Ukraine War: Satellite Images Reveal Russian Army Base Built In Occupied Mariupol

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December 3, 2022

Russia is consolidating its military presence in the captured port city of Mariupol by constructing a large army base, satellite photos released from the Earth observation company Maxar appear to show.

The new, U-shaped compound sits near the centre of the city. On its roof, the red, white and blue star of the Russian army can be seen, with letters reading “From the Russian army to the people of Mariupol”.

Moscow’s forces laid siege to the city for almost three months earlier this year, and constant artillery barrages left much of it in ruins.

Ukrainian officials estimated last month that some 25,000 civilians were killed in the strikes, while the UN said it had confirmed the deaths of 1,348 civilians, but said the true death toll was “likely thousands higher”.

Russian troops have reportedly been removing dead bodies from destroyed buildings in recent months and taking them away for burial. Last month, an analysis of images obtained by BBC Panorama suggested 1,500 new graves have been dug at the cemetery.

A large protective screen has also been erected around the remains of the city’s theatre, where hundreds of people are believed to have died after Russian forces targeted it in a missile strike on 18 March.

The attack – which Amnesty International called “clear war crime” by Russia – left the site in ruins.

In new images, a large screen can be seen around the theatre

Ukrainian officials estimate that up to 90% of the city’s infrastructure was left in ruins by the Russian bombardment, and the new images suggest that Moscow has started to demolish many of the residential buildings that were left beyond repair.

US Air Force Unveils New B-21 Raider Nuclear Stealth Bomber

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Angel Gimalo

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December 3, 2022

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SECDEF Attends B-21 Raider Unveiling — Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III delivers remarks at the U.S. Air Force B-21 Raider unveiling ceremony, Palmdale, Calif., Dec. 2, 2022. (DoD photos by Chad J. McNeeley)

The US Air Force has unveiled its newest nuclear stealth bomber, the B-21, which will gradually replace aircraft first flown in the Cold War.

The first new bomber in 30 years could cost nearly $700m (£569m) each and can carry nuclear and conventional weapons.

As expected, specific details of the aircraft remain shrouded in secrecy.

But US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said it was “a testament to America’s enduring advantages in ingenuity and innovation”.

The B-21 Raider was unveiled during a ceremony on Friday at manufacturer Northrop Grumman’s facility in California.

Mr Austin said the plane would offer significant advances over existing bombers in the US fleet, stating that “even the most sophisticated air defence systems will struggle to detect the B-21 in the sky”.

“Fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft,” he said.

Earthshot Prize: UK Plastic-Alternative Developer Among Winners

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Angel Gimalo

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December 3, 2022

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A UK firm that makes packaging from seaweed has been named as one of the £1m winners of Prince William’s Earthshot climate prize.

The alternative to plastic was developed by London startup Notpla.

The firm was founded by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier while they were students at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art.

The Earthshot Prize gives grants to firms that innovative ideas for the environment that can be scaled-up.

Manufacturing plastic adds to greenhouse gases, and plastic pollution can harm animals and the environment.

Hackney-based Notpla first developed an edible “bubble” called an “Ooho” that could hold water, and then a plastic alternative called “Notpla” made from seaweed.

Its products include a coating for takeaway boxes, film, paper made from seaweed pulp, and a rigid plastic alternative, also made from seaweed.

This year the firm has made more than a million takeaway food boxes for takeaway delivery platform JustEat.

Notpla was one of five companies announced as winners at the Earthshot Prize award ceremony in Boston.

The Prince of Wales said the Earthshot winners “prove we can overcome our planet’s greatest challenges”.

“Alongside tonight’s winners and finalists, and those to be discovered over the years to come, it’s my hope the Earthshot legacy will continue to grow, helping our communities and our planet to thrive.”

Notpla co-founder Mr Paslier said: “When Rodrigo and I started Notpla eight years ago in our student kitchen, we would have never imagined we would be here today.

“No-one wants to live in a world full of plastic waste but it’s not too late to act. There’s never been a greater time to use natural solutions to solve the plastic challenge.”

Earthshot Prize: Winners To Receive £1m To Develop Innovation

By

Angel Gimalo

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December 3, 2022

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Childhood friends in Oman who figured out how to turn carbon dioxide into rock are among five winners chosen for the Prince of Wales’s prestigious Earthshot Prize.

The annual awards were created by Prince William to fund projects that aim to save the planet.

Each winner will receive £1m ($1.2m) to develop their innovation.

Prince William announced the winners on Friday at an awards ceremony in Boston in the US.

“I believe that the Earthshot solutions you have seen this evening prove we can overcome our planet’s greatest challenges,” Prince William said during the ceremony.

“By supporting and scaling them we can change our future,” he said.

The winning projects are based in Kenya, India, Australia, the UK and Oman.

This is the second set of Earthshot Prizes awarded, after the first ever awards last year.

The prize’s name refers to the “Moonshot” ambition of 1960s America by then-President John F Kennedy, who pledged to get a man on the Moon within a decade.

Five Earthshot Prizes of £1m ($1.2m) are being awarded each year until 2030 in support of environmental innovation projects for the future. Nominations for the 2023 prize open up on 5 December.

This year’s winners were chosen from a list of 15 finalists by a panel that includes Prince William, Sir David Attenborough, actress Cate Blanchett, footballer Dani Alves, Fijian activist Ernest Gibson and singer Shakira.

William and Catherine handed out awards to the five winners during a star-studded ceremony in Boston on Friday – with celebrities there including Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding, Chloe x Halle and David Beckham.

Exploring Obelisk Of Axum, Ethiopia

By

Angel Gimalo

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December 3, 2022

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Obelisk of Axum is a granite obelisk, also known as stelae, which is some 1,700 years old, located in the city of Axum, in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

Situated in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, Aksum symbolizes the wealth and importance of the civilization of the ancient Aksumite kingdom, also known as the Aksumite Empire, which was a trading nation in the area of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, which existed from approximately 100 to 940 AD.

The Axumites erected a number of large stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times, and one of those is Obelisk of Axum.

It is ornamented with two false doors at the base and features decorations resembling windows on all sides, ending in a semi-circular top part, which used to be enclosed by metal frames.

Nowadays, several stelae survive in the town of Aksum dating between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, where the largest standing obelisk rises to a height of over 23 meters and is exquisitely carved to represent a nine floors building of the Aksumites.

The largest obelisk of some 33 meters long lies where it fell, perhaps during the process of erection, and most likely is the largest monolithic stele that ancient human beings ever attempted to erect.

Over the course of time, many of these stelae fell to the ground due to the structural collapse, earthquakes, or military incursions of the Imam Ahmad Gragn during the Ethiopian-Adal War.

In 1937, the Obelisk of Axum was cut into six sections and dragged to the port of Massawa, where it was shipped to the port of Naples, so that it would be placed in Porta Capena Square in Rome, Italy.

The Obelisk stood near the Circus Maximus until 2003, when it was cut into three pieces this time and transported with Antonov-124 back to Ethiopia.

Nowadays, part of the World Heritage List of UNESCO, which was inscribed in 1980, it is one really important landmark of Ethiopia which makes the Ethiopian people proud of their country’s history.

Once Upon A Time – December 3 – 1775 – First Official US Flag Raised (Grand Union Flag) Aboard Naval Vessel USS Alfred

By

Angel Gimalo

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December 3, 2022

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1586 – Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England from Colombia

1854 – Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences

1967 – 1st human heart transplant performed in South Africa by Dr. Christiaan Barnard on Louis Washkansky

1984 – Bhopal disaster: Union Carbide pesticide plant leak 45 tons of methyl isocyanate and other toxic compounds in Bhopal, India, kills 2,259 (official figure) – other estimates as high as 16,000 (including later deaths) and over half a million injured

1989 – Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declare the Cold War over

December 3 in Film & TV

1968 – Elvis Presley’s Comeback Special airs on NBC, his 1st live performance in seven years, re-launching his singing career

December 3 in Music

1908 – Edward Elgar’s 1st Symphony in A performed by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter, premieres in Manchester, England

2019 – Spotify say Drake the most streamed star of the 2010s with 28 billion streams, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” most streamed track with 2.4 billion streams

December 3 in Sport

1961 – Dutchman Anton Geesink becomes 1st non-Japanese judo world champion

1775 – First official US flag raised (Grand Union Flag) aboard naval vessel USS Alfred

1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere

Famous Weddings

1931 – Silent film actress Clara Bow (26) weds actor and politician Rex Bell (28) in Las Vegas

1940 – French author and future Nobel laureate Albert Camus (27) weds French pianist and mathematician Francine Faure (25) in Lyon, France

1984 – Oldest groom – Harry Stevens, 103, weds Thelma Lucas, 83, in Wisconsin

Rescued Chibok Girls Plead To Return To School

By

Rhoda Onuzulike

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December 3, 2022

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Thirteen of the rescued/escapee Chibok girls, now all mothers, have begged both the federal and Borno State governments to take them back to school like their colleagues, who they said were sent abroad to complete their education.

The Chibok girls, currently housed at the Bulunkutu Interim Care Centre in Maiduguri, include Halima Ali, number 48 on the list, who has a child; Maryam Dauda, 26, with two children; Hauwa Joseph, 25, with a child; Kauna Luka, 25, with three children, and Hanatu Musa, 25, with two children.

Others are Hassana Adamu, 25, with three children; Ruth Bitrus, 26, with two children; Falmata Lawal, 25, Asabe Ali; Jinkaya Yama, 26years, with three children; Iyagana Pogu, Rejoice Senki, 24, with two children; Ruth Ngalada, 25, with one child.

The 14th Chibok girl who was out of the facility during the visit, Aisha Grema, was said to have just delivered a baby and was with her parents.

Speaking with Vanguard, three of the Chibok girls, including Ruth Ngalada, Maryam Dauda and Hassana Adamu, emphasized on further educational endeavour to fulfill their lifelong dreams.

They said: “We want government to send us back to school. We heard that some of us who were taken away like us have gone back to school abroad. We want to go back and complete our education.

”This brings back our respect. As for our children, government can take care of the children while we are back to school”.

“We are in communication with our parents. We are allowed to go and visit our parents and family members. We thank the government for what they have done for us but we would like to move to our homes, to live with our families. If we are in our houses, we will feel better.

“So, most importantly, government should send us back to school and take care of our children. We are not happy that we are not in school. And instead of keeping us here, they should take us to our houses. It will be better for us.”

On how they escaped from their captors, some of the Chibok girls said they pretended they were going to visit their colleagues/school mates in the next village and escaped into the bush before they were rescued..

Some said they were led and shown the way to escape by some Boko Haram members

Similarly, the Theatre Command, Operation Hadin Kai, disclosed that it had no record and was not unaware of any issues of forced termination of pregnancies of women and young girls who were impregnated against their will.

There had been insinuations in certain quarters that some of the pregnant women and young girls were not happy with the situation that led to their being pregnanted by Boko Haram insurgents, hence the resort to forced abortions and termination of pregnancies.

Speaking on the development, the Commander, 7 Division Medical Services and, Consultant Othophaedic and Trauma Surgeon, Lt. Colonel Adeniyi Samuel Ogunsakin, said: “We don’t carry out or grant request for the termination of any pregnancy in any of our hospitals or clinics.

”Even if the person or any person comes with such request, we wont grant it because such request is against our practice.

“First, It is illegal; it is against our rules. This hospital is not known for that. We don’t terminate pregnancies.

“There have never been any of such cases in our hospitals. We have never had a case of somebody coming here that they want to terminate a pregnancy because this hospital is not known for that.

”We don’t terminate pregnancy. Majority of our work is on wounded soldiers and officers. We are even expecting some wounded soldiers for treatment.

“Apart from that, we also carry out other surgical cases, such as haenia, appendicitis haemorrhoids and medical cases like malaria, typhoids alike. We see all sorts of cases and they are largely patient within this barracks community.

“Within the Mamalari Cantonment community, we attend to all civilians and military that are able to find their way into the barracks. But because of the complexity, because of the enormity of the security, assessing these barracks is very difficult to get civilians, except when they are wounded in action with our soldiers and they are brought in with our soldiers.”

Electoral Body Fixes Dates For Collection Of PVCs

By

Rhoda Onuzulike

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December 3, 2022

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed dates for prospective voters to collect their permanent voter cards (PVC).

In a statement on Friday, INEC’s national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, Festus Okoye, said the commission met on Thursday and deliberated on a number of issues, including the dates for PVC collection.

Okoye said the commission has fixed December 12, 2022 to January 22, 2023 as the dates for the collection of the PVCs in all the 774 LGAs.

He added that all valid registrants can collect their PVCs from 9am to 3pm daily including Saturdays and Sundays.

“The Commission also resolved to devolve PVC collection to the 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards from Friday 6th to Sunday 15th January 2023,” the statement reads.

“Those that are unable to collect their PVCs at the Local Government Offices of the Commission can do so at the Registration Areas/Electoral Wards. After the 15th of January 2023, the exercise will revert to the Local Government Offices of the Commission until 22nd January 2023.

“All the Resident Electoral Commissioner (RECs )and Electoral Officers (EOs) have been directed to convene a meeting with the critical stakeholders in their States and Local Government Areas, including traditional and religious leaders, civil society groups, community-based organisations and the media to brief them on the modalities for the collection of the PVCs in order to sensitise the public and ensure seamless exercise.

“Similarly, RECs and EOs have also been directed to set up help desks to assist registrants with complaints about their PVCs or with the PVC collection procedure for immediate redress.

“The Commission appreciates the patience and understanding of Nigerians, especially those who registered as voters or applied for transfer/replacement of their cards from January to July 2022. In making the cards available for collection, the Commission is also working to ensure that the process is simple and hitch-free for Nigerians.”

First Lady Withdraws Case Against 24-Year-Old Critic, Aminu

By

Rhoda Onuzulike

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December 3, 2022

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The Nigeria First Lady, Aisha Buhari has withdrawn case against a final year student of the Federal University, Dutse, Aminu Adamu.

24-year-old Adamu, was arrested by the police in Dutse for allegedly publishing a defamatory statement on his Twitter handle against Mrs Buhari.

In the alleged offensive tweet, Adamu, who is studying Environmental Management, posted a rotund picture of the first lady with a caption in Hausa saying, “Mama is feeding fat on poor people’s money.”

The tweet was posted on June 8, 2022. After nearly two weeks in detention and alleged torture, he was arraigned on Tuesday before Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, where he pleaded not guilty and was remanded at Suleja prison in Niger State.

But withdrawing the case against the accused on Friday, the prosecution counsel, Fidelis Ogbobe said the First Lady as the mother of the nation decided to withdraw the case, following the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians.

He relied on Section 108 subsection 2(a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act to move the application for the withdrawal of the case.

Ruling on the matter, Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court commended Mrs Buhari for taking the “bold steps” to forgive the accused.

He called on parents to always monitor their children to avoid recurrence.

Russia Rejects Pullout From Ukraine As Condition For Talks

By

Angel Gimalo

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December 2, 2022

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Russia said Friday that Western demands it should pull out completely from Ukraine as part of any future talks to end the war effectively rule out any such negotiations, as Russian strikes continued and a Ukrainian official set his country’s battle losses at up to 13,000 troops.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains open to talks but the Western demand that Moscow first withdraws its troops from Ukraine is unacceptable.

Peskov’s comments came as Putin spoke on the phone Friday morning with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz’s office said he made clear to Putin “that there must be a diplomatic solution as quickly as possible, which includes a withdrawal of Russian troops.”

On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden also indicated he would be willing to talk with Putin if he demonstrated that he seriously wanted to end the invasion and pull out of Ukraine.

A statement issued by the Kremlin after the phone call with Scholz said Putin again blamed the West for encouraging Ukraine to prolong the war by supplying it with weapons.

Putin also said recent crippling Russian strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure were “forced and inevitable” after Ukraine allegedly bombed a key bridge to the Crimean peninsula — which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 — and energy facilities.