It has been reported that a British adolescent who collapsed at an Ibiza nightclub early this morning has passed away in the hospital.
Around 5 a.m. this morning, the 19-year-old was taken by ambulance from an undisclosed club to the hospital.
Before the paramedics got there, he allegedly had a heart attack.
At around 6.30 am, he was reportedly stabilised at the site and transported to Can Misses Hospital on the island’s capital.
Less than an hour later, at the same hospital, he passed away.
Although the nightclub where he passed out has not yet been identified, it is thought to be on the route connecting San Antonio, a popular party destination, with Ibiza Town.
The Amnesia nightclub, which is close to the settlement of San Rafael on the road connecting San Antonio and Ibiza Town, is where sources claim the teenager passed out.
Last night, it hosted Bresh, a weekly party that takes place during the summer.
Every Thursday from June 8 through August 31st, BRESH! lands at Amnesia, according to an entry on its website.
The mysterious party, featuring top performers, has travelled to more than twenty countries and is again returning to Ibiza, the most picturesque party on earth.
The patient admitted to Can Misses was a “19-year-old British national,” according to a local health source.
“The first call came in at 4.50 this morning,” he stated.
A 19-year-old male had suffered a cardiac arrest at a nightclub on the highway connecting San Antonio and Ibiza Town. Emergency personnel were sent to the scene.
The first responders on the scene revived him from cardiac arrest, stabilising him before transferring him to Can Misses Hospital.
Despite efforts to rescue him, he was declared dead at 7.22 am today despite being admitted to Can Misses A&E at 6.30 am.
An investigation into the death was confirmed by a police spokesman, who stated: “We are investigating and waiting for the post-mortem results.”
An informed source indicated that as part of the investigation, the issue of whether the deceased adolescent had drank alcohol or drugs prior to passing out would be looked into.
At this point, there is no official information indicating that he had used alcohol or narcotics prior to experiencing a cardiac arrest.
It is currently unknown whether he resided on the island or was visiting, as well as whether he was travelling alone or with friends.
A British pensioner was found dead by the side of the road in the Turkish province of Antalya.
The unnamed 74-year-old Alzheimer’s patient was apparently discovered unconscious close to a forest area, close to the Asmaca neighbourhood. She has been identified as having the illness by the local media.
Within two days of her absence, onlookers found her body.
Emergency services responded swiftly, but the cause of her death has not yet been determined.
Coroners are scheduled to perform a post-mortem examination at the mortuary later this week.
In Turkey‘s southern Mediterranean region, Antalya is a favourite vacation destination for Britons.
However, it’s unclear if the pensioner was a resident or had just visited for a vacation.
A British mother spoke of feeling helpless as flames tore through the Greek island of Rhodes, leaving her family “stranded.”
Rhodes is a famous summer holiday destination for British tourists in Greece and is well-known for its sand beaches, historic temples, and nightlife.
However, authorities claim that roughly one in ten tourists have been touched by the flames, which have prompted thousands of residents to leave from seaside settlements.
Footage from Kiotari and Lardo resorts has shown sightseers against a murky orange sky dragging suitcases or fleeing hotels without their luggage at all.
Others have described waking up today to ash falling on them from above as wildfires raged for the sixth night.
Thousands of miles away, Brits like Debbie Antoine are watching the unfolding scenes and are terrified of what will happen to their families vacationing there.
Greek police say it’s the country’s largest-ever evacuation operation in response to a fire (Picture: AP)The wildfires have scorched southeastern beaches, officials sayNearly 20,000 people have been evacuated so far (Picture: Michael Stokes / SWNS)
Her daughter, Kelly Nicholls, who is staying at a five-star hotel along the upscale Kiotari beach strip, has lost ‘everything’.
‘My daughter Kell, her husband and two young children along with another family of four had to run for their lives from the Princess Andriana Resort & Spa,’ Debbie said, according to The Mirror.
‘They have walked for miles to escape and no one except local people have given them drinks,’ she said, adding that they have been sleeping on sun beds.
‘The hotel gave them towels and nothing else, no food or drink,’ Debbie added.
‘They are literally stranded and have lost everything as they ran in their swimwear.’
Eileen Mawton and her daughter Hannah Gormley and eight-year-old granddaughter Annabelle, also staying at the Princess Andriana Resort & Spa, said they had to run on foot in 40°C heat.
Some tourists have been hauled up in emergency shelters in stadiums (Picture: Reuters)
Friend Glynis Wall told The Mirror: ‘They said it was like images of a warzone.
‘Everyone around them was panicking. There were children and babies crying and mothers trying to protect them from the smoke.’
While Corinne Watson, 42, who is holidaying with her husband and two sons, said power outages at their hotel ’caused chaos’ but staff are ‘working exceptionally hard’.
‘For others, both tourists and locals, it is awful and terrifying,’ she told the PA news agency.
More than 19,000 people have been vacated so far in what police told local news outlet Ellada 24 is the largest fire evacuation operation ever carried out in the country.
Preliminary police data suggests 16,000 people have been evacuated over land and 3,000 by sea.
The wildfire has been burning since last week but was confined mainly to mountainous regions until winds and scorching temperatures pushed it eastside.
Orders to leave homes and hotels in Asklepiio and Kiotari and move to Gennadi were issued at 1:42pm yesterday, the Greek news agency ANA-MPA reported.
Holidaymaker David Woodhouse tweeted footage of him walking in a bathing suit alongside countless others from the TUI Plimmiri Hotel shortly after the alert.
Greece’s Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection said the evacuation ‘took place without problem’ and ‘care has been taken for the accommodation of those who had to be removed’.
Nine people have been admitted to hospital with breathing problems, regional health officials said.
The British Embassy in Athens said it is ‘closely monitoring the wildfire in Rhodes’.
The Foreign Office’s travel advice for Greece adds: ‘If you are a British national affected by wildfires in Rhodes near Kiotari, Pefkoi, Lindos and the surrounding area, please follow the guidance from the emergency services.
‘If you are planning to travel to Rhodes, please check with your travel operator or hotel prior to travel that the area you plan to visit is not impacted by the current wildfires.’
It comes as at least 46 forest fires were ignited throughout Greece in the last 24 hours, the country’s fire brigade tweeted at about 6:20pm local time.
Greece’s fire service spokesman, Ioannis Artophios, told reporters yesterday evening: ‘An extreme risk of fire is predicted in Attica, Evia, Boeotia, Phocis, Fthiotida, Magnesia, Larissa, Argolis, Corinthia, Messinia, in areas of Achaia and Ilia, and in the islands of the Rhodes Regional Unit, while the risk remains very high in the rest of the country.
‘The new heat wave creates dangerous conditions for the occurrence and spread of fires.
‘In the extreme situation we are experiencing, the attention of all of us is required.’
The tinder-dry temperatures are set to continue in Rhodes today, with Greece’s national weather service predicting 32°C in the morning before rising to 40°C by midday.
Even in the evening, the mercury will only lower by eight degrees, according to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service.
Cleon, named by Greek weather officials after the Athenian general and otherwise known as Cerebrus, has engulfed Greece, igniting wildfires last week near Athens.
Dan Jones, a director of sports for a school football team in Torbay, England, tweeted that the Rhodes wildfires have been the ‘scariest moment in my entire life’.
He said he and his three children climbed on a fishing trawler to get to safety.
‘I don’t know how they’ll process this when the dust settles, but what brave boys,’ he said. ‘Family is everything.’
On Friday, voters in two parliamentary elections rejected the party of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, dealing a serious political blow to the embattled leader.
In Selby and Ainsty, a region in the north of England where Sunak’s party had held a dominating majority, the Conservative Party fell short of victory against the resurgent Labour Party.
The Liberal Democrats, a moderate party, won Somerton and Frome, a second seat.
The Conservatives just managed to hold on to a third seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, the constituency held by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson until his resignation from parliament last month, although Labour significantly grew its share of the vote.
The results will put Sunak’s leadership under pressure, and suggest his government is on course for an electoral defeat at the next general election, expected next year.
Sunak has struggled to reverse the Conservatives’ plummeting fortunes in the nine months he has held office; a series of scandals, a stuttering economy and a decline in Britain’s public services have left his party deeply unpopular.
But the results indicate that the opposition Labour Party, which under the leadership of Keir Starmer is on course to clinch power when Sunak calls a general election.
By law, a general election must take place by January 2025. Most observers think Sunak will call it in the fall of 2024, if not before, to avoid trying to persuade voters to cast their ballots in the middle of winter.
Thursday’s three by-elections provided the sternest mid-term test yet for Sunak, who took power after Liz Truss’s shambolic six-week premiership last fall.
The ruling Conservatives survived a scare in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, where Labour was hoping to claim the seat Boris Johnson had held for eight years. Conservative Party’s candidate Steve Tuckwell won 45.16% of the vote there, according to Britain’s Press Association (PA).
Johnson quit in anger after a committee of fellow lawmakers found that he had lied to Parliament over “Partygate,” the scandal of lockdown-era parties in his government that tanked his popularity and contributed to his political downfall.
But in Selby, in the north of England, Labour overturned a huge deficit to win the seat with 46% of the votes, according to PA.
Both seats were viewed as the kind of regions that Labour needs to be targeting if it is to have a hope of claiming a parliamentary majority at the next election.
Both those votes were triggered after a committee of lawmakers found Johnson lied to Parliament, in a damning and unprecedented verdict against a former Prime Minister. Johnson was set to be suspended from Parliament for 90 days, but avoided that penalty by resigning instead.
Nigel Adams, the former Conservative lawmaker for Selby and a close ally of Johnson’s, quit hours later in an apparent move of solidarity.
Adding to the Conservatives’ woes was a thumping loss in Somerton and Frome, an affluent area in south-west England, to the Liberal Democrats which won nearly 55% of votes. The centrist party has been picking up former Conservative support in the so-called “Blue Wall,” a well-off portion of southern England that typically opposed Brexit.
The results amount to a significant rejection of Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power for 13 years and has seen its opinion poll ratings nosedive towards the end of Johnson’s tenure, and since.
Sunak will now look to steady his leadership and fight off any growing murmurs of a challenge within his party.
But time is running out for him to reverse his government’s fortunes. A cost of living crisis, creaking public services, stubbornly high inflation and an endless list of Tory scandals have turned opinion firmly against his bloc, and intensified calls by buoyant opposition parties for an early general election.
In reaction to what Moscow described as London’s “hostile actions,” they will be compelled to give five days’ notice if they want to travel more than 75 miles away.
This occurs shortly after the charge d’affaires, Tom Dodd, was called into the foreign ministry.
He received criticism for the UK’s backing of the ‘terrorist activities‘ of Ukraine and for impeding Russian diplomatic efforts.
‘The British side was also informed of the decision to introduce a notification procedure for the movement of employees of British diplomatic missions on the territory of our country as a response to London’s hostile actions,’ the ministry said.
Restrictions will not apply to the ambassador and three other senior diplomats.
Other officials will have to send notification of any plans to travel beyond this ‘free movement zone’.
‘Such a document should contain information about the timing, purpose, type of trip, planned business contacts, accompanying persons, type of transport, places of visit and accommodation, as well as the route of the trip,’ the ministry said.
‘We reiterated to the British side that any of its efforts aimed at continuing the destructive line in international and bilateral affairs, attempts to demonize our country, complicate the work of Russian foreign agencies will inevitably receive a decisive response.’
In 2025, the British and Irish Lions will embark on a nine-match tour, which includes a match against a New Zealand and Australia invitational XV.
The tour will kick off with a historic fixture in Adelaide before the Test matches with the Wallabies in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.If the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground sells out, it will break records for a Lions Test match.
The tour’s grand finale will take place in front of a crowd of more than 80,000 fans at Sydney’s Olympic Park.
“We are delighted to announce the tour schedule as we look ahead to what is to be one of the most eagerly anticipated series in history,” said Lions chief executive Ben Calveley.
The 2025 Lions tour fixtures in full
Saturday 28 June: v Western Force, Optus Stadium, Perth
Wednesday 2 July: v Queensland Reds, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Saturday 5 July: v New South Wales Waratahs, Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Wednesday 9 July: v ACT Brumbies, GIO Stadium, Canberra
Saturday 12 July: v Invitational Australia & NZ XV, Adelaide Oval
Saturday 19 July: First Test, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Tuesday 22 July: v Melbourne Rebels, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Saturday 26 July: Second Test, Melbourne Cricket Ground
Saturday 2 August: Third Test, Accor Stadium, Sydney
In a groundbreaking move, the Lions, Premiership Rugby, and the United Rugby Championship have reached an agreement to provide an unprecedented two-week preparation period before the tour’s opening match in Perth against Western Force on 28 June.
This agreement addresses a previous issue where the Premiership final coincided only a week before the Lions’ opening fixture, which affected the team’s preparation negatively on past tours. With this new arrangement, the Lions will have ample time to prepare effectively for their tour opener, ensuring a more competitive and well-prepared squad.
“I would also like to thank Premiership Rugby and the United Rugby Championship, whose co-operation has resulted in the longest preparation period for a tour in recent history, which gives us the best possible chance of a series victory,” added Calveley.
flanker Phil Waugh, has called a Lions tour “one of the great sporting festivals”.
“Rugby Australia is looking forward to welcoming back the Lions for the first time in 12 years – as well as the tens of thousands of Lions fans from the northern hemisphere,” Waugh said.
“It is an exciting fixture of matches all around the country with the Lions taking on our Super Rugby franchises, three massive Test matches, and a marquee match in Adelaide featuring a combined invitational Australia-New Zealand side.”
Prime Minister for the United Kingdom (UK), Rishi Sunak, has announced the increase in visa application fees as part of efforts to address revenue shortfalls.
In an address at Downing Street on July 13, Sunak outlined government priorities, including reducing inflation, economic growth, and debt reduction.
He also mentioned a substantial pay award for teachers to prevent a potential strike.
To bridge the revenue gap, Sunak announced two measures targeting migrants as a means of generating necessary funding.
“We are going to increase the charges for migrants when they are applying for visas to come to this country and indeed something called the Immigration Health Surcharge, which is the levy that they pay to access the NHS,” he told the press.
The charges for visa applications and the Immigration Health Surcharge, which grants access to the NHS, will both be increased. These tax measures are expected to generate over a billion pounds in revenue.
“So, across the board, visa application fees are going to go up significantly… none of these fees have been increased recently and we think it is appropriate given that cost of everything has gone up,” he added.
Sunak justified the fee hikes by stating that they hadn’t been increased recently and that the cost of living has risen.
“So, across the board, visa application fees are going to go up significantly… none of these fees have been increased recently and we think it is appropriate given that cost of everything has gone up,” he added.
The Foreign Office will roll out the increases in the coming days and weeks. It’s worth noting that the United States recently raised visa fees for certain non-immigrant visa categories, a practice criticized for potentially exploiting applicants even in the case of rejected applications.
UK visa application fees are about to increase “significantly,” says PM Rishi Sunakpic.twitter.com/2FUT430oqg
There won’t be any relief from the heatwave that Europeans and British tourists are currently experiencing on the continent.
After an anticyclone system named Cerberus advanced northward, warnings for imminent danger to life are already being issued for several European countries owing to the intense heat.
However, once Cerberus exhausts itself, Italian meteorologists now anticipate that a second heatwave, known as Charon, will take its place.
This could push temperatures back up to 43°C in Rome and as high as 47°C in Sardinia, The MailOnline reports.
Cerberus – named after Hades’ three-headed dog in Greek mythology – will see temperatures rise to above 45°C in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey by the end of next week.
The Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily are set to bear the brunt of the unforgiving heat, with the BBC claiming temperatures could reach 48.8°C.
In Athens today, rescue workers had to rescue tourists from the Acropolis as temperatures climbed.
On Tuesday the death of a 44-year-old street painter in Lodi, Italy was believed to be heat related – as was the drowning of two children in Manfredonia, who were believed to be seeking relief from the heat.
The ground temperature in parts of southern Spain reached upwards of 60°C, with the European Space Agency warning continental records could be broken next week.
Health ministry officials have issued red alert warnings for ten major cities in Italy, including Florence and Rome.
A red alert warning means the heat is so intense that it poses a health risk to the whole population – not just vulnerable groups.
Italian politician Nicola Fratoianni said: ‘We are facing an unbearable heatwave. Dying from the heat is unthinkable – we should be taking measures to avoid tragedies like this in the hottest hours of the day.’
Carlo Cacciamani, head of Italy’s national meteorological and climatology agency, said the unusually hot weather hitting the country is because the Cerberus anticyclone has pushed out a colder weather system from the Azores which usually influences summer weather in Italy.
‘This is happening more frequently and means we see temperatures around 40°C instead of the normal 30-31°C,’ Cacciamani told The Times.
‘The world just had the hottest week on record, according to preliminary data,’ the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said, with high temperatures having ‘potentially devastating impacts on ecosystems and the environment’.
Research published on Monday found that more than 61,000 people died due to the heat during Europe’s record-breaking summer last year.
Most people who died were over the age of 80, and about 63% of those who died due to the heat were women, according to the research published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Eight years in Australia for a British couple who will be expelled for being too old.
After failing to obtain permanent residency as a result of visa modifications, Glenn Tunnicliff, 57, and his wife Sheena, 50, are required to depart within seven weeks.
With their two children Tamzin and Molly, who are now 21 and 18, as well as their Jack Russell Roxy, they relocated from East Sussex to Perth.
Despite each family member securing jobs, Glenn and Sheena been told to leave by August 4 because the age limit to gaining permanent residency (PR) – the pathway to citizenship – is 45 years.
‘We don’t want to go back to the UK, we’ve made a life here,’ Sheena told 9News.
‘Now we are over that magic figure of 45 there is no route to PR for us. Australia classes us as too old [but] we are the ones with the experience and training.’
The family are on Glenn’s work visa because his plastering skills are in high demand across Australia.
The company that sponsors him is about to close which means the family can’t get a permanent visa.
Sheena said the couple have spent $80,000 (£63,200) on visas over the years while not always getting the best advice from agents.
The only member of the family who can stay is Tamzin because she is a nurse, but Molly is learning Australian sign language and won’t qualify for a student visa because her course is not eligible.
The family fear Roxy the dog will be left behind to fend for herself due to her age.
Lawyer Joanne Kinslor explained the reasoning behind PR in Australia and said: ‘The age limit in place for the vast majority of skilled migrants arises from a policy concern that the working lives and economic contributions of older skilled migrants are likely to be smaller than that of younger migrants.’
But this was criticised by migration agent Mateja Rautner who said: ‘The Australian government is actively promoting Australia as the destination for skilled migrants and we are amid global competition for talent and yet we are limiting the options for skilled words over 45.’
Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil said Australia’s migration system is ‘broken’ and in need of a fundamental overhaul and a ‘radical simplification’.
A lawmaker has acknowledged that the British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles are ‘a hard time’ for Russia’s air defence to counter.
In preparation for its eagerly anticipated counteroffensive, Ukraine received its first donation of long-range cruise missiles from Britain in May.
Yevgeniy Balitsky, the leader of the occupied Zaporizhzhia province who was selected by Moscow, has now claimed the weapons have been causing ‘problems’ for his military.
They undoubtedly cause us difficulties with their missiles, particularly Storm Shadow, he added.
‘We have somehow learned how to shoot down [US-supplied] HIMARS. But the [British-supplied] Shadow ones are even harder. They arrive, and have a bigger radius.
‘So it’s a problem for us. In fact, our air defence is having a hard time with [Storm Shadow].
‘It shoots them down, but there is only a 50% chance of the missiles being shot down.’
His words confirm the impression that the missiles has been a game changer for the Ukrainians.
As recent as Tuesday, Metro.co.uk reported that a top Russian general was killed by one of the missiles while fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Other senior Russian officers are also believed to have died in the same assault.
Mr Balitsky added: ‘Out of four, three have recently reached us. Sometimes two make it. The missile is modern, although it is not the newest, but it is fast enough, and it flies properly.
‘I mean, at different speeds, at varying altitudes, changing modes, so it is not easy to shoot down.’
The GPS-guided ground-hugging missiles with a 450kg warhead have a range of around 155 miles.
This allows the Ukrainian army to hit Russian troops and supply dumps far behind the frontlines.
Storm Shadow is a low-observable, long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA.
In a shocking and ground-breaking report that blasts Johnson‘s behaviour and suggests he be denied a pass to enter the parliamentary estate, a parliamentary committee found that the former British prime minister intentionally misled lawmakers about violations of his own Covid-19 lockdown rules.
According to the committee’s report, Johnson “committed a serious contempt” of parliament when he claimed that rules were always followed after the so-called “Partygate” affair exposed unauthorised gatherings at Downing Street.
The conclusions essentially amount to a historic reprimand of a former prime minister who, after winning an overwhelming electoral victory less than four years ago, had his political career crumble under the weight of a number of scandals.
“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the Prime Minister, the most senior member of the government,” the Privileges Committee wrote in its report, published Thursday. “There is no precedent for a Prime Minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House.”
“He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public, and did so repeatedly,” the members wrote, adding that Johnson also misled the committee when he presented evidence in his defense.
Johnson resigned as an MP in fury on Friday, days before the report’s publication, nullifying the committee’s recommendation that he be suspended for long enough to force a by-election in his constituency.
But the report added a further, damning recommendation in light of his resignation: that Johnson is denied a former member’s pass to enter parliament, a longstanding convention for ex-MPs.
It marks the end of a lengthy investigation by the committee – the majority of whom represent Johnson’s Conservative Party – that Johnson and some of his allies attacked as a “kangaroo court.”
But it may not end the Partygate saga. MPs must now vote to accept the report’s findings, a potentially embarrassing exercise certain to expose divisions between Johnson’s supporters in parliament and the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has sought to distance himself from Johnson in recent days.
The investigation’s focus was on Johnson’s conduct during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was prime minister and found by police to have breached his own rules.
Unlike a police investigation and a separate parliamentary probe into the parties themselves, this inquest looked at whether Johnson knowingly misled lawmakers in the House of Commons when he reassured them that he was unaware of the parties.
Its findings were unanimous and unambiguous. “We think it highly unlikely on the balance of probabilities that Mr Johnson … could have genuinely believed at the time of his statements to the House that the Rules or Guidance were being complied with,” the report said.
The report also rebukes Johnson for his attacks on the committee’s impartiality, finding that he committed contempt of parliament on several more occasions when giving evidence and when he resigned as MP.
“This attack on a committee carrying out its remit from the democratically elected House itself amounts to an attack on our democratic institutions,” the committee wrote in its report, calling Johnson’s language “vitriolic” and “completely unacceptable.”
Had Johnson stayed on as a parliamentarian, the committee would have recommended a 90-day suspension from the Commons – a ban nine times the threshold that would force a sitting member of parliament to hold a by-election to reclaim their seat.
Johnson, in his own response to the report, called its publication a “dreadful day for democracy.”
“This report is a charade. I was wrong to believe in the committee or its good. faith. The terrible truth is that it is not I who has twisted the truth to suit my purposes,” he said.
But Johnson’s reputation is steeped even deeper in disgrace following the publication. As well as being the first PM ever to be fined by police while in office, his entire premiership was dogged by scandal, ranging from financial irregularities to members of his team being accused of sexual misconduct.
Johnson’s popularity plummeted toward the end of his time in office – both among the British public and his own MPs. His attempt to come back after his successor Liz Truss was forced to resign fell short after it became apparent that a majority of Conservative MPs would block it.
Johnson has been in a war of words with Sunak, his former chancellor (finance minister) and eventual successor.
Over the weekend, he and two of his allies said they would quit as MPs immediately, forcing three difficult by-elections for a government that is languishing in opinion polls.
The former PM’s departure from the House of Commons is not necessarily good news for Sunak, whom Johnson criticized in his resignation statement.
Johnson and his allies still largely hold Sunak responsible for his predecessor’s political downfall. Johnson has always been an influential figure among Conservative voters, whether inside or outside of parliament.
The prospect of Johnson outside of parliament, writing columns and giving speeches aimed at the voters Sunak needs to win the next election will no doubt cause yet more anxiety in Downing Street.
A woman who used drugs to illegally plan her own abortion has been sentenced to prison in the United Kingdom.
Before getting pregnant again in 2019, the unnamed woman already had three sons.
She was ’embarrassed’ and didn’t talk to her doctor, Stoke-on-Trent crown court was informed on Monday.
During the coronavirus lockdown in May 2020, she called the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and lied about how far along she was. Then the BPAS delivered her abortion-inducing medication.
The woman made a number of internet searches between February and May 2020, including ‘how to hide a pregnancy bump’, ‘how to have an abortion without going to the doctor’ and ‘how to lose a baby at six months’.
Five days after the call to BPAS, on May 11 2020, a 999 call was made saying the woman was in labour, and the child was born during the phone call.
The baby wasn’t breathing and despite the efforts of paramedics the baby girl was pronounced dead at hospital 45 minutes later.
The child was between 32 and 34 weeks’ gestation when born and her cause of death was recorded as stillbirth and maternal use of abortion drugs.
The woman was initially charged with child destruction, to which she pleaded not guilty. She later pleaded guilty to administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution.
Judge Mr Justice Pepperall acknowledged it is an emotive case and said it was made more ‘tragic’ because the woman did not plead guilty earlier, adding he may have been able to consider suspending the jail sentence if she had.
He said the woman, who was given a 28-month extended sentence, will serve 14 months in custody and the remainder on licence after her release.
She’s been prosecuted under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, sparking calls for abortion reform in the UK.
Following her sentencing, the BPAS said: ‘Today, a mother-of-three has been jailed for 28 months after using abortion pills to end her own pregnancy. No woman can ever go through this again.
‘We need abortion law reform in Great Britain NOW.’
A spokesman for the TUC added: ‘Every woman should have the right to choose. Time for abortion law reform now.’
Based on report from the state-run Bernama news agency, Malaysian police have seized a Chinese-flagged cargo ship amid claims that World War II ships are being salvaged in Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency was referenced in the Bernama article, which stated that the ship was detained and boarded when it was discovered that it lacked permission to anchor in Malaysian territorial waters.
Inspecting the ship “led to the discovery of old steel and cannon shells,” the report stated.
It noted that media outlets around the region have recently reported that “a foreign salvage ship was conducting an illegal operation to salvage steel from a British warship that sank” in the area.
The case was being investigated under Malaysia’s Merchant Shipping Ordinance, which covers underwater operations among other activities, according to Bernama.
The area is the site of the wrecks of two British warships, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and cruiser HMS Repulse, sunk in an attack by Japanese warplanes on December 10, 1941, just two days after Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The attack by dozens of Japanese aircraft armed with bombs and torpedoes left 842 men dead. The wrecks are classified as war graves under British law.
Reports of the alleged salvaging of the wrecks brought condemnation in Britain.
“We are distressed and concerned at the apparent vandalism for personal profit of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse,” said professor Dominic Tweddle, director general of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, in a statement.
“They are designated war graves. We are upset at the loss of naval heritage and the impact this has on the understanding of our Royal Navy history,”
John Bradford, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratman School of International Studies in Singapore said marine salvage “is an emotional business.”
“To many people, this feels more like robbing the graves of national heroes rather than reclaiming scrap,” he said.
Salvaging of sunken World War II wrecks around the Pacific is not a new problem.
In 2017, Dutch, British and US authorities reported that naval vessels sunk in the World War II Battle of the Java Sea had been salvaged without permission.
All traces of two Dutch cruisers and two British ships had disappeared, according to reports from 2017.
Steel from World War II shipwrecks can have special value because it is was produced before the first nuclear explosions on Earth. Known as “low-background steel,” it is needed for some special scientific instruments because it contains no traces of nuclear fallout.
But Bradford said there may be other reasons behind the alleged looting of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse.
“The fact that intact gun shells were recovered by the Malaysian authorities suggests the salvagers are not just seeking scrap metal but may be looking for trophies with high resale value,” he said.
International law on the salvage of sunken warships is murky, according to a 2017 report from the Peace Palace Library at the Hague in the Netherlands.
“The legal regime appertaining to the wrecks of warships and State-owned ships remained complex, fractured, and in serious need of clarification,” the report said.
Blake Herzinger, a research fellow from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, said registering nations must be the ones to stop salvaging of wrecks that are war graves.
“Ultimately, the flag state is responsible for ensuring that vessels carrying its flag do not engage in illegal conduct. And if there is such a pattern of behavior, it is down to the flag state to take action,” he said.
HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, operating out of Singapore, sank after coming under a fierce attack from land-based Japanese warplanes while attempting to confront a Japanese amphibious landing on the Malaysian coast.
Their sinking is considered one of the worst naval disasters in the history of the Royal Navy.
It was also one of the first battles to show that even the most powerful of modern warships – the Prince of Wales was only commissioned less than a year before it sank – were vulnerable without supporting air power.
The Japanese planes attacked the British ships from airstrips around the region, while there was no British air cover for the two surface ships, after an aircraft carrier that was supposed to accompany them in what was called “Force Z” had run aground during its voyage to the Pacific.
A British boy who became ill while on vacation with his parents passed away in a hospital in the Algarve.
The 11-month-old infant passed away while waiting to be transferred from an intensive care unit at Portimao Hospital to Faro Hospital, which was 50 minutes distant by automobile.
After his condition deteriorated, the child was declared dead late on Friday.
After it was revealed that a medically equipped helicopter had to be dispatched in order to transport the child to Faro because there was a shortage of qualified personnel, calls for an investigation into the tragedy increased in Portugal.
The unnamed child, thought to have fallen ill with bronchitis before medics discovered he had septicaemia, was kept at Portimao Hospital after his condition worsened and died later the same day.
Initial reports which were later refuted by health chiefs claimed the child lost his fight for life after waiting to be transferred for six hours due to a lack of specialist staff.
Respected Portuguese daily Correio da Manha said medics on the Algarve had initially sought a transfer to Santa Cruz Hospital in Lisbon, a leading cardiac hospital, before the decision to use an air ambulance to take the baby to Faro was made.
The youngster has been described locally only as a ‘foreign child’, and well-placed sources confirmed today he was British and was on holiday with his family.
A spokesman for Portugal’s National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), a Ministry of Health agency responsible among other things for providing on-the-scene pre-hospital emergency care and assisting transport of victim to appropriate hospitals, said it had a received a request from Portimao Hospital to transport an 11-month-old baby to an intensive care paediatric unit at 2.18pm local time on Friday.
It insisted the child was being ‘properly accompanied’ by the hospital’s paediatric teams at the time.
In a statement it added: ‘Because Faro Hospital found itself without paediatrics and with the Paediatric Inter-Hospital Transport Ambulance (TIP) inoperative due to the lack of a hospital doctor and TIP Lisbon engaged on another medical emergency job, INEM initiated the necessary procedures with a view to activating the Algarve helicopter.
‘This was done at just after 3pm the same day.’
The INEM spokesman said the baby suffered a ‘worsening of its clinical condition which prevented the transfer and led to the medical teams returning to Portimao Hospital around 5.45pm after initiating procedures for the helicopter journey.’
The agency added in its statement: “INEM deeply regrets the outcome of this situation and we send our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the baby’s family.’
A union chief had demanded an investigation into the British child’s hospital death before INEM reacted.
Rui Lazaro, head of the Portuguese union of pre-hospital emergency technicians, said other solutions could have been activated such as the transfer of a specialist medical team to Portimao Hospital by helicopter.
He insisted: ‘They could have come from Lisbon, or Coimbra or even from Porto.
‘Someone from INEM or from the guidance centre for emergency patients must have made that decision not to activate that option.
‘We don’t know why it occurred and this needs to be properly investigated.
‘The appropriate means were not made available in a timely manner.’
The child’s parents have been offered expert care from psychologists trained in helping people deal with bereavement.
Local reports said the youngster went into cardiac arrest as he was being taken to the air ambulance, with leading Portuguese daily Correio da Manha saying the child had suffered cardiac tamponade or pressure on the heart when blood or fluid builds up in the space between the heart muscle and the heart’s outer covering sac.
It can occur due to inflammation of the lining around the heart caused by bacterial infections.
Well-placed sources said the youngster had been put on antibiotics after being diagnosed with bronchitis and was getting better at his holiday accommodation with his family before taking a turn for the worse and being admitted to Portimao Hospital where doctors discovered he had septicaemia.
The source said: ‘The main problem was that the ambulance that would normally have taken the child to Faro Hospital was inoperative because there was no paediatric emergency physician available.
Police have discovered the body of a missing 15-year-old girl who was last seen riding a motorbike with a slain British adolescent.
A shallow tomb containing Suraphltchaya Khamsa was found in a wooded area today about three kilometres from where Woramet Ben Taota, 16, was found on May 7.
Chaiwat ‘Wat’ Boongarin, a convicted felon, has acknowledged to killing the youngster known as Ben while denying killing Suraphltchaya. He did so by stating the boy had stolen drugs from him.
Boongarin, who is in custody, is likely to face the death penalty if convicted of either or both cases.
Ben grew up in a remote village in northern Thailand near Lampang – close to where his body was found -with his Thai mother Ooy Taota. But he has a British father, businessman Stephen Graham, who shares his time between the UK and Thailand, reports the Daily Mail.
The devastated family say Ben and Suraphltchaya have known each other since they were young and ‘were close’ and that police believe Suraphltchaya was dating Boongarin. They suspect Ben got involved with Boongarin and his drugs through her.
They think the girl, who was said to be addicted to methamphetamine pills and getting her supply from the thug, had been used to help lure Ben to Boongarin before they were both killed.
Ben’s devastated father Stephen described his son as polite, handsome and charming (Picture: ViralPress)
Suraphltchaya’s parents and grandparents identified her body, breaking down in tears when it emerged she’d also been murdered.
Police said she had signs of bruising on her face that suggested she’d been hit a number of times with a hard object.
Speaking about the suspected killer, Mr Graham said he was a prolific drug dealer and an ‘evil’ man.
The boy’s father flew out to Thailand when the tragedy unfolded and on Wednesday confronted Boongarin during a chaotic crime reconstruction.
Mr Campbell yelled ‘look me in the eye, you cowards’ and ‘may you rot in hell’ at the alleged murderer while he was being taken on a ‘perp walk’ or crime reconstruction, which will form evidence for the prosecution.
He told the Mail: ‘Usually I am very English and reserved about my emotions and my anger.
‘But after spending that long flight from the UK thinking about my beloved Ben I was just grabbed by the throat by the situation. I used some terrible words. It just flowed out of me.’
He described his son as polite, charming and handsome, but naive and ‘like all 16-year-olds’ did stupid things and tragically got himself involved with Boongarin.
Through tears, Ben’s mother Ms Taota said her son as her heart and soul.
Suraphltchaya and Ben were last seen together riding a motorcycle on Saturday evening, May 6, after visiting her grandfather earlier in the afternoon.
Ben was found dead the next morning with severe head wounds. His body had been dumped in woodland but had not been buried. His phone and cash from his wallet were missing.
A police search for Suraphltchaya followed as investigators battled to piece together the case.
Boongarin was arrested after being identified from CCTV riding a black Honda motorcycle around the area at the time of the death.
He confessed to the killing and said his motive was revenge for a drug deal in which the youngster had stolen tablets. He said, however, someone else killed Suraphltchaya.
Police major general Mongkol Sampawapol, commander of Lampang Provincial Police, said: ‘We suspect that the suspect is responsible for both murders.
‘However, police will also continue investigating the deaths to check if anybody else was involved.
‘The female victim’s body is now being sent to hospital for an autopsy to find traces of rape or sexual assault, because the suspect has a history of these crimes.’
A British visitor claims that the first time he realised his vacation dive boat had overturned was when he saw fish rather than the sky outside his window.
David Taylor was on board the Carlton Queen three weeks ago when it began to sink and begin to float away, along with other eager divers exploring the Red Sea.
Since then, a video showing panicked passengers scrambling up a nearly vertical deck, leaping over the side of the boat into the ocean, and clinging to their mattresses as they floated on the water’s surface has appeared online.
David, 53, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘I knew something was wrong when I could see fish swimming outside my cabin room’s window.’
The architectural technician from Nottinghamshire was one of 15 Brits on the ill-fated boat, among a total of 26 guests.
Remarkably, everyone on board survived the ordeal – including the nine crew members – with none requiring hospital treatment, according to reports.
David said: ‘We were shouting for help and heard crashing above us and had this deep-seated feeling of dread that something terrible was happening.
‘When we realised we couldn’t escape by the stairwell and no one had come to help us, it felt awful.’
Passengers had to jump from the side of the boat into the water to reach the lifeboats (Picture: Toby Meadows)
The descriptions of the incident offered by some of the passengers who were on board the craft clashes with the interpretation offered by its owner, Carlton Fleet.
A GoFundMe page created by German survivor Dominic Schmitt says six of the divers were trapped inside the sinking boat for almost half an hour.
He wrote: ‘Our passports, given to the captain at the beginning of the voyage to evacuate with him in an emergency, were of course nowhere to be found.
‘They are somewhere in the Red Sea…if one day you come across a dolphin with a UK passport, you know where he got it.’
Speaking about ‘the company’, he added: ‘Instead of sending doctors they send lawyers, instead of providing help, they tried to spread fear among us and instead of taking responsibility for what had happened, they did not even show up to a meeting in which they initially told us to provide a compensation offer.’
However, Carlton Fleet told Scuba Diver magazine they had covered medical expenses and accommodation and had offered to pay more for the inconvenience.
A statement said: ‘Unfortunately, the company’s offer fell on deaf ears, and certain guests engaged in negotiation tactics and resorted to threats to strong-arm the Carlton Fleet into paying them larger amounts, notwithstanding their signature of releases and liability waivers, and the charterer’s clear instructions that they procure insurance for loss or damage to equipment and belongings prior to boarding the boat.’
A British youngster who had repeatedly been “bashed in the head” with a blunt weapon was discovered dead in a Thai forest.
Woramet Ben Taota, a dual citizen, went motorcycle riding with his fiancée on Saturday in the province of Lampang, but neither of them came home.
The following morning, in the Ban Than district, police discovered the 16-year-old’s bloody body in a grove.
Officers continue the search for his missing girlfriend, Yam, who is the same age.
Woramet Ben Taota, 16, was a dual national (Picture: ViralPress)
Ben, as the victim was known to his friends, was discovered on the ground, next to some bushes.
His head and face were covered in blood after he was reportedly bashed in the head repeatedly with a blunt object, police said.
His smartphone charger and a red wallet with his ID card and bank card were still in his black backpack, but his mobile and cash were missing.
Police believe Ben was robbed and killed in another location before his body was dumped in the forest.
Colonel Sittisak Singtongla, from the Mae Tha Police, said: ‘The investigating team went to the area and found the victim with blood stains all over his face.
‘The face and head were found to have been beaten with a hard object until swelling and bruising was caused.
‘There was also a deep wound in his face. The body has been taken to hospital for an autopsy.
‘We are currently tracking down individuals close to the victim, including his female companion. She is a key figure in this case since she is the last person to see him alive.’
Ben’s mother, Ooy Taota, told police that her son had said goodbye on Saturday evening, telling her he was ‘going to work with friends’ but he did not give any more details.
Colonel Sittisak said the motive of the killing remains unclear, adding that nothing has been riled out at such an early stage of the investigation.
Due to regional privacy rules, the victim, 36-year-old Mark C, has only been identified as Mark C. Last month, he and a buddy were out on a night out in Krakow when they went to a club called Wild Nights.
Due to free access, Mark was allegedly already intoxicated when he tried to decline the staff members’ repeated offers of beverages.
However, he took 22 strong bullets before he fell down and passed away.
According to Polish authorities, Mark was robbed of 2,200 złoty – the equivalent of £420 – while he was unconscious.
Last Thursday, police said they had charged 58 people with being part of organised crime group following a series of raids on nightclubs.
The Polish Central Police Investigation Bureau (CBSP) said the clubs ran a racket in which they would get customers drunk before stealing their money.
Polish police lead away one of the suspects in their nightclub investigation (Picture: SBSP/Newsflash)Authorities said crooked clubs ply unsuspecting victims with booze before robbing them (Picture: SBSP/Newsflash)
A video released by the agency showed suspects being arrested and electronic devices, computers, cash and phones being seized from the venues.
Among those arrested were the group who forced Mark to drink himself to death, they said.
In a statement, they said: ‘One of the leads investigated by the investigators in the case concerns the victim who was driven to a state of intoxication, causing loss of consciousness, and then death as a result of acute alcohol poisoning.’
They added: ‘The man was not given medical assistance during the incident. Provisional arrests were made against those suspected of this act.’
The investigation, which includes clubs in the capital of Warsaw as well as Krakow, is ongoing.
Three individuals were killed in separate incidents in the West Bank and Tel Aviv on Friday after Israel targeted Palestinian militant targets in southern Lebanon and Gaza, bringing to an end three days of escalating tensions in the area following police raids on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa shrine.
Following the launch of scores of rockets into Israeli territory from Lebanon, which the Israeli military attributed to Palestinian militants, Israel launched its attacks. The barrage from Lebanon was the most intense since the two nations’ war in 2006.
A gun incident in the occupied West Bank murdered two sisters, ages 16 and 20, who held dual British and Israeli citizenship, and critically injured their mother on Friday.
Later in the evening, a group of tourists was hit by a vehicle during an attack in Tel Aviv, described by Israeli authorities as a “terror attack.” An Italian man was killed and seven people were wounded, including three British tourists and an Italian citizen. Of the seven injured, three were still in hospital as of Saturday morning local time, according to the Ichilov Medical Center. The four others had been released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “instructed the Israel Police to mobilize all border police units in reserve and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to mobilize additional forces in face of terrorist attacks,” according to his office.
The Israeli military said it was on high alert, calling up an unspecified number of reservists amid what it described as “very volatile times.”
The US said it “strongly condemns (the) terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Tel Aviv.”
“The three horrific attacks today, in which three were killed and at least eight others wounded, affected citizens of Israel, Italy and the United Kingdom. The targeting of innocent civilians of any nationality is unconscionable,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement issued Friday.
“The United States stands with the government and people of Israel. We are in close contact with our Israeli partners and reaffirm our enduring commitment to their security.”
Following the attack in Tel Aviv, the leader of the United Arab List and Palestinian-Israeli Knesset member Mansour Abbas rejected any “use of violence against any citizen.”
“Especially in these difficult times, it’s important for me to emphasize, as I have many times in the past. Regarding the attack in Tel Aviv, this is not the way of the Arab community and the Arab citizens in Israel,” Abbas said on Twitter on Saturday.
“The Arab leadership headed by Ra’am and the Islamic Movement will not accept in any way the use of violence against any citizen regardless of religion, race or nationality,” Abbas added.
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, international spokesperson for the IDF, said that it was dealing with a “convergence of frontiers” in the region. “An event started off in Jerusalem got expanded to Gaza, Hamas and into Lebanon,” he told CNN.
In Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes hit an open area near the southern coastal city of Tyre. The Israeli military believes Palestinian factions launched dozens of rockets from that city. Israel has blamed Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, for the rocket launches.
“The IDF will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to operate from within Lebanon and holds the state of Lebanon responsible for every directed fire emanating from its territory,” the IDF said in a statement.
Some regional countries have reportedly intervened to de-escalate tensions. A Qatari official told CNN that the gas-rich Gulf country was mediating to “deescalate the situation on all sides.”
“Qatar’s primary goal is to prevent unnecessary bloodshed and avoid destructive consequences for Palestinians and civilian populations,” the official said.
It is unclear which of the warring parties Qatari officials have been communicating with. Qatar does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel.
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which holds sway over south Lebanon, has neither denied nor claimed responsibility for the attacks. But the powerful Iran-backed armed group warned that “hundreds of millions of Muslims” were prepared to “shed blood” in response to the Israeli police raids on al-Aqsa. In recent months, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said that violations at the mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city would cause “all hell to break loose in the region.”
Israel has not blamed Hezbollah for the attack. On Friday afternoon, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN that the government had “no information” on whether Hezbollah greenlit the strikes.
“We know we have a very tough and difficult situation in south Lebanon. Hezbollah is there and they are armed. The Lebanese army and UNIFL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) are also there and working with others in order to stop such things, but they are not always successful,” Bou Habib said.
The foreign minister said that the ministry understands the attack “had its reasons…but we don’t like it coming from Lebanon.”
“What happened in Aqsa is the reason for what happened in Lebanon yesterday. I’m not justifying it … I’m explaining that what happened in al-Aqsa is very important and really there is a reaction,” Bou Habib added.
Lebanon said it would submit an official complaint to the UN Security Council, calling Israel’s strikes a “flagrant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.” Hamas also condemned the strikes in a statement Friday, and expressed “solidarity with the Lebanese people.” In a separate statement, it condemned Israel’s strikes on the Gaza Strip.
In Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Israeli strikes damaged a children’s hospital, causing distress to the young patients inside. “This is not the first time that health facilities have been targeted, and it is unacceptable,” the ministry added in a statement.
Hecht said the Israeli strikes targeted 10 sites in Gaza, including production sites and research and development sites as well as tunnel infrastructure. In earlier statements, the IDF said it hit several Hamas weapons manufacturing sites, an underground weapons complex, and “terror” tunnels in Beit Hanoun and Khan Yunis.
The exchange of fire comes as anger boils across the region over Israeli police raids at the al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, in Jerusalem on Wednesday, which drew widespread condemnation from the Arab and Muslim world and sparked retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.
Then on Thursday, the IDF said some 34 rockets were launched into Israel from Lebanon. Videos posted on social media showed rockets from Lebanon streaking through the skies over northern Israel, and the sounds of explosions in the distance. Israel closed its northern airspace in the wake of the barrage.
Footage from inside the mosque on Wednesday showed Israeli officers beating people with their batons and rifle-butts, then arresting hundreds of Palestinians. Israeli police said they entered the mosque after “hundreds of rioters” tried to barricade themselves inside.
Hecht, the IDF international spokesman, linked the rocket fire to the two Israeli incursions into the al-Aqsa mosque, saying they had created “very negative energies.”
“The context of the story starts two days ago on Temple Mount with these very, very harsh pictures coming out of the prayer at night,” Hecht said, using the Jewish name for the Jerusalem holy site, which is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.
The foreign minister for Jordan, the custodian of the al-Aqsa mosque and other Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, said “we are at a very dangerous moment.”
“What we see unfolding on the Lebanese border is obviously a consequence, a reaction to what we saw happening in al-Aqsa (mosque),” Ayman Safadi told CNN on Thursday.
Lebanon and Israel are considered enemy states, but a truce between them has largely held since the 2006 conflict. On Friday, the UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its head of mission and force commander was speaking with authorities on both sides, and that both Israel and Lebanon have said “they do not want a war.”
There have been several small-scale rocket attacks from Lebanon in recent years that have prompted retaliatory strikes from Israel. Few casualties were reported in those incidents, with the largest death toll in an exchange of fire in 2015 that left two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper dead. Palestinian factions in Lebanon were believed to be behind those rocket attacks.
In the 52-page letter, Mr. Johnson, a Tory MP fighting to keep his political career alive, admits he deceived the legislature but says it was what he thought at the time.
At a session that could determine Johnson’s political future, a cross-party committee of MPs will grill him live tomorrow.
The Privileges Committee came under fire for not publishing the report sooner, but it was confirmed that the final written evidence did not arrive until 8.02am today.
Mr Johnson was seen outside his home in London earlier today (Picture: EPA)
This is because the original contained ‘a number of errors and typos,’ they said.
The group also said the written submission contains ‘no new documentary evidence.’
Mr Johnson rejected the committee’s belief that the evidence strongly suggested breaches of coronavirus rules would have been ‘obvious’ to the then-prime minister.
He called the inquiry’s allegation ‘illogical’, arguing that some of those who attended the events ‘wished me ill and would denounce me if I concealed the truth’.
He wrote that it was ‘Far from achieving a ‘cover-up’. He said: ‘I would have known that any deception on my part would lead to instant exposure. This would have been senseless and immediately self-defeating.’
The ex-PM will face a grilling tomorrow after the submission of his dossier.
He said it was ‘implausible’ that he would have known the parties photographed and ‘immortalised’ by his official photographer were rule-breaking.
He says the only evidence that he intentionally misled the Commons is from the ‘discredited Dominic Cummings’, and that Cummings’ assertions are not ‘supported by any documentation’
In his evidence to the Privileges Committee Boris said he accepts he misled the House of Commons when he said lockdown rules had been followed in No 10 but insisted the statements were made ‘in good faith’.
Boris Johnson pictured at a party in Downing Street on November 13, 202, where he was seen holding a drink in his hand.
In his opening submission he said: ‘As I made clear to the House of Commons on 25 May 2022, I take full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch at No. 10.
‘The revelations in Sue Gray’s report shocked the public, and they shocked me. I therefore begin by renewing my apologies to the British people for what happened on my watch.
‘It is now clear that over a number of days, there were gatherings at No. 10 that, however they began, went past the point where they could be said to have been reasonably necessary for work purposes.
‘That should never have happened, and it fills me with sadness and regret that it did.’
A gathering in June 19, 2020, that Rishi and Boris attended that was published in The Sue Gray Report into lockdown parties in Downing Street.On June 19, 2020, Boris was joined by other members in the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street to celebrate his birthday.
The ex-PM then further appears to rely on an absence of evidence that he broke lockdown rules.
He says: ‘There is not a single document that indicates that I received any warning or advice that any event may have broken rules or guidance.’
In the document, he says that the ‘vast majority of individuals’ who have given evidence to the privileges committee ‘have not indicated that they considered their attendance in breach of the law’
In one photograph published in the Sue Gray report, Boris can be seen holding a drink in the Cabinet room within Number 10, and raising a toast.
This was on Boris’s birthday, and in the report, he said that for his celebrations, for which he was fined, ‘No cake was eaten, and no one even sang happy birthday.’
He defended attending a number of leaving parties in Downing Street, saying: ‘I might raise a glass to honour a colleague, but that was it.’
‘At the time I was recovering from a serious illness, I was desperately worried about the state of the country, and I was going back to my flat to continue working.’
Mr Johnson claimed he was at none of the events for more than half an hour, and said: ‘When I looked around the room, I did not think anyone was breaking any rules or guidance: on the contrary, I thought that we were all doing our job.’
According to Boris it was his ‘duty’ as the prime minister to ‘say a few words of thanks’ to those departing.
Boris did however receive a birthday cake at a school just hours before attending his party in Downing Street.The party on May 2020, where Boris can be seen with his wife Carrie Symonds along with a number of other members of Number 10 including Dominic Cummings.
On May 20, 2020, in a photograph published initially by The Guardian, he was seen in the Downing Street garden with a number of other members of Number 10, when lockdown rules were still in place.
He said he was never warned that the gathering might breach lockdown rules, and said he wished ‘in retrospect’ he had considered how such events could be perceived.
He said: ‘I can categorically state that no-one at the time expressed to me any concerns about whether the event complied with the rules or guidance.’
He added that he ‘did not see any of the emails’ relating to the event, after Sue Gray’s report showed around 200 staff were encouraged to ‘bring your own booze’ in an invite.
He wrote: ‘It is simply inconceivable that I would have allowed an event to go ahead if I had known that it would breach the rules or guidance.’
‘Of course, I wish, in retrospect, that we had given some thought to how these events could be perceived.
‘We should have found a way to make it clearer that these were work events, with the specific purpose of thanking and motivating colleagues for their tireless efforts in fighting Covid-19.
‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’
He insisted that any lack of social distancing in the ‘old, cramped London townhouse’ of No 10 was not necessarily a breach of guidance.
‘We tried to keep our distance, but we knew that proximity was sometimes unavoidable, and we knew that this was acceptable under the guidance,’ he said.
Mr Johnson accepted he personally attended five of the events considered by the committee but said he ‘honestly believed that these events were lawful work gatherings.’
If Mr Johnson fails to convince the committee he did not deliberately mislead the Commons, he could be found to have committed contempt of Parliament.
A suspension of more than 10 days could result in a high-profile by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat.
The full House of Commons would vote on any recommendations.
Speaking further in the report Mr Johnson said: ‘I accept that the House of Commons was misled by my statements that the Rules and Guidance had been followed completely at No. 10.
‘But when the statements were made, they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time.
‘I did not intentionally or recklessly mislead the House on 1 December 2021, 8 December 2021, or on any other date. I would never have dreamed of doing so.’
The UK’s financial system is “secure and sound,” according to the Bank of England, after regulators approved a rescue plan for Credit Suisse in an effort to calm markets around the world.
In a deal supported by the Swiss government, the bank was acquired by rival UBS on Sunday.
It happens amid worries about the global financial system following the failure of two smaller US banks in recent weeks.
Shares in lenders around the world have fallen sharply and central banks have had to step in to provide reassurances.
However, experts are not forecasting a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis when the failure of a number of big banks sparked a global recession.
The Swiss National Bank said the rescue deal for Credit Suisse was the best way to restore the confidence of financial markets and to manage risks to the economy.
Credit Suisse said it was not expecting “any disruption to client services”.
“We are fully focused on ensuring a smooth transition and seamless experience for our valued clients and customers,” the bank told the BBC.
Credit Suisse shareholders were deprived of a vote on the deal and will receive one share in UBS for every 22.48 shares they own, valuing the bank at $3.15bn (£2.6bn).
At the close of business on Friday Credit Suisse was valued at around $8bn.
But the deal has achieved what regulators set out to do – secure a result before the financial markets opened on Monday.
Mark Yallop, the former UK chief executive of UBS, said the his former employer’s purchase of Credit Suisse “should” do the job of reassuring investors.
“This is a takeover of a challenged institution with particular idiosyncratic problems that relate to it specifically [and are] not reflective of broader issues in the banking markets,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
“I think this transaction will definitely stabilise [the bank] and should bring a good degree of confidence back to the banking market more generally.”
However, stock markets across Asia stumbled despite the deal. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down by 1.4% while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell by more than 3%.
“The human psychological aspect of markets contagion risk and bank runs suggest we could be in for an extended period of uncertainty before the storm clouds eventually lift,” Stephen Innes from SPI Asset Management said in a note.
In a bid to keep cash available through the global financial system, six central banks, including the Bank of England, announced they would boost the flow of US dollars through the global financial system.
The Bank of England, along with the Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, US Federal Reserve and Swiss National Bank, said the move served as an “important backstop to ease strains in global funding markets” and take the pressure off banks.
Image caption,The chairmen of both banks spoke at a news conference in Bern on Sunday
In a statement following UBS’s takeover of Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s central bank said the deal protected the Swiss economy “in this exceptional situation”.
The 167-year-old bank is loss-making and has faced a string of problems in recent years, including money laundering charges.
It was given an emergency $54bn lifeline from the Swiss National Bank on Wednesday in a bid to reassure markets, but Credit Suisse shares tumbled 24%, meaning a rescue deal was needed.
Speaking in the Swiss capital Bern after Sunday night’s announcement, UBS chairman Colm Kelleher said the takeover had been “attractive” for UBS shareholders, but described it as “an emergency rescue”.
Mr Kelleher said UBS would be winding down the investment banking part of Credit Suisse.
The UBS chairman said it was “too early” to say what would happen about jobs. The Swiss bank has around 74,000 staff, around 5,000 of them in the UK.
“We need to do this in a rational way thoughtfully, when we’ve sat down and analysed what we need to do,” he said.
Other global financial institutions praised the deal.
The Bank of England said it welcomed the “comprehensive set of actions” set out by the Swiss authorities.
“We have been engaging closely with international counterparts throughout the preparations for today’s announcements and will continue to support their implementation.”
It added the UK banking system was “well capitalised and funded, and remains safe and sound”.
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said she welcomed the “swift action” of the Swiss authorities.
“The euro area banking sector is resilient, with strong capital and liquidity positions,” Ms Lagarde added.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell both said the US banking system remained “resilient”.
Credit Suisse has become the latest and most important casualty of a crisis of confidence that has already seen the failure of two mid-sized US banks and an emergency industry whip-round for another. But this is different. Switzerland’s second biggest lender was considered one of the top 30 most important banks in the world – which is why this takeover was rushed through by the Swiss authorities.
Although the reasons for each failure differ slightly, the main factor has been a sharp rise in global interest rates which has hit the value of even safe investments that banks keep some of their money in. That has spooked investors and seen the share prices of all banks fall with those considered weakest hit hardest.
The financial authorities in the EU, US and UK are saying they support this deal, stressing that banks are strong and people’s savings and deposits are safe.
The acid test as to whether this Swiss rescue has calmed nerves in the financial world will be when financial markets open on Monday – which is why it was so important to get this done on Sunday night.
As per reports, the parents of a killer who strangled his wife to death in front of the child have been denied custody of the child.
Babis Anagnostopoulos, 34, is currently serving a life sentence for the 20-year-old British mother Caroline Crouch’s murder in 2021 at their Athens home.
When his wife threatened to leave him, he killed her. He then drowned the family dog and made up an elaborate story about three unknown assailants who stole £40,000 in cash and jewelry.
Anagnostopoulos won sympathy by playing the part of the heartbroken husband until detectives found smartwatch data that exposed his web of lies and he confessed during a six-hour interrogation.
Nearly two years after Caroline’s death, a Greek court has decided Anagnostopoulos’s parents will not have custody of the couple’s young daughter, Lydia.
Instead, they have been granted just one hour of access to her ‘via Skype or other electronic means’ each week.
The Crouch family’s lawyer Thanassis Haramanis told The Sun: ‘It is what we wanted in every way.
Caroline Crouch, 20, was smothered in front of her baby daughter.Babis Anagnostopoulos arrives at court escorted by police for his trial on April 14, 2022 in Athens.
‘The little girl will now live in peace with Caroline’s sister and mother, Susan, in the Philippines. Lydia could not be more happy there.’
While his family’s attempts to bring Lydia back to Greece have failed, Anagnostopoulos is said to be working on getting his 27-year sentence reduced.
He is apparently hoping that good behaviour will get him out earlier, with his legal team arguing that no mitigating circumstances were taken into account in his trial.
The murderer previously claimed that he ‘lost his temper’ and ‘acted in the heat of the moment’ after a fight with Caroline.
But the Crouch family’s lawyer has vowed they will ‘fight just as we did the first time round’.
Caroline’s Liverpool-born dad, David has slammed his former son-in-law as ‘beyond contempt’.
Speaking to Greek media, he said: ‘It is absolutely despicable that my daughter’s killer is trying to get his prison sentence reduced because of his ‘good behaviour.
‘The crime committed by the murderer, that of femicide, is a heinous crime that should deserve particularly severe punishment.
‘In my opinion, men who kill their wives, for whatever reason, are the lowest of the low, ranking alongside paedophiles.’
Award-winning Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela has retold the story of a British army general killed by the troops of the Mahdi – a religious leader in Sudan in the late 19th Century – in her new novel, River Spirit.
The book gives a Sudanese view of Gordon of Khartoum, whose story has travelled around the world in history books and Hollywood films – but almost always with a British outlook, glorifying him as a colonial-era hero.
General Charles Gordon died defending Khartoum in 1885 following a siege by Sudanese forces.
Aboulela says the 1966 film Khartoum starring Charlton Heston as Gen Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi was full of inaccuracies.
“The only accurate thing was the weapons apparently… It wasn’t even filmed in Khartoum,” she told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
“So I wanted to retell the story and make it from a Sudanese point of view and how they saw events unfolding.”
The story of Gen Gordon is also one of the foundational stories for Sudan as nation, the novelist says.
For much of the 19th Century it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire and then in the early to mid 20th Century it was under joint British-Egyptian rule, before becoming independent in 1956.
“What the Mahdi did – it brought the Sudanese together almost for the first time. They felt united against the foreigner, whether they were Egyptians, Ottomans or British,” she said.
Her novel also puts women at the heart of the story, looking at their roles from nurses and vendors to cooks and spies.
“They are mentioned as footnotes in history or not mentioned at all – but they were part of the army… they were very much playing an active part and it was interesting to explore that.”
Source: BBC
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
On 6th March, 1957, Ghana gained independence after 83 years of British colonial rule – becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence from the British.
Since that day, every March 6 is celebrated across the country and amongGhanaians abroad with various activities, some of which are observed throughout the month.
Today marks 66 years since the West African country gained independence – and this year’s celebration is being held at Ho in the Volta Region for the very first time.
President Akufo-Addo in 2017 decided the Independence celebration be held on rational basis to open each of the 16 regions of Ghana to the world to boost the local economy.
Since the launch of the celebration last month, the Volta Regional Coordinating Council has been working feverishly to put the necessary arrangements in place to make this year’s event themed “Our Unity, Our Strength, Our Purpose” memorable.
The Special Guest of Honour for this year’s celebration is President Umaro Sissoco Embalóof Guinea Bissau, who is also the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Over 5,000 people from across the country, including members of the diplomatic corps, the clergy, traditional rulers and other dignitaries will be present at the Ho Municipality to participate in the event.
A total of 22 contingents from the various Security Agencies and 12 from the various schools in the Volta Region would be on parade, aside from other performances.
The 66 Artillery Regiment in Ho is in charge to lead preparations for the march past.
All roads leading to the Ho Municipality as well as the streets of Ho have been decorated with the Ghana flag, with several workplaces also draping their buildings in Ghana colours (red, yellow, green and black) to mark the occasion.
Also, the Ho township roads as well the Atimpoku-Ho road are being fixed. The streetlights on the road leading to the Youth Resource Centre at Adaklu have also been fixed.
Police armoured vehicles and armed personnel of the various security agencies have been positioned at various intersections and vantage points to ensure law and order.
The government’s reviewer of terror legislation was anticipated to recommend on Monday that Shamima Begum and other British women who join the Islamic State be permitted to come home.
Just a few days after Ms. Begum lost her legal battle to return to the UK, Jonathan Hall KC was scheduled to deliver a speech at King’s College London.
Even though there is “credible suspicion” that she, who was then 15 years old, and two other London schoolgirls were victims of trafficking when they joined the Islamic State in 2015, the government’s decision to take her citizenship on national security grounds stands.
But Hall KC was expected to argue that British or formerly British women should have the right to return from Syria, which would bring the UK in line with the position in the United States.
Hall KC, who was appointed as Independent Review of Terrorism Legislation in 2019, was expected to say that the UK is “at a crossroads”, the Times reports, as it comes under pressure from allies including the US to bring them home.
The US has repatriated dozens of Americans and the Biden administration has said the camps in Syria threaten western security.
Hall KC was set to acknowledge MI5 fears about the risk that British IS members pose but will point to how they are currently left in limbo in camps in Syria.
He was expected to say that women are less likely to have travelled for the purpose of fighting and may have less autonomy in being able to leave Syria, the Times reports, but now make up the majority of detained people linked to the UK.
The power to revoke citizenship was extended by the Immigration Act in 2014 and can only be used in cases where a person has “conducted” themselves “in a manner which is seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK” and where the secretary of state has “reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able, under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, to become a national of such country or territory”.
But ministers are under pressure to accept the return of foreign fighters and other IS supporters held in Kurdish-controlled territory in Syria after the defeat of the terror group.
Ms Begum married and later had three children, all of whom have died. She emerged back into public view four years later in February 2019 after the defeat of IS in Syria forced her and thousands other of the extremist group’s followers to flee into a Kurdish controlled part of the country, where she remains in a detention camp run by the Kurds.
Following the outcome of Ms Begum’s case, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The Government’s priority remains maintaining the safety and security of the UK and we will robustly defend any decision made in doing so.”
A British woman has been stabbed to death during a break-in at her home in Australia.
Emma Lovell, 41, originally from the Ipswich area, died after confronting intruders at her home in North Lakes, Brisbane, on Boxing Day night, police said.
Her husband Lee Lovell, 43, who was also stabbed, described his wife as the “glue to our family”.
Two boys, aged 17, have been charged with murder.
Mr Lovell, whose injuries were non-life threatening, told reporters his family was “devastated”.
Image caption, The fatal stabbing took place at the Lovell’s home near Brisbane
“Emma was the glue to our family,” he said
“She was such a beautiful person. We’re all just devastated from her loss.
“It’s senseless. I don’t know what people do it for.”
The Lovells have two daughters.
Mr Lovell, who is also from the Ipswich area, shared photographs on social media of them all together at a nearby Sunshine Coast beach on Christmas Day.
Image caption, People have left floral tributes outside the Lovell’s Brisbane home
In a statement, the Queensland Police Service (QPS) said an altercation took place inside an address in Whitfield Crescent at 23:30 UTC and “moved outside to the front yard”.
“Two offenders fled on foot prior to police arrival,” it said, and “investigators, with the assistance of the dog squad, located four teenagers at a nearby location just before 04:00” on 27 December.
Two 17-year-old boys, one from Holland Park and the other Zillmere, the QPS said, were charged with one count each of murder, attempted murder and entering a dwelling with intent in company.
Both have been denied police bail and were due to appear in the Brisbane Children’s Court.
A 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy continue to assist police with inquiries, the force said.
The demonstration took place one day after a meeting in Luanda where the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda as well as the East African Community envoy called for a cease-fire to take effect Friday.
“I mean, we are satisfied with this agreement signed (ceasefire signed in Angola on Wednesday), but we are still pessimistic about its implementation, especially since this is not the first agreement’, Jean Claude Mbambaze, the president of the civil society of Rutshuru said.
“There have been many summits, but the decisions have not been implemented.”
After the summit in Angola, the participants released a statement calling for a cease-fire to begin Friday evening in eastern Congo, followed by a rebel withdrawal from the major towns it holds – Bunagana, Rutshuru and Kiwanja.
Some protesters carried banners in support of the Congolese armed forces who are fighting M23 rebels. Other placards were hostile to the recent agreement.
Demonstrators marched to the French and British consulate.
“We do not understand, when there are rebels who call themselves Congolese, they ask for negotiations, and it is Rwanda and Uganda who represent them. That is why we protest about this complicity, …And there is a notorious silence of the international community, the EAC (East African Countries bloc), the African Union, all are accomplices”, demonstrator Jack Sizahera shouted.
The protestors delivered a letter to both French and Britishconsulates with grievances including an end to the international community’s ambiguous response in the face of the M23 aggression.
“We demand the international community – as a whole – to ask the Rwandan and Ugandan heads of state to urgently withdraw their fighters camouflaged under the label of M23/RDF/UPDF (rebel groups)”, John Banyene, the president of the civil society of Nord-Kivu read.
Adding, we demand the international community “to sanction Rwanda and Uganda for the aggression against DRC for more than 25 years”.
In August, U.N. experts said they had “solid evidence” that members of Rwanda’s armed forces backed the M23 rebels. Kigali denied the allegations.
The British government has denied reports that it intends to deploy some Special Forces to Ghana following the withdrawal of some 300 peacekeepers from Mali in the wake of frosty relations with Bamako over the involvement of Russian mercenaries in the fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel.
UK-based ‘The Telegraph’ in a report stated that British ministers are also expected to be in Accra to hammer out a new security agreement which will position Ghana and by extension Burkina Faso as the new front line against terrorism.
The report said it was unclear if the move was a face-saving operation in the wake of the mission in Mali being shut down or something more significant as British forces already train troops in Ghana.
Reacting to The Telegraph’s reportage, the UK Minister for Armed Forces and Veterans indicated that the media outlet misunderstood the briefing they had from the UK government.
According to James Heappey, Britishtroops are already in Ghana training the Ghana Armed Forces and the UK government has no plans of sending more troops to Ghana.
“I think they’ve just slightly misunderstood whatever they were briefed. The reality is that there are already UK troops here in Ghana training your Armed Forces. There is currently no plan to send anybody else.
“If American, British and French troops were to come to Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana Togo and Benin, we won’t make things better because that doesn’t help. And that’s why your President entirely is right. This needs to be a West African solution to a West African problem,” Heappey told Accra-based Joy News on Tuesday, November 22.
The British government has denied claims that it has been invited to send Special Forces to Ghana after it was forced to withdraw all its peacekeepers from Mali.
Meanwhile, the Government of Ghana has also denied The Telegraph’s reportage.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration said the Government of Ghana has had no interactions with the UK Government aimed at deploying UK soldiers to Ghana as described in the story.
The statement explained that the presence of the UK Minister for the Armed Forces in Accra was to participate in the Accra Initiative Conference on the 21st and 22nd of November 2022.
“The Government of Ghana wishes to state that the information regarding British Special Forces is false. Neither Ghana nor any other member of the Accra Initiative has discussed with any partner, any such request nor contemplated the involvement of foreign forces in any of their activities,” the statement from the Ministry stressed.
British troops are expected to arrive in Ghana after their withdrawal from Mali following the involvement of Russian mercenaries in the fight against terrorism in the country and the growing strength of jihadist groups in the area.
In view of this, British ministers are expected to arrive in Ghana to throw their support behind the Accra Initiative and reach a new security agreement which will position Ghana and by extension Burkina Faso as the new frontline against jihadist terrorism.
This was contained in a news article by the Telegraph.
The UK Minister for Armed Forces, James Heappey is expected to arrive in Accra to try and carve out a new security policy to curb the southward trajectory of the jihadists who are currently pillaging and laying siege to entire towns in neighbouring Burkina Faso.
Ghana, Togo, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire all signed up to the Accra Initiative in 2017. This a coalition which aims at stopping insecurity spilling over their borders from the Sahel.
Background from BBC
Last week, the UK’s Defence Minister James Heappey announced that it was withdrawing troops from Mali earlier than planned due to political instability in the country.
Since 2020, around 300 British soldiers had been in the country as part of a UN mission to protect the local population from Islamist extremism.
Mr Heappey said two coups in Mali in three years had “undermined” efforts.
He also attacked the current Malian government for working with the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
“The Wagner Group is linked to mass human rights abuses and the Malian government’s partnership with the Wagner Group is counterproductive to lasting stability and security in their region,” he told MPs.
The operation in Mali had been described as “the most dangerous peacekeeping mission in the world” and 288 UN soldiers have lost their lives there since 2013.
While in the region, British troops had conducted long-range reconnaissance patrols against Islamist militant groups in the area such as al-Qaeda and Islamic state.
The UK is the latest country to pull its troops from Mali, with France formally ending its decade-long presence last week.
French troops had been in Mali at the request of the then-government, however, since seizing power in 2020, Mali’s military rulers have fallen out with France and have instead turned to Russia to help in their fight against Islamist insurgents who are wreaking havoc across much of the country.
There are widespread and credible reports that Russia’s Wagner group of mercenaries has been helping Mali, although this has never been officially acknowledged by either Russia or Mali.
However, human rights groups have accused the Russians working with Mali’s army of atrocities, such as the killing of around 300 civilians in April.
Meanwhile, the Islamist insurgency, which was the soldiers’ justification for taking power has only gotten worse.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in the past year and many parts of the country are outside the control of Mali’s military junta.
With the withdrawal of some 300 British peacekeepers from Mali in the wake of frosty relations with Bamako over the involvement of Russian mercenaries in the fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel, some special forces are expected to arrive in Ghana.
In a report by UK-based ‘The Telegraph’ and sighted by GhanaWeb, British ministers are also expected to be in Accra to hammer out a new security agreement which will position Ghana and by extension Burkina Faso as the new frontline against terrorism.
It is unclear if the move is a face-saving operation in the wake of the mission in Mali being shut down or something more significant as British forces already train troops in Ghana.
Ghana, Togo, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire all signed up for the Accra Initiative in 2017. This is a coalition which aims at stopping insecurity spilling over their borders from the Sahel.
It was reported on Monday, November 14, that the UK will be withdrawing all of its troops from Mali, which until only a few months ago, Whitehall officials were describing as “the new frontline of the war on terror”.
Former Africa Minister Rory Stewart, who championed the so-called “pivot to the Sahel” under Prime Minister Theresa May, was scathing about the real purpose of the Ghana trip, suggesting it was no more than a face-saving operation.
“We struggled to maintain 300 troops in Mali, partly because it cost perhaps as much as a hundred million pounds from tightly stretched budgets,” he told The Telegraph. “I fear that the ‘pivot to Ghana and Burkina Faso’ is largely a way of excusing our retreat from the Sahel and will ultimately add up to less than people pretend.”
“We have been worrying about Burkina Faso for some time. But without an embassy there or any significant investment, there is a real limit to what the UK can do,” Stewart added.
British Gymnastics will name banned coaches as part of plans for “zero tolerance on abuse” and putting athlete welfare ahead of winning medals.
It follows the Whyte Review which detailed “systemic” issues of physical and emotional abuse in gymnastics, as well as some incidents of sexual abuse.
British Gymnastics says it will “break the cycle of poor past practice”.
It will hire an independent expert to monitor reforms and name coaches serving bans in future on its website.
By the end of 2022, the governing body plans to close a rules loophole by broadening the roles that require British Gymnastics membership to include choreographers, physios and masseurs.
Earlier this year, British Gymnastics said it was “monitoring” a gymnastics club in Bristol after a former coach, who is no longer permitted to carry out some roles, was hired to work with children.
The damning £3m Whyte Review outlined in a 306-page report incidents of athletes being made to train on broken bones, punished for needing the toilet and sat on by coaches.
Gymnasts were subjected to excessive weight management – which left some with eating disorders described as the “tyranny of the scales” by Anne Whyte KC.
Athletes were shouted and sworn at and had their bags searched for food.
The report anonymised the hundreds of athlete submissions it received and did not identify individual coaches.
Sarah Powell, chief executive of British Gymnastics, said: “We need everyone in gymnastics, in any role at any level, to commit to collectively doing everything we possibly can to prevent any recurrence of abuseor mistreatment.
“We’ve got things wrong in the past and change must start with us. We’ve already made progress but there’s still much more to do.”
‘This isn’t tough coaching and slight mistreatment’ – reaction to the Whyte Review
What is British Gymnastics planning?
Under its ‘Reform 25’
programme, a 40-point action plans will be introduced, in four phases leading up to 2025:
Reforms focused across four areas – culture and strategy; welfare, safeguarding and complaints; education and development; performance.
Zero tolerance of any abuse – working with clubs, coaches, gymnasts and parents to ensure an “open, transparent, caring, empowered and safe environment”.
Better support for those involved in complaints.
“Move away from prioritising medals” to focus on a positive culture.
Acknowledgement of “poor and outdated practice” within the sport and pledge to create a new generation of coaches.
List of banned coaches will be published on the British Gymnastics website.
Former Olympic rower and Foreign Office diplomat Dr Catherine Bishop, a leadership consultant, to become an expert independent advisor.
Parents and gymnasts to be involved in decisions about development, training loads, and competition age limits.
Progress updates to be published every six months.
How did we get there?
In the 12-year period covered by the Whyte Review to August 2020 – during which British Gymnastics was granted more than £38m in UK Sport funding – the governing body received approximately 3,800 complaints.
The report said the difficulties now facing British Gymnastics, the sport’s national governing body, are “borne of inadequate practice and procedure”, and reflect a culture that was the product of “the way in which people behaved and were allowed to behave”.
There was a sense, it added, that British Gymnastics had “not only failed to prevent or limit such behaviours but had condoned some of them in the pursuit of national and international competitive success”.
Bishop said: “I am glad that British Gymnastics has recognised the importance of bringing in different perspectives specifically to challenge and strengthen their work.”
Claire Heafford, founder of campaign group Gymnasts For Change, welcomed the naming of banned coaches and Bishop’s appointment but said she would like to see greater oversight and an independent ombudsman.
“British Gymnastics doesn’t have a good track record of marking their own homework,” she told BBC Sport.
She said only one of 38 legal claims brought by gymnasts had been resolved and called for the process to be speeded up.
The delays had caused “ongoing unnecessary anxiety and mental health issues”, said Heafford.
A joint statement from UK Sport and Sport England said the response and action plan from British Gymnastics were “important first steps on a long-term journey of change”.
Abuse in gymnastics – timeline & BBC reporting on this story
The Whyte Review report did not mention individual coaches or athletes.
July 2020: Nicole Pavier is among a number of gymnasts to make the first allegations of a “culture of fear” within the “mentally and emotionally abusive” sport of gymnastics.
Olympians Becky and Ellie Downie say abusive behaviour in gymnastics training became “ingrained” and “completely normalised”, and then-British Gymnastics chief executive Jane Allen says she is “appalled and ashamed” by the allegations.
Olympic bronze medallist Amy Tinkler criticises British Gymnastics for the time it has taken to investigate a formal complaint she made in 2019.
A helpline is launched by the NSPCC and British Athletes Commission to support gymnasts. It receives more than 120 calls in its first five weeks.
August 2020: The Whyte Review is formally started.
Pavier’s former coach, Claire Barbieri, is suspended, while British Gymnastics’ head national coach Amanda Reddin steps aside after allegations are made against her. Both denied the allegations made against them.
Olympic bronze medallist Nile Wilson alleges gymnasts are “treated like pieces of meat”.
September 2020: Two further coaches – Helen Potter and Rory Weavers – are temporarily suspended pending investigation. Both denied the allegations made against them. Their temporary suspension has since been lifted.
October 2020: British Gymnastics chief executive Allen announces she will retire in December.
November 2020: British Gymnastics sets up an independent complaints process to oversee allegations of mistreatment by athletes.
February 2021: A group of 17 start legal action against British Gymnastics. A further 20 later join the group claim.
June 2021: Sarah Powell is named British Gymnastics chief executive, and says she is “under no illusions about the scale of change needed” to improve the culture at the organisation.
August 2021: British Gymnastics chair Mike Darcey apologises to the gymnastics community for failing to act on allegations of mistreatment.
April 2022: BBC Sport reveals leading coach Liz Kincaid was pulled from Great Britain’s coaching squad just weeks before the Tokyo Olympics after a serious allegation was made against her. She denied wrongdoing.
May 2022: National head coach Reddin steps down from her position with immediate effect. Previous claims against her were not upheld and her suspension was lifted, but another independent investigation is ongoing into “further historical complaints”.
June 2022: BBC Sport reveals ex-acrobatic gymnast Eloise Jotischky is the first to win a civil case against British Gymnastics for the abuse she experienced in the sport, with the organisation admitting full liability.
The Whyte Review is published.
British Gymnastics said it is “monitoring” a gymnastics club after Jotischky’s former coach Andrew Griffiths was hired to work with children.
October 2022: British Gymnastics issues 40-point action plan as it pledges “zero tolerance” on abuse.
Kwasi Kwarteng has written to the Prime Minister of the UK, Liz Truss, indicating that he has accepted her decision to sack him.
The outgoing Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom was at post for only six (6) weeks, making him only second in the history of the country to have served this briefly in the office.
In an earlier report by the BBC, it said that Kwasi Kwarteng’s sacking was influenced from a mini-budget he presented that has since sparked financial turmoil and revolt from Conservative Members of Parliament.
In a response to the news, the British-born Ghanaian politician said that even before taking up the job, he knew he could not tow the lines of those before him, thereby the need to adopt more drastic approaches.
Accepting the decision, he added that he knew the country’s fight against its current difficult economic challenges would be a tough one.
“You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted.
“When you asked me to serve as your Chancellor, I did so in full knowledge that the situation we faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices. However, your vision of optimism, growth and change was right.
“As I have said many times in the past weeks, following the status quo was simply not an option,” he wrote in a statement.
Kwasi Kwarteng also explained that while the challenges exist, he is optimistic in the vision of the Prime Minister, knowing too from many years of friendship with her that she is making the right decision.
“For too long this country has been dogged by low growth rates and high taxation – that must still change if this country is to succeed.
“The economic environment has changed rapidly since we set out the Growth Plan on September 23. In response, together with the Bank of England and excellent officials at the Treasury we have responded to those events, and I commend my officials for their dedication.
“It is important now as we move forward to emphasise your government’s commitment to fiscal discipline. The Medium-Term Fiscal Plan is crucial to this end, and I look forward to supporting you and my successor to achieve that from the backbenches.
“We have been colleagues and friends for many years. In that time, I have seen your dedication and determination. I believe your vision is the right one. It has been an honour to serve as your first Chancellor,” he wrote.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s six-week tenure as the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK has been dogged with a few major incidences, including the British press calling him out for smiling during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Kwasi Kwarteng became the first black person to become UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) following his appointment by UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, on September 6, 2022.
Kwarteng was born Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng in Waltham Forest, East London, in May 1975 to Ghanaian parents, Alfred and Charlotte, who had both immigrated to the United Kingdom a decade earlier as students.
His parents, who went on to become an international economist and a barrister respectively, sent him to an expensive private prep school that produced numerous Cabinet-level politicians. He then attended the famous Eton college – a production line for British leaders including Boris Johnson and David Cameron.
Sir Sam Jonah KBE, has revealed the circumstances under which he was allowed to attend his British knighthood ceremony at the Buckingham Palace with his entire family.
According to him, the event was to be undertaken by the late Queen Elizabeth II but due to another engagement along diplomatic lines, Prince Charles (now King Charles III) took that responsibility.
In an interview on the BBUM show, a personality profile programme on Ghana Television (September 25), the former Ashanti Goldfields CEO explained why instead of his wife alone accompanying him, his children were allowed to attend.
He described the opportunity as a “privilege to have been invited and honoured by the British Royal Family.”
“I had the privilege to be knighted by Prince Charles in 2003, it was quite an experience, I was fortunate I took my entire family with me, which was very unusual. Because usually, they would ask you to come with your spouse.
“I was fortunate because what happened was, that same day, the reason why I was not knighted by the Queen was that, the Queen was hosting President Putin to a state lunch and therefore it fell on Prince Charles.
“Therefore, Prince Charles said, bring your entire family and so I took my entire family,” he added.
Sam Jonah attended the ceremony with his wife and five children according to a PA photo sighted by GhanaWeb.
In his view, the new King is a “hugely understated and underappreciated person,” adding that he has a commanding presence, and unenforced authority and he is a delight to be with.
He said he felt hugely privileged and fortunate for one-hour meeting his family had with the new monarch at the Buckingham Palace.
In June 2003, Jonah became the first Ghanaian to be knighted in the 21st century when he was presented with an honorary knighthood (KBE) by the then Prince of Wales, in recognition of his achievements as an African businessman, a leading business executive from the Commonwealth, and an international public figure.
A British Member of Parliament (MP) from the Labour Party, Rupa Huq, has been suspended by her party for alleged racist comments she made against British-born Ghanaian MP, Kwasi Kwarteng, who was recently appointed UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister).
According to news.sky.com, the party suspended Rupa Huq for describing Kwasi Kwarteng as a “superficially” black man, pending investigations.
The report indicated that the suspended MP made the racist comments against the chancellor in an audio recording posted online by the Guido Fawkes website.
“Superficially he is a black man. He went to Eton, I think, he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through, the top schools in the country.
“If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he is black,” Rupa Huq was quoted to have said by news.sky.com.
The Labour Party condemned the remarks by the MP and urged her to apologise.
Rupa Huq in a post on social media indicated that she had contacted the UK finance minister to apologies to him in person for the comments she made.
“I have today contacted Kwasi Kwarteng to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments I made at yesterday’s Labour conference fringe meeting.
“My comments were ill-judged and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected,” the post she shared read.
Background on Kwesi Kwarteng:
Kwasi Kwarteng became the first black person to become UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) following his appointment by UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, on September 6, 2022.
Kwarteng was born Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng in Waltham Forest, East London, in May 1975 to Ghanaian parents, Alfred and Charlotte, who had both immigrated to the United Kingdom a decade earlier as students.
His parents, who went on to become an international economist and a barrister respectively, sent him to an expensive private prep school that produced numerous Cabinet-level politicians. He then attended the famous Eton college — a production line for British leaders including Boris Johnson and David Cameron.
Sir Sam Jonah, KBE, has revealed the circumstances under which the British knighthood was conferred on him by Prince Charles (now King Charles III) instead of his late mother Queen Elizabeth II.
In an interview on the BBUM show, a personality profile programme on Ghana Television (September 25), the former Ashanti Goldfields CEO said it was a privilege to have been invited and honoured by the British Royal Family.
Jonah was knighted by Prince Charles in 2003, a ceremony that is ordinarily undertaken by the Queen herself. He explained how an equality important engagement took the Queen away hence the duty was placed on her son.
“I had the privilege to be knighted by Prince Charles in 2003, it was quite an experience, I was fortunate I took my entire family with me, which was very unusual. Because usually they would ask you to come with your spouse.
“I was fortunate because what happened was, that same day, the reason why I was not knighted by the Queen was that, the Queen was hosting President Putin to a state lunch and therefore it fell on Prince Charles.
“Therefore, Prince Charles said, bring your entire family and so I took my entire family,” he added.
In his view, the new King is a “hugely understated and underappreciated person,” adding that he has a commanding presence, unenforced authority and he is a delight to be with.
He said he felt hugely privileged and fortunate for one hour meeting his family had with the new monarch at the Buckingham Palace.
In June 2003, Jonah became the first Ghanaian to be knighted in the 21st century when he was presented with an honorary knighthood (KBE) by the then Prince of Wales, in recognition of his achievements as an African businessman, a leading business executive from the Commonwealth, and an international public figure.
Social commentator, Kwame Asare Obeng has stated that the funeral ceremony of the late Queen Elizabeth II should teach Africans to uphold their culture and tradition.
His comment comes after his attention was drawn to a ram that was slaughtered as part of ceremonial activities performed at the Queen’s funeral.
On his official Facebook post, A Plus wrote, “I didn’t know that British people slaughter a ram to perform rituals until the queen died. Herrrh!!” he exclaimed.
This led the musician-turned-politician to say that Africans have indeed been fooled for several years.
He has promised to promote anything Ghanaian culture because and appreciate people despite the tribal differences.
“After the death of the queen and the display of British culture that followed, I’ve realised how we have been fooled for many years. I’ve decided to spent more time promoting my own people. I don’t care if they are Ewe, Ashanti, Ga, Dagati, Frafra, Fante, whatever. We must preserve our culture too,” he added
A Plus argued that the only book the white man spent time translating into almost every language is the bible. He had a plan to use that book to deceive you to depart from your culture.
He knew that if he tells you that a snake told a naked woman to eat half of a juicy apple and give the other half to one a man in a garden called Eden in your local language, you’ll understand it easier and faster, and you’ll believe it. He didn’t teach you mathematics in your language. He left you to go and find the definition of equation, before you embark on a long journey in search of Y and his girlfriend X.
Background
The comments of A Plus comes in wake of the ongoing Queen Elizabeth II funeral today. Some video evidence showed that, the British killed a Sheep as part of customs during the queen’s funeral. View pictures in App save up to 80% data.
Britain, world leaders and royalty from across the globe are bidding a final farewell to Queen Elizabeth II, the last towering figure of her era, at a state funeral of inimitable pageantry. It is said that Thousands of people camped overnight in London to get the best spots for viewing Queen Elizabeth’s funeral procession.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted an outpouring of reflectionand reaction online. But not all was grief — some young Africans instead are sharing images and stories of their own elders, who endured a brutal period ofBritish colonial history during the Queen’s long reign.
“I cannot mourn,” one wrote on Twitter, posting an image of what she said was her grandmother’s “movement pass” — a colonial document which prevented free travel for Kenyans under British rule in the east African country.
Another wrote that her grandmother “used to narrate to us how they were beaten & how their husbands were taken away from them & left to look after their kids,” during colonial times. “May we never forget them. They are our heroes,” she added.
Their refusal to mourn highlights the complexity of the legacy of the Queen, who despite widespread popularity was also seen as a symbol of oppression in parts of the world where the British Empire once extended.
Kenya, which had been under British rule since 1895, was named an official colony in 1920 and remained that way until it won independence in 1963. Among the worst atrocities under British rule occurred during the Mau Mau uprising, which started in 1952 — the year Queen Elizabeth took the throne.
The colonial administration at the time carried out extreme acts of torture, including castration and sexual assault, in detainment camps where as many as 150,000 Kenyans were held. Elderly Kenyans who sued for compensation in 2011 were ultimately awarded £19.9 million by a British court, to be split between more than 5,000 claimants.
The UK Foreign Secretary at the time, William Hague, said: “The British Government recognises that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration. The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place, and that they marred Kenya’s progress towards independence.”
Africa’s memory of the Queen cannot be separated from that colonial past, professor of communication Farooq Kperogi at Kennesaw State University told CNN.
“The Queen’s legacy started in colonialism and is still wrapped in it. It used to be said that the sun did not set over the British empire. No amount of compassion or sympathy that her death has generated can wipe that away,” he told CNN.
‘Tragic period’
While many African leaders have mourned her passing — including Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, who described her reign as “unique and wonderful” — other prominent voices in regional politics have not.
In South Africa, one opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), was unequivocal. “We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa’s history,” the EFF said in a statement.
“Our interaction with Britain has been one of pain, … death and dispossession, and of the dehumanisation of the African people,” it added.
Others recalled Britain’s role in the Nigerian civil war, where arms were secretly supplied to the government for use against Biafrans who wanted to form a breakaway republic. Between 1 million and 3 million people died in that war. British musician John Lennon returned his MBE, an honorary title, to the Queen in protest over Britain’s role in the war.
Still, many on the continent remember the Queen as a stabilizing force who brought about positive change during her reign.
Ayodele Modupe Obayelu from Nigeria told CNN: “Her reign saw the end of the British Empire and the African countries … became a Republic. She doesn’t really deserve any award or standing ovation for it, but it was a step in the right direction.”
And Ovation magazine publisher Dele Momodu was full of praise, recounting meeting her in 2003 in Abuja while covering her visit to Nigeria. He added that he had fled Nigeria for the UK in 1995, during the dictator Sani Abacha’s regime.
“I told her I was a refugee and now the publisher of a magazine. She told me ‘congratulations,’ and moved on to the other people on the line. I salute her. She worked to the very end and was never tired of working for her country. She did her best for her country and that is a lesson in leadership,” he told CNN.
Momodu believes that the Queen did try to “atone” for the brutality of the British Empire. “She came to Nigeria during our independence and some of the artifacts were returned under her reign. That is why the Commonwealth continues to thrive. I feel very sad that the world has lost a great human being.”
Adekunbi Rowland, also from Nigeria, said: “The Queen’s passing represents the end of an era. As a woman, I’m intrigued by her story. This young woman had an unprecedented accession to the throne, and with much grace and dignity did everything in her power to protect the country and Commonwealth she loved no matter what it took.”
Commonwealth Queen
The Queen once declared, “I think I have seen more of Africa than almost anybody.”
She made her first official overseas visit to South Africa in 1947, as a princess and would go on to visit more than 120 countries during her reign, many of them on the continent.
It was while visiting Kenya in 1952 that she learned that she had become Queen. Her father George passed away while she was there with Prince Phillip and she immediately ascended the throne.
As colonialism later crumbled and gave way to independence and self-rule in what had been British overseas territories, the former colonies became part of a Commonwealth group of nations with the Queen at its head and she worked tirelessly to keep the group together over the years.
She forged strong bonds with African leaders, including Nelson Mandela, whom she visited twice in South Africa, and Kwame Nkrumah, with whom she was famously pictured dancing during her visit to Ghana in 1961.
However, there is now a growing clamor for independence and accountability over Britain’s past crimes such as slavery. In November 2021, Barbados removed the Queen as its head of state, 55 years after it declared independence from Britain, and other Caribbean countries, such as Jamaica, have indicated they intend to do the same.
Prince William and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, visited Jamaica in March but they faced protests and calls for reparations during the trip. There were also calls for a formal apology for the royal family’s links to slavery.
“During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonization,” wrote members of a protest group, the Advocates Network Jamaica.
In June, Prince Charles became the first UK royal to visit Rwanda, where he was representing the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Following his mother’s death, he now heads the Commonwealth, and will embark on a new relationship with its members, about a third of which are in Africa.
Some are asking whether he will be as effective in building the organization as his mother, and above all, how relevant it still is, given its roots in Empire.
London’s High Court has rejected President Nicolas Maduro’s latest efforts to gain control of more than $1 billion of Venezuela’s gold reserves stored in the Bank of England’s underground vaults in London.
The court ruled on Friday that previous decisions by the Maduro-backed Venezuelan Supreme Court aimed at reducing opposition leader Juan Guaido’s say over the gold should be disregarded.
It marked the latest victory for Guaido, who has won a series of legal clashes over the bullion after the British government recognized him rather than Maduro as the Latin American country’s president.
“I have … concluded that the Guaido Board succeeds: that the STJ (Venezuelan supreme court) judgments are not capable of being recognized,” the judge in the case said.
The Maduro and Guaido camps have each appointed a different board to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) and the two have issued conflicting instructions concerning the gold reserves.
Lawyers for the Maduro-backed BCV board said the central bank was considering an appeal after Friday’s ruling, while Guiado, who has seen some international support falter over the last 18 months, called it an important victory.
Maduro’s legal team has said he would like to sell some of the 31 tonnes of gold to finance Venezuela’s response to the pandemic and bolster a health system gutted by years of economic crisis.
Guaido’s opposition has alleged that Maduro’s cash-strapped administration wants to use the money to pay off his foreign allies, which his lawyers deny.
“This decision represents another step in the process of protecting Venezuela’s international gold reserves and preserving them for the Venezuelan people,” Guaido said in a statement.
“This type of honest and transparent judicial process does not exist in Venezuela.”
In the British government in early 2019 joined dozens of nations in backing Guaido, after he declared an interim presidency and denounced Maduro for rigging the 2018 elections.
Guaido at that time asked the Bank of England to prevent Maduro’s government from accessing the gold. Maduro’s central bank then sued the Bank of England to recover control, saying it was depriving the BCV of funds needed to finance Venezuela’s coronavirus response.
Legal experts have said the latest case has been unprecedented as it has seen one country’s highest courts interpreting the constitution of another.
“This is an unfortunate ruling,” said Sarosh Zaiwalla at Zaiwalla & Co, which represented the Maduro-backed central bank, adding that it would continue to pursue the case despite Friday’s decision.
“The BCV remains concerned that the cumulative effect of the judgments of the English Court appears to accord a simple statement by the UK Government recognizing as a head of state a person with no effective control or power over any part of that state,” Zaiwalla added.
The history of Ghana would never be complete without the emergence of Christianity and African Traditional Religion.
People from both religions are believed to have similar ways of appeasing a Supreme being by offering thanksgiving or sending their petitions for divine protection.
Christians are believed to serve and worship God through Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the African traditionalists are known to revere the Supreme Being (God) through lesser gods and ancestors; that is, through divinity cults and ancestral veneration.
However, in recent years, the leaders of the African Traditional religion have spoken fervently about how Christianity is trying to erode their entity by making many believe the African Traditional religion is fetish.
On this backdrop, Chief Priest of Osu, Wor-Lumor Nuumo Noi Sekanku Kpenuku II, in the latest episode of People & Places has said that the whole hullabaloo started with the British.
He told GhanaWeb that in the attempt to degrade the monarchy of Ghana, they named the chairs of Ghanaian chiefs as ‘stools’ while referring to theirs as thrones. Affirming his disappointment, he added that stool according to medical laboratories means excreta.
“Let me enlighten you on something. When you go to England, the Queen is sitting on a chair they call the throne; you go to the Netherlands the same. You go to all these European countries where we have monarchs, they are sitting on thrones. Why is it that our monarchs sit on stools? Have you ever found the dictionary meaning of stool? When you get into the medical laboratories, stool means…the excreta that we leave in the gents. Oxford Dictionary, stool means something that you put your feet on.”
Wor-Lumor Nuumo Noi Sekanku Kpenuku II reiterated that the British likened their own monarchy to that of God, who is the Supreme Being. According to him, being colonial masters at the time made them ‘gods’.
“So you see, by this naming of our thrones, they have degraded our chiefs. The British, the colonial masters they degraded our chiefs. But they call their chairs thrones and they call ours stools. And they call the chair of God, throne. So they are gods to us, and they are not gods to us.”
The Osu Chief Priest underscored that it is prudent for the public to note that, Christianity which was introduced by the British colonial masters is not ‘holy’ as they claim.
He said, the traditional religion, which he says is the first religion on earth is holier than Christianity.
“No, we are holier than them. They came to kill and steal our minerals and goods; and stole our human resource, took our people as slaves. So we are cleaner than them,” he told GhanaWeb.
A British doctor who warned United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson that health workers on the front line did not have enough personal protection equipment (PPE) has died of Coronavirus.
Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a 53-year-old consultant in the urology department at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Romford, worked for the NHS for more than 20 years after migrating from Bangladesh.
He died on Wednesday aged 53 after spending 15 days in hospital.
In a Facebook post on March 18 directly addressing Johnson, Chowdhury urged the prime minister to provide PPE for “each and every NHS health worker in the UK”, as he called for him to fast-track testing for medical staff.
Doctors, nurses and other workers who are in direct contact with patients were trying to help, he wrote, “but we are also human beings [with] human rights like others [trying] to live in this world disease free with our family and children.”
While he appreciated moral support being given to NHS workers, “we have to protect ourselves and our families and kids in this global disaster crisis by using appropriate PPE and remedies,” he said.
“I hope we are by default entitled to get this minimal support for our safe medical practice.”
Adnan Pavel, Chowdhury’s friend, described him as an “enthusiastic” mentor to young British Bangladeshi men in the UK and a selfless philanthropist to vulnerable people in Bangladesh.
“He was such a good man. He was always very helpful to everyone. He was a man with life,” Pavel told Al Jazeera.
Last year, Pavel and Chowdhury delivered a motivational speech to British Bangladeshi men who had just graduated or were about to apply to university.
“He wanted to inspire them so that they could fulfil their calibre and become a successful doctor, engineer, journalist, academic, lawyer or accountant,” he said.
“Because Dr Chowdhury was a senior doctor, he always actively helped junior doctors so that they could fulfil their career aspirations as well.”
“He personally initiated many medical projects in remote villages in Bangladesh [providing] free medical treatment.”
On February 8, Pavel interviewed Chowdhury for a TV programme on a Bangladeshi community channel, NTV Europe, about concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
“Dr Chowdhury started talking about the [coronavirus] issue from the very beginning, asking why the British government and other European countries weren’t taking rigorous and strict measures to control it.
“He was worried developing countries like Bangladesh will be the worst victim of this crisis because of economic issues and improvised healthcare issues,” said Pavel.
Chowdhury’s death came amid mounting concerns that medical workers are not receiving adequate PPE.
Some have claimed that they have had to share PPE, while reports in UK media suggest some nurses have resorted to using bin bags as aprons.
Asif Munaf, an acute medical registrar at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, told Al Jazeera: “We’ve learned from the countries such as Taiwan and South Korea that full PPE for front line staff is absolutely crucial in circumventing the patient-staff spread as well as more general surface contact spread.
“This has resulted in fewer healthcare staff deaths than would otherwise have transpired.
“Despite the stark warnings from Italian doctors as well as our own NHS front line, most notably Dr Chowdhury who has passed away this week after his posting a Facebook status about his concerns, the government seem to be deploying an ‘it will be ok’ attitude in the face of a growing crisis.
“How many more front line deaths will we have to seen before adequate PPE is rolled out across the NHS?”
British regional airline Flybe collapsed on Thursday after a plunge in travel demand, making the long-struggling carrier one of the first big corporate casualties of the coronavirus outbreak.
The failure of an airline that connects all corners of the United Kingdom with major European destinations not only puts around 2,400 jobs at risk but could also see some airports struggle and regional economies hit.
“All flights have been grounded and the UK business has ceased trading with immediate effect,†Flybe said after the government walked away from a rescue package agreed in January.
Airlines around the world have been cancelling flights and warning of a hit to profitability after coronavirus first emerged in China, hitting flights across Asia, before it spread to Europe and beyond.
The British government on Wednesday expressed “regret” that British explorers killed some of the first indigenous Maori they met 250 years ago but stopped short of issuing a full apology.
British High Commissioner Laura Clarke met Maori tribal leaders in the town of Gisborne as New Zealand marked the anniversary of the arrival of explorer Captain James Cook and his crew on board the Endeavour in 1769.
Clarke’s words held historical significance but fell short of the full apology that some had sought.
Shortly after the arrival of Cook and his crew, the group encountered armed Maori and believed they were under attack. Many scholars now believe the Maori were probably only issuing a ceremonial challenge.
The sailors shot and killed an important leader, Te Maro, and over the following days killed eight more Maori before a Tahitian priest managed to mediate between the sides.
The British High Commission said the exact wording of Clarke’s speech to Maori leaders would remain private, but that she would acknowledge the pain of those first encounters and extend her sympathy to the descendants of those killed.
Britain has also been returning some historic artefacts taken by Cook’s crew, including canoe paddles.
In a Facebook video, the Maori “iwi” or tribe Rongowhakaata described that first encounter in blunt terms: “After only being here for two hours, Cook and his crew had trespassed, terrorised, killed and stolen from us,” a narrator says.
The high commission was careful to point out that Wednesday’s expression of regret came from the British government and not from the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
Maori are involved in a decades-long legal process seeking redress for historic wrongs under New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.
That 1840 document was signed on the British side by emissaries of Queen Victoria. Dozens of tribes have made settlements worth billions of dollars under the treaty’s provisions.
New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner and former Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon said Clarke’s words were another part of the reconcilliation and relationship-building process.
He said that as Gisborne mayor he had invited the British royal family to come to Wednesday’s event but had received no response.
He said he would like to have descendants of Queen Victoria meet descendants of the Maori who were killed and offer them a full apology.
“It’s not the end of the story,” he said of Clarke’s speech. “I believe future generations will demand an apology.”
