South African state power utility Eskom sees an opportunity to emerge from years of crisis by shifting from coal-fired power generation towards natural gas and renewables, its chief executive correspondents.
Eskom has implemented power cuts for more than a decade in Africa’s most industrialised nation that have held back economic growth and deterred investment.
It has roughly 400 billion rand ($25 billion) of debt that it services through regular government bailouts.
Eskom operates 15 coal-fired power stations that generate more than 80% of the country’s electricity but regularly break down.
It also runs Africa’s only nuclear power station and a handful of smaller pumped storage, hydroelectric, backup gas plants and a wind farm.
But it is due to shut down about 22,000 megawatts (MW) of coal plants that are reaching the end of their life by 2035, close to half its 46,000 MW of nominal capacity now.
The plan is to replace some of that with gas and renewables, and allow independent power producers to make up the shortfall.
At a pre-election rally last month, supporters of Gambia’s main opposition coalition cheered the opening of the star attraction – a speech by former President Yahya Jammeh delivered over a crackly phone line from exile 2,000 miles away.
“(President) Adama Barrow destroyed everything good I left for Gambians to benefit from – the hospitals, agriculture and education,” Jammeh said to enthusiastic applause. “We should all unite and vote him out.”
Gambians go to the polls on Saturday and for the first time in 27 years Jammeh, who took power in a 1994 coup, will not be on the ballot.
He fled to Equatorial Guinea in 2017 after refusing to accept defeat to Barrow, ending a tenure marked by killing, torture, financial plunder and false claims of a homemade cure for AIDS.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his foes had been defeated and promised to recapture territory in the region of Amhara from rebellious Tigrayan forces after praising military victories against the Tigrayans in the region of Afar.
Footage from the front that aired on state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting on Tuesday showed Abiy wearing military jungle fatigues and cap and scanning the horizon with binoculars.
“The East Command secured an unimaginable victory in just one day of planning and adayand half long fighting,” he said. “Now we will repeat thatvictoryin this front.”Fana said he was addressing troops on the frontlines of the Ethiopian conflict, near Gashena in Amhara region. Reuters could not independently verify his location.
Abiy, whose army has been battling forces from the northern region of Tigray for more than a year, said he was headed to the frontline last week to supervise operations.
Calls for a peace walk by Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu aimed at healing the city after the state government dismissed the Lekki report have been termed “disrespectful”.
The panel report that police intentionally shot protesters was dismissed by the Lagos government as “assumptions and speculations”.
Mr Sanwo-Olu said the city needed to heal, hence his proposal for a peace walk.
Nigerian entertainers Folarin Falana popularly known as Falz and Debo Adebayo also known as Mr Marcaroni rejected the governor’s invitation.
One of the panel’s recommendations was that victims of police brutality during the EndSars protests be compensated, a matter the governor said was being implemented.
A spokeswoman for Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says “the belligerence of the TPLF” is to blame for a blockage of aid into the Tigray region.
The only viable overland route into Tigray has been through the neighbouring Afar region, and Mr Abiy’s spokeswoman told journalists the rebels have been trying to “choke off the Afar corridor” but that federal forces had since cleared the way.
The TPLF has previously blamed the government for the blocked route, while USAID says the government has “created de facto blockades, making communications, banking, and other vital services needed for aid efforts almost non-existent”.
More than five million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in the Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, according to the United Nations. It says 100 trucks a day are needed to reach Tigray alone to meet needs there.
At the same press conference on Tuesday, the spokeswoman for Mr Abiy’s office was also asked to name the foreign powers Ethiopia accuses of attempting to weaken the country.
Nick Mwendwa has stepped aside as president of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) after being charged with multiple counts of fraud.
In a letter to FKF’s national executive committee members, Mwendwa stated he was handing over the reins to vice president Doris Petra because he felt “personally targeted” by his arrest and the subsequent charges, which he denies.
“In light of the frequent arrests and detentions, which have adversely affected my family and personal business, and whilst I am confident I will be cleared of any wrong doing in the end, I have asked my vice president Madam Doris Petra to assume all functions of the FKF president,” Mwendwa wrote.
“My decision has been arrived at with the federation’s best interest at heart.”
On Monday Mwendwa pleaded not guilty to four counts of fraud at an anti-corruption court in Nairobi, having been re-arrested by police on Friday.
The total amount of money Mwendwa and others, who were not present in court, are accused of taking from FKF is about 38m Kenyan shillings ($337,700, £254,500).
Mwendwa, who had been head of the FKF since 2016, is currently out on a cash bail of 10m Kenyan shillings as he awaits trial.
Austria shares many Christmas traditions with its neighbor Germany, but also has many special Christmas customs of its own.
During Advent, many families will have an Advent Wreath made from evergreen twigs and decorated with ribbons and four candles. On each of the four Sundays in Advent, a candle is lit and a carol or two might be sung!
Most towns will have a ‘Christkindlmarkt’ (Christmas market) from late November or early December, selling Christmas decorations, food (like gingerbread) and Glühwein (sweet, warm mulled wine). Cities like Vienna, Innsbruck and Salzburg have huge markets and people from all over the world visit them.
Every town will also have a large Christmas Tree in the town square. In homes, trees are decorated with gold and silver ornaments and stars made from straw.
Christmas in Austria really starts around 4.00pm on Christmas Eve (‘Heilige Abend’) when the tree is lit for the first time and people come to sing carols around the tree. The most famous carol is Silent Night (‘Stille Nacht’), which was written in Austria in 1818.
The national pop radio station Ö3 has special Christmas ‘jingles’ and plays Christmas music from 4.00pm on ‘Heilige Abend’. It’s used by many people as the ‘soundtrack’ to the start of Christmas.
Traditionally the Christmas tree is brought in and decorated on Christmas Eve. Decorations include candles (now often electric) and sparklers.
For children other important decorations are sweets, such as small liqueur-filled chocolate bottles, chocolates of various kinds, jelly rings and ‘Windbäckerei’ (meringue, usually in the form of rings, stars, etc.).
Some children believe that the ‘Christkind’ decorates the tree. The Christkind also brings presents to children on Christmas Eve and leaves them under the tree.
Some children might also get a present from St Nicholas on December 6th. In Austria, St Nicholas is often accompanied by the Krampus, He a big horned monster clothed in rags and carries chains. He’s meant to punish children who have been bad!
The main Christmas meal is also eaten on Christmas Eve. It’s often ‘Gebackener Karpfen’ (fried carp) as the main course; this is because Christmas Eve was considered a ‘fasting’ day by many Catholics and no meat could be eaten.
However ‘Weihnachtsgans’ (roast goose) and roast turkey are becoming more popular. Dessert can be chocolate and apricot cake ‘Sachertorte’ and Austrian Christmas cookies ‘Weihnachtsbaeckerei’ like ‘Lebkuchen’ (honey gingerbread) and ‘Vanillekipferl’ (almond cookies made in the shape of a horse shoe).
Some ‘really cool’ people, or those who live in the mountains, might go skiing on Christmas Day. Skiing on New Year’s Day is also popular.
Every year, Austria’s capital city, Vienna, holds a world-famous classical music concert ‘NeuJahrsKonzert’ which takes place during the morning of New Year’s day.
It’s held in the ‘Großer Saal’ (large hall) of the Musikverein, the concert hall of the Viennese Music Association. The concert is played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and always features music from the Strauss family: Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss.
It is famous for its waltz music. During the last piece played, The Blue Danube, the introduction is interrupted by applause from the audience and the musicians then wish them a Happy New Year! The concert is shown around the world on TV.
For Epiphany, 6th January, many people will put a special sign in chalk over their front door. It’s a reminder of the Wise Men that visited the baby Jesus. It’s made from the year split in two with initials for ‘Christus mansionem benedicat’ which is ‘May Christ bless the house’ in latin. So 2021 would be: 20*C*M*B*21. The sign is meant to protect the house for the coming year.
(Some people say the ‘C M B’ can also represent the names that are sometimes given to ‘the three wise men’, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, in the middle.)
As in parts of Germany, the sign is traditionally written on the door by the Sternsinger (or star singers), carol singing children who dress up like the Wise men; and one who carries a star on a stick as a symbol for the Star of Bethlehem.
1857 John Paton is licensed to preach the gospel. As a tract distributor in Glasgow Scotland, he will go door to door winning souls. Eventually, he becomes a missionary in the New Hebrides islands.
1913 Ford Motor Company institutes world’s 1st moving assembly line for the Model T Ford
1916 Father Charles de Foucauld is martyred at his mission in the Sahara.
1934 Leningrad mayor Sergey Kirov is assassinated and Joseph Stalin uses it as an excuse to begin his Great Purge of 1934-38
1955 Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to move to the back of a bus and give her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama
1988 Benazir Bhutto named 1st female Prime Minister of a Muslim country (Pakistan)
1999 Cuban Communists declare that henceforth citizens will be allowed to celebrate Christmas as an official holiday.
Today’s Historical Events
Today in Film & TV
1953 Hugh Hefner publishes 1st edition of Playboy magazine, featuring Marilyn Monroe as the magazine’s 1st centerfold
2003 “The Return of the King”, 3rd and final film in the Lord of the Rings series, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen premieres in Wellington, New Zealand
Today in Sport
1973 Jack Nicklaus finishes at 13-under-par 275 to win the Walt Disney World Open by 1 stroke from Mason Rudolph; becomes the first player to reach $2 million in PGA Tour career earnings
Do you know this fact about today? Did You Know?
1952 The New York Daily News reports the first successful sexual reassignment operation
Global energy company TotalEnergies has launched its largest solar photovoltaic power plant in France, with a capacity of 55MW.
The solar farm, located northeast of Gien (Loiret), comprises 126,000 photovoltaic panels spread over 75 hectares.
The plant will produce approximately 64GWh per year, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 38,000 people and keep more than 550,000 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere during its lifetime.
This photovoltaic project is designed to support the development of renewable energies in France and includes:
A participative financing model: To involve site neighbours, the plant was built with participative financing amounting to €2,200,200 ($2,500,00) to which 212 residents of the Loiret and surrounding departments largely contributed.
A plan to protect biodiversity: The Company has put in place the measures required to preserve biodiversity, including the creation of bat shelters and the construction of a pond to promote amphibian reproduction.
TotalEnergies teams will operate and maintain the plant locally throughout its 30-year operating lifespan.
“This commissioning contributes to France’s energy transition and is a further step towards our goal of reaching 4GW of renewable generation capacity by 2025. It reinforces our commitment to be a major player in renewable energy in France,” said Thierry Muller, CEO of TotalEnergies Renewables France.
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