The lawmaker alleges that documents in possession of the Minority caucus revealed that the current management of BOST has inflated the cost of the original contract without reasonable justification by the Public Procurement Authority.
Addressing journalists in parliament on July 28, John Jinapor said the original contract sum of the twin tower building which was valued at US$39 million now ballooned to a whopping US$78 million.
“If the two-tower building is accounted for based on the current cost of the single unit valued at $39,000,000.00. This means the building has been inflated by 100% over the original contract,†the lawmaker alleged.
“We [Minority] say so because we have noted that the current Management of BOST decided to acquire only one of the twin unit building due to the precarious financial position of the company, however it applied to the Public Procurement Authority for approval to vary the original contract for the single unit from the original price of $19,500,000.00 per unit to a new cost of $24,000,000.00,†he continued.
“To our utmost shock and dismay, but of cause as usual of this government, the PPA without any reasonable justification in granting the approval hiked the contract sum to an inflated figure of $39,000,000.00 for a single unit when BOST could have originally constructed the twin-tower office at the original price of $39,000,000.00,†John Jinapor said.
The Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee however called for an independent investigation into the matter for urgent action to be taken against the persons involved.
Nigerian singer Stanley Omah Didia, popularly known as Omah Lay, has stated that his collaboration with Canadian singer Justin Bieber was the easiest collaboration he ever had.
The singer made this known in a recent interview where he opened up about how he met Justin Bieber.
Omah Lay explained that their friendship kicked off on Instagram after he put out his first project, “Get Layd”.
He added that the Canadian singer’s name Justin Biebermight sound so hard, but that was the easiest collaboration he ever had, and all he had to do was send him a verse of the song, and the rest was history.
“My friendship with Justin Bieberstarted when I put out my first project “, Get Layd” he texted me on Instagram and followed me, and that was the begging of everything.
The name Justin Bieber might sound so hard, right, but that was the easiest collaboration I ever had. I just sent a song; he heard the song, loved it, and sent back a verse”.
The Afrobeats singer and Justin Bieber released the chart-topping tune, ‘Attention’ together.
The record, which was released on Thursday, March 3, 2022, has gathered over 9 million views on the streaming platform, Boomplay.
Theophilus Nii Arday Otoo, also known as Epixodein the entertainment industry, is a musician and record producer. He has revealed that not all Reggae and Dancehall performers smoke marijuana, also known as “wee.”
In an interview with Amansan Krakye, he stated, “Not to imply that every reggae or dancehall artist uses marijuana; that’s a mistake because me, for example, I’ve never smoked wee before in my life.
He added in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com, “I have never drunk alcohol before, but I have locks, and people tend to mix it up because not everybody who has locks is a Rastafarian though mine is dreadlocks”.
According to the 2021 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) Reggae Dancehall Artiste of the Year, there are a lot of people who use marijuana but don’t have dreadlocks or are not related to their genre of music.
“There are a countless number of people out there who are not reggae dancehall artiste or not having dreadlocks but use marijuana even more than the reggae dancehall artiste do,” he said.
“But then, with time, when we educate ourselves more on these things, our eyes will be opened enough to understand these things better than now,” he concluded on Cape Coast’s Kastle FM.
The special nationwide exercise is aimed at clamping down on illegal power users to mobilize revenue for the company.
Addressing the media after one month of a moratorium in Accra, the Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama indicated that the special operation dubbed “Visibility†will see the deployment of a task force from the National Revenue Taskforce and the Revenue Protect Unit of ECG with support from the Ghana Police Service to visit homes.
Prices of petroleum products may go down between 3% and 6% from August 1st, 2022.
According to the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), the expected reduction will have been bigger if not for the depreciation of the cedi against the U.S dollar.
The drop in fuelprices will be the second consecutive time since oil prices started falling on the world market.
“What, we picked from the market for the first window of August [2022] is an indication that prices at the pumps should have gone down significantly. The unfortunate thing at this point happens to be with the currency [cedi]. As I speak with you, over the two weeks window, the FX has seen some depreciation, from about ¢8.30 to about ¢8.90 pesewas currentlyâ€, Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, disclosed.
“And so that could on its own erode the reductions that you and I could have seen at the various pumpsâ€, he added.
Mr. Amoah urged government to take a second look at the deregulation policy to cushion consumers against the high fuel prices.
“We have said on a good number of occasions, that the earlier we take a second look at this whole regulation programme, the better it would beâ€.
The Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions for the year ended 31 December, 2019 cited SSNIT for procuring Furnishing for Management to the tune of GHc990,000 without alternative quotations.
This the Auditor-General noted is in contravention of Section 20 of the Public Procurement (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act 914) which requires the provision of quotations of items from as many suppliers or contractors as practicable.
MTN-Ghana has launched an internal campaign to motivate its staff to facilitate the SIM registration exercise.
The campaign dubbed: “GRAB, CHECK AND ACT (GCA)†is to encourage all staff, irrespective of their role to assist with the registration of customers.
A statement issued by the Acting Chief Corporate Services Officer for MTN, Nana Kofi Asare, said all MTN Staff have been tasked to check the registration status of customers they interacted with so that unregistered customers could be assisted to do so.
The statement also said MTN has deployed its field agents to communities with lowest registration numbers to get the customers registered.
Providing further details Chief Sales and Distribution Officer of MTN Ghana, Shaibu Haruna, stated that efforts have been intensified to leave no one behind as the programme nears its end.
“We are nearly at the finish line and so we have intensified our efforts to reach out to all our customers.”
He further entreated all customers rolled on to various data packages to ensure that SIM cards in their modems and other smart devices are registered.
“We have created many channels (including our online portal  simregistration@mtngh.com) to ensure our customers register with ease. We are encouraging them to use the available channels that are convenient for them to speed up the registration process,” he added.
The mandatory SIM card registration exercise commenced in October 2021 as part of efforts to curtail fraudulent and criminal activities facilitated by mobile phones or SIM-enabled devices by helping the authorities to ascertain real numbers valid and accurate SIMs on mobile networks.
It is scheduled to end on July 31, 2022.
Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, says her outfit would not extend the set deadline for the nationwide SIM card registration exercise.
Consequently, she said all unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated by the end of July this year, and advised mobile phone users yet to register their SIM cards to do so to meet the deadline.
Today marks 30 years since ex-president John Dramani Mahamaand his wife tied the knot to begin their journey of marital bliss. Take a sneak peek into the beauty of mature love deepened with commitment and devotion below:
Date each other consistently, consciously and passionately.
My inspiration, my strength, my soul mate. You make life better for all those whose lives you touch…https://t.co/YyT5jR9N14
Happy 62nd Birthday @JDMahama, whatever gifts we get for you, cannot match the gift that God gave us, in the form of you. #iTrustJMpic.twitter.com/VxzPaZFTR0
It’s been an amazing marriage journey with you my Love. Happy 28th wedding anniversary to us. 28years down, and forever to go.#endlesslovepic.twitter.com/36ojiEh3kK
Russia cut gas imports to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just over 14-kilowatt hours (kWh) per hour on Wednesday, roughly 20% of the capacity of the pipeline.
While 27 million kWh of gas arrived at the German terminal in Lubmin between 6 am (0400 GMT) and 7 am, the volume had decreased to 17 million kWh between 8 am and 9 am and then sank to just over 14 million kWh from 9 am.
This is the level at which deliveries are expected to remain for the rest of the day, according to the Nord Stream 1 website.
The move had been announced by the Russian gas company Gazprom, which said it would cut down the volume of gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1 from 40% to 20% of capacity.
Russia is blaming the reduced volume of gas deliveries on technical issues resulting from the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West.
However, the German government is among those who see the lower gas deliveries as Moscow exploiting its leverage against the heavily reliant German – and, indeed, European – energy market for political purposes.
The chief of the German Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, accused Russia of weaponizing its gas supply in an interview with German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday.
The dwindling gas supply from Russia is raising concerns that the German government may have to take control of the gas supply in the coming winter. As gas is also used for heating, demand is much higher in cold weather.
Experts, including German energy economist Claudia Kemfert, said that it is crucial for the country to start saving its gas now, in order to fill up its stocks before the winter.
Kemfert spoke out in favour of a scheme in which companies can apply for compensation for saving on gas, and for more help for households to save gas.
She warned that Germany was already running late with its efforts to save enough gas for the winter.
Households should also prepare for higher prices; according to the energy expert of the North-Rhine Westphalia consumer advice centre, Udo Sieverding, 1 kWh of gas could soon go up in price from around 5 cents to 25 cents.
German gas stocks are at 66.4% as of Tuesday. The government plans to reach 75% by September 1, 85% by October 1, and 95% by November 1, in order to avert a situation where households and industry would compete for the limited supply.
However, it is unclear how gas imports will continue. Russia has shown itself to be an unreliable source; “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is playing a perfidious game,” said Economic Minister Robert Habeck.
A total of fifteen judges have so far been elevated to the Supreme Courtbench since President Akufo-Addo assumed office.
The latest appointment was made on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. It was announced by Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on the floor of Parliament following a letter sent to him by the President.
The President in the statement indicated that “as a result of pending and projected vacancies at the Supreme Court this year, the Judicial Council advised me on July 4, 2022 by letter under the hand of its Chairperson, Chief Justice Anin-Yeboahof the suitabilities of my nominations for appointment to the Court of these persons in accordance with Article 144 (2) of the constitution.”
The new list comprised three justices of the Court of Appeal and a Justice of the High Court, namely; Justice Barbara Frances Ackah-Yensu, Justice George Kingsley Koomson, and Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu (all of the Court of Appeal) and Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu of the High Court.
Below is the list of all the justices appointed to the Supreme Court under the Akufo-Addo-led administration and their year of appointment. It must be stated that of the 15, one of the judges recently passed on:
An unemployed Togolese, Kola Josue, who allegedly strangled a driver with a rope and snatched his Toyota Vitz at Lashibi, has been remanded into Police custody by an Accra Circuit Court.
Josue is said to have committed the act with two others whose names were given as Joshua and Ajokate, now at large.
The Police nabbed Josue when he and his accomplices attempted to sell the vehicle at Accra Mall.
He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit criminal offence namely robbery and robbery.
The accused person is expected to reappear before the Court presided over by Mrs Rosemary Baah Torsu, on August 10, 2022.
Prosecuting, Inspector Jonas Lawer told the court that the complainant Emmanuel Allotey, was a driver at Baatsona in the Greater Accra Region.
Inspector Lawer said Josue was a Togolese residing at Lashibi and that on July 22, this year, the accused and his accomplices Johua and Ajokate, now at large, met at Lashibi and discussed how to snatch a vehicle from a driver.
The prosecution said the following day, at about 12:00 midnight, while the complainant was driving his Toyota Vitz taxi with registration number GT 5644-21 and working within the Lashibi area, the accused and his accomplices engaged him to send them to EMEF Estates.
It is said at about 12:30 am, the complainant reached the accused persons’ destination and they all alighted and attempted to pay the fare.
The prosecution said Josue, who was seated behind the driver suddenly pulled a rope and tied it around the complainant’s neck and pulled it against the driver’s seat until the complainant became unconscious.
It said Josue and his accomplices pushed the complainant out of the car and drove the vehicle away leaving the complainant to his fate.
In the early hours of the same day, the prosecution said Josue and his accomplices took the vehicle to Accra Mall to sell.
It said the Police, however, got wind of it and proceeded to the scene and nabbed Josue.
It said Josue’s accomplices escaped.
The prosecution said Josue sent the Police to where he and his accomplices abandoned the complainant.
It said the complainant identified the accused persons as the one who strangled him with a rope.
The prosecution said the accused in his caution statement mentioned Joshua and Ajokate as his accomplices.
It said when Josue led the Police to the residence of his accomplices, they were nowhere to be found.
A diamond believed to be a record find has been discovered in Angola.
The rare pure pink 170-carat stone has been named ‘The Lulo Rose,’ by the Australian site operator whose workers found it.
It is said to be the largest rough diamond to be unearthed in 300 years.
The government issued a statement in which sector minister Diamantino Azevedo is quoted as saying: “This record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining.”
The diamond, found in the Luo alluvial mine in north-eastern Angola, will be sold at international tender by the Angolan state diamond marketing company.
Similar stones, once cut and polished, have sold for record-breaking prices. The Pink Star, a 59-carat pink diamond, sold for $71.2m in 2017 – the most expensive ever, a BBC Africa LIVE report noted.
Southern Africa is believed to be rich in diamonds with the last known giant diamond discovered in neighbouring Botswana months back.
Most drivers today are focused on the high cost of filling up their tanks with regular fuel.
But there’s another important fuel on the gas station price board, and its nationwide price average currently eclipses gasoline’s by more than a $1 a gallon: diesel fuel.
“Diesel is what powers trucking. It is what powers our global economy,” said Joseph Sykora, an equity analyst at Aptus Capital Advisors.
But diesel isn’t only crucial for trucking — it’s fundamental to international transport as a whole because the engines of heavy-load vehicles like freight trucks, cargo jets and barges run on diesel and its chemical siblings. So when sending products all over the country and the world becomes more expensive, the prices of the products those transport vehicles carry also rises, worsening inflation.
Diesel prices have long been more expensive than gasoline, well before today’s factors including the ongoing war in Ukraine, low refinery capacities and post-Covid energy demand crunched global oil supplies and pushed up prices. But why?
There are three primary reasons for the price discrepancy: the transition to cleaner diesel blends, higher state and federal taxes, and diesel’s supply and demand.
Dirty diesel
In 2006, the US Environmental Protection Agency began phasing in rules that significantly limited the sulfur content of diesel fuel. The agency did this because aggravated levels of airborne sulfur matter are toxic for both humans and the environment.
And since 2014, the EPA has regulated that all diesel sold and produced in the United States must be ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel) — a standard of diesel which limits sulfur contents to 15 parts per million. Sulfur content regulations have reduced toxic emissions by at least 90%, according to the EPA.
The EPA’s regulations greatly benefit the environment. But lowering the sulfur content of diesel has led to lower energy density (less fuel economy per gallon) and raised production costs at the refinery, placing upward pressure on prices.
Diesel’s duty
President Joe Biden’s administration recently called on Congress to suspend the federal tax on diesel and gasoline. Regardless of whether the proposed tax holiday would be effective, it calls attention to the tax itself.
The federal motor fuel excise tax, which has not changed since 1993, imposes an extra 18.3 cent tax on gasoline and a 24.3 cent tax on diesel. Revenue from the tax supports the Highway Trust Fund, a federal purse that finances the construction and maintenance of highways and other mass-transit projects.
In addition to the federal tax, each state has its own additional duty on both fuels — the average diesel tax is 7.55 cents higher.
Diesel taxes are higher because the primary vehicles with diesel engines, freight trucks and buses, are substantially heavier and deteriorate roads considerably more than the average automobile.
Demand for diesel
Finally, diesel’s steep price is attributed to the basic economic principle of supply and demand: not enough supply, combined with barrels and barrels of demand.
On the supply side, diesel is produced at a reduced rate compared to gasoline. In the US, for every one barrel of crude oil refined there are about 19 to 20 gallons of gasoline produced. That figure drops to just 11 to 12 gallons for diesel.
On the demand side, diesel and its molecular siblings help manufacture, grow and transport nearly all consumer products. The fuel powers engines in trucks, trains, industrial machines, construction and farming equipment, buses, generators, home heating systems, ships and military vehicles.
Gasoline might power American cars, but because diesel powers the American economy, its price also affects our daily lives.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the chemicals that power cargo and barge fuel. Trucks run on diesel fuels, while planes and barges run on its chemical cousins.
Even with a new deal that would allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the impact of elevated prices could still be severe in Africa, which imports most of its food, and where the IMF forecasts inflation could reach as high as 12.2% this year.
Rabiu is the CEO of BUA Group, a conglomerate in food processing, infrastructure, manufacturing and mining. His company has made investments across the continent to cut its reliance on imports from Europe and Asia.
He spoke with CNN’s Eleni Giokos last month at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
High inflation, food insecurity, energy prices: What are you going to do to solve some of these issues?
Rabiu: Part of the problem is that we import 80% of what we consume. For example, Africa imported over 55 million tons of wheat last year, and wheat is one of the commodities that has really been hit hard in terms of high prices. Since the Ukrainian-Russian (conflict) started, we have seen a situation where the price (of wheat) got from $250 to almost $600 per ton. And you know Africa relies heavily on Russian and Ukrainian wheat.
So how is your input being affected?
Rabiu: If you import and the price is double, what do you do? You have to increase the prices. And a lot of people cannot really afford that. So we are seeing a decrease in terms of production, processing and consumption, and that is a big issue. That is why I keep saying that we have to look inwards, do as much as we can to add value to what we have. We have to increase (our) production for the food security of the continent.
You have been in the pasta business, for example. Why haven’t you already gotten into farming? I know wheat is difficult to grow.
Rabiu: Wheat is difficult to grow but we are also into sugar and we’re building the most advanced sugar plantation in Nigeria. It’s a 20,000-hectare, four-in-one, fully integrated sugar plantation with sugar mill, sugar refinery, ethanol and power plant. We decided to do that because we realized we were spending a lot of money to import raw sugar and that is something that could be easily planted and produced in Nigeria. Our inputs as far as raw sugar is concerned will come down drastically.
The African Continental Free Trade Area went live (in 2021). Have you seen a real impact on your business?
Rabiu: The free trade area is an amazing arrangement. We all need to come together to enjoy the benefits. Of course, we also have challenges as far as infrastructure is concerned, and for the agreement to succeed, you need to fix your infrastructure space, especially in areas like ports.
You still find that challenging?
Rabiu: I give you an example: it’s more expensive to ship goods from Nigeria to, say, Lomè (in Togo, West Africa) than from Nigeria to Brazil. And that’s because we have the vessels without the ports. So those issues are there and we need to fix our infrastructure.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assented to an amendment to the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, Act 1079, to allow accused persons exchange their right to full trial for other benefits.
The Attorney General has assured that before full implementation of this law, lawyers, judges, the police and, indeed, all other stakeholders will be trained in a series of programmes.
Broadcast journalist, Nana Aba Anamoah is the latest to call out Serwaa Ampaafo, a natural hair lover who identifies herself as an Afrocentric woman.
Serwaa topped social media trends on Tuesday following her bad comment on three black athletes who wore long wigs during a race.
Shirley Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson’s personal decision to wear colourful hair extensions on the world stage attracted the wrath of the Ghanaian natural hair enthusiast.
In a Facebook post that has caught the attention of other nationals, Serwaa was dragged for disrespecting the track and field sprinters from Jamaica.
Others social media users noted that she could have made her point devoid of insults.
The sprinters won medals at the World Athletics Championship-Oregon 2022.
Serwaa’s Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb reads: “Good you won with your legs in athletics and not in any event which involves complex brain activity; Because there is no way these brains covered in those hideous wigs can ever win in any competition that is shockingly groundbreaking. Clowns!
Broadcaster, Nana Aba who was appalled by the comment lashed out at Serwaa for rather channeling her energy into disrespecting the medalists instead of celebrating their achievement.
“If you are not a nuclear scientist or a global expert in quantum physics or some such fancy world changing job then I’m sure you have to be put on a suicide watch list. You’re sick,” she wrote under the viral post.
Also, some Jamaicans visited Serwaa’s page to drag her for badmouthing their heroines.
She was pushed to restrict the comment section following the backlash from the public.
According to the power distribution company, it acted on the disconnection exercise after its Loss Control Unit embarked on surveillance in the Abiriem district on Thursday, July 21, 2022.
General Manager of Eastern Region ECG, Ing. Michael Baah, said the Revenue Protection Unit has the mandate to inspect all meters in the region, as well as, expose illegal power consumers.
He stated that his outfit will not relent on going after individuals and organisations engaging in illegal connections in the Eastern region.
He said, “This should serve as a warning to all those who have indulged in any form of illegality. We are coming for you. There is no way you can escape our radar and once you are arrested, we will hand you over to the law enforcement agencies for prosecution.â€
Ing. Michael Baah urged defaulting individuals and organizations to rescind their decision to
The couple received tons of well-wishes from a host of Ghanaians including celebrated singer, Empress Gifty.
On Tuesday, the wife of NPP’s Hopeson Adorye shared a photo of John Mahama planting a kiss on his wife’s cheek as part of their anniversary photoshoot.
Empress in a heartwarming post disclosed how the couple offered her support some years back.
She named the 2020 NDC presidential candidate and former First Lady as her ‘parents’ and gave reason for her public appreciation.
“I want to celebrate MY PARENTS, I have my reasons for calling them MY PARENTS. They stood in the gap for me when I lost everything. First Lady, @Lordina Mahama was there for me as a MOTHER and made sure I was okay.
“Former President @John Dramani Mahamastood by me as a FATHER. I will never forget what they did for me. I celebrate you today on your 30th marriage anniversary, it is not a small journey and I tap into this blessing. May God continue to bless your path Mummy and Daddy. I dedicate your favourite song F3f33f3 from my repertoire to you as you celebrate how far you’ve come NOKO CONGRATULATION,” she wrote in a Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb.
Fans of the gospel singer showered praise on her for being grateful and celebrating Mr Mahama and his wife despite their political difference.
Asonaba Kwadwo Nomafo reacting to the post wrote: “Wow this is what we call Integrity. No wonder you are the first female musician I play her song when am on air. God bless you Sis.”
Another Dela Torgbenu had this to say: “And to u Gifty u are an epitome of faithfulness. My love n respect for u have increased Noko fine. Noko beautiful
Noko u do all.”
The majority of members on the Privileges Committee want the seat of Dome-Kwabenyalegislator, Sarah Adwoa Safo to be declared vacant.
This is according to copies of the Committee report that has been laid and sighted by JoyNews.
Per the report, Sarah Adwoa Safo has been afforded the opportunity to explain the rationale behind her absence from the House.
However, she has failed to utilise these opportunities afforded as to why she should not lose her seat.
“…the Majority, was of the view that, Hon Sarah Adwoa Safo failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities and facilities offered her to provide reasonable explanation to the Committee with regard to her absence without leave,†portions of the committee report indicated.
Parliament is yet to deliberate on the matter and take a final decision on the report.
Political witch hunt
Sarah Adwoa Safo, on July 17, opened up about the ordeal she is facing in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to her, she has become a victim of a sustained political witch-hunt by certain elements in the NPP and in Parliament for their own parochial goals.
Ms Safoexpressed shock about how she is being treated differently by people, including members of her party for staying away from official duty in order to attend to personal issues involving her child.
She expressed surprise about not enjoying the famous support of her party leadership both in Parliament and at the party level in her most difficult moments.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu disagrees
The Majority Leader in Parliament expressed his disappointment with Dome-Kwabenya MP for accusing the caucus of witch-hunting her.
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the comments made by Mrs. Safo are unfortunate.
According to him, he personally has sent several messages to his colleague without any response.
“I am surprised if she says leadership is witch-hunting her. I think it is the most unfortunate and regrettable statement. For the past two months, I have not been engaging because I have sent numerous messages to her and she has not responded,†he said.
“The state of affairs is quite a painful one for me to report to you, it is hard to see our people lament about the prices of basic commodities, these are difficult times for government and indeed, for the Finance Minister . . . we know things are hard but we have a plan to guide us,†he averred.
According to him, “Towards 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, a situation that worsened the already weakened global supply chain exacerbated by high conditions. These have had a debilitating toll on the cost and standard of living of our people. Mr Speaker, food prices are rising, fuel and transport fares are up, the cost of borrowing for businesses and for households has increased, the cedi has depreciated and the economic outlook has dipped significantly.â€
We Shall overcome
The Finance Minister is however confident that “we shall overcome” every difficulty facing the country.
“It’s amazing how we can find humour in the most difficult situation that keeps our spirit alive . . . these are not what we desired but we believe in the overcoming spirit of the Ghanaian people . . ” he stated.
Adding, “we believe together we will overcome challenges that lie ahead of us . . . with discipline dedication and hard work, we will overcome the challenges . . . we have done it before and we will do it again”.
Trainee teachers across the country may in the coming days have to find alternative ways of feeding themselves as government has failed to pay their feeding grants and allowance for the past seven months.
According to the teacher trainees, government has not paid their allowances for the 2021/2022 academic years, rendering their principals incapacitated.
Principals of Colleges of Education in May 2022 raised similar concerns after the failure of government to pay that of the preceding academic year.
National President of the Teacher Trainees Association, Jonathan Dzunu, told Citi News that the inability of the government to pay their allowances is negatively affecting their academic work.
“Some of the allowances are for the 2021/2022 academic year. We complained and they told us that some funds have been released but the monies are yet to be released, so we are hoping that soon the money will hit the accounts. Soon, if care is not taken, food shortage will hit the colleges of education because the principals are complaining that suppliers are not giving them supplies. Students are also complaining about food quantity and quality. So if things are not done early, there will be a food shortage and that will not be good for us,†he said.
Recently, the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana expressed worry over the amount that is being used to feed students of Colleges of Education across the country.
This comes after principals of Colleges of Education revealed that GH¢6.5 is the amount per head for feeding trainee teachers per day.
This, they say, has been the situation for over five years now, despite the recent increase in prices of food commodities in the country.
The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana described the situation as unfortunate and has thus called on the government to increase the amount.
“It is shocking. Really, really shocking,†Prince Obeng Hemang, the President of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana, said to the press.
“This pretence and hypocrisy have to stop,†he added.
Mr. Hemang stressed that more commitment needed to be shown to the students in these colleges.
“If we really want to feed the students, we should feed them well on campus… They have to come clear and give them decent meals, so they will be able to live comfortably and study well,†he said.
These concerns come as school feeding caterers have protested for an increase in their allocation for basic school pupils from 93 pesewas per child to GH¢3.00.
These demands are due to the high cost of food items and the current economic situation in the country is making it impossible for them to feed the pupils.
This is after the officers were seen in a viral video engaged in a heated argument.
Reports indicate that the incident happened on July 20, 2022, after the Foase District Police Commander saw three FPU officers conducting a traffic check on the Atwima Yabi-Dida stretch and cautioned them against the exercise. Cpl Boakye was offended by the directive and refused to comply.
This triggered the heated exchange between the two.
In the course of the argument, Cpl Boakye was asked by the District Commander to provide his Service Number, but he refused and asked Supt Albert Quansah to meet him at the FPU.
“Meet me there,†he stressed. “You are not the one who brought me here,†he added.
“I should meet you at FPU?, I will not come there but you will get me†Commander Quansah retorted.
The Ghana Police Service has acknowledged receipt of the video. In a statement issued on July 26, 2022, the service indicated that it has initiated a probe into the matter.
“We would like to assure the public that the due internal disciplinary process of the service is being applied in dealing with the matter,†the statement said.
Keke Palmer has shut down any talk of comparing her to fellow actress Zendaya.
A tweet went viral over the weekend in which the Twitter user wrote, “I’d like someone to do a deep-drive on the similarities and differences between Keke Palmer and Zendaya’s careers.”
“This may be one of the clearest examples of how colorism plays out in Hollywood,” the tweet continued. “They were both child-stars, but their mainstream popularity is very different.”
Palmer, who is one of the stars of the new Jordan Peele film “Nope,”weighed in with her own tweet on Sunday.
“A great example of colorism is to believe I can be compared to anyone. I’m the youngest talk show host ever,” she tweeted. “The first Black woman to star in her own show on Nickelodeon, & the youngest & first Black Cinderella on broadway. I’m an incomparable talent. Baby, THIS, is Keke Palmer.”
She went on to tweet, “I’ve been a leading lady since I was 11 years old.”
“I have over 100+ credits, and currently starring in an original screenplay that’s the number one film at the box office #NOPE,” she wrote. “I’ve had a blessed career thus far, I couldn’t ask for more but God continues to surprise me.”
Zendaya, who starred in last year’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” film, became the youngest actress to win an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama series in 2020 for her role in the TV series “Euphoria.”
CNN has reached out to reps for Zendaya for comment.
After postponing her concert residency at The Colosseum at Casears Palace a day before it was to start back in January, the singer announced Monday that she has officially rescheduled her shows.
“Words can’t explain how ecstatic I am to finally be able to announce these rescheduled shows. I truly was heartbroken to have to cancel them,” the Grammy winner wrote on Instagram. “But after what feels like an eternity of figuring out logistics for the show that I really want to deliver, and knowing it can happen, I’m more excited than ever! Now I know for some of you it was a horrible decision on my part, and I will always be sorry for that, but I promise you it was the right one. To be with you in such an intimate space every week has been what I’ve most been looking forward to and I’m going to give you the absolute best of me.”
Her shows will now run from November 18 to March 23. On her website, Adele writes that along with the 24 rescheduled shows, she has added eight additional dates. Priority will be given to those who held tickets to the shows that were canceled, her website states.
When originally postponing her shows, Adele shared a tearful video posted to Instagram in which she explained complications she and her crew encountered preparing for the residency.
“I’m so sorry but my show ain’t ready,” she said at the time. “Half my crew, half my team is down with Covid. They still are, and it’s been impossible to finish the show. And I can’t give you what I have right now, and I’m gutted.”
Tiesi shared a series of photos from the birth on her verified Instagram account, writing “I did it. An all natural unmedicated home birth.”
“This was the most humbling / limit pushing yet awakening and completely empowering experience. I can’t thank my team enough for delivering my son safely,” the caption read. “This experience has changed me forever and I couldn’t of asked for a more amazing and supportive partner. Daddy showed the f up for us.. I couldn’t of done it without you. I can’t believe he’s here.”
Cannon shares fraternal twins Moroccan and Monroe with his ex-wife, singer Mariah Carey, has son Golden and daughter Powerful Queen with model Brittany Bell, and twin sons Zion and Zillion with DJ Abby De La Rosa.
His youngest child, a son named Zen whom he shared with model Alyssa Scott, died from brain cancer at the age of five months old.
The UK‘s competition watchdog has found streaming has made the music industry challenging for many artists.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said more than 80% of recorded music was now listened to via streaming, with more than 138 billion streams in the UK last year.
MPs had demanded a “complete reset” of the industry, amid “pitiful returns” for artists.
They had called for the CMA to look into the power of the major players.
Although the primary focus of the report was on consumers, the watchdog found a small number of high-profile artists enjoyed most of the financial success while the majority made no substantial earnings.
CMA interim chief executive Sarah Cardell said: “For many artists, it is just as tough as it has always been – and many feel that they are not getting a fair deal.”
But the report notes streaming has made it easier not only for listeners to access music but also for artists to record and share it.
Low earnings
The report addresses the claim most artists are paid far too little for music streams and the business model benefits only big labels and star acts.
A million streams per month would earn an artist only about £12,000 per year, it says.
Spotify is believed to pay between £0.002 and £0.0038 per stream, Apple Music about £0.0059.
YouTube pays the least – about £0.00052 (0.05p).
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Catherine, from Ward Thomas
Catherine Willcox, of UK country-music duo Ward Thomas, told BBC News: “Having been in the industry for more than a decade and achieving relative success – a number-one album, sold-out tours and many exciting festival spots – it may appear from the outside that we would be fairly comfortable financially.
“However, with the decline in album sales across the board and the rise in streaming, no-one is fully sure how they will sustain a creative career as the landscape of the industry changes so dramatically.”
The CMA noted every artist was competing harder than ever before for each of these streams – both with new artists and, in the form of the back catalogue, all the music ever made.
“We are incredibly lucky to be able to do this full time for the moment,” Wilcox said, “but it is always very tenuous – and this is coming from two artists who profit from the masters, the performance rights and live shows.
“This is even more difficult for songwriters who only get their writer’s cut.”
Best songs
More artists than ever before are releasing music, the report says, but this does not mean more are successful.
Analysis published by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) shows the number reaching one million UK streams per month remains low, about 1,700.
“Some of the best songwriters we know have had to secure other sources of income and so can’t dedicate the proper time needed to their craft,” Wilcox said.
“The best songs are yet to be written – but if they aren’t being fairly compensated, too many very talented people will be forced to quit.”
New audiences
The report found streaming was now the primary means for artists and labels to distribute music and the public were embracing it.
Some of the other key findings include:
Access to a wide range of music – old and new – means older songs can more easily find a new lease of life and new audiences
The number of artists streaming music rose from about 200,000 to 400,000 between 2014 and 2020
A number of groups had called for a full market investigation by the CMA – and more solutions to support singers and songwriters.
But the watchdog rejected this because “our initial findings have not identified any significant concerns in terms of consumer outcomes relating to music streaming”.
The #BrokenRecord campaign was one of those groups – started by Gomez member Tom Gray at the beginning of lockdown, after artists lost touring income.
He told BBC News: “A serious concern is the mantra that things have always been this difficult.
“Indeed ‘just as tough as’ suggests things may have been worse – but we can see no evidence for such an assertion.
“The IPO carried out a report into creator earnings last year and could not find data to say where things were in the past, so it feels fairly groundless.
“Creators find it harder now to make income from recorded music than ever before.”
‘Good deal’
Listeners now have access to a huge choice of music for a fixed monthly subscription fee – and these have fallen in real terms.
But Mr Gray said this was bad for artists.
“Rhapsody, the first streaming service cost $9.99 in 2001,” he said.
“Streaming costs the same 21 years later.
“Obviously, that is a good deal for consumers – but is it destructive to the value of music itself?
“The answer ought to be, ‘Yes.’”
The CMA also touched on the “strong concern” from some artists labels gave insufficient information about their how their earnings were calculated.
Mr Gray said: “Whilst music has always been precarious, the pro-rata system is significantly more ‘winner takes all’ than anything we’ve seen before.”
Image source, Getty Images
The CMA said the market was delivering good outcomes for customers but it would be concerned if:
innovation in the sector was decreased
the balance of power changed and labels and streaming services began to make sustained and substantial excess profits
Association of Independent Music chief executive Paul Pacifico said: “We welcome the CMA’s update report, which reinforces what we know – that building success in music is hard – and underlines the need for organisations across music to work together to secure positive outcomes for the sector.”
British Phonographic Industry chief executive Geoff Taylor also welcomed the findings and said: “We will continue to engage with the CMA and government to help ensure that the streaming market works to the benefit of artists, songwriters, record companies and fans.”
‘Serious problems’
Ms Cardell said: “Our initial analysis shows that the outcomes for artists are not driven by issues to do with competition, such as sustained excessive profits.
“We are now keen to hear views on our initial findings, which will help guide our thinking and inform our final report.”
Musicians’ Union general secretary Naomi Pohl said it was “disappointing” the “competition issues” in the streaming market “will not be explored fully by a CMA investigation”.
“The CMA’s release today highlights what it sees as positive impacts of music streaming – but we feel they have failed to recognise the very serious problems posed to creators,” she said.
He explained that the construction of the Agenda 111 project to build hospitals across the country, should not necessarily build 111 hospitals across the nation but ration expenditure to ensure the country was kept afloat.
“I expect the government to look at statistical data regarding discretionary spending, so it does not necessarily have to provide 111 hospitals,†Prof. Mensah said.
“Ken Ofori-Atta must also be humble and admit domestic programmes are not doing well as they stated it will because some of that will be an acknowledgement of revenue handles that they are talking about and their performance.
“Where I will be most interested in whether or not is sufficiently candid in admitting some of the policy restrictions that were fiercely resisted are also having a negative effect, not just they are under-performing, I think E-levy has a cross effect on other revenue mentions because of its impacts on sentiments.
“We are going to start seeing that in Consumption Taxes, so, some of us will be looking very closely at VAT and its performance, Corporate Taxes and its out turn, whether the government recognises it is beginning to lose credibility as being capable of taking decisions in good faith or simply posturing.
“If investors get the view they are posturing, they do not tend to tackle issues fundamentally different, they will not be able to achieve their most important policy objectives right now which is to reduce cost of our debt and if they do not bring down the international rate it will affect everything else,†Mr Simons indicated.
Joe Jackson, a Financial Analyst and Chief Operations Officer at Dalex Finance, asked the government to cut spending on some programmes especially the feeding component of the free Senior High School (SHS) because the country was broke.
US retail giant Walmart has warned over its profits for the second time since May, as the soaring cost of food and fuel hits customer spending.
The company says it now expects profits to fall by as much as 13% this year.
One expert told the BBC that Walmart’s unscheduled announcement “signals a warning bell for the retail sector”.
The firm’s stock market value slumped almost 10% in after-hours trade in New York, while shares in rival retailers Amazon and Target also fell sharply.
Walmart had previously said that it expected its full-year profit to fall by just 1% this year.
“The increasing levels of food and fuel inflation are affecting how customers spend,” its chief executive Doug McMillon said in a statement on Monday after US markets closed.
He added that the retailer planned to cut the prices of clothing as it was “anticipating more pressure on general merchandise in the back half” of this year.
Mr Saunders said Walmart’s warning suggests that many other retailers were also feeling the squeeze.
“Walmart has buying power like few others. That helps it mitigate against some inflation, but as today’s announcement shows, even the mightiest are not immune to rising costs,” he said.
Also on Monday, online retail giant Amazon raised the price of its Prime service for UK customers for the first time since 2014 because of “increased inflation and operating costs”. Prime offers unlimited delivery of products, and entertainment streaming services.
Prices in the US and UK are rising at their fastest rate in four decades, driven by higher petrol and food costs.
The Ukraine war and supply chain issues caused by the pandemic have driven up everyday costs for households and businesses.
In its last earnings announcement in May, Walmart said it had more than $60bn (£49.7bn) worth of stock and pledged “aggressive” price cuts on some items.
The company also trimmed its profit outlook for the first time. That led to its shares suffering their biggest one-day drop since 1987.
Walmart is scheduled to publish its second quarter earnings on 16 August.
Government has hinted at the re-introduction of roads tolls, to rake in revenue to cover the cost of expansion and rehabilitation works on the Accra-Tema Motorway.
According to Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, government in line with the Public Private Partnership Act, 2020 (Act 1039) will establish a concession agreement between the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) and the Roads and Highway Ministry to sponsor the 27.7-kilometer project.
He disclosed this while delivering the 2022 mid-year budget review in Parliament on Monday, July 26, 2022.
Addressing the House, he stated that “the draft Concession Agreement (CA) between GIIF and MoRH is currently under review by GIIF, MoRH, the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Finance.”
“When completed, the CA is expected to be approved by the PPP Committee, Cabinet and parliament. The completed road will be tolled to recover the whole life cost of the completed infrastructure as well as pay lenders and provide a return for equity investors.
“The Government of Ghana shall provide funding through GIIF to take equity in the Special Purpose Vehicle to be created by GIIF for the project,” he maintained.
Meanwhile, government, in 2021 scrapped the collection of road tolls in the country. The Finance Minister explained that in spite of the gains from the toll system, tolling points create unpleasant situations.
“Over the years, the tolling points have become unhealthy market centres, led to heavy traffic on our roads, lengthened travel time from one place to another, and impacted negatively on productivity,” he justified his claim.
The toll system was substituted with the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) to rake in revenue to cushion the economy.
But in a latest development, Mr Ofori-Atta has revealed that government will toll all new roads constructed under such concession agreement (between the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) and the Roads and Highway Ministry).
With this, users of newly constructed roads would have to pay road tolls to use those roads.
With growth stalling in the UK, US, China and Europe, the world “may soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession”, it said.
“We know that people are feeling the impact of rising prices, caused by global economic factors, triggered by the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine,” a HM Treasury spokesperson said in a statement, adding that help for households included £400 off energy bills plus personal tax cuts worth up to £330 a year.
The IMF has cut its 2022 global growth forecast to just 3.2% and warned the slowdown risks being even more severe.
It said fast-rising prices were to blame for much of the slowdown, with households and businesses squeezed by a combination of higher prices and higher borrowing costs as policymakers raise interest rates to try to counter inflation.
“The global economy, still reeling from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is facing an increasingly gloomy and uncertain outlook,” economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas wrote in a blog outlining the international lending body’s latest economic forecast.
“The outlook has darkened significantly” since April, the last time the IMF issued forecasts, he added.
The global economy contracted in the three months to July, which was the first decline since the pandemic hit, the IMF said.
The probability of a recession in the G7 economies – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK – now stands at roughly 15% – nearly four times higher than usual.
While UK growth is expected to remain relatively strong this year, Mr Gourinchas said unusually high inflation – faster than in Europe or the US – is expected to take a toll in 2023.
“If you were to look at both years together, it’s actually not very far from where the other advanced economies are,” he told the BBC. “The one thing that worries me more about the UK economy is that their inflation numbers seem to be quite high. There is a fairly high pass through from high gas prices to broader prices in the economy.
“That would signal even further monetary policy tightening by the Bank of England and that would also weigh down on growth going forward.”
The IMF now expects inflation to reach 6.6% in advanced economies and 9.5% in emerging market and developing economies – nearly a full percentage point higher than it expected in April.
“Inflation at current levels represents a clear risk for current and future macroeconomic stability and bringing it back to central bank targets should be the top priority for policymakers,” Mr Gourinchas said.
“Tighter monetary policy will inevitably have real economic costs, but delaying it will only exacerbate the hardship.”
The fallout from the war in Ukraine is being felt in pockets across the world. Soaring food and fuel prices and higher interest rates means the IMF sees more gloomy prospects for all major economies – but it’s the UK that, Russia apart, remains bottom of the pile for 2023.
Brexit may not have helped but it’s our reliance on fossil fuels – they make up 75% of our energy mix, compared to just over half of the EU’s – that’s made us particularly vulnerable to this shock. Those prices are determined on international markets but affect us all. This report comes on the day that, with the energy price cap set to top £3,000 in October, a committee of MPs warns that further government help for households may be needed.
But the IMF is among those economists who’ve noted that the UK faces more fundamental issues than the current crisis, with living standards having dropped behind many competitors over the last 15 years, something many attribute to a lack of investment in skills, equipment and infrastructure. Officials from the IMF have previously told me that one way to remedy that would be to raise, not lower taxes, to fund more investment.
The US saw the steepest downgrade of any country for 2022. The IMF cut its growth forecast for the world’s largest economy to 2.3% this year, from 3.7% previously, and to just 1% in 2023.
Meanwhile growth in China is expected to fall to 3.3% this year, the slowest rate in nearly four decades, as the country wrestles with new Covid lockdowns and a property crisis.
Questions about the reliability of Europe’s natural gas supplies from Russia, as well as political unrest generated by high food and fuel prices, are among the risks the global economy is facing in the months ahead, the IMF said.
“We can be reasonably hopeful that China might be rebound,” Mr Gourinchas said, adding that he was “much more concerned about both the inflation path and the tightening of monetary policy leading to a slowdown going ahead”.
It warned that in a “plausible” scenario, in which only some of those risks materialise, like a shutdown of Russian gas flows to Europe, global economic growth could fall to 2% next year – a pace the world has fallen below just five times since 1970.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has acknowledged the difficulties Ghanaians are going through due to COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The state of affairs is quite a painful one for me to report to you, it is hard to see our people lament about the prices of basic commodities, these are difficult times for government and indeed, for the Finance Minister . . . we know things are hard but we have a plan to guide us,†he averred.
According to him, “Towards 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, a situation that worsened the already weakened global supply chain exacerbated by high conditions. These have had a debilitating toll on the cost and standard of living of our people. Mr Speaker, food prices are rising, fuel and transport fares are up, the cost of borrowing for businesses and for households has increased, the cedi has depreciated and the economic outlook has dipped significantly.â€
We Shall overcome
The Finance Minister is however confident that “we shall overcome” every difficulty facing the country.
“It’s amazing how we can find humour in the most difficult situation that keeps our spirit alive . . . these are not what we desired but we believe in the overcoming spirit of the Ghanaian people . . ” he stated.
Adding, “we believe together we will overcome challenges that lie ahead of us . . . with discipline dedication and hard work, we will overcome the challenges . . . we have done it before and we will do it again”.
Travelling through the scenic Andarab valley north of Kabul there is no visible sign of conflict.
But whilst the Taliban are more powerful and better armed than ever before, here and in neighbouring province of Panjshir they are facing a nascent armed resistance to their rule in Afghanistan.
Driving past fertile, green fields, we are accompanied by the Taliban at all times, and under their watchful eye locals praise improved security under their rule and are dismissive of the rebels. Some of the praise does appear genuine, but in the side street of one bazaar, a man tells us darkly: “I can’t tell you the truth – if I did, I could be killed.”
It is difficult to get a sense of the true scale of the fighting – the resistance forces often exaggerate their strength, whilst the Taliban outright deny their presence. In Panjshir, however, anti-Taliban fighters managed to shoot down a military helicopter and capture those on board.
Elsewhere in Baghlan Province, resistance fighters have recently filmed themselves pulling down a Taliban flag from a military post.
When the BBC travelled to the Andarab valley in June, however, the Taliban appeared in firm control of the territory.
We visit the village of Qais Tarrach and are assured by the local military commander that “there are no problems”.
Image caption, Military commander Qari Jumadin Badri denies the presence of resistance fighters
“You can see for yourself, we only have a very small military presence here,” Qari Jumadin Badri, who leads a battalion from the army’s Omari Corps, tells me from a hilltop overlooking the valley.
But we have been reliably told of an ambush by resistance forces on a Taliban vehicle close to here in May, in which two Taliban members were killed.
“That was a long time ago,” Mr Badri says. “We launched some operations in the mountains and now there is nothing.”
In Panjshir videos have emerged of long convoys of Taliban reinforcements, but there too Taliban officials have denied consistent reports of clashes.
Andarab, the other bastion of anti-Taliban sentiment, appears less heavily militarised, but speaking secretly to local residents we have been told of repeated and serious allegations of human rights abuses carried out by the Taliban in trying to stamp out the resistance movement.
A relative of a villager named Abdul Hashim tells us he and three other men were detained and killed by the Taliban immediately after the ambush near Qais Tarrach, after wrongly being accused of involvement in the attack.
“He had his hands tied and was shot in the head and chest,” the relative said.
Image caption, Abdul Hashim (left) and Noorullah, said to have been detained and killed by the Taliban
He shared photographs of Abdul Hashim’s body and said his brother-in-law, Noorullah, had also been killed in the incident.
“They didn’t let men attend Abdul Hashim’s funeral,” he told the BBC. “Only women were allowed to bury him.”
One resident, who was also detained alongside the men by the Taliban during the search operation following the ambush, told the BBC around 20 men had been taken away from their village by the Taliban towards the location of the ambush, where they were beaten on their legs with metal cables and sticks.
“They put me in the back of one pick-up truck, someone pushed our heads down… Noorullah and Abdul Hashim were in another truck – they took them down and behind a Humvee and shot them by a small stream,” he said.
Two other men from the same village were also killed that day.
There are other worrying allegations. A group of four men, travelling towards Tagharak village, a hotspot of resistance activity, were stopped and questioned by the Taliban in June, then allegedly killed.
Last year, shortly after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August, resistance fighters in Andarab said they had briefly “liberated” a number of districts.
After they were recaptured by the Taliban, a doctor named Zainuddin was murdered at his home along with five of his relatives including young children. A relative alleged he had been killed for having provided treatment to resistance fighters.
“As a doctor, it was his duty to treat everyone,” said the relative angrily.
In February this year another doctor, Dr Khorami, from Deh Salah district, was also killed. A relative alleged he had previously received threats from the Taliban warning him to stop treating those linked to the resistance.
Locals said a third doctor remained in custody, whilst a number of families accused of having links to the resistance said they had been told to leave their villages.
Image source, AFPImage caption, The Taliban’s control of Andarab and Panjshir is not at present threatened – but their fighters have come under attack
The Taliban’s head of information in Baghlan province, where Andarab is situated, Asadullah Hashimi, rejected the allegations.
A doctor had been killed in the area, he admitted, but he ascribed the incident to “personal enmity”.
As for the allegations of extra-judicial killings, Mr Hashimi was categorical in denying any detainee had been killed, though he added, if anyone “violently resists government forces” during an operation they could be killed or arrested.
“That happens everywhere in the world.”
Mr Hashimi refused to recognise the presence of resistance forces in the region, instead referring to a small number of “terrorists”, but the area has a long history of opposition to the Taliban.
Both Andarab and Panjshir are dominated by the Persian-speaking Tajik community, whereas the Taliban are predominantly Pashtun.
The Taliban have managed to successfully recruit some locals into their ranks, unlike their previous regime in the 1990s. A number of local Taliban intelligence and police chiefs are Tajik or Persian-speaking, as are some of the soldiers stationed in Andarab.
Most others, however, are Pashtun. Many in Andarab worked in the security forces of the previous Afghan government and now strongly oppose the Taliban, regarding them as outsiders.
Some of the relatives of the victims of extra-judicial killings, however, also criticised the resistance forces, saying their guerrilla tactics left the civilian population vulnerable to Taliban reprisals.
Image caption, Residents of Andarab and Panjshir can find themselves caught between resistance fighters and the Taliban
The BBC managed to establish contact with one senior resistance fighter in Andarab, Commander Shuja.
In a pre-recorded message, responding to questions sent to him, he told the BBC: “Our fight is for justice, for brotherhood, equality and for the real Islam, not the Islam of the Taliban – which defames the religion…
“Our fight is for the rights of our sisters. The Prophet Muhammad said education is compulsory for both men and women.”
The violence in Andarab and Panjshir is localised and does not yet represent a serious threat to the Taliban’s overall control of the country, but they look to be at risk of repeating some of the same mistakes as their old opponents.
Over the past two decades, intrusive raids and allegations of the killing of innocent civilians by Afghan and international forces helped fuel the Taliban’s popularity in parts of the country where they already had a presence and a degree of support.
Now, they are accused of using those same counter-insurgency tactics, whilst there appears to be little sense of accountability.
Speaking angrily, the relative of Abdul Hashim, who was allegedly detained and killed by the Taliban, told the BBC: “The Taliban claim to be a government, so they should investigate someone, not just kill them straight away.”
The Tema Regional office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has advised women to insist on their right to matrimonial property.
Senior Principal Investigator of CHRAJ at the Tema Regional Office, Mr John Ato Breboh, said women have the right to matrimonial property when their spouse dies, and they should not allow the families of their husbands to deprive them of that right.
He said this when speaking with the Ebenezer Society of Tema Community one on the topic: “Matrimonial Property Right,†as part of a comprehensive citizen sensitization programme started by CHRAJ Tema Regional Office.
The citizen engagement was to educate them on specific issues of human rights, child marriage, domestic abuse, violence, and other functions of the Commission and empower the public to seek redress in case of infractions on their rights.
Mr Breboh explained that for polygamous marriages, surviving spouses were entitled to equal shares of 50 per cent of the estate, the children, 40 per cent, five per cent to the parent(s), and five per cent to customary devolution.
“A spouse shall have equal access to property jointly acquired during marriage; assets which are jointly acquired during marriage shall be distributed equitably between the spouses upon dissolution of the marriage,†he said.
However, a wife is not legally entitled to her husband’s self-acquired property and can only enjoy her husband’s self-acquired property till her husband’s death; “a wife cannot claim her husband’s property before or after divorce at most, a wife can only claim money for her maintenance or alimonyâ€.
The Senior Principal Investigator said CHRAJ wanted to expose residents, especially women to the 1992 Constitution Article 22, “which states that a spouse shall not be deprived of a reasonable provision out of the estate of a spouse whether or not the spouse died having made will or notâ€.
He stressed that upon divorce, a spouse shall have equal rights to the share of the property that they had acquired.
Mr Breboh advised couples, especially women, to ensure that their marriages were registered and attended by the relatives of both the man and the woman.
Two leading figures vested in Finance in Parliament have clashed over the alleged printing of GH¢22 billion by the Bank of Ghana for injection into the economy.
Ranking Member on Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson first made the allegation on Mondayand repeated same on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday blaming the rising inflation rate on that measure by the Central Bank
“In the 2020 budget, the project was that the government was going to take zero amounts from the Central Bank only for us to see that between January to June 2022, this administration has taken GH¢22 billion cedis from the Central Bank of Ghana. When the Bank of Ghana gives money to the government it is called printing of money and that is unacceptable.â€
However, this was sharply rebutted by a Deputy Minister for Finance, Dr John Kumahwho indicated that the stated amount is an overdraft advanced by the Bank to the government.
He indicated that there was nothing illegal about it.
“If you read section 30 of the Bank of Ghana Act, it is within the remit of the law for Bank of Ghana to grant overdrafts and support to the Central government without printing money.â€
Minority spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson had accused the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) of printing more currency for the country without approval from Parliament.
The former Deputy Finance Minister said the BoG and government have perpetuated illegality which must be dealt with.
“Between January and June 2022, the Minister responsible for Finance and the government went to the Central Bank, and they encouraged the BoG to print money worth GH¢22 billion. They have printed GH¢22 billion fresh money without the knowledge of Parliament and without informing all of usâ€, he said.
Ato Forson said this is hidden on page 97 of Appendix 2a of the mid-year budget under the section on Bank of Ghana.
The former First Lady of Ghana, Ernestina NaaduMills, has broken her silence since the celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the passing of her husband, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, started.
In a brief statement read on her behalf during a commemorative lecture in honour of the late president, the former First Lady said that beyond all the political vilifications John Atta Mills was battered with, he never lowered his high principles.
She explained that it is for this reason that she knows that posterity will be a good judge of his legacies.
“It has been 10 years of solitude since I lost Fiifi, my husband, friend and confidant. Ours was a rather quiet and private life until a higher national duty came calling. Then suddenly, we found ourselves in public limelight with its accompanying opportunities and challenges. Fiifi was often battered and bruised on the battlefield of politics but he held firm to his personal values of truth, simplicity, honesty and abiding respect for all; qualities I loved about him.
“To Fiifi, serving at the highest echelons of government was an opportunity to help change the character of Ghana politics for the better. In this regard, I believe posterity will judge him well. Therein lies my consolation for the many sacrifices he had to make,†she said.
The lecture is to be addressed by legal luminary, Tsatsu Tsikata.
A member of Viktor Orban’s inner circle has resigned after the Hungarian prime minister spoke out against becoming “peoples of mixed race”.
Zsuzsa Hegedus, who has known the nationalist Mr Orban for 20 years, described the speech as a “pure Nazi text”, according to Hungarian media.
The International Auschwitz Committee of Holocaust survivors called the speech “stupid and dangerous”.
Mr Orban’s spokesman said the media had misrepresented the comments.
The speech took place on Saturday in a region of Romania which has a large Hungarian community.
In it, Mr Orban said European peoples should be free to mix with one another, but that mixing with non-Europeans created a “mixed-race world”.
“We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” he said.
Mr Orban’s anti-migration views are well known, but for Ms Hegedus, Saturday’s speech crossed a line.
“I don’t know how you didn’t notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels,” she wrote in her resignation letter, according to the Hungarian hvg.hu news website.
Goebbels was the head of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda ministry.
Mr Orban’s remarks on race have been bitterly criticised by some in Hungary and equally vehemently defended by others.
“Only one race inhabits this earth, Homo Sapiens. And it is unique and undivided,” chief rabbi Robert Fröhlich commented.
Opposition politicians, decisively defeated by Mr Orban’s Fidesz party in the April elections, said his remarks were “beyond the pale… unworthy of a European statesman”.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs tried to dampen the growing chorus of condemnation, arguing that the prime minister had been outspoken on the topics of immigration and assimilation for years.
In the government flagship daily, Magyar Nemzet, an article praised Mr Orban for defending the idea of nationhood against a drive to mix all nations “into a grey, indistinguishable mass”.
At best, Mr Orban appears confused, sometimes speaking of the Hungarians as “the most mixed society”, at other times, appearing to suggest he believes in ethnic purity.
Zsuzsa Hegedus’s resignation is unlikely to have further repercussions in Hungary. Party discipline is tight and resignations almost unheard of.
During his speech, the Hungarian leader also appeared to make light of the Nazi gas chambers in World War Two when he criticised the EU’s plan to cut gas demand by 15% by pointing out that “the past shows us German know-how on that”.
Hungary’s largest Jewish group condemned the speech and called for a meeting with Mr Orban. More than half a million Hungarian Jews were murdered in the final months of World War Two, many of them at Auschwitz.
The International Auschwitz Committee said his words were “grist to the mill to all racist and far-right forces in Europe” and they reminded Holocaust survivors of the dark times of their persecution.
Romania’s foreign minister said the remarks were unacceptable and it was regrettable they were spoken on Romanian territory.
Responding by letter to his long-standing adviser, Mr Orban defended his words.
“You know better than anyone that in Hungary, my government follows a zero-tolerance policy on both anti-Semitism and racism,” he wrote.
His spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, said the mainstream media was “hyperventilating about a couple of tough lines about immigration and assimilation”, but had stayed silent on the main points of the speech.
Addressing the war in Ukraine in his speech, Mr Orban argued that the West’s support of the country had failed, sanctions against Russia were not working and a negotiated peace deal should be the priority.
Viktor Orban won a historic fourth term in office in April, but his stance on Russia’s war has been out of step with every other EU country. He has maintained good relations with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and is the only EU leader to openly criticise Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
While the rest of the EU was agreeing to cut its reliance on Russian gas, Hungary’s foreign minister visited Moscow last week to discuss buying more of it. Budapest currently imports 80% of its gas from Russia.
Despite receiving large amounts of EU funds, the Hungarian government has frequently clashed with the EU over rule-of-law issues such as press freedom and migration.
The investigation is separate to the high-profile, televised Congressional hearings that have taken place over the past few weeks on the same subject – which Mr Trump has characterised as a political witch hunt.
According to a report in the Washington Post, federal prosecutors questioned witnesses before a grand jury about their conversations with Mr Trump and his inner circle in the months leading up to the 6 January riot.
The witnesses were reportedly asked about instructions given by Mr Trump in connection to any attempts to prevent President Joe Biden’s election victory from being certified by Congress.
Some of those questioned included senior members of former Vice President Mike Pence’s staff, multiple US outlets report.
Until now the Justice Department has refused to say whether or not it would weigh charges against Mr Trump for any alleged role in trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
When the department’s top official, Attorney General Merrick Garland, was asked on Tuesday whether he was concerned about indicting a former president – he simply responded that he intends to hold “everyone” accountable.
Federal officials would prosecute anyone “criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another,” Mr Garland told NBC News.
The Justice Department’s probe into what happened on 6 January 2021, he said, is the “most wide-ranging investigation its history”.
Any decision by federal prosecutors to bring charges against a former president – and potential candidate in the 2024 election – would have significant constitutional and political consequences.
In addition to federal prosecutors, a powerful US congressional committee has also been holding its own separate investigation into the armed storming of the Capitol building.
The congressional committee, made up of five Democrats and two Republicans, called dozens of witnesses last week in an attempt to build a case that Mr Trump launched an illegal bid to overturn his defeat by Mr Biden in the 2020 presidential election – culminating in the riot.
Some of the most explosive testimony delivered at the televised hearings came from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Appearing as a surprise witness during the sixth hearings, Ms Hutchinson said Mr Trump personally knew that members of the crowd at his morning rally near the White House were armed because they were being turned away by Secret Service officers.
“I don’t [expletive] care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,” Ms Hutchinson said she heard the president say. “Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.”
Her testimony offered the committee something they had been seeking to establish from the very beginning of proceedings – that Mr Trump allegedly knew there was a very real threat of violence and did nothing to stop it.
Its panel of members of Congress has suggested there might be enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Mr Trump, but it does not itself have the power to do that.
Any suggestion that the Justice Department could be looking into the former president’s personal role is therefore significant.
Some police officer have been sighted in a viral video engaged in what the Ghana Police Service has described as a “misconduct.”
In the video sighted by The Independent Ghana, a Formed Police Unit (FPU) officer identified as Cpl Boakye is seen engaged in an heated argument with Foase District Police Commander, Supt Albert Quansah.
According to the service, the incident occurred in the Ashanti Region on July 20, 2022.
— The Independent Ghana (@independent_gh) July 26, 2022
Reports indicate that the incident happened after the Foase District Police Commander saw three FPU officers conducting a traffic check on the Atwima Yabi-Dida stretch. Supt. Albert Quansah cautioned the officers against the exercise but it appears Cpl Boakye was offended by the directive and refused to comply.
This triggered the heated exchange between the two.
In the course of the argument, Cpl Boakye was asked by the District Commander to provide his Service Number, but he refused and asked Supt Albert Quansah to meet him at the FPU.
“Meet me there,” he stressed. “You are not the one who brought me here,†he added.
“I should meet you at FPU?, I will not come there but you will get me†Commander Quansah retorted.
The Ghana Police Service has reacted to the video. In a statement issued on July 26, 2022, the service indicated that investigations have already begun into the matter.
“We would like to assure the public that the due internal disciplinary process of the service is being applied in dealing with the matter,” the statement said.
Wife of late President Prof. John Evans Atta Millshas given an account of how her husband was humiliated despite his selflessness for the country.
Ernestina Naadu Mills said her love for the former President became even stronger because he stood firm to his core values and never gave in to any manipulation.
According to her, “…Fiifi was often battered and bruised on the battlefield of politics but he held firm to his personal values of truth, simplicity, honesty and abiding respect for all. These were the qualities I loved about him..â€
Mrs. Mills revealed that to her husband, serving at the highest echelons of government was an opportunity to help change the character of Ghana politics for the better.
So it is her belief that posterity will judge him well for his sacrifice for his country.
She has, however, bemoaned that it has been ten years of solitude since the death of the late President who was her friend, husband and confidante.
This revelation is contained in a speech read by Mrs Naadu Mills at the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Lecture on the theme “The Man John Evans Atta Mills-Ten Years Onâ€. The Lecture was held at the Accra International Conference Centre on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.
The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, has accused the Bank of Ghana (BOG) of illegally printing money for Government.
Mr Adongo stated that the central bank is printing new notes to enable the government to cover its expenditure since it is unable to receive funding from international institutions but has to pay high interest rates on loans it acquired.
Speaking to the press on Monday, July 2022, Mr Adongo said “a man who cannot borrow in Ghana, a man who cannot borrow from abroad, his revenue are not performing, is able to get money to spend a lot of money. Only one thing is happening, the Bank of Ghana is printing money and throwing money at the government.â€
The Bolgatanga Central MP noted that the unapproved printing of notes is a breach of regulations of the Central Bank and other financial sector regulations.
However, the Central Bank has the mandate to issue and redeem the currency notes and coins in order to keep interest rates low in the hope of driving economic growth.
But the Bolgatanga Central MP is of the view that the supply of more currency in the economy will exacerbate the country’s inflation rate since more money would be chasing the limited number of goods.
Mr Adongo further maintained that as more money is circulating within the economy, economic growth is more likely to occur, however, at the risk of price destabilization.
He concluded that the NDC MPs will take every legal action to stop the illegal printing of money.
“That is illegal, that is preposterous and we will do everything to get to the bottom of that matter.â€
Taking his turn, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, also mounted the same allegation against the Bank of Ghana.
He claimed that on page 97 of Appendix 2a of the Mid-year budget revealed that BoG printed an amount of GH¢22 billion between January and June 2022 without Parliamentary approval.
Speaking to the media on the sideline after the presentation of the mid-year budget, Mr Ato Forson claimed BoG “ have printed GH¢22 billion fresh money without the knowledge of Parliament and without informing all of us.â€
“I am saddened, no wonder inflation is galloping, no wonder that our reserves position is dwindling. Because when you create new money out of the thin air, what happens is that inflation will go up and obviously because it is new money, you will end up losing your reserves because there would be new consumption.”
The Coordinator for Special Initiatives at Jubilee House, the Chief Executive, as well as relevant former officers of the Northern Development Authority (NDA) and officers of the A&Qs Consortium have been invited for questioning by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
The invite follows a series of investigations by the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebengpertaining to the awarding of a contract by NDA to A&Qs Consortium for consultancy service.
In a press statement dated 26 July 2022, Mr Kissi Agyebengnoted that “On 30 June 2022 the Office of the Special Prosecutor commenced investigation into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of a contract awarded by the Northern Development Authority (NDA) to A&Qs Consortium for consultancy services under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme, especially in respect of the quantum of the contract sum.”
Mr Agyebeng stated that the amount of money paid as consultancy service under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme is marred with some irregularities.
According to reports, the Northern Development Authority (NDA) forged signatures on documents to carry out payment of the contract.
The purported violation was used to inflate the numbers from GH¢5.7 million to GH¢10 million under the supervision of the current NDA CEO, Sumaila Abdul Rahman.
The Special Prosecutor, therefore, directed the Controller and Accountant General to immediately freeze payments arising from the contract.
Mr Kissi Agyebeng, who has vowed to protect the public purse and reduce corruption in Ghana to its barest minimum, has assured that he will prosecute all persons found culpable in the alleged offenses regarding the award of a contract.
Currently, the officials invited have been placed on bail.
“All persons deemed culpable by the Special Prosecutor for corruption and corruption-related offence(s) would be charged and arraigned before the High Court for prosecutionâ€, the statement concluded.
According to him, the cathedral will fill a missing link in the nation’s spiritual architecture by providing a formal space for religious activities of the state.
Addressing the symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar at the Christ the King Church Tuesday [July 26, 2022) in Accra, the President also stated that the national cathedral designed by Sir David Adjaye will;
1. Provide an inter-denominational space for worship
2. Will place God at the centre of nation-building efforts
3. Provide an official venue of worship for state occasions in a predominantly Christian nation
4. Serve as a fulcrum for propagating the Christian faith
5. Unify the Christian Community
6. Serve as a tribute to religious liberty
7. More importantly, it will serve as our collective thanksgiving to the Almighty for the blessings he has bestowed on our nation, sparing us the ravages of civil war that have bedeviled the histories of virtually all our neighbours and the outbreaks of mass epidemics.
National cathedral construction epochal event
President Akufo-Addo added that just as the building of the Temple of Solomon was an epoch-making event worldwide, the national cathedral’s construction was an epochal event for the entire African continent.
He said as a result elements such as the design had been included to make it relevant to the African church.
“These three initiatives; the path breaking design, the bible museum of Africa and the biblical gardens of Africa will help to ensure the relevance of the project to the church in Africa,” he said.
President Joe Biden feels well enough to resume physical exercise on his fifth day with Covid-19, his doctor said Tuesday in a letter.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote Biden’s symptoms have “almost completely resolved” and that his vital signs remain “absolutely normal.”
Biden will continue to isolate on day five of his infection, O’Connor wrote. He completed a five-day course of the antiviral Paxlovid on Monday evening.
The President has been isolating in the White House residence since testing positive for Covid on Thursday. He’s spoken to advisers by telephone and participated in virtual meetings with officials.
On Tuesday, he was planning to meet virtually with the head of a South Korean conglomerate that is investing in the United States and with a group of lawmakers to mark the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Biden’s symptoms have reportedly been steadily improving since he first tested positive. He suffered a cough, sore throat, body aches and a runny nose through the weekend, but his condition had improved by Monday, the White House said.
Participating by video conference in a White House event, Biden’s voice still sounded raspy Monday afternoon. But his doctor said his other symptoms had mostly resolved.
Biden told reporters he’s “feeling great,” and “keeping a full schedule” while isolating as he recovers, but hopes to be back working in person “by the end of the week.”
Biden said that he’s been participating in a battery of tests every evening checking “everything, from the temperature to the oxygen … in my blood, to my pulse to — I mean, just across the board. And so far, everything’s good, I mean, everything’s on the button,” adding he’s “feeling better every day.”
And while he’s still experiencing a “little bit of a sore throat,” Biden said doctors have told him “that’s par for the course, and I think I’m on my way to recovery.”
Once he tests negative, Biden will end his isolation, according to White House officials.
The White House has emphasized that because Biden is vaccinated and boosted, his symptoms have been mild.
Trump’s return to Washington comes amid the congressional investigation of the January 6, 2021, insurrection triggered by his denial of the 2020 election results, and as the former President teases a third run for the White House in 2024.
“He’s still the leader of the America First movement,” Marc Lotter, the chief communications officer of the America First Policy Institute, said on CNN over the weekend.
“He is the biggest name. He’s the visionary behind many of the policies that got him elected to the White House,” Lotter said. “And when you look at what’s going on in America right now, so many people are clamoring for that kind of policy leadership back. They want cheap gas, growing paychecks, soaring stock markets and not what we have right now.”
Trump’s speech is expected to focus on “law and order,” according to Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich.
“President Trump sees a nation in decline that is driven, in part, by rising crime and communities becoming less safe under Democrat policies,” Budowich said. “His remarks will highlight the policy failures of Democrats, while laying out an America First vision for public safety that will surely be a defining issue during the midterms and beyond.”
Trump allies tell CNN they hope the former President will use the speech to look forward and focus on setting a Republican agenda ahead of the midterms. As Trump has publicly teased a 2024 bid, aides and advisers have encouraged him to move on from the 2020 election and shift focus to policy that they believe could put him back in office, like the economy, school curriculum and crime.
So far, Trump has yet to change course, instead using speeches to claim that the 2020 election was rigged, criticizing Republicans that he views as disloyal and attacking the Select Committee investigating January 6. One source close to Trump expressed frustration that the former President seemed unable to stop obsessing over the past, concerned it would hurt his chances in a 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump’s DC trip also underscores his dramatic split with former Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump has publicly blamed for refusing to attempt to overturn voters’ will by rejecting key states’ electoral votes.
Pence has pushed back, saying earlier this year that “Trump is wrong” in claiming that he could overturn the results. He has in recent speeches urged Republicans to drop their grievances over 2020 and offer a forward-looking platform. Pence had been scheduled to speak Monday at the Heritage Foundation in DC, but that speech was postponed after his flight was diverted due to weather.
Trump has used his recent speeches to continue airing those grievances over 2020. His appearances on the campaign trail ahead of November’s midterm elections have focused on endorsements of candidates who have embraced his election denialism and campaigned on efforts to undo the 2020 results and make voting more difficult for future elections.
His Tuesday speech at the America First Policy Institute’s summit will follow appearances by a host of Trump’s Republican allies, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, as well as some of Trump’s former White House and campaign aides, including Kellyanne Conway.
“To give voice to that agenda, to lay it out for the congressional midterms and beyond, I think there is nobody better than the former President to be able to do that,” Lotter said on CNN Sunday.
“What is going to happen next is entirely up to the voters and the President and any other people who might be getting into the race,” he said. “But the one thing that we know is the policies worked. And so, what we are focused on is setting that stage, laying out that policy framework, to get back to those winning policies. And President Trump is still one of the leaders, if not the biggest name, in that movement.”
Still, not all former Trump aides are enthused that he is speaking at the summit, further highlighting the discord within the Trump movement ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“Don’t go, boss,” Peter Navarro, who worked as an assistant under Trump, wrote in an op-ed that published Tuesday, referring to AFPI as a “Trojan horse” that is trying to “hijack the political attractiveness of Trumpism but replace Trump with an AFPI-anointed RINO.”
Spokesperson of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr. Gideon Boako, has said Ghanaians should not be despondent over the current situation of Ghana’s economy.
According to Dr. Gideon Boako, although the nation is experiencing lots of challenges, it is however not on the verge of collapse.
Speaking on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, the Veep Spokesperson assured the citizenry saying, “despite the difficulties, the government has never defaulted on salary payments. Despite the difficulties, there is no policy that the government introduced that it says ‘I’m turning back on the policy’, maybe like Free SHS or anything . . . and I think that is the assurance that this government has offered to the Ghanaian people that it doesn’t matter the difficulties, we are still managing the situations.”
He asked Ghanaians not to despair stating that their condition is far better than other countries.
“Today, every Ghanaian knows that yes, there are challenges but at least he/she gets electricity when he/she goes home. Yes, there are challenges but they don’t queue before they buy fuel because it is so disheartening that you have money but can’t get fuel. It will be a problem . . . Although there are challenges, I think God has been good to us that, in Ghana, we are not seeing the economic challenges like hunger strike and so forth here,” he said.
“Yes, prices of goods have gone up in the market. Prices of plantain, kenkey, cassava are expensive but the good thing is that the one looking for plantain or cassava gets some and I think that is something good. The fact that there is food availability, then we work towards reducing the prices and making sure that the situation won’t deteriorate that a person with money can’t buy what he/she must eat. So, there are still [you know] rooms for improvement but I considerably think that things are not so bad,” he emphasized.
Dr. Boako added that the government is on track to ensuring a sound recovery of the economy.
“We admit the challenges but we know we are equally capable of facing the challenges,” he stated.
With just over five weeks to go before federal student loan payments are set to restart after a yearslong pandemic pause, the Biden administration has yet to decide whether to push back the expiration date — again.
Another delay would be the seventh time the date has been rescheduled since the pause on payments and freeze on interest was put into place in March 2020.
The payment pause was meant to offer some temporary financial relief to those coping with the loss of income due to the pandemic. But each time payments were set to resume, either the Trump or Biden administration pushed back the expiration date.
Currently, payments are set to resume after August 31 — a couple of months before the midterm elections. Democrats are scrambling to try to avoid losing the party’s majority in Congress.
When can borrowers expect a decision to be made?
Borrowers may learn of an extension this week if the administration acts similarly to the last time it extended the payment pause. In April, the announcement came 24 days before payments were set to resume on May 1.
In the meantime, student loan servicers say they have been told by the Department of Education to hold off sending out billing statements, according to Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a nonprofit trade group whose members are responsible for servicing over 95% of all federal student loans.
The news was first reported by Inside Higher Ed last week.
“We’ve basically been told to hold off sending out billing statements until at least 30 days prior to the resumption,” Buchanan told CNN.
Student loan servicers are contracted by the federal government to collect on federal student loans. They are required to send billing statements out at least 21 days before a payment is due. But typically, servicers send out those statements more than 30 days in advance.
How borrowers can prepare
It’s been more than two years since most borrowers have had to make payments on their federal student loans.
When the payments finally resume, borrowers should still be in the same payment plan as they were before the pandemic and the amount due should, for most people, be the same.
But if a borrower is worried about affording the monthly payment, he or she can call the loan servicer now to enroll in a different payment plan. Those who may have lost income over the past two years may be eligible for a lower monthly payment than they were before the pandemic.
Servicers will also request that borrowers confirm that they want to continue to have their payments automatically debited from their accounts. If a borrower does not confirm that he or she wants those to resume, auto debit will not turn on once payments resume.
Buchanan is encouraging borrowers who have questions to reach out to their loan servicers today, rather than wait until payments resume.
“If they wait to call until the day payments actually resume, they may be on hold for a very long time,” Buchanan said.
Millions of borrowers may also have a new loan servicer after several of the companies ended their contracts with the federal government during the past two years. Borrowers should have received notices from both their old servicer and their new servicer if a loan was transferred. The transfer does not affect the existing terms, conditions, interest rates, loan discharge or forgiveness programs, or available repayment plans on the loans.
Loans serviced by Navient were transferred to Aidvantage, and loans that were serviced by Granite State were transferred to Edfinancial Services. Borrowers who have been serviced by FedLoan and are seeking debt relief from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program are currently being transferred to the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, known as MOHELA.
Biden is also weighing broad student loan forgiveness
Facing political pressure from the left, President Joe Biden is also considering whether to take executive action to broadly forgive a portion of the balances for 43 million people with outstanding federal student loan debt. He told reporters last week that “the end of August” remains his timeline for making a decision on whether to take action.
Key Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have been calling on Biden to cancel $50,000 per borrower. But Biden has consistently pushed back on canceling that much and has suggested he would support wiping away $10,000 per borrower.
Until now, Biden has taken a more targeted approach to student debt relief. His administration has authorized the cancellation of $26 billion so far — more than any other administration — largely for borrowers who were defrauded by their for-profit colleges and for permanently disabled borrowers.
He has also temporarily expanded the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that forgives the debt of government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of payments, and made changes to the income-driven repayment plans, bringing millions of borrowers closer to forgiveness.
But it’s not entirely clear if the President has the power to broadly cancel student loan debt with an executive action. Biden initially urged Congress to take action to cancel student debt, but Democrats don’t have the votes needed to pass a bill doing so.
A recent Supreme Court decision that limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to fight the climate crisis may complicate Biden’s decision-making process. The court’s ruling signals that the justices may be inclined to constrain the executive branch’s authority to make significant policy changes if its power to do so is not explicitly laid out by Congress.
The four victims were shot at multiple shooting scenes, Chief Superintendent Ghalib Bhayani of the Lower Mainland District Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at a news conference Monday.
Police shot and killed a male suspect who was found near one of the victims, Bhayani said. The suspect was later identified by police as 28-year-old Jordan Daniel Goggin from Surrey.
The two deceased are males, Bhayani said. A female is hospitalized in critical condition and another male victim was shot in the leg, he said.
The incident began around midnight with the discovery of the first victim and ended around 5:45 a.m., after the police engaged the suspect, according to Sergeant David Lee with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
An emergency alert issued just after 6 a.m. indicated the victims may have been transient, but Lee would not confirm the accuracy of that statement.
The shooting “was transient in nature, not necessarily the people,” Lee said. “These people were targeted, but the nature of how they related to the shooter — we’re still looking to determine that.”
The mounted police’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which is conducting an investigation into the shooting of the victims, identified Goggin “to further identify witnesses and advance the investigation,” according to a release from police.
The police force’s Independent Investigations Office (IIO) is separately investigating the police shooting of Goggin, the release said.
Goggin was “known to police but had non-criminal contact,” the release said.
Jessica Bernardo told CNN she was driving to work when several police cars parked in front of her vehicle and stopped traffic on the corner of 200 Street and Highway 10 in Langley.
“They (police) started running out with guns,” Bernardo said. “I noticed to my right they had someone on the ground.”
Bernardo said police held traffic for about 15 minutes before allowing drivers to go through.
Authorities had issued an emergency alert, warning residents of potential danger, until police were able to determine if the suspect was acting alone, police said. A subsequent alert noted they had the only suspect in custody.
In Canada, the National Public Alerting System is used to provide “potentially life-saving warnings, which are area-specific (geo-targeted),” according to its website.
Pope Francis has spoken of his “sorrow, indignation and shame” over the Catholic Church‘s role in the abuse of Canadian Indigenous children in residential schools, as he kicked off a weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” to the country.
The Pope apologized and promised a “serious investigation” into what happened in a speech at a meeting with Indigenous peoples in Edmonton, Alberta, on Monday.
Indigenous leaders have long called for a papal apology for the harm inflicted for decades on Indigenous children, who suffered abuse and the erasure of Indigenous culture in the country’s residential schools.
“I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools,” the pontiff said.
Last year, hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
And Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has reported that more than 4,000 Indigenous children died either from neglect or abuse in residential schools, many of which were run by the Catholic Church.
“In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children,” said the Pope. “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”
And the pontiff underlined that his apology is just the first step in righting these wrongs.
“An important part of this process will be to conduct a serious investigation into the facts of what took place in the past and to assist the survivors of the residential schools to experience healing from the traumas they suffered,” he said.
The Pope will also travel to Quebec and Iqaluit, capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, during the trip. Two Canadian cardinals will accompany him throughout his visit, Cardinal Marc Ouellet and Cardinal Michael Czerny.
Francis, 85, had a trip to Africa earlier this month canceled due to issues with his knee.
CNN’s Rob Picheta, Livia Borghese and Cecilia Armstrong contributed to this report.
“The Russian MoD claimed to have hit a Ukrainian warship and a stockpile of anti-ship missiles. There is no indication that such targets were at the location the missiles hit,” the UK Ministry of Defence said Tuesday.
It said Russia perceives anti-ship missiles as a “key threat” and claims Moscow will continue to prioritize its efforts to destroy Ukraine’s anti-ship capability, but that its “targeting processes are highly likely routinely undermined by dated intelligence, poor planning and a top-down approach to operations.”
The attack on Odesa on Saturday came just a day after Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, leading to anger and concern over the future of a deal aimed at easing the global food crisis sparked by war.
Russia’s denial: Moscow has claimed it struck military targets, including a naval ship and an ammunition depot, in the “high precision strikes” on Odesa and that it did not impact grain exports from the harbor.
“As for the targets of those high-precision strikes, they are located in a separate part of the Odesa port, in the so-called military part of the Odesa port,†he said.
“These targets were the combat boat of the naval forces of Ukraine and the ammunition depot, where the Harpoon anti-ship missiles were recently delivered. They were brought there to pose a threat to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.â€
The Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo Markin has responded to the Minority’s call on the Finance Minister to resign.
After delivering the mid-year budget review on Monday, July 25, 2022, the Minority started chanting, “resign! resign!! resign!!”.
According to them, the Minister has exhibited incompetence.
Addressing the parliamentary press corps, he asked the Minority if Mr. Seth Terkper and some of their ministers resigned despite their incompetence during their era.
He condemned the attacks on the Finance Minister and asked them to stay away from the Minister.
According to him, the NPP government, upon assumption of office, took immediate steps without delay to implement every single social intervention program while in opposition.
In doing so, the government did not attempt to introduce taxation. Rather, the government reviewed the taxation we inherited from the NDC government. Review in terms of some of them being reviewed downwards and some being reviewed completely.
He said the E-Levy was 5the first major discal policy in terms of taxation that the NPP government introduced.
The other taxes, such as the ‘Borla tax’ he added, are minor.
The legislator noted that the NDC government could decrease electricity tariffs, but the NPP reduced tariffs without adding new raxes.
To him, these are facts that even people who dislike the NPP government will agree with.
He insisted that the government performed well and achieved single-digit inflation until COVID-19 hit us, just like other countries.
” So should NDC and NDC MP come to you and tell you that the difficult times we are in are as a result of mismanagement, obviously, it may be one of the numerous propaganda because the world over, every government is complaining. Covid affected the supply chain; Covid affected industries. Many comp[anies shut down all over the world. We were all held as prisoners in our homes,” he added.
“The worst of it is the current Russian-Ukraine war. Iron rods that are used by the private sector for construction come from Ukraine. Obviously, the supply chain is affected; obviously, the cost of importing will not be the same as previous. Now cement, the paper for bagging cement comes from Russia. As we speak, companies that are involved in the manufacturing of cement have difficulties in getting the required quantity for bagging.”
He also mentioned flour and wheat as some of the commodities that had seen price hikes due to the ongoing war.
The lawmaker added that for the NDC to go to the IMF when there were no challenges compared to that of the NPP, they have no right to point fingers at the current administration or demand the resignation of Ken Ofori-Atta.
The government, he assured, will continue to roll out policies that will revive the economy.
