Strike Dodged With Deal Between Film And TV Crews, Studios

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October 18, 2021

An 11th-hour deal was reached over the weekend, averting a strike of film and television crews that would have seen some 60,000 behind-the-scenes workers walk off their jobs and would have frozen productions in Hollywood and across the U.S.

After days of marathon negotiations, representatives from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and from the studios and entertainment companies who employ them reached the three-year contract agreement before a Monday strike deadline, avoiding a serious setback for an industry that had just gotten back to work after long shutdowns.

“This is a Hollywood ending,” union president Matthew Loeb said. “Our members stood firm.”

The workers still must vote to approve it, but the strike has been called off with the tentative deal. Many in Hollywood celebrated the news.

The union represents cinematographers, camera operators, set designers, carpenters, hair and makeup artists and many others.

US, Haiti Seek Release Of 17 Missionaries Snatched By Gang

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Zoe Maven

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October 18, 2021

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U.S. officials are working with Haitian authorities to try to secure the release of 12 adults and five children with a U.S.-based missionary group who were abducted over the weekend by a gang notorious for killings, kidnappings and extortion.

The group was snatched by the 400 Mawozo gang, which controls the Croix-des-Bouquets area east of the capital of Port-au-Prince, police inspector Frantz Champagne told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The abduction happened Saturday in the community of Ganthier, which lies in the gang’s area. It was blamed for the kidnapping of five priests and two nuns earlier this year.

As authorities sought the release of the 16 Americans and one Canadian with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, local unions and other organizations expected to launch a strike Monday to protest Haiti’s worsening lack of security.

The Western Hemisphere’s nation is again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished in recent months, after President Jovenel Moïse was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7 and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in August.

The kidnapping of the missionaries came just days after high-level U.S. officials visited Haiti and promised more resources for Haiti’s National Police.

This is including another $15 million to help reduce gang violence, which this year has displaced thousands of Haitians who now live in temporary shelters in increasingly unhygienic conditions.

The U.S. State Department says it was in regular contact with senior Haitian authorities and would continue to work with them and interagency partners.

Alleged P&ID scam: EFCC re-arraigns British national, James Nolan

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Henry Williams

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October 18, 2021

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday re-arraigned a British national, James Nolan, before Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja.

The EFCC re-arraigned Nolan, alongside two others, on amended 32-count charge bordering on money laundering. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that while the two companies; Goidel Resources Limited, a Designated Non-Financial Institution (DNFI), and ICIL Limited are 1st and 2nd defendants, Nolan is the 3rd defendant in the case.

He was re-arraigned for his involvement in the controversial contract awarded to Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID).

The re-arraignment followed the transfer of the former trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, to the Warri division of the court early in the year.

Thousands Migrant Workers In Kashmir Moved To Secure Locations

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Zoe Maven

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October 18, 2021

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Indian authorities have moved thousands of migrant workers in Kashmir to safer locations overnight, while hundreds have fled the Himalayan valley after a wave of targeted killings.

Suspected militants have killed eleven civilians, including five migrant workers, in Kashmir since early October despite a widespread security crackdown in the heavily militarised region.

While the trigger for the latest wave of attacks was not immediately clear, Kashmir has been the site of armed insurgency against New Delhi for decades. Kashmir is claimed in full by India and Pakistan but ruled in parts by both.

In other areas, security forces had intensified patrolling to prevent any militant activity, the official added.

The decision to move workers came after an attack on migrant labourers from Bihar on Sunday. Police said that militants barged into a rented room in Kashmir’s Kulgam district and fired at them, leaving two dead and one wounded.

Kashmir has gone through various bouts of violence over the years, but the latest wave of attacks appears to be targeted towards non-Kashmiris, including migrant workers, and members of the minority Hindu and Sikh communities in the Muslim-majority valley.

Indian migrant workers wait inside a railway station to board trains to their home states, on outskirts of Srinagar© Reuters/DANISH ISMAIL Indian migrant workers wait inside a railway station to board trains to their home states, on outskirts of Srinagar

The hundreds of thousands of migrant workers currently in Kashmir form the backbone of the region’s workforce in agriculture and construction.

South Korea Aims To Cut Carbon Emissions By 40% In 2030

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Zoe Maven

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October 18, 2021

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South Korea set a new goal on Monday for fighting climate change over the next decade, saying it will aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 2018 levels by 2030.

The country had faced criticism that its initial plan for a 26.3% reduction was too modest.

In promising stronger contributions to curb global warming ahead of a U.N. climate summit in Scotland next month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the new target represents the “most enthusiastic” objective the country could possibly set under current circumstances.

South Korea aims to be carbon neutral by 2050.

The committee’s plan, which is to be formalized in a Cabinet meeting next week and presented at the U.N. COP26 summit in Glasgow, includes an aim to cut emissions from electricity generation and heating by 44.4% below 2018 levels in 2030

This they hope to achieve by reducing the country’s reliance on coal-fired plants and expanding renewable energy sources.

The country is also seeking to reduce the industrial use of fossil fuel and accelerate a transition toward electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Moon had promised to provide a more ambitious target for reducing carbon emissions while he participated in a virtual climate summit called by U.S. President Joe Biden in April.

Moon then also said the country will no longer finance the construction of coal power plants in other nations, although his pledge didn’t effect South Korea’s participation in ongoing projects to build two new coal plants in Indonesia and another in Vietnam.

Russian Film Crew Return To Earth After Shooting First Movie In Space

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Koko Lawrence

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October 18, 2021

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A Russian actor and a film director have returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station shooting scenes for the first movie in orbit.

Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko landed as scheduled on Kazakhstan’s steppe early on Sunday, according to footage broadcast live by the Russian space agency.

They were ferried back to terra firma by cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, who had been on the space station for the past six months.

“The descent vehicle of the crewed spacecraft Soyuz MS-18 is standing upright and is secure. The crew are feeling good!” Russian space agency Roscosmos wrote on social media.

The film-makers had blasted off from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier this month, travelling to the ISS with veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to film scenes for The Challenge.

Tom Cruise has plans to film in space; Russian actor Yulia Peresild is already doing so on the ISS.

If the project stays on track, the Russian crew will beat a Hollywood project announced last year by Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise together with Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The movie’s plot, which has been mostly kept under wraps along with its budget, centers around a surgeon who is dispatched to the ISS to save a cosmonaut.

Shkaplerov, 49, along with the two Russian cosmonauts who were already aboard the ISS, are said to have cameo roles in the film.

The mission was not without small hitches.

Judges Postpone Trials Of 3 Egypt Activists, Lawyer In Cairo

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Zoe Maven

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October 18, 2021

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The trials of three Egyptian activists and a rights lawyer, who have been held in prison for over two years on a number of charges, have been postponed.

According to lawyer Khalid Ali, Activists Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Mohamed Ibrahim and Yahia Hussein Abdel-Hadi and lawyer Mohammed el-Baker appeared before judges of the Emergency State Security Court in Cairo.

They will be tried in two separate proceedings in the same courtroom.

The trial of Abdel-Fattah, Ibrahim and el-Baker was postponed until Nov. 1, while Abdel-Hadi’s was postponed to Oct. 25, according to Ali. The judges postponed proceedings to allow defense lawyers time to review trial-related documents, he said.

The four face charges ranging from disseminating false news and misuse of social media platforms to joining a terrorist group, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt designated as a terrorist group in 2013.

Egypt’s government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel-Fattah and Ibrahim, who is known as Mohamed Oxygen, were arrested late in 2019 while on probation amid a sweeping security clampdown following small but rare anti-government protests.

El-Baker was arrested while attending a questioning session of Abdel-Fattah by prosecutors in September 2019.

Abdel-Hadi is a co-founder of the Civil Democratic Movement, a coalition of liberal and left-leaning parties opposing the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

He was arrested in January 2019 ahead of the vote on constitutional amendments that enabled el-Sissi to run for two more four-year terms.

Drug abuse, trafficking in Nigeria under control – Marwa

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Henry Williams

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October 18, 2021

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The problem of drug abuse and trafficking in Nigeria is “on its way to being under control”, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, has said.

Marwa told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that with the support from the Federal Government, foreign partners and stakeholders, Nigeria would win the war against drug abuse and trafficking.

He described the problem of drug in Nigeria as “a ravaging epidemic” saying “it is for this reason that we remained up standing to do our best with what we have and with the support we have been receiving from the Federal Government.

ECOWAS Delegation Visits Mali to seek Assurance On Elections

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Zoe Maven

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October 18, 2021

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Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, chair of the West African bloc ECOWAS, has told Mali’s ruling junta that elections announced for February must go ahead on schedule, according to his delegation.

During talks in Bamako Akufo-Addo delivered the message to the country’s strongman, Colonel Assimi Goita, who is behind both Mali’s recent coups, having installed a civilian-led interim government under international pressure.

But a senior member of the ECOWAS delegation told Newsmen that the message was very clear; the elections have to be held on the scheduled dates.

An ECOWAS delegation will return to Bamako at the end of October when they hope to receive the assurances they are seeking.

Earlier Goita, who overthrew the elected president last year, met the Ghanaian leader at Bamako airport, Mali’s presidency announced on social media.

Goita pledged to hold elections in February next year, but his government has been slow to prepare for the poll and the junta has suggested the deadline may not be met.

The ECOWAS visit also comes at a delicate moment diplomatically.

Ghana currently holds ECOWAS’s rotating chair, but Akufo-Addo was accompanied by Nigeria’s ex-president Goodluck Jonathan — who is mediating in the Malian crisis — and Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, the ECOWAS commission president.

France is planning to scale back its military presence across the jihadist-ridden Sahel and Bamako has reportedly considered hiring 1,000 Russian paramilitaries from private security firm Wagner.

Nigeria to host 4th International Conference on school safety

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Henry Williams

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October 18, 2021

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The Federal Government has announced plans to host the fourth edition of the International Conference on Safe School Declaration (ICSSD) in Nigeria.

Being the first country to host the conference in the continent, Nigeria will be joined by other 112 member states to exchange experiences, learning, and present their strategies, progress, as well as challenges, in making the commitment to safe education a reality for all children in conflict situations.

Announcing the development in Abuja yesterday, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu who was represented by the permanent secretary, Arc Sonny Echono, said the conference wil build on previous conferences by galvanizing support for the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD) and monitoring UN member states’ progress in carrying out the declarations commitments to better protect learners and learning institutions.