Category Archives: WORLD NEWS

President John Dramani Mahama has said despite the economic crisis that have plagued Ghana in recent years, his tenure would mark the beginning of new opportunities for Ghanaians. In his inaugural speech as he took office yester­day as the sixth president of the Fourth Republic, President Mahama assured that his administration would work to fulfil his electioneering campaign of resetting the country. President John Dramani Mahama with the sword of office at the inauguration ceremony yesterday. Photo. Ebo Gorman . “We are a people buffeted by severe economic crisis and hardships. In the last few years, we have legged from crisis to crisis but there is hope on the horizon. Today should mark the beginning of new opportunities. An opportunity for us to make a difference in our governance and

Belarus, which has been seeking closer economic ties with China, is often portrayed as a loyal ally of Russia even though its strongman president, the 70-year-old Alexander Lukashenko, has a history of fluctuating relations with the Kremlin, including feuds with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. These days, Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 , seems increasingly focused on dealings with China, hardly missing an opportunity to praise the country and its leadership. As far back as in 2016, Lukashenko declared in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Belarus would be “a reliable friend of China forever”. In April 2019, he told Xi that Beijing “can always count on our support in any area”. In the years since, Lukashenko has referred to the friendship as “ironclad” and publicly

The Next Drug Epidemic Is Blue-Raspberry Flavored How Galaxy Gas became synonymous with the country’s burgeoning addiction to gas. By Ezra Marcus , a freelance reporter who writes about crime and culture Photo: Quinn Batley This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. In early 2023, Alex took a job at Cloud 9, a strip-mall smoke shop off Atlanta’s I-85. He had recently graduated from college and wanted something laid-back; the shop, with its graffitied ceilings and cheesy blue-light displays, seemed like the ideal register job for a stoner with a music degree. It didn’t take long for him to realize that many of his customers weren’t there for rolling papers or vapes. They were coming instead for

Edmundo Gonzalez, who competed against incumbent Nicolas Maduro in July’s presidential elections, says masked men abducted his son-in-law in Caracas. Edmundo Gonzalez, the leader of Venezuela’s political opposition, has accused masked men of kidnapping his son-in-law, who remains missing. Gonzalez, who ran in the country’s contested presidential election in July, announced the news on social media on Tuesday. “This morning my son-in-law Rafael Tudares was kidnapped,” Gonzalez wrote. “Rafael was heading to my grandchildren’s school, ages 7 and 6, in Caracas, to drop them off for the start of classes, and he was intercepted by hooded men dressed in black, who put him in a gold-coloured pickup truck with the license plate AA54E2C and took him away. At this time he is missing.” Gonzalez himself currently faces an arrest warrant

Jan 7 – Meta is replacing its independent fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram with a “community notes” system, similar to the approach adopted by X (formerly Twitter). Under this model, users will contribute to contextualizing and clarifying the accuracy of posts. Announcing the change in a video alongside a company blog post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the use of third-party moderators had proven “too politically biased” and signaled a return to the company’s focus on “free expression.” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new head of global affairs, replacing Sir Nick Clegg, said the reliance on independent fact-checkers had been “well-intentioned” but often resulted in “unfair censorship” of users. However, critics argue the move is politically motivated and could have dangerous implications. Ava Lee, from the campaign group Global Witness, said

To avoid President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s ban on the industry, illicit Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) are splintering into smaller “guerilla-style” networks, analysts warn, raising fears that they will continue to undermine national security and influence domestic politics. Philippine officials have been scrambling to close remaining Pogo hubs since the president issued an order for the entire industry to be shut down by the end of 2024, prompting a flurry of raids across major cities and provinces. Pogos are gaming firms that mainly cater to overseas Chinese clientele, but raids by local authorities have uncovered their numerous links to alleged transnational crimes including human trafficking and online scams, leading to Marcos Jnr calling for a ban on all Pogos in July. Foreign Pogo workers were notified that their visas would

A senior Hamas official has shared with the BBC a list of 34 hostages that the Palestinian group says it is willing to release in the first stage of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel. It is unclear how many of those named remain alive. Among them are 10 women and 11 older male hostages aged between 50 and 85, as well as young children who Hamas previously said had been killed in an Israeli air strike. A number of hostages who Hamas says are sick are also included on the list. Reports from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say Israeli air strikes killed more than 100 people there at the weekend. The Israeli prime minister’s office denied reports that Hamas had provided Israel with a list of hostages. “The

Three-member bench rules 2-1 to grant Najib Razak’s appeal to use the decree to argue his case before the High Court. Malaysia’s appeals court has granted a bid by jailed ex-premier Najib Razak to see a document he said should allow him to serve his sentence at home, in a rare win for a disgraced former leader at the heart of the country’s biggest scandal. A three-member bench ruled 2-1 on Monday to grant Najib’s appeal to use the decree to argue his case before the High Court. “Given the fact that there is no challenge [of the existence of the decree], there is no justification that the order has not been complied with,” said Mohamad Firuz Jaffril, one of the three Court of Appeal judges. The 71-year-old Najib, who

A Philippine lawmaker’s call for an additional US military site to help counter foreign intrusions and potential resource exploitation following the recovery of a submarine drone allegedly from China has drawn mixed reactions from analysts and politicians. Filipino congressman Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte said that having a naval base under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) in the south, particularly in his province, was crucial for protecting the country’s eastern seaboard, which is rich in deuterium deposits. Deuterium, a type of hydrogen, is used in fusion reactors and has various military, industrial, and scientific uses. Barbers warned in a statement last Thursday that foreign actors might be conducting intelligence operations targeting deuterium and other mineral resources in Philippine waters. He was referring to the yellow drone, marked

by Sameer al-Doumy with Layal Abou Rahal in Beirut AFP photographer Sameer al-Doumy never dreamed he would be able to return to the hometown in Syria that he escaped through a tunnel seven years ago after it was besieged by Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Douma, once a rebel stronghold near Damascus, suffered terribly for its defiance of the former regime, and was the victim of a particularly horrific chemical weapons attack in 2018. “It is like a dream for me today to find myself back here,” he said. “The revolution was a dream, getting out of a besieged town and of Syria was a dream, as it is now being able to go back. “We didn’t dare to imagine that Assad could fall because his presence was so anchored in us,”

The US government may unveil new restrictions targeting China’s black-market trade in advanced chips during the last week that President Joe Biden is in the White House, according to sources familiar with the matter. The South China Morning Post reported earlier that Washington plans to issue a new rule by the end of December 2024 aimed at curbing Chinese companies’ sourcing of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from unrestricted third-party countries. But sources briefed on the matter said the Biden administration had decided to postpone the release of the so-called “global artificial intelligence (AI) diffusion rule” due to delays in expert reviews as a result of US government “budgetary issues”. However, President Biden is still expected to implement the rule before January 20, his last day in office, the sources

This morning, President Hakainde Hichilema signed the Book of Condolences for President Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, marking a solemn moment of reflection for Zambia and its people. On behalf of the nation, President Hichilema extended heartfelt condolences to the Carter family and the American people, honoring President Carter as an extraordinary leader whose legacy resonates across the globe. “We remember President Carter’s remarkable legacy, marked by his unwavering commitment to peace, democracy, good governance, human rights, justice, and equality,” President Hichilema stated. During his presidency from 1977 to 1981, President Carter formed a strong bond with Zambia, particularly during the country’s critical period of transition. His influence extended beyond his time in office. In 1991, the Jimmy Carter Center played a pivotal role in Zambia’s