Hilda Dokubo Launches School Club To Fight Abuses, Violence

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June 25, 2021

Nollywood veteran, Hilda Dokubo, has inaugurated a youth club, ‘Orange Brigade’ for secondary school students to fight abuses and violence against young people in Rivers state.

Dokubo, who is the Founder and Executive Director, Centre for Creative Arts Education, a Non-Governmental Organization(NGO), said the club is aimed at providing a platform for young people to speak up against abuses including sexual abuse, violence and harassments especially, those that affect them, using drama, films and creative writings as tools to pass the message.

“The brigade is all about young people using drama, creative writing, films for advocacy, it is about the adolescence, teens speaking up against all forms of abuses, sexual harassments, violence, mental and physical against their person, among others,” the actress said.

Speaking on the initiative and reason behind it, Dokubo said, “Over times, the media and society have been inundated with news, records of abuses on young people, mostly during the pandemic lockdown.

“This is my organisation’s way of getting the young people to speak up against violence and abuses and also make genuine contributions in the fight against these concerns of grave consequences.

“It is appropriate to start from schools, and that the need for proper management of the activities of the club necessitated the take-off from schools.

“We want their activities to be managed properly, we do not want anything to go wrong, so we will be needing the inputs of their teachers, mostly in the areas of organization, direction and advise to the young participants, members,” the actress explained.

Famous Prehistoric Lascaux Caves Come To Life With Virtual Reality For Tourists

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Angel Gimalo

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June 25, 2021

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The famous prehistoric Lascaux caves have come to life for tourists, almost 60 years after they were made off-limits, only this time from Paris using virtual reality.

Thanks to technology, groups of 6 visitors will be able to take a 45-minute tour through the 235 meter-long cave network, starting July 8th.

The caves located in southern France, which were first discovered in 1940, are deemed as one of the most important archaeological findings of the 20th century due to cave paintings found there drawn by ancient humans.

It was closed to the public in 1963 after carbon dioxide, heat and humidity produced by around 2, 000 visitors per day damaged the paintings.

The Crown: Trainspotting’s Jonny Lee Miller To Play Sir John Major

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Koko Lawrence

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June 25, 2021

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Jonny Lee Miller, who rose to fame as a heroin addict in hit 1996 film Trainspotting, is to depict a very different side of 1990s life after being cast as former PM Sir John Major.

Miller played Sick Boy in Danny Boyle’s film based on Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel about a group of Edinburgh junkies.

Sir John was in 10 Downing Street when both the book and movie came out.

Miller will now transform into the politician for the fifth series of Netflix’s regal drama The Crown.

The actor is also known for TV shows including Elementary, Emma and Dexter, and revisited his Trainspotting role for 2017 sequel T2.

Sir John Major was UK prime minister from 1990-97, succeeding Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservative government.

The original book and film depicted a seedy but intoxicating side to Britain that was a world away from Sir John’s unexciting image.

The Crown has followed the Royal Family’s public, private and political dramas from the 1950s.

The fifth series, which is reported to start filming in July, will take in perhaps the royals’ most difficult decade, with a string of splits and scandals, the Windsor Castle fire and the death of Princess Diana.

Imelda Staunton will take over from Olivia Colman as the Queen, with Jonathan Pryce playing Prince Philip. Elizabeth Debicki will play Diana, opposite Dominic West as Prince Charles.

Gillian Anderson won a Golden Globe earlier this year for playing Mr Major’s predecessor as Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

The show’s sixth and final series will also take in part of the 90s and will conclude in the early 2000s.

Palestinians Protest Against Abbas After Activist’s Death

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Zoe Maven

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June 25, 2021

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Hundreds of Palestinians protested against President Mahmoud Abbas after Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem a day after an outspoken critic Nizar Banat died in the custody of Palestinian security forces.

Banat had harshly criticized the Palestinian Authority over its corruption and misrule in a series of Facebook videos.

His family says security forces raided the home where he was staying early Thursday and beat him with batons before dragging him away.

Palestinians also chanted against the PA at his funeral in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and masked gunmen fired shots into the air.

Calls had circulated for protests across the territory and late Thursday, demonstrators burned tires, blocked roads and clashed with riot police in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the PA is headquartered.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank under agreements reached with Israel in the 1990s, faces a major crisis of legitimacy after Abbas called off the first elections in 15 years in April.

Abbas was sidelined during last month’s Gaza war and his popularity has plummeted as support for Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers has grown.

His forces coordinate security with Israeli troops, targeting Hamas and other armed groups that threaten both. The policy is deeply unpopular with Palestinians, many of whom view it as collaboration with an occupying power.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department and the European Union’s representative to the Palestinians each called for an investigation into Banat’s death and expressed concerns about the PA’s restrictions on freedom of expression and harassment of activists.

Russia Launches Mediterranean Drills Amid Rift With Britain

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Zoe Maven

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June 25, 2021

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The Russian military on Friday launched sweeping maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea featuring warplanes capable of carrying hypersonic missiles.

The latest comes as a certain show of force amid a surge in tensions following an incident with a British destroyer in the Black Sea.

The Russian drills that began Friday in the eastern Mediterranean come as a British carrier strike group is in the area.

Earlier this week, British and U.S. F-35 fighters from HMS Queen Elizabeth flew combat sorties against the Islamic State group.

Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender on Wednesday to force her out of an area near Crimea that Russia claims as its territorial waters.

Britain denied that account, insisted its ship wasn’t fired upon and said she was sailing in Ukrainian waters.

Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, allowing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government to reclaim control over most of the country after a devastating civil war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that a pair of MiG-31 fighter jets capable of carrying Kinzhal hypersonic missiles arrived at the Russian airbase in Syria and flew missions practicing strikes on targets in the Mediterranean.

The Defense Ministry said the maneuvers in the eastern Mediterranean also involve several warships, two submarines and long-range Tu-22M3 bombers along with other combat aircraft. The supersonic, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3s were first deployed to Syria last month in a demonstration of an increased Russian military foothold in the Mediterranean.

UN Pleads Aid As One Million People Go Hungry In Madagascar

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Zoe Maven

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June 25, 2021

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The World Food Programme, WFP says Southern Madagascar is experiencing its worst drought in four decades, with more than 1.14 million people in need of food supplies.

Of those, WFP say an estimated 14,000 people are already in catastrophic conditions, and this will double to 28,000 by October.

David Beasley, WFP Executive Director said they are facing the worst drought in over 40 years and that people can’t survive and so the government partnering with WFP and others to do the best possible.

The Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in children under five in Madagascar has almost doubled over the last four months, reaching an alarming 16.5 percent.

Amongst the worst affected is the district of Ambovombe where GAM rates of 27 percent indicate a life-threatening scenario for many children.

Arduino Mangoni, deputy country director for WFP in Madagascar said,” The new admissions to the severe malnutrition health centers has skyrocketed since June, July 2020. It has gone up from around one thousand kids overall in the 10 most affected districts in the south to around 7000 in March, April 2021. So the trend is exponential,”.

WFP says it needs US$78.6 million dollars to provide lifesaving food in the next lean season in order to stop a preventable tragedy from unfolding.

Belarus Moves Opposition Blogger And Girlfriend To House Arrest

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Zoe Maven

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June 25, 2021

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An opposition blogger who was arrested after a passenger plane was forced to land in Belarus has been moved from a detention facility to house arrest, an opposition leader said on Friday.

The arrest of Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega after Belarusian authorities intercepted the Ryanair flight on which they were travelling from Athens to Vilnius on May 23th caused international outrage.

Protasevich is now in a rented flat in the Belarusian capital Minsk, according to his father Dmitri Protasevich. He said the authorities had provided no further information.

Opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s office confirmed both were under house arrest. The Belarusian interior ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.

The European Union imposed economic sanctions on Belarus on Thursday, targeting its main export industries and access to finance.

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, who faced street protests last year over a presidential election which opponents say was rigged, said the interception was justified to prevent a rebellion. He denies electoral fraud.

Protasevich is accused of organising mass riots, and faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted. Ms Sapega has been accused of causing unrest. Their supporters say the accusations against the two are false and dismiss video confessions which they say were made under duress in detention.

Protasevich’s father was quoted as saying his son and Ms Sapega were “still under the full control of the authorities” and the charges against them had not been dropped.

China Lashes Out At US Over Trade Restrictions On Firm

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Zoe Maven

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June 25, 2021

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China has lashed out at the US government on Friday after the US banned import of solar panel materials from a Chinese company and placed trade restrictions on four others for alleged use of forced labour in Xinjiang.

On Thursday the White House said that the use of forced labour was part of Chinese efforts to repress millions of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.

Washington said that Hoshine Silicon Industry would not be able to sell its products in the United States due to “reasonable indications” of forced labour in its manufacturing process.

The Commerce Department also announced that Hoshine and four other Xinjiang firms would be subject to tight restrictions on their ability to acquire US commodities, software and technology.

The White House said the United States believes that state-sponsored forced labour in Xinjiang is both an affront to human dignity and an example of the PRC’s unfair economic practices.

China lashed out at the order, calling it a “bandit-like act no different from pillaging other people’s property” that creates “forced poverty and forced unemployment” among Xinjiang’s people.

At a routine briefing Friday, Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said The US uses human rights as a pretence and to unscrupulously oppress the industrial development of Xinjiang

An official from US Customs and Border Protection, which issued the block on Hoshine imports, estimated that the United States imported goods from the company worth $150 million over the past 30 months.

Asked if the US trade actions could conflict with promoting solar energy, US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said stopping forced labour comes first.

Tanzania C’bank Says It Is Working Cryptocurrency Push

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Zoe Maven

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June 25, 2021

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Tanzania’s central bank IT is working on President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s directive to prepare for crypto-currencies, pointing to a possible reversal of a ban it put in place in 2019.

Speaking during the opening a new central bank branch in the northern town of Mwanza this month, Hassan said there has been an emergence of blockchain technology or cryptocurrency in the financial sector.

She said many countries in the world have not accepted or started using these currencies but that she urges the central bank to start working on those issues. Just be prepared.

Her comments made shortly after El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender, prompted fresh debate over the role of cryptocurrencies in economies and remittance transfers.

Tanzania’s central bank banned cryptocurrencies in November 2019, saying they were not recognised by local law, but it now says it is adapting following the president’s comments.

Meanwhile, a Bank of Tanzania spokesperson said the bank is working on the directives given but declined to give further detail.

The spokesperson did not respond to questions on whether the bank plans to adopt existing cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, or was looking to issue its own digital currency as China has done.

The new president, who came to power after the death of her predecessor in March, said this month the arrival of digital currencies in the East Africa nation was inevitable.

Hassan’s comments reflect her much more open attitude to foreign investment, a shift from the stance of her predecessor John Magufuli, who tussled with foreign gold miners and even locked horns with neighbouring Kenya over access to the market.

Fifteen U.N. Peacekeepers Wounded In Northern Mali Attack

By

Zoe Maven

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June 25, 2021

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The U.N. mission in Mali and the German military say Fifteen U.N. peacekeepers, including several from Germany, were wounded in northern Mali on Friday in an attack on their camp involving a vehicle-borne explosive.

The attack targeted a temporary base set up by the peacekeepers near the village of Ichagara in northern Gao region, where Islamist insurgents linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State are active.

The U.N. mission said in a post on Twitter that the wounded were being evacuated, without giving further details, while a spokesman for the German military said Several German soldiers were among the wounded.

The U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, has deployed over 13,000 soldiers to contain violence by armed groups in the north and centre of the West African nation.

It has recorded about 230 fatalities since 2013, making it the deadliest of the U.N.’s more than one dozen peacekeeping missions.