₦airaland Forum

i hope she get justice

The British Government has condemned the killing of Deborah Samuel, a 200-level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State, who was burnt on Thursday.
DAILY POST had reported that the student was beaten to a pulp and burnt alive by male Muslim students who accused her of insulting Prophet Muhammed via a WhatsApp platform.
The school authority has shut down academic activities indefinitely as tension gripped residents of the area.
The development has stirred diverse reactions amongst Nigerians who condemned the act.
Reacting, Catriona Laing, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria on Twitter called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators.
“I condemn the murder of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto, and urge the police and relevant authorities to ensure the perpetrators of this horrific act are made to face justice in line with the law,” Laing wrote.

Nigeria defeated Ghana 2-0 at the WAFU B U-20 tournament in Niger Republic.
Goals by Aminu Muhammad and substitute Ahmed Abdullahi proved enough for the Flying Eagles.
Muhammad latched on to a pass deep from the Nigerian defence before rounding past the keeper. He scored from a very tight position to leave the Flying Eagles with an early 5th minute lead.
Both sides took the game on with the Nigerians impressing in the defense.
The Ladan Bosso-led team took the lead into the half time break and continued from where they stopped in the second half, knocking on the Black Meteors’ door relentlessly.
Nigeria scored in the 78th minute to sit in a more comfortable position in the game and lead the group.
They will play Burkina Faso next with the group leaders expected to qualify for the African U-20 Championships.
Nigeria, also tinkered by Bosso missed out on the last competition having failed to pick the slot in the WAFU tournament

Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has expressed confidence about clinching the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2023 presidential ticket.
The APC National Leader who spoke in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital on Sunday said he has an edge over other aspirants.
Speaking with newsmen after a consultative meeting with party stakeholders and delegates in the state, Asiwaju Tinubu said his chances of emerging as the eventual APC candidate for 2023 are very high.
“My chances of winning the ticket are incredibly high and I am very confident. I am sure I can and I will win it,” he said.
The APC chieftain added that he prefers that every aspirant test their popularity at the polls than for the party to opt for a consensus candidate in choosing its flagbearer.
“I want democracy, I am voting for democracy, One man, one vote,” he said.

The Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazuruike, on Sunday claimed that he is yet to see a serious presidential aspirant from the South-East.
According to Uwazuruike, many of the presidential aspirants in the region have the intention to emerge as Vice Presidential candidates.
Uwazuruike stated this while reacting to the criticism of his decision to support the presidential ambition of Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.
He said as a Nigerian and as an adult, he has the fundamental right to support whoever he wants.
Uwazuruike said, “ No Igbo man is contesting for the presidency. All these people you are seeing are pretenders. They can’t come to me because they know that I know them. No Igbo man. I repeat am contesting for the president. Let them swear, all of them, that they are not going to the North to lobby for vice president.

Nigerians have taken to social media to react to the news that the UK government has labelled the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organization.
The Boris Johnson-led government made this known in an updated policy statement on asylum released through the UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) on its website.
The policy updated in May 2022 says it agrees with the government of Nigeria which labelled IPOB and its militant arm, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) as terrorist organizations.
The UK government also blamed IPOB and ESN led by the arrested Nnamdi Kanu for the increasing violence and human rights violations in the southeast region of the country, ordering its visa officials to exclude members of the group from its asylum programme.
Despite the general exclusion, the statement however pointed out that each case of an asylum application by persons who might be linked with the groups will still be considered on an individual basis.

dre11:
‘We've Been Swindled’ — Nigerian Victims Cry Out As Chinese-owned Ponzi Scheme Allegedly Steals Over N200 Billion Investment Funds




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Nigeria’s Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi and his counterpart in the Ministry of Labour, Chris Ngige risk disqualification from the Presidential primaries of the All progressives Congress, APC following their inability to resign from their respective offices.
POLITICS NIGERIA learned that Section 84 (12) of the new Electoral Act mandates all political appointees seeking elective office to resign ahead of any party primary they plan to participate in.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, while signing the electoral bill on February 25, expressed reservations over Section 84(12) and asked the National Assembly to delete it. He subsequently wrote to the National Assembly requesting the amendment. The President’s request was, however, rejected.
However, a Federal high court in Umuahia ruled that the provision was illegal and asked the attorney general, Malami to delete the section. The national Assembly and the Peoples Democratic party, PDP has since appealed the decision.
Speaking on the matter, a member of the APC NWC who pleaded anonymity said; “If the court upholds Section 84, the affected minister will be disqualified. But if the court deletes the section, they can contest without resigning. However, my advice to them is to resign, if they don’t want to be disqualified.”
Also, speaking on the matter, The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka said the party would ensure that all political appointees in APC wishing to contest the 2023 elections comply with Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act.
“The party will simply follow the Electoral Act. Any member of the party who is in an appointive position, we will expect such individual to resign before our primaries. We are hopeful that they will comply at the right time and we are going to ensure that anyone seeking our ticket will not breach the Electoral Act.”

Governor Bala Mohammed says the Peoples Democratic Party would have handed APC national leader Bola Tinubu its presidential ticket if he was in PDP.
Mr Bala, in an interview with Arise News, said that the PDP recognized Mr Tinubu’s contribution to national development and support for President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I met Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. We discussed. He was talking about consensus, and I told him, if ‘you were in PDP, we would have just given you the ticket because we know that without you, Buhari wouldn’t have been a president, and in PDP, we recognise contribution’,” he explained.
The Bauchi governor’s comment came amidst several speculations that Mr Tinubu’s influence may not be enough to earn him APC’s presidential ticket.
Last week, Governor Nyesom Wike, a PDP presidential hopeful, said all APC presidential aspirants, including Mr Tinubu, are worse than Mr Buhari.
“They continue to herald that Buhari has done well despite the insecurity, economic hardship and downward spiral of the naira. I don’t see any of them that will do better than Buhari,” the Rivers governor stressed. “What will an APC candidate say that will be different? They worked with the present government that has destabilised Nigeria.”
Mr Wike stated this while responding to questions in an exclusive interview with the BBC regarding his chances of winning against Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, and Mr Tinubu.

All seems to be set for former President Goodluck Jonathan to officially declare his intention to contest the 2023 presidency under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered yesterday that Jonathan may have yielded to pressure from some big wigs of the governing party, close allies of the presidency to join the APC and join the race to clinch the party’s presidential ticket.
Groups and individuals have also been mounting pressure on the former president to contest the 2023 presidential poll.
Supporters of the former Nigerian leader, made up of men, women and youths, yesterday morning thronged his Abuja office, insisting that he must declare his intention to run for the 2023 presidency.
Jonathan who was holding a meeting with his committee of friends who visited him at his Foundation office at Taraba Crescent, Maitama, at the time the supporters stormed the place in protest did not categorically tell them that he would declare for the presidency.
Instead, he covertly asked the supporters to watch out, saying the political process was still in progress.
“I cannot declare because some processes are still ongoing. Yes, you are calling on me to come and declare for the next election. I cannot tell you I’m declaring. The political process is ongoing; just watch out. The key role you must play is that Nigeria must get somebody that will carry young people along,” Jonathan stated while addressing the supporters in front of the gate to his office.
But reliable sources close to the former president told our correspondent yesterday evening that arrangement has been concluded for the former president to defect to the APC and join other aspirants jostling for the presidential ticket ahead of the party’s presidential primary billed to hold on May 30 and 31, 2022.
Confirming the development, one of the sources who did not want his name in print, said, “It is not all about former President Jonathan. The forces that be in APC are the ones asking him to run for the presidency under the party’s platform. I think he is just waiting for the process to be finalised before declaring officially.
“We all know that the former president cannot take such a decision at this dying moment to throw his has in the ring of a party he would be dealing with as a new entrant and expect to get the ticket of the highest office in the country.”
It was also learnt that the APC is planning to grant the former president waiver as a new entrant to participate in the party’s presidential primary.
The NWC of the APC, in exercising the power of NEC in accordance with the party’s constitution may grant and approve waiver as soon as it is requested by the ward executive for the former president to participate in all activities of the APC such as voting and be voted for in any of the intra party elections ahead of the 2023 polls”, a party source told LEADERSHIP Weekend last night.


Meanwhile, the supporters holding placards with inscriptions such as “run Jonathan run”, “Jonathan you are a good man”, “Jonathan, you’re the only voice of the masses we know”, and “Jonathan you must run”, “run Goodluck run”, “declare now, Goodluck”, “you must run”, “you are wasting our time, declare now”, among others contended that the former president remains their only hope for a better future.
The Coalition of Northern Youths, other youth and women groups from across the federation were part of the visit.
They took over the entire Taraba Street and other adjoining streets, up to the Farmer’s Market in Maitama, chanting songs in praise of Jonathan.
After about 2 hours, the former president who came out of his office to address them said he was still in the process of consulting and would soon make his decision to either contest or not public.
Jonathan urged his supporters to continue to pray for peace and unity of the country and that God should provide the right candidate to lead the country.
He noted that the visit, especially by the youths, was an indication that they were really interested in the country’s political affairs, just as he implored them to be key players in the country’s politics to enthrone good governance.
Jonathan said, “As youths, we must get involved in the country’s political process and luckily the law of `Not too Young to Run’ bill has made it clear that youths can contest almost every position in government. We will continue to encourage youths to get involved in the country’s political process.
“And as long as many youths get involved in the political process, we will be able to get the government we want”.
He noted that even though some of the country’s present challenges date back to past administration, they can be confronted frontally from a united front.
“But the key role you must play is to pray that Nigeria gets a president that will carry the young people along and work very hard to see that some of the country’s problems raised are dealt with. I believe that collectively, we can work together,’’ he said.
Earlier, leader of the Youth Compatriots of Nigeria, Mayor Samuel, told journalists that they were ready to support Jonathan to ensure that he returns to Aso Rock as the country’s next president in 2023.
Condemning the growing insecurity in the country and the dwindling economy, Samuel said there is the need to address the situation.
He stated that the Nigeria Peoples Party was ready to give Jonathan its presidential ticket to contest the 2023 presidential election, adding that though the party is not registered yet, it belongs to the downtrodden.
Noting that any party that gives its presidential ticket to Jonathan would get the support of all Nigerians, he said, “The secret to good governance is what Nigeria requires at the moment, Jonathan has been tested and proven and we are ready to follow him.”
Also, one of the youth leaders, Jonathan Akumobi, said they were in Maitama to compel Jonathan to run because they believe in his capabilities, considering his past experience.
Akumobi said that a lot of challenges being experienced in all sectors require an experienced hand like Jonathan to tackle.
“We are tired of the killings, of the insecurity, our schools are closed because of strike, the national grid has been collapsing; everything in Nigeria is challenged.
“The prices of food items have gone up, during Jonathan’s administration, we were buying a bag of rice for N7,000, today it is N35,000; we need Jonathan back to help return to the good old days because we are tired of the excuses,’’ he stated.

The former Governor of Lagos State and presidential hopeful, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has mocked Rotimi Amaechi’s show of fitness during his declaration to run for the 2023 presidential elections.
The national leader of APC, while addressing a gathering in what seemed to be a reply to Amaechi’s action during his presidential declaration said that he is running for presidency, not to become a wrestler.
He said, “ Those who think they will see me run around the stadium, I didn’t apply for the job of wrestling.”
After the crowd had erupted in laughter due to his remarks, Tinubu further stated that “What I am applying for has to do with the brain capacity, knowledge, that will make life better for a whole lot of people.’

April 14, (THEWILL) – The United States Government has indicted the Nigeria police, military and Department of State Services (DSS), for corruption, human rights violation and impunity.
The US Department of State uncovered the misdemeanours in its ‘2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’ in Nigeria.
“Impunity, exacerbated by corruption and a weak judiciary, remained a significant problem in the security forces, especially in police, military, and the Department of State Services.
“Police, the military, and the Department of State Services reported to civilian authorities, but periodically acted outside civilian control. There were credible reports that members of the security forces committed numerous abuses”, the report said.
The report contained incidents of extrajudicial killings, stifling of free speech, human rights violations, political witch-hunting, and other issues in Nigeria.
The US said the opaque nature of disciplining offending officials encourages impunity and that the systems shield erring officers found culpable in multiple crimes.
“The government regularly utilised disciplinary boards and mechanisms to investigate security force members and hold them accountable for crimes committed on duty, but the results of these accountability mechanisms were not always made public”, the report further stated.
Two of Nigeria’s anti graft agencies – the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), were cited for inconclusive prosecution of public officials charged for corruption.

The US Department of State report accused the anti graft agencies of being selective and “focused on low and mid-level government officials.”
It, however, acknowledged that both organisations brought indictments against various active and former high-level government officials.

The Nigerian government says it is doing all it can to free the dozens of people kidnapped from a train in Kaduna last month.
Information minister Lai Mohammed said though the government would not disclose details of its efforts to the media, “what I can assure you is that as we speak, the respective arms of the government are actually engaged in getting those victims released.”
Mr Mohammed spoke at the end of Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting presided by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
“What the federal government is doing won’t be the subject matter of a press conference, because we have lives at stake. The various arms of security are working night and day to unravel the mystery surrounding the attack as a whole and the kidnapped people,” the minister said.
“What I can assure you is that as we speak, the respective arms of the government are actually engaged in getting those victims released. It’s natural for anybody who is a father or a mother of a kidnapped person to be worried and to be concerned.”
PREMIUM TIMES reported the March 28 attack on a Kaduna-bound train by gunmen. At least eight people were killed by the gunmen and dozens of other passengers were kidnapped. The gunmen have since released videos of some of the kidnapped passengers.

Mr Mohammed said the military, in collaboration with other security agencies, is working hard to bring to an end the frequent attacks on innocent citizens.
He said the government is aware of the concerns of Nigerians regarding the security situation in the country.
“At the level of government, we appreciate the concerns of citizens and we are leaving no stone unturned, but we’ll not give you specific steps we’re taking. I think it will be counterproductive and not going to aid or help those who are kidnapped or help the security forces who are tracing and ensuring that there’ll be no repeat of such attacks,” he said.

Peter Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State and presidential aspirant in the 2023 election, on Tuesday said the competition between All Progressives Congress (APC) heavyweights, Bola Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo, should not be paramount to Nigerians.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Obi said the social problem of kidnapping and its implications on the economic development of Nigeria should worry his compatriots.
This newspaper recalls that reacting to Osinbajo’s declaration to run for president, former governor of Lagos State and presidential aspirant, Bola Tinubu, on Monday, said Vice President Osinbajo is not his “son” .
“I don’t have any son grown up enough to make such declaration,” Tinubu had said.
Asked in an interview on Arise TV his take on the aspirations of Messrs Tinubu and Osinbajo, Obi, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the 2023 election should be “issue-based”.
“Nigerians should now be concerned about the issues. This is not time for who is here or there; who is son or who is father. The thing is, we have a problem. People are not being kidnapped as one, two now, they are packing families. That should bother us,” he said.

The Super Eagles have moved two steps up to the 30th best in the latest FIFA world ranking released today, Thursday, March 31st.

Nigeria have also climbed to third in Africa, behind only top-ranking Senegal and second-place Morocco. Egypt and Tunisia complete the continent’s best five national teams.
Nigeria previously sat 32nd in the world and 5th in Africa before Thursday’s release.
It is a tiny ray of light in a dark moment for the Super Eagles after the former Afcon kings failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on Tuesday.
Nigeria lost on away goal rule to Ghana after drawing 0-0 to the Black Stars in Kumasi and managing only a 1-1 draw in Abuja.

The Nigeria Football Federation has since announced the disbandment of the team’s technical crew, with Augustine Eguavoen stepping down as caretaker coach.
Nigeria’s conqueror, Ghana, swapped 61st position for 60th, while 56th-placed Burkina Faso beat the Black Stars to Africa’s top ten.
However, Brazil has overtaken Belgium as the number one team in the world, with the Red Devils settling for the second spot. France follow in third while Argentina and England complete the top five globally. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Netherlands are all in the top 10.
Others that made the top 20 list are Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, USA, Croatia, Colombia, Wales, Sweden, and Senegal.

US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin "a butcher" after he met with Ukrainian refugees in Poland on Saturday, March 26. It was the US President’s latest indictment of his Russian counterpart. Earlier, Joe Biden had called Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden is on a two-day visit to Nato ally Poland, the country that has accepted the lion's share of more than 3.5 million people who have fled war-torn Ukraine. The US President on Saturday toured a food kitchen for Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland.
Follow the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine war
On being asked about what he thinks of Putin putting the Ukrainians through war, Joe Biden said, “He is a butcher.”
During a meeting with #Ukrainian refugees, #Biden called #Putin a butcher. pic.twitter.com/zsXd1AalEa
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 26, 2022
Biden's visit to Poland was his final stop on a trip to Europe that has underscored his opposition to the Russian invasion, his solidarity with Ukraine, and his determination to work closely with Western allies to confront the crisis in Europe.
Earlier, Joe Biden said he had hoped to get even closer to the Ukraine-Poland border, but was prevented because of security concerns. Still, he said he wanted to visit Poland to underscore that the assistance it is providing is of “enormous consequence" as Europe experiences the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
Talking about the US President’s visit, Alla Dyachenko, a chemist from Kyiv who fled to Poland with her daughter, said, "We are waiting for President Biden to close the sky over Ukraine. Ukrainian warriors can protect our country on the ground, but we can't close the sky."

March 19 (UPI) -- Dozens of Ukrainian troops were killed Saturday in a missile strike on army barracks in Mykolaiv, local officials said.

At least 45 soldiers were killed in the Russian strike, BBC News reported .
Rescue operations took place at the scene of the missile strike of the barrack housing soldiers in the southern Ukrainian city and strategic Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, the region's Gov. Vitalli Kim told CNN .
CNN's Swedish affiliate Expressen reported that two Russian fighter jets dropped around five bombs on the buildings around 6 a.m.

Clinton, Bush lay flowers outside Ukrainian church in Chicago
A video filmed by Expressen showed rescuers pulling one Ukrainian solider alive from the wreckage.
Another survivor, identified only as 54-year-old soldier Serhill, told Expressen "of the approximately 200 who were there, I would guess about 90% did not survive."
"Glass flew everywhere," Nikita, a 22-year-old soldier whose first name was only given, told Expressen. "I prayed to God that I would have time to take shelter before bombs came. There are always more bombs."

Putin gives speech marking anniversary of Crimea annexation
Mykolaiv has been a critical target for Russian forces on the ground as they move to capture Ukraine's third largest city, Odesa, further west along the coast.

The Russian military, meanwhile, said it destroyed a military ammunition warehouse in the village of Delyatin using Kinzhal missiles Friday.
Overnight, there was also attack targeting an aircraft repair plant near the western city of Lviv, which has been receiving hundreds of refugees from Mariupol in the south. No casualties were reported.

Russia threatens response after four countries expel 20 diplomats
BBC News reported Mariupol is expected to fall after being battered by shelling for weeks under siege. Authorities said 130 people have been rescued from the bomb shelter under the city's theatre that was attacked two days ago, but hundreds more may be trapped in the rubble.
Still, Russia has been "surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance," the British Defense Ministry said in its latest update.
The Russian military has been "forced to change its operational approach and is now pursuing a strategy of attrition," the update added. "This is likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis."

The British Defense Ministry also said in the update that Russian President Vladimir Putin has "reinforced his control over Russian domestic media," in attempt to "obscure high Russian casualty numbers."

MadamVanessa:



This war has really exposed Putin and Russia seriously. Prior before the war , the world respected Russia for nothing, because almost all the world think that Russia Military might is a top notch, only for small Ukraine to exposed this overrated country. As weak as Ukraine is, they still withstand this useless overrated country and give them a bloody nose.

Putin is finished. Even the Russians condemned Putin for invading Ukraine, China, their close ally now backup Ukraine after discovering that Russia they respected so much are weaklings that can be tossed and used any how like 10 and 11 spanner.


They only people you'll see supporting Putin's madness are those poverty stricken bastards here on nairaland that can't even afford three square meal a day like the one above me.

see as you carry white people for head like this... take it easy..all this white doesn't care about africa

The Biden administration made a carefully orchestrated gamble this week, issuing a series of public and private threats to Beijing that it will face consequences if it supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The strategy was capped by a tense, seven-hour meeting in Rome on Monday between U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi.
But having fired loud diplomatic salvos at Beijing, Biden administration officials are still debating the next steps to take to ensure China does not help Russia evade Western sanctions or supply weapons to Moscow as casualties mount in Ukraine.
One immediate result of the Rome meeting was an angrier Beijing, which was combative in the talks, people briefed on the interactions say. One U.S.-based person briefed on the meeting described Chinese officials' response as "tough" and "offensive." Another said simply that the talks did not go well.
Washington is now sorting through a host of unanswered questions, including where any "red line" regarding Ukraine that China would need to cross to trigger a U.S. response is, and what exactly that response would be, administration officials say.
The Biden administration is waiting to see what China does before deciding on a course of action. "We're going to be watching closely," said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki on Monday. A senior U.S. official said they would be looking at what military, economic, or other support is being provided to Russia.
The United States on Monday told allies in NATO and several Asian countries that China had signaled its willingness to provide military and economic aid to Russia to support its war in Ukraine.
Sullivan had warned before the talks that China would "absolutely" face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sweeping sanctions over Ukraine.
China, which announced a "no limits" strategic partnership with Russia in February, may find it hard to change course and back down after a threat was made public, said Kevin Gallagher, who leads the Global Development Project at Boston University.
"This wasn't a good strategic move," he said. "Like the United States, China has a domestic constituency."
He Weiwen, senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Beijing's Renmin University said: "The U.S. has an intention to crackdown on China, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides a reason for it to do so," describing the U.S. warnings as "blackmail."
Sources in the Biden administration and diplomats in Washington and Europe say Western countries had been sending private warnings to Beijing about China's support for Russian President Vladimir Putin for weeks before the Rome meeting.
Russia has denied asking China for military assistance, and China warned this week of "false information," in apparent reference to U.S. statements.
"China firmly opposes any words and deeds that spread false information and distort and smear China's position," Yang said, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Beijing's official newspaper, the People's Daily, carried a column noting the inaccurate U.S. intelligence that led to the Iraq invasion.
Some U.S. allies also quietly questioned the intelligence Washington was relying upon regarding the Russian and Chinese conversations, several European diplomatic sources said.

SANCTIONS DISCUSSIONS NOT ADVANCED
Discussions between the United States and its military allies of any coordinated sanctions that could apply to Beijing are not advanced, according to one person involved in those conversations.
A move to sanction China over Ukraine would have potentially dire consequences, not just for China, but for the U.S. and global economies, analysts say.
China trades vastly more with the United States and its NATO than it does with Russia, and the Chinese economy relies heavily on international markets and capital. However, the talks between Sullivan and Yang did not focus on trade, one U.S. official noted.
Biden entered office regarding China as the key foreign policy challenge of the era, one that required a more hardline defense of democratic values against autocratic competitors.
But Biden hoped that his candid personal relationship with China's leader Xi Jinping could defuse the likelihood of a Cold War or a direct military clash between the world's current superpower and its rising superpower, including over the status of Taiwan.
"China is either going to side with Russia and reinforce the sense that it has joined an 'axis of autocracy,' or it is going to put significant space between Moscow and Beijing and demonstrate that it genuinely cares about preserving even a basic relationship with the rest of the world," said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"If it turns down this opportunity, it's not clear to me there will be a next time to meet and set aside differences. The ball is entirely in Beijing's court

Russia’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that US President Joe Biden and a dozen other top officials had been banned from entering the country in a reciprocal response to US sanctions.
The measure, which also applies to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “is the consequence of the extremely Russophobic policy pursued by the current US administration", the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

South Africa abstained in a vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the resolution condemning the Russian invasion of the Ukraine , and demanding their withdrawal.
The South African government has explained that it enjoys good relations with both Russia and the Ukraine; hence it abstained in the UN General Assembly vote condemning the Russian invasion.
President Cyril Ramaphosa subsequently said South Africa abstained
At home, the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance lost no time in taunting the governing African National Congress (ANC) that its abstention was because a Russian oligarch, Victor Vekselberg, had donated R7.5 million to the ANC .
But one cannot assume that a billionaire’s personal views are pro-Putin, merely because he is Russian. Besides, after the Kremlin jailed and sequestrated the billionaire Mikhael Khodorkovsky in 2005, no “oligarch” will ever again express opposition views in public.
In fact, the moniker “oligarch” is misleading because it implies a wielder of great power in the inner circle. The reality is that Russia’s billionaires possess their wealth solely by the grace of the Kremlin. Like England’s Henry VII , the Kremlin seizes the property of its critics.
Further, reality has many dimensions. And in this case history is relevant. To summarise, the ANC remembers who were its allies during the Cold War , and who denounced it as “terrorists”. This has drowned the other considerations. This includes that South Africa, as a small country, depends on the UN charter principles opposing war and invasion to seize territory, and multilateralism to protect it from invasion by a great power.
Historic ties that bind
The ANC and the former Soviet Union have a long history together . The first visit by an ANC leader to the Soviet Union was by Josiah Tshangana Gumede, one of the founding members of the ANC, in 1927. His visit was a spin-off of his attendance in Belgium of the League against Imperialism .
After the apartheid regime was banned the ANC in 1960 it received aid from the Soviet Union for its exiled mission in the fight to liberate South Africa from minority white rule. This aid exceeded that from the pan-African Organisation of African Unity – now the African Union – or anyone else.
It was only from the end of the 1970s that Scandinavian donations became higher than Soviet funding. But Scandinavian aid remained limited to peaceful aid only . Only the Soviet Union provided weapons and other military aid to the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.
By 1988, sensing that victory over apartheid was coming, Moscow supplemented training in guerilla warfare with training in conventional warfare, including naval and air force training.
Historical links, such as these, were evident in the divide between African states during the UN General Assembly vote to condemn Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
Namibia, which is governed by Swapo , Angola, by the MPLA and Mozambique by Frelimo joined South Africa in abstaining .
Swapo, the MPLA, and Frelimo also received Soviet foreign aid during the 20th Century Cold War when they too were liberation movements fighting guerrilla wars.
By contrast, Botswana and Zambia voted to condemn the Russian invasion. Significantly, their ruling parties came to power peacefully, and did not have Russian alliances. This vote for the UN resolution condemning the Russian invasion and demanding its withdrawal, was also the position of 28 African Union members. Seventeen abstained.
Clearly, the liberation movements of Angola, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique regard Russia as the inheritor and custodian of the Soviet Union history and traditions.

Irony of history
There is some irony in this, as so often in history. While Russian President Vladimir Putin started his career in the Soviet KGB, the political police, he now merits the western saying that there is no one more anti-communist than an ex-communist. In 2017 Putin’s government, supported by his United Russia party, had absolutely zero centenary celebrations of the Bolshevik revolution .
To the contrary, today’s Kremlin ensures that today’s Communist Party of the Russian Federation faces two decades of rigged elections, cheating it of winning the vote in Vladivostok and other towns.
Why then do the ANC, Swapo, MPLA, and Frelimo, and the
South African Communist Party – the ANC’s governing alliance partner – continue to retain such bonds of deference to Putin’s anti-communist government?
One reason could be that Russia and those southern African governments have shared resentment of the international dominance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ( NATO) , especially that of the US and the former colonial powers – the UK and French. This is regardless of the sea-change in party politics within the Kremlin.
The relationship between South Africa and the US, especially, has a complex history. Not least because US governments designated ANC leaders fighting the apartheid regime as terrorists . There is also memory of the CIA’a unsavoury role in Africa .
Most of the anti-Ukrainian commentary in the South African internet and letters to the editors reflects the commentators’ stance against previous US government foreign policy of wars in Iraq , Afghanistan and elsewhere. They don’t reflect facts unfolding on the ground.
For the governments of South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and Mozambique, the historical alliances and enemies of the last century’s Cold War seem destined to tip the scales when it comes to their voting at the UN, the African Union, and in other forums. This is despite the fact that, as small countries with severely constrained defence capabilities, they depend on the support for multilateralism and the UN system against any invasions by a great power.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight, with nothing less than the fate of Ukraine, scene of Moscow's assaults, at stake.
The eccentric billionaire and founder of aerospace company SpaceX took to Twitter, where his messages are notoriously erratic, to see whether the Russian leader would test his mettle in person rather than through his country's forces fighting across the border.
"I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine," said Musk.

An Iranian-American woman allegedly stabbed her date in Las Vegas as revenge for the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
On Saturday, Nika Nikoubin was charged with attempted murder for allegedly luring a man she met on the dating site Plenty of Fish.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal said Nikoubin and her date had rented a room at the Sunset Station Hotel in Las Vegas.
Nikoubin asked her date if she could blindfold him before having sex, and when he put it on, the 21-year-old allegedly went into her purse and pulled out a knife and stabbed him twice in the neck.
Police said Nikoubin had run out of the room and told a hotel employee that she had stabbed a man.
"Wanted revenge"
She later explained that her plan was not to kill the man but "wanted revenge" against "US troops for the 2020 killing of of Qassem Soleimani", according to a police report.
"She advised that there are injustices, in particular the killing of Qassem Soleimani in Iran," the police report said.
It remains unclear why she chose to stab her date and whether he has any connection to Soleimani.
The man's condition was not available, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Nikoubin, a Las Vegas resident, faces charges of attempted murder, battery, and burglary of a business.
In January 2020, Soleimani, who headed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps's elite Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike after landing in Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.

Russia has said China refused to support them with the supply of aircraft parts, CNN reports

Russia said China rejected requests to support them with aircraft parts as Moscow looks to source components following tough aviation sanctions from the U.S and other Western countries.

Russian Head of the Aircraft Airworthiness Department, at the Federal Air Transport Agency, Valery Kudinov, said there were around 70 aircraft in the Russian register before the end of February.

According to him, the situation with the maintenance of aircraft and imports of spare parts is planned to be resolved, including through the re-export of components.

Kudinov added, “As far as I know … China refused,” adding that Russia would continue searching through other countries such as Turkey or India. “Each company will negotiate on its own,” Kudinov said.

It is no longer news that the world’s two biggest aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, have both suspended supply of components to Russian airlines over the invasion of Ukraine.

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has filed a joint lawsuit with Chime, a financial technology and digital banking company, against two Nigerian individuals who allegedly used Instagram and Facebook accounts to impersonate Chime and target its users in phishing attacks.
The two defendants, Arafat Eniola Arowokoko and Arowokoko Afeez Opeyemi, presumably used a network of at least five Facebook accounts and over 800 Instagram accounts to impersonate the fintech company, attempting to take over customers' accounts.
With the help of these accounts, they lured potential targets to Chime-branded phishing websites to harvest Chime credentials (email and password) and hijack the victims' accounts.
One such phishing website is still online at chime62.godaddysites[.]com , asking visitors to enter their phone number, email, Social Security Number, and Chime password.
The end goal of the scheme was to withdraw money out of hijacked Chime accounts without the victims' knowledge.
These phishing websites prompted users to enter their Chime usernames and passwords to compromise users' Chime member accounts and withdraw funds.
"Since June 2020, Meta has taken multiple enforcement actions against Defendants for violating its Terms, including as recently as October 22, 2021," according to the joint complaint Meta and Chime filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Meta disabled Facebook and Instagram accounts used to impersonate Chine and blocked the phishing websites from its services. On July 9, it also sent cease-and-desist letters notifying the two defendants that their conduct violated the platforms' terms and revoking their Facebook and Instagram access.
"Nonetheless, Defendants continued to create new Chime-impersonating accounts. In total, between June 5, 2020, and October 22, 2021, Meta disabled more than 800 Facebook and Instagram accounts and blocked phishing websites associated with Defendants and their scheme from being accessed on Facebook and Instagram."
This action is part of a broader series of lawsuits filed by Meta against threat actors abusing its platform for malicious purposes and targeting its users.
For instance, Meta filed a lawsuit in December against the operators of over 39,000 phishing sites targeting Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users.
The same month, Meta also announced that it disrupted the operations of seven spyware-making companies by blocking their infrastructure on its platform, sending cease and desist letters, and banning their accounts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine dominates world attention. But with less global scrutiny, Putin is also busy advancing Russia’s presence in the Middle East and Africa -- an expansion that military and civilian leaders view as another, if less immediate, threat to security in the West.
Putin's strategy in the Mideast and Africa has been simple, and successful: He seeks out security alliances with autocrats, coup leaders, and others who have been spurned or neglected by the U.S. and Europe, either because of their bloody abuses or because of competing Western strategic interests.
— In Syria, Russia’s defense minister last month showed off nuclear-capable bombers and hypersonic missiles over the Mediterranean, part of a security partnership that now has the Kremlin threatening to send Syrian fighters to Ukraine.
— In Sudan, a leader of a junta that’s seized power in that East African country has a new economic alliance with the Kremlin, reviving Russia’s dreams of a naval base on the Red Sea.
— In Mali, the government is the latest of more than a dozen resource-rich African nations to forge security alliances with Kremlin-allied mercenaries, according to U.S. officials.
Especially in the last five or six years, “what you’ve seen is a Russia that is much more expeditionary and casting its military power further and wider afield,” retired U.S. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove told The Associated Press.
“Russia is trying to show itself as a great power, as at the seat in world affairs, as driving international situations,” said Breedlove, the second-highest military commander in NATO from 2013 through 2016, and now a distinguished chair at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington.
But with Putin's hands already full battling the fierce resistance from a much weaker Ukrainian military, experts view his expansionist goals in the Middle East and Africa as a potential long-term threat, not a present danger to Europe or the NATO alliance.
“It’s threatening NATO from below,” Kristina Kausch, a European security expert at the German Marshall Fund think-tank, said of the leverage Russia is gaining. “The Russians have felt encircled by NATO – and now they want to encircle NATO,” she said.
To achieve its strategic aims, Russia provides conventional military or Kremlin-allied mercenaries to protect the regimes of often outcast leaders. In return, these leaders pay back Russia in several ways: cash or natural resources, influence in their affairs, and staging grounds for Russian fighters.
These alliances help advance Putin's ambitions of returning Russia's influence to its old Cold War boundaries.
Russia's new security partnerships also aid it diplomatically. When the U.N. General Assembly condemned Putin's Ukraine invasion this month, Syria joined Russia in voting against, and many of the African governments that have signed security deals with Russian mercenaries abstained.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Russia would bring recruits from Syria to fight in Ukraine. The threat was seen primarily as an intimidation tactic and U.S. officials say there's been no sign of Syrian recruits in Ukraine. Some security experts say Russian mercenaries are using Mali as a staging ground for deployment to Ukraine, but U.S. officials have not confirmed these reports.
Regardless of how imminent the threat is, U.S. and European leaders are paying increasing attention to Putin's moves in the Middle East and Africa — and Russia's growing alliance with China — as it formulates plans to protect the West from future aggression.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in mid-February that the West could no longer ignore the competition for influence across Africa, where China spends billions on infrastructure projects to secure mineral rights, and Russia provides security through Kremlin-allied mercenaries.
“We see and realize that if we withdraw from this competition as liberal democracies, then others are going to fill these gaps,” Baerbock said as Western diplomats huddled on the Ukraine crisis, in the last days before Russia's invasion.
Perhaps the boldest example of Russia flexing its global reach was when it sent defense minister Sergei Shoigu last month to Damascus to oversee Russia's largest military drills in the Mediterranean since the Cold War, just as Russia's military made final preparations for its assault on Ukraine.
The drills, involving 15 warships and about 30 aircraft, appeared choreographed to showcase the Russian military’s capability to threaten the U.S. carrier strike group in the Mediterranean.
Russia’s Hmeimeem air base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast has served as its main outpost for launching attacks in Syria since September 2015. Russia’s attacks in Syria, which leveled ancient cities and sent millions of refugees to Europe, allowed President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal government to reclaim control over most of the country after a devastating civil war.
“Hmeimeem base is now an integral part of Russia’s defense strategy not just in the Middle East but all the world,′' said Ibrahim Hamidi, a Syrian journalist and senior diplomatic editor for Syrian affairs at the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
In Africa, too, Russia is open to working with leaders known for anti-democratic actions and abuses of human rights.
On the eve of Russia’s invasion with Ukraine, Kremlin officials met in Moscow with an officer of a military junta that seized power in Sudan.
Isolated by the West, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo warmly responded to Russia’s overture of a new economic-focused alliance. Upon returning home, Gen. Dagolo announced that Sudan would be open to allowing Russia to build its long hoped-for naval base at Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
It’s far from certain that Russia would be able to take advantage anytime soon. The Ukraine invasion is straining its military and financial resources and showing Russia's military weaknesses, and international sanctions are crippling its economy.
But longer-term, a Red Sea port could help give it a greater role in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, increase Russian access in the Suez Canal and other high-traffic shipping lanes, and allow Russia to project force in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.
“They certainly could create enough havoc to cause problems,” said Breedlove, the former NATO commander.
Russia's expanding alliances aren't just about its conventional military.
From 2015 to 2021, Russian mercenary security outfits increased their presence around the world seven-fold, with operations in 27 countries as of last year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The most prominent is the Wagner Group, which the U.S. and EU consider to be a surrogate of the Russian military, but which the Kremlin denies even exists.
From Libya to Madagascar, security contracts granted to Wagner Group and others give Russia access to mineral resources, staging grounds for deployments and substantial footholds challenging Western nations’ influence there.
In Mali, the U.S. and Europe expressed alarm in December at reports that the Wagner Group had signed a $10 million-a-month security contract with that government. Experts say Wagner took advantage of local unhappiness over the failures of a years-long French-led deployment in the sub-Saharan targeting extremist factions.
Mali denied any such deployment, but some in Mali saw the arrival of Russians as a slam to Mali’s colonial ruler France, which had struggled to protect them against armed extremists. They hope for better results from any Russian fighters arriving in the sub-Saharan. “Long live Russia!" cried one man in a crowd cheering the sight of a Russian delegation in the capital in January. “Long live the people of Mali!”

Within two weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies have collectively imposed a series of sanctions to isolate Russia’s financial system. Recent stringent Western sanctions are a stress test of Russia’s de-dollarization initiatives and an emerging nondollar financial system. Besides de-SWIFTing Russian banks, Western sanctions have targeted the assets of the Russian central bank and sovereign wealth funds, the Russian Ministry of Finance, and Russian oligarchs. These punitive measures effectively wiped out the thirty-year post-Cold War Western financial engagement with Russia. I have discussed a Russia-China de-dollarization partnership in the Foreign Affairs article titled The Anti-Dollar Axis . It seems that Putin’s Russia has more partners for de-dollarization in Asia, such as India.
So far, Putin has not been completely isolated, at least in Asia. Asian countries’ response to President Putin’s war in Ukraine has been far from unified. Japan and South Korea, two key U.S. allies in East Asia, have slapped severe sanctions on Russian entities. Although not a treaty ally, Singapore has also imposed sanctions on Russia. In contrast, the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, has decided to proceed with its purchase of 17 Russian military transport helicopters worth $249 million. India, a major U.S. ally, has neither condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nor imposed sanctions, although it abstained from the UN Security Council vote. Similar to India, China has not called Russia’s military action against Ukraine an invasion but abstained from the UN Security Council vote. China’s abstaining rather than casting a veto has been
considered a diplomatic victory by the West.
An unintended consequence of Western punitive sanctions could be strengthening a Russia-China de-dollarization partnership. Joining such a partnership may also appeal to India. India has reportedly
expressed interest in jointly exploring with Russia and China an alternative to SWIFT that would allow it to trade with countries under U.S. sanctions. While India currently does not have its own domestic financial messaging system, it plans to link a service currently under development with Russia’s SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages, Russia’s equivalent of SWIFT), which could connect with China’s CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, the Chinese version of SWIFT). Once materialized, the linked systems would cover most parts of the world. The global coverage of this alternative system could appeal to countries that are either vulnerable to U.S. sanctions or discontent about the U.S. dollar’s dominance. China’s CIPS currently has three direct participants in Europe and none in the United States.

MOSCOW — Russia said Friday it was opening a criminal case against Meta for “calling for the murder” of Russians, saying the parent company of Facebook and Instagram had relaxed rules on violent messages aimed at Russia’s army and leaders.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was launching an investigation “due to illegal calls for the murder of Russian nationals by employees of the American company Meta.”
Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office also requested that the internet giant be branded “extremist” and called for Instagram to be blocked in the country.
The announcement came just over two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine, with Russia seeking to ban any criticism of the military campaign.
The General Prosecutor’s Office said “materials were being distributed on Instagram that contained calls for committing violent acts against the citizens of Russia, including military personnel.”
It said it had asked Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor to “restrict access” to Instagram.

Facebook and Instagram are widely used in Russia, the latter being the most popular social media platform for young Russians.
Since early March, Twitter and Facebook have been inaccessible in Russia.

Gospelpreacher1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjLRJ9IuoU

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/ukraine-war-millions-could-die-if-the-world-does-not-act-now-to-stop-the-bombing-president-zelenskyy-tells-sky-news-12561844

I think the whites believe or think the world begin and End in America and Europe...

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese stocks are getting knocked down in U.S. hours after suffering intense swings in Asia, with the group heading toward its worst session since the global financial crisis.
The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index plunged more than 10% on Thursday, heading toward its biggest slide since October 2008. American depositary receipts of megacaps like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. tumbled at least 6.5%, with electric-vehicle companies including Nio Inc. and XPeng Inc. each down over 10%.
Aside from the geopolitical concerns that have caught many global investors off guard, Chinese stocks have been under intense pressure after months of regulatory crackdowns. Thursday’s selloff is a swift change of fortunes for the nation’s shares traded in the U.S. Just a day before, the group jumped the most in more than a month amid a broad-based rally in risk assets and speculation that Chinese authorities had stepped in during the Asian day to support the domestic market.
Investors in Hong Kong were treated to an equally wild day of trading Thursday, with the Hang Seng Tech Index climbing as much as 4.4%, turning negative before closing higher by about 1%. That follows a similarly volatile session on Wednesday.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week identified five Chinese firms under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which it says the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board was unable to inspect. The newly identified firms -- BeiGene Ltd., Yum China Holdings Inc., Zai Lab Ltd., ACM Research Inc. and HUTCHMED (China) Ltd. -- could be subject to delisting from U.S. exchanges if they fail to comply with the HFCAA’s auditing requirements for three consecutive years.
“The renewed delisting concerns is the primary driver for the the brutal selloff in Chinese ADR companies,” said Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer at KraneShares. The combined with Russia-Ukraine tensions and smaller climb in Hong Kong shares overnight are also impacting U.S. trading, he added.
Still, some analysts aren’t convinced that the addition of these stocks constitutes an escalation in the U.S. crackdown on Chinese firms, with Nomura’s Donnie Teng, who called the addition a “non-event.”