ghana and the Fund but the Executive Board is yet to approve it.
Prof Bokpin adduced that currently the country has lost market access, both on the domestic and international front, and granting a bailout on the part of the Fund will only achieve limited effectiveness.
He said the only sure option left for Ghana is to secure funding assurances from the Paris and non-Paris Club creditors.
The day after one of the bloodiest strikes since the junta’s takeover of power two years ago, relatives were still gathering the burned bodies and limbs of those slain in a military airstrike on a village in central Myanmar.
As he approached the location of the military bombing, an eyewitness who had been hiding in a tunnel during the attack reported a sight of horror, with children dying, women wailing, and dead piled up on the ground.
At least 100 people, including women and children, were killed after Myanmar’s military junta bombed Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing region on Tuesday, according to the Kyunhla activist group, which was at the scene. The group said at least 20 children were killed in the strike and 50 people injured.
About 300 people had gathered in Pazigyi Village early on Tuesday morning to celebrate the opening of a local administration office, an eyewitness told CNN on the condition of anonymity because he fears retribution. Families had traveled from nearby villages for the event, where tea and food was offered and which coincided with the start of the Thingyan New Year celebrations.
Like much of Sagaing, the area is not under the control of the military junta. The new town office was being opened under the authority of the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), for the people, as part of the anti-junta resistance.
“We didn’t have any warning,” the eyewitness said. “Most of the villagers were inside the event, so they didn’t notice the jet.”
Just before 8 a.m., a junta aircraft bombed the village where the ceremony was being held, the eyewitness and local media reported. An Mi35 helicopter then circled and fired on the village minutes later, the eyewitness told CNN.
“When I arrived at the scene we tried to search for people still alive,” he said. “Everything was terrible. People were dying (as they were being transported) on motorbikes. Children and women. Some lost their heads, limbs, hands. I saw flesh on the road.”
The eyewitness said he saw dozens of bodies after the attack, including children as young as five. He said he lost four family members in the strike, and a young child from his village was among the dead.
“I saw lots of people coming onto the scene to search for their kids, crying and screaming,” he said.
At around 5:30 p.m. the junta jets returned and shot the same place they had bombed that morning, he said.
CNN cannot independently verify the incident but the eyewitness’s account matches reports in local media and from the NUG.
Videos and images from the aftermath, shown to CNN from witnesses and a local activist group, also show bodies, some burned and in pieces, as well as destroyed buildings, vehicles and debris.
Myanmar’s junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun confirmed the airstrike on Pazigyi Village and said if civilian casualties occurred it was because they were forced to help “terrorists,” Reuters reported.
The junta has designated the NUG and resistance groups known as the People’s Defense Force in the country as terrorists.
“At 8 a.m…. NUG (National Unity Government) and PDF (People’s Defense Force) conducted an opening ceremony of the public administration office at Pazigyi village,” Zaw Min Tun said on the military’s Myawaddy TV channel.
“We had launched the attack on them. We were informed that PDF were killed at that event under the attack. They are opposing our government.”
The strike was condemned internationally, with one top UN official saying global indifference to the situation in Myanmar contributed to the attack.
“The Myanmar military’s attacks against innocent people, including today’s airstrike in Sagaing, is enabled by world indifference and those supplying them with weapons,” said Tom Andrews, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar.
“How many Myanmar children need to die before world leaders take strong, coordinated action to stop this carnage?”
The US Department of State said it was “deeply concerned” about the airstrikes and called on the regime to “cease the horrific violence.”
“These violent attacks further underscore the regime’s disregard for human life and its responsibility for the dire political and humanitarian crisis in Burma following the February 2021 coup,” it said, using an alternative name for Myanmar.
It’s been just over two years since the military seized power, ousting the democratically elected government and jailing its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In order to crush resistance, the junta regularly carries out airstrikes and ground attacks on what it calls “terrorist” targets.
The attacks have killed civilians, including children, and targeted schools, clinics, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. Whole villages have been burned by junta soldiers and thousands of people have been displaced in the attacks, according to local monitoring groups.
Battles between the military and resistance groups unfold daily across Myanmar. These rebel groups, some of whom have aligned with some of the country’s long-established ethnic militias, effectively control parts of the country out of the junta’s reach.
Resistance groups and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly accused Myanmar’s military of carrying out mass killings, air strikes and war crimes against civilians in the regions where fighting has raged, charges the junta repeatedly denies – despite a growing body of evidence.
“They’re losing control of the country. They’re losing ground. Things are much more unstable on the ground than they’ve ever been,” the UN’s Andrews told CNN on Wednesday. “As a result of that, they’re using air power more and more and, of course, as they do so, more and more civilians are being killed.”
On Monday, junta airstrikes hit a town in western Chin state’s Falam Township, killing nine people when bombs dropped on a school, according to local media Myanmar Now and The Irrawaddy.
Last week, 8,000 refugees in southern Karen state fled across the border to Thailand, escaping fighting in Myawaddy township, according to a statement from Thailand’s Tak provincial office public relations department, posted to Facebook.
In March, at least 22 people, including three monks, were killed at a monastery in southern Shan state. And a military airstrike on a school in Sagaing in September killed at least 13 people, including seven children.
The eyewitness to Tuesday’s attack said the “situation in Myanmar is worse now.”
“People are dying like dogs or cows. We don’t have any weapons to compare with what the military has. We need the help of the international community,” he said.
Popular Ghanaian socialite, Ayisha Modi, was drawn to tears while addressing the pain her rival actress Diamond Appiah, has caused her.
This comes after her Instagram page was hacked by some people she tagged as ‘enemies’.
About a week ago, some bizarre posts which included photos of human sex organs were spotted on Ayisha’s page.
Posts attacking some personalities including former French Ambassador, Annie Sophie Ave, former Black Stars Captain Asamoah Gyan and others were on her page and many wondered what exactly was happening.
Netizens were worried about the harsh responses from the handler of the page to fans, which many perceived were not from Ayisha Modi.
These acts were consistent until the page was finally deactivated.
But after about a week, Ayisha has announced that she has finally retrieved her account while admitting that it was indeed hacked.
In an Instagram live video, she alleged that Diamond Appiah was responsible for such deeds.
While questioning why Diamond, who allegedly swindled her of a piece of land and $40,000 is bent on destroying her further, Ayisha broke down in tears.
“I have worked hard amidst sweat, tears and blood to produce $40,000. I work hard in the States, clean up old people’s faeces to pay for land only for you to swindle me. You sold a land to me when you were not even the owner. It took me two years to talk about this. (Breaks down with tears rolling down her cheeks).
“Kwaku Manu is my witness, I transferred $40,000 with charges almost GHC12,000. The account you hacked is registered and verified. I used my American passport to verify it and I have it back now. All I had to do was prove that I am its owner. You don’t do anything for me, you are a piece of shit. Criminal court asked you to produce my money on the 4th of April and on the 5th of April, you hacked my Instagram page,” she stated.
Meanwhile, Ayisha has apologized to the personalities who were trolled on her page while it was hacked.
“I sincerely apologize to the French ambassador to Ghana for that message sent out by unknown people to tarnish her image @as.ave I am deeply sorry great woman, I respect you so much for your hard and good work . God Continue to bless u and the family for the wonderful things you are doing to promote our homeland Ghana.
“I would like to also apologize to my lovely brother @asamoah_gyan3 Asamoah Gyan for what happened. Bro our bond is strong, I cherish and respect you forever. wish I can mention all names and apologize to everyone individually but I know with the trust and love you guys have for me you will forgive and to those who are trying hard to destroy my reputation I wish you well.”
Some officers of the Ghana Police Service are in hot chase for a gang of robbers who robbed a cash collection point at Anyinase near Essiama.
The incident happened on Tuesday on 11th April, 2023.
The robbers who were on motorbikes entered the premises of the cash collection point under the pretext of transacting business but later attacked the workers at gunpoint, took them hostage and made away with an amount of money.
“Police intelligence operations is ongoing to get the perpetrators arrested and we will surely get them,” a statement said.
The extremely sensitive, leaked Military documents that were published on social media provide a negative US assessment of the situation in Ukraine, pointing out Ukraine’s air defense and armament vulnerabilities and foreseeing a protracted stalemate in the conflict.
As Kiev gets ready for a springtime counteroffensive against Russia, the documents, which appear to be from February and March, go into great depth on many of Ukraine’s alleged military weaknesses.
A number of the top-secret documents warn that Ukraine’s medium-range air defenses to shield front-line soldiers will be “totally depleted by May 23,” implying that Russia may soon achieve aerial superiority and Ukraine may no longer be able to gather ground forces for a counteroffensive.
The documents also underscore lingering problems with Russia’s own military offensive, predicting that the result will be a stalemate between the two sides for the foreseeable future.
“Russia’s grinding campaign of attrition in the Donbas region is likely heading toward a stalemate, thwarting Mosco’s goal to capture the entire region in 2023,” states one of the classified documents.
Officials familiar with the situation tell CNN the documents appear to be part of a daily intelligence briefing deck prepared for the Pentagon’s senior leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
The leaking of the documents, many of which are marked top secret, represents a major national security breach, and the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into who may have leaked them while the Pentagon is investigating how the leak impacts US national security. In addition to the assessment of the Ukraine war, the documents include intelligence gathered on allies and adversaries alike.
Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a CNN national security and military analyst, said that the challenges Ukraine faces with its planned counteroffensive have been clear for weeks, including the need to integrate new equipment and new troops and ensure that a sufficient supply chain is in place. He did not think that the document leak would alter Kyiv’s plans.
“I haven’t seen anything in the documents I’ve seen that would cause me as a commander to change my plans,” Hertling said. “It’s given some information to the Russians in terms of unit locations and ammo and equipment capabilities, but I would venture to say the Russians already knew all that anyway.”
In many ways, the assessment of the Ukraine war is similar to what US officials have said publicly, as top Biden administration officials have said the conflict is likely to drag on for months, if not longer.
But the detailed and unflinching assessment of the war is laid out starkly in the briefing slides about the challenges Ukraine faces despite its successes more than a year into the war.
An official from a country part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing agreement with the US told CNN previously that it was alarming to see the leaked Ukraine war information handicapping the country on the battlefield.
“Gains for Ukraine will be hard to accomplish, but it does not help to have the private US assessment pointing to a likely yearlong stalemate revealed publicly,” the official said.
Publicly, US and Ukrainian officials have downplayed the significance of the classified documents.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reassured Ukraine of the United States’ “ironclad” support for the country, following the Pentagon document leaks, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
During a call on Tuesday Blinken “reaffirmed the ironclad U.S. support and vehemently rejected any attempts to cast doubt on Ukraine’s capacity to win on the battlefield,” Kuleba wrote Tuesday on Twitter.
“The U.S. remains Ukraine’s trustworthy partner, focused on advancing our victory and securing a just peace,” Kuleba said.
At a press conference Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that the department will “turn over every rock until we find the source” of the leaked intelligence documents.
CNN has reviewed 53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March.
At least one of the documents appears to have been altered, CNN previously reported, which listed Russian and Ukrainian casualty numbers and more than halved the number of Russian deaths before being spread on pro-Russian Telegram channels.
Still, US officials have acknowledged the bulk of the documents appear to be genuine. Ukraine has already altered some of its military plans because of the leak, a source close to Zelensky told CNN.
“These documents are static. They’re a picture of a specific time. Both United States and Ukraine have the ability to modify what they’re doing and how they’re approaching this issue, and we certainly have plenty of time for Ukraine to do so,” House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday.
Additional documents have also emerged. The Washington Post reported Monday on another leaked document with a bleak assessment from February that challenges with troops, ammunition and equipment could cause Ukraine to fall “well short” of its goals in its planned spring counteroffensive.
A document from February states that the US assesses Ukraine can generate 12 combat brigades for the spring counteroffensive, including three trained in Ukraine and nine trained and equipped by the US. Six of the brigades would be ready by the end of March and the remaining six by the end of April, according to the document.
The leaked documents include a detailed maps of battlefield positions, statistics on the number of troops killed and wounded and estimates of tanks, fighter jets and other weaponry that’s been fielded as well as destroyed.
One slide provides a timeline for when Ukraine’s ground will be frozen, when it will be muddy and when it will be favorable to move through.
There are assessments of Ukrainian forces around Bakhmut, where some of the fiercest fighting between the two sides has taken place this year. In one update in February, the intelligence assessment includes details on villages where Ukraine’s military had withdrawn and which positions it was still controlling.
The IMF’s decision is in line with concerns that debt pressure and funding constraints on most African countries would make it extremely difficult for African economies to expand at their full potential this year.
Ghana was not the only country to be lowered as Nigeria and South Africa were also cut to 3.2 percent and 0.1 percent respectively in the latest World Economy Outlook (WEO).
The World Economy Outlook which is published twice annually was released on April 11, 2023 at the ongoing IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C-USA.
Touching on the growth of economies in Sub-Sahara Africa, Pierre Olivier Gourinc, the Economic Counselor and Director of the IMF , who also served as the presiding officer over the launch said growth in the Sub-Sahara Africa has also been revised to 3.6 percent from 3.9 percent as recorded earlier.
He added that, on the regional level, the debt debacle, surging inflation, falling currencies and the food shock across African countries were key drivers of the weaker growth.
Like the World Bank, the IMF urged all central banks in the Sub-Sahara Region to keep interest rates tight to help ward off inflation for growth to pick up.
Ghana’s revised growth forecast means government was unable to meet its target for the year, which was pegged at 2.8 percent in the 2023 Budget Statement presented in November last year.
The National Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, has disclosed that they are forwarding a petition to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for the arrest and prosecution of former President John Dramani Mahama over his ‘do-or-die’ comment.
Nana Boakye said Mr. Mahama needs to be arrested for inciting political violence.
Mr. Mahama prior to the 2020 general elections said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will face the NPP boot for boot if they attempt to intimidate them with hoodlums.
He also mentioned that the 2024 general election is a ‘do or die’ affair for the NDC.
In an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News, the NPP National Organiser said, “former President, John Mahama, said for the 2020 general elections, it’s boot for boot, and 2024 general elections it’s going to be a do-or-die affair” insisting that those utterances could incite violence in the country.
He disclosed, “We [NPP] are forwarding a petition to the police CID. We are calling for the immediate arrest, investigation and prosecution of former President John Dramani Mahama for all these comments that he has made. We are of the view that, it undermines national security and the peace that we are enjoying, it undermines our democratic stability”.
He also indicated that the NPP has included the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah in their petition for saying that the NDC will do everything within its power to win the 2024 elections even if they have to sacrifice their lives.
“We have also included the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah over his statements which in our view undermine the peace and stability we enjoy as a democratic nation. During his acceptance speech at the NDC congress, he said they are prepared to sacrifice everything including sacrificing their lives to achieve victory. We are calling for the arrest of these two gentlemen, former President Mahama and Asiedu Nketiah for these comments they made,” he said.
He reiterated that the NPP fully supports the comments by Mr. Acheampong adding that his comments are premised on the economic crisis which the government is working to change the fortunes of the country.
According to him, the NPP will not hand over power to the NDC if they win power in the 2024 general elections.
“We support Bryan’s utterances because we are not going to hand over power to you [NDC] because we will win, if we lose we will hand over power to you. He never said whether the NDC loses or wins we are not going to hand over power to them. He never said NPP whether we win or lose we are not going to hand over. We find absolutely nothing wrong with his comment, we fully support him,” the National Organiser of NPP stated.
An Indian man and his brother have tragically died following an explosion caused by a home theatre system that was gifted to the newly-married couple.
The police have reported that the device was fitted with explosives that detonated upon being plugged in. The groom was killed instantly, while his brother passed away during medical treatment, the BBC reported.
Investigators have claimed that the bomb was sent by the former lover of the bride, who was reportedly upset about her marrying another man. The suspect, identified as Sarju Markam from the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh, has been taken into police custody but has yet to make a statement.
The explosion, which occurred on 3 April at the groom’s residence in Kabirdham district, Chhattisgarh, also injured four others, including an 18-month-old child.
The police revealed that Markam, aged 33, was in a relationship with the 29-year-old bride and had demanded that she become his second wife. However, the bride’s family rejected his advances and arranged for her to marry someone else.
The blast was so powerful that it caused the walls and roof of the room to collapse.
Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, has arrived in Belfast to begin a historic four-day trip to Northern Ireland and the Republic.
At Belfast International Airport, Mr. Biden was welcomed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he exited Air Force One.
His visit coincides with the Good Friday Agreement’s 25th anniversary, which helped put an end to 30 years of bloody war in Northern Ireland.
Since it was signed in 1998, the White House has praised the “tremendous progress” made.
But, the failure of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland casts a shadow on Mr. Biden’s visit.
It collapsed last year when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – one of the biggest parties at Stormont – pulled out as part of a protest against post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.
Mr Biden arrived in Belfast city centre at about 22:20 BST on Tuesday after making the journey from the airport in his presidential motorcade.
A huge security operation is under way, with many city centre streets closed.
The police have said York Street, Donegall Street, Academy Street and Frederick Street are closed to traffic until this afternoon.
Ahead of his arrival, Mr Biden said he was looking forward to marking the anniversary in Belfast and “underscoring the US commitment to preserving peace and encouraging prosperity”.
His trip to Belfast will be the first leg of a four-day stay in Ireland, during which he will also discuss his Irish roots and meet Irish relatives. His sister Valerie and his son Hunter are also accompanying the US president on the visit.
Read more about Biden’s visit
Mr Biden’s trip comes two weeks after MI5 said the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland had increased due to a rise in activity by dissident republicans.
During an illegal parade by dissident republicans in Londonderry on Monday, petrol bombs were thrown at a police vehicle but the violence was confined to one area and ended a short time later.
On Tuesday, police found four suspected pipe bombs inside the grounds of the City Cemetery in Derry. They believe they were to be used in a planned attack on officers after Monday’s parade.
The president’s spokesman said Mr Biden was “more than comfortable making this trip” in spite of the terrorism threat.
Mr Biden stayed overnight at a Belfast hotel ahead of the main event of his visit to Northern Ireland, a speech at the new Ulster University campus in Belfast on Wednesday.
In that speech, he is expected to emphasise the willingness of the US to help to preserve what he sees as the peace and prosperity gained since the Good Friday Agreement.
The president is also expected to talk about how the US administration can support Northern Ireland’s economy.
In a post on Twitter, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that he is joining President Biden in Belfast “for engagements on shared economic prosperity”.
Image caption, US President Joe Biden was greeted by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Belfast International Airport on Tuesday night
Mr Biden is also set to meet the leaders of Stormont’s five main political parties at some point during his brief time in the city.
Michelle O’Neill, vice-president of Sinn Féin, the largest party at Stormont, said President Biden’s visit would be a “special moment”.
“As we look back with pride at just how far we have all come, and all that has been achieved, we also look forward with hope, ambition, and opportunity for the next 25 years,” she added.Media caption,
The Good Friday Agreement explained in 90 seconds
Former Irish ambassador to the US, Daniel Mulhall, said that while Mr Biden would have preferred to have spoken to politicians at a functioning Stormont assembly, his speech would be “very carefully crafted to get across the message that essentially America is here to help”.
Mr Sunak will not meet any of Northern Ireland’s political leaders while he is in Belfast to speak to the president, but a spokesperson said that did not mean he had given up on getting the DUP back into power sharing.
Image caption, Joe Biden will visit the locations marked on this map during his four days in Ireland
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), George Akuffo Dampare has been asked to resign for to ensure that galamsey is
Former Presidential staffer and political commentator Mr. P.V Jantuah Dadson is calling for the resignation of the Inspector General of the Police (IGP) Dr. George Akuffo Dampare for failing in the fight against illegal mining otherwise known as galamsey.
According to him, the Ghana Police Service is part of the government’s organization in the fight against galamsey after its officers were sent to various parts of the country to end the menace.
“On the issue of the galamsey fight, don’t you think it would be good for the IGP if he resigns from office?” Mr. PV Jantuah asked.
Mr. PV Jantuah’s calls were in reaction to a viral video that saw an officer begging a civilian for his life in a galamsey community.
The Ghana Police Service in a statement revealed they arrested four members of the gang they accused of attacking the police but the suspects also claimed the uniformed officers were extorting money from galamsey sites in Axim, a community in the Western Region.
The police also claimed the men seen in the video were robbers.
However, the leader of the gang, Kwame Asare Ato who escaped the police arrest has denied the allegation saying they are not robbers as claimed by the state security.
He also revealed that his gang worked in the area with the District Police Command in extorting money from miners and went further to reveal that, the gun he used in his operation was given to him by the police CID in the district.
Meanwhile, Mr PV Jatuah Dadson insisted that the District Police Commander of Axim should be sanctioned.
“Where did the incident happen, Axim; the IGP together with the District Police Commander should have gone home by now. The two police officers sighted in the video should have also appeared in court by now,” he said.
Mr PV Jantuah also wondered how Kwame Asare Ato the gang leader was able to seize guns and other items from the police.
He noted that the police could not do anything to save themselves from being humiliated because of the intentions they had and the fact that they have already been compromised.
The National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Yammin, has expressed his utmost disappointment in the IGP for glossing over the remarks of Abetifi MP, Bryan Acheampong, suggesting that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will never hand over power.
He stated that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare, will be remembered as the worst IGP ever due to his reluctance to arrest government officials who flout the law.
Joseph Yammin asserted that the IGP has failed to live up to expectations in that regard. He added that Dampare started well, but he is currently hesitant to act where needed.
“Whoever makes such a statement should be arrested, so if the IGP won’t arrest him (Bryan Acheampong).
“Then he doesn’t have balls; the IGP is having a social media account that is only linked to NDC stories, so whatever about NDC, he will see it, but for NPP, no.
“A statement like this from the NPP and IGP has not seen it? But if it was Yammin, it would have popped up on his social media handles to issue a statement to go and arrest Yammin.
“I feel this IGP is not helping Ghanaians; he may go down as the worst IGP even though he started as the best ever to happen to this country because of his steps as IGP.”
Yammin’s comment follows a statement made by the Member of Parliament for Abetifi Constituency in the Eastern region that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not prepared to hand over power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking in an interview with Neat FM on April 11, 2023, he argued that such a statement has a strong propensity to incite violence in the nation; he also demanded for the member of parliament’s arrest, in line with a request by the party.
Bryan Acheampong is on record as saying the governing New Patriotic Party will do everything within its means to win the 2024 general elections.
According to him, the NPP is not ready to hand over power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC); therefore, his party will go to the election fully prepared.
He stated that the NPP has the men to match the opposition boot for boot during the 2024 polls.
Addressing party faithful after a health walk through the principal streets of Mpraeso on Saturday, April 8, 2023, Bryan Acheampong stressed that “We will show NDC that we have the men if they want to do intimidate, harass us or do anything foolish during the 2024 elections…It will not happen that we will hand over power to NDC. We’ll use any means for NPP to stay in power.”
UK military special troops are operating in Ukraine, according to ‘top secret’ papers that have leaked.
According to the documents, there may have been more than half British special forces in Ukraine between February and March of this year.
Since the start of the conflict, the administration has kept secret the presence of special troops in Ukraine.
The UK embassy in Kyiv reported in June 2021 that its special troops had trained alongside Ukrainian military prior to Russia’s invasion.
Dozens of classified US documents that have been leaked online paint a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine, including sensitive details of Ukraine’s preparations for a spring counter-offensive.
Images of the classified files from the Pentago have appeared on messaging app Discord since February.
Complete with timelines and dozens of military acronyms, the documents, some marked ‘top secret’ also offer information on China and allies.
It is unknown where the forces are based in Ukraine (Picture: Getty)
The US government says it is investigating the source of the leak.
According to the document the UK has the largest contingent of special forces in Ukraine (50), followed by fellow Nato states Latvia (17), France (15), the US (14) and the Netherlands (1).
The document does not say where the forces are located or what they are doing.
In line with its standard policy on such matters, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has not commented, but in a tweet on Tuesday said the leak of alleged classified information had demonstrated what it called a ‘serious level of inaccuracy’.
It said: ‘Readers should be cautious about taking at face value allegations that have the potential to spread misinformation.’
It did not elaborate or suggest which specific documents it was referring to. However, Pentagon officials are quoted as saying the documents are real.
UK special forces are made up of several elite military units with distinct areas of expertise, and are regarded to be among the most capable in the world.
The units, which conduct undercover operations as well as covert surveillance and reconnaissance operations, are the UK military’s most secretive organisations.
Unlike the intelligence services, the special forces are not subject to external parliamentary oversight.
The British government has a policy of not commenting on its special forces, in contrast to other countries including the US.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation and he was determined to find the source of the leak.
‘We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it,’ he said.
Don Jazzy asked other musicians to learn from Davido’s promotion of his record and incorporate it into their daily lives in order to further the international recognition of the Nigerian music industry.
Don Jazzy claimed in a tweet that Davido did not depend on the fact that he is “OBO” and that his album will undoubtedly be successful after its release.
Instead, he took steps to make sure the record would be a success once it was released by heavily promoting the album.
He added that marketing the beautiful project artistes worked hard on does not reduce their swag hence they should always promote their songs in the best way possible.
He wrote: “Dear artists hope you can see how Davido is marketing his album. He didn’t form oh I’m OBO so everybody will cop my shit. Marketting your beautiful project that you worked hard on does not reduce your swag.”
Nigerian superstar David Adeleke popularly known as Davido keeps making waves with the level of reception and recognition his fourth studio album “Timeless” has garnered.
After the release of the album on Friday, March 31, the album has topped numerous music charts and has also made its way into the global markets.
Davido, while promoting the album on various platforms, revealed that he wants the album to be classical to the point that it will forever be remembered and it appears that his wish is coming to pass.
Following the investments Davido made in the promotion of the album, Nigerian record producer Michael Collins Ajereh, also known as Don Jazzy has praised the singer for his dedication and hard work.
Following a funeral for a victim of gun violence, a shooting at a funeral home in Washington, DC, left one person dead and three others injured.
Tuesday at 12:17 PM, a shooting took place at Stewart Funeral Home in northeastern DC.
According to Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee, a suspect shot one man dead and numerous other persons were injured while they were standing outside the funeral home as a burial for a victim of gun violence had just ended.
The fact that someone would be so bold to commit such an act, let alone during a funeral, is regrettable, added Contee. “How despicable of a human being can you be to target people during a funeral?”
An officer who was in a police car close by heard the gunfire and found four adults hurt, Contee said.
It appeared that the three injured victims sustained non-life-threatening wounds.
Multiple people standing outside the funeral home at 4400 block of Benning Road NE after the service were apparently targets, Contee said. But investigators have not determined a motive.
A suspect has not yet been identified.
‘We’re unsure why that is, why these people were targeted, more or less why they were targeted at a funeral, we don’t understand that,’ Contee said.
The shooting happened about 17 minutes after the end of a funeral for a homicide victim who was killed at the end of March. The victim’s family had requested additional police presence through the police department’s victim services section, which is not out of the ordinary, Contee said.
‘There could be some reasonable fear there,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately in this case, someone decided to disrespect this family at this level and commit this senseless act of violence.’
Through traffic at 41st and Benning Road NE and 36th and Blaine Road NE were closed as police investigated the incident.
Contee urged anyone with information on the shooting to contact the police department anonymously.
A total of 106 fire outbreaks were recorded in the first quarter of 2023.
It is estimated that these fires cost damage to properties worth GH₵898,385.
This is a decrease of 36.53% in fire outbreaks for the period under review as against 167 fire outbreaks with a cost of damage to properties at GH₵1,257760.2 for the same period in 2022.
The cost of items salvaged from these fires amounted to GH₵18,946,131 for 2023 as against GH₵4,037,727 for the same period in 2022.
A 78.69% increase in items salvaged was recorded in 2023.
According to the data, on average one fire was recorded each day during the period.
A statement issued by the Ghana Fire Service and signed by its Public Relations Officer Baba Hudu said domestic fires were the highest with 48 cases, 12 electrical bushfire cases 11 vehicular fires 10 commercial fires. The rest were institutional- eight, industrial-one and other fires seven.
The statement said the region experienced a new trend of fire outbreaks which were fires that occurred in uncompleted buildings, ravaging a number of them, especially at new settlements. Bushfires from the immediate surroundings spread to these uncompleted buildings setting them ablaze.
It said seven of such cases were recorded as against three in 2022.
It added that the fires recorded suggest a significant decrease compared to 2022.
The statement added that these significant reduction notwithstanding the command will continue to work with all relevant stakeholders and the public to further reduce the rate of fires in the area.
Ghanaian beauty queen, Hamamat Montia, has managed to keep her personal life including family private. For years, many have wondered who might be the lucky man in her life.
Rumours heightened in 2022 when she announced in an Instagram post that she is expecting her third child. Fans and followers were blessed with beautiful baby bump photos throughout Hamamat’s pregnancy although the identity of her partner was kept secret.
On April 11, 2023, the former Miss Maliaka queen went public with her relationship with Ghanaian businessman and owner of the Safari group of Companies, Samuel Afari Dartey.
On the occasion of her partner’s birthday, Hamamat shared photos and videos from a private birthday party that broke the news of her love life with the CEO of Aqua Safari Resort and Safari Valley Resort, the father of her youngest child.
“Happy birthday to my partner in crime. #odoy3wo,” read the caption of the viral post that captured the family in broad smiles.
Fans and well wishes including popular personalities sent congratulatory messages to Hamamat and her family who made them believe in love.
Hamamat Montia who owns a skincare brand has earned the nickname ‘Queen of Ghana’ for her effortless promotion of the country’s rich culture as well as shea butter from the Northern region.
Accounting firm EY has called off its plan to break up its auditing and consulting divisions.
The firm, formally known as Ernst & Young, announced it was “stopping work on the project” because its US arm decided to not to move forward.
The Big Four – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – dominate the global accounting market share.
The plan came as regulators called for major industry reforms over conflicts of interest and poor working practices.
Had the deal – called “Project Everest” internally – gone through, it would have been the biggest shake-up in the accountancy industry for more than two decades.
EY’s announcement ends a year-long battle to build internal support to split the units.
“We acknowledge the challenges with separating some of our businesses that have the deepest technical expertise in a way that gives both organisations the capabilities they need to compete in the market effectively,” according to an internal note seen by the BBC.
“We also recognise that we need more time to make the necessary investments to prepare the businesses for a separation.”
The project cost the firm more than $100m (£80.3m) according to the Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this month, Germany’s accounting watchdog fined and banned EY for its handling of audits for Wirecard, the insolvent electronic payment processor.
The company owes creditors almost $4bn, after admitting large sums never existed on its books as part of a global fraud operation.
The ban forbids EY from conducting audits on certain companies for two years.
In 2021, UK regulators called to reduce the dominance of the Big Four after high-profile accounting failures such as Carillion and BHS.
Seven persons accused of assaulting a police officer have been granted bail.
The Effiduase District Court admitted to bail the seven who had been arraigned for allegedly assaulting the police officer at a Snap Check between Wonoo and Akotsosu in Ashanti Region.
All seven are to present one surety each in the sum of GHs10,000 each.
The Court presided over by Justice Frank Nii Ashetey Addo further assured of cracking the whip if the suspects are found culpable.
The prosecution, in their opening statement, requested that the court only head the charges and case details to the suspects.
They further stated that investigations into the incident remain incomplete.
One of the seven suspects, Thomas Kusi, is hospitalised from injuries sustained in the brawl.
All seven were charged with Conspiracy to commit crime and assault on a public officer.
A driver of the vehicle in which the suspects were in, 32-year-old Felix Boateng, was charged with failure to use all reasonable means to stop the commitment of felony by the six.
The facts of the case presented to court revealed the suspects, in an attempt to stop the police officer, Gen/Cpl Sylvestre Nana Berhene from conducting a check on their vehicle, struggled with the police officer resulting in the discharge of the police officer’s rifle.
It further states the suspects further assaulted the officer as his phone was stolen.
To complete investigations, prosecution pleaded for the suspects to be remanded.
Counsel for the suspects, Henry Ohemeng in defense prayed the court to grant the suspects bail since the offence is a misdemeanor.
“It would not be in the interest of justice in my humble opinion if the court should refuse the grant of bail just because the state says that investigations are ongoing”, he said.
Mr. Ohemeng added, “before I came to court I had the chance to speak to these people and the one on admission, they all informed me they did not assault the public officer”.
The Court in granting the bail application condemned attacks against public officers.
The court added if civilians go about attacking police officers then security of the citizenry including that of the magistrate is not assured.
Families of the suspects received the news in excitement.
Luv News sources indicate the police officer who sustained injuries at the knee remains hospitalised.
High labour costs and huge import duties on inputs and machinery remain major challenges faced by rice producers in the country.
There is high demand for the domestically produced rice but due to the afore-mention challenges, they are unable to produce in large quantities to meet demand.
Consequently, producers of the grain have appealed to the government to help create a conducive environment that will make production and processing easier, which they believe will, in return, increase production to meet the rising demand.
According to them, if the government can reduce taxes on imported inputs, such fertiliser and machinery, along with access to bank loans at reasonable rates, it will go a long way to improve productivity.
Rice is one of the most staple foods consumed locally, but domestic production accounts for only one third of consumption. Statistics from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) indicate that between 2008 and 2020, paddy rice production was in the range of 302,000 metric tonnes (mt) and 987,000 mt and 181,000 to 622,000mt of milled rice, with annual fluctuation and the total rice consumption in 2020 amounting to about 1,450,000mt, which is equivalent to per capita consumption of about 45kg per annum.
However, available data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) suggests that in 2020, Ghana imported US$391million worth of rice, becoming the 20th largest importer of the grain in the world. The country imports primarily from four countries: Vietnam, US$282million; Thailand, US$45.5million; India, US$27.3million; and China, US$5.95million.
Unquestionably, Ghana’s immense interest in importation, including rice, adversely affects local production, the domestic currency, jobs and the general economy.
Nonetheless, acknowledging the rise in demand for local rice in recent times in an interview with the B&FT, Mark Ademin, Manager of Achaabwen Enterprise – producers of Maxim rice in Fumbisi in the Upper East Region of Ghana, indicated that increased awareness and the modernised and improved ways of production have played a major role in increasing demand for local rice.
For instance, Achaabwen produced 14,000 bags of 25kg of both white and brown rice in June to December last year, but all has been bought, he says.
Janet Adade, a rice producer in the Oti Region, suggested that unstable exchange rates, health concerns and patriotism are contributing to the rise in demand.
She revealed that many diabetic patients, overweight individuals, and people living with stroke patronise a lot of her products, including brown rice, because it has less starch, rich in nutrients, and aids in healing the mentioned ailments.
Due to the improved processing and the use of de-stoner machines to remove stones from paddy rice during production, farmers no longer have to keep rice for years before distributing, resulting in rice that is fresh and tastes natural.
However, Ms. Adade bemoaned the lack of irrigation infrastructure, high costs of agro inputs like fertilisers and weedicides, among others, as major problems affecting rice farmers.
Sheila Cornelius, owner of Cornelius Farms and producer of Okorewaa Ghana rice, also attributed the rise in demand to increased awareness, a change in public perception, unfavourable exchange rate leading to increases in the price of imported rice, and improved packaging of locally-made rice.
She indicated that in 2021 and 2022, she cultivated 10 acres, which yielded 200 of 50kg bags. In 2023, however, she had to reduce her farm to 5 acres due to high input and labour costs even though demand is high.
“There is a lot of demand for local rice, but due to high labour costs and poor road network, we had to reduce the number of acres this year,” she lamented.
Ms. Cornelius, however, believes that the government can play a major role in helping ease the obstacles faced by players in the rice value chain.
Similarly, Daniel Amawiak Akanko, a distributor of Maxim rice in the Northern Region, called on the government to pay attention to roads in towns where rice production takes place.
“Due to bad road networks, deliveries that can be done in a day can take 2-3 days,” he fumed, adding: “Sometimes, our tracks breakdown due to the bad nature of the roads. When this happens, we end up spending days to either fix it or get another track for the loads”.
Ukraine’s government has refuted Yevgeny Prigozhin’s assertion that Russia owns “80%” of Bakhmut.
One of the longest-running and deadliest battles in the Ukrainian War, Bakhmut, was about to be captured, according to Prigozhin’s Telegram post from today.
Despite not being a major strategic node, Bakhmut, a mid-sized mining city in eastern Afghanistan, has emerged as one of the conflict’s most emblematic locations.
Bakhmut is mostly in ruins after ten months of carnage and bombardment, but the battle “continues,” according to Prigozhin, who today displayed a map of the region.
‘In Bakhmut, the larger part, more than 80% is now under our control, including the whole administrative centre, factories, warehouses, the administration of the city,’ he said.
He used a red marker pen to highlight the relatively small, mainly residential area of the city that remained to be captured by Russian forces.
Ukrainian soldiers have been facing off against ‘human waves’ of Wagner mercenaries (Picture: Reuters)Bakhmut has become mostly ruins in the 10 months of battle (Picture: AP)Around 90% of the city’s pre-invasion population has fled (Picture: Anadolu)
‘There,’ Prigozhin said, ‘the war continues.’
Not quite, said Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
‘This statement by Prigozhin is not true,’ Cherevatyi told CNN.
‘I’ve just been in touch with the commander of one of the brigades that are defending the city.
‘I can confidently state that the Ukrainian defence forces control a much larger percentage of the territory of Bakhmut.’
‘Prigozhin needs to show at least some victory in the city, which they have been trying to capture for nine months in a row, so he makes such statements,’ Cherevatyi added.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has said the ‘war continues’ in the city (Picture: AFP)
Wagner, a private military force with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sent wave after wave of recruits into Bakhmut to drag out the fight.
Prigozhin said he has handed some Wagner-dominated sections of the city to the Russian military.
‘We handed over the flanks to the Ministry of Defence. Units of the Ministry of Defence, including the airborne troops, have today taken over both the right and left flanks,’ he said.
‘That is why Zaliznyanskoye, Nikolaevka, and other settlements, which were stormed by units of the Wagner PMC in previous months, are in the area of responsibility of the airborne troops and other units of the Ministry of Defence.’
With Kyiv soldiers facing round-the-clock artillery bombardments, Moscow is now using ‘scorched earth’ tactics on Bakhmut, a Ukrainian commander said Monday.
‘The enemy switched to so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire,’ the commander of Ukraine’s ground force, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said.
‘The situation is difficult,’ he added, ‘but controllable.’
Prices of crude oil on the international markets is expected to fall by 24.1 percent to sell at an average of $73.1 per barrel in 2023, this is according to the IMF’s April 2023 World Economic Outlook Report.
The development will be a significant reduction from the $96.4 per barrel sold in 2022.
The International Monetary Fund said price of crude oil will however continue to drop in the coming years to an average of $65.4 per barrel in 2026.
In its April 2023 World Economic Outlook Report, the Fund explained that “uncertainty around this price outlook is elevated in part due to the uncertain rebound in China’s growth, as well as the energy transition”
In the wake of tough economic conditions on the globe, prices of crude oil retreated by 15.7 percent between August 2022 and February 2023 on the back of weakened demand.
Market leaders like China have also witnessed their first annual decline in oil consumption due to a resurgence in COVID-19 outbreaks and concerns in the real estate market.
Fears of a looming economic recession, coupled with inflation hikes, banking sector crisis and tightening of monetary policies in key economies, have all impacted on the oil demand and pricing.
The IMF report however noted that on the supply side, Western sanctions against Russia and its efforts to export crude oil have also impacted on global market balances.
“As of March, Russian crude oil exports had held steady since implementation of the Group of Seven (G7) price cap and ban on crude oil imports on December 5 [2023]. Russia rerouted its oil, reportedly sold at a major discount to Brent oil prices, to nonsanctioning countries, primarily India and China,” the IMF report noted.
Well-known radio presenter and fashion designer, Kofi Okyere-Darko, popularly known as KOD, has been involved in a social media altercation with veteran highlife legend, Gyedu Blay Ambolley.
KOD recently posted on Facebook that the experienced composer wants to engage in a verbal confrontation with him, but he will decide whether to respond in kind or not.
“Ambolley wants violence (vawulence) in comparing records. Maybe I won’t mind him,” he said on April 11, 2023.
On April 10, 2023, the altercation between the two celebrities intensified when Ambolley accused the Ghana Music Awards of contributing to the decline of the highlife genre.
However, KOD dismissed Ambolley’s claims as utter nonsense in a Facebook post.
In response to KOD’s comments, Ambolley retaliated in an interview with Andy Dosty, describing KOD as a shallow-minded “young boy” who he would not waste time on since he was busy preparing for his upcoming European tour.
“I see Okyere Darko as a child. He is shallow-minded, the reason why he said those things.
“I am going on an European tour in May next year. My music, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley‘s music, and in June, I will be back on tour. So when he sits and talks, can he take his clothes on tour as a designer like the way I am going on tour with my music?” he quizzed.
This feud between KOD and Ambolley has caused a stir on social media, with supporters of both celebrities taking sides and expressing their opinions.
Ambolley is a veteran musician who has contributed greatly to the highlife genre and has released numerous albums throughout his illustrious career.
A boy who fatally stabbed another teen in Somerset was sentenced to life in prison after his mother called the police.
In July of last year, a confrontation between two parties broke out in a parking lot in Radstock, when Joshua Delbono, 19, fatally shot Charley Bates.
During the course of two weeks, a Bristol court heard that when Delbono came home to Frome, his mother dialed 999.
Having deliberated for seven hours, a jury today found Delbono guilty of murder.
He has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years.
Delbono had admitted to knifing Charley but denied murdering him – he did so to defend a friend, Delono alleged.
Bristol Crown Court heard how the killing erupted after two groups of teenagers scuffled in a car park at around 6:30pm on July 31.
The victim was with a group of six friends at the time when two cars – one driven by Delbono – pulled into the car park.
Charley had long had bad blood towards one member of the defendant’s group over an alleged £20 debt, the jury heard. But he did not know Delbono.
But within the space of five minutes, the two groups traded insults while Delbono was inside the vehicle before he stepped out holding a five-inch knife.
Delbono plunged the weapon into the youngster several times. He alleged three youths sprung at him and he was defending himself.
‘Don’t mess with us again,’ he told the victim as he lay bleeding on the concrete, a witness claimed.
Charley was found by paramedics critically injured but was pronounced dead at the scene. A pathologist report said he suffered a stab wound to the chest and a wound on his arm consistent with trying to defend himself.
Delbono drove for half an hour to Shearwater Lake near Warminster in Wiltshire to throw the knife away and burn some of his clothing before heading home.
Six hours after the stabbing at 12:45am, Delbono’s mother phoned 999 and told them: ‘My son’s killed someone.
‘He’s in my house now. I can’t let him go anywhere,’ she said, adding that she felt ‘sick’ by what he had done.
Delbono was well aware his mum made the call, the court heard. ‘Yes, I’ve told him I’ve got to do it,’ she told the call handler.
The teen said on the same call that he did stab Charley but wasn’t sure where the knife landed as he had ‘launched it into the air’.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Almond from the Major Crime Investigation Team at Avon and Somerset Police said: ‘For much of this trial, Joshua Delbono has been arguing that he did stab Charley but it was in a means to defending his friend.
‘One of the lessons for young people is around the dangers of carrying knives.
‘Nationally we see that it is a problem and I think every youth who carries a knife, that creates a problem.
‘But Josh Delbono stepped into a fight that wasn’t involving any kind of weapons.
‘He bought a knife into the mix and someone lost their life and now he will spend a number of years in jail.’
In a heartbreaking tribute to Charley, his family said: ‘Our beautiful Charley boy. We are all so very proud of you.
According to a recent report, Downing Street believes that scheduling the next general election for the fall of 2024 will increase the Tory Party’s prospects of winning.
Although there is no confirmed date, Rishi Sunak‘s team is reportedly considering the months of October and November in 2019.
It is hoped that after the prime minister’s second year in office, the economy would have improved, which will help his reelection campaign.
According to rumors, Mr. Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are discussing lowering the top rate of income tax in the upcoming autumn statement. If approved, the change would take effect in April 2024.
This may also coincide with a rise in the national living wage next spring, while plans are reportedly in the works to lower the age threshold for the living wage from 23 to 21.
Ministers are being advised that the living wage should rise from £10.42 to £11.16 an hour, or more, amid the cost of living crisis, it’s believed.
A senior government source told The Times: ‘It’s all about people feeling that they have more money in their pocket by the time we get to the next election.’
Officials also hope the controversial Illegal Migration Bill will have taken effect and the number of refugees coming across the Channel will have dropped.
The notion of calling an early election has been firmly rejected as the Conservatives trail behind Labour in the polls.
Trackers are currently placing the Tories 18 percentage points behind on average – down from 24 points when Mr Sunak took over in October.
The latest a general election can be held is January 2025 and some Tory MPs fear a hung Parliament could still emerge, The Telegraph says.
In the lead-up to the next election, they are apparently looking to paint Sir Keir Starmer as a ‘flip-flopper’.
It comes after focus groups said they are unsure what the Labour leader stands for, amid confusion on his views on issues including trans rights and picket lines.
The Tories have been in power for 13 years, but have faced countless scandals over recent years.
Boris Johnson was forced to step down in shame last year and is currently facing an investigation into whether he misled MPs over parties at Downing Street during lockdown.
Liz Truss then became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history when her disastrous mini-budget sent the economy into a spiral.
Mr Sunak has not been immune to scandal himself and has faced criticism for a string of U-turns, a fine from police and alleged bullying from some of his Cabinet ministers.
But allies say he wants to present himself as the ‘change candidate’.
Downing Street has declined to comment on when the next general election may be.
But a government spokesperson said the ‘economic priority for the government is to cut inflation’.
The Member of Parliament for Bibiani Anhwiaso-Bekwai Constituency is set to fulfill a promise to help some youth in his area travel out of the country to seek greener pastures.
Senior journalist at EIB Network Francis Abban shared a post on Twitter suggesting that the MP, Alfred Obeng-Boateng, has hinted that the first batch of the Greener Pastures Project will son leave the shores of Ghana.
In 2022, Hon. Alfred Obeng-Boateng announced that 100 youth in the Municipality will fly to the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe to seek greener pastures.
The youth in the area were excited and the initiative has since attracted the attention of residents in the Constituency and the Western North Region as a whole.
The MP spoke about the imminent travel of the first cohort on April 8, 2023 at Baakokrom, a suburb of Sefwi Bekwai.
He was in the area to commission a mechanized borehole for the community.
Meanwhile, the project has elicited varied reactions by people on social media.
Former President John Mahama has stated that he is the only viable candidate that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) fears and therefore he should be elected as flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the upcoming 2024 general elections.
Speaking to delegates of the NDC in the Somanya Constituency on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, Mahama expressed his confidence in his ability to lead the NDC to victory in the elections.
“I wouldn’t have contested if I was sure that my contenders for the NDC presidential slot could stand against the NPP and win the 2024 general elections, but we cannot take the risk. The only person the NPP fears amongst NDC members is me, John Dramani Mahama,” he said.
Mahama went on to accuse the NPP of being unable to sleep when they hear his name, hence their call for a new face to lead the NDC. He also dismissed calls for a change in leadership within the NDC, saying it was none of their business.
“They [NPP] are unable to sleep when they hear my name. That’s why they have been calling for a fresh person. Are you the ones to tell us what we should do? It’s none of your business, I believe God has given us the power already,” he said.
The NDC is expected to hold its presidential primaries on May 13, 2023, with Mahama and other prominent party members expected to contest for the position of flagbearer.
Ahead of the contest, Mr Mahama is being touted by key figures in the NDC as the presumptive leader of the party.
A conductor for one of Ukraine’s premier opera houses was killed on the front lines while defending his nation from the Russian invasion, and he has since been acclaimed as a hero.
The 40-year-old bassoonist, who was also a conductor and producer, was nominated for multiple honors for his work on Gaetano Donizetti’s comedic opera Rita for the 150-year-old Kyiv Opera.
In the early days following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February of last year, Starovytskyi—better known to his friends and coworkers as Kostey—traded his instrument for a weapon.
According to the news site Ukrainian Pravda, he was initially involved in defending his home city of Brovary before serving in Kharkiv.
The website said Anhelina Karpenko, a singer, wrote in tribute: ‘Once we worked on a production together. Kostey was conducting, and I was singing.
‘We dreamt about the stage, and found an amazing team. Now he will play his music with the heavenly orchestra.’
In a Facebook post, the Kyiv Opera wrote: ‘Another irreparable loss for Ukrainian culture, for our theater, in particular.
‘Kostyantyn Starovytskyi, our colleague, who was in the orchestra at the Kyiv Opera, and later the conductor-producer of Donizetti’s opera “Rita” and one of the directors and authors of the Ukrainian translation of Rossini’s opera “The Marriage Contract”, died while defending the country.
‘Glory to the Hero! Eternal memory! Glory to Ukraine!’
Starovytskyi’s young daughter Yeva, wife Snizhana and elderly mother Liudmyla survive him. A farewell ceremony was held in Brovary, east of Kyiv, this morning.
The war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been devastating for culture in Ukraine.
Just a week after the invasion last year, missiles and rockets hit the opera house and concert hall in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, killing at least 10 people and injuring 35.
Most notoriously, Russian bombs destroyed a theatre in Mariupol where civilians were sheltering on March 16 2022, killing as many as 600 people according to the Associated Press.
A New York Times investigation from December found 339 Ukrainian cultural sites that had ‘sustained significant damage’ in the war.
However, artists have also been at the forefront of showing defiance against the invaders.
In March last year, a small band was filmed performing in front of the barricades protecting the Kyiv Opera House.
Another video, in which violin players from around the world virtually join a Ukrainian musician in a bomb shelter to play the folk song ‘Verbovaya Doschechka’, went viral soon afterwards.\
A pay disagreement involving junior physicians in England has sparked a four-day walkout that could severely disrupt the NHS.
A projected 350,000 appointments, including surgeries, would be canceled as a result of the British Medical Association members’ strike (BMA).
Beginning at 7 a.m. today, doctors set up picket lines outside of hospitals, where they plan to remain on strike until Saturday morning.
Downing Street has also insisted there would be no talks with the BMA unless junior doctors abandoned their starting position of a 35% rise and called off the strikes.
Striking Junior Doctors march through central London
Number 10 said the 35% demand was ‘completely out of step with pay settlements in other parts of the public sector’ and would cost £2 billion.
Managers have said patient care is ‘on a knife edge’ because of the strike and the suggested number of cancelled appointments could rise by 100,000.
National medical director of NHS England Professor Sir Stephen Powis said he expects the figures to be ‘considerably more than the 175,000’.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘When we had the last period of industrial action a few weeks ago, that was three days, we saw over 175,000 operations and procedures having to be rescheduled.
‘We won’t get the exact number this week until the strike is over but our expectation is that we will see considerably more than that.’
He added: ‘I think it will be considerably more than the 175,000 – it’s four days this time, not three days, and of course it comes after the Easter holidays and a lot of staff are on leave this week.’
The strikes centre around a pay row between the BMA and Government, with the union claiming junior doctors in England have seen a 26% real-term pay cut since 2008/09 because pay rises have been below inflation.
The union has asked for a full pay restoration that the Government said would amount to a 35% pay rise – which ministers have said is unaffordable.
The Prime Minister is said to have been kept up to date with the latest on the strikes, and a spokesman said today unless the strikes were called off no further talks would take place.
A spokesman said: ‘A spokesman said: ‘It continues to be the case that we call on the BMA junior doctors to cease their strikes and revise their starting point for negotiations, which is 35%, which we continue to believe is unreasonable and is not affordable for the British taxpayer.
‘We know that the strike action will have an impact on patient care. The last set of strikes saw around 180,000 operations cancelled and that was a three-day strike, so we’d expect to see higher numbers this week.’
BMA officials said the pay issue is making it harder to recruit and retain junior doctors, with members previously walking out for three days in March.
The co-chairman of the BMA junior doctors’ committee said the pay rise the union has asked for is ‘not a tall ask’.
Dr Vivek Trivedi told BBC Breakfast: ‘This uplift that we’re asking for is only to reverse the pay cuts that we’ve had, doctors have had more than a 26% real-terms pay cut over the last 15 years.
‘All we’re asking is for a doctor who’s paid £14 an hour to be paid £19 an hour, so it’s not a tall ask.’
Dr Trivedi added that the 96-hour walkout by junior doctors could be stopped if Health Secretary Steve Barclay would approach negotiations with a ‘credible offer’.
‘We’ve offered multiple dates to Mr Barclay to try and meet and he’s only met us twice, he didn’t have a mandate to negotiate once, and didn’t even give us an offer the second time,’ he said.
NHS England said staff will be asked to prioritise emergency and urgent care over some routine appointments and procedures to ensure safe care for those in life-threatening situations.
The health body said appointments and operations will only be cancelled ‘where unavoidable’ and patients will be offered alternative dates as soon as possible.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: ‘It is extremely disappointing the BMA has called strike action for four consecutive days.
‘Not only will the walkouts risk patient safety, but they have also been timed to maximise disruption after the Easter break.
‘I hoped to begin formal pay negotiations with the BMA last month but its demand for a 35% pay rise is unreasonable – it would result in some junior doctors receiving a pay rise of over £20,000.
‘If the BMA is willing to move significantly from this position and cancel strikes we can resume confidential talks and find a way forward, as we have done with other unions.
‘People should attend appointments unless told otherwise by the NHS, continue to call 999 in a life-threatening emergency and use NHS 111 online services for non-urgent health needs.’
The BMA has previously said it was willing to enter talks with Mr Barclay and suspend strikes if members were presented with a ‘credible’ pay offer ‘to resolve 15 years of pay erosion’.
Mr Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation which is a membership organisation that represents healthcare bodies in the UK, said the likely impact of the strike is ‘heartbreaking’ and called on both sides to end their ‘battle of rhetoric’.
Speaking about pay negotiations which would avoid the action, Mr Taylor told BBC Breakfast on Monday: ‘It’s depressing that there seems to be no movement at all from the two sides of this dispute over the last few days.
‘We should consider asking the Government and the trade unions to call in Acas, the conciliation service, to provide some basis for negotiations, because if anything the positions seem to have hardened over the last couple of days.’
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘The junior doctors’ strike this week will cause huge disruption to patient care.
‘Where is the Prime Minister and why hasn’t he tried to stop it?
‘Rishi Sunak says he ‘wouldn’t want to get in the middle of’ NHS pay disputes.
‘Patients are crying out for leadership, but instead they are getting weakness.’
Last night, President Putin allegedly launched a “new intercontinental ballistic missile” at Kazakhstan, striking a target at a firing range.
The enigmatic rocket’s full specifications were initially withheld, but experts concur that it is a potent Topol-ME system.
It was launched from the Astrakhan-area Kapustrin Yar test site and struck the Sary-Shagan range in neighboring Kazakhstan.
A spectacular video shows the late night launch as Russians today mark the 62nd anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s blastoff in Vostok 1 to be the first man in space.
The rocket was launched overnight (Picture: MoD Russia/e2w)
In an official statement, the Russian defence ministry said: ‘The combat crew of the Strategic Missile Troops successfully launched a intercontinental ballistic missile of the land-based mobile missile system from the Kapustin Yar State Central Training Ground in the Astrakhan Region.’
The launch was aimed at ‘testing the advanced military supply of intercontinental ballistic missiles’, reported TASS citing the ministry.
‘The launch permitted proving that design and engineering solutions used in the development of new strategic missile complexes are correct,’ said the ministry.
The exercise head hit a ‘hypothetical target’ at Sary-Shagan which Russia uses under agreement with Kazakhstan.
‘The launch fully dispatched its mission,’ said the ministry.
Outlet Military Russia and others indicated the launch was a test ‘apparently for the first time’…of advanced combat equipment 15Zh55ME Topol-ME also known as Yars-E.
The rocket can be unleashed from a mobile launcher, it stated.
A Topol-ME launch from Kapustrin Yar had been predicted for this year.
It is believed to be a development of the old Topol system.
The new development ‘will solve the issue of the expiration of Topol missiles, which were previously used for such test launches, and will also allow the payload to be launched on a platform unified with many modern missiles.’
Russia is also due to carry out more tests with its hypersonic Sarmat rocket, known in the West as Satan-2, which appears subject to mysterious delays in an humiliation for after a failure to meet a deployment deadline at the end of 2022.
Some reports have suggested a failed test launch of Sarmat in February.
The Satan-2 rocket is the size of a 14 storey tower block weighing 208 tons which is capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads.
Five test launches of Satan-2 have been predicted for this year.
In May, former head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, seen as a close Putin ally, said almost 50 Satan-2 missiles, which were in mass production, would soon be on combat duty.
In early June, a major ICBM test was scheduled and locals near the Kura test range were warned to stay clear of the target site in remote Kamchatka. But the test never happened.
In June last year Rogozin boasted: ‘We are absolutely on schedule, we are now preparing for the second flight test of the Sarmat.’
The following month Rogozin was fired for unknown reasons with his promised new job yet to arrive.
His successor, ex-deputy premier Yury Borisov, in July repeated the claim that the missile is in mass production without evidently reiterating Putin’s goal of Satan-2 being on combat duty by December.
Defence analysts suspecting hypersonic hyperbole have pointed out that Russia’s R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested no less than 17 times before it was put on combat duty.
Popular Ghanaian actor and comedian Ebenezer Akwasi Antwi, popularly known as Ras Nene, has released the trailer for his highly anticipated movie, “Akakalito.” The action-packed trailer was shared on the actor’s official Instagram page, where it received an overwhelmingly positive response from his fans.
“Akakalito” is a comedic take on the Hollywood blockbuster “Apocalypto” and is set to feature Ras Nene’s signature humour and acting skills. The film has been in the works for some time and fans of the actor have highly anticipated its release.
The trailer, which features a jungle setting, follows Ras Nene and his team as they battle for superiority. The actor’s comedic antics came into play, resulting in a series of hilarious moments. The trailer has been praised for its exceptional production quality and fans are excitedly anticipating its release.
Ras Nene has been a prominent figure in the Ghanaian entertainment industry, gaining popularity for his comic relief performances in movies and TV shows. His social media presence has also played a significant role in his success, with the actor amassing a large following on platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
The release of the “Akakalito” trailer has been a significant milestone for the actor, with fans expressing excitement and anticipation at the movie’s official release. The comment section of the actor’s Instagram post was filled with praises and positive feedback from fans who could not wait to see the entire film.
Ras Nene is one of the top products of Kumawood. Aside from him, there are other renowned movie stars.
