United States President Joe Biden said Friday that the future of Afghanistan was in its own hands, but he promised its president, Ashraf Ghani, that the United States would continue to support the country even after American forces withdraw following nearly 20 years of war.
During a visit to Washington by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, President Biden said the United States would continue to offer security assistance, as well as diplomatic and humanitarian aid.
His decision to pull out American troops by September 11 is one of the most consequential of his presidency so far, a deeply personal calculation.
The meeting came the day after the US announced plans to evacuate thousands of Afghans who worked for the US military ahead of the withdrawal.
However there are concerns of reprisals from the Taliban which the US and Nato officials recently said have so far failed to live up to commitments to reduce violence in Afghanistan.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, President Biden said the partnership between the US and Afghanistan would continue but he stressed that it was up to Afghans to decide “what they want”, adding that the senseless violence has to stop.
Meanwhile, President Ghani expressed support for the Us President’s historic decision to withdraw US troops, saying he was there to respect it and support it.
He also announced that Afghan security forces had recaptured six districts, reversing some recent Taliban gains.
The two Koreas still technically remains at war following the armistice agreement.
To remind people of that tragic past while showing how tensions can be blurred through art the world’s second art hotel is getting ready to open near the DMZ.
Right on Myeongpa Beach, just ten kilometers from the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, is “Re:maker”, a hotel that doubles as an art gallery.
It is the world’s second art hotel in a border region, following British artist Banksy’s “Walled Off Hotel” in the Palestinian West Bank.
A total of eight rooms each have their own concept and the artist’s interpretation of the two Koreas’ separated reality.
“The room’s designer, Omyo Cho named it ‘Weird Tension’. While she was working on the room, she constantly felt discomfort from the fact that it was too peaceful even though the two Koreas are still at war. Through many elements including a wire fence drawn on a mirror, she gives a stark reminder of inter-Korean division.”
The artist made all the objects in the room difficult to use from a TV attached to the ceiling to a bathroom door with 12 doorknobs, to alert the guests to the tense reality we are in.
Another room uses metal the foundation of civilization but also a material used to make weapons.
“We couldn’t overlook its function as an accommodation site, so we put much thought into it when placing furniture and items all thoroughly calculated. It was tough to have art and daily life fused together but fortunately, the outcome is extraordinary.”
Built as part of the Culture Ministry’s project to transform the border area’s tense image to one of peace and art, the organizers hope it can become a major tourist spot.
“Tourism in Goseong county has declined after the overland tours to the DMZ and Geumgangsan Mountain stopped. We would like to welcome more tourists with the art hotel ‘Re:maker’ as centerpiece.”
“We hope at least one tenth of the people who come here think about how conflict could be turned into harmony and how the boundary could wane and we hope those thoughts could be the basis of action.”
The hotel will officially open in July, and those who visit might also want to take a look at the nearby Unification observatory and DMZ Museum.
Metal spikes, known as "Dragon's teeth," and razor wire used for fortification sit along a beach as islands belonging to North Korea stand in the distance on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, on Friday, June 26, 2020. On the sleepy island of Yeonpyeong, the threat of conflict is constant with North Korean coastal howitzers just 11 kilometers (7 miles) away and propaganda banners visible through binoculars. There have been several military clashes in the contested maritime boundary off the west of the peninsula since 1999, making it a possible ignition point for a major conflict that could draw in the U.S. and China the two biggest allies for the rival Koreas. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
Satellite imagery shows a thermal plant in North Korea’s Yeongbyeon nuclear facilities appears to have been operating since late February this year.
That’s according to the U.S.-based North Korea monitoring website 38 North.
It could indicate some nuclear activity by the regime because the plant is used to provide steam when reprocessing spent fuel for plutonium extraction.
The operation period is reportedly longer than previous maintenance efforts and more consistent when compared to earlier reprocessing campaigns.
But the website said it could not confirm what is happening without further visual signatures or on-the-ground inspection.
FILE PHOTO: Representations of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin are seen in this illustration picture taken June 2, 2021. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration
Lawyers for investors in a cryptocurrency exchange in South Africa, which told clients in April their accounts had been hacked, say $3.6 billion has disappeared from the platform and that the two brothers who ran it cannot be traced.
If confirmed, Africrypt’s losses would rank among the biggest crypto losses yet. For the whole of 2020, losses in the crypto sector through fraud and other crime were $1.9 billion, down from a record of $4.5 billion in 2019, according to crypto intelligence company CipherTrace.
Africrypt COO Ameer Cajee said in a letter to clients, dated April 13, that client accounts had all been compromised due to a recent breach in its system. The letter, reviewed by Reuters, said Africrypt had halted operations and had “begun the process of attempting to retrieve stolen funds.”
It gave no details of how much money was missing and warned clients that trying to get their money back using lawyers would “only delay the recovery process.”
Hanekom Attorneys, a law firm hired by some of those who say they have lost money, told Reuters in a statement their investigations had so far found a total of $3.6 billion had vanished from Africrypt. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how it reached that figure.
Reuters could not reach Africrypt for comment. Calls to Cajee’s mobile phone went to voicemail and he did not respond to text messages. The exchanges’s website is offline.
Darren Hanekom, a lawyer representing the investors, said that Cajee and his brother and co-founder Raess had been untraceable since the April 13 letter and that he had referred the matter to South Africa’s specialist anti-corruption police, nicknamed the Hawks, on April 16.
Darren Hanekom, a lawyer representing investors in cryptocurrency exchange Africrypt, is seen in his office in Cape Town, South Africa, June 25, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
Bitcoin reached a record high of almost $65,000 on April 14.
Philani Nkwalase, spokesman for the Hawks, said they had so far been unable to open the case because Hanekom Attorneys is based in Western Cape and those seeking to recover their money are in other provinces.
“We advised those individuals to please open cases where they are,” he said by telephone. “Go to the nearest police station.”
Zakira Laher, Cajee’s cousin, who said she was an Africrypt director until she quit in 2019, told Reuters the brothers had been missing since April.
“I say this on behalf of the whole family that we have no idea where they are,” she said by telephone. “Around about mid-April, they just stopped talking to us. They’re not responding to us in WhatsApp.”
Hanekom said he had alerted several other crypto exchanges of the case and that his firm had this month informed South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), but that it could not get involved as it does not regulate cryptocurrencies.
The FSCA’s head of enforcement, Gerhard van Deventer, told Reuters in response to questions about Africrypt that crypto currency is not defined as a financial product and that the FSCA did not have jurisdiction to investigate.
“We are in the process of bringing crypto into the regulatory fold,” he said.
French soldiers walk past tents installed by migrants, their supporters and French association Utopia56 to draw attention to their living conditions and to demand accommodation, in front of the City Hall in Paris, France, June 25, 2021. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
French police on Friday herded onto buses hundreds of migrants who 24 hours earlier had pitched tents in front of the Paris City Hall to protest lack of accommodation.
There were no incidents as the migrants were cleared. But Yann Manzi, co-founder of the group Utopia 56 which organised the action, said they would come back if no viable solution is found.
“All the persons evacuated stay in touch with us and if they are put back in the street, we’ll start again with our actions”, Manzi said.
A similar operation was organised on the Paris City Hall forecourt on 1 September last year.
“We have way too many requests which means our accommodation network is saturated … So we had no choice but to organise a “visibilation” action”, Kerill Theurillat, a local leader of Utopia 56 told Reuters before the police cleared the protesters.
Around 200 tents, mainly red, had been set up Thursday, sheltering 300 people, including children, from sub-Saharan Africa.
“I’m living in the street, I have no home, my priority is to have a home and then to go to school”, said Cisse Mohamed, an underage refugee sitting in of the tents.
Many refugees have moved to Paris since the closure of a huge migrant camp in Calais in 2016.
Umar Danbatta, executive vice-chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has urged Nigerians to imbibe reading culture for a better knowledge and information.
Danbatta, a professor, said this at the 2021 Library/Museum Day on Thursday in Abuja.
He described library as a learning resource assessed by its level of currency in its quality, quantity and variety of the stocks.
Danbatta said that an important component of the library resource is the e-section, which allows electronic link-up and access to more databases and information.
He called on the commission to continue to seek ways to maximise the library resource in meeting its mandate and expanding knowledge and information.
“The library is a learning resource. The stock of a library is normally assessed by its level of currency, what is the quality, quantity, variety of the stock. We must be able to embark on assessing the whole thing.
“An important component of the library resource is the e-section. The e-section is the section that allows you to link up and access more data bases for information.
“When we assess the library, we pay careful attention to the ability of users to access more data bases electronically.
“The most important thing is for you to be able to sight a reference that is credible. The library is a component of the entire learning process.
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Euro 2020 - Group A - Italy v Wales - Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy - June 20, 2021 Wales' Gareth Bale during the warm up before the match Pool via REUTERS/Alberto Lingria
Wales captain Gareth Bale said on Friday they will embrace their own underdog status against Denmark, the neutrals’ favourites in the last 16 of the European Championship, adding they will not underestimate their quality.
Wales finished runners-up in Group A behind Italy to reach the knockout stages for a second successive Euros, having soared to the semi-finals in 2016.
Denmark stormed into the last 16 with a 4-1 win over Russia in their final group game — days after Christian Eriksen’s collapse due to a cardiac arrest — and will be playing in Amsterdam where they expect a Danish contingent to spur them on.
Wales boss Robert Page echoed the sentiment, saying that they need to try to ignore the emotion attached to the game and added they were prepared for a “tough challenge” having seen Denmark nearly get a result against group toppers Belgium.
Britain’s competition regulator started a formal investigation on Friday into whether Amazon and Google have done enough to prevent or remove fake reviews.
U.S. tech firms are in more hot water in Britain.
The country’s competition regulator started a formal investigation on Friday (June 25).
It’s into whether Amazon and Google have done enough to prevent or remove fake reviews.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it would gather more information to decide if the firms broke consumer law.
The regulator said it was also concerned that Amazon’s systems had failed to prevent and deter some sellers from manipulating product listings.
Last year action taken by the CMA over the trading of fake reviews resulted in Facebook, Instagram and eBay removing groups and banning individuals.
The CMA said it has not reached a view on whether Amazon and Alphabet’s Google have broken the law.
Amazon said it would continue to assist with enquiries.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
News that Brooklyn Nets assistant coach Ime Udoka ― who is in a longtime relationship with Nia Long ― is expected to become the next head coach of the Boston Celtics set social media abuzz.
Both NBA fans and admirers of the “Fatal Affair” actor took to Twitter to cheer Udoka’s new gig and to celebrate the likelihood of seeing Long seated courtside at games.
“Udoka can come to Boston but he’s got to bring Nia Long with him,” one Twitter user wrote Thursday.
“This man put in the work! And Boston gets Nia Long also,” said another. “Big win for Boston!”
Udoka, a retired NBA player, is finalizing an agreement to become the next head coach for the Celtics, ESPN reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Prior to joining the Nets, Udoka was an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs for seven seasons and an assistant for the Philadelphia 76ers for one season.
Long and Udoka went public with their relationship in 2010 and got engaged in 2015.
Digital music distribution platform, TuneAfrique in partnership with Cross River State Government, through the Office of The Special Assistant to Governor on Entertainment, has laid a foundation for Cross River talents to go digital with their music.
This was the crux of conversations at the Calabar Music Session, a seminar put together by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Entertainment, Effiom Trombone.
The governor of Cross River State, represented by the Commissioner for Culture & Tourism, Hon Eric Anderson reiterated its commitment to boost revenue for music talents in the state, by empowering them to market their music to a wider audience via the digital channels.
The Chief Executive Officer, TuneAfrique, Dr. Kunle Oladehin led a delegation of music administrators comprising of the company’s Artistes Relations Manager, Hembadoon and the Project Development Manager of one of Nigeria’s pioneer record company, Premier Records limited Michael Odiong, to deliver presentations and attend to questions regarding digital music distribution, in a bid to get hundreds of Cross River musicians to earn income from their talents.
Pop musician, Mista Xto, who has spent over 20 years in the industry, was on ground to inspire and mentor by sharing his wealth of experience with guests at the occasion.
In his admonition, the musician and record label executive charged the artistes to evolve with time so as to stay relevant.
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