China has upped its retaliatory tariffs on US imports to 125%, escalating the trade war between the world’s two biggest economic powers. Chinese leader Xi Jinping struck a defiant tone in his first public comments on the trade war, saying his nation was “not afraid.
African leaders are so shameless, you will never see any asian or western leader doing such thing, this is what happens when you have nothing to offer your people
Buhari spent 8 years visiting UK every now and then, now it is Tinubu going to France
Between 500 and 1,000 people were attending concert by merengue singer Rubby Perez, who was among those killed
Almost 100 people have been killed after the roof of a night club collapsed in the Dominican Republic capital Santo Domingo during a concert by popular singer Rubby Perez, who died in the disaster.
Rescuers were racing to find survivors early on Wednesday, more than 24 hours after the structure caved in, though the operation was increasingly focused on recovering bodies. About 370 rescue personnel have been combing mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets.
The death toll started at 15 but kept rising throughout Tuesday. By early Wednesday, the preliminary toll had reached 98, said Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the country's emergency operations centre.
“As long as there is hope for life, all authorities will be working to recover or rescue these people,” he said.
Perez, 69, a renowned Dominican merengue singer, was on stage at the Jet Set night club when the roof fell shortly after midnight on Tuesday, his manager Enrique Paulino told AFP.
Also among the dead was 51-year-old retired Major League Baseball pitcher Octavio Dotel, who won a World Series in 2011 with the St Louis Cardinals. He was found alive but died of his injuries while being taken to hospital, local media reported. “Peace to his soul,” the Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League wrote on social media.
Dominican media said there were between 500 and 1,000 people in the club when disaster struck. The venue has capacity for 700 people seated and about 1,000 people standing.
Dozens of ambulances ferried the injured to hospital, as scores of people gathered outside the club, desperately seeking news of their loved ones
Perez's daughter Zulinka told reporters she had managed to escape after the roof collapsed, but her father did not.
Also among the dead was the governor of the Monte Cristi municipality, Nelsy Cruz, according to President Luis Abinader, who visited the scene and declared three days of national mourning.
Iris Pena, who had attended the show, told local television how she escaped with her son.
“At one point, dirt started falling like dust into the drink on the table,” she said. “A stone fell and cracked the table where we were, and we got out. The impact was so strong, as if it had been a tsunami or an earthquake.”
Dozens of family members flocked to hospitals for news. “We are desperate,” Regina del Rosa, whose sister was at the concert, told Dominican media. “They are not giving us news, they are not telling us anything.”
Helicopter images revealed a large hole where the club's roof once was. A crane was helping lift some of the heavier rubble as men in hard hats dug through the debris. Authorities have issued a call for Dominicans to donate blood.
The Instagram page of the Jet Set club said it had been in operation for more than 50 years, with shows every Monday. On Tuesday, the club issued a statement saying it was working “fully and transparently” with authorities.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is a major tourist destination in the region, receiving more than 11 million visitors in 2024, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
Tourism generates about 15 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, with visitors attracted by the music and nightlife, Caribbean beaches, and colonial architecture of Santo Domingo.
President Zelenskyy said Kyiv is demanding a response from Beijing after Chinese fighters were found in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian soldiers had captured two Chinese citizens fighting alongside Russian forces, adding that Kyiv would demand an explanation from Beijing and a reaction from its allies.
Moscow and Beijing have in recent years boasted of their “no limits” partnership and deepened political, military and economic cooperation since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Our military captured two Chinese citizens who fought in the Russian army. This happened on the territory of Ukraine – in the Donetsk region,” Zelenskyy said in a post on social media on Tuesday.
“We have the documents of these prisoners, bank cards, and personal data,” Zelenskyy said in a post that included a video of one of the alleged Chinese prisoners.
There was no immediate response to the claims from either Moscow or Beijing, but Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on social media that China’s charge d’affaires had been summoned for an explanation.
“Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia’s invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China’s declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing’s credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Sybiha said.
China presents itself as a neutral party in the conflict and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.
But it is a close political and economic ally of Russia, and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of Moscow’s invasion, which it has never condemned.
‘A reaction’ from allies
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a speedy end to the more than three-year war since taking office in January. But his administration has failed to reach a breakthrough despite rounds of negotiations.
Kyiv has repeatedly urged Beijing to pressure Moscow to end its invasion, which has cost tens of thousands of lives and yet has still so far failed to see the Kremlin achieve its core objectives.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv had evidence that “many more Chinese citizens” are fighting alongside Russian forces and that he had instructed his foreign minister to find out how China intends to respond.
He said the capture of the two men and the involvement of China in the conflict were “a clear signal that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to do anything but end the war”.
Zelenskyy also demanded “a reaction from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who wants peace” in his online post.
“I think the United States should pay more attention to what is happening today,” he said separately at a press conference in Kyiv.
The war in Ukraine, now grinding through its fourth year, has attracted thousands of foreign fighters to both sides.
Ukraine has been urging its Western partners to respond to the Russian deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to the western region of Kursk.
The Ukrainian military has been struggling to hold ground after launching an offensive on the border region last year, although Zelenskyy said for the first time on Monday that Ukrainian troops had been operating in Russia’s Belgorod region.
“The North Koreans fought against us in the Kursk region, the Chinese are fighting on the territory of Ukraine. And I think this is an important point that we need to discuss with our partners, I think urgently,” Zelenskyy added in the press conference.
Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said: “You can see the map moving. From the east, Russia continues to push further and further, taking town and village one by one.”
While Ukrainians will say that is indeed happening, they also say that “the fight is not over yet”, Basravi added.
Kyiv, which dispatched its then-Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to China last year, has been seeking to deepen ties with Beijing, and Zelenskyy this week appointed a new ambassador to China.
Kobojunkie: I don't blame the hospitals for the mistakes of the man and his wife. As a matter of fact, I would recommend that the man be investigated to be certain he did not intend to kill his wife and kids in all of this.
The Nigerian man who lost his wife during labour has released more details concerning what happened
The man who alleged that a hospital demanded N500,000 from him said his wife died while he was rushing him to the Epe General Hospital.
Akinbobola Akintunde Folajimi said he suspects the hospital he first visited did not have the equipment to care for his wife's case.
Two things come to mind when I think about why they rejected us: either they weren’t equipped to handle the situation, or they cared more about money than human lives. If they were truly equipped, the worst that would have happened was that they’d keep my wife and baby in the hospital while I found the money. I would have done everything possible to get it.
Folajimi says his wife would have lived if he had money
But Folajimi said if he had the money to pay the hospital, he believed his wife would have lived. He lamented that a man like him could not raise ordinary N500,000 to pay for his pregnant wife's health care.
He told punch
If the economy were better, raising N500,000 wouldn’t have been so difficult. Despite working day and night, I couldn’t even boast of having N200,000 in my account. They said they had to remove the baby from her body, which would cost N150k.
Then we had to buy burial clothes for another N20,000. Before we knew it, we had spent nearly N500,000 at the mortuary. Ironically, this was the same N500k that the hospital couldn’t wait for me to raise. In the end, we managed to raise it."
Almost N500,000 spent at the mortuary
But Folajimi said that when he got to the mortuary to deposit his wife's corpse, he spent almost N500,000, the same amount he was allegedly asked to bring at the hospital.
His words: "
They started giving us charges. They said they had to remove the baby from her body, which would cost N150,000. Then we had to buy burial clothes for another N20,000. Before we knew it, we had spent nearly N500,000 at the mortuary. Ironically, this was the same N500,000 that the hospital couldn’t wait for me to raise. In the end, we managed to raise it – just to settle everything at the mortuary.
NothingDoMe: But it's okay to use economic inducement to bend nations to his gay agenda.
It's also okay to support the removal of one the best presidents Nigeria ever had because he put his country first and they couldn't control him?
he never did any of that to Jonathan, I'm not aware of such.
And to be honest with you, Goodluck Jonathan didn't do well as president, I first voted for him in 2011 and later voted against him in 2015 due to high level of insecurity and the corruption under his watch, his inability to control the people he appointed, but if you compare his government to that of Buhari and the current one, he's better than them
Jonathan is a man with good heart, but he couldn't control the cabals and they ruined his government.
The double standard is mind boggling. This is how democracy dies and dictatorship is born
If Obama did any of this, it would be a different outcome, and much more outrage, reason being that he's a black man, the same africans worshipping Donald trump today would have labelled him a typical blackman.
Obama: Imagine if I had done any of this. Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps. Imagine if I had said to law firms that were representing parties that were upset with policies my administration had initiated, that you will not be allowed into government buildings. We will punish you economically for dissenting from the Affordable Care Act or the Iran deal. We will ferret out students who protest against my policies.
It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned countries Wednesday not to retaliate against a barrage of tariffs from the White House, saying if retaliation does not occur, higher customs duty rates will not be applied.
"I would advise none of the countries to panic. I wouldn't try to retaliate, because as long as you don't retaliate, this is the high end of the number," Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Bessent said markets can be confident that these rates will be fixed as long as no retaliation occurs.
Noting that countries had reached out for tariff negotiations, he said what will be done in this regard depends on President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Fox News, Bessent reiterated his advice, saying: "Right now, my advice to every country is not to retaliate. Let's see how things unfold, because if you retaliate, things will escalate."
Kenyans should just go home, they won't get any support from Washington, this was done under Biden
It's not easy to defeat non-state actors, no foreign intervention can restore peace in Haiti, the people of Haiti should resolve whatever differences they have.
The mission, aimed at restoring enough security for Haiti to hold elections by February 2026, has faced morale issues almost from the start and uncertainty about its possible expansion amid escalating gang violence.
It suffered its first fatality in February, and the MSS reported another Kenyan officer missing last week. The three officers, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said he was believed to be dead.
They said the two injuries came during routine patrols in and around the capital Port-au-Prince, which is mostly controlled by heavily armed gangs blamed for thousands of deaths since 2021.
MSS spokesperson Jack Ombaka confirmed two officers had been evacuated to the Dominican Republic for medical care. "As in any mission, casualties are sometimes unavoidable," he said.
The three officers said the gangs were attacking them on an increasingly regular basis and complained that their equipment was inadequate.
They said one of the officers was shot in the head after a bullet pierced his helmet and the other was hit in the ear when a gunshot penetrated the walls of an armoured vehicle. Twenty armoured vehicles have been grounded since this weekend after officers refused to use them, complaining that this was the second time a vehicle had failed to stop a bullet, the three officers said.
An MSS delegation plans to travel to Washington this week to present concerns over the quality of protective gear to U.S. officials, two senior MSS officers told Reuters
The United States has provided most of the funding and equipment for the mission, which has struggled to secure significant contributions from other countries.
Kenya's government has cited humanitarian reasons for its intervention in Haiti, though analysts say the deployment is also motivated by a desire to boost the country's international profile and win favour with the United States.
Asked about concerns about the equipment, Ombaka said: "MSS continues to receive increased logistical support from partners and stakeholders, with assurances that all equipment meets international standards." The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Foreign Affairs › Palestinian School kids Flee Israeli Military Raid In Occupied West Bank, photos by God1000(op): 6:01pm On Apr 13, 2025
