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Flood sacks the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja after a heavy downpour yesterday

A Russian general announced plans to occupy the Transnistria region of Moldova on Friday.

Speaking at a defense industry meeting, Brigadier General Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, stated that the Russian Armed Forces plan to “make passage” into the region — in Moldova’s East, bordering Ukraine and less than 30 miles from the port city of Odessa — to create a “land corridor to Crimea,” Russian media reported. Such a corridor would also purport to connect the Russian mainland to Transnistria.

Minnekayev stated that the measure was part of Russia’s second phase in its war in Ukraine, which involves establishing full control over the Donbas Region and Ukraine’s coast along the Black Sea. No timeline was provided for the maneuver to begin, however.

In his remarks, Minnekayev cited the strategic value of the region, claiming “control over the south of Ukraine is another exit into Transnistria, where there are also facts pointing to the oppression of the Russian-speaking population.” Transnistria is a separatist region of Moldova — comprised primarily of Russian speakers — akin to Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine, which has been autonomously run by a pro-Russian faction since 1990. It is not internationally recognized by any country, including Russia, though nearly 1,500 Russian troops are stationed in the region and its trade is primarily conducted with the Russian mainland.

Ukraine’s armed forces had previously warned on April 2 that Russia was mobilizing troops in Transnistria, though this was initially denied by Moldova. Ukraine believes that such mobilization is a prelude to attacks on Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port city and a gateway for its international trade.

Russia’s occupation of Transnistria would expand the conflict with Ukraine to another European nation-state, since it began in late February of 2022.

More ominously, in his remarks, Minnekayev said that Russia was now “at war with the whole world, as it [was] in the Great Patriotic War.”

UN assembly suspends Russia from top human rights body
EDITH M. LEDERER and JENNIFER PELTZ


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body over allegations of horrific rights violations by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, which the United States and Ukraine have called tantamount to war crimes.

The vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions, significantly lower than the vote on two resolutions the assembly adopted last month demanding an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, withdrawal of all Russian troops and protection for civilians. Both of those resolutions were approved by at least 140 nations.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield launched the campaign to suspend Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council in the wake of videos and photos of streets in the town of Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians after Russian soldiers retreated. The deaths have sparked global revulsion and calls for tougher sanctions on Russia, which has vehemently denied its troops were responsible.
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Russia is the second country to have its membership rights stripped at the rights council which was established in 2006. In 2011, Libya was suspended by the assembly when upheaval in the North African country brought down longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.

While almost half the U.N.’s 193 member nations supported the resolution, more than half either voted against it, abstained or didn’t vote.
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Explaining their decision not to support the resolution, some countries called it premature, noting that there are ongoing investigations into whether war crimes have occurred, or said it would undermine the credibility of the Human Rights Council and the United Nations. Others said the resolution reflected American and European geopolitical agendas and what opponents called Western hypocrisy and selective outrage about human rights.

Before the vote, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya urged assembly members to keep the Human Rights Council from “sinking” and suspend Russia, saying it has committed “horrific human rights violations and abuses that would be equated to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“Russia’s actions are beyond the pale,” he said. “Russia is not only committing human rights violations, it is shaking the underpinnings of international peace and security.”

Russia’s deputy ambassador Gennady Kuzmin urged members to vote “no.”

“What we’re seeing today is an attempt by the United States to maintain its dominant position and total control,” he said. “We reject the untruthful allegations against us, based on staged events and widely circulated fakes.”

In an appeal to some member states before the vote, Russia said the attempt to expel it from the Human Rights Council is political and being supported by countries that want to preserve their dominant position and control over the world.

Those nations want to continue “the politics of neo-colonialism of human rights” in international relations, Russia said in the document obtained by The Associated Press, insisting that its priority is to promote and defend human rights, including multilaterally in the Human Rights Council.

Kyslytsya responded to Russia’s complaints saying: “We have heard, many times, the same perverted logic of the aggressor trying to present itself as the victim.”

While the Human Rights Council is based in Geneva, its members are elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms. Russia’s term ends in December 2023.

The March 2006 resolution that established the council says the assembly may suspend membership rights of a country “that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights.”

The brief resolution that was approved expresses “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, particularly at the reports of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law by the Russian Federation, including gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights.”

The General Assembly voted 140-5 with 38 abstentions on March 24 on a resolution blaming Russia for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and urging an immediate cease-fire and protection for millions of civilians and the homes, schools and hospitals critical to their survival.

The vote was almost exactly the same as for a March 2 resolution that the assembly adopted demanding an immediate Russian cease-fire, withdrawal of all its forces and protection for all civilians. That vote was 141-5 with 35 abstentions.

China abstained in both votes but voted against suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council.

“Such a hasty move at the General Assembly, which forces countries to choose sides, will aggravate the division among member states and intensify the confrontation between the parties concerned,” said Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun. “It is like adding fuel to the fire.”

India abstained for a third time.

Indian Ambassador T. S. Tirumurti said his country wasn’t taking sides -- except “a side of peace and for an immediate end to violence.” “When innocent human lives are at stake, diplomacy must prevail as the only viable option,” he added.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria will prioritise tax collection from its digital economy in 2022 and focus on non-resident firms with significant economic presence that generate turnover in the West African country, the country's tax chief said on Thursday.

Nigeria plans to tax digital non-resident companies that sell products to local customers at 6% of turnover, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said this month, as part of fiscal reforms to boost revenues and diversify the oil-dependent economy.

At around 4.5% of GDP, Nigeria has one of the lowest tax rates in the world, and has struggled to increase tax collection from its non-oil sector.

The government has said it wants to modernise taxes for its digital economy and to improve compliance.

"We will implement the published guidelines ... to collect VAT on digital supply of services and intangibles to Nigeria," Muhammad Nami, executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), said in a statement.

Digital services include apps, high frequency trading, electronic data storage and online advertising, the minister has said.

The World Bank said last year that Nigeria needed to boost non-oil taxes to at least 12.75% of gross domestic product to boost growth.

The FIRS has deployed a digital interface to facilitate implementation and also determine companies that generate relevant turnover from Nigeria, Nami said.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha)

President Donald Trump, infuriated by an election loss he’s refusing to acknowledge, will have “meltdowns upon meltdowns” until he leaves the White House, his niece Mary Trump warned in an op-ed in The Guardian Sunday.

Trump is “not going to concede. ... He’s not going to engage in the normal activities that guarantee a peaceful transition. All he’s got now is breaking stuff, and he’s going to do that with a vengeance,” she wrote.

She argued that Trump has never won anything “legitimately” in his life but has never before lost anything either.

He “thinks that even if you steal and cheat to win, you deserve to win,” said Mary Trump, a psychologist who wrote the Donald Trump tell-all book “Too Much and Never Enough.”

The irony is that the tactics the president used to cheat may have doomed his race, Mary Trump said. Republicans heeded the president’s warning not to vote by mail, so he was subjected to a “slow drip-drip of disaster” as mail ballots from Democrats were counted, she said. “It must have been like slow torture, but he set up this failure for himself.”

The next months could be “dangerous,” she warned. Donald Trump will do nothing about COVID-19, escalating the death toll, she argued

He’ll also “go as far as he can to delegitimize the new administration, then he’ll pass pardons that will demoralize us — and sign a flurry of executive orders,” Mary Trump predicted.

Though Donald Trump faces ongoing investigations into suspect finances and taxes, that’s not what the narcissist-in-chief is most concerned about, Mary Trump said.

The “worst thing Donald’s looking at isn’t financial difficulties or the prospect of jail,” she said. “It’s becoming irrelevant. I don’t think he would ever recover from that.”