Popular broadcaster Kevin Taylor has come under fire from Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah for criticizing his wife during their continuing argument.
Okatakyie’s wife was included in their altercation by Kevin Taylor, who said she was desperately trying to obtain American citizenship.
In response to what Kevin Taylor said, Okatakyie also used social media, and the two have since been at loggerheads.
Okatakyie Afrifa, however, has expressed displeasure at the fact that his wife has been involved in their back-and-forth, further illuminating their dispute.
He berated Kevin Taylor while making fun of his wife in an interview with Delay.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, this man came out attacking me, my family, and my kinsmen. Your wife is a Jew, and she met you while doing philanthropic work in Ghana. She took you along to the United States and now you feel you have arrived. You work from your wife’s basement so you think everyone is like you.
“Kevin Taylor started with the Asantehene, and then moved on to other people and now to me. But I have declared war, I will end this fight in 2025. This is season one episode four. We will let people know who you truly are. You are poor and a nobody who works from your wife’s basement. Your wife is a camerawoman who works with New York Times so she’s got a number of cameras in her basement. Because there are a lot of cameras lying in her basement, you use them to insult people. He claims his wife is a senior editor at New York Times, no! She is a videographer,” he established.
Okatakyie has, however, declared war between him and Kevin Taylor, adding that he was once a notorious street fighter.
“He thinks he can scare everyone. You can’t scare me. I was born and bred in Kumasi Suame. You don’t like fighting more than I do. I used to travel all the way from Kumasi to Bomfo Achease every 31st December just to fight. I did that for five solid years.”
Touching on claims that his wife is desperately in search of U.S. citizenship, he said;
“My wife doesn’t live abroad, she travels there, her family resides there but she doesn’t stay there. My wife has been moving to and fro from Ghana to the States for about 15 years now, if really she wants to acquire citizenship, she will get it.”
In light of the possibility of military intervention from neighbouring neighbours, the leaders of the coup in Niger have temporarily closed the nation’s airspace.
According to the flight tracking service Flightradar24, there aren’t any aircraft flying over Niger right now.
Ecowas, a consortium of West African nations, had previously threatened to use force if President Mohamed Bazoum was not restored by Sunday at 23:00 GMT.
Niger’s armed forces, according to a junta spokesman, are prepared to defend the nation.
The presidential guard commander, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, later proclaimed himself the new leader after Mr. Bazoum was detained on July 26.
International organisations and governments have denounced the military takeover, including the United Nations, the United States, former colonial power France, and the rest of the European Union.
The Niger junta’s spokesperson read a statement on national television on Sunday, claiming to have knowledge that “a foreign power” was getting ready to strike Niger.
Following a crisis conference in Nigeria, the military leaders of Ecowas announced on Friday that they had created a thorough strategy for the potential use of force.
Abdel-Fatau Musah, the Ecowas commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security, stated that “all the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how, and the when we are going to deploy the force.”
He continued, “We want diplomacy to succeed, and we want this message to them [Niger’s junta] clearly transmitted that we are giving them every opportunity to undo what they have done.”
They gave the generals a week to comply with their ultimatum to cede control by midnight local time, but the deadline has since passed.
Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Ghana, and 14 other West African nations make up the regional commercial bloc known as Ecowas.
Thousands of the coup leaders’ supporters gathered angrily on Sunday at a stadium in Niamey, the capital of Niger, as they appear unwilling to give up control.
Burkina Faso and Mali, two of Niger’s neighbours, previously issued a warning that they would regard any foreign military intervention in Niger as “a declaration of war” against them. Mali and Burkina Faso are both Ecowas members, although they have both been expelled from the organisation as a result of being governed by military coups.
Under Mr. Bazoum, Niger was an important Western ally in the conflict with Islamist extremists in West Africa’s Sahel area. Niger is a significant producer of uranium, a fuel essential for nuclear power.
The incident, which analysts say intensifies an already tense situation and may prompt the United States and its allies to move more quickly on plans for joint patrols in the waterway, has caused China to face growing international backlash. On Saturday, one of China’s coast guard vessels fired a water cannon at a Philippine boat in the South China Sea.
The Second Thomas Shoal, a South China Sea feature in Manila’s exclusive economic zone that China calls Renai Reef and also claims as its sovereign territory, was the subject of video from the Philippines showing a large Chinese Coast Guard ship spraying a much smaller Philippine boat that was attempting to deliver supplies to a garrison of Philippine marines there.
The Chinese ship was also visible in images from the Philippine Coast Guard, which was escorting the resupply boats, getting perilously close to them.
A statement from the Philippine Coast Guard was posted on its official Facebook page on Saturday. “The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) strongly condemns the China Coast Guard’s (CCG) dangerous manoeuvres and illegal use of water cannons against PCG vessels,” the statement read.
By Sunday, Washington, Manila’s principal ally, had denounced China’s actions and reaffirmed that it will uphold its end of the mutual defence pact with the Philippines.
According to a statement from the US State Department’s Matthew Miller, “The United States reaffirms an armed attack on Philippine public vessels, aircraft, and armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke US mutual defence commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty.”
Allies of the US formed a unified front with Manila and Washington.
Australian, Japanese, and German officials referred to China’s moves as “dangerous” and “destabilising.”
The Canadian Embassy in Manila also stated that Ottawa “unreservedly condemns the dangerous and provocative actions taken by the Chinese Coast Guard.”
Tension between Manila and Beijing has always been centred on the South China Sea.
Beijing asserts “indisputable sovereignty” over the majority of the islands in the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea, even those hundreds of miles from the Chinese mainland.
This includes the Spratlys, also known as the Nanshas in Beijing, a group of 100 tiny islands and reefs that are also fully or partially claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.
However, Manila refers to the region as the West Philippine Sea. It purposefully grounded the BRP Sierra Madre, a navy transport ship manned by Filipino troops, on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to bolster its territorial claims.
The international Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which determined in 2016 that China lacks a legal foundation to assert historic rights to the majority of the South China Sea, supports Manila’s claims.
Beijing has disregarded the decision.
Analysts and lawmakers in the Philippines described the incident on Saturday as an improvement over a number of Chinese-Philippine conflicts this year, which included a Chinese ship firing a laser at a Philippine vessel in February and a succession of what analyst Collin Koh called “near collisions.”
According to Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, “This most recent incident clearly represents an escalation.”
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of the Philippines told CNN affiliate CNN Philippines, “I really believe we’re entering the period of brinkmanship diplomacy.”
He warned that if something went wrong, the area may become unstable.
However, China doesn’t appear to be rethinking its assertions.
According to a statement posted on the China Coast Guard’s website on Sunday, “two Filipino supply vessels and two coast guard vessels illegally intruded into the waters adjacent to Renai Reef in China’s Nansha Islands.”
Gan reaffirmed Chinese territorial claims to the islands in the South China Sea and promised to keep up with regional law enforcement efforts.
Beijing could be expected to continue what he called its “grey zone” tactics, which he defined as actions that fall just short of using force and thus invoking the US-Philippine mutual defence treaty, according to Jeffrey Ordaniel, director of maritime security at the Pacific Forum and assistant professor at Tokyo International University.
The international condemnation of Beijing, according to Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre in Australia, is positive, but Manila needs to do more than just gather evidence to support its assertions.
The Philippines would need to develop a more comprehensive strategy to combine action with its diplomatic campaign since “diplomatic response will not stop this kind of maritime aggression,” the official added.
According to Koh, this might result in the US and the Philippines moving more quickly towards their plans for joint patrols in the South China Sea, something that both the US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro Jr. predicted would happen in the future when they spoke last month.
Australia and Japan, according to reports, may join the US, Philippines, and Australia on patrols.
Koh asserted that for Washington to deter Beijing, more than words will be required.
The US will “need to be seen to walk the talk and not give the impression that Beijing continues to escalate its actions without consequences,” Koh added.
Ornaiel concurred.
The Americans “have a choice to make,” he said.
Beijing will continue to be successful in altering the status quo if US responses are restricted to rhetoric and possibly military drills.
In a dramatic turn of events, defending champions the United States were eliminated from the World Cup as Sweden‘s Lina Hurtig scored the decisive penalty in a tense shootout.
Sweden secured their spot in the quarter-finals following a resolute defensive display that led to a goalless extra-time draw.
During the penalty shootout, the US initially gained an advantage when Nathalie Bjorn missed her shot and Rebecka Blomqvist’s attempt was saved by Alyssa Naeher. However, the US couldn’t capitalize on these opportunities, with Megan Rapinoe and Sophia Smith missing their targets.
The pivotal moment arrived when Kelley O’Hara struck the post, and Hurtig’s shot was initially saved by Naeher, but the ball crossed the line on its way down, confirmed by goal-line technology. This delay ultimately sent Sweden through.
In the first half, the US dominated play, but goalkeeper Zecira Musovic thwarted Trinity Rodman’s attempt, and Lindsey Horan’s header hit the crossbar.
Sweden struggled to register a shot on target in the opening 45 minutes. The second half followed a similar pattern, with Vlatko Andonovski’s team controlling possession, though squandering opportunities from Lindsey Horan and Alex Morgan.
Sweden nearly snatched victory in the 85th minute when Sofia Jakobsson found space in the box but directed her shot straight at Naeher.
The US almost secured a late winner of their own, with Morgan’s header on target, yet Musovic once again dealt with the danger.
In extra time, the US continued to dominate, but Musovic’s brilliance denied them multiple times. Musovic parried Lynn Williams’ cross-shot and deflected Megan Rapinoe’s follow-up.
Despite persistent waves of US attacks, Sweden’s defense held firm, and Musovic turned away Smith’s powerful angled shot. Ultimately, Sweden sent the US packing before the semifinal stage, marking the first time in history that the four-time winners were eliminated from the tournament at this juncture.
Niger’s military junta has decided to sever diplomatic ties with Nigeria, Togo, the US, and France after unsuccessful talks with an Ecowas delegation aimed at resolving the political stand-off following the ousting of President Mohamed Bazoum last week.
Col Amadou Abdramane, a member of the junta, announced the decision on state TV, recalling Niger’s ambassadors from the four nations.
A delegation led by Nigeria’s former military head of state, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, met some junta members on Thursday but left without any signs of progress after just a few hours.
The response from Nigerian President and Ecowas head, Bola Tinubu, is yet to be received regarding Niger’s cutting of diplomatic ties.
West African defense chiefs are concluding a three-day meeting in Nigeria to discuss possible military interventions if diplomatic efforts fail.
In response to last week’s coup in Niger, the United States has issued an order for the partial evacuation of its embassy in the country. The situation has prompted the evacuation of hundreds of foreign nationals, and on Sunday, protesters attacked the French embassy.
The coup leader, Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani, has issued a warning against any interference in the country’s internal affairs. Despite an official ban on demonstrations, protests in support of the coup are expected to take place on Thursday, coinciding with Niger’s independence day.
France, being Niger’s former colonial power, has requested the military junta, which now controls the country, to ensure the security of their embassy. The attack on the French diplomatic mission on Sunday led to the organization of evacuation flights.
According to France’s Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, more than 1,000 French citizens and other Europeans have been flown out of the country. As the situation unfolds, one resident in the capital city, Niamey, reported that everything had been relatively calm so far.
“People are doing their duty like they do it every day,” said Sidien.
August will culminate with two massive, spectacular lunar eclipses as the moon approaches its closest point to Earth. A supermoon occurs when the moon appears full and is at this point in its orbit; this month, there will be two of them.
According to calculations from retired NASA astronomer Fred Espenak, the first of the supermoons will peak at 2:32 p.m. ET on Tuesday, meaning lunar watchers in Europe, the United Kingdom, Africa, and the Middle East can see the orb glowing at its fullest in the night sky at a distance of about 222,158 miles (357,530 kilometres) from Earth. You may be sure that on August 1st evening, the moon will seem full for watchers in the United States. Due to their proximity, supermoons typically appear brighter and larger than regular full moons, however this difference isn’t always visible to the unaided eye.
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanack, this week’s full moon is also known as the “sturgeon moon” since it happens around the time of year when indigenous populations discovered in the past that the giant freshwater fish were simple to catch in the Great Lakes. Looking towards the southeast after sunset on Tuesday is the best time to see the sturgeon supermoon from the United States.
A full moon will then appear on August 30 at a distance of roughly 222,043 miles (357,344 km), making it an elusive super blue moon. This will be the closest full moon to our planet this year.
Typically occurring only once every two and a half years, a blue moon is a second full moon that occurs inside the same calendar month. For instance, the most recent blue moon took place in October 2020.
The almanack predicts that the super blue moon on August 30 will peak at 9:36 p.m. ET. If local weather permits, the celestial orb will also be visible on August 31st.
However, despite its name, it won’t actually appear blue. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the phrase “blue moon” actually derives from a 16th-century idiom that meant something happened once in a blue moon.
What exactly are a supermoon, blue moon, and full moon?
A full moon occurs once a month when the near side of the moon is completely illuminated by the sun in the night sky.
Supermoons are less frequent.
The moon does not orbit Earth in a complete circle, which causes several lunar displays. Instead, the moon travels on an elliptical course that resembles an oval, bringing it closer to the Earth at specific times. According to NASA, the precise distance between Earth and the moon can vary by up to 26,222 miles (42,200 km).
Supermoons happen when the moon is full and near or at its perigee, or closest point to Earth (in scientific jargon).
According to the National Space Centre of the United Kingdom, this is what astronomers refer to as a “perigean full moon,” which can look up to 30% brighter and 14% larger than full moons that occur at the furthest point from Earth.
Some claim that the term “supermoon” is overused because it can be used to describe full moons that don’t come at the closest point to Earth and don’t always stand out dramatically from regular full moons to the human eye.
Supermoon isn’t an official astronomical term, but according to NASA, it “is used to describe a full Moon that comes within at least 90% of perigee.” These lunar occurrences are also frequent: Three or four supermoons normally occur each year.
According to researcher Adam Block, an operations expert at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory in Tucson, the moon often appears greatest in the sky when it is close to the horizon, producing an optical illusion. And whether the moon is in supermoon territory has nothing to do with this phenomena.
The illusion vanishes entirely if you spin around in the opposite direction and are flexible enough to bend over and stare between your legs at the moon upside down, according to Block.
Although they are not extremely uncommon or physically distinctive, supermoons do have an influence on Earth. According to NASA, the Earth’s oceans may see higher tides as a result of the moon’s proximity.
However, blue moons are less frequent. The phrase today usually refers to two full moons occurring in the same calendar month, however it originally referred to an additional full moon occurring during the same tropical year, or the time between two equinoxes.
The August 30 full moon is particularly unique because not all blue moons are supermoons. According to Espenak’s research, the next time two supermoons coincide in the same month will be in January 2037.
Sometimes, several lunar events coincide on the same night to produce a really unique sky-watching experience, as was the case on January 31, 2018, when the final full moon of the month was also a blood moon, or total lunar eclipse, in addition to being a blue moon and a supermoon. When the full moon acquires a reddish hue from Earth’s shadow, those occurrences take place.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and armoured vehicles have gotten closer to the front lines in anticipation of the long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, made a commitment in June to start a counteroffensive against the illegal Russian invasion; it appears to have started this week.
Soldiers were sent to the front lines of Zaporizhzhia yesterday, the Telegraph reports, and Mr. Zelensky lauded their “very good results.”
This operation, which might last up to three weeks, will see the Ukrainian force move south and cut off a land route to Crimea.
Along the front line, artillery skirmishes broke out, and it was believed that the Ukrainians had over 100 armoured vehicles, including Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Leopards produced in Germany and the United States.
The forces of Mr. Zelensky are already launching counterattacks in Bakhmut and Donetsk.
The disagreement between the local Russian leadership, according to US security forces, is the reason Ukrainian officials are concentrating on Zaporizhzhia.
Major General Ivan Popov, the regional Russian commander, allegedly said he was fired after bringing up battlefield concerns with his superiors, according to a US official.
The official remarked, “The Russians are overworked.” They continue to have issues with supplies, personnel, logistics, and weapons. They can sense the pressure.
Russian minefields, shelling, and air attacks have prevented Ukrainian troops from making much progress in driving the Russians back along the southern front.
The offensive in the country’s east and southeast that are under Russian control is moving more slowly than Mr. Zelensky would prefer, he previously acknowledged.
However, Mr. Zelensky stated in a video address on Wednesday night that “our boys had very good results at the front today.” Well done to them. Details will be provided.
Daniel Duggan, a former Marine, used to fly Harrier jets for the United States during international missions as a member of Marine Attack Squadron 214, located in Yuma, Arizona.
Despite the fact that this occurred more than 20 years ago, a US indictment alleges that he utilised his expertise to instruct Chinese pilots on how to land planes on aircraft carriers. He vigorously disputes these allegations.
Duggan, 54, has been detained in a high-security facility in a rural area of Australia since last October while his attorneys fight an extradition order that the Australian attorney general approved to send him back to the US to stand trial on charges including money laundering and conspiring to export US defence services.
On Tuesday, Duggan’s lawyers argued for a stay of extradition while Australia’s Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) investigates claims of improper action by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), including that Duggan was “lured” from China, where he was living, to Australia, where the US had legal reach to arrest him.
The case comes as the US and its allies seek to unite against China in the Indo-Pacific, where Beijing has been fortifying islands with military installations that they fear may one day be used in a regional conflict.
From Lithgow Correctional Centre, where he’s being held, Duggan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he was “living a nightmare.” “I strenuously reject the indictment in its entirety,” he said.
Duggan’s wife Saffrine wants Australian officials to block his extradition, and on Tuesday she and some of their six children stood outside court, holding signs calling for him to be freed.
“We’re horrified that something like this could happen, not only to us, but to anyone,” Saffrine Duggan told her supporters.
“I would never have thought this could ever happen in Australia, let alone to our family. My family is brave and strong and so are our friends, and so is my husband, but we are all terribly torn apart.”
After completing his final mission as a Major with the US Marines, Duggan moved to Australia in 2002. He met Saffrine in 2011, and a year later he became an Australian citizen, renounced his US citizenship, and the family moved to China.
Saffrine and the children moved back to Australia in 2018, and Duggan joined them in September 2022, after receiving Australian security clearance for an aviation licence,his supporters say.
But within weeks, that clearance was revoked and he was taken into custody.
The charges relate to a period between November 2009 and November 2012, when Duggan– then a US citizen – was alleged to have trained Chinese military pilots in China, according to a 2017 indictment that was unsealed last December.
The indictment said that “as early as 2008,” Duggan received an email from the US State Department telling him he was required to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and apply for permission to train a foreign air force.
Instead, it claims he conspired with others – including the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) – to export defense services in violation of an arms embargo on China.
In a statement to CNN, TFASA said it complies with the laws of every jurisdiction in which it operates.
The statement said Duggan undertook one test pilot contract for the company in South Africa between November and December 2012, and “never worked for TFASA on any of its training mandates in China.”
The indictment alleges Duggan negotiated directly with a Chinese firm to provide other defense services for a fee, including “the evaluation of pilot trainees, testing of naval aviation related equipment, instruction on tactics, techniques, and procedures for launching planes from, and landing on, a naval aircraft carrier.”
Duggan told the ABC that none of the training involved the disclosure of secret or proprietary information. “It’s all public domain, open-source information that anybody, if they’re interested in, could Google it or look it up on Wikipedia,” he said.
The training offered by TFASA allegedly involved the use of a T-2 Buckeye, a twin-engine, straight-wing airplane, purchased in the US and exported to South Africa, without authorization from the US.
In its statement to CNN, TFASA said it only leased the plane from a business associate in South Africa, and never attempted to purchase it. Duggan flew the T-2, among other planes, during his contract, but the company ceased using the aircraft when approached by officials from the US Embassy in South Africa, TFASA added.
Duggan doesn’t deny training Chinese pilots, but he maintains they were civilians – plane enthusiasts seeking to improve their skills or prospective members of China’s then rapidly expanding aviation industry.
Glenn Kolomeitz, a former member of the Australian Defence Force and lawyer, who is advocating for the family, told CNN that it is “very, very common for people to leave the military and go work overseas.”
“Dan was just an instructor, just a pilot trainer. That’s it,” he told CNN.
“He wasn’t a part of the company (TFASA), he wasn’t in any way involved in any of the administration, the management, and how could he possibly have thought, or have even considered that there would be any illegality in this, when there are so many people, including high levels from the RAF, the British air force, involved in this training.”
On October 18, three days before Duggan was arrested in Australia, the UK Defence Ministry issued a statement warning that it was taking “decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK Armed Forces pilots.”
The next day, Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said he had asked his department to investigate reports that former Australian military pilots had also been recruited by TFASA to work in China. And a spokesperson for New Zealand’s Defence Force confirmed to Reuters that four of its former military pilots had been recruited by the company.
Two days after that, Duggan was taken into custody near his home in rural New South Wales, and only learned of the allegations against him 62 days later, Saffrine said. He faces up to 65 years in prison if found guilty.
“It has been devastating. The kids and I distraught. It’s just a struggle. It’s a daily struggle. The kids have lots of questions. Constant tears. I mean, it’s horrific,” she told CNN.
Since Duggan’s arrest, the UK and Australia have moved to tighten laws for former service members who train foreign forces.
“The new legislation being developed will remove any doubts about the application of these laws to the full breadth of our defence secrets,” said a spokesperson for Marles.
In a speech in February, Mike Burgess, Australia’s director-general of security and the head of ASIO, said a “small but concerning” number of Australian veterans were willing to put “cash before country.”
“These individuals are lackeys, more ‘top tools’ than ‘top guns.’ Selling our warfighting skills is no different to selling our secrets – especially when the training and tactics are being transferred to countries that will use them to close capability gaps, and could use them against us or our allies at some time in the future,” he said.
News of Duggan’s arrest has spread through the ranks of former US Marines, says Ben Hancock, a retired colonel who served a rank above Duggan in the late ’90s when he was forward deployed on missions that took him to the Persian Gulf and around Asia, with a final stop in Townsville, Australia.
“He was what we called a weapons and tactics instructor, which is the highest instructor qualification you can get in the Marine Corps,” he said.
“It’s a very expensive course, you have to be hand-picked to be sent to it. And then once you return, you become the training guru for everybody else in the squadron,” he said. “He was top-notch. I trusted him with my life.”
Hancock said Duggan left the service as an “honorable Marine,” and while he hadn’t spoken to him since his arrest, they had kept in touch by email sporadically over the years.
Hancock said the T-2 Buckeye was used for many generations by US Navy and Marine Corps pilots to learn maneuvers on a ship – how to catapult off and trap aircraft as well as make arrested landings.
He said it was “unusual” to see a T-2 Buckeye at a civilian flight school, because most of them had been “mothballed,” but described it as a great introductory aircraft for military training.
“It’s great aerobatic airplane if you want to teach a guy to fly a twin-engine jet, how to handle jets, the speed of jet over propeller airplanes, and then do aerobatics and stall series … It’s a great airplane to train anybody in extreme flying environments that allow you to recover the airplane safely,” he said.
He said he hasn’t seen the evidence against Duggan, but questions why no one else has been charged and says the vast majority of Duggan’s experience was piloting Harriers that take off and land vertically, which requires a different approach.
“As Harrier pilots, all our time at sea, we did short takeoffs using the Harrier’s capability, not a catapult. We’d pick up under own power and then we did every landing was a vertical landing. And the Chinese don’t have in those kinds of jets,” he said. “So Dan didn’t have the expertise, in my opinion, to be training guys for that. It’s the wrong type of approach and landing.”
In its statement to CNN, TFASA denied teaching aircraft carrier approach and landing techniques to Chinese military pilots.
“TFASA provides training to test pilots, flight test engineers, and basic operational instructor pilots under closely controlled security conditions. All training aspects and material are strictly unclassified, and provided either from open source or the clients themselves. No training involves classified tactics or other information, nor any frontline activities,” the statement said.
Duggan’s supporters believe he’s been caught up in a hardened approach by Western allies towards China under leader Xi Jinping, who in recent years has expanded the military and expressed his intention to “reunify” the democratic island of Taiwan with the mainland, despite never having controlled it.
At the time Duggan was alleged to have been training Chinese military pilots, Xi was stepping out onto the international stage, visiting the US to meet then Vice President Joe Biden and proposing to strengthen their cooperation.
Several years later, under former President Donald Trump, relations deteriorated as both countries engaged in a trade war and ties remain deeply strained to this day.
Duggan’s arrest in 2022 came as the US, UK and Australia formed a stronger security bond under AUKUS, the deal they signed in 2021 to join forces in the Pacific to counter an increasingly assertive China.
Kolomeitz, the family’s supporter, says Duggan is being used to send a message to Beijing to back off from hiring its former military personnel.
“Don’t be recruiting Western former military people – that’s what it’s all about. Right?” he said. “It’s sending a message to China, and it’s helping to push through the legislative agendas of these agencies.”
The court is hearing arguments Tuesday, and will return its ruling at a later date on whether a stay will be granted.
The construction of a three-unit classroom block for Nutekpor DA Basic School in the South Tongu District of the Volta region has been funded by the United States government, specifically through the Department of Defence.
This initiative is a demonstration of the community’s ongoing support for the nearby security base known as the ‘Naval Training Command’ (NAVTRAC).
During the inauguration ceremony, Madam Virginia Palmer, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, expressed their commitment to extending support to underprivileged communities across the country.
The construction of the classroom block was a gesture of appreciation towards the Nutekpor community for providing a location for the establishment of the Training Command.
Madam Celestine Korsi-Agordo, the South Tongu District Director of Education, received the facility on behalf of the school and commended the donors for their generosity. She assured that the facility would be utilized effectively for the benefit of the entire community.
Mr. Ben Yao Agbeyesro, the local Assembly member, expressed gratitude to the US government and the Naval Training Command for their contribution. He emphasized that the support would help address some of the school’s infrastructure challenges.
Mr. Johnson Kobby Amedzo, the headteacher of the school, disclosed that the institution faced various difficulties, including a shortage of teaching staff, insufficient furniture for students, and a lack of teaching and learning materials.
He appealed to philanthropists, individuals, and the government for assistance in resolving these challenges and ensuring quality education in the area.
Established in 1974, Nutekpor DA Basic School currently consists of kindergarten, primary, and junior high school sections, accommodating a total of 96 students with seven teaching staff members.
Additionally, pupils from nearby communities such as Dalive, Torzikpota, Tolesem, and Totsoanyi will also benefit from the newly constructed classrooms.
With the launch of its Chandrayaan-3 mission on Friday, India is attempting to become just the fourth nation to carry out a controlled landing on the moon.
At 2:30 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET), Chandrayaan, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, is anticipated to launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state.
India is attempting a soft landing for the second time after Chandrayaan-2, its last attempt, failed in 2019. Chandrayaan-1, its first lunar probe, orbited the moon before being purposefully crash-landed onto the lunar surface in 2008.
Developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Chandrayaan-3 is comprised of a lander, propulsion module and rover. Its aim is to safely land on the lunar surface, collect data and conduct a series of scientific experiments to learn more about the moon’s composition.
Only three other countries have achieved the complicated feat of soft-landing a spacecraft on the moon’s surface – the United States, Russia and China.
Indian engineers have been working on the launch for years. They are aiming to land Chandrayaan-3 near the challenging terrain of the moon’s unexplored South Pole.
India’s maiden lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, discovered water molecules on the moon’s surface. Eleven years later, the Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered lunar orbit but its rover crash-landed on the moon’s surface. It too was supposed to explore the moon’s South Pole.
At the time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the engineers behind the mission despite the failure, promising to keep working on India’s space program and ambitions.
Just before Friday’s launch, Modi said the day “will always be etched in golden letters as far as India’s space sector is concerned.”
“This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” he said in a Twitter post.
India has since spent about $75 million on its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Modi said the rocket will cover more than 300,000 kilometers (186,411 miles) and reach the moon in the “coming weeks.”
India’s space program dates back more than six decades, to when it was a newly independent republic and a deeply poor country reeling from a bloody partition.
When it launched its first rocket into space in 1963, the country was no match for the ambitions of the US and the former Soviet Union, which were way ahead in the space race.
Now, India is the world’s most populous nation and its fifth largest economy. It boasts a burgeoning young population and is home to a growing hub of innovation and technology.
And India’s space ambitions have been playing catch up under Modi.
For the leader, who swept to power in 2014 on a ticket of nationalism and future greatness, India’s space program is a symbol of the country’s rising prominence on the global stage.
In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars, when it put the Mangalyaan probe into orbit around the Red Planet, for $74 million – less than the $100 million Hollywood spent making space thriller “Gravity.”
Three years later, India launched a record 104 satellites in one mission.
In 2019, Modi announced in a rare televised address that India had shot down one of its own satellites, in what it claimed was an anti-satellite test, making it one of only four countries to do so.
That same year ISRO’s former chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan said India was planning to set up an independent space station by 2030. Currently, the only space stations available for expedition crews are the International Space Station (a joint project between several countries) and China’s Tiangong Space Station.
The rapid development and innovation has made space tech one of India’s hottest sectors for investors – and world leaders appear to have taken notice.
Last month, when Modi met US President Joe Biden in Washington on a state visit, the White House said both leaders sought more collaboration in the space economy.
And India’s space ambitions do not stop at the moon or Mars. ISRO has also proposed sending an orbiter to Venus.
The transfer of F-16 fighter jets from NATO to Ukraine, according to Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister, poses a “direct nuclear threat” to Russia.
In response to Nato’s promise to begin training Ukrainian pilots to operate the fighter jets in August, Sergey Lavrov spoke out.
The Kremlin asserts that it forewarned the US, UK, and France about the dangers of giving Ukraine the jets.
Lavrov said: ‘Just one example of an extremely dangerous turn of events is the United States plans to transfer F-16 fighter jets to the Kiev regime.
‘We have informed the nuclear powers, the United States, Britain and France, that Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.
‘No amount of assurances will help here.’
Lavrov continued: ‘In the course of combat operations, our servicemen are not going to sort out whether each particular aircraft of this type is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not.
‘We will regard the very fact that the Ukrainian armed forces have such systems as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere.’
He also warned: ‘The United States and its Nato satellites are creating risks of a direct armed clash with Russia, and this is fraught with catastrophic consequences.
‘The conditions for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons are clearly defined in our military doctrine.
‘They are well known, and I will not repeat them once again.’
He also accused countries at the Nato summit which was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, of ‘consistently lowering the threshold for the use of force and building up the nuclear capability in military planning’.
A key theme of this year’s summit was Volodymyr Zelensky’s wish for Ukraine to join Nato.
But defence secretary Ben Wallace said Zelensky needed to be mindful about keeping ‘doubting politicians’ on side following his complaints.
Mr Wallace said he needed to show more ‘gratitude’ to western allies for arming Ukraine and said ‘we’re not Amazon’.
In other news, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who staged a coup against Vladimir Putin, is likely dead or in jail, a former US military leader said.
The mercenary leader ordered his soldiers to travel towards Moscow in a failed rebellion against the Kremlin in late June.
The Russian president said his former caterer’s actions amounted to ‘armed mutiny’, and Prigozhin is now feared dead by experts.
On Friday, it is anticipated that theUnited States will announce its intention to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, which are widely banned, as part of a security package worth $800 million.
Ukraine has stated that this move would have an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on the occupying Russian forces. Cluster munitions are prohibited by over 100 countries due to their indiscriminate nature, as they release numerous smaller bomblets that can cause casualties over a wide area.
Unexploded ordnance from cluster munitions can pose a threat for many years after a conflict concludes. Whilehuman rights organizations oppose the decision made by Washington, these munitions could potentially bolster Ukraine’s efforts to launch a counteroffensive and regain control over territories that have been seized by Russian forces since their invasion in February 2022.
Ghanaian actress and global brand ambassador, Juliet Ibrahim, made a lasting impact as a panelist during the 2023 Essence Film Festival.
This festival is a significant component of the broader Essence Festival of Culture, which has been commemorating African American culture in the United States for the past thirty years.
With a staggering daily attendance, the event claims the title for the largest festival in the U.S., attracting approximately 500,000 participants over its three-day duration.
Juliet’s participation on the highly anticipated panel, “Clips & Conversations: Ghana’s Road to Global Expansion,” held tremendous significance for both the Ghanaian film industry and the diaspora at large.
Juliet Ibrahim leaves an indelible mark at the Essence Film Festival, featuring the inaugural Africa House.
Esteemed actors, directors, and producers from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya unite to advance collaborative efforts for global expansion.
The expertly moderated panel, including Juliet Ibrahim, highlights their experiences and insights in producing remarkable projects, propelling the industry to greater global heights. Juliet’s presence adds inspiration and prestige, representing Ghana’s film industry as a global brand ambassador.
Her commitment to diversity, storytelling, and promoting Ghana’s cultural heritage solidifies her place among elite talents.
As a participant in the Essence Festival of Culture, Juliet aims to showcase Ghana’s talent and establish it as a film hub.
Eight famous democracy campaigners were given $1 million ($127,603) rewards by Hong Kong police on Monday. This action was widely rebuked by rights organisations and Western countries.
The activists, which include former MPs Nathan Law, Dennis Kwok, and Ted Hui, have been charged with offences related to national security, such as colluding with foreign powers and subverting the government.
Many of the activists have persisted in speaking out against Beijing’s alleged onslaught on the liberties and autonomy of their home city since departing Hong Kong in recent years.
The group of seven men and one woman are now based in the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia – countries that have suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong due to concerns of the controversial national security law.
The sweeping law was imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong in 2020, after huge pro-democracy protests roiled the semi-autonomous city in the previous year. It criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign powers and carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
Critics say the legislation has been used to crush the city’s opposition movement, overhaul its electoral system, silence its outspoken media and cripple its once-vibrant civil society. Many of Hong Kong’s prominent pro-democracy figures have either been detained or fled into self-imposed exile.
The Hong Kong government has repeatedly denied the national security law is suppressing freedoms. Instead, it insists the law has ended chaos and restored stability to the city.
On Monday, police told a press conference 260 people had been arrested under the national security law, with 79 of them convicted for offenses including subversion and terrorism.
Senior Superintendent Steve Li, with the police national security department, told reporters police had obtained arrest warrants from the court for the eight activists.
“We’re absolutely not staging any show or spreading terror. We’re enforcing the law,” he said.
The move was condemned by the United States, Britainand Australia, whose governments urged Hong Kong to withdraw the bounty offer and expressed concern about the targeting of democratic figures.
The non-profit organization Human Rights Watch also lambasted the national security law as creating a “veneer of legitimacy in wiping out Hong Kong people’s human rights,” urging democratic governments to offer greater protections to activists in exile or impose more sanctions on the Hong Kong government.
The city’s leader, John Lee, a former police officer and security chief, rebuked these criticisms on Tuesday – and warned the exiled activists to surrender themselves or face “living in fear every day.”
Kevin Yam, a lawyer who is among the eight targeted, said he had been “flooded with congratulations” for having the “honor to be on the list” since the police press conference Monday.
“I feel no joy over this, but feel sad for Hong Kong that people now see things this way, because it is an indication of how low Hong Kong has gone in the eyes of many,” he told CNN from Australia.
Law, now based in Britain, said in a statement that while the news was stressful and meant he’d have to be more careful while traveling, it didn’t come as a surprise. He criticized the national security law as being used to “suppress dissenting voices,” and reiterated his hope for Hong Kong to one day gain full democracy.
“I am just a Hong Konger speaking out for Hong Kongers – that’s all,” he said, and urged the public not to cooperate with the bounty offer. “We should not silence or limit ourselves, we should not be politically intimidated or blackmailed, or live in fear.”
Anna Kwok, also one of the exiled activists named on Monday, wrote on Twitter that the photo published by police was one she’d taken at 18 years old for her ID card.
“The 18-year-old me would never have thought the photo would be publicized globally in an arrest warrant (with a bounty) 8 years later,” she wrote.
In a longer statement, Kwok, who is now based in the US, said the move was “clearly” meant to intimidate pro-democracy supporters and encourage “further purges” of remaining activists.
Actor Julian Sands, who went missing five months ago, has been confirmed dead by police.
The 65-year-old A Room With A View star disappeared in January of this year after hiking in California’s San Gabriel Mountains.
Police have officially identified the actor whose remains were discovered nearby earlier this week.
Earlier this week, his family released a statement expressing their gratitude for the search teams while adding that they continued to hold him ‘in our hearts’.
It said: ‘The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood. The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results.
‘We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands.’
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has now said that civilian hikers contacted the authorities on Saturday morning after the human remains were found in the Mount Baldy area.
In the statement released by Sands’ family this week, his loved ones said: ‘We are deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian.
‘We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer.’
It has not yet been determined how he died, authorities said.
Sands, who was born, raised and began acting in England, worked constantly in film and television, amassing more than 150 credits in a 40-year career.
During a 10-year span from 1985 to 1995, he played major roles in a series of acclaimed films.
After studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, Sands embarked on a career in stage and film, playing small parts in films including ‘Oxford Blues’ and ‘The Killing Fields.’
He landed the starring role of George Emerson, who falls in love with Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch while on holiday in Tuscany, in the 1985 British romance, ‘A Room With a View.’
The film from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for best film, and was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three.
In the wake of its success, Sands moved to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood.
He played the title role in the 1989 horror fantasy ‘Warlock’ and its sequel. In the 1990 horror comedy ‘Arachnophobia,’ with Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, Sands played an entomologist specializing in spiders.
The following year he appeared in director David Cronenberg’s surreal adaptation of the William Burroughs novel ‘Naked Lunch’ in 1991.
In 1993, Sands starred in the thriller ‘Boxing Helena,’ a movie that drew major media attention during production when Madonna and Kim Basinger each accepted the title role before backing out.
The part would go to ‘Twin Peaks’ actor Sherilyn Fenn. The film flopped.
Author Anne Rice championed Sands to play the titular Lestat in the much-hyped 1994 Hollywood adaptation of her novel ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ but the role would go to Tom Cruise.
In 1995’s ‘Leaving Las Vegas,’ Sands played an abusive Latvian pimp alongside Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue. The film was nominated for four Oscars, with Cage winning best actor.
Sands touted his love of the outdoors in a 2020 interview with the Guardian, saying he was happiest when ‘close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning’ and that his biggest dream was scaling ‘a remote peak in the high Himalayas, such as Makalu.’
The actor said in the interview that in the early 1990s, he was caught in an ‘atrocious’ storm in the Andes and was lucky to survive when three others near his party didn’t.
After ‘Leaving Las Vegas,’ the quality of the films Sands was cast in, and the size of his roles, began declining. He worked steadily, appearing in director Wim Wenders’ ‘The Million Dollar Hotel’ and director Dario Argento’s ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’
He also appeared as a guest star or in recurring roles on TV series including ‘24,’ ‘Medici,’ ‘Smallville,’ ‘Dexter,’ ‘Gotham’ and ‘Elementary.’ His final film was 2022’s ‘The Ghosts of Monday.’
Sands was born in Yorkshire, the middle child of five brothers raised by a single mother. He had three children of his own.
He had been married since 1990 to journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, with whom he had two adult daughters, Imogen Morley Sands and Natalya Morley Sands.
His eldest child was son Henry Sands, who he had with his first wife, journalist Sarah Harvey.
Days after Hong Kong‘s local government filed an order to ban the song, a well-known song from the city’s democracy campaign has started to vanish from several major music streaming services, even in some foreign countries.
Demonstrators sang variants of “Glory to Hong Kong” throughout the massive rallies that raged around the city for months on end that year, and it eventually became the unofficial song of the city’s now-crumbling democracy protests.
The ballad’s lyrics make reference to the term “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” which the government and courts declared to have secessionist and subversive implications and was previously banned in 2020.
Multiple versions of the song posted by “ThomasDGX & HongKongers,” known to be the original composer of the orchestral anthem, were no longer available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Google to users within the city on Wednesday.
Multiple versions and covers of the song have been recorded by other artists.
The titles of those covers can still be seen on Spotify in other parts of the world, including the United States, South Korea and Australia.
But when CNN reporters in those countries tried to play the songs they were listed as “unavailable.”
Spotify told CNN that the song was removed by the distributor and not by the platform.
Users in the US cannot purchase the song on Apple Music either, although it also still yields search results on the platform.
The song can no longer be found on Apple Music and KKBOX in Taiwan, however multiple versions of it are still available on YouTube.
CNN has reached out to YouTube, Apple Music, KKBOX, and Alphabet – the parent company of Google – for comment.
By Monday, several new uploads of the song reappeared on YouTube, and the tune could be found again on Spotify and Apple Music – even within Hong Kong.
A Facebook account tied to the original composers said they have re-uploaded the soundtrack on several music platforms as a “2023 Edition,” after initially saying last week that they were “dealing with some technical issues unrelated to the streaming services.”
“(We) stand firm against any attempts to suppress freedom of thought and speech,” the latest post on Monday said, adding that the composers back listeners’ “refusal to lose their freedom to choose music.”
CNN has reached out to the Hong Kong government for comment following the reappearance of the tracks.
Following its 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong was promised key freedoms and autonomy to run its own affairs. As a result it flourished as a bastion for free speech and creative expression within authoritarian China.
But a crackdown on dissent in the aftermath of the democracy protests has since transformed the city, especially after a sweeping national security law was imposed by Beijing in 2020.
Protest leaders have been arrested or driven into exile, while the government persists on scrubbing references to the social unrest and calls for democracy in the city. New laws have also been passed to increase censorship of films to “safeguard national security.”
Music is now coming under closer scrutiny.
Hong Kong’s government filed a court injunction on June 5 seeking to ban the broadcast or distribution of the protest song after it was mistakenly played at several international sporting events.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, city leader John Lee – a former police chief – said authorities were taking action because “Glory to Hong Kong” was “not compatible with the national interest.”
Under the injunction filed by the Department of Justice, the song’s “melody or lyrics or in combination” would be banned to avoid “inciting others to commit secession.”
It further seeks to restrain anyone from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing (the song) in any way.”
The writ also listed 32 YouTube videos of the song, including instrumental and sign language versions.
The government’s bid to outlaw the song was heard in the High Court on Monday, but the judge has postponed a decision on the interim injunction to July 21, public broadcaster RTHK reported.
The head of Amnesty International’s China team, Sarah Brooks, described the government’s move to outlaw the song as “absurd.”
“The Hong Kong government must end its increasingly fervent crackdown on freedom of expression. A song is not a threat to national security, and national security may not be used as an excuse to deny people the right to express different political views,” Brooks said.
The semi-autonomous city does not have its own anthem. It uses the Chinese national anthem “March of the Volunteers” at events and in schools ever since it returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, while during the years under British rule, the city sang “God Save The Queen.”
The use of “Glory to Hong Kong” at international sporting events infuriated officials who previously criticized Google for listing the song in search results for the city’s anthem, something Google said was decided by its algorithm which returns results based on a host of criteria including popularity and relevance.
Playing the song in public in Hong Kong is now fraught with legal risk. Last year, a man who played the tune on a harmonica during a vigil for Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II was arrested by police on suspicion of sedition.
In federal court, an American heiress who was found guilty of killing her mother in Bali and packing her body inside a suitcase entered a guilty plea to conspiracy.
After being accused of plotting the murder in the United States by federal authorities, Heather Mack, the so-called “Suitcase Killer,” who had previously been found guilty in Indonesia of being an accessory to the death of her mother, changed her plea to guilty.
She answered ‘yes, your honor,’ when Kennelly asked her if she understood her charges of conspiracy to kill a US national.
Mack, the heiress daughter of jazz composer James Mack, became notorious in 2014 after the murder of her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, while on vacation in Bali.
Mack, then 19, had a reportedly troubled relationship with her 62-year-old mother. Between 2004 and 2013, police in Chicago responded to their home a total of 86 times for calls of domestic violence and theft between mother and daughter.
Mack and her mother arrived at the St Regis Hotel in Bali in August 2014. Once there, Mack used her mother’s credit card to purchase a business class plane ticket for her then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer.
Mack claimed she flew Schaefer out to Indonesia so they could explain to her mother that she was pregnant. But investigators later determined this was a lie.
Before the flight, Schaefer had texted Mack about different ways to kill her mother, and spoke about getting rich after inheriting Mack’s $1.5million trust fund. The duo referred to themselves as ‘Bonnie and Clyde.’
After getting into an argument with von Weise-Mack in the lobby of the St Regis that was caught on hotel security footage, Mack and Schaefer went back to their room and killed her.
Prosecutors in Indonesia alleged that Mack held her mother down and covered her mouth, while Schaefer beat her to death with a metal fruit stand.
The couple then stuffed her body inside a small suitcase, which they left in the trunk of a taxi cab at the hotel.
Mack was convicted of accessory in 2014. She served seven years of her 10-year sentence in Indonesia. She was deported in 2021, and arrested by American federal agents after landing in Chicago.
Her now six-year-old daughter was alongside her at the airport, and is now in another family member’s custody.
Schaefer is still in prison in Indonesia, where he is serving an 18-year sentence for murder. He also faces conspiracy charges in the United States.
Before the change in plea, Mack’s trial was scheduled to begin on August 1. Her sentencing hearing has now been scheduled for December 18. She faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison.
Ghanaians living in Queens, a suburb of the City of New York in the United States of America, have reportedly been thrown into a state of shock following the alleged killing of a man by his teenage son.
There are currently limited details available about the incident but the deceased is reported to have been beaten to death by his teenage son at home during a misunderstanding.
However, a video shared by Oman Channel on YouTube shows several members of the Ghanaian community in a state of mourning while the body of the deceased man was being carried away by officers of the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
“That’s my brother being carried away. Noah, is that you? You have come to live abroad for so many years. May your soul rest in peace… God be with you,” a man could be heard saying in the Akan language.
Another Ghanaian woman, unable to hold back her tears, said, “All I ask of you is for your spirit to deal with the person that did this to you.”
The incident is said to have occurred on June 12, 2023, in Queens.
This comes on the back of a recent incident in Columbus, in the State of Ohio, where a Ghanaian man killed himself after shooting his wife.
The man identified as Michael Amoako is said to have shot his 50-year-old wife after she allegedly threatened to leave him to marry her ex-lover back in Ghana.
The deceased left behind an audio recording detailing his grievances and final wishes to his family.
His wife has since been in intensive care after suffering critical injuries from the incident.
The United States has updated its travel advice for Uganda, following the promulgation in May of the “Anti-Homosexuality Law 2023”, considered to be one of the most repressive in the world, according to a note published Monday evening by the State Department.
The law provides for heavy penalties for people who have homosexual relations and “promote” homosexuality. The crime of “aggravated homosexuality” is punishable by death, a sentence that has not been applied for years in Uganda.
The US State Department, which had already warned its nationals to “reconsider travel” to Uganda because of the terrorist attacks and crime rate, said that the enactment of the anti-homosexuality law “increases the risk that LGBTQI+ individuals, and those perceived to be LGBTQI+, will be prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment or death”.
The US authorities also warned of the risk of “harassment or attacks by vigilante groups” against LGBT+ people.
“The US should understand that Uganda is a sovereign state that legislates for its people and not for the Western world. They can issue travel advisories because it is their right, but it should be remembered that blackmail has no place in the modern world,” Ugandan Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi told AFP, adding that the US decision was “expected”.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled this African country in the Great Lakes region with an iron fist since 1986, promulgated the law on 29 May, sparking outrage from human rights organizations and many Western countries. Despite threats of sanctions, the Ugandan head of state assured the world that “no one will make us move”.
Denouncing a “tragic attack” on human rights, US President Joe Biden said he had asked his administration to study the consequences of this “shameful” law on “all aspects of cooperation between the United States and Uganda”.
The American authorities are considering “additional measures”, such as sanctions or restrictions on entry to their territory for “anyone associated with human rights violations or corruption,” he added.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, also condemned the law as “contrary to human rights”.
In 2014, international donors had already reduced their aid following the passing of a law punishing homosexuality.
In particular, Washington suspended funding for government programs and imposed visa bans. European countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands had also frozen part of their bilateral aid.
The law was eventually annulled by the Constitutional Court on the grounds of a technical defect in the vote.
The United States’ Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has expressed his anticipation to engage in discussions with President Joe Biden regarding the notable investment package in green industries.
On the plane to Washington DC, Mr Sunak said “subsidy races” were not a solution to hitting climate goals.
Some British ministers have criticised Mr Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as harmful to world trade.
The law includes $370bn (£297bn) to boost green technology in the US.
In a drive to cut carbon emissions, billions in tax credits and subsidies has been allocated to speed up the production of solar panels and wind turbines, and encourage the up-take of electric cars.
The European Union has described the law as anti-competitive, while earlier this year, Energy Secretary Grant Shapps said the package was “dangerous because it could slip into protectionism”.
It is expected to be one subject of discussion when Mr Sunak meets Mr Biden for the fourth time this year, for talks at the White House on Thursday, following meetings with business leaders and senior politicians.
The prime minister’s spokesman suggested Mr Sunak would also talk about boosting green tech, the war in Ukraine, and the regulation of artificial intelligence.
Tensions over the global implications of Mr Biden’s economic package have been building ahead of the visit, Mr Sunak’s first official trip to Washington DC as prime minister.
The UK government has said it had no plans to emulate the scale of the US plans, prompting accusations from Labour that the UK could fall behind in a global race to attract future industries.
During his flight to Washington, reporters asked Mr Sunak if there was anything Mr Biden could do to ease the economic impacts of his package on the UK.
“It’s something that he [President Biden] and I have discussed in the past and you’d expect us to continue discussing it,” Mr Sunak said.
When asked whether Mr Sunak accepted President Biden’s argument that a resilient economy sometimes required a protectionist approach to key sectors, the prime minister referenced a joint statement issued by the G7 at the end of its latest summit in Japan.
The statement, he said, “makes it very clear that G7 countries don’t believe in protectionism as the answer to this challenge and also don’t believe in in subsidy races that are zero sum”.
There have been reports his trip could see the two sides unveil a critical minerals pact that would allow British carmakers that export electric vehicles to theUSto benefit from some of the tax credits offered to American firms.
The US signed such a deal with Japan earlier this year, and has entered into talks with the EU.
However, one area where progress has stalled is over a wider UK-US free trade deal, where President Biden has put talks on ice, leaving the UK to deepen trade ties through less comprehensive mini-deals with around 20 states.
AI regulation
Another area where Mr Sunak hopes to hold discussions is the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), where Mr Sunak is seeking to carve out a role for the UK as a global player.
The prime minister is hosting a global summit on AI regulation in the autumn, and has reportedly expressed an interest in the UK hosting any new international regulator for the emerging technology.
However, the extent to which the UK will be able to shape new global rules outside the EU is unclear, with the UK now shut out of key gatherings between European and American regulators such as theTech and Trade Council (TTC).
The two leaders will also discuss the war in Ukraine, which is expected to enter a decisive period soon, with signs a long-awaited counter-offensive from Ukrainian forces may have begun.
It comes after Ukraine blamed Russia for the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in Russian-held Ukraine, prompting the evacuation of thousands of people. Moscow has denied destroying the dam, instead blaming Ukrainian shelling.
Speaking to reporters on the plane to the US, Mr Sunak said it was “too soon” to make a “definitive judgement” on whether Russia was behind the attack.
But he said if Russia were found to be responsible, it would “demonstrate the new lows that we will have seen from Russian aggression.
More than three dozen individuals have been sentenced for their involvement in a large-scale fraud and money laundering operation that targeted individuals, corporations, and financial institutions throughout the United States. The defendants used business email compromise schemes, romance fraud scams, and retirement account scams, among other frauds, to steal more than $30 million from numerous victims.
“The Department of Justice has tirelessly worked for more than four years to obtain justice for dozens of victims impacted by this brazen criminal organization,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “The defendants’ sentences should serve as a stark warning to others that fraud and money laundering crimes are top priorities for this office and our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners.”
“Several members of this conspiracy fraudulently obtained funds from ERISA-covered employee benefit plans. The funds, which originated from unwitting individuals’ retirement accounts, were deposited into personal and business bank accounts that were created in furtherance of this money-laundering conspiracy.
The greed of the conspirators caused workers and prospective retirees to lose significant portions of their hard-earned retirement funds. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration to protect the integrity of employee benefit plans,” said Mathew Broadhurst, Special Agent-in-Charge, Southeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.
“These fraud scams, although not violent, are not victimless and can be devastating to businesses and individuals who fall prey to them,” said Keri Fairly, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “The sentencing of all these individuals shows the FBI’s dedication to working with our partners to hold anyone accountable who would steal from hard working and honest individuals, rather than put in the work themselves.”
“These scammers defrauded individuals and companies with the sole purpose of enriching themselves,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama. “HSI and its law enforcement partners will continue to work tirelessly to protect the integrity of the nation’s financial infrastructure and ensure that financial crimes do not go unpunished.”
“This sentencing illustrates the Secret Service’s dedication to protecting our nation’s financial systems,” said Steven R. Baisel, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Atlanta Field Office. “We are thankful for our law enforcement partners’ commitment and support as we worked together to bring this case to justice.”
According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges, and other information presented in court: The defendants engaged in multiple fraud and money laundering conspiracies that stole millions of dollars from victims located throughout the United States and abroad. The defendants were charged across several related pending cases.
U.S. District Judge William M. Ray, II, sentenced the following individuals for their respective roles in this criminal scheme:
Joshua Roberts, also known as “Onyx,” 32, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to eight years and one month in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $9,675,739.73 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on August 10, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on March 29, 2022.
Darius Sowah Okang, also known as “Michael J. Casey,” “Richard Resser,” “Thomas Vaden,” “Michael Lawson,” “Matthew Reddington,” and “Michael Little,” 32, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $6,204,119 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on March 17, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and aggravated identity theft on September 2, 2021.
George Kodjo Edem Adatsi, 39, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $3,373,797.43 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on July 21, 2021, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on April 7, 2021.
Benjamin Ibukunoluwa Oye, 29, of Sandy Springs, Georgia, was sentenced to five years in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,163,127.01 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on March 21, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering on March 4, 2020.
Prince Sheriff Okai, 29, of Mableton, Georgia, was sentenced to four years and nine months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,950,586.54 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on January 12, 2021, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on October 6, 2020.
Hamza Abdallah, also known as “Reggie Lewis,” 33, of McDonough, Georgia, was sentenced to four years and nine months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $5,051,473.87 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on February 24, 2021, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on November 18, 2020.
Dominique Raquel Golden, also known as “Desire Tamakloe,” “Mellissa Moore,” “Nicole Nolay,” “Raquel Roberts,” “Maria Henderson,” and “Raquel Golden,” 32, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to four years and six months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $7,830,607.05 in restitution to victims. She was sentenced on March 28, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on September 30, 2021.
Kelvin Prince Boateng, 27, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $870,333 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on June 17, 2021, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on March 2, 2021.
Jonathan Kojo Agbemafle, also known as “Skinny,” 29, of Kansas City, Missouri, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,637,625.01 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on August 8, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on April 4, 2022.
Blessing Oluwatimilehin Ojo, also known as “Timmy,” 37, of Nigeria, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,711,304 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on October 26, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on July 19, 2022.
Desire Elorm Tamakloe, also known as “Chubby,” 28, of Smyrna, Georgia, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,215,357.81 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on April 18, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on October 13, 2022.
Stephen Abbu Jenkins, also known as “Face,” “Steven Abbu Jenkins,” “Steven Jenkins,” and “Steve Jenkins,” 56, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to three years and seven months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $726,290 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on February 22, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on August 8, 2022.
Obinna Nwosu, 29, of Douglasville, Georgia, was sentenced to three years and one month in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,045,065.75 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on December 16, 2020, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on September 17, 2020.
Ojebe Obewu Ojebe, 30, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to three years and one month in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $893,879.55 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on September 27, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on June 2, 2022.
Francesco Benjamin, also known as “B-More,” 33, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to three years and one month in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $987,070 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on March 1, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on October 19, 2022.
Chukwukadibia Ikechukwu Nnadozie, also known as “Chuka” and “Michael McCord,” 30, of Fayetteville, Georgia, was sentenced to three years and one month in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $231,507.19 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on May 9, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on November 28, 2022.
Abubakar Sadik Ibrahim, 29, of Mableton, Georgia, was sentenced to three years in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,193,750.27 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on February 1, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on September 27, 2021.
John Ifeoluwa Onimole, 31, of Powder Springs, Georgia, was sentenced to three years in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,117,966.06 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on April 25, 2023, after pleading guilty to money laundering on December 7, 2022.
Chadrick Jamal Rhodes, 31, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and 11 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on January 31, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft on October 12, 2021.
Chadwick Osbourne Stewart, 43, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and eight months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on January 26, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft on October 22, 2021.
Macario Lee Nelson, a/k/a “Mac,” 27, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and eight months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on February 17, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft on September 29, 2021.
Afeez Olaide Adeniran, a/k/a “Ola,” 34, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and six months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $352,830.25 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on October 6, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on August 18, 2022.
Kahlia Andrea Siddiqui, 31, of Chamblee, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and six months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $325,811 in restitution to victims. She was sentenced on February 22, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on August 9, 2022.
Solomon Agyapong, also known as “Gumpe,” 34, of Marietta, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and six months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $496,123.92 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on April 18, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on October 11, 2022.
Christopher Akinwande Awonuga, 31, of Fayetteville, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and three months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $113,276.27 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on January 8, 2020, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud on August 22, 2019.
Emanuela Joe Joseph, 37, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was sentenced to two years and three months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $442,557.08 in restitution to victims. She was sentenced on February 21, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on October 26, 2022.
Seth Appiah Kubi, 63, of Dacula, Georgia, was sentenced to two years in custody, to be followed by one year of supervised release. He was sentenced on July 7, 2020, after pleading guilty to aggravated identity theft on March 4, 2020.
Oluwafunmilade Onamuti, also known as “Mathew Kelvin,” 29, of Duluth, Georgia, was sentenced to one year and 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $167,195 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on July 21, 2021, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on April 7, 2021.
Paul Chinonso Anyanwu, 31, of Hampton, Georgia, was sentenced to one year and six months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $57,000 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on December 19, 2019, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on September 18, 2019.
Casey Broderick Williams, 29, of Covington, Georgia, was sentenced to one year and one day in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on June 2, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft on July 30, 2019.
Alexus Ciera Johnson, 29, of Mableton, Georgia, was sentenced to one year and one day in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $106,879 in restitution to victims. She was sentenced on May 22, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on October 11, 2022.
Egale Veonzell Woods, Jr., 44, of East Point, Georgia, was sentenced to one year in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $165,007.19 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on April 21, 2021, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on March 4, 2020.
Gregory Thomas Hudson, 42, of Powder Springs, Georgia, was sentenced to 10 months in custody, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $125,291.45 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on June 27, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud on March 14, 2022.
Uchechi Chidimma Odus, also known as “Uche,” 26, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to 10 months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $83,345.47 in restitution to victims. She was sentenced on May 17, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on December 21, 2022.
Matthan Bolaji Ibidapo, also known as “B.J.,” 30, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was sentenced to eight months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release with a portion to be served in home confinement and ordered to pay $82,490.50 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on February 21, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on November 1, 2022.
Tyler Keon Roussell, 28, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to six months in custody, to be followed by six years of supervised release with a portion served in home confinement, and ordered to pay $368,400.49 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on February 21, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud on May 16, 2019.
Monique Wheeler, 32, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to three months in custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release with a portion to be served in home confinement, and ordered to pay $71,010 in restitution to victims. She was sentenced on December 2, 2022, after pleading guilty to money laundering on July 13, 2022.
Chineda Obilom Nwakudu, 28, of McDonough, Georgia, was sentenced to three years of probation with a portion to be served in home confinement and ordered to pay $123,645.85 in restitution to victims. He was sentenced on February 22, 2023, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on August 23, 2019.
Ahamefule Aso Odus, 30, of Atlanta, Georgia, was convicted by a jury on January 30, 2023, of conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple substantive money laundering offenses. His sentencing is pending.
Motswana Mulongo, also known as “David Mulongo” and “Henry Tipton,” 38, of Decatur, Georgia, was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering on March 10, 2023. His sentencing is scheduled for June 22, 2023.
Oumar Bouyo Mbodj of Kennesaw, Georgia, is deceased, and charges filed against him were dismissed.
This investigation was conducted under the auspices of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program—the keystone drug, money laundering, and transnational organized crime enforcement program of the Department of Justice.
This case was investigated by the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
The investigating agencies received considerable support from the Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, and numerous federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly K. Connors and Russell Phillips prosecuted the case.
As stated byFlorida court documents, a dual citizenof Haiti and Chilewho pleaded guilty to federal crimes relating to his participation in the assassination of Haitian PresidentJovenel Moise was given a life term in prison.
Rodolphe Jaar received the punishment on Friday in Miami after a 10-minute hearing before Judge Jose E. Martinez. Each of the three crimes carries a life sentence that must be served concurrently.
According to the plea bargain, Jaar pleaded guilty to three counts in March, including conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside of the United States and giving material support that caused death.
Moise, 53, was killed in his bedroom in Haiti on July 7, 2021.
Martinez recommended that Jaar be designated to a federal facility in or near South Florida given his background and the offenses, according to the court docket.
In exchange for the guilty plea, Jaar had agreed to be sentenced by a judge, provide truthful testimony, produce documents and records, and appear before a grand jury and at other legal proceedings when called upon by federal prosecutors.
CNN has reached out to Jaar’s attorney, Frank Schwartz, for comment.
Jaar was one of several suspects who were at large in the months after Moise’s assassination. He was arrested in the Dominican Republic and extradited to the United States in January 2022.
Authorities have said that dozens of people were involved in the assassination, including 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans. Colombian suspect Mario Palacios also was extradited to the US in 2022.
Jaar provided funds used to acquire weapons, provided food and lodging to other co-conspirators, and provided funding to bribe Haitian officials responsible for Moise’s security, according to the plea agreement.
There is no evidence that Russia’s stumbling invasion of Ukraine has altered Beijing’s perceptions of “the timescale or methodology” for any potential attack on Taiwan, according to a leading strategic think tank, which was released ahead of a regional security summit in Singapore. China continues to be the “leading long-term challenge” to the current international order.
According to a report released on Friday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which is holding its annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this weekend, the protracted conflict in Europe may also hasten trends towards increased military spending and efforts to develop military capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.
The war and its reverberations in the Asia-Pacific region – as well as the growing contest between the United States and China – will be overarching themes at the security summit, the sidelines of which have long provided a platform for top security officials to meet face-to-face.
Attendees are expected to include US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
US and Chinese defense chiefs are not expected to meet this year – a mark of the depth of the fracture in relations between the two countries.
Austin on Thursday said it was “unfortunate” China declined a US offer to meet at the conference and warned the ongoing lack of communication could result in “an incident that could very, very quickly spiral out of control.”
Beijing earlier this week refuted the claim it was blocking American defense officials’ efforts to communicate, instead blaming the US for creating “artificial obstacles, seriously undermining mutual trust between the two militaries.”
Concerns from the US and across the region over China’s increasing assertiveness have grown in recent years as Beijing rapidly expanded its navy, militarized islands in the South China Sea, sought to forge security pacts in the South Pacific and ramped up rhetoric around disputed territorial claims.
Those concerns have sharpened over the past year, as Beijing twice staged extensive military drills around the island of Taiwan and refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
That invasion has also drawn increased attention to Taiwan as a potential security flashpoint in Asia.
Despite broad differences with the geopolitical circumstances of Russia and Ukraine, the optics of a seemingly more powerful aggressor launching an attack driven by a vision of unification have heightenedfocus on China’s intentions toward Taiwan.
China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy as its own, despite never having controlled it, and has vowed to unify the island with the mainland, by force if necessary.
The IISS report released Friday, an annual assessment on Asia-Pacific security written by the think tank’s experts, said there is no evidence the war in Ukraine has “altered Chinese thinking on the timescale or methodology” for a possible attack on Taiwan.
“Beijing’s view of Taiwan as an internal challenge has shaped its assessment that a Chinese use of force to regain the island would be utterly dissimilar to the Ukraine war,” the report said.
Chinese military thinkers had, however, analyzed the implications of Western support for Ukraine and the factors that contributed to Russia’s poor military performance, according to the report.
It added that it was “impossible to determine whether China will use force to take Taiwan at some point in the future,” and that Beijing’s decision-making would be shaped not just by “an assessment of military capability but also by a consideration of likely US and allied non-military reactions,” including potential economic impacts.
“There is no evidence that China has a fixed timetable for invading Taiwan,” the report added.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s rhetoric around Taiwan was one of several key triggers accounting for Japan’s growing concern over China, the report said.
China was continuing to develop its “blue-water” capabilities to operate on the high seas far away from its ports, according to the report.
But the efforts of the US and its most important regional allies to increase their naval funding and readiness “could facilitate a shift in the naval balance in their favor,” it said.
The US has made concerted efforts to bolster its security alliances and footprint in the region in recent years in the face of a rising China.
That has included strengthening trilateral cooperation with allies South Korea and Japan and revamping the Quad security grouping with Australia, Japan and India, widely seen as a counter to China’s military rise.
Earlier this year, the US, the United Kingdom and Australia agreed to build a combined fleet of elite nuclear-powered submarines.
However, many regional states prefer to avoid taking sides in the “growing confrontation” between the US and China, the IISS report said, adding there is “no region-wide trend towards alignment with the US,” due to economic dependencies and fear of escalation.
Beijing has repeatedly claimed its People’s Liberation Army is a defensive force meant to safeguard world peace and development – a point China’s defense chief Li is expected to emphasize at the conference, where he will also discuss Beijing’s vision for regional security.
It is Li’s first time attending the conference since stepping into his role as defense minister earlier this year. Li was sanctioned by the US in 2018 over China’s purchase of Russian weapons.
Both he and Austin are scheduled to deliver addresses to the conference, which runs from Friday to Sunday.
Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an Alabama teen, was being transferred to a different prison in Peru early on Saturday, according to officials. This was the first stage in what is anticipated to be his eventual temporary transfer to face prosecution in the United States.
Officials with knowledge of the situation who spoke to journalists from CNN en Espaol said that Van der Sloot was being transferred from a maximum security jail in southern Peru to a prison in the capital, Lima.
An earlier report from CNN en Espaol cited a source as saying that van der Sloot’s temporary transfer from Peru to the United Stateswill start Friday night.
Van der Sloot is set to be transferred to the US to face extortion and fraud charges related to an alleged plot to extort Holloway’s family after her disappearance, Peruvian officials have said. How long the transfer process would take is not yet known, officials told CNN en Español journalists.
Maximo Altez, van der Sloot’s attorney, received a letter from van der Sloot last week asking him not to appeal his transfer to the US. “I want to go to the US,” van der Sloot wrote, Altez told CNN en Español Tuesday.
Van der Sloot was involved in a fight inside his prison ward during visiting hours last week and suffered a cut to his fingers and some bruising, Altez said, adding that van der Sloot was placed in the prison’s medical section.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch national, was convicted in 2012 of murdering Stephany Flores, 21, in his Lima hotel room and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
He faces charges in connection with an alleged plot to sell false information about the whereabouts of 18-year-old Holloway’s remains in exchange for $250,000. Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, wired $15,000 to a bank account van der Sloot held in the Netherlands and through her attorney gave him another $10,000 in person, according to a 2010 US federal indictment.
Once he had the initial $25,000, van der Sloot said he would show John Kelly, the Holloway family attorney, where Natalee Holloway’s remains were hidden, but the information turned out to be false, the indictment states.
Natalee Holloway was last seen alive with van der Sloot and two other men 18 years ago leaving a nightclub in Aruba.
Police in Aruba arrested and released the three men – van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe – multiple times in 2005 and 2007 in connection with Holloway’s disappearance. Attorneys for the men maintained the men’s innocence throughout the investigation.
In December 2007, the Aruban Public Prosecutor’s Office said none of the three would be charged and dropped the cases against them, citing insufficient evidence.
Holloway’s body has not been found. An Alabama judge signed an order in 2012 declaring her legally dead. No one is currently charged in her death.
On Tuesday, weather officials warned that smoke from blazing wildfires in Nova Scotia that have caused almost 18,500 people to flee is moving from Canada to the United States and will affect communities throughout the northeast.
The ongoing fires cover more than 25,000 acres, have burned numerous buildings, and have caused enormous clouds of smoke to rise over the area. They are occurring while the Canadian region experiences heat records-breaking temperatures. Due to the “seriousness of the current fires,” officials declared a burn restriction for the entire province on Monday.
According to the National Weather Service in Boston, the smoke is moving towards Cape Cod and will spread throughout portions of New England as the winds change to the southeast.
“Those with a sensitive nose may be able to smell the smoke as it pushes through the region,” the agency said.
A fire burning in Halifax, the provincial capital of Nova Scotia, is “not yet under control” and has forced around 16,492 people to evacuate, according to Halifax Regional Municipality officials.
Authorities said about 2,000 people have been evacuated from Shelburne County in southwest Nova Scotia.
All schools in Shelburne County and at least 14 schools in Halifax will be closed Wedesday, officials announced in an update Tuesday evening, as wildfires remain out of control.
Residents are still advised to avoid the evacuation areas as at least 200 structures suffered damage from the fires, Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Deputy Chief Dave Meldrum said on Tuesday, adding that the fires have not yet been contained.
“Please don’t return to the evacuated area. It’s still a dangerous place. It’s not ready for you yet,” Meldrum added.
“I am praying for any type of precipitation at this point, and I know everybody up here shares in that thought,” David Steeves with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Steeves said the possibility of wildfires spreading more quickly is increasing every day. There is no rainfall expected in the coming days for the area, according to CNN meteorologists, but as of Tuesday evening, the forecast called for a chance of rain at the end of the week.
“Weather is not helping us at all in regard to this,” Steeves said.
Near Philadelphia, the air quality was considered “moderate” as of Tuesday morning, according to a recent tweet from the National Weather Service. But it’s still uncertain whether the wildfire smoke will reach the ground before dissipating. If it does, the air quality could deteriorate quickly – especially for sensitive groups such as the elderly, young children and people with respiratory illnesses.
An area of high pressure centered to the south of Nova Scotia will bring winds from the southeast later on Tuesday, allowing the smoke to disperse inland and exit north and west of New York. Although some smoke and haze may linger overnight, a general clearing trend is expected near coastal New York.
Eight of the 13 wildfires burning in Nova Scotia started on Monday, three of which are “out of control,” Scott Tingley, manager of forest protection for the region’s Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, said during a Tuesday news conference.
The five remaining active wildfires are “small” and authorities have been successful in containing them, Tingley said.
During the news conference, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston reminded residents of the provincewide burn ban, saying it was “absolutely ridiculous” that at least six illegal burns were found on Monday by conservation officers.
“Don’t be burning right now. No burning in Nova Scotia,” Houston said. “For God’s sake, stop burning. Stop flicking your cigarette butts out your car window. Just stop it.”
The ban is expected to stay in place until June 25, “unless the Province determines it can be lifted sooner,” officials said in a news release on Monday.
“Our resources right now are stretched incredibly thin right now fighting existing fires,” Houston said.
Every household required to evacuate will receive $500 administered through the Canadian Red Cross, according to the release. The funds are intended to help with what Houston called “urgent needs such as food and personal care items.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the wildfires “incredibly serious” in a tweet Monday.
“We stand ready to provide any federal support and assistance needed,” Trudeau said. “We’re keeping everyone affected in our thoughts, and we’re thanking those who are working hard to keep people safe.”
Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a teenage girl from Alabama, wants to be temporarily moved to the United States, according to his lawyer Maximo Altez.
According to Peruvian officials, Van der Sloot will be extradited from their country to the US to face extortion and fraud charges relating to an alleged scheme to demand money from Holloway’s family after she vanished.
Altez claimed that last week, van der Sloot sent him a letter requesting that the lawyer not challenge Altez’s admission to the United States. Van der Sloot wrote, “I want to go to the US,” according to Altez, speaking to CNN en Espaol on Tuesday.
Van der Sloot was involved in a fight inside his prison ward during visiting hours on Saturday and suffered a cut to his fingers and some bruising, Altez said. He was placed in the prison’s medical section, Altez said.
“It wasn’t a direct assault against him, it was a fight among some inmates and my client got involved when he tried to defend his friend, who was injured on the leg. As a consequence (Joran) got injured in his hand,” Altez told CNN en Español.
The attorney had earlier said his client had been “severely” beaten, ABC News reported.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch national, was convicted in 2012 of murdering Stephany Flores, 21, in his Lima hotel room and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
“He (van der Sloot) was not beaten. He was not attacked,” a spokesperson for the Peruvian National Penitentiary Institute said in a statement sent to CNN en Español on Monday.
The spokesperson did not comment further.
Altez told CNN en Español that van der Sloot sent him another letter the day after the incident requesting his transfer to another ward or another prison.
Altez can’t communicate directly with his client as there are no phones inside Peru’s Challapalca Prison, so they communicate by letter, he said.
An attorney for the Holloway family, John Kelly, declined to comment when reached by CNN Tuesday.
Van der Sloot faces extortion and fraud charges in connection with an alleged plot to sell false information about the whereabouts of 18-year-old Holloway’s remains in exchange for $250,000. Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, wired $15,000 to a bank account van der Sloot held in the Netherlands and through her attorney gave him another $10,000 in person, according to a 2010 US federal indictment.
Once he had the initial $25,000, van der Sloot said he would show the attorney, Kelly, where Natalee Holloway’s remains were hidden, but the information turned out to be false, the indictment states.
The indictment asks for van der Sloot to forfeit $25,100. That amount includes $100 Beth Holloway initially transferred to van der Sloot to confirm his account.
Natalee Holloway was last seen alive with van der Sloot and two other men 18 years ago leaving a nightclub in Aruba.
Police in Aruba arrested and released the three men – van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe – multiple times in 2005 and 2007 in connection with Holloway’s disappearance. Attorneys for the men maintained the men’s innocence throughout the investigation.
In December 2007, the Aruban Public Prosecutor’s Office said none of the three would be charged and dropped the cases against them citing insufficient evidence.
Holloway’s body has not been found. An Alabama judge signed an order in 2012 declaring her legally dead. No one is currently charged for her death.
Authorities in the United States and Mexico are requesting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a public health emergency in response to a fungus outbreak connected to cosmetic operations in Mexico.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said two people who got surgeries involving epidural anaesthesia have died of meningitis.
Almost 400 people in the US and Mexico are being monitored.
Two cosmetic clinics in the Mexican city of Matamoros have been shut.
Authorities in both the US and Mexico have urged people who had surgeries involving epidural anaesthesia at either the River Side Surgical Center or Clinica K-3 since January to get evaluated, even if they are currently asymptomatic.
The CDC said it had already identified 25 people in the US with “suspected” or “probable” cases of fungal meningitis.
Many US citizens travel to Mexico for cosmetic procedures such as liposuction, breast augmentation and Brazilian butt lifts, which all require the injection of an anaesthetic into the area around the spinal column.
The CDC’s Dallas Smith said that medications used during anaesthesia in the current outbreak may have been contaminated either in the epidural itself or in other medications that are added in conjunction during the surgeries like morphine.
“There’s a shortage currently in Mexico, and there could be potential for a black market that could have contaminated medicine,” said Mr Smith.
Last October, a batch of a local anaesthetic commonly used for operations such as Caesarean births was found to have been infected by the same fungus, leading to the death of 39 people in the Mexican state of Durango.
The most common early symptom of fungal meningitis is headaches, followed by symptoms like fever, vomiting, neck pain, and blurred vision.
Fungal meningitis is not contagious and can be treated with antifungal medicines – but it can can quickly become life-threatening once symptoms begin.
Americans often travel to Mexico for low-cost medical services.
The WHO declares a public health emergency when a disease spreads between countries and may a co-ordinated international response may be required to bring it under control.
A Ghanaian national, Koffi Addo, has been fatally shot by a taxi client in the United States (US).
The deceased, a 57-year-old father left Ghana at the age of 37 according to his partner and has since arrival in the United States worked two jobs to cater for his nuclear family and extended family back home.
It was during one on his jobs as a taxi driver that he was shot and killed by a client in Somerset County, New Jersey.
Local police confirmed the incident had happened at around 10 p.m. Thursday, May 18, according to CBS News report.
Authorities said somebody got into a taxi at Rose Street and Sydney Place in Franklin Township, confronted the driver, then shot him and ran off, the report read in part.
Addo’s son and girlfriend said he immigrated to the U.S. from Ghana 20 years ago to make life better for his family.
“My father was a very hard-working man who always mind his own business, always had that thought about the American dream, work hard,” said Hubert Addo.
“Now these poor children have no father and I have no boyfriend anymore, and that was a great man that I wanted to settle my life down with for the rest of my life, and he’s gone,” said Kecia Banks.
Investigators said there may be more than one suspect. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.
The swiftest and most sophisticated assault on Kyiv to date was Moscow’s enormous missile strike this past week. One of the famed Patriot missile defence systems used by the United States was allegedly hit, according to the Kremlin.
Although bold, the assertion turned out to have some support. According to US sources speaking to CNN, the sophisticated automated missile system had only sustained minor damage, presumably from falling debris, but it had not been destroyed and was still operational.
Though much of Kyiv’s nearly impenetrable missile shield was donated by NATO allies, speculation that day sparked worries that Russia would now find weak spots to exploit.
The following night, however, the skies over the capital were quiet. The all-too-familiar and unnerving sound of intercept rockets launching at the incoming deadly payloads didn’t happen. President Xi’s envoy, Li Hui, was spending the night there on a pre-planned, publicly announced visit. A missile that disturbed his peace or, worse, hit him could have changed the course of the war.
But Putin needed metaphorical blood on Volodymyr Zelensky’s nose while Ukrainian officials met Li. He wants to persuade the one world leader who can tip the scales in his stalled fight with Ukraine that he can win, and that his offensive is worthy of military support.
Nothing would have spoken louder of Moscow’s prestige than for its much vaunted – and expensive – hypersonic missile the Kinzhal to have won a duel with American Patriots.
Flying at up to 10 times the speed of sound, the six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles he fired that night cost a total of $60 million. The nine cruise missiles fired from his Black Sea fleet almost doubled the bill – and that’s before adding in the cost of the Iskander and S400 missiles also part of that night’s onslaught.
Xi isn’t the only leader with skin in the Ukraine war that Putin appears to be trying to sway his way right now.
The mercurial Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a phone call from Putin the same day Li left Kyiv. Within hours of the call, months of wrangling with Moscow over the “Black Sea Grain Deal” had been laid to rest.
The UN-brokered deal ensuring Ukraine can get its grain to world markets – critical to food security in east Africa and other impoverished regions – was first inked last July and is renewed every few months. Each time Moscow drags its feet, grain supplies stutter and almost stall before Putin signals they can continue.
The agreement has become another attempted lever of Russian influence over Turkey. Since the war began Putin has been trying to get Erdogan off the diplomatic fence, to quit supporting both Russia and Ukraine – to whom he sends vital battlefield drones.
Late last year, Putin offered Erdogan a potentially lucrative deal to host a new Russian gas export hub to Europe, now that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline running under the Baltic Sea to Germany has been destroyed.
Erdogan is a perma-hunter, always scavenging for ways to secure his place as president, and Turkey’s leverage with international partners. Geopolitics is his trade bazaar of choice, and Putin plays on it.
Letting the Black Sea Grain deal live for another 60 days was Putin’s gift for Erdogan. He could have made it harder, and potentially more politically perilous for the Turkish leader – who faces a run-off vote in his country’s presidential elections on May 28.
Putin likely calculated he had no need to commit to the deal until after the first round of the Turkish elections last week. Its outcome appears to signal Erdogan will likely win the run-off, making the grain deal a useful diplomatic investment for Putin.
There is of course no guarantee that Erdogan will win. There is no guarantee either that Xi cares about Putin’s missile salvo targeting Kyiv’s Patriot missile batteries either, but he will have been paying attention.
A gold standard in protection, Patriots are shipped all over the world to America’s allies; they are both a signal of political support and an act of real-time military defense – a powerful symbol of collective safety.
As Xi mulls his growing tensions with the US and a possible confrontation over the disputed island of Taiwan, the war in Ukraine is providing an object lesson on whose weapons are best, what works and where America’s weak spots are.
While Putin’s real war strategy – beyond trying to bludgeon 40 million Ukrainians into submission – is hard to fathom, he certainly sets high value in his relationship with Xi.
It was Xi he visited on the eve of his unlawful, unjustified invasion of Ukraine last year. It was Xi who came to Moscow and spoke of a peace deal that never acknowledged Russia’s trampling of Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law. Nor for that matter did Xi mention the moral depravity of Putin’s troops and the war crimes both they and the Kremlin have committed.
In short, from Putin’s perspective, Xi is the closest thing to a powerful ally that he has at the moment – but he would be a whole lot more useful if he believed Moscow could win the war. Smashing Kyiv’s Patriot on the eve of the Chinese envoy’s visit would have been a sign that Russia’s military muscle has not been entirely wasted on the battlefield and that Putin has a few punches left in him.
Kyiv meanwhile believes it also has good reason to court Li. Zelensky’s government thinks Xi does listen to its side of the war story, which it sees as fundamental to undermining Putin’s victimhood narrative.
At the United Nations in New York on the eve of the war’s first anniversary, Ukraine garnered 141 votes in favor of its motion demanding Russia leave its territory. The Chinese didn’t publicize Xi’s 12-point peace plan until the following day. Ukraine views that as respectful, indicating dialogue is worthwhile.
Despite Putin’s shots at taking out the Patriots, Li’s visit doesn’t appear to have changed that view. Both Beijing and Kyiv – huge differences notwithstanding – are still speaking about the “constructive” role China can play. That’s certainly not the return on investment the Kremlin would have been hoping for.
Less than a year after the start of negotiations, the United States and Taiwan agreed on the first stage of a bilateral trade initiative on Thursday. This action highlighted the growing closeness of the two countries.
It will be the first formal trade pact between Taiwan and the United States since US President Joe Biden took office in 2021. The new plan, known as the US-Taiwan plan of 21st Century Trade, was presented in June of last year.
According to a statement from the US Trade Representative (USTR) Office, it covers topics such as trade facilitation, regulatory practises, domestic regulation of services, anti-corruption, and aiding small and medium-sized firms.
However, it does not cover tariffs.
“This accomplishment represents an important step forward in strengthening the US-Taiwan economic relationship,” US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in the statement.
“It demonstrates how we can work together and advance mutual trade priorities on behalf of our people. We look forward to continuing these negotiations and finalizing a robust and high-standard trade agreement that tackles pressing 21st century economic challenges,” she added.
The US Trade Representative Office said discussions will soon begin to finalize the remaining seven areas of the deal: agriculture, labor, environment, standards, state-owned enterprises, digital trade, and non-market policies and practices.
It added that a signing ceremony will be held “in the coming weeks.”
Experts say the move is particularly significant for Taiwan because it is the island democracy’s first official trade agreement since it was excluded from the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) launched by Biden last year.
The IPEF, made up of 14 member states including Japan, Singapore and the Philippines, is not a trade agreement in the traditional sense. It includes one “pillar” related to trade, but has other aims too, including making supply chains more resilient, promoting clean energy and combating corruption.
Kristy Hsu, a director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution of Economic Research, said the US-Taiwan agreement would “create a more efficient and transparent business environment for companies from the two sides.”
“It proves to the international world that if Taiwan is able to engage in such a high-quality initiative with the US, that means our commitment to transparency and trade facilitation should have no question,” she said.
Taiwan, population around 24 million, is currently the world’s 21st largest economy. It plays a crucial role in global supply chains due to its leading role in producing semiconductor chips, vital components in everything from smartphones to computers.
One of its firms – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) – is particularly important. It is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of chips and plays a critical role in powering products designed by tech companies like Apple, Qualcomm and Nvidia.
Worth nearly $500 billion, TSMC is one of Asia’s most valuable companies, and accounts for 90% of the world’s super-advanced chips.
The strengthening US-Taiwan relationship comes as the self-governing island comes under increasing pressure from mainland China, whose ruling Communist Party claims sovereignty over Taiwan despite never having controlled it.
Consequently, Taiwan has emerged as one of the central issues between China and the United States. The US has shown its support for Taiwan recently by increasing weapons sales to the island, but experts say trade pacts can also play a key role in elevating Taiwan’s international standing.
“It very much sends a signal of recognition that Taiwan is an important ally to the United States,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior adviser with the International Republican Institute.
“Taking the lead in signing a trade agreement with Taiwan and bolstering its economy also sets the tone for other countries to potentially explore the possibility of signing their own agreements with Taiwan as well,” he added.
Hsu, the economist at the Chung-Hua Institution, said the latest agreement could create momentum in the US-Taiwan economic relationship.
“The harmonization of trade rules and regulations mean customs procedures and efficiency may be improved, and that may help save money and time for exporters,” she said.
While the present agreement does not include any reduction in tariffs, Taiwan’s trade representative John Deng said last year that it could be a precursor to a free-trade agreement.
The development also comes amid efforts by Taiwan to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a major free-trade agreement that came into force in 2018.
The CPTPP comprises of 11 founding members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. In March, Britain also reached an agreement to join the free trade bloc.
In 2021, Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP, but its request is still under consideration. China has also submitted an application to join.
Analysts say the US-Taiwan trade agreement could boost Taiwan’s hopes of joining the CPTPP, even if some members are reluctant to include it due to fears of angering Beijing.
“This trade initiative (between US and Taiwan) actually covers most of the chapters under the CPTPP,” Hsu said. “It will help Taiwan to accelerate our regulatory reform for our efforts toward joining the CPTPP.”
Some analysts expect China to protest the US-Taiwan deal, which it opposed when the first round of negotiations began last year.
“The attempt to play the ‘Taiwan card’ and prevent China’s unification and national rejuvenation will not succeed,” the spokesman of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Ma Xiaoguang said last August.
Hsu also cautioned that reaching a consensus in the remaining seven areas of the US-Taiwan trade initiative could be more challenging as it may require Taiwan to make concessions that could be controversial domestically.
In 2020, lawmakers in Taiwan threw pig intestines in parliament to protest a proposal to ease restrictions on pork imports from the US. Opponents said the move would allow imports of pork containing ractopamine, an animal feed additive common in the US. The proposal was later passed in a referendum.
“There will be some challenges in the remaining seven chapters,” Hsu said.
As a result of US President Joe Biden cancelling his trip, a summit of the leaders of the United States, India, Australia, and Japan that was to be held in Sydney the following week has been postponed, according to Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He added that discussions may still take place while leaders are in Japan.
On May 24, Biden was scheduled to attend a meeting of the informal security conversation with Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. This meeting was considered as a response to China’s strong stance in the region.
The late hour cancellation – which also saw Biden pull out of a visit to Papua New Guinea – comes as the US seeks to energize its security ties in the Pacific amid rising competition with Beijing.
But Washington’s fractious domestic politics has curtailed what would have been a significant visit to Asia by a US president.
Biden had been planning to travel to Sydney for the summit as part of a weeklong Asia tour that was set to begin in Hiroshima, Japan, for a Group of Seven (G7) leader summit, and include a stopover in Papua New Guinea for a meeting with Pacific Island leaders.
Biden will still travel to Japan starting Wednesday, but he canceled the additional legs of the trip, due to the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations in Washington, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
The Quad leaders would instead have discussions in Japan, where all four leaders would be over the weekend, Albanese said Wednesday, adding that no time had been confirmed.
“The Quad is an important body and we want to make sure that it occurs at leadership level and we’ll be having that discussion over the weekend,” the Australian leader said.
The meeting would be the third in-person leaders gathering for the Quad, known formally as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which was founded over 15 years ago but has seen increased prominence in recent years.
The leaders were expected to discuss deepening their cooperation on a range of issues from critical and emerging technologies, to climate change and maritime domain awareness, according to a statement released by the White House last month.
Albanese said the other Quad leaders could still visit Sydney next week and that discussions are underway.
The Australian leader also hinted at Biden’s frustration that events on Capitol Hill had forced his hand.
Biden and Albanese spoke over the phone early Wednesday, when Biden expressed his disappointment “at some of the actions of some members of Congress and the US Senate,” Albanese said.
“It is behavior that clearly is not in the interests of the people of the United States, but it’s also because the US has a critical role as the world’s largest economy. It has implications for the global economy as well, this hold up of the debt ceiling that they’re engaged with,” Albanese said.
Biden has been meeting with lawmakers in Washington as the White House scrambles to avert a potential government default. Congress has failed to come to an agreement on raising the country’s debt ceiling, though negotiations are ongoing.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said a default could trigger a global economic downturn, “risk undermining US global economic leadership,” and raise questions about America’s ability to defend its national security interests.
Both the Quad meeting in Sydney and Biden’s planned Monday stopover in Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby had been seen by observers as opportunities to strengthen US partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.
The region has taken on a greater importance for Washington as China becomes increasingly assertive over its territorial claims in regional seas, expands its naval capabilities and militarizes islands in the South China Sea.
Beijing has also ramped up its military intimidation of Taiwan, a self-governing democratic island China’s ruling Communist Party claims as its territory. Last month, Beijing launched military drills around the island in retaliation for a visit between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
In Port Moresby, Biden had been slated to meet Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and other leaders from the region’s Pacific Island Forum.
The visit, highly anticipated by the Marape government as a potential economic boon, was the latest step by the US to re-engage in the South Pacific – a strategically significant region widely seen as having been largely overlooked by Washington since the close of the Cold War.
China has in recent years elevated its own diplomatic outreach in the region and made significant inroads with some Pacific Islands governments, including the signing of a bilateral security deal with the Solomon Islands last year.
Biden’s visit to Port Moresby would have been the first by a sitting US President and would have coincided with negotiations between the two countries on a defense cooperation agreement.
Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation think tank in the US, said the impact of the cancellation of the Quad meeting in Sydney might be “negligible,” as the grouping already had “good momentum” from previous meetings.
The cancellation of Monday’s visit to Papua New Guinea, however, could have more far-reaching consequences for US policy toward the Pacific Islands, he said.
The US “has done a good job in elevating its game in the region, but this missed (Papua New Guinea) visit will serve as evidence to the contrary – essentially that Washington is an unreliable partner over the long-term,” he said.
“This feeds directly into Beijing’s narrative and could strengthen its hand,” he said.
Ukraine claims to have successfully intercepted a Russian hypersonic missile using a Patriot air defense system for the first time.
The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, posted on Telegram on Saturday, “Yes, we have intercepted the ‘unmatched’ Kinzhal,’” adding an emoji of the Ukrainian flag.
Oleshchuk said the interception had place on May 4 during a nighttime raid over Kyiv.
Hypersonic ballistic missile Kh-47 Kinzhal. It is challenging to intercept since it moves at a speed ten times that of sound and can be shot from a distance away from the battlefield.
Ukraine has received at least two Patriot systems, one from the United States and one from Germany, to enhance its air defenses, which have previously been unable to intercept more modern Russian missiles such as the Kinzhal.
If it is confirmed that Ukraine successfully shot down Kinzhal it raises questions about Russian capabilities.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Inhat said Saturday that the Russians said “the Patriot is an outdated American weapon, and Russian weapons are the best in the world.”
“Well, there is confirmation that it effectively works against even a super hypersonic missile,” Ihnat said, adding that intercepting the Kinzhal is “a slap in the face for Russia.”
Last month Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Patriots would be critical in defending Ukrainian infrastructure against ballistic missiles.
“Building a multi-level air and missile defense system as soon as possible is our priority,” he declared. “This is to protect peaceful cities, critical infrastructure, and our people in the rear and at the front. Patriot systems create a capability that did not exist before – to defeat ballistic targets.”
A Texas gunman opened fire on a train, leaving one passenger dead and two more injured.
An altercation between passengers on the Green Line of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) train resulted in the fatal gunshot.
The shooting happened on Sunday at around 4.30 p.m., according to DART Police. When the shots were fired, the train was close to Hatcher Station in Dallas.
Two people were immediately transported to a local hospital for treatment. One victim, the shooter’s target, died at the hospital.
The shooting took place at Hatcher Station in Dallas (Picture: Google)
The other two victims were identified as bystanders. One was treated and released at the scene, while the other was hospitalized in unknown condition.
The shooter then fled the scene and remains at large.
DART closed the station and rerouted passengers for hours after the shooting took place.
‘Green Line passengers should expect delays and will need to board a Bus shuttle between MLK and Lawnview stations due to police activity in the area,’ the agency said on Twitter. ‘Our apologies for the inconvenience.’
The station was reopened the same night after the investigation ended around 8.30pm.
The shooting culminated a weekend of gun violence in the Texas city home to 1.3million people. The incident took place just under 24 hours after a gunman killed eight people and injured seven at a Dallas-area outlet mall.
The shooter, later identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, opened fire with an AR-15 style rifle into the crowd at the Allen Premium Outlets, located about 30 miles north of downtown Dallas.
Garcia was killed at the scene. Investigators are currently probing his connections to neo-Nazi groups and white supremacist ideology due to a patch he was seen wearing on his chest.
There have been a total of 202 mass shootings in the United States in 2023, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive.
The stabilization of relations is a “top priority,” according to China‘s foreign minister, who said that the United States has put relations between the two countries on “cold ice” due to a “series of incorrect words and deeds.”
The exchange took place during Qin Gang’s first encounter with US ambassador Nicholas Burns since an argument over a Chinese balloon derailed efforts to improve relations earlier this year.
Following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with US President Joe Biden in Indonesia last year, Qin claimed that US words and actions had damaged “hard-won positive momentum.”
“The agenda of dialogue and cooperation agreed by the two sides has been disrupted, and the relationship between the two countries has once again hit the cold ice,” he said according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.
In a brief post on Twitter, Burns said he and Qin discussed “challenges in the US-China relationship and the necessity of stabilizing ties and expanding high-level communication.”
Tensions between the world’s two biggest economies soared in February after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over the continental US and was subsequently shot down by the American military.
The incident prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing – a visit seen as an important step in repairing fraught diplomatic ties that are at their worst in decades. There has been no indication whether the trip will be rescheduled.
“The top priority now is to stabilize Sino-US relations, avoid a downward spiral and prevent any accidents between China and the US,” Qin told Burns, according to the Chinese readout. “This should be the most fundamental consensus between China and the US.”
Qin urged the US to “reflect deeply” and “meet China halfway” to push bilateral relations out of their current predicament.
“(The US) can’t talk about communication on the one hand, but keep suppressing and containing China on the other hand,” he said, adding that Washington must respect China’s bottom lines and stop undermining its sovereignty, security and development interests – in particular on the issue of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing claims as its own.
Reiterating Beijing’s talking points, Qin urged the US to stop the hollowing out of the “one China” principle and end support for “Taiwan independent” forces.
Under Washington’s longstanding “one China” policy, the US acknowledges Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized the Chinese Communist Party’s claim to the democratic island of more than 23 million. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, Washington is also bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
Under Xi, China has ramped up economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, increasing fears he may one day make an attempt to follow through on his goal of “reunifying” the island with the mainland.
Monday’s meeting was Qin’s first with Burns since the former Chinese ambassador to the US was promoted to foreign minister in December.
It also followed Burns’ comments last week that the US is “ready to talk” to China.
“Our view is we need better channels between the two governments and deeper channels, and we are ready to talk,” Burns said at an event at the Stimson Center, which he attended virtually.
“We’ve never been shy of talking, and we hope the Chinese will meet us halfway on this,” he said.
Beijing cut off talks with Washington on major issues, from climate change to military relations, in August last year in response to then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile visit to Taipei.
The two sides resumed climate talks following Xi and Biden’s meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia last November.
Burns told the Stimson Center event that the US has been calling on China to open all of the channels suspended following Pelosi’s Taiwan trip. He reiterated Blinken’s visit to China would be rescheduled “when conditions are appropriate.”
After two mass shootings in less than 48 hours that resulted in several fatalities, Serbians are in shock and demanding explanations. There are also broad calls for severe measures to stop similar tragedies from happening again.
Although Serbia has a high rate of gun ownership, mass shootings of the kind that occur frequently in the United States are exceedingly uncommon there, and school shootings were almost unheard of until this week.
All of that changed on Wednesday when a 13-year-old boy opened fire on his classmates at a school in Belgrade, the country’s capital, killing at least eight kids and a security officer.
The nation was still in deep shockwhen news of another mass killing broke on Thursday night. A 21-year old gunman wielding an automatic weapon killed eight people in the village of Dubona, south of the capital city. The gunman has been arrested following a massive overnight manhunt involving hundreds of special forces.
“This never happened in Serbia before. We only heard about this [happening in] the United States. You could never dream that this would happen here,” Belgrade resident Marko Kovacevic told CNN. “This is the worst thing that happened in Serbia since the bombing in 1999,” another resident, David Stevens, told CNN at a vigil in Belgrade.
The reaction was swift. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić promised on Friday, just hours after the second shooting, that the government will make urgent changes to the country’s firearm legislation.
He proposed tougher conditions for people who wish to purchase weapons and a national gun buyback program for those who can’t fulfill those conditions.
“Great nations managed to find solutions after big tragedies,” Vučić said during a news conference on Friday. “We have to find the way to live freely and to confront this evil,” he said.
The government is also proposing a two-year moratorium on the issuing of new gun permits and a review of existing permits within the next three months.
It is also looking to potentially ban cell phones from schools and put new regulations on social media – specifically aimed at “content that can seriously harm the physical, mental or moral development of minors.”
The massacres have left many in Serbia aghast, with questions about the motives behind them high on people’s minds.
The night before the killings at the Belgrade elementary, the 13-year-old suspect was up late watching videos on TikTok and an American documentary about a school shooting, according to Belgrade police chief Veselin Milić, who declined to name the specific film.
“This murderer said that he had seen some weird American film where a boy did the same in his school. The murderer had no empathy or remorse,” he told CNN in an interview on Thursday.
The teenage suspect fired 57 rounds insideVladislav Ribnikar Elementary, a prestigious school in an upscale part of Belgrade. The police said he was remarkably proficient in the way he handled the weapon, changing clips as he moved through the school.
He used two handguns that his father owned legally and kept in a locked safe.
Milić said that the boy’s father had previously taken him to a gun range in the basement of Belgrade’s FK Partizan football club’s stadium – even though it is illegal in Serbia for young people to handle guns.
Asked about the legality of teaching a child to use a gun, Milić said, “It’s absolutely illegal. It’s neither normal nor natural.”
The school shooting on Wednesday sparked questions about criminal responsibility after it emerged that the suspect cannot be held liable.
Under Serbian law, children under 14 cannot be held criminally responsible. The suspect’s parents have been detained for possible crimes related to the boy’s access to the locked safe where they stored the gun, but they have not yet been formally charged.
“It is terrifying to see such a young person has the capacity to perform such a horrendous act,” Stevens added.
The boy is currently being held in a psychiatric facility, but his long-term future is unclear. Milić said the suspect was not under the influence of drugs at the time of the shooting, and had not been the victim of bullying, though he had recently fallen out with his friends and changed classes in an attempt to fit in.
Many are also questioning the initial reaction of the school authorities. While there was an armed police officer on the school campus that day, Belgrade police said the officer didn’t immediately run towards the sound of gunfire, but instead waited for backup, then entered the school minutes later to arrest the suspect – who had called police himself.
For comparison, in the US, where school shootings have tragically become regular occurrence in recent years, police are trained to immediately go towards the sound of gunfire and try to take out the shooter.
Belgrade police have not yet responded to CNN’s requests for clarification on its own protocols and whether they were followed in this case.
On Wednesday night in Belgrade, crowds gathered to protest against the authorities, demanding the resignation of Education Minister Branko Ružić. His deputy, Milan Pašić, told CNN his boss had offered his resignation, but it was not clear if it would be accepted. The offer was not enough for some teachers in the city, who plan to walk out on Friday over school safety concerns.
Pašić insisted that the school was as safe as it could have been. “Unfortunately, it happened in school, but it could’ve happened on the street, in the park. In any case this is just one tragic case,” he said.
For the past three days, there has been plenty of public discussion about mental health, parental responsibility, violent video games, social media and, of course, guns.
While Serbia is a country that has known violence, conflict and war, it has not had to reckon with questions around this type of mass shooting.
It has the highest level of civilian gun ownership in Europe, and the fifth-highest in the world – a legacy of years of conflict in the 1990s. But getting a gun legally is a complicated process that requires a background check, medical check and a training course. The person wanting a gun also has to prove they have a good reason to own one.
In the meantime, ordinary people are doing what they can, as victims continue to fight for their lives in hospital. A blood donation clinic close to the school in central Belgrade said it had twice as many donors as usual turn up to give blood following the shooting.
After a lengthy break in construction, China is now making “significant progress” on its fifth research center in Antarctica, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
After several years of stagnation following the start of construction in 2018, the site now has new support facilities and the foundation for a larger structure, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Washington-based think group.
The conclusions were based on Maxar’s most recent satellite photos.
The site – a research station China has hailed as a means to expand its scientific investigation in the Antarctic – could also be used to enhance the country’s intelligence collection, according to CSIS.
China is far from alone in bolstering its presence and research activities in the frozen continent, where a number of countries including the United States, Britain, and South Korea all operate research stations.
But attention has turned to potential dual-use of China’s facilities amid increasing power competition with the United States and Western concerns about Beijing’s assertive foreign policy and surveillance capabilities.
The new station’s position, on Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea, is triangulated with China’s other coastal stations on Antarctica to “fill in a major gap in China’s coverage” of the continent, and could support intelligence collection given its inclusion of a satellite ground station, according to the CSIS report.
The station’s position may enable China to “collect signals intelligence from US-allied Australia and New Zealand” and “collect telemetry data on rockets launching from newly established space facilities in both countries,” it said.
Once completed, the 5,000-square-meter (53,820-square-foot) station is expected to include a scientific research and observation area, an energy facility, a main building, a logistics facility and a wharf for China’s Xuelong icebreakers, according to CSIS.
In February 2020, a team of US inspectors visited the station, where they were hosted by station leader Wang Zhechao of the Polar Research Institute of China.
They found no military equipment or military support personnel at the site, according to a report of the inspection published by the United States State Department.
Once completed the scientific research at the station would focus on physical and biological oceanography, glaciology, marine ecology, zoology, atmospheric and space physics and geology, the account said, citing a 2018 draft Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation about the project submitted by China to an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.
China has established four scientific research bases in Antarctica since 1984, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
A 2022 Department of Defense report on China’s military notes that “(China’s) strategy for Antarctica includes the use of dual-use technologies, facilities, and scientific research, which are likely intended, at least in part, to improve PLA (People’s Liberation Army) capabilities.”
China, however has stressed the scientific nature of its ambitions in the region.
In an address to researchers based in polar regions at the start of this year, then-Vice Premier Han Zheng hailed the teams’ contributions to “humanity’s scientific understanding and peaceful use of polar and ocean regions.” Han has since been appointed China’s vice president.
Under the 1959 treaty Antarctic Treaty, to which China is party, activities on the continent are restricted to “peaceful purposes.”
Military personnel are allowed to conduct scientific research, but may not set up bases, test weapons of carry out maneuvers.
As he signed the visitor’s log, Joe Biden remarks that the Irish president’s official house “looks just like the White House.”
Before presenting the message he left, he writes for a while.
He reads aloud, “As the Irish proverb says, your feet will get you where your heart is.
“I talk about going back to the place where my ancestors lived to celebrate the things that unite Ireland and the United States, and recommit ourselves to peace, equity, and – I think the most Irish of words used in my family was – dignity.”
Looking around, the president says “this is an incredible place”.
“It’s wonderful to be back,” says Mr Biden, on his third visit but his first as president.
Joe Biden meets Irish president
Joe Biden has met the Irish president in Pheonix Park, Dublin.
Arriving at Aras an Uachtarain, he emerged wearing sunglasses and a broad smile as he walked the red carpet to be met by Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabine.
He was taken to the drawing room to meet Tanaiste Micheal Martin and Ireland’s secretary-general to the president, Orla O’Hanrahan
The two presidents are set to have a private meeting for around half an hour, plant a tree in the grounds – as other US leaders have done before Mr Biden – and ring the Peace Bell.
The US premier arrived in the Beast, considered a fortress on wheels, alongside a motorcade.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and other members of the US delegation accompanied him.
Visit ‘won’t change DUP minds’ on returning to Northern Irish Assembly
Joe Biden’s visit is unlikely to have any impact on getting the Northern Ireland Assembly back up and running, a political expert has said.
Power to restore Stormont lies ultimately “in the hands of the DUP”, who have boycotted it, said research associate at the University of Liverpool, Clare Rice.
Dr Rice said the party is of the opinion that the president’s visit “will not do anything” to “encourage or speed up the rate at which they will take a decision”.
Looking ahead to Mr Biden’s engagements today, she said Mr Biden would likely focus on peace as a way of fostering Irish-American relationships.
She said his speech at Ulster University was largely a success, being “broadly well received right across the community.”
He will likely continue to discuss his own Irish identity, as he has done throughout the visit, said Dr Rice.
Biden to plant tree at president’s home, securing further ‘Irish roots’
By Ashna Hurynag, news correspondent, in Dublin
Almost 60 years since JFK visited the Irish president’s official residence, Joe Biden will do the same – keen to stress he has the most roots in the country of any recent US leader.
In the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin, Dublin, the trees planted by Kennedy and, most recently, Barack Obama stand tall; all different varieties of Irish Oak.
Today Joe Biden will plant another one in a ceremony with President Michael D Higgins, before ringing the Peace Bell.
The Bell was installed to mark the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 2008.
Purported major US intelligence leak on Ukraine ‘did not come up’ in meeting with Sunak
Documents posted online purported to be leaked US intelligence on the war in Ukraine were not discussed in talks between Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak.
The White House press secretary said the subject of a major Pentagon investigation “did not come up”.
Among the trove of records, one seen by Sky News alleges that UK special forces were in Ukraine on 1 March 2023.
The Ministry of Defence has previously said there was “a serious level of inaccuracy” in this claim.
Sky News cannot independently verify the documents, and several nations, including Ukraine and Russia, have questioned their veracity.
For context: Documents were published in a chatroom on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers, labelled as secret Pentagon material on Ukraine.
If accurate, potentially hundreds have been leaked and the US doesn’t know if more will surface as it investigates who is behind the information.
White House responds to Biden’s ‘Black and Tans’ gaffe
The White House has said it was “very clear” to Irish rugby fans that Joe Biden was referring to the All Blacks New Zealand team when he mistakenly referenced “the Black and Tans”.
The president appeared to confuse the name of the team with a War of Independence-era police force in Ireland during a speech yesterday.
Asked if he realised his mistake, National Security Council senior director Amanda Sloat said: “It was clear what the president was referring to, it was certainly clear to his cousins sitting next to him.”
Mr Biden was standing near former Irish rugby international and distant relative Rob Kearney, who was a member of the team that famously beat the All Blacks for the first time in 2016.
The Black and Tans was a name for part-time officers recruited to bolster the Royal Irish Constabulary, many of whom gained a violent reputation.
For context: The president said Rob Kearney was “a hell of a rugby player, and beat the Black and Tans” while speaking in a Co Louth pub.
War in Ukraine ‘high on agenda’ for talks with Irish leaders
The war in Ukraine will be “high on the agenda” when Joe Biden meets with Irish leaders today, a top US official has said.
National Security Council senior director Amanda Sloat said the conflict would be a priority in talks with Irish President Michael D Higgins and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar “given Ireland’s participation in various aspects of US support for Ukraine”.
Ireland has contributed nearly £68m (€77m) in military support for Ukraine, an aid package worth £17.5m (€20m) and another £22m (€25m) in government and business sector assistance as of 31 January, according Micheál Martinto, its minister for foreign affairs.
Ms Sloat said Mr Biden’s address to the Irish parliament will refer to areas of close partnership between both countries and “setting out a shared vision for the future”.
‘Nervousness’ as officials pray Biden sticks to the script in parliament
There is “nervousness” among officials in Ireland at the prospect of another gaffe from the US president, after he appeared to confuse a New Zealand rugby team with a British paramilitary group, said international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn.
They are “hoping he sticks to the script” as he addresses the Irish parliament today following the offhand comment, in which Mr Biden paid tribute to a rugby player for beating the “Black and Tans” rather than the All Blacks, Waghorn said.
He explained a gaffe-free day of diplomacy was important because “it is a particularly sensitive, precarious time, of course, for politics in Northern Ireland”.
Waghorn added: “He’s made a number of those comments which I think have reinforced in the eyes and minds of many in Northern Ireland that he is nationalist, he’s too pro-Irish.”
But Mr Biden made the opposite impression when he went off-cue to talk about his English heritage during a speech to Ulster University yesterday, he said.
Indeed, former UK ambassador to the US Lord Darroch told Sky News that though the president sometimes misspeaks, “I remain convinced that he is a friend of the UK”.
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has said it would be wrong to boycott Joe Biden’s address to both houses of the Irish parliament today.
People Before Profit (SPBP), which has five members in the lower house, will boycott the speech over objections to his foreign policy.
Mrs McDonald said she shares concerns about the US record in Iraq and Afghanistan, but stressed that closer to home there “wouldn’t have been a peace process without America”.
On RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland programme, she said of SPBP’s decision: “I think that’s the wrong choice.”
Asked if she shared left-wing criticisms of US foreign policy, she said: “I very much doubt that anybody in the American administration is unaware of the wide criticism of many of their foreign policy stances.”
What is the fallout from Biden’s ‘Black and Tans’ gaffe?
He was paying tribute to his distant cousin in a pub, the former Irish rugby international Rob Kearney.
Mr Kearney was a member of the Irish team that famously beat New Zealand’s All Blacks for the first time ever, in a 2016 match played in Chicago
President Biden, who played rugby himself as a student, said that Rob Kearney was “a hell of a rugby player, and beat the Black and Tans”, thus confusing New Zealand’s famous team with the reviled British paramilitary force the Black and Tans, who brutally repressed opponents of British rule during the Irish War of Independence.
Most infamously, the force massacred 14 people and wounded 60 more at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park in Dublin in 1920.
It seemed an obvious slip of the tongue, rather than anything intentional.
It had all been going so well, says Ireland correspondent Stephen Murphy in his full analysis…
Biden to address Irish parliament in first for a US president since peace deal
Joe Biden’s visit to the island of Ireland continues today, south of the border.
The president is in Dublin, where he is expected to address a joint session of the Irish parliament – the first US premier to do so since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.
He will spend most of the day with Irish President Michael D Higgins, who is hosting Mr Biden at his official residence, Aras an Uachtarain.
The pair will take part in a tree-planting ceremony and a ringing of the Peace Bell, first unveiled 15 years ago to mark the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who visited the White House on St Patrick’s Day, will then begin talks with Mr Biden.
But his address to parliament will be the main event today – that’s the first time we’ll hear him speak.
The last president to make a speech in the Irish legislature was Bill Clinton in 1995.
A banquet in Mr Biden’s honour at Dublin Castle will be the last item on his agenda today. He is expected to give a toast.
As you can see, barriers have been erected at the castle and the heavy security operation that has followed the US president on this trip will continue today…
Good morning – here’s the latest
It has been a busy couple of days for President Joe Biden who landed in Belfast on Tuesday evening for the start of a historic four-day visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland.
The visit marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and has seen the US leader, 80, pay homage to his Irish roots.
We’ll be bringing you live updates as the president embarks on another busy day but here is a rundown of the key events from yesterday…
Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak met at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast;
The US president urged a return to power sharing in Stormont during a speech at Ulster University;
The leader of the DUP insisted Mr Biden’s visit “did not change the political dynamic” in Northern Ireland;
Mr Biden arrived in Co Louth, where his Irish ancestors once lived, and delivered at speech the The Windsor pub – which sits at the centre of Dundalk;
Police said four devices discovered in a cemetery in Londonderry were “viable” pipe bombs.
That’s all for our coverage tonight
We’ll be back tomorrow morning with more updates on Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Tomorrow, Mr Biden will meet with Michael D. Higgins, the Irish president.
He will also address the Irish Parliament and is set to attend a banquet dinner at Dublin Castle.
We can expect Biden’s comments to remain more rigidly to script tomorrow
By Stephen Murphy, Ireland correspondent
It had all been going so well.
The serious political business of the day dispensed with, Joe Biden left Belfast and broke for the border.
Arriving for the first day of ancestral exploration in Co Louth, he was taken on a tour of Carlingford Castle, the last sight his great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan would have seen in 1849 as he sailed away to a new life in America.
The rain sheeted down, the cold was something from the depths of winter. And yet, the 80-year-old president exuded an energy of a much younger man, beaming from beneath his baseball cap as he arrived in Dundalk.
Traditionally a staunchly republican border town, he wound up at a bar improbably called The Windsor.
Here, in relaxed mood, he spoke from the heart, and apparently off the cuff. And that’s where the gaffe came from. He was paying tribute to his distant cousin in the room, the former Irish rugby international Rob Kearney.
Kearney was a member of the Irish team that famously beat New Zealand’s All Blacks for the first time ever, in a 2016 match played in Chicago.
President Biden, who played rugby himself as a student, said that Rob Kearney was “a hell of a rugby player, and beat the Black and Tans”, thus confusing New Zealand’s famous team with the reviled British paramilitary force the Black and Tans, who brutally repressed opponents of British rule during the Irish War of Independence.
Most infamously, the force massacred 14 people and wounded 60 more at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park in Dublin in 1920.
It seemed an obvious slip of the tongue, rather than anything intentional. But here you had a US president often accused by unionists of being rabidly republican, apparently bragging about his family beating the British. In that context, the remark was deeply unfortunate.
President Biden continues on a more familiar political path tomorrow, meeting with the Irish president and prime minister, and addressing the Irish parliament. We can expect his comments there to remain more rigidly to script.
Biden’s visit to Dundalk in pictures
Joe Biden shook hands and took selfies with excited locals in Dundalk as he continued with his four-day visit of Northern Ireland and Ireland today.
Screams and cheers erupted in the town’s main street as the huge presidential motorcade rolled into the Co Louth town on a drizzly, grey and windy Wednesday evening.
Despite the weather, crowds lined the town’s main street to catch a glimpse of the US leader, who wore a navy baseball cap bearing the American flag as he emerged from The Beast.
Mr Biden, whose grandfather James Finnegan was born in Co Louth, spoke fondly of his Irish roots with the owner of a local deli and said it “feels like home” as he spoke to an assembled audience at a pub.
Here, are just a few pictures from the day…
‘Ireland breeds faith and possibilities’
During his speech to assembled crowds earlier, President Joe Biden described how his and former president Barack Obama’s ancestors were shoemakers from Ireland.
He said: “It’s doubtful they knew each other and they came out of the same port but one thing we do know is that they left everything behind
“They had faith. They had faith in an uncertain future. I’m not sure they could have imagined that 175 years later both their great-great grandsons would be presidents of the USA.
“That’s what you breed here. This faith and the possibilities that are out there.”
Peace deal architect praises Biden’s power sharing plea
An architect of the Good Friday Agreement has said Joe Biden struck the tone right in his speech today encouraging a return to power sharing in Northern Ireland.
Jonathan Powell, former chief of staff to Tony Blair, said Mr Biden was right to appeal to keep the peace rather than berate the DUP, which is boycotting the Northern Irish Assembly.
But the address at Ulster University is not going to be what “clinches it” because his visit is not a negotiating one, Mr Powell said.
“It was a symbolic visit, I think it was important he came. I think he struck the right note: He wasn’t bullying anyone, he wasn’t hectoring anyone, he was just appealing to people to keep the peace going, to get back into the institutions,” said Mr Powell.
He said the president looked to the future, rather than the troubled past, and pointed out the benefits of American investment, which will only come with political stability.
Xi Jinping gets unexpected mention in Biden’s pub speech
After reminiscing about his Irish ancestry, Joe Biden’s speech in a pub in the small town of Dundalk takes an unexpected turn towards the geopolitical.
Almost out of nowhere, he brings up Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.
“I’ve spent more time with him than any other world leader has over the last 10 years,” he says.
And then recalls a story….
“I was once on the Tibetan plateau with him,” he says.
“He asked me ‘Can you define America for me?’ and I said ‘Yes I can. One word – possibilities.”
He then says he “believes anything is possible if you set your mind to it”.
Mr Biden also says the world is facing “darkness” but people must keep “marching forward”.
He ends his speech by thanking those who have come to see him and jokes: “The bad news is we will be back.”
‘The best drop of blood in you is Irish’: Biden speaks in pub
“It feels like home,” Joe Biden says as he takes to a podium in a pub in Dundalk.
“When you’re here you wonder why anyone would want to leave, so it’s good to be back.”
He says his grandfather used to tell him “the best drop of blood in you is Irish” to laughs from the crowd gathered inside.
He entertains guests in the pub with tales of his distant Irish relatives and how important the heritage has always been within his family.
“Hope is what beats in the heart of all people, particularly in the heart of the Irish,” he says.
“My message to you today is quite simple: We have to continue to keep the faith.”
He tells the audience we must “face darkness” and work towards a future of “greater dignity”.
A tourist from the United States who went missing in Baja California over two months ago was discovered dead in a small grave in Mexico.
On February 11, Wilmer “Dino” Trivett, 80, of Markleeville, California, who was residing in a camper vehicle near the Mexican seaside town of Todos Santos, was last seen.
According to Baja California Sur prosecutor Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, investigators used a cadaver dog to locate his body in a tomb close to Todos Santos.
A brother and sister, Juan Hector and Joseline Guadalupe, identified by their first names only in compliance with Mexican law, face homicide charges in connection with Trivett’s death, according to BNO News.
Wilmer ‘Dino’ Trivett reportedly stayed alone in a camper in Todos Santos with his dog Bones (Picture: KCRA)
Trivett was in a traffic accident in which Juan Hector was injured, and gave him 50,000 Mexican pesos, or about $2,723, for his medical bills, according to the prosecutor.
‘However, months went by and this person was left with the feeling that it wasn’t enough,’ said De la Rosa. ‘Then this person and his sister went to where the American was camping and kidnapped him, and then they took his life.’
Trivett’s camper was found burned on February 23.
The victim would travel across the Baja California peninsula with his wife, who died in 2019, reported the Mirror. He started making the trips again in November.
Trivett’s brother, Rick, in mid-February said he was staying in his camper in ‘a very secluded area, there was nobody else around but him, in his campsite’. Trivett would go with his dog Bones to a friend’s home for breakfast every day.
‘Last weekend, he didn’t show up,’ Rick told KCRA at the time. ‘The dog was there on the porch, so his friend was very concerned, so he walked down. The motorhome was gone. My brother was gone, but the dog was left behind.’
Trivett’s body was found just over a month after four Americans were kidnapped in Matamoros, Mexico, two of which were discovered shot dead. The four Americans reportedly drove from Brownsville, Texas, to Mexico so one of them could undergo a tummy tuck procedure.
The Scorpion squad of the Gulf Cartel claimed responsibility for the March 3 attack, apologized and surrendered five of its members.
At least four people were killed overall on Friday when a string of violent tornadoes tore through various US states.
As a storm in Illinois caused a theater’s roof to fall during a packed heavy metal concert, one person was murdered and numerous others were hurt.
According to the local fire brigade, some 260 people were inside the Apollo Theater in Belvidere when the roof collapsed at 19:55 local time (01:05 BST).
Five victims, according to fire chief Shawn Schadle, were in critical condition.
There have been reports of significant damage across the South and Midwest, and Arkansas and Missouri have both declared states of emergency as a result. Many were left without electricity.
A major tornado tore through the Arkansas state capital Little Rock, flipping cars, smashing roofs and toppling trees. Local officials said one person was killed and the city’s mayor reported that at least 24 people were injured.
The state’s governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, confirmed the deaths of two people in the town of Wynne, some 100 miles (170km) from Little Rock.
More than 40 tornado reports were made across six states on Friday night, according to the US government’s Storm Prediction Center.
Several flights at Chicago O’Hare International Airport were delayed or cancelled as passengers were told to take shelter due to what it described as “severe weather”.
In Tennessee, Covington Mayor Jan Hensley pleaded with people not to “drive around” as power lines had been hit by storms.
The Covington Police Department described the city as “impassable” sharing photos of roads blocked by downed power poles and large trees toppled in front of homes.
Mrs Huckabee Sanders deployed the National Guard after what she described as “significant damage” in central Arkansas.
As of 20:30 local time, more than 70,000 in her state were without electricity, according to the US power outage website.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock said it was expecting at least 15-20 patients.
Baptist Health Medical Center, the state’s biggest hospital, said it had five patients in a critical condition.
The night of deadly tornadoes comes just one week after a rare, long-track twister killed 26 people in Mississippi.
President Joe Biden visited the state on Friday to pay his condolences and promise federal aid.
In a bulletin the Storm Prediction Center warned some of the projected tornadoes could track across the ground for long distances.
The Mississippi tornado last week travelled 59 miles (94km) and lasted about an hour and 10 minutes – an unusually long period of time for a storm to sustain itself. It damaged about 2,000 homes, officials said.
Image caption,Tornado damage in ArkansasImage caption,Debris strewn across a road in Little Rock, Arkansas
The Catholic Bishops Conference has urged the government to reject the $139 million budget support the United States government has promised Ghana if it is tied to the country accepting LGBTQ+ activities.
Speaking in an interview with Catholic Trends, the President of the Catholic Bishop Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Gyamfi, said that accepting aid from the US government with any LGBTQ conditions would amount to the government selling the country’s birth right.
He added that the government must tell the people of Ghana what the conditions for the $139 million are before accepting it.
“This is a very serious issue. It is at the gate of who we are as Ghanaians and nobody should toy with it with money. And if that should be the case (the aid is tied to Ghana accepting LGBT), let the government reject the money and tell the people, this is what they are saying. Should I take it? So that you do this or not and let the people decide.
“This is not the first time. We have seen the European Union, the United States and these rich countries sometimes push down our throats with certain reforms and certain things and they say if only you do these things, we would give you the money.
“I know the government has done that over and over and over, and many Ghanaians know it. It is not only I who is saying it. So when it comes to something that makes a people, a people. That is their culture and tradition, then if you sell your birth right, culture and tradition, if you sell who you are for money when you get the money who are you again?” Most Rev. Gyamfi said.
The office of the United States Vice President indicated that the US government will support Ghana with $139 million for the 2024 fiscal year.
According to Aljazeera, the $139 million is an addition to the $100 million security support, Vice President Kamala Harris announced for five West African countries including Ghana.
Russian Embassy in Accra has disputed some allegations made by American Vice President Kamala Harris during her visit in Ghana for three days.
The precise remarks related to concerns about food security in relation to the war between Russia and Ukraine, with Harris allegedly blaming Moscow of starting a scenario where grain exports have been halted.
The Embassy tweeted a picture that referred to Harris’ remarks as being false and listed what they claimed to be the facts of Russia’s grain supply.
Their tweet was captioned: “The recent visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Ghana hasn’t gone without another portion of anti-Russian fakes that do not stand a simple fact-checking.”
What Kamala reportedly said:
“In terms of the Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine. There have been a number of impacts globally and to the United States included. In particular, it relates to the prevalence of our ability to have access to certain foods, and grain in particular, globally has been an issue.”
The facts as stated by the Embassy
FACT: European officials acknowledged that Ukraine has already supplied 53 million tonnes of grain and other food products – its annual export amount (for comparison: in 2019-2020 season – 54.9 M tonnes, in 2020-2021 – 44.9 M tonnnes.
QUESTION: Why is then Africa facing food insecurity?
ANSWER: 1) Because of EU and US sanctions that block the RUSSIAN grain export.
2) Because 45% of the total volume of grain exported from Ukraine went to Europe and only 3% went to Africa.
The recent visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Ghana hasn't gone without another portion of anti-Russian fakes that do not stand a simple fact-checking. pic.twitter.com/jQuvK3GJJG
— Russian Embassy in Ghana (@RusEmbGhanaEng) March 29, 2023
Following his release on Friday after more than 900 days in prison, opposition leader from RwandaPaul Rusesabaginahas arrived in Qatar.
In 2021, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail over his ties to a group opposed to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, that has an armed wing.
A permanent resident of theUnited States, his release came after months of negotiations between Washington and Kigali.
The 68-year-old former hotelier inspired the Hollywood film, “Hotel Rwanda” about his role in saving the lives of hundreds of people fleeing Hutus during the 1994 genocide against Tutsis.
He became a fierce critic of Kagame and formed his own political party. In 1996, he left Rwanda for Belgium but his family said he was tricked into taking a flight in 2020 that was diverted to Kigali.
Reportedly in fragile health, diplomats have told the AFP that he is to undergo medical checks and rest before flying to the United States on Wednesday.
It is a wonderful honor for her to be in Ghana and on the African continent, according to US vice president Kamala Harris.
During her arrival in Accra on Sunday, schoolchildren, dancers, and drummers greeted the delighted second most important person in America.
As she starts her three-day official visit to Ghana and a nine-day visit to Africa, she was beaming with smiles on a journey intended to deepen U.S. relationships as China extends its capture of the continent.
An excited Kamala Harris could not hide her joy as she was welcomed by vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and other government officials.
With a hand placed on her heart, she smiled as she passed by the hard-hitting drummers and the graceful dancers.
On her left-hand side were children cheering and waving both the Ghanaian and American flags.
“What an honour it is to be here in Ghana and on the continent of Africa,” Harris said.
“I’m very excited about the future of Africa.”
She said she wanted to promote economic growth and food security and welcomed the chance to “witness firsthand the extraordinary innovation and creativity that is occurring on this continent.”
“We are looking forward to this trip as a further statement of the long and enduring very important relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those who live on this continent,” Kamala Harris said.
The Vice President of the United States of America has started her much anticipated diplomatic visit of Africa.
On Sunday, March 26, 2023, Kamala Harris landed to Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport.
The Vice President expressed her desire to strengthen ties between the United States and Ghana and the continent while present with her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and other top US officials.
Kamala Harris arrived in Ghana on Sunday, March 26, 2023. Photo Credit: Ministry of Information via Facebook
Madam Harris is embarking on a one-week tour which will see her visit Ghana and two other African countries – Tanzania and Zambia.
US Vice President, Kamala Harris in the company of her husband and other top US officials. Photo Credit: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia via Facebook
Delivering her first address, Madam Harris highlighted the significant role of Africa in the world .
She, therefore, hoped that her engagements while on the continent will foster investment in Africa.
These are some of the forever-frozen moments of Madam Harris’ memorable visit to Ghana.
Kamala Harris descended from the plane after touching down at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport. Photo Credit: David AndohA young Ghanaian presents a bouquet of flowers to the US Vice President. Photo Credit: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia via FacebookVice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, welcomes US Vice President, Kamala Harris. Photo Credit: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia via FacebookKamala Harris exchanges pleasantries with Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister. Photo Credit: David AndohCulture on full display as Ghana welcome US Vice President, Kamala Harris. Photo Credit: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia via FacebookKamala Harris walks to the podium to deliver the first speech of her three-nation African tour. Photo Credit: Ministry of Information via FacebookSome Ghanaian students wave flags to welcome US Vice President. Photo credit: Ministry of Information via FacebookUS Vice President Kamala Harris touched by the warm welcome. Photo Credit: Ministry of Information via FacebookKamala Harris delivers the first speech of her one week diplomatic tour of Africa. Photo Credit: Ministry of Information via FacebookAmong other things, Madam Harris hoped her engagements during the tour would increase investments in Africa. Photo credit: Ministry of Information via FacebookKamala Harris radiantly smiles at the students who gathered at the Airport to welcome her. Photo Credit: Ministry of Information via FacebookUS Vice President walks towards students gathered on the grounds. Photo Credit: Ministry of Information via FacebookKamala Harris interacts with students who cheered on her arrival. Photo Credit: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia via FacebookKamala Harris escorted to the Jubilee Lounge after her address. Photo Credit: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia via FacebookGhana’s Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia interacts with US Vice President Kamala Harris at the Jubilee Lounge. Photo Credit: Dr Mahamudu Bawumia via Facebook
Kamala Harris is on a three-day official state visit to the West African nation ahead of similar visits to Tanzania and Zambia in the course of the week.
She touched down at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on Sunday, March 26.
In a tweet on Monday morning to welcome the US VP, Mr Mahama said the visit, which follows previous ones by US Presidents in the past, “re-affirms the durable friendship between Ghana and USA”.
Welcome @VP Harris to Ghana. Your visit following previous visits by Presidents of the U.S.A. in 1998, 2008 and 2009, re-affirms the durable friendship between Ghana & USA. It further demonstrates US's growing interest in Africa. 1/2
“It further demonstrates US’s growing interest in Africa.”
Ghana’s Vice President between 2009 and 2012 expressed hope that the visit will enhance collaboration between US and Africa “to provide the needed support for economic cooperation, youth development and employment and enhanced security for global safety”.
Paul Rusesabagina, who served as the basis for the Hollywood blockbuster “Hotel Rwanda,” was freed from prison in Rwanda on Friday after President Paul Kagame shortened his sentence.
Rusesabagina, a US lawful permanent resident, was relocated to the residence of the Qatari ambassador in Kigali, top US administration officials informed reporters on Friday.
According to one official, “he will be spending a limited amount of time hosted by the Qataris,” probably a few days, before continuing on to Doha and ultimately the United States.
Rusesabagina, an outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame, is best known for saving hundreds of Rwandans during the country’s genocide by sheltering them in the hotel he managed.
He was arrested by Rwandan authorities while he was traveling internationally in 2020 in what his family has claimed was a kidnapping.
Rusesabagina was found guilty on terrorism-related charges in September 2021 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The commutation of his sentence comes after he asked Kagame for a pardon in an October 2022 letter.
“Commutation of sentence does not extinguish the underlying conviction,” said government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo on Friday.
Rusesabagina, who is a dual Rwandan and Belgian citizen, was slated to be released along with 19 other people that had been convicted alongside him, Makolo told CNN.
“Rwanda notes the constructive role of the US government in creating conditions for dialogue on this issue, as well as the facilitation provided by the State of Qatar,” she added.
In a statement Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Rusesabagina’s release.
“It is a relief to know that Paul is rejoining his family, and the US Government is grateful to the Rwandan Government for making this reunion possible. We also thank the Government of Qatar for their valuable assistance that will enable Paul’s return to the United States,” Blinken said.
A spokesperson for his family said they “are pleased to hear the news about Paul’s release.”
“The family is hopeful to reunite with him soon,” the spokesperson told CNN earlier Friday.
At his trial in 2021, Rusesabagina was found guilty of being part of a terror group called MRCD-FLN. Two 2018 attacks in which nine people died were a particular focus, according to a government statement.
However the Clooney Foundation for Justice described the verdict as a “show trial,” and claimed that Rusesabagina’s conviction lacked sufficient guarantees of fairness “required by international and African standards.”
He was designated as wrongfully detained by the US government.
One of the senior US officials said “there was no particular concession made by us as a government here” that led to Rusesabagina’s release.
Rather, there was “a sequence of steps that were worked out involving the Rwandan government, US government and of course Paul himself,” the official said.
“It took months to reach that sequence in a manner agreeable to all those involved,” they said.
Multiple US officials said that Blinken’s trip to Rwanda “played a key role” in eventually resolving Rusesabagina’s case.
In his engagements with Kagame he “discussed Paul’s case at length,” a US official said, and “they spoke a great deal about the road map to Paul’s eventual release.”
“The State Department through SPEHA (the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs), and other members of the interagency have been working to keep it on track since the Secretary’s visit,” that US official said.
The first senior official also said that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan “took a personal hand in trying to craft a way forward on this issue.”
“In particular, he began quiet diplomacy with a close advisor to the President,” both by phone and in person, the official said.
“Through these discussions, the parameters of a mutually acceptable arrangement emerged that the Rwandans would move towards Paul’s release and in parallel, the US government would indicate how much we welcome the developments, as we continue to do,” the official said.
Both the first senior official and a congressional aide familiar with the case said that Rusesabagina’s detention had become an “irritant” in the US-Rwandan relationship, and congressional interlocutors tried to make it clear to Rwandan officials both in Washington, DC and Kigali that such an “irritant” would not go away until it was resolved.
The Rwandan government wanted the US to acknowledge that there was a legal process that occurred and that process resulted in Rusesabagina being convicted, the aide said.
The resolution got closer once conversations shifted away from a discussion of guilt or innocence and more toward trying to solve the issue – a strategy illustrated by a letter written by Rusesabagina to Kagame in October 2022 to request a pardon, which the congressional aide said was “carefully discussed.”
In that letter – released by the Ministry of Justice Friday – Rusesabagina said he wished to express “regret for any connection (his) work with the MRCD may have had to violent actions taken by the FLN.”
“As a former head of MRCD, I regret not taking more care to ensure that the MRCD coalition fully adhered to the principles of non-violence in which I fully and deeply believe, and have always ascribed,” Rusesabagina wrote.
“If I am granted a pardon and released, I understand fully that I will spend the remainder of my days in the United States in quiet reflection,” he continued. “I can assure you through this letter that I hold no personal or political ambitions otherwise. I will leave questions regarding Rwandan politics behind me.”
The publication of this letter expressing contrition, and the fact that Rwanda commuted his sentence, rather than pardoning him, allowed the Rwandan government to stand by their assertion of Rusesabagina’s guilt.
“They continue to make clear that he’s a convicted terrorist,” the aide said.
The aide also said there was immense congressional pressure on both the Rwandan government and the Biden administration on the matter, which was a complex one. Rusesabagina is a legal permanent resident of the US but not a citizen, and he did not get designated as wrongfully detained until within the last year.
A second US senior administration official said that “there was some constructive participation by members and congressional staff to encourage both parties to use the existing clemency process as part of Rwandan law to help resolve the tensions between Paul and the government of Rwanda.”
American lawmakers who were invested in the case on Friday welcomed the news about Rusesabagina’s commuted sentence and expected release.
“Paul Rusesabagina is a hero, and his unjust detention was a stain on Rwanda’s progress toward a peaceful and stable future. Together with his family, friends, and supporters around the world, I am overjoyed to hear the news of his impending release and look forward to his safe return,” Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro said in a statement.
“I commend US and Rwandan officials for working together on Mr. Rusesabagina’s release and addressing the issues surrounding his case, including those related to justice and political violence,” Republican Sen. Jim Risch said. “I look forward to seeing Mr. Rusesabagina return to his family, and encourage the U.S. and Rwandan governments to continue working to advance our bilateral relationship.”
This aide downplayed Qatar’s role in securing the commutation, saying that there may have been conversations between Rwandan and Qatari officials but alleged they had “no impact” on the case.
One of the firearms used in the murderous kidnapping of four Americans in the Mexican border city of Matamoros earlier this month was bought in the US and given to a Mexican cartel, claims a federal court filing.
A criminal complaint submitted on Saturday in US District Court in Brownsville, Texas, charges Roberto Lugardo Moreno with intentionally conspiring to export or transmit from the United States a “multi-caliber AR type weapon” for use by the Gulf Cartel. Moreno was detained and charged with this crime.
The firearm was “recovered by Mexican authorities and linked to an incident involving the murders and kidnappings of US nationals which occurred on March 3, 2023 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico,” according to the lawsuit.
The four Americans were kidnapped as they were driving to a medical appointment, two family members told CNN earlier this month. LaTavia Washington McGee and Eric Williams survived the kidnapping, while Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were killed. Mexican authorities have arrested six people in the kidnapping case.
Lugardo Moreno told investigators he purchased the pistol on October 17, 2019, for individuals that he knew were going to provide the weapon and other guns to a Gulf Cartel figure in Mexico, according to the criminal complaint. During that time, Lugardo Moreno said he received a $100 payment, the complaint states.
Lugardo Moreno also told investigators that he did not apply for a license to export the firearm from the United States to Mexico.
CNN has reached out to the FBI and to Lugardo Moreno’s attorney of record for comment and has not immediately heard back. Lugardo Moreno faced a federal judge Monday and is being held without bond, according to the court docket.
Ma, a prominent figure in Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, will visit mainland China between March 27 and April 7, according to a statement released by his foundation on Sunday.
According to the foundation, he will pay respects to his ancestors in the southwest Hunan Province and head a group of Taiwanese students who will meet with counterparts from mainland China in several locations.
While the trip is ostensibly a private one it is filled with historic symbolism and comes at a time of deepening tensions over the future of Taiwan.
China’s ruling Communist Party has never controlled Taiwan but claims the self-ruled island democracy as its own and has repeatedly refused to rule out taking it by force.
At the end of the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong’s Communist Party took control of mainland China while the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan– with both sides claiming to be the legitimate representative of China in the following decades, until Taiwan’s transition into a democracy in the 1990s.
But more recent decades saw increasingly ties warm between Beijing and the KMT, a rapprochement that reached its peak during Ma’s administration.
Ma served as Taiwan’s president between 2008 and 2016 during which he drew stronger economic ties between China and the democratically ruled island but kept Beijing’s push for reunification at bay.
His perceived closeness to Beijing, particularly on the economic front, sparked protests and a major voter backlash.
The KMT have lost the last two elections to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is much more skeptical toward Beijing and rejects the tacit understanding that both sides acknowledge they belong to “one China,” but with different interpretations of what that entails.
China’s leader Xi Jinping has ramped up economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan ever since the DPP took power in 2016.
Ma’s historic trip is taking place against that febrile geopolitical backdrop and comes as Taiwan and the United States ramp up efforts to counter China’s growing military capabilities.
His trip will also come at a politically sensitive time. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will soon make a stopover in the US en route to diplomatic allies in Latin America, an official with Taiwan’s Overseas Community Affairs Council told lawmakers earlier this month. US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also said he plans to meet with her when she is in the US.
Taiwan is scheduled to hold its next presidential election in January next year. Tsai is not eligible for re-election.
Fears of a Chinese invasion have loomed over Taiwan for more than seven decades but they have been supercharged by both Xi’s increased assertiveness andRussia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The KMT has long rejected being characterized as a “pro-Beijing” party. But its leadership, including Ma, have often pushed the need to improve ties.
The KMT’s deputy chairman Andrew Hsia visited Beijing last month to meet with senior Communist Party leader Wang Huning.
In contrast, Beijing has severed official communication with Taiwan’s Tsai-led government.
In 2015, Ma and Xi held a historic face-to-face meeting in Singapore – the first meeting between leaders of the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party since the end of the Chinese Civil War, although not on either side of the strait.
Ma’s foundation said a meeting between Xi and Ma is not currently being planned for the trip.
Taiwan’s presidential office said in a statement Sunday that Ma will be required to report details of his itinerary to the government before and after his visit to China.
Investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has said that another defamation suit he filed in the United States against the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, is still ongoing.
According to him, the suit he filed in the US against Ken Agyapong is similar to the suit that was thrown out by the High Court in Accra on Thursday, March 16, 2023.
“Last year we also filed another defamation action against the MP. The case is ongoing. As a student and practitioner, I strongly believe in the rule of law,” he said.
Anas also said that he will appeal the ruling of the High Court on the defamation lawsuit he filed against Kennedy Agyapong, a presidential hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to him, the judge who presided over the case treated him as if he was the one on trial and accused him of crimes without evidence.
Anas, who made these remarks in a video shared on social media, added that the action of the judge was an overreach and he and his team have decided to file an appeal against his ruling.
“My team of lawyers and I have carefully studied the judgment delivered by the court and we are unanimous that the judge made an overreach … and made criminal pronouncement about me as if I was standing a criminal trial.
“He also justified that MP accusing me of the murder of the late JB Danquah, murder of 20 Chinese nationals and a host of other crimes. We are filing an appeal because there was no evidence provided,” he said.
The Accra High Court dismissed the GHC25 million defamation suit against Ken Agyapong, a presidential hopeful of the New Patriotic Party, brought by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
According to 3news.com, the judge, Justice Eric Baah, was of the view that Anas did not prove Ken Agyapong defamed him by airing the documentary – “Who watches the watchman” – but rather, the documentary exposed shady deals that Anas and his associates were involved in.
The Assin Central MP has been facing a GHC25 million suit from Anas over some comments he (MP) had allegedly made against the investigative journalist in public after airing his investigative piece #Number 12, which exposed some rots in Ghana Football.
The judge even told Anas that what he practices is not investigative journalism, but “investigative terrorism’’.
Background:
Sometime in 2018, the ace international investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, dragged the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, to court for defaming him.
Anas was asking the High Court to award aggravated damages to the tune of GHC25 million arising from defamatory materials published by the MP.
He said the MP had been publishing materials in his bid to discredit him after releasing an explosive piece on the rot in Ghanaian football.
Displeased with the MP’s actions, Anas, through his lawyer, Mr Kissi Agyebeng, sued Mr Agyapong for the award of general damages for defamation in the defendant’s publications.
A journalist, Mr Listowell Yesu Bukarson, has been granted the power of attorney to stand in for Anas.
Publications:
The publications complained of include a live programme in Twi on Adom TV, on May 29, 2018, where Ken Agyapong categorically stated that Anas was a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist and evil.
According to the statement of claim, the defendant, in a similar manner, published defamatory words on May 31, 2018, via Oman FM, a private radio station owned by the defendant.
The statement of claim also stated that the defendant published more defamatory materials against the plaintiff via other platforms, to the extent of releasing pictures purportedly those of the investigative journalist in his bid to blow the latter’s cover.
