World – Adomonline.com

2 killed after helicopter crashes into barge on Mississippi River near Alton

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 20:37:16 +0000

Two people died when a helicopter crashed into a barge in the Mississippi River near East Alton, Illinois, north of St. Louis, on Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Cpl. Dallas Thompson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed that the two people inside the aircraft were killed and that there were no other reported injuries. The state patrol said no one was on the barge when the crash happened.

The river was closed to commercial navigation following the crash.

The helicopter ran into a powerline and crashed around 11 a.m. Thursday on the Mississippi River about a half-mile downriver from the Alton Dam, said Rivers Pointe Fire District Chief Rick Pender.

Video provided to CBS affiliate KMOV-TV by witness Adam Briggs shows a black plume of smoke rising up from the barge.

Fire, emergency medical and law enforcement personnel responded to the crash, and federal agencies were on the way, Pender said. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

The Illinois State Police Department said the Lewis and Clark Bridge coming into Illinois will be closed for an undetermined amount of time, KMOV reported.

East Alton is about 20 miles north of St. Louis.

Source: cbsnews

Six killed after light aircraft crashes in Kenya

Gertrude Okyere — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 17:13:54 +0000

A small plane carrying medical staff crashed in a densely-populated neighbourhood in Kenya’s capital on Thursday afternoon, killing six people, local authorities said.

The Cessna plane, run by AMREF Flying Doctors, came down as it was flying to Hargeisa, the capital of Somalia’s breakaway territory of Somaliland, the charity said in a statement.

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Kiambu County Commissioner Henry Wafula said the four people on board and two people on the ground were killed.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said the plane took off from Wilson Airport at 02:14 PM (1114 GMT) and lost contact with air traffic control three minutes later.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident involving an air ambulance mission,” KCAA said in a statement.

One witness, who asked not to be named, told Reuters she heard a loud sound, then saw a fireball and debris scattered over the neighbourhood.

Unverified videos shared on social media showed firefighters trying to douse burning debris inside what appeared to be a residential compound.

Crashes involving light aircraft are relatively common in eastern Africa.

In April last year, Kenya’s military chief was among 10 people killed when their military helicopter crashed shortly after take-off.

Source: Reuters

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs seeking Trump pardon – Lawyer

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 08:57:13 +0000

Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is to be sentenced in October for his conviction on prostitution-related charges, is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.

“It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” Nicole Westmoreland told CNN in an interview.

Trump has indicated, however, that he is unlikely to grant a pardon to the 55-year-old Combs.

“I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great, and he seemed like a nice guy,” Trump said in an interview on Friday with Newsmax.

“I didn’t know him well, but when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”

Asked if that meant he was not inclined to pardon Combs, Trump said: “I would say so, yeah.”

A New York jury found Combs guilty last month of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

He was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges after a marathon trial in which he was accused of harrowing abuse.

Sentencing has been set for October 3.

Source: AFP

15% tariff on goods entering U.S starts today, August 7

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 07:38:40 +0000

The 15 percent tariff imposed on exports from Ghana to the U.S starts today August 7, 2025.

U.S government announced the imposition of the tariff on July 31, 2025.

The tariff affects African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Mauritius, Malawi, Lesotho and Madagascar.

By this, Ghanaian goods entering the U.S will be subject to a 15 percent duty, raising export costs significantly.

A basket exporter to the U.S and Chief Executive of Trade Aid, Nicholas Aponkerah told Joy Business the tariff could collapse Ghanaian businesses that mainly export to the U.S.

He recounted that the recent sharp appreciation of the cedi has already affected exports.

“This tariff situation coming together with the recent sharp appreciation of the cedi is a double sword situation. There is an urgent need for government to intervene to address the challenges”, he pleaded.

He stated that businesses that export to the U.S heavily contribute to the economic gains of the country.

Other countries affected

In addition to the 15 percent tariffs on African nations, the US also imposed a steeper conditions on other countries including, South Africa and Libya which face 30 percent tariff. Tunisia face 25 percent duty.

Globally, the tariffs also affects a number of countries including Mexico, China, Canada, Germany, Japan Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, Ireland, India ,Italy ,United Kingdom, Switzerland, Thailand , France Malaysia among others.

Source: Myjoyonline

Trump could meet Putin over Ukraine as soon as next week, official says

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 07:34:15 +0000

President Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the U.S. continued preparations to impose secondary sanctions, including potentially on China, to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

Such a face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting U.S. and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, some eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since World War Two.

Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

The New York Times reported that Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he intended to meet with Putin and then follow up with a trilateral involving the Russian leader and Zelenskiy.

“There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon,” Trump told reporters.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the president is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskiy.”

The details emerged following a meeting on Wednesday between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff that Trump described as having achieved “great progress” in a Truth Social post, although later said he would not call it a breakthrough.

A Kremlin aide said the talks were “useful and constructive.”

The diplomatic manoeuvres come two days before a deadline set by Trump for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions.

Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Putin over the lack of progress towards peace and has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian exports, including oil.

Trump on Wednesday also said he could announce further tariffs on China similar to the 25% duties announced earlier on India over its purchases of Russian oil.

“We did it with India. We’re doing it probably with a couple of others. One of them could be China,” he said.

The White House official earlier said that while the meeting between Witkoff and Putin had gone well and Moscow was eager to continue engaging with the United States, secondary sanctions that Trump had threatened against countries doing business with Russia were still expected to be implemented on Friday.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the two sides had exchanged “signals” on the Ukraine issue and discussed the possibility of developing strategic cooperation between Moscow and Washington, but declined to give more details until Witkoff had reported back to Trump.

Zelenskiy said he believed pressure had worked on Russia and Moscow was now more “inclined” to a ceasefire.

“The pressure on them works. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details – neither us nor the U.S.,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address.

Trump on Truth Social said he had updated some of Washington’s European allies following Witkoff’s meeting

A German government spokesperson said Trump provided information about the status of the talks with Russia during a call with the German chancellor and other European leaders.

PRESSURE ON INDIA – AND MAYBE CHINA?

Trump took a key step toward punitive measures on Wednesday when he imposed an additional 25% tariff on imports from India, citing New Delhi’s continued imports of Russian oil.

The new measure raises tariffs on some Indian goods to as high as 50% — among the steepest faced by any U.S. trading partner. India’s external affairs ministry called the decision “extremely unfortunate.”

The Kremlin says threats to penalise countries that trade with Russia are illegal.

Trump’s comment on Wednesday that he could impose more tariffs on China would be a further escalation between the world’s two biggest economies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week warned Chinese officials that continued purchases of sanctioned Russian oil would lead to big tariffs due to legislation in Congress.

The U.S. and China have been engaged in discussions about trade and tariffs, with an eye to extending a 90-day tariff truce that is due to expire on August 12, when their bilateral tariffs shoot back up to triple-digit figures.

AIR STRIKES

Bloomberg and independent Russian news outlet The Bell reported that the Kremlin might propose a moratorium on airstrikes by Russia and Ukraine – an idea mentioned last week by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting with Putin.

Such a move, if agreed, would fall well short of the full and immediate ceasefire that Ukraine and the U.S. have been seeking for months. But it would offer some relief to both sides.

Since the two sides resumed direct peace talks in May, Russia has carried out its heaviest air attacks of the war, killing at least 72 people in the capital Kyiv alone. Trump last week called the Russian attacks “disgusting.”

Ukraine continues to strike Russian refineries and oil depots, which it has hit many times.

Putin is unlikely to bow to Trump’s sanctions ultimatum because he believes he is winning the war and his military goals take precedence over his desire to improve relations with the U.S., three sources close to the Kremlin have told Reuters.

The Russian sources told Reuters that Putin was sceptical that yet more U.S. sanctions would have much of an impact after successive waves of economic penalties during the war.

Source: Reuters

India’s Modi says will not compromise interests of farmers, amid Trump’s tariff salvo

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 07:17:01 +0000

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday he will not compromise the interests of the country’s farmers even if he has to pay a heavy price for it, in his first comments after U.S. President Donald Trump’s salvo of a 50% tariff on Indian goods.

Trump announced an additional 25% tariff on the South Asian nation on Thursday, taking the total levy on Indian goods being exported to the U.S. to 50%, among the highest levied on any U.S. trading partner.

“For us, our farmers’ welfare is supreme,” Modi said in a function in New Delhi. “India will never compromise on the well-being of its farmers, dairy (sector) and fishermen. And I know personally I will have to pay a heavy price for it,” he said.

Trade talks between India and the United States collapsed after five rounds of negotiations over disagreement on opening India’s vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases.

Modi did not directly refer to the U.S. tariffs or trade talks.

The new tariff, effective from Aug. 28, was to penalise India for its purchase of Russian oil, Trump has said. India’s foreign ministry has said the decision was “extremely unfortunate,” and that “India will take all necessary steps to protect its national interests.”

The U.S. is yet to announce any similar tariff for China, which is the biggest buyer of Russian oil. Experts have said China has been spared so far as it has a bargaining chip with the U.S. over its reserves of rare earth minerals and other such commodities, which India lacks.

“The U.S. tariff hike lacks logic,” Dammu Ravi, secretary of economic relations in India’s foreign ministry, told reporters.

“So this is a temporary aberration, a temporary problem that the country will face, but in course of time, we are confident that the world will find solutions.”

India has started making moves to signal that it might have to consider other partnerships in the coming months in the face of Trump’s tariffs, which have led to the worst diplomatic showdown between the two countries in years.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is preparing for his first visit to China in over seven years, suggesting a potential realignment in alliances as relations with Washington fray.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday he would initiate a conversation among the BRICS group of developing nations about how to tackle Trump’s tariffs.

He said he planned to call Modi on Thursday, and China’s Xi Jinping and other leaders. The BRICS group also includes Russia and South Africa

Ravi said, “Like-minded countries will look for cooperation and economic engagement that will be mutually beneficial to all sides.”

Source: Reuters

Church of Nigeria formally cuts ties with Wales over lesbian Archbishop

Gertrude Okyere — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 19:34:51 +0000

The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has officially cut all ties with the Church in Wales following the appointment of Bishop Cherry Vann, an openly lesbian cleric, as the 15th Archbishop of Wales.

The decision was announced by the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, the Most Reverend Henry Ndukuba, who described the development as ‘an abomination’ and a serious departure from biblical truth.

The announcement came during the opening session of the 14th Church of Nigeria Conference of Chancellors, Registrars and Legal Officers, held on Tuesday at the Church’s national secretariat in Abuja.

With the theme ‘Called as a Watchman’, the event brought together legal minds from across the Church to discuss matters of doctrinal integrity, justice, and governance.

Primate Ndukuba delivered the keynote address titled ‘The Decade of the Reign of God: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects.’

Reacting to the Church in Wales’ elevation of a lesbian bishop, the Primate said, “We reject the election of the Right Reverend Cherry Vann as the Archbishop of Wales.”

He compared it to the 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson in the Episcopal Church (USA), which had also led to Nigeria severing ties with that province.

“Just as the Church of Nigeria took steps after the election of Gene Robinson in the United States, we are severing every tie and relationship with the Church of Wales,” he said.

Primate Ndukuba also criticised what he described as the growing influence of revisionist teachings within sections of the Western Church.

“These individuals have not relented from their evil agenda; rather, they have intensified it. What they call their wisdom and culture is an abomination to God,” he declared.

Despite cutting formal ties with the Church in Wales, the Church of Nigeria reaffirmed its support for orthodox Anglicans in the region through platforms such as the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).

“We pray that the Church of God in Wales will rise up, and that the faithful among them will stand strong. We, the Church of Nigeria, alongside GAFCON, will stand with them,” Ndukuba assured.

Looking ahead, the Primate said the Church of Nigeria plans to expand its global mission, with new registrations underway in countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland.

“We feel that the Lord is calling us back to Europe for mission,” he said.

The Primate also used the opportunity to highlight the Church’s ongoing contributions to the GAFCON movement.

He revealed that the Church of Nigeria had recently contributed $2.5 million to the GAFCON Endowment Fund and was planning a local Nigerian GAFCON Endowment worth $2.3 million to support orthodox Anglican work and mission.

On constitutional and legal matters, Ndukuba urged legal officers to strengthen the Church’s internal reforms and national engagement.

“You are to understand yourselves to be watchmen for the Church. You defend the Church against all forms of aggression. As modern-day watchmen, we must first listen to God, then speak His truth in love, knowing our duty lies in obedience,” he said, calling on legal professionals to support the Church’s constitutional review and advocate for a new Nigerian constitution.

Source: Vanguard Nigeria

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Nigeria seizes 1,600 birds at Lagos airport bound for Kuwait

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 07:41:47 +0000

Customs officials at Nigeria’s Lagos international airport said they had seized more than 1,600 parrots and canaries that were being transported to Kuwait without a permit, in one of the biggest such seizures in years.

The cargo of live birds, which included ring-necked parakeets and yellow-fronted canaries, was intercepted by customs officials at the airport on July 31, the agency said in a statement late on Monday.

Nigeria, which has become a transit hub for trafficking in wildlife and wildlife products, is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Parrots, songbirds and birds of prey are among the most trafficked birds for the exotic pet trade, private collections and for feathers or trophies, according to the United Nations 2024 World Wildlife Report.

Michael Awe, a customs controller at Lagos airport, said the birds were not accompanied by a CITES permit and other documents required to prove they were legally obtained.

“No illegal shipment will slip through the cracks under my watch at the airport, because the eagle eyes of my command officers are everywhere to detect and intercept,” he said in the statement.

Awe said customs were investigating those responsible for the illicit cargo, adding that the birds would be handed over to the National Parks Service.

Source: Reuters

Four people killed in plane crash at Algerian airport, state media says

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 07:37:24 +0000

At least four people were killed after a civil protection surveillance plane crashed at Jijel Ferhat Abbas airport in the northern Algerian town of Taher, Algerian media reported on Tuesday, citing civil protection authorities.

The aircraft crashed during a training mission at the airport, according to Algerian media.

Source: Reuters

‘Abducted’ Ugandan student jailed over anti-Museveni TikTok video

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 07:07:26 +0000

A Ugandan university student who mysteriously went missing two months ago after posting a TikTok video that harshly criticised President Yoweri Museveni’s leadership has been jailed.

Elson Tumwine disappeared on 8 June – sparking accusations from opposition figures and activists that he had been abducted and illegally detained by military agents.

Following an outcry over his disappearance, he was then reportedly left at a police station in Entebbe in mid-July and was subsequently charged with offensive communication and computer misuse.

He pleaded guilty and asked for forgiveness. The magistrates’ court in Entebbe sentenced him to two months in jail on Monday, noting his pleas for leniency.

Tumwine’s sentencing and alleged abduction have raised concerns among human rights activists around freedom of speech ahead of elections next year.

In court, the third-year Makerere University undergraduate admitted to posting the video that prosecutors said was intended “to ridicule, demean and incite hostility”.

He is alleged to have doctored a clip of the parliamentary speaker’s response to a general apology Museveni issued in May to the Baganda people, Uganda’s largest ethnic group and who form the traditional Buganda kingdom.

Over Museveni’s nearly four decades in power, relations with the kingdom and its monarch have at times been strained. The kingdom has no political power but remains influential.

Tumwine’s TikTok post accused the 80-year-old president of not apologising for other things during his time in power.

When Tumwine’s disappeared in June, Makerere University issued an urgent appeal for information that could help find him.

He had been working as an agricultural intern in Hoima, western Uganda, as part of his studies at the time he went missing.

Two weeks ago, the secretary-general of the opposition NUP party, David Lewis Rubongoy,a said they had information that Tumwine and another suspect were being held at a police station in Entebbe, having been “dumped” there on 13 July.

He alleged they were taken there after being subjected to “incredible torture” at the hands of the country’s military intelligence unit.

The authorities have not commented on these allegations.

Criticising the trial, lawyer and activist Godwin Toko said Tumwine had refused to let lawyers from his organisation or those from the opposition represent him in court.

“For a man who was abducted, held incommunicado for months, nudged to plead guilty and then sentenced, this is the apogee of injustice that it is not his captor punished, but him getting a criminal record to his name at such a young age,” he posted on X on Tuesday.

Last November, 21-year-old Emmanuel Nabugodi was jailed for 32 months after creating a video said to insult Museveni.

Months earlier, Edward Awebwa, 24, was sentenced to six years in prison for hate speech and spreading “malicious” information against the first family.

Source: BBC

Brazil’s Supreme Court caught off guard by order to arrest Bolsonaro, sources say

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 07:03:46 +0000

Brazil’s Supreme Court was caught off-guard by Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ decision late on Monday to place former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest, two sources at the court told Reuters on Tuesday.

The order underscores Moraes’ readiness to act on his own despite both polarisation among Brazilians on the issue and rising tensions with the White House.

It came just days ahead of the introduction of 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods entering the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed the levies as a reaction to what he has characterized as a “witch hunt” led by Moraes against Bolsonaro, who is standing trial under charges of plotting a coup to overturn his 2022 electoral defeat. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing and described Moraes as a “dictator.”

Moraes’ ruling has sparked concern within the Brazilian government that Trump could retaliate by inflicting further damage to Brazil’s economy, two sources close to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inner circle told Reuters.

But Brazilian officials are not planning to push back against Moraes. The two court sources, one of whom is a justice, told Reuters that the other Supreme Court justices were supportive of Moraes, while those close to Lula said the president has neither the willingness nor the ability to influence the Supreme Court.

“It doesn’t change our approach in the slightest,” said the justice, who asked not to be named to discuss the matter candidly.

The Lula administration is instead planning policies to support those industries likely to be hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs and to keep diplomatic channels open with Washington, said the political sources.

But the Moraes move could create obstacles for the Brazilian negotiators, said Fabio Medina Osorio, Brazil’s former attorney general.

“This decision can certainly make things difficult,” he said.

A POLARIZED COUNTRY

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a verdict within weeks on the charges that Bolsonaro and his allies plotted to overthrow democracy. It is widely expected to convict the former president.

Moraes’ house arrest order cited a failure to comply with restraining orders he had imposed on Bolsonaro for allegedly courting Trump’s interference in the case.

While domestically Moraes has received praise by some for defending Brazil’s judicial independence, others have accused him of overreach.

The latest order drew mixed reactions, according to a Quaest poll based on social media posts, with 53% in favor and 47% against the arrest.

Newspapers that had written scathing editorials about the alliance between Bolsonaro and Trump also questioned Moraes’ decisions.

“Moraes was wrong to order the arrest of the former president for communicating with supporters in a rally organized by the right,” an editorial by Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said. “Brazil must acknowledge that Jair Bolsonaro has broad freedom to defend himself in court and to express himself wherever he chooses, including on social media.”

Former Supreme Court justices, too, offered differing views regarding the decision.

“Alexandre de Moraes, in his ruling, not only upholds the country’s sovereignty and independence but also the autonomy of Brazil’s judiciary,” said Carlos Ayres Britto, who left the Supreme Court bench in 2012.

But former Justice Marco Aurelio Mello disagreed. “My perspective would be different given the constitutional principle of presumed innocence,” he said.

Source: Reuters

Zelensky says he had ‘productive’ call with Trump ahead of ceasefire deadline

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 06:56:14 +0000

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he had had a “productive” conversation with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, on ending the war, sanctions on Russia and the finalisation of a U.S.-Ukraine drone deal.

“President Trump is fully informed about Russian strikes on Kyiv and other cities and communities,” Zelensky wrote on X, referring to intensifying drone and missile attacks.

Trump, who has signalled frustration with Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, has given the Russian president until August 8 to make peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions.

A source in Washington said U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff would be meeting the Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelensky said Trump “knows the situation along the front line,” which extends for 1,000 km (620 miles) through eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukraine, he said, had long supported U.S. proposals for an immediate ceasefire and had proposed a number of formats to implement a halt to the fighting.

“We have spoken with and proposed to Russia quiet in the skies, no missile and drone attacks and specifically no attacks on civilian infrastructure or on the energy sector,” he said.

“All of this has been violated by the Russians and in a very cynical fashion.”

Trump has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil, although sources close to the Kremlin have told Reuters that Putin is unlikely to bow to the ultimatum.

Zelensky said Ukraine was also ready to conclude a deal with the U.S. on the purchase of Ukrainian drones that would amount to “one of the strongest agreements”. He had earlier said the deal was worth around $30 billion.

Ukraine is increasingly seeking financing and investment from its foreign partners to bolster its burgeoning domestic arms industry.

Zelensky said Kyiv’s European partners had so far pledged to buy more than $1 billion in U.S. weapons for Ukraine as part of a new scheme.

Source: Reuters

Trump administration formally axes Elon Musk’s ‘five things’ email

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 06:51:05 +0000

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally axed a program launched by billionaire former Trump adviser Elon Musk requiring federal employees to summarise their five workplace achievements from the prior week, as first reported by Reuters.

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal human resources agency that implemented Musk’s push to slash the federal workforce, announced the end of the “five things” email via a memo that rescinds guidance instructing workers to comply with the initiative.

“At OPM, we believe that managers are accountable to staying informed about what their team members are working on and have many other existing tools to do so,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement, adding the agency told government HR representatives that OPM would no longer manage the process nor use it internally.

While many federal agencies had already phased out compliance with the weekly email, the move signals the Trump administration is turning the page on one of Musk’s most unpopular initiatives following a falling out between the two men in early June.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win November’s presidential election, led the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to slash the budget and cut the federal workforce until his departure in May to refocus on his tech empire.

Musk initially received a warm White House sendoff from Trump, but then incurred the president’s wrath by describing Trump’s tax cut and spending bill as an abomination.

Trump pulled the nomination of Musk ally and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA and later threatened to cancel billions of dollars worth of federal contracts with Musk’s companies after the blowup between the two men.

The “five things” email, launched by Musk in February to boost accountability, sparked tensions with department chiefs who were blindsided by the weekend email mandating the move. It also fueled confusion among government workers who received mixed messages about whether and how to comply.

Reuters reported in March that the White House installed two Trump loyalists at OPM to ensure better policy coordination between the White House and the agency.

Scott Kupor, a venture capitalist who took the helm at OPM in July, foreshadowed the end of the initiative last month, describing processing of the weekly response emails as “very manual” and “not efficient.”

It is “something that we should look at and see, like, are we getting the value out of it that at least the people who put it in place thought they were,” he said.

Source: Reuters

Two sisters arrested for staging abduction with help of married boyfriend

Abigail Bonney — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 19:25:23 +0000

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has arrested four individuals over a staged kidnapping aimed at extorting five million naira (₦5,000,000) from a man by his two daughters and their accomplices.

Confirming the arrests, the Command’s spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, said the incident was reported on July 30, 2025, by one Mr. Innocent, a resident of Jikwoyi Phase II.

According to her, Mr. Innocent informed the Jikwoyi Police Division that his 16-year-old daughter, Miss Lead Way Innocent, had left home on July 18, 2025, to sit for an examination at Government Secondary School, Karu, Abuja, but never returned.

He later received a phone call from unknown persons demanding a ransom for her release.

“Upon receipt of the report, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Jikwoyi Division immediately launched a discreet investigation,” SP Adeh stated.

“Through coordinated intelligence gathering and digital tracking, the phone number used to contact the complainant was traced to a residence in Jikwoyi Phase II. Operatives proceeded to the location, where Miss Lead Way Innocent was found in the company of one Mrs. Tina Mayowa, the wife of Mr. Mayowa Adedeji. The two were seen eating and conversing freely, showing no signs of distress.”

Further investigations led to the arrest of Miss Joy Innocent, elder sister of the alleged victim, and her boyfriend, Mr. Mayowa Adedeji.

Police findings revealed that Joy conspired with her boyfriend—who is legally married to Mrs. Tina Mayowa—to fake the kidnapping of her younger sister in a calculated attempt to defraud their father.

It was also discovered that Lead Way Innocent was not only aware of the plan but actively participated in it. She willingly stayed with the suspects throughout the period of her supposed abduction, while Joy remained at home, pretending to be unaware of her sister’s whereabouts, as their father frantically tried to raise the ransom.

The suspects are currently in custody and assisting the police with further investigations.

Sudan’s spiralling conflict triggers world’s worst displacement crisis

Faridatu Seidu — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 16:07:14 +0000

Sudan is facing what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has described as “the world’s worst displacement crisis”, as a brutal civil war continues to wreak havoc across the country.

Since the conflict erupted in April 2023, nearly 13 million people have fled their homes, driven out by relentless aerial bombardments, random shelling, and violent clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The scale of devastation is unprecedented, with civilian infrastructure — including hospitals, schools, and places of worship — being repeatedly targeted. Most recently, the RSF claimed responsibility for downing a military drone over El-Fashir in Darfur, accusing the army of conducting indiscriminate airstrikes in heavily populated areas.

A similar attack on Turra Market in North Darfur earlier this year left over 100 civilians dead, drawing condemnation from local human rights group, Emergency Lawyers, which labelled the incident a war crime and called for accountability.

The UN Human Rights Office continues to receive reports of escalating violence, including airstrikes on towns such as Kabkabiya and Nyala, with scores of civilian casualties. Even Christian churches and evangelical schools have not been spared.

Meanwhile, reports have surfaced linking the Sudanese military to resurgent extremist groups, including factions of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The group, once ousted by Sudan’s 2019 revolution, is alleged to have formed new alliances with the army, attempting to reclaim influence through the ongoing conflict.

Though one such battalion, Al-Baraa Ibn Malik, recently declared its withdrawal from the battlefield, experts have dismissed this as a tactical move designed to manipulate public perception.

Further complicating the crisis are revelations of foreign arms deals. According to an investigation by The Washington Post, the Turkish defence manufacturer Baykar covertly supplied the Sudanese army with at least $120 million worth of drones and missiles in late 2024.

Supported by satellite data and internal communications, the report indicates that these advanced weapons, including the TB2 drones, have been used in recent strikes, intensifying the war’s toll on civilians.

As the humanitarian catastrophe deepens, international observers warn that Sudan’s conflict — marked by shifting alliances, extremist resurgence, and foreign intervention — could destabilise the wider region unless urgent diplomatic and humanitarian interventions are made.

Source: myjoyonline

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Chikungunya: China reports 7,000 cases of mosquito-borne virus

Abigail Bonney — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 15:07:36 +0000

More than 7,000 cases of a mosquito-borne virus have been reported across China’s Guangdong province since July, prompting measures similar to those taken during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Foshan city, which has been hit the hardest, chikungunya patients must stay in hospital, where their beds will protected with mosquito nets. They can only be discharged after they test negative or at the end of a week-long stay.

Spread through the bite of an infected mosquito, the virus causes fever and severe joint pain, which sometimes can last for years.

Although rare in China, chikungunya outbreaks are common in South and South East Asia and parts of Africa.

How widespread are the infections in China?

Aside from Foshan, at least 12 other cities in the southern Guangdong province have reported infections. Nearly 3,000 cases were reported in the last week alone.

On Monday, Hong Kong reported its first case – a 12-year-old boy who developed fever, rash and joint pain after traveling to Foshan in July.

The virus is not contagious, and only spreads when an infected person is bitten by a mosquito that then goes on to bite others.

Officials say all the reported cases have been mild so far, with 95% of the patients discharged within seven days.

Still, the cases have led to some panic, given the virus is not widely known in the country.

“This is scary. The prolonged consequences sound very painful,” one user wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

The US has urged travellers to China to exercise “increased caution” following the outbreak.

Getty Images

The best way to prevent the virus from spreading is to reduce pools of stagnant water that allow the mosquitoes to breed, says the World Health Organization

What else is China doing to curb infections?

Authorities across Guangdong province have vowed to take “decisive and forceful measures” to stop the spread of the disease.

Those with symptoms, such as fever, joint pain or rashes, are being urged to visit the nearest hospital so they can be tested for the virus.

Authorities have instructed residents to remove stagnant water in their homes, such as in flowerpots, coffee machines or spare bottles – and warned of fines up to 10,000 yuan ($1,400) if they don’t do this.

They are also releasing giant “elephant mosquitoes” that can devour smaller, chikungunya-spreading bugs; and an army of mosquito-eating fish.

Last week, officials in Foshan released 5,000 of these larvae-eating fish into the city’s lakes. In parts of the city, they are even flying drones to detect sources of stagnant water.

Some neighbouring cities had ordered travellers from Foshan to undergo a 14-day home quarantine, but that has since been withdrawn.

Some people have compared these measures to those imposed during the pandemic, and questioned their necessity.

A user on Weibo wrote, “These feel so familiar… But are they really necessary?”

Another wrote: “What’s the point of the quarantine? It’s not as though an infected patient will then go around biting other people?”

China implemented severe restrictions during the pandemic, including forcing people into quarantine camps and sealing residential buildings and whole neighbourhoods on short notice for days or even weeks.

What is chikungunya?

Most people bitten by an infected mosquito will develop symptoms of chikungunya within three to seven days.

Apart from fever and joint pain, other symptoms include rash, headache, muscle pain and swollen joints.

In most cases, patients will feel better within a week. In severe cases however, the joint pain can last for months or even years.

Those at risk for more severe disease include newborns, the elderly, and people with underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease or diabetes.

There is no cure, but deaths from chikungunya are rare.

The virus was first identified in Tanzania in 1952. It then spread to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

To date, it has been reported in more than 110 countries.

The best way to prevent the virus from spreading is to reduce pools of stagnant water that allow the mosquitoes to breed, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: BBC

South African farm worker says he was forced to feed women to pigs

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 06:37:25 +0000

A white South African farm worker accused of killing two black women says he was forced to feed their bodies to pigs, according to lawyers.

Adrian de Wet is one of three men facing murder charges after Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were killed while allegedly looking for food on a farm near Polokwane in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province last year.

Their bodies were then alleged to have been given to pigs in an apparent attempt to dispose of the evidence.

Mr De Wet, 20, turned state witness when the trial started on Monday and says farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier shot and killed the two women.

Ms Makgato and Ms Ndlovu were searching for soon-to-expire dairy products which had been left for pigs when they were killed.

Mr De Wet, a supervisor on the farm, will testify that he was under duress when he was forced to throw their bodies into the pig enclosure, according to both the prosecution and his lawyer.

If the court accepts his testimony, all charges against him will be dropped.

The case has sparked outrage across South Africa, exacerbating racial tensions in the country.

Such tension is especially rife in rural areas, despite the end of the racist system of apartheid more than 30 years ago. Most private farmland remains in the hands of the white minority, while most farm workers are black and poorly paid, fuelling resentment among the black population, while many white farmers complain of high crime rates.

William Musora, 50, another farm worker, is the third accused. He and Mr Olivier, 60, are yet to enter a plea and remain behind bars.

The three men also face charges of attempted murder for shooting at Ms Ndlovu’s husband, who was with the women at the farm – as well as possession of an unlicensed firearm and obstructing justice for allegedly dumping the bodies in the pig enclosure in an attempt to conceal evidence.

Mr Musora, a Zimbabwean national, faces an additional charge under South Africa’s Immigration Act over his status as an illegal immigrant.

The Limpopo High Court was packed with supporters and relatives of the victims ahead of proceedings. Also present was Mr Olivier’s wife, who was seated in the front row of the public gallery and could be seen wiping away tears.

Members of the opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters, which has previously called for the farm to be shut down, were also present in the courtroom.

The trial was postponed to next week.

Source: BBC

State Department may require visa applicants to post bond of up to $15,000 to enter the US

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 06:34:07 +0000

The State Department is proposing requiring applicants for business and tourist visas to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a move that may make the process unaffordable for many.

In a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the department said it would start a 12-month pilot program under which people from countries deemed to have high overstay rates and deficient internal document security controls could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when they apply for a visa.

The proposal comes as the Trump administration is tightening requirements for visa applicants. Last week, the State Department announced that many visa renewal applicants would have to submit to an additional in-person interview, something that was not required in the past. In addition, the department is proposing that applicants for the Visa Diversity Lottery program have valid passports from their country of citizenship.

A preview of the bond notice, which was posted on the Federal Register website on Monday, said the pilot program would take effect within 15 days of its formal publication and is necessary to ensure that the U.S. government is not financially liable if a visitor does not comply with the terms of his or her visa.

“Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program,” the notice said.

The countries affected will be listed once the program takes effect, it said. The bond could be waived depending on an applicant’s individual circumstances.

The bond would not apply to citizens of countries enrolled in the Visa Waiver Program, which enables travel for business or tourism for up to 90 days.

The majority of the 42 countries enrolled in the program are in Europe, with others in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere.

Visa bonds have been proposed in the past but have not been implemented. The State Department has traditionally discouraged the requirement because of the cumbersome process of posting and discharging a bond and because of possible misperceptions by the public.

However, the department said that the previous view “is not supported by any recent examples or evidence, as visa bonds have not generally been required in any recent period.”

Source: AP

I no longer identify as Nigerian, Badenoch says

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 06:31:04 +0000

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not renewed her passport since the early 2000s.

Badenoch, who was born in the UK, grew up in both Nigeria and the US. She returned to England aged 16 because of Nigeria’s worsening political and economic climate, as well as to continue her education.

Speaking on former MP and television presenter Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, she said she was “Nigerian through ancestry” but “by identity, I’m not really”.

Last year, Badenoch faced criticism from Nigeria’s vice-president, who said she had “denigrated” the West African country.

Badenoch, who previously lived in Lagos, spoke at length about her upbringing on the podcast.

“I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she said. “But home is where my new family is.”

On not renewing her passport, she said: “I don’t identify with it anymore. Most of my life has been in the UK and I’ve just never felt the need to.”

She added: “I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents… but by identity, I’m not really.”

Badenoch said that when she had visited the country when her father died, she had to get a visa, which was “a big fandango”

She said her early experiences in Nigeria shaped her political outlook, including “why I don’t like socialism”.

As a child, “I remember never quite feeling that I belonged there”, she went on, adding that she recalled “coming back to the UK in 1996 thinking: this is home”.

The Tory leader added the reason she returned to the UK was “a very sad one”.

“It was that my parents thought: ‘There is no future for you in this country’.”

She said she had not experienced racial prejudice in the UK “in any meaningful form”, adding: “I knew I was going to a place where I would look different to everybody, and I didn’t think that that was odd.

“What I found actually quite interesting was that people didn’t treat me differently, and it’s why I’m so quick to defend the UK whenever there are accusations of racism.”

At the end of last year, Badenoch was criticised for saying she had grown up in fear and insecurity in Nigeria at a time it was plagued by corruption.

The country’s vice-president, Kashim Shettima, responded that his government was “proud” of Badenoch “in spite of her efforts at denigrating her nation of origin”.

A spokesperson for Badenoch rebuffed the criticism.

Source: BBC

World’s oldest baby born from embryo frozen since 1994

Abigail Bonney — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 10:33:02 +0000

Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on 26 July in Ohio to Lindsey and Tim Pierce, using an “adopted” embryo from Linda Archerd, 62, from more than 30 years ago.

In the early 1990s, Archerd and her then husband decided to try in vitro fertilisation (IVF) after struggling to become pregnant. In 1994 four embryos resulted: one was transferred to Archerd and resulted in the birth of a daughter, who is now 30 and mother to a 10-year-old. The other embryos were cryopreserved and stored.

“We didn’t go into it thinking we would break any records,” Lindsey told the MIT Technology Review, which first reported the story. “We just wanted to have a baby.”

IVF is a type of fertility treatment where eggs are retrieved from a woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory setting. The resulting embryos are then transferred back into the womb. The embryos can also be frozen and stored for future use.

Archerd was awarded custody of the embryos after divorcing her husband. She then found out about embryo “adoption”, a type of embryo donation in which both donors and recipients have a say in who receives the embryos.

Archerd had a preference for her embryo to be “adopted” by a white, Christian married couple, leading to the Pierces adopting the embryo.

“We had a rough birth, but we’re both doing well now,” Lindsey said. “He is so chill. We are in awe that we have this precious baby.”

Archerd said: “The first thing that I noticed when Lindsey sent me his pictures is how much he looks like my daughter when she was a baby. I pulled out my baby book and compared them side by side, and there is no doubt that they are siblings.”

The fertility clinic that transferred the embryo is run by John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist and Reformed Presbyterian who is working to reduce the number of embryos in storage.

Speaking of the embryo transfer, Gordon said: “We have certain guiding principles, and they’re coming from our faith. Every embryo deserves a chance at life and that the only embryo that cannot result in a healthy baby is the embryo not given the opportunity to be transferred into a patient.”

In the UK the proportion of IVF births has increased from 1.3% in 2000 to 3.1% in 2023, the equivalent of one in 32 UK births, roughly one child in every classroom.

For women aged 40 to 44, 11% of UK births were a result of IVF, up from 4% in 2000, accounting for 0.5% of all births, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority (HFEA). In the US, about 2% of births are from IVF.

Popular Korean drama star found dead in car

Abigail Bonney — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:13:32 +0000

South Korean actor Song Young-kyu, known internationally for his memorable turn as Chief Choi in the 2019 box office hit “Extreme Job,” died on Monday. He was 55.

Song was found unresponsive inside a parked car in Cheoin-gu, Yongin, south of Seoul, around 8 a.m. local time, according to local authorities. Police confirmed there were no signs of foul play and no suicide note was found. An acquaintance discovered his body.

Song made his stage debut in 1994 in the children’s musical “Wizard Mureul” and built a steady three-decade career across theater, film and television. He was best known for supporting roles in projects including “Trick,” “Stove League,” “Baseball Girk” and “Hyena.”

His appearance in “Extreme Job” — one of the highest-grossing films in Korean cinema – cemented his status as a reliable character actor with a knack for dry humor and gritty realism.

In June this year, Song was involved in a DUI incident in Yongin, reportedly driving five kilometers with a blood alcohol concentration high enough for license revocation under South Korean law. He was referred to prosecution without detention. In the aftermath, Song stepped down from the stage production of “Shakespeare in Love” and was removed or minimized in two dramas airing at the time – ENA’s “The Defects” and SBS’s “The Winning Try.”

Song’s gravitas and consistency made him a go-to supporting actor in the Korean entertainment industry. His performances often grounded large-scale productions with quiet authority, a presence that resonated with audiences even in ensemble-heavy works. His unexpected death adds another chapter to the ongoing conversation about mental health and media scrutiny in the South Korean entertainment landscape. Earlier this year, actor Kim Sae-ron was found dead at her home.

Song is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Source: Variety.com

Chinese university students told to spy on classmates, report says

Gertrude Okyere — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 06:36:48 +0000

Chinese students at UK universities are being pressured to spy on their classmates in an attempt to suppress the discussion of issues that are sensitive to the Chinese government, a new report suggests.

The UK-China Transparency (UKCT) think tank says its survey of academics in China studies also highlighted reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes.

It comes days after a new law came into force placing more responsibility on universities to uphold academic freedom and free speech.

The Chinese embassy in London called the report “groundless and absurd”, adding that China respects freedom of speech in the UK and elsewhere.

The regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), says freedom of speech and academic freedom are “fundamental” to higher education.

The new legislation, which came into force last week, says universities should do more to actively promote academic freedom and freedom of speech, including in cases where institutions have agreements in place with other countries.

Universities could be fined millions if they fail to do so, the OfS has said.

However, the UKCT report says some universities are reluctant to address the issue of Chinese interference because of their financial reliance on Chinese student fees.

The report alleges that some Chinese academics involved in sensitive research had been denied visas by the Chinese government, while others said family members back in China had been harassed or threatened because of their work in the UK.

Those sensitive topics can range from science and tech to politics and humanities, the report says, such as alleged ethnic cleansing in China’s Xinjiang region, the outbreak of Covid or the rise of Chinese technology companies.

Some academics reported intimidation by visiting scholars or other Chinese officials, as well as by staff at Confucius Institutes.

These are partnership organisations operating at several UK universities, which bring together institutions in the UK and China, as well as a Chinese government agency which provides funding.

They promote Chinese culture and language on UK campuses, but have been criticised over alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

OfS chief executive Susan Lapworth previously said she expected Confucius Institutes to be looked into under the new free speech laws, over concerns that they could present a threat to free speech on campuses.

The OfS already has powers to ensure free speech is upheld by universities, including against any threats from the influence of foreign states or institutions.

Those powers are due to be strengthened with a new complaints system, in which university staff members and visiting speakers will be able to raise issues directly with the OfS.

The regulator also said universities should amend or terminate any agreements which threatened free speech on campus, including scholarships or schemes funded by foreign countries.

The BBC understands the OfS expects universities to have “an appropriate level of curiosity” about any such arrangements, regardless of any potential loss of income for the university.

A Chinese embassy spokesperson said the country had always adhered to its policy of not interfering with other countries’ internal affairs.

However, the UKCT says its survey responses from academics suggested some students from China had told their lecturers they had been asked to spy on their peers by Chinese officials.

Other students, of various nationalities, reported being uncomfortable discussing issues in class deemed sensitive to the Chinese government, and were reluctant to pursue further academic interest in these subjects, the report says.

Skills Minister Jacqui Smith said any attempt by a foreign state to intimidate, harass, or harm individuals in the UK “will not be tolerated.”

“We are also working directly with the Office for Students to support universities in safeguarding free speech and tackling any form of harassment on campus,” she added.

She said academic freedom was “non-negotiable in our world-leading institutions”, adding that the implementation of the new legislation made that “explicitly clear”.

The record £585,000 fine handed down by the OfS earlier this year has “put universities on notice” that they must do their part to protect these freedoms, she added, or they will “face the consequences.”

Source: BBC

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‘God understands us’: Inside a Nigerian church where deaf people find faith and community

Gertrude Okyere — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 06:28:10 +0000

It is like any other church in Nigeria‘s megacity of Lagos. A lectern faces rows of plastic chairs. A biblical quote is written on a beam above.

There is a music section with a set of drums. Sash-wearing church wardens move around to enforce order.

But it is also different. For hours, the only sounds are exclamations and thunderous bursts of drums, with their vibrations the cues for when to pray, kneel or respond to the preacher’s calls for “Hallelujah.”

This is a church for deaf people in Somolu, a mixed-income suburb, where about 50 to 60 people worship weekly.

Imoh Udoka, a pastor, preaches using sign language during a church service at the Christian Mission for the Deaf in Lagos, Nigeria.

Imoh Udoka, a father of two children, has attended the church for 36 years. He was 9 years old when he contracted meningitis, losing his hearing as well as access to his faith. Most churches in Nigeria do not have accommodation for deaf people.

Then Udoka, now a teacher of sign language, discovered the church via community outreach. “Here in this church, we have access to worship God in our sign language,” he told The Associated Press.

‘God also understands us’

Remi Akinrenmi is one of the pastors. Every Sunday, he mounts the pulpit with charismatic energy to preach in sign language. His big frame makes for a commanding presence.

On one Sunday, he preached about the sinister consequences of jealousy. On another, he preached the importance of faith. Attendees waved their hands above their heads in response to “Praise the Lord.”

Most important for Akinrenmi is that members see the church as a community.

“There was no community for us before the deaf church started,” he said. “Now, we see each other and say, ‘Oh, you are deaf, too. I am also deaf.’ And we are now together and have formed a community.”

God understands every language, he said: “With sign language, God also understands us.”

Disability advocates say that in the absence of inclusive churches and institutions, churches like this and a handful of affiliates in southern Nigeria are crucial, especially in African societies where the perception of people with disabilities is influenced by traditional beliefs. Some see a disability as a divine punishment.

“An exclusive space like this church offers them an opportunity for a safe space to be able to connect and relate,” said Treasures Uchegbu, founder of Speaking Fingers, a sign language advocacy group in Lagos. “They can say, ‘I am not a deaf person just standing alone, I have other deaf people around.’”

Remi Akinremi, a pastor, preaches using sign language during a church service at the Christian Mission for the Deaf in Lagos, Nigeria, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

How the church came to be

The church organises evangelism outreach programs to other deaf communities in Lagos. It also runs a teaching unit for sign language, a vital tool for understanding the world better, according to Akinrenmi.

Hearing children of church members also attend the classes to better relate to their parents and others, and some hearing students attend church services for immersion learning.

The church started in 1956 in colonial Nigeria as the Christian Mission for Deaf Africans. In today’s Nigeria, an estimated 10 million people out of the population of 220 million are deaf or have difficulty hearing.

There is limited infrastructure in Nigeria for people with disabilities, and laws to improve their welfare and prevent discrimination are barely enforced. Efforts by advocates to push for more inclusive legislation have not materialised. They blame a lack of political will.

Oluwakemi Oluwatoke-Ogunjirin, a 49-year-old worker with the Lagos state government, was born deaf. She attended hearing churches with her family, but always felt lost.

Depending solely on public infrastructure in other parts of life, she struggles to get by. But at the church, she said, she has found a community where she can feel safe and understood.

“The church goes beyond faith; we have people like ourselves that we can talk to as friends,” Oluwatoke-Ogunjirin said.

With the church’s help, she has improved her sign language and can communicate widely, breaking the isolation she grew up with.

“The sign language makes life very easy for us,” she said. “It helps us communicate beyond the church.”

A member of the choir uses sign language during a church service at the Christian Mission for the Deaf in Lagos, Nigeria, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

People use sign language during a church service at the Christian Mission for the Deaf in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Source: AP News

Secret filming exposes the ‘madams’ involved in Kenya’s child-sex trade

Abigail Bonney — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 05:45:12 +0000

A BBC Africa Eye investigation has revealed how women, known as “madams”, have involved children as young as 13 in prostitution in Kenya.

In the transit town of Maai Mahiu, in Kenya’s Rift Valley, trucks and lorries pound the streets day and night, transporting goods and people across the country into Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The key transport hub, just 50km (31 miles) east of the capital, Nairobi, is known for prostitution, but it is also a breeding ground for child sexual abuse.

Two undercover investigators, posing as sex workers wanting to learn how to become madams, spent months earlier this year infiltrating the sex trade in the town.

Their secret filming reveals two different women who say they know it is illegal and then introduce the investigators to underage girls in the sex industry.

The BBC gave all its evidence to the Kenyan police in March. The BBC believes the madams have moved location since then. The police said the women and young girls we filmed could not be traced. To date there have been no arrests.

Convictions are rare in Kenya. For successful prosecutions, police need testimonies from children. Often vulnerable minors are too afraid to testify.

The BBC’s grainy footage filmed on the street in the dark showed one woman, who calls herself Nyambura, laughing as she says: “They’re still children, so it’s easy to manipulate them by just handing them sweets.”

“Prostitution is a cash crop in Maai Mahiu; the truckers basically fuel it. And that’s how we benefit. It’s been normalised in Maai Mahiu,” she explained, adding that she had one girl as young as 13, who had already been “working” for six months.

“It becomes very risky when you’re dealing with minors. You can’t just bring them out openly in town. I only sneak them out at night in great secrecy,” Nyambura said.

The act of prostitution by a consenting adult is not explicitly criminalised under Kenyan national law but it is banned by many municipal by-laws. It is not banned in Maai Mahiu, which is part of Nakuru county.

Under the penal code it is illegal to live from the earnings of prostitution, either as a sex worker or third party facilitating or profiting from prostitution.

The trafficking or sale of minors under the age of 18 carries a prison sentence ranging from 10 years to life.

When asked whether the clients wear condoms, Nyambura said she usually made sure they had protection but the odd one did not.

“Some children want to earn more [so don’t use them]. Some are forced [not to use them],” she said.

In another meeting, she led the undercover investigator to a house where three young girls sat huddled on a sofa, another on a hard-backed chair.

Nyambura then left the room, giving the investigator an opportunity to speak to the girls alone.

They described being repeatedly abused for sex, on a daily basis.

“Sometimes you have sex with multiple people. The clients force you to do unimaginable things,” said one of the girls.

There are no recent statistics on the number of children forced to work in Kenya’s sex industry. In 2012, the US State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Kenya cited an estimate of 30,000, a figure derived from the Kenyan government and now defunct non-governmental organisation (NGO), Eradicate Child Prostitution in Kenya.

Maai Mahiu in Nakuru county, is a key transport hub with many lorries passing through heading to countries west of Kenya

Other studies have focused on specific areas, especially along the country’s coast – known for its tourist resorts. A 2022 report for the NGO Global Fund to End Modern Slavery found almost 2,500 children were forced into sex work in Kilifi and Kwale counties.

A second undercover investigator gained the trust of a woman who called herself Cheptoo and had multiple meetings with her.

She said selling young girls meant she could “earn a living and be comfortable”.

“You carry out this kind of business in great secrecy because it is illegal,” she said.

“If anyone says they want a young girl, I ask them to pay me. We also have our regulars who always come back for them.”

Cheptoo took the undercover investigator to a club to meet four of her girls. The youngest said she was 13 years old. The others said they were 15.

She opened up about the profit she makes from them, saying for every 3,000 Kenyan shillings ($23; £17) the girls deliver, her share was 2,500 shillings ($19; £14).

At another meeting, in a house in Maai Mahiu, Cheptoo left the undercover investigator alone with two underage girls.

One of them told her she had, on average, sex with five men a day.

When asked what happened if she refused to have sex without a condom, she said she had no choice.

“I have to [have sex without a condom]. I will be chased away, and I have nowhere to run to. I am an orphan.”

People outside the UK can watch here

Kenya’s sex industry is a complex, murky world where both men and women are involved in facilitating child prostitution.

It is not known how many children are forced into sex work in Maai Mahiu, but in this small town of around 50,000 people it is easy to find them.

A former sex worker, known as “Baby Girl”, now provides refuge in Maai Mahiu for girls who have escaped sexual abuse.

The 61-year-old worked in the sex industry for 40 years – first finding herself on the streets in her early twenties. She was pregnant and had her three young children with her after fleeing her husband because of domestic violence.

At her wooden kitchen table in a bright parlour at the front of her house, she introduced the BBC to four young women who were all forced into sex work by madams in Maai Mahiu when they were children.

Each girl shared similar stories of broken families or abuse at home – they came to Maai Mahiu to escape, only to be violently abused again.

Michelle described how, at 12 years old, she lost her parents to HIV and was evicted on to the streets where she met a man who gave her somewhere to live and began sexually abusing her.

“I literally had to pay him in kind for educating me. I reached my limit, but I had no-one,” she said.

Two years later, she was approached by a woman who turned out to be a madam in Maai Mahiu and forced her into sex work.

At night the town, with a population of some 50,000, comes to life and is in an area known for its sex trade

Lilian, who is now 19, also lost her parents at a very young age. She was left with an uncle who filmed her in the shower and sold the images to his friends. The voyeurism soon turned into rape.

“That was my worst day. I was 12 then.”

When she escaped, she was raped again by a truck driver who took her to Maai Mahiu. It was here, like Michelle, that she was approached by a woman who forced her into sex work.

These young women’s short lives have been fuelled by violence, neglect and abuse.

Now, housed by Baby Girl, they are learning new skills – two in a photography studio and two in a beauty salon.

They also assist Baby Girl with her outreach work in the community.

Nakuru county has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in Kenya, and Baby Girl, supported by US aid agency USAID, is on a mission to educate people about the risks of unprotected sex.

She has an office at Karagita Community Health Centre, near Lake Naivasha, where she works providing condoms and advice.

However, with US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull USAID funding, her outreach programmes are about to stop.

As part of her outreach work, Baby Girl hands out condoms on the streets near Lake Naivasha in Nakuru county

“From September we will be unemployed,” she told the BBC World Service, adding how worried she was about the young women and girls who depend on her.

“You see how vulnerable these children are. How would they survive on their own? They are still healing.”

The US government did not respond to comments in this investigation about the likely impact of its funding cuts. USAID officially closed last month.

For now, Lilian is focused on learning photography and recovering from abuse.

“I am not afraid any more, because Baby Girl is there for me,” she said. “She is helping us bury the past.”

Source: BBC

Mali charges ex-Prime Minister with undermining the state over post on X

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 14:42:49 +0000

A former prime minister of Mali, which is now under military rule, has been charged with undermining the credibility of the state over comments on social media.

After a prison visit to see detained opposition figures in July, Moussa Mara declared on X his “unwavering solidarity with prisoners of conscience”.

Mara, who served as prime minister for nine months a decade ago, has been a recent outspoken critic of the military government.

On Thursday, Mara was detained and questioned for a second time by the national cybercrime unit about his 4 July X post.

In the post, the ex-prime minister said his regular visits to see those detained were to make sure that “the flame of hope never fades in them”.

“As long as the night lasts, the sun will inevitably rise! And we will fight by all means to make that happen, and as soon as possible!” he added.

The prosecutor at the cybercrime unit said that talking about “prisoners of conscience” and saying he wanted to fight for them constituted an offence, Radio France Internationale reports.

On Friday, along with the accusation of undermining the credibility of the state, he was also charged with opposing legitimate authority and inciting public disorder.

He is due to stand trial on 29 September.

A month ago, military leader Gen Assimi Goïta was granted a five-year presidential term by the transitional parliament, which is renewable without elections.

The 41-year-old, who seized power twice, was named transitional president after the 2021 coup.

At the time he promised to hold elections the following year – but has since reneged, in a blow to efforts to restore multi-party rule in the West African state.

The junta, in power since coups in 2020 and 2021, dissolved all political parties in May following rare anti-government protests.

UK authorities shut down illegal crypto ATMs in London

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 12:25:45 +0000

Seven crypto ATMs were seized and two individuals arrested in southwest London on Thursday as UK authorities cracked down on illegal cryptocurrency activity.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alongside the Metropolitan Police, led the operation targeting unregistered crypto exchanges and suspected money laundering.

Under UK law, any crypto-related business must be registered with the FCA and comply with anti-money laundering rules.

No crypto ATMs are currently registered, making all such operations illegal.

“There are currently no legally-operated crypto ATMs in the UK, so using one only supports crime,” said FCA enforcement head Therese Chambers.

The two suspects were released under investigation as inquiries continue.

Meanwhile, in the US, lawmakers in Wisconsin and Congress are pushing new regulations to curb crypto ATM scams.

A bill introduced by state officials aims to protect users from fraud, hidden fees, and deceptive pricing following a rise in scams, especially targeting vulnerable populations.

A similar federal bill introduced in February seeks mandatory warnings and transaction limits at kiosks, with provisions for full refunds to fraud victims who report within 30 days.

The FBI estimates crypto ATM scams cost victims $247 million in 2023. The US currently hosts over 78% of all Bitcoin ATMs worldwide.

Source: Vanguard Nigeria

Islamic Cleric sentenced to death for killing final-year student

Abigail Bonney — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:29:24 +0000

The Kwara State High Court in Ilorin has sentenced Abdulrahman Bello to death by hanging for the murder of Tetundeh Hafsoh Lawal, a final-year student of the College of Education, Ilorin.

Delivering judgment on Thursday, July 31, 2025, Justice Hannah Ajayi acquitted four other defendants—Ahmed Abdulwasiu, Jamiu Uthman, Suleiman Muyideen, and Abdulrahman Jamiu—of all charges, stating that there was no evidence linking them to the crime.

Bello was found guilty of luring Hafsoh Lawal to his residence on February 10, 2025, under the guise of a romantic relationship, only to kill and dismember her body.

Justice Ajayi described the act as “cruel, wicked, and an extreme display of human wickedness.” She stated that evidence presented during the trial proved that the victim was killed for ritual purposes and the illegal trade of human body parts.

She also dismissed Bello’s claim of love and intention to marry the victim as a calculated ploy to deceive her.

Upon arrest, police found a cutlass believed to have been used in the murder, a bottle containing blood, the victim’s palm, and her personal belongings in Bello’s room. Other decomposed body parts were later recovered at a nearby dumpsite.

Bello was consequently sentenced to death by hanging, while the four others were discharged and acquitted.

Source: Linda Ikeji Blog

Woman finally says ‘yes’ to lover after 43 failed proposals

Abigail Bonney — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:01:24 +0000

A woman said “yes” to her boyfriend — after his 43rd proposal.

Luke Wintrip had been keen to marry his then-girlfriend, Sarah, since 2018, per The Sun. The first time the tattoo artist popped the question early into the U.K. couple’s relationship, Sarah promptly rejected him.

“I just said, ‘No, we’ve only been together for six months,’ ” she recalled.

The marketing executive added, “I loved him, but I didn’t want to say ‘yes’ to something I later retracted.”

But Luke persisted, planning one extravagant proposal after another over the course of seven years. He rented out a castle in Prague, arranged candlelit dinners and planned a horseback-riding excursion on a Jamaican beach, all in a bid to win over Sarah.

During his 42nd proposal, Sarah promised Luke, “Next time you ask, I’m going to say ‘yes,’ but just you wait.”

After a year went by, Luke took Sarah to Greenwich in South East London, where Greenwich Mean Time, the yearly average (or ‘mean’) of the time each day when the Sun crosses the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory Greenwich is kept.

He said, “This is the center of the world and you are the center of the world and I want you to marry me,” Sarah recalled, per The Sun.

And then Sarah, at long last, replied with that one simple word: “Yes.”

Sarah and Luke Wintrip.Kennedy News/DC Media

“He finally won my heart,” she explained.

“He should probably get a Guinness World Record,” she added. “I am grateful he persisted for so long.”

Source: thesun

23 injured as amusement ride crashes mid-air

Abigail Bonney — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 19:48:44 +0000

A mechanical failure at a popular amusement park in Saudi Arabia’s mountain city of Taif led to a horrifying accident that injured 23 people, including several critically.

The incident unfolded on Wednesday evening at Green Mountain Park, located in the Al Hada area, a popular resort destination in western Saudi Arabia.

Ride Snaps Mid-Air in Terrifying Collapse

The incident occurred on a ride known as 360 Degrees, a large pendulum-style attraction that swings riders from side to side on a central rotating pole.

The ride was in full operation and packed with visitors when, without warning, the central pole split into two parts mid-air. A cracking sound was heard moments before the collapse, followed by a loud thud as the circular gondola, still holding passengers, crashed to the ground.

Video footage shared widely on social media shows the ride swinging with multiple people, mostly young men and women, screaming in excitement. Within seconds, their joy turns to panic as the central structure snaps apart.

One object appears to be flung into the air, and chaos erupts as onlookers rush to help, while some people attempt to flee the scene.According to eyewitnesses cited by Khaleej Times, the pole recoiled at high speed before collapsing.

It also reportedly struck individuals standing on the opposite side of the ride, adding to the number of injuries. Several people were thrown from the seats during the malfunction, while others suffered injuries from the force of impact as the ride hit the ground.

Emergency Response and Injury Report

Emergency services, including civil defense, police units, and medical teams, were dispatched immediately to the park. While some of the injured were treated at the scene, most were taken to nearby hospitals.

Officials later confirmed that three of the 23 victims sustained critical injuries. Fortunately, no fatalities were reported.Videos and photos from the scene show park visitors in distress, with some injured individuals lying on the ground.

Eyewitnesses described the scene as chaotic and traumatic, as the area around the mangled ride was quickly cordoned off by authorities.

In response to the accident, Prince Saud bin Nahar, Governor of Taif, ordered the immediate shutdown of the recreational facility. A formal investigation has been launched to determine the root cause of the malfunction.

A statement from the Taif Governorate, also reported by Saudi Gazette, confirmed that the probe aims to ensure accountability and assess whether safety protocols were adequately followed.

Source: timesofindia

US Grammy winner Ciara becomes citizen of Benin under new slavery descendants law

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 07:59:44 +0000

US singer Ciara has become one of the first public figures to be granted citizenship of Benin, under a new law offering nationality to the descendants of slaves.

In an Instagram post, the Grammy award-winner said she was “honoured”, adding “thank you Benin for opening your arms and your heart to me”.

The citizenship scheme is part of an initiative by the small West African country to build ties with the African diaspora and boost cultural tourism.

Ciara, known for R&B and pop hits such as Goodies and 1,2 Step, officially became a citizen at a ceremony in the city of Cotonou.

“This act, which is symbolic, humane and historic, is not merely an administrative gesture. It is a gesture of the soul, a return to one’s roots, a hand extended to those whom history, in its brutality, had torn from this land,” the government said in a statement on Monday, following the ceremony.

By enacting the My Afro Origins Law last year, Benin joined countries like Ghana and Guinea-Bissau in offering citizenship to people with an African ancestor who was taken from their homeland as part of the transatlantic slave trade.

Descendants can apply to become a citizen via a recently launched website.

Just last week, Benin appointed renowned American filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, a seasoned producer and author, as its ambassadors for African-Americans in the US.

Benin’s coastline is part of what was once known as the Slave Coast – a major departure point for enslaved Africans shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Between 1580 and 1727, the Kingdom of Whydah, a major slave-trading centre located on what is now Benin’s coast, is estimated to have exported more than a million Africans to the US, the Caribbean and Brazil.

Source: BBC

Two girls and one employee killed after explosion at Nebraska biofuels plant

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 07:46:42 +0000

Two girls and an adult missing since a huge explosion ripped through a biofuels plant in Nebraska have been confirmed dead, officials said Wednesday, as firefighters continue to battle smoke and flames smouldering in the wreckage nearly a day later.

“My heart hurts,” Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said. “It’s a tragedy. We pray for all the families involved.”

At a news conference, Spellerberg said the two children were waiting for an employee to get off work at Horizon Biofuels so they could go to a doctor’s appointment.

He wasn’t sure of their exact ages but said both were under age 12. Authorities are not releasing their names at this time.

Spellerberg said crews were evaluating whether the whole facility might collapse.

The structure’s instability has made it difficult for crews to gain access as they work to put out the blaze, said Carl Nielsen of the city’s volunteer fire department.

The flames kept burning despite rain overnight.

“It’s going to be very slow,” he told reporters, saying authorities do not have a timeline for when they expect the bodies to be recovered.

The plant makes animal bedding and wood pellets for heating and smoking food, using tons of wood waste, and Fremont Fire Chief Todd Bernt has said they believe the facility stores wood and some alcohol-based materials.

Bernt said first responders were up against “heavy smoke and a lot of flames” when they first arrived at the facility, which is surrounded by other manufacturing and food processing plants.

A 2014 fire at the building had damaged the electrical system but left the structure intact, according to reporting by the Fremont Tribune.

The mayor said he and investigators strongly suspect the blast was caused by wood dust in the elevator portion of the plant.

“That’s really the only thing that makes sense,” Spellerberg said.

Horizon Biofuels did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment.

Source: Euronews

Kamala Harris rules out running for California governor

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 07:13:52 +0000

Former US presidential candidate Kamala Harris says she will not run for governor of California.

Following her unsuccessful 2024 presidential bid, reports suggested Harris was weighing entering next year’s election to lead her home state of California, where she had served as a US senator and worked as a prosecutor.

“After deep reflection,” the former vice-president, a Democrat, said in a statement on social media, “I’ve decided that I will not run for Governor in this election.”

“For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office,” she added, saying she would share “more details in the months ahead about my own plans.”

Her decision leaves the door open for her to mount another try for the White House in 2028, while also removing a possible frontrunner from the race to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat understood to have his own presidential ambitions.

In her statement, Harris appeared to address worries within her own party about its direction and future after she lost November’s election to President Donald Trump.

“As we look ahead, we must be willing to pursue change through new methods and fresh thinking—committed to our same values and principles, but not bound by the same playbook,” she posted.

Primaries for California’s next governor are set to take place in June 2026, before the general election in November. Newsom is completing his second and final term and the new governor will take office in 2027.

Democrats dominate the state’s political leadership, and whoever wins the party’s nomination will be expected to then take the governorship. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the last Republican to serve as governor, left office in 2011.

An economic powerhouse of America, California would be the world’s 5th largest economy if it were a country. It’s also home to the Silicon Valley, where companies like Apple and Meta are based, giving its governor, as well as its regulations and laws, influence at the national level.

Source: BBC

Gov’t releases $1m to settle scholarship arrears at University of Memphis

Gertrude Okyere — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 06:48:48 +0000

The Ghana Scholarships Secretariat has confirmed that the government has released $1 million to help clear part of the outstanding arrears owed to the University of Memphis in the United States.

The intervention comes in response to growing concerns about potential scholarship revocations, evictions, and deportations of Ghanaian students.

Registrar of the Scholarships Secretariat, Alex Kwaku Asafo-Agyei, announced the development at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday. He assured affected students and their families that steps are being taken to avert any negative consequences.

“We are on course with the issues regarding the Ghanaian students at the University of Memphis. Ghanaian students will not be deported; I give you that assurance,” Mr. Asafo-Agyei stated.

He revealed that the government had already paid $400,000 to the university and was processing an additional $1 million payment to further reduce the debt, which currently stands at approximately $2.2 million.

“Because the audit is ongoing, we are not paying all. We owe them $3.6 million in total, and we have paid $400,000 so far. We are now processing a $1 million payment,” he explained.

According to him, the funds are currently with the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department and will be moved to the Bank of Ghana before being transferred to Washington for onward payment to the university.

The Secretariat reiterated its commitment to safeguarding the academic and residential stability of Ghanaian students abroad while working to resolve the arrears in full.

Source: Adomonline.com

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Couple sue funeral home after receiving son’s decaying brain in a box

Abigail Bonney — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:35:45 +0000

Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son’s brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father’s hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week.

The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference on Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a “good young man”, their son, Timothy Garlington.

“It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,” he said, emotion breaking his voice. Garlington’s mother, Abbey Butler, stood nearby, wiping away tears.

After Garlington’s death in 2023, the Butlers had his remains shipped from one funeral home in Georgia, where their son died, to another where the family lived, in Pennsylvania, where they picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained an unlabeled red box.

At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler tried but could not open the red box, said the Butlers’ attorney, L Chris Stewart, at the news conference.

Several days later, the red box, which was in the Butlers’ car, began to smell and leak fluid, Stewart said. When Lawrence Butler picked it up, the fluid covered his hands, “which was brain matter. It’s insane,” Stewart said.

When they called the funeral home in Georgia, Southern Cremations & Funerals at Cheatham Hill, they were told it was Garlington’s brain and a mistake had been made, Stewart said. The Butlers returned the box to Nix & Nix, he said.

The company that owns Southern Cremations, ASV Partners, declined to comment when contacted by the Associated Press.

“The parents’ last memory is holding their son’s brain,” said Stewart in an interview with the AP.

“I had to get rid of that car,” Lawrence Butler said, “I just couldn’t stand the idea that the remains were in that car.”

The lawsuit says that both funeral homes negligently mishandled human remains and intentionally, wantonly or recklessly inflicted emotional distress.

Stewart said he had consulted other funeral homes, and that at no point in the process is the brain “separated from body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion”. If it ever is, he said, then it is in a sealed bag and labeled as a biohazard.

Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart alleged, they should not have handed the box over to the Butlers because it was not on the list of belongings sent from Southern Cremations.

Julian Nix, the manager of the eponymous funeral home, told the AP that “it was definitely not our fault” because Southern Cremations had sent them the unlabeled box. Nix told local news that his team believed the box held personal effects and that other funeral homes usually only send intact remains.

Nix said that once they learned what was inside the box, they reported it to authorities. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing funeral homes that found Nix & Nix wasn’t responsible, he said, but the documents proving that were not yet available.

The Butlers are seeking compensation and answers to what went wrong. They also hope the lawsuit acts as a warning so that similar incidents will not happen again.

“There’s no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,” said Stewart. “They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.”

Garlington, a veteran of the US marines who was working in school financial aid in Atlanta, according to his LinkedIn, has since been buried in Washington Crossing national cemetery.

Stewart, who declined to say how Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still do not know whether his brain was buried with the rest of his remains.

“They fear, which is totally understandable: is he resting in peace?” he said.

Source: theguardian

Harvard to comply with Trump administration demand to turn over employment forms

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 08:45:22 +0000

Harvard University said on Tuesday it will comply with the demands of President Donald Trump’s administration to turn over employment forms for thousands of university staff, but for the time being was not sharing records for those employed in roles only available to students.

In an email to university employees sent on Tuesday, Harvard said that earlier this month it received a notice of inspection and a related subpoena from the Department of Homeland Security, seeking to inspect the I-9, or Employment Eligibility Verification, forms and supporting documentation for university employees.

The I-9 forms, from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are used to verify the identity and employment authorisation of individuals hired for work in the U.S., according to the agency’s website.

Harvard said federal regulations entitle the government to access a U.S. employer’s paperwork, including information on employment eligibility.

Harvard has been embroiled in a legal fight with the Trump administration to have its billions of dollars of frozen federal funds restored. It sued the Trump administration earlier this year.

The president has threatened universities with federal funding cuts over pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza, climate initiatives, transgender policies and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Rights advocates have raised concerns over free speech, due process and academic freedom.

Harvard said that, for now, it was not sharing records with the government for people employed in roles only available to students as it was determining if such a request complied with privacy protection requirements.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Harvard was open to spending up to $500 million to end its dispute with the government. That amount was more than twice what Columbia University agreed to pay last week to resolve federal probes.

The newspaper said negotiators were still discussing the financial details of the Harvard deal and that Harvard opposed allowing an outside monitor to oversee the deal.

On Monday, the government initiated a probe into Duke University and the Duke Law Journal to determine if the journal’s selection of its editors gave preferences to candidates from minority communities.

On Tuesday, the government said it notified Duke of a freeze of $109 million in federal funds. Separately it alleged that the University of California, Los Angeles violated federal civil rights law. Both Duke and UCLA had no immediate comment.

Source: BBC

Mining billionaire welcomes Trump tariffs on copper

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 07:32:09 +0000

A leading North American mining entrepreneur, who wants to open his own US copper mine, has welcomed plans for a 50% tax on copper imports.

Robert Friedland, the billionaire founder of Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines and Ivanhoe Electric, told the BBC the tariffs would help re-establish the US copper mining industry.

US President Donald Trump has already introduced steel and aluminium tariffs, and a 50% copper tariff is due to come in on 1 August.

Critics have argued that tariffs are inflationary and will push up prices for American consumers, but Mr Friedland said the president’s approach was aimed at strengthening national security by building important industries at home.

Copper is an essential metal for the modern global economy and green technology in particular. It is used in everything from buildings and power grids to electric vehicles and data centres.

“The new administration in the United States is correctly focused on making sure that the world’s largest economy actually has stable access to raw materials at the scale of that economy, rather than being dependent on far-flung and potentially unstable jurisdictions,” he said.

Last year, the US imported about 50% of the copper it used. The biggest sources were Mexico, Chile and Canada – which has hit out at the move.

“We’ll fight against it – period,” said Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly.

When Trump announced the tariffs on social media earlier this month, he said they would allow the US to “once again, build a dominant copper industry”.

Global demand is soaring thanks to growing industrialisation and the surge of new technologies that rely on electricity.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is warning that without more mining, global copper demand will be 30% higher than supply by 2035 as demand from China and India continues to soar.

US demand spurred by the impending tariffs has pushed the price of copper to record highs – a trend that Mr Friedland warns will only increase due to the metal’s scarcity.

Robert Friedland, founder of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, says the copper tariffs will strengthen US national security

However, those higher prices risk broader economic damage, such as delays in construction projects, according to Ewa Manthey, who is a commodities strategist at the Dutch bank ING.

“Copper is a foundational input in everything from electronics to manufacturing and construction. When prices rise, so do production costs, which can feed into broader inflation,” Ms Manthey said.

She pointed out that pressure came as the US central bank was already resisting Trump’s calls to cut interest rates amid its ongoing struggles to get inflation back to its 2% target.

The US was once the world’s biggest producer of copper and still has plenty left in the ground, but has fallen behind Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Peru.

Its refining capacity has also been falling. In 1997, there were 11 smelters, and now there are only three, which means American copper has had to be sent abroad for processing. Meanwhile, China’s share of global refining capacity has grown to 44%.

A report commissioned by industry body the Copper Development Association concluded that making the most of American reserves required increasing processing capacity in the US.

Mr Friedland, who has joint US and Canadian citizenship, made most of his mining fortune from his company’s vast operations in southern Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but he is working on opening what will be America’s first new copper mine in more than a decade.

The Santa Cruz project in Arizona is expected to start production in 2028 and will, he says, deliver copper that is so highly refined it can be used in electronics, modern cars and data centres without requiring processing at a smelter.

And with computer chip maker TSMC and electric car manufacturer Lucid Motors coming to Arizona, Mr Friedland thinks the copper produced will never leave the state.

Other companies are also racing to mine more copper in the US but have been held back by permit delays and legal challenges.

The billionaire insists Trump’s desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US will mean even more raw materials are needed and there will be a “continued scramble” for metals.

But others are doubtful Trump’s economic shake-up will be good for growth.

“For the sake of national security, you may be willing to give up certain amounts of economic efficiency” says Adam Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

However, the wide-ranging tariffs will, he argues, be detrimental to the US.

“That’s a very big set of costs to impose on the huge range of people, almost essentially everybody in the US.”

Source: BBC

Powerful quake in Russia’s Far East causes tsunami, Japan and Hawaii order evacuations

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 07:02:05 +0000

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, damaging buildings and generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres (13 feet) that prompted warnings and evacuations stretching across the Pacific Ocean.

Several people were injured in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan’s eastern seaboard – devastated by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in 2011 – was ordered to evacuate.

“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

A tsunami with a height of 3-4 metres (10-13 feet) was recorded in parts of Kamchatka, said Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations, urging people to move away from the shoreline.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and was centred 119 km (74 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000. It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier, and reported a strong aftershock of magnitude 6.9 soon after.

Japan’s weather agency upgraded its warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to 3 metres (10 feet) to reach large areas of its coast.

Tsunami alarms sounded in coastal towns across Japan’s Pacific coast with authorities urging people to seek higher ground.

Footage on public broadcaster NHK showed scores of people in the northern island of Hokkaido on the roof of a building, sheltering under tents from the beating sun, as fishing boats left harbours to avoid potential damage from the incoming waves.

Workers evacuated the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, where a meltdown following the 2011 tsunami caused a radioactive disaster, operator TEPCO said.

Only small waves were recorded and Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said there were no injuries or damage reported so far, and no irregularities at any nuclear plants.

A contour shake map of a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula

WARNINGS ACROSS THE PACIFIC

The U.S. Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of “hazardous tsunami waves” within the next three hours.

Waves reaching more than 3 metres were possible along some coasts of Russia and Ecuador, while waves of 1-3 metres were possible in Japan, Hawaii, Chile and the Solomon Islands, it said. Smaller waves were possible along coastlines across much of the Pacific, including the U.S. West Coast.

“Due to a massive earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean, a Tsunami Warning is in effect for those living in Hawaii,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post.

“A Tsunami Watch is in effect for Alaska and the Pacific Coast of the United States. Japan is also in the way. Please visit tsunami.gov/ for the latest information. STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE!”

Hawaii ordered evacuations from some coastal areas. “Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves expected,” the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management said on X.

The Hawaii warning urged residents of low-lying areas to either move to higher ground or to the fourth floor of a building.

A resident in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said the shaking started slowly but built up and rumbled for several minutes.

“Considering its strength and how long it lasted … I decided to leave the building,” said Yaroslav, 25.

“The building is very flimsy and light, which might be why it survived. But it felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least 3 minutes.”

Several people sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister, told Russia’s TASS state news agency.

“Unfortunately, there are some people injured during the seismic event. Some were hurt while running outside, and one patient jumped out of a window. A woman was also injured inside the new airport terminal,” Melnikov said.

Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services said on Telegram that the port in the Sakhalin town of Severo-Kurilsk and a fish processing plant there were partially flooded by a tsunami. The population was evacuated.

While a kindergarten was also damaged, most buildings withstood the quake and no serious injuries or fatalities had been reported, the ministry added.

‘RING OF FIRE’

Kamchatka and Russia’s Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The Russian Academy of Sciences said it was the strongest quake to hit the region since 1952.

“However, due to certain characteristics of the epicentre, the shaking intensity was not as high … as one might expect from such a magnitude,” said Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Service, on Telegram.

“Aftershocks are currently ongoing … Their intensity will remain fairly high. However, stronger tremors are not expected in the near future. The situation is under control.”

Source: Reuters

Man arrested after sniffing woman’s buttocks at store

Gertrude Okyere — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 15:45:25 +0000

Police in California arrested a registered sex offender after he allegedly sniffed a woman’s buttocks at a department store.

Calese Carron Crowder, 38, was arrested last Tuesday after police say they received reports of a suspicious man lingering around the women’s section at a Nordstrom Rack in the Burbank Empire Center.

When officers arrived at the store, witnesses told them the suspect had already left.

Police searched through the shopping center and found Crowder inside a nearby Walmart.

Investigators say surveillance camera footage from the Nordstrom Rack showed Crowder crouching near a woman and sniffing her buttocks. He was charged with one count of loitering with intent to commit a crime.

Police say Crowder is a registered sex offender who was on parole and has a history of similar arrests for lewd conduct since 2021.

Michaela Witter is one of Crowder’s alleged past victims. She recorded him allegedly sniffing her while at a Barnes & Noble in Burbank and posted the video to TikTok.

“I feel like the justice system is just neglecting everything,” Witter said. “It’s crazy to think that someone like this, who’s constantly stalking and violating these people, is allowed to be out and about.”

Crowder is being held on a $100,000 bail and is expected to appear in court Friday.

www.kgns.tv

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Nigeria kidnappers kill 35 hostages even after ransom paid

Gertrude Okyere — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 15:33:48 +0000

Kidnappers in Nigeria have killed at least 35 people they abducted from a village in northern Zamfara state despite ransoms being paid for their release, a local official told the BBC.

In recent years, criminal gangs in the region, known in the country as bandits, have taken to kidnapping people as a means to raise money.

In this incident, 56 people were taken from Banga village, Kauran Namoda local government area in March. The gunmen then demanded a ransom of one million naira ($655; £485) per captive, media in Nigeria report.

Local government chairman Manniru Haidara Kaura said that most of those killed were young people who “were slaughtered like rams”.

“What happened was that the bandits demanded ransom money, and after some back-and-forth, they were given what they asked for. They then released 18 people, including 17 women and one young boy, on Saturday,” Haidara added.

“Only they [the gunmen] know why they killed them. They are senseless and heartless people. They forget that they are killing their own brothers, and we will all meet before Allah.”

Residents said three pregnant women who were among the hostages gave birth while in captivity, but all the new-borns died due to lack of care.

Survivors recounted being forced to witness the brutal killing of fellow hostages before being allowed to leave the forest.

Sixteen of those released on Saturday are in hospital receiving treatment, while the bodies of the 38 killed by the bandits are unlikely to be returned as in these cases corpses are rarely released.

In a statement, the Zamfara government condemned the killings calling them “barbaric and cowardly” and declared that such atrocities added to its resolve to wipe out terrorism from the state.

“To the grieving families, we share your sorrow and pray for strength and healing. To the good people of Zamfara, remain united and vigilant. Report suspicious activities, and together, we will defeat evil.”

The government has said that the killers would be brought to justice.

In an attempt to curb the spiralling and lucrative kidnapping industry, a law was enacted in 2022 making it a crime to make ransom payments. It carries a jail sentence of at least 15 years; however, no-one has ever been arrested on those charges.

It also made abduction punishable by death in cases where victims die.

But families often feel forced to pay to save their loved ones, citing the government’s inability to ensure their safety.

BBC

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England Women’s Team crowned European Champions again as Burna Boy surprises manager

Joseph Odotei — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 13:32:40 +0000

In a thrilling conclusion to the tournament, the England women’s national football team triumphed over Spain in Sunday’s final, successfully defending their European championship title.

During the victory parade, head coach Sarina Wiegman received a heartwarming surprise when Nigerian music star Burna Boy made an unexpected appearance on stage.

The atmosphere turned electric as Wiegman joined Burna Boy in an unforgettable performance, dancing and singing along to his hit track “For My Hand” featuring Ed Sheeran.

The celebration unfolded in front of the Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace, providing a stunning backdrop as players, fans, and dignitaries gathered to celebrate the Lionesses’ historic achievement.

Sarina Wiegman = @burnaboy 🙌#BBCFootball #WEuro2025 pic.twitter.com/6mjlAdbrsC

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 29, 2025

Source: Ebo Dawson-Amoah

China offers parents $1,500 in bid to boost births

Gertrude Okyere — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 11:09:16 +0000

Parents in China are being offered 3,600 yuan (£375; $500) a year for each of their children under the age of three in the government’s first nationwide subsidy aimed at boosting birth rates.

The country’s birth rate has been falling, even after the ruling Communist Party abolished its controversial one-child policy almost a decade ago.

The handouts will help around 20 million families with the cost of raising children, according to state media.

Several provinces across China have piloted some form of payouts to encourage people to have more children as the world’s second largest economy faces a looming demographic crisis.

The scheme, which was announced on Monday, will offer parents a total of up to 10,800 yuan per child.

The policy will be applied retroactively from the start of this year, Beijing’s state broadcaster CCTV said.

Families with children born between 2022 and 2024 can also apply for partial subsidies.

The move follows efforts by local governments to boost birth rates in China.

In March, Hohhot – a city in the northern region of China – started offering residents up to 100,000 yuan per baby for couples with at least three children.

Shenyang, a city northeast of Beijing, offers 500 yuan a month to local families with a third child under three.

Last week, Beijing also urged local governments to draft plans for implementing free preschool education.

The country is among the world’s most expensive places to have children, in relative terms, according to a study by China-based YuWa Population Research Institute.

Raising a child to the age of 17 in China costs an average of $75,700, the study found.

In January, official figures showed that China’s population fell for a third year in a row in 2024.

China recorded 9.54 million babies born in 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

That marked a slight increase from the year before but the country’s overall population continued to shrink.

The country’s 1.4 billion population is also ageing fast, adding to Beijing’s demographic concerns.

BBC

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Glasgow-Bound plane makes emergency landing after bomb threat by passenger

Abigail Bonney — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 10:12:48 +0000

A Scotland-bound easyJet flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Glasgow Airport on Sunday after a passenger allegedly shouted he had a bomb and wanted to “send a message” to U.S. President Donald Trump.

The dramatic incident occurred aboard Flight EZY609, which had taken off from London’s Luton Airport just an hour earlier. According to witnesses, the suspect — a 41-year-old man — emerged from the restroom and began shouting “Allahu Akbar!” before threatening to bomb the plane.

“I’m going to bomb the plane! Death to America! Death to Trump!” the man screamed, prompting panic among passengers.

Fellow travelers quickly subdued him. “One guy grabbed him from behind and pulled him down, then everyone jumped on top of him,” an eyewitness told The Sun. “He was fighting a bit on the floor, but at that point, he knew he’d messed up.”

The passengers held the man down until the aircraft safely landed in Glasgow. Police and airport authorities boarded the plane and took the suspect into custody. A subsequent search confirmed that no explosives were on board.

Video footage from inside the plane captured passengers rebuking the man, with one calling him an “idiot” for threatening innocent lives. As police led the suspect down the aisle, he asked about his missing phone and wallet — prompting a passenger to shout, “F–k off!” — drawing laughter from others on board.

The suspect’s alleged motivation appeared to be linked to then-President Trump, who was staying at the Turnberry golf resort about an hour away at the time of the incident.

Police Scotland confirmed the arrest and said the case remains under investigation. Officials believe the man acted alone and posed no wider threat to the public.

In a statement, easyJet said: “Flight EZY609 from Luton to Glasgow this morning was met by police on arrival in Glasgow, where they boarded the aircraft and removed a passenger due to their behavior onboard. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority.”

Source: nypost

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Police officer among four dead in shooting at New York City office building

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:30:53 +0000

A New York City police officer is among four people killed in a shooting inside a Midtown Manhattan high-rise.

Police said the gunman walked into the office building on Monday evening with an MR rifle in clear view before spraying bullets in the lobby and on an upper floor. He then took his own life.

The shooting, in the centre of the most populous US city, sent pedestrians running for cover as police warned of an active gunman around 1830 ET. Those inside the building cowered as gunfire echoed – some even piling couches and chairs against doors as they hid in offices.

Police say the suspect, Shane Devon Tamura, 27, travelled from Las Vegas, but a motive is unclear.

Among those killed was New York City officer Didarul Islam, who was working security at the building at the time of the attack. The three other victims have yet to be identified.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the suspect entered the building at 345 Park Avenue, which houses businesses including the National Football League (NFL) and the investment management company Blackstone, and immediately opened fire.

He fatally shot Mr Islam in the building’s lobby, then took aim at a woman who hid behind a pillar. He proceeded through the lobby, “spraying” it with gunfire, hitting multiple people, including a security guard hiding behind a desk and another man nearby.

The suspect was seen on surveillance video entering the building

As he waited for an elevator, a woman stepped off, but the gunman spared her and let her pass, Commissioner Tisch said.

He made his way to the 33rd floor – where Ruden Building Management is located – and again opened fire – killing one person before walking down a hallway and shooting himself in the chest, she added at a Monday night news conference.

Authorities are unsure of a motive, though Tisch noted the gunman had “documented mental health history.”

Tamura travelled from Las Vegas to the East Coast over the last few days, stopping in Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and New Jersey. He arrived in New York shortly before the shooting. It’s unclear whether he has any ties to New York, the building or Ruden Building Management.

Police searched the suspect’s BMW, which he had double-parked out front, and found multiple magazine rounds and a revolver. The vehicle was registered in Nevada to Tamura, who was a registered gun owner in the state.

Local officials and authorities celebrated Officer Islam Monday night. “He died as he lived – a hero,” Ms Tisch said.

An officer with the department for three years, Officer Islam was an immigrant from Bangladesh. He and his wife have two children, and his wife is currently pregnant with their third child.

“He was doing the job that we asked him to do,” Ms Tisch said. “He made the ultimate sacrifice.”

The incident brought parts of Midtown Manhattan and public transportation to a halt. A BBC journalist at the scene reported seeing scores of police vehicles and at least one person with a bloodied chest being taken away on a stretcher.

Bystanders reported hearing what sounded like gunshots, and police told those in the area, including the BBC journalist, to shelter in nearby buildings.

Police worked floor-by-floor to clear the building, an effort that took hours.

Mama Bouhenni, working at the nearby Sip & Scoop coffee shop as the incident unfolded, told the BBC she saw dozens of people from surrounding buildings being evacuated.

They held their hands above their heads, she said.

Ms Bouhenni said she recognised many of them as customers. “This is so terrifying for them. I hope they can go home safe.”

Source: BBC

Trump sets new deadline of 10 or 12 days for Russia to act on Ukraine

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 07:00:56 +0000

U.S. President Donald Trump set a new deadline on Monday of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, underscoring frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the 3-1/2-year-old conflict.

Trump has threatened sanctions on both Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. The fresh deadline suggests the U.S. president is prepared to move forward on those threats after previous hesitation to do so.

Speaking in Scotland, where he was holding meetings with European leaders and playing golf, Trump said he was disappointed in Putin and shortening a 50-day deadline he had set on the issue earlier this month.

“I’m going to make a new deadline of about … 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “There’s no reason in waiting… We just don’t see any progress being made.”

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

In a post on X, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin, said Trump was playing “a game of ultimatums” that could lead to a war involving the U.S.

Medvedev wrote: “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with (Trump’s) own country.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Trump’s “particularly significant” statement as timely in trying to move forward to a peace settlement.

“Clear stance and expressed determination by @POTUS – right on time, when a lot can change through strength for real peace,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.

“I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war,” Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine, he said later in his nightly video address, favoured tougher sanctions as a “key element” in ending the war.

“Russia pays attention to sanctions, pays attention to such losses,” he said

Trump, who has expressed annoyance also with Zelenskiy, has not always followed tough talk about Putin with action, citing what he deems a good relationship that the two men have had previously.

On Monday, Trump indicated he was not interested in more talks with Putin. He said sanctions and tariffs would be used as penalties for Moscow if it did not meet Trump’s demands.

“There’s no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs,” Trump said. “I don’t want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people.”

Ukraine had proposed a summit between Putin and Zelenskiy before the end of August, but the Kremlin has said that timeline was unlikely and that a meeting could only happen as a final step to clinch peace.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that if the West wanted real peace with Ukraine, it would stop supplying Kyiv with weapons.

Trump has repeatedly voiced exasperation with Putin for pursuing attacks on Ukraine despite U.S. efforts to end the war. Trump has played up successes in other parts of the world where the United States has helped to broker peace agreements and has been flattered by some leaders who suggest he should be given the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I’m disappointed in President Putin,” Trump said on Monday. “I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer what’s going to happen.”

Trump, who is also struggling to achieve a peace deal in Gaza, has touted his role in ending conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as Rwanda and Congo. Before returning to the White House in January, Trump campaigned on a promise to end Russia’s conflict with Ukraine in a day.

“We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” Trump said. “And I say that’s not the way to do it.”

Source: Reuters

US to allow federal workers to promote religion in workplaces

Gertrude Okyere — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 06:21:44 +0000

Federal employees may discuss and promote their religious beliefs in the workplace, the Trump administration said on Monday, citing religious freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Agency employees may seek to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views” in the office, wrote Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. government’s human resources agency.

Supervisors can attempt to recruit their employees to their religion, so long as the efforts aren’t “harassing in nature,” according to Kupor’s statement. Agencies can’t discipline their employees for declining to talk to their coworkers about their religious views.

The statement represents the latest effort of the six-month-old Republican Trump administration to expand the role of religion in the federal workplace.

Courts have long held that employers cannot suppress all religious expression in the workplace, but can lawfully curb conduct that is disruptive or imposes an undue hardship as long as it applies equally to members of any religion.

The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protects individuals’ rights to practice their religion while preventing the government from favoring one religion or another or religion in general.

OPM in mid-July said agency workers can get permission to work from home or adjust their hours to accommodate religious prayers, after previously demanding that workers report to offices fulltime.

The new statement cites President Donald Trump’s February executive order calling on agencies to eliminate the “anti-Christian weaponization of government.”

That order directs cabinet secretaries to identify federal actions hostile to Christians. Trump has embraced the conservative Christian world view and promoted policies that speak to concerns that their religious liberty is under attack.

Federal employees can also set up prayer groups in the workplace, so long as they don’t meet during work hours, Kupor’s statement said.

The memo references Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a law that prohibits workplace discrimination based on a person’s religion or religious practices.

Kupor in the memo said that means the law requires employers to allow workers to proselytize, organize prayer groups on non-working time, and display religious icons.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces Title VII, has said that proselytizing in the workplace can amount to unlawful religious harassment if it is unwelcome and is so severe or pervasive that it creates a hostile or abusive work environment.

“A consensual conversation about religious views, even if quite spirited, does not constitute harassment if it is not unwelcome,” the agency said in a 2008 guidance document.

Kupor’s memo is not legally binding, and any court that reviews it could disagree about the scope of Title VII’s protections. But the memo could be difficult to challenge directly in court, as judges in many past cases have said they lack the power to review internal agency documents.

Reuters

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Five killed in Bangkok market mass shooting

Gertrude Okyere — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 06:14:11 +0000

Five people were killed in a mass shooting at a food market in Bangkok on Monday.

The suspect in the attack at Or Tor Kor Market took his own life, police in Thailand’s capital confirmed.

Four of those killed were security guards, and the fifth worked at the market. Two other market sellers were injured, police said.

Police Lieutenant Siam Boonsom told local media that the gunman was Thai and he had disputes with the market’s security guards before.

He also said the shooting was unrelated to Thailand’s ongoing conflict with Cambodia.

The Or Tor Kor market sells mostly fresh fruit and seafood.

Gun ownership rates in Thailand are relatively high for the region and mass shooting incidents are not common, but the country has seen several deadly incidents in recent years.

In 2023, a 14-year-old boy killed two people and injured five others in a shooting at a luxury shopping mall in the centre of Bangkok.

An ex-policeman killed at least 37 people, most of them children, in a gun and knife attack at a childcare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu province in north-east Thailand in October 2022.

In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people and injured dozens more in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

BBC

Woman shot dead months after receiving ‘stay away from my man’ warning

Abigail Bonney — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 16:47:41 +0000

A 32-year-old South African woman, Lesego Mary Masina, was shot and killed by unknown gunmen during what seemed like a robbery.

The sad incident happened on Sunday, July 20, 2025 at Boikhutsong, Phase 8 in Mabopane, Tshwane six months after she received a threat letter, warning her to stay away from a certain man.

Her sister, Ofense Masina, 27, said three thugs, wearing balaclavas, robbed them at gunpoint.

She said seven members of the family were chilling when they heard footsteps outside the house.

“We didn’t even hear them open the door. They had torches as there was no electricity in the area on that day. They told us to keep quiet as they didnt want to kill anyone. They didn’t even tell us exactly what they were looking for.

“They took almost 15 minutes to search the house, asked our names, then we knew they wanted something more. We realised this was not a robbery, but they were sent to kill Lesego. We were tied up.

After Lesego told them her name, they said they had found what they were looking for. Then, they took her to the bedroom and told her she was the person they were after.

There was screaming, a gunshot rang out and they left.

“My sister had one bullet to the head. They stole two cell phones, a Samsung Galaxy, Huawei Y70, and R150,” she explained.

Offentse said in February, someone dropped a letter at night with a strong message and two bullets attacked to it.

She said they also called her mum at night, saying they had delivered a parcel.

She said the family didnt know who sent the letter.

“We dont know who killed Lesego. We need justice,” she said.

Lesego’s father, Paulous Masina, 57, said these thugs wanted to kill her, and it wasnt a robbery.

“That Sunday, we were at a funeral burying a church member during the day. My daughter was happy. We want justice for my daughter,” Paulous said.

The grieving father said police failed them during the first incident of a letter.

Source: southafricanews

5 killed in Thailand market mass shooting

Faridatu Seidu — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 10:00:07 +0000

Five people have been killed in a mass shooting at a food market in Bangkok, according to Thai officials.

The suspect in the attack at Or Tor Kor Market is also dead, police in Thailand’s capital confirmed.

Local media have reported that some of those killed are security guards.

The Or Tor Kor market is well known for high quality fresh fruit and seafood.

Gun ownership rates in Thailand are relatively high for the region and mass shooting incidents are not common, but the country has seen several deadly incidents in recent years.

In 2023, a 14-year-old boy killed two people and injured five others in a shooting at a luxury shopping mall in the centre of Bangkok.

An ex-policeman killed at least 37 people, most of them children, in a gun and knife attack at a childcare centre in in Nong Bua Lamphu province in north-east Thailand in October 2022.

In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people and injured dozens more in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

Source: BBC

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DR Congo: Over 40 killed in attack linked to Islamic State

Faridatu Seidu — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 09:58:32 +0000

More than 40 people were killed in an attack by an Islamic State affiliate in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN and the military said.

Most of them were worshippers taking part in a night vigil at a church in the town of Komanda when they were attacked by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) fighters. Nine of those killed were children, the UN peacekeeping mission said.

Nearby shops and businesses were looted and set on fire.

The ADF emerged in Uganda in the 1990s, accusing the government there of persecuting Muslims, but is now based over the border in DR Congo, where it regularly attacks civilians of all religions, as well as in Uganda.

It has since become part of the Islamic State’s Central African Province, which also includes a group in Mozambique.

According to research by BBC Monitoring, nearly 90% of IS operations are now carried out by affiliates in Africa.

The attack claimed at least 43 people, including 19 women, 15 men and nine children, the UN peacekeeping mission, Monusco, said.

“These targeted attacks against defenceless civilians, particularly in places of worship, are not only appalling but also in violation of all human rights standards and international humanitarian law,” said Monusco deputy chief Vivian van de Perre.

The Congolese military said “about 40 people were surprised and killed with machetes and several others were seriously injured”.

It said “these terrorists have decided to take revenge on defenceless peaceful populations to spread terror”.

Lt Jules Ngongo, the Congolese army spokesman in Ituri province, where the attack happened, said it was meant to divert attention from their ongoing joint military operation with the Ugandan military targeting the militant group.

He said the army would continue to hunt down the ADF “to their last stronghold” and called on the people “to remain extra vigilant and report any suspicious presence to the defence and security forces”.

In 2021, DR Congo invited Ugandan troops into the country to help tackle the ADF. Attacks however still continue.

Komanda is in DR Congo’s mineral-rich Ituri province, which has been fought over by various armed groups for many years.

Last week, Monusco condemned a “resurgence of violence”, this month, citing earlier ADF attacks on 8-9 July which it said had resulted in 47 deaths.

Source: BBC

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US pauses visa processing at embassy in Niger, State Dept says

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 07:24:56 +0000

The United States is pausing all routine visa services at U.S. Embassy in Niger’s capital, Niamey, until further notice, according to a State Department spokesperson and an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Saturday.

The July 25-dated cable did not provide a reason for the move, but a State Department spokesperson said the pause, which would cover all immigrant and non-immigrant visa categories, was in place until Washington addressed “concerns with the Government of Niger.”

The spokesperson did not provide further details on the reason, but said that most diplomatic and official visas were excepted from the pause.

“The Trump Administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” the Department spokesperson said.

The diplomatic cable also instructed consular officers in other visa processing posts to apply “heightened scrutiny” when assessing non-immigrant visa applications for Nigerien nationals, whose overstay rates it said were 8 percent for visitor visas and 27 percent for student and exchange visas.

Consular managers should make an effort to reduce the number of overstays by nonimmigrant visa holders in the United States, the cable said and added: “In this regard, particular vigilance is needed in adjudicating Nigerien NIV applicants.”

The U.S. embassy in Niamey has informed all individuals impacted, the spokesperson added.

As part of his hardline stance on immigration, President Donald Trump has ordered a nationwide campaign to arrest migrants who are in the country illegally and has vowed to deport millions of people, executing raids at work sites including farms that were largely exempted from enforcement during his first term.

Trump administration officials have said student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy and accusing them of being pro-Hamas.

Rubio in May said the number of visas he has revoked was probably in the thousands. The State Department under his leadership significantly tightened social media vetting for U.S. visa applicants.

The U.S. military in September said it had completed its withdrawal from Niger, after the West African nation’s ruling junta in April 2024 ordered Washington to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country.

It was an embarrassing setback for Washington that followed a coup last year in the West African nation. Before the coup, Niger had been a key partner in the U.S. fight against insurgents in the Sahel region of Africa, who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.

Source: Reuters