The Mexican coast has been hit by the first storm of the North Atlantic hurricane season, which is also drenching southern Texas with heavy rain. The storm has claimed three lives of whom two are minors. Officials in Mexico said death occurred in the northern Nuevo León state.
In Texas and over its boarder, a disaster declaration has already been put in place and masses have been warned about “life-threatening” flooding and mud sliding in the North-East of Mexico and southern Texas.
The system has upgraded the nature of the storm from a tropical cyclone, but says that it remains below hurricane-strength. Meteorologists expect it to make a landfall in Mexico later during the course of the week before it dissipates without directly striking the United States.
The governor of the state of Nuevo León announced a temporary suspension of public transportation while schools in the neighbouring Tamaulipas have been closed.
The state’s declaration of disaster by, Governor Greg Abbott, indicates that widespread and severe property damage, injury and loss of life are most likely to occur.
The United States weather Agency indicates that the North Atlantic hurricane season that runs from the month of June to November could this year experience as many as seven major hurricanes. The agency further reveals that this would be more than double the usual number since record-high sea surface temperatures have shifted the regional weather patterns.
Wildfires that have started earlier than usual and they have already burnt through tens of thousands of acres in California and New Mexico, claiming at least two lives in the latter US state.
Some Mexicans welcomed the rain brought by Alberto following a severe drought in the region.
The M23 rebel group in Eastern DR Congo has lost two commanders who were killed by government forces on January 16, in an attack the rebels called a violation of the existing ceasefire.
“The Kinshasa regime violated yet again the imposed ceasefire by attacking our forces on the front lines and carrying out acts of assassination behind our front lines, killing two of our commanders,” M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The M23 has understood the message sent to it by the Kinshasa regime and will respond accordingly.”
Kanyuka did not disclose the names of two commanders reportedly killed by drone strikes on M23-held territory in Kitchanga locality, in North Kivu Province.
But unverified reports indicate that the killed rebel commanders are Col Castro Elise Mberabagabo, who was M23’s head of intelligence and external relations officer, and Col Erasto Bahati.
In the statement, Kanyuka said M23 had respected the ceasefire which was brokered by the United States government in December. Although the US said the two parties agreed to a ceasefire, M23 continued to accuse the DR Congo government-led coalition of indiscriminate bombing of populated areas in North Kivu.
Kanyuka said the M23 appreciated efforts by regional and international leaders to “resolve the ongoing conflict in eastern [DR Congo] peacefully by addressing the root causes of the conflicts.”
Kinshasa has refused to dialogue with the M23, calling the latter a terrorist movement.
Despite repeated calls for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, on Wednesday the Congolese army and a newly deployed force from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) announced joint offensives against the M23.
Eastern DR Congo, home to more than 130 armed groups, has been volatile for nearly 30 years.
The US is worried that the rift between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, is hampering Kiev’s military efforts.
The Biden administration wants Ukraine to “sharpen” its plan for fighting Russia in 2024.
However, Washington is concerned that differences between Zelensky and Zaluzhny are slowing efforts to crystallize a new strategy, the sources said.
According to one of Bloomberg’s interlocutors, the US must clearly understand Kiev’s plans to determine “how it can best align its support to help Ukraine defend itself in the coming year.”
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is likely to raise the issue with Zelensky on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the people said. Earlier this week, WEF president Borge Brende announced that the Ukrainian leader will attend the high-profile event, scheduled to take place between January 15 and 19.
Last month, Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper reported that Zelensky has been giving orders to the military bypassing the commander-in-chief, with Zaluzhny sometimes only learning about what the armed forces are doing from his subordinates. According to the sources, the two have been at loggerheads for months, but Kiev’s failed counteroffensive has worsened the tensions.
In December, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that thwarting Ukraine’s NATO-backed counteroffensive was the main goal achieved by the Russian military in 2023.
Shoigu announced that, according to Moscow’s estimations, Kiev’s losses last year exceeded 215,000 troops and 28,000 units of heavy weaponry.
A Russian missile strike has killed 11 people, including five children, in eastern Ukraine, a local official says.
S-300 missiles hit the town of Pokrovsk in Ukrainian-held territory in Donetsk region, the regional governor said.
“The enemy is cynically hitting civilians, trying to bring as much misery as possible,” Governor Vadim Filashkin posted on Telegram.
In his evening video address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had targeted residential areas.
Russia should always feel consequences for such attacks, Mr Zelensky added.
Russia is yet to comment.
Pokrovsk is about 70km (43 miles) north-west of Donetsk city, which is occupied by Russian forces.
Before the war it had a population of about 60,000 people. Some residents have been returning despite official warnings about the dangers.
Earlier this week Ukrainian forces launched more than 70 drones across the border into Russia after Moscow launched its biggest aerial bombardment. This led to evacuations in the south-western city of Belgorod.
Rishi Sunak will become the United Kingdom’s new prime minister after winning the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest on Monday.
Sunak’s win comes days after Truss’s resignation which followed disastrous tax cuts plans and policy U-turns that caused unprecedented economic crisis and drew a rare intervention from the Bank of England.
During his first public speech, since winning the contest on Monday, Sunak said Britain faces serious economic challenges and needs stability and unity.
“There is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge…we now need stability and unity, and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together,” said Sunak.
Sunak, a former finance minister, has been left with the task of steering a deeply divided country through an economic downturn.
Sunak’s only challenger, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons and former defence minister, was reportedly backed by 30 MPs compared to nearly 150 that supported Sunak.
“This decision is a historic one and shows, once again, the diversity and talent of our party,” said Mordaunt in a statement as she withdrew from the race just minutes before the winner was due to be announced. “Rishi has my full support.”
Having lost to Liz Truss in September 2022, Sunak racked up the support of his fellow MPs early, and fast in the latest leadership contest. He crossed the 100 nominations he needed long before the deadline including from MPs that had previously backed Truss or Boris Johnson.
Sunak was first elected as an MP in 2015 for Richmond in north Yorkshire and was made finance minister or chancellor in February 2020 under Boris Johnson.
Sunak’s accession is believed to be directly attributed to the chaos of the past few months. And he is seen as a safe pair of hands, having won wide praise for his handling of the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic in which he helped businesses and citizens with big government spending programs that saved many livelihoods.
Rishi Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980, where his father was a GP and his mother ran a pharmacy. His parents are both of Indian origin who came to the UK from East Africa and he becomes the first British Asian prime minister.
Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the nation’s figurehead and a towering presence on the world stage for seven decades, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday aged 96.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow,” the palace said in a statement.
News that the queen’s health was deteriorating emerged shortly after midday on Thursday when her doctors said she was under medical supervision, prompting her family to rush to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to be by her side.
Thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace, in central London, and there was a stunned silence when the flag was lowered to half-mast. The crowd surged to the gates as the notice announcing the death of the only monarch most Britons have ever known was attached to the black iron gates.
Thousands of people across the UK and the world are still reacting to the death of Queen Elizabeth II with tributaries and condolence messages, Queen Elizabeth will lie in rest at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh as preparations are made for her funeral, which is expected in around 10 days.
Because the Queen died in Scotland , the coffin will then be flown to London, where hundreds of thousands of people will be allowed to file past over a period of four days’ lying in state at Westminster Hall.
A state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey in ten days’ time, which will see the nation observe a two minutes’ silence, before the queen is buried at Windsor Castle.
Flags across the U.K. will be lowered to half-mast ahead of a national minute’s silence and the start of an official period of mourning.
According to sources, over the next few days there is a schedule of events and ceremonies planned whose details are yet to be confirmed:
On Friday,
King Charles III, her eldest son who became King the moment the Queen died, will make his first speech as King, according to his spokesman. No time has yet been given for his remarks.
At midday, bells will toll in tribute to the Queen at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and Windsor Castle.
Gun salutes of 96 rounds to mark each year of her life will be fired in Hyde Park and elsewhere at 1pm.
A remembrance service is due to take place at St Paul’s Cathedral in the evening attended by the prime minister and other senior ministers.
Saturday
The ceremony, in which Charles will be formally proclaimed King will take place at St James’s Palace in London in front of a ceremonial body known as the Accession Council.
At the meeting, the death of Queen Elizabeth will be announced and a traditional proclamation will be read aloud.
King Charles will then be expected to attend a second meeting with the group where he will make his first declaration and swear an oath to preserve the Church of Scotland. After trumpeting and fanfare, he will be formally declared the new King as gun salutes are fired from sites around the city.
Prince now King Charles III (left), Queen ELizabeth II (middle) and Prince Andrew (right)
Flags will return to full mast for a 24-hour period beginning at 13:00 BST on Saturday to mark the proclamation of King Charles as King, before returning to half-mast.
Life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth II
Born on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the elder daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon had little chance of assuming the throne, until late 1936, her uncle, King Edward VIII abdicated to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Simpson, her father; King George VI became King and 10-year-old “Lilibet” (as she was known within the family) became the heir presumptive to the throne.
As a young princess she first took on public duties during the Second World War, appearing on the radio and being appointed one of her father’s effective deputies as counselor of state.
Queen Elizabeth II crowned on 2 June, 1953 in Westminster Abbey. Photo Credit: History
She became queen in 1952 after the premature death of her father George VI, and went on to become both the country’s longest-lived and longest-serving monarch.
In 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a marriage which lasted 73 years until his death in 2021 and produced four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.
Prince Philip Mountbatten and Queen Elizabeth together with their four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.
The queen has been affected by mobility problems over the last year and greatly reduced her public appearances, including missing the state opening of parliament in May and a service of thanksgiving to celebrate her seventy years on the throne.
She is credited with revitalizing the monarchy, embarking on a seven-month world tour shortly after she took the throne and helping to secure the transition of the Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations.
King Charles III automatically becomes head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries and 2.4 billion people. For 14 of these countries, as well as the UK, the King is head of state.
King Charles III will embark on a tour of the U.K, starting with a visit to the Scottish parliament and a service at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.
As the world marked the 35th World Population Day, the United Nations (UN) has announced that the Global population is projected to hit 8 billion in 2022.
Having hit the 7 billion mark in 2011, the global population was at 7.9 billion in 2021, with the expectation that it will grow further to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.9 billion in 2100.
According to the Worldometer, the current world population is 7.96 Billion, which is distributed to the different continents as follows:
Asia: 41.84%
Africa: 17.20%
Europe: 9.59%
North America: 7.60%
South America: 5.53%
Australia/Oceania: 0.55%
Antarctica: 0.00%.
Uganda has about 0.59% of the total world population. She ranks number 31 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population. The population density in Uganda is 229 per Km2 (593 people per mi2).
According to the UN, since the middle of the 20th century, the world has experienced unprecedented population growth as the world’s population has more than tripled in size between 1950 and 2020.
The statement further revealed that the growth rate of the world’s population reached a peak between 1965 and 1970, when human numbers were increasing by an average of 2.1% per year.
During the period from 2000 to 2020, even though the global population grew at an average annual rate of 1.2%, 48 countries or areas grew at least twice as fast: these included 33 countries or areas in Africa and 12 in Asia.
The statement attributed the dramatic growth in population to increasing numbers of people surviving to reproductive age, major changes in fertility rates, increasing urbanization and accelerating migration.
“Reaching a global population of eight billion is a numerical landmark, but our focus must always be on people. In the world we strive to build, 8 billion people means 8 billion opportunities to live dignified and fulfilled lives,” said António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General in a statement.
“These trends will have far-reaching implications for generations to come. The recent past has seen enormous changes in fertility rates and life expectancy. In the early 1970s, women had on average 4.5 children each; by 2015, total fertility for the world had fallen to below 2.5 children per woman,” reads the UN statement in part.
The life span of adults in the developed world has increased since the middle of the 20th century with the number of people reaching the age of 100 years at its highest.
In Uganda, the 35th World Population Day celebrations have today been held in Kumi district under the theme “Mindset change for wealth creation, ending teenage pregnancy and child marriage.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced his resignation.
Following a wave of government resignations where more than 50 lawmakers have resigned from Johnson’s government this week, saying he was no longer fit to lead the country, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced his resignation as Conservative party leader.
Addressing the public at Downing Street in London, Britain, on Thursday, Boris Johnson said he is sad to be leaving what he described as the best job in the world adding that the nature of politics is that “no one is remotely indispensable.”
“I’ve today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place…And our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader, equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times,” said Boris Johnson.
Johnson said he will support his successor as much as he can. “To that new leader — whoever he or she may be — I say I will give you as much support as I can.”
“To you, the British public: I know that there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps, quite a few will also be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world,” said Johnson.
In his historic landslide election in 2019, Johnson is said to have led the largest victory since Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s win in 1987, leaving the party with an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons.
He was however ultimately forced to resign because of perceptions about his character whereby many Conservative lawmakers as well many members of the public do not trust him.
Russia has banned dozens of British journalists and media representatives from entering the country, the foreign ministry has said.
In a move that Moscow said was a response to Western sanctions and pressure on its state-run media outlets abroad, 29 journalists and members of British media organizations such as the BBC, the broadcaster Sky News, the Guardian and Times newspapers were among others banned.
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According to the statement released by Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, more than a dozen British figures believed to be linked to the defence industry were also banned from entering Russia.
H.E Felix Tshisekedi, the President of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has said that there’s no doubt Rwanda supported M23 rebels in clashes in the east of his country that have displaced tens of thousands.
Speaking on Sunday after visiting neighboring Congo-Brazzaville where he met his counterpart Denis Sassou Nguesso, Tshisekedi’s claims on Rwanda’s meddling come as his first in recent times as tensions between the two eastern Africa neighbors continue to rise.
“Rwanda should not mistake our desire for peace with weakness. I hope that Rwanda has learned this lesson because today, it’s clear. There is no doubt Rwanda has supported the M23 to come and attack the DRC,” he said.
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The Government of Rwanda has consistently denied the accusations of backing the rebels adding that it is an internal crisis.
Last Monday, M23 rebels retreated from areas it had captured in the Congolese province of North Kivu. But on Friday it warned that the army was planning renewed attacks against its positions.
This Monday, renewed fighting was registered between the Congolese army and the rebels in Rutshuru area.
Major Willy Ngoma, the M23 spokesperson said the army started bombarding their positions in Jomba area early in the morning.
It is reported that in May, nearly 100,000 people fled their homes as the army clashed with the rebels near Goma town, the provincial capital.
Meanwhile, Angola’s President João Lourenço is organizing a summit between President Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame to ease the tensions, his office said last week.
