Author: sirrichie_2i8r8t

CNN — Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has said that “substantial elements” of a draconian anti-LGBTQ bill being considered by its parliament “have been modified” after an intervention by his government. Akufo-Addo made the disclosure Monday at a joint press conference with US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who’s on a tour of the West African country. He pointed out that the proposed legislation, framed in the guise of “family values” – which seeks to introduce some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent – was not legislation introduced by his government but a private members’ bill. The bill was first introduced in…

Orthodox Christian clerics say they will stay at a historic monastery in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, despite a planned government-ordered eviction of hundreds of priests, monks and students. The Pechersk Lavra is a seat of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church (UOC), which split from the Moscow patriarchate after Russia’s invasion last year. But Ukrainian officials suspect some of the top clergy have maintained ties with the church in Moscow, which they deny. The UOC has been ordered to leave the site by the end of Wednesday. The Ukrainian government, which owns the vast 11th Century monastery overlooking the Dnipro River, says the…

Lesotho’s parliament has debated a motion to claim huge swathes of territory from its much larger neighbour, South Africa. An opposition MP wants to declare a Free State and parts of four other provinces “Lesotho’s territory”. The people of Lesotho, called Basotho, lived in these areas until the 19th Century when they were seized by Afrikaners – white South Africans. Many Basotho still live in South Africa, especially in Free State. The Sesotho language is one of South Africa’s 11 official languages, spoken by about four million people in the country, as well as the two million inhabitants of Lesotho.…

With 10 rounds of sanctions, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, the European Union has rolled out its toughest punishments ever against a foreign country. The EU has said its sanctions are meant to cut Moscow’s revenues and access to technology used in war. But the impact “will not be severe enough to limit Russia’s ability to wage war against Ukraine in 2023”, a European Parliament research note said. Much trade still flows between the bloc’s 27 countries and Russia – a result of successful lobbying, the EU’s unwillingness to take a harder economic hit, and concerns about…

Human rights campaigners are calling on companies to increase the pay for impoverished miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo who are digging up cobalt – an essential commodity in the production of electric cars. Huge mining companies engaged in the switch to greener energy are making multi-billion dollar profits, while the Congolese workers digging for cobalt are falling further into poverty. That is the warning from two human rights groups – the UK’s Raid, and Cajj, which is based in southern DR Congo near Kolwezi where most of the world’s cobalt is mined. Food prices there have been soaring…

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has expressed worry over the near threat of food insecurity in the country, despite the abundance of fertile arable lands and enough intellectual capabilities in agriculture. “It is unclear why the nation still struggled with total food independence. “I find it difficult to accept why our country is struggling with food insecurity, when we have such vast arable lands, enough intellectual capacity in agriculture and adequate hands for farming,” Otumfuo Osei Tutu, stated at the opening of the maiden national development series, organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), in Kumasi. The Graphic National…

A deep mining pit has unfortunately caved in and killed two suspected illegal female miners at Bonsukwaada near Atwima Mfensi, a farming community in the Ashanti Region. The deceased persons have since been identified by the Abuakwa Divisional Police as Safia Moro, aged 40, and Vivian Kyei, who is believed to be 33 years old. According to reports, the two miners were in the deep pit prospecting for gold, when suddenly the pit caved in and trapped both of them. The incident, reportedly, happened around 3 pm on March 24, 2023, and it was reported to the police, who quickly…

Many secondary schools are letting children switch gender without telling their parents, a bombshell new report has found. The report, by think tank Policy Exchange, is based on a series of Freedom of Information requests, and found that schools often uncritically accept beliefs about gender identity that are contested. Schools may be in breach of safeguarding rules, the report suggested. Just 28% of schools who responded to researchers were “reliably informing” parents when a child said they had feelings of gender distress and a third would not necessarily inform the designated safeguarding lead at the school. Some 40% of schools…

Eighteen female prison officers had relationships with inmates at one liberal jail over a six-year period, new figures show. The prison staff, a mixture of full-time employees and contract workers at HMP Berwyn in north Wales, have been sacked or quit their jobs after their affairs were discovered, according to a freedom of information request by the Telegraph. Three were put behind bars themselves after being found guilty of misconduct in a public office. The prison, which only opened in 2017 and is the UK’s biggest with 2,000 staff, has a more liberal approach than most British jails. Inmates are given…

All UK radio stations are to be made available by law on smart speakers including Google Nest and Amazon’s Alexa. Smart speaker platforms – such as Google and Amazon – will have to legally ensure access to all licenced UK radio stations, from major national stations to small community stations. The platforms will also be banned from charging stations for being hosted on their services or overlaying their own adverts over the top of programmes. It marks the next step in the government’s plan to modernise broadcasting legislation, which was outlined in a white paper last year. The Bill will…