Category: LATEST NEWS

Ezinna Kalu scored 21 points as Nigeria made Olympic history by becoming the first African team, male or female, to reach the Olympic quarterfinals in basketball when it beat Canada 79-70 on Sunday.

The Nigerians (2-1) now wait to learn their opponent. They already have doubled the number of wins in pool play for a country that came to France looking for its first Olympic victory since the 2004 Athens Games.

They went to midcourt to start celebrating, with an assistant coach using her phone to record the moment. The Nigerians stopped to high-five the Canadians, then returned to celebrating with a midcourt huddle.

An assistant coach grabbed a flag from a fan for photos on the court, and the Nigerians took their time hugging and posing for more photos as they savored the moment.

Canada, ranked fifth in the world, leaves winless in three games, eliminated on the final day of group play for women’s basketball by a team ranked 12th.

Five countries came in already having clinched berths, led by the U.S. trying to win an unprecedented eighth straight Olympic gold. The others are Spain, Serbia, France and Germany. The draw setting the quarterfinals follows the final game between Australia and host nation France.

Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and went winless in Tokyo. This women’s team was denied access to Nigeria’s boat for the opening ceremony on July 26, and now it will play Wednesday in Bercy Arena on the banks of the Seine River.

Nigeria scored the first six points of the game. Captain Amy Okonkwo hurt her right shoulder early in the second quarter, colliding with Canada forward Aaliyah Edwards diving for a loose ball, and Canada took a 41-37 lead into halftime.

Okonkwo returned for the third quarter, when Nigeria opened with a 13-1 run. The Nigerians outscored Canada 23-5 in the third and took a 60-46 lead into the fourth.

Elizabeth Balogun added 14 points for Nigeria, and Promise Amukamara had 12.

Shay Colley led Canada with 17 points, Bridget Carleton had 13 and Kayla Alexander 12.

Belgium 85, Japan 58

Emma Meesseman scored 30 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as Belgium routed Japan to clinch the first of three remaining quarterfinal berths. The Cats came together, hugging and dancing at midcourt, with some wiping tears from their eyes in celebration after the final buzzer.

Japan (0-3) was eliminated after winning silver three years ago at the Tokyo Games. The Japanese wiped away tears as they left the court.

This is the second straight Olympics that the silver medalist failed to medal in the next Olympics. Spain won silver in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Games, then lost to France in the quarterfinals in Tokyo.

Belgium (1-2) needed to beat Japan by 27 points to finish with a better point differential than China to keep playing. The Cats had a packed house trying to help, with Belgium a mere 20 miles (32 kilometers) away and China (1-2) watching the scoreboard through the final three games to learn its fate.

Japan led 4-2 in the opening minutes on a jumper by Rui Machada.

Antonia Delaere’s 3-pointed put the Cats ahead to stay, and they led 19-7 at the end of the first with the final margin the biggest concern. Japan didn’t make it easy as Belgium had a 20-16 edge in the second for a 39-23 lead at halftime.

The Cats outscored Japan 22-16 in the third for a 61-39 lead. Fans roared for each Belgium bucket, knowing the need to not only win but by the point margin. Elise Ramette’s 3 with 4:52 pushed the lead to the 27 points needed at 71-44, and Becky Massey hugged her to start a Japan timeout.

Ramette finished with 16 points, and Delaeare and Maxuella Mbaka Lisowa each had 12.

Saki Hayashi led Japan with 13, and Evelyn Mawuli added 12.

Hundreds of Somalis gathered in the capital, Mogadishu, on Friday to express their outrage at the assassination of Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

He was killed in an airstrike in Tehran on Wednesday, hours after attending the inauguration of the new Iranian president.

Protesters said they were “deeply sorry” about the killing of the Palestinian group’s leader.

“I am unable to express my emotions today because as Muslims, our feelings are very tense,” said one protester, Mohamed Abdullah.

While Hamas and its allies have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death, Israel has not confirmed or denied its involvement in his death.

It had pledged to kill him and other Hamas leaders over the group’s 7 October attack on Israel last year, in which some 1,200 Israelis died and more than 250 were taken hostage.

The rally’s organiser, Sheikh Mohamed Budul, urged Muslims around the world to hold demonstrations to show unity.

“We gathered here to express our support for our Palestinian brothers and sisters and specifically for Hamas and Gaza.”

Demonstrators denounced Israel, carrying Palestinian flags and banners with images of the slain Hamas leader.

Palestinian health authorities say that Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians.

Since October, about 1.9 million Palestinian – 90 per cent of the population – have been forcibly displaced from their homes.

Inflation in Kenya has fallen to 4.3 per cent year-on-year in July from 4.6 per cent a month earlier, according to new data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

The four-year low was helped by a strong shilling and marginal price reductions in key household costs such as electricity and fuel.

This has led to a reduction in transport costs which saw a rise of just 4 per cent in July compared to 7.7 per cent the previous month.

The price of many foods decreased by half a per cent between June and July, but the reprieve did not extend to all categories, with some experiencing sharp increases.

Kenya targets an inflation rate of between 2.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent in the medium-term.

But while overall inflation remains under control, increases in other household costs like cooking oil and cooking gas means consumers still need to tighten their budgets.

In June, Kenyans took to the streets in a wave of deadly protests over tax hikes and the cost of living.

President William Ruto was forced to scrap a proposed finance bill containing the increases in response to the demonstrations.

Ruto, who was sworn in in September 2022, inherited a battered economy grappling with soaring inflation, a high debt burden, unemployment, and post-Covid 19 stagnation.

He has been caught between the demands of lenders such as the International Monetary Fund to cut deficits, and a hard-pressed population reeling from rising costs.

The easing of inflation this month could influence the Central Bank’s decision on interest rates, with a potential rate cut expected when the Monetary Policy Committee convenes on 6 August.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group on Thursday vowed there would be a “real” response to Israel’s killing of its top military commander.

Speaking at the funeral of Fuad Shukr who was killed in an airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the war against Israel had “entered a new phase”.

Lebanese health authorities said at least seven people, including two children, were killed in the Israeli strike.

“We are planning a real and well-calculated response, not merely a symbolic one,” Nasrallah said, adding that Israel had “crossed red lines” in Beirut, as well as in the Iranian capital.

Hamas’ political leader was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack which Iran and the Palestinian militant group have blamed on Israel.

Nasrallah said the response would go beyond the scope of the daily border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces that have been ongoing since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas.

“We are facing a big battle now, it is beyond a support front now. There is now a battle in Gaza, there is now a battle in south Lebanon, an open battle in Yemen, and even in Iraq because this is all happening at the same time,” he said.

“They’ve picked a fight with all of us,” Nasrallah said, referring to the Iran-backed network of armed groups that spans Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iraq.

Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh, having earlier threatened a “harsh punishment” against Israel for his death.

Haniyeh had been in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president. His remains are to be transferred to Qatar, where he was based, for burial on Friday.

Israel has not denied or confirmed responsibility for the killing of Haniyeh, but did say it had carried out Tuesday’s airstrike in Beirut that killed Shukr.

It said Shukr was behind a rocket attack days earlier that hit a soccer field in the Israeli-held Golan Heights, killing 12 children. Hezbollah denied being behind that strike.

The back-to-back killings have increased fears of an escalation into a wider war, leaving the region waiting to see how Iran and ally Hezbollah will respond.

International diplomats have been scrambling to avert a cycle of retaliation before it spirals into a greater war.

Since the Gaza war began in October last year, Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily across the border.

The exchanges have caused deaths and the evacuation of tens of thousands from their homes. But they have also stayed within limits.

Several times, strikes that appeared to cross red lines raised fears of an acceleration into full-fledged war, but outside diplomacy reined in the two sides.

Hezbollah faces strong pressure from Lebanon not to draw it into a repeat of its 2006 war with Israel, which wreaked heavy death and destruction in the country.

Israel and Iran risked plunging into war earlier this year when Israel hit Iran’s embassy in Damascus in April.

Iran retaliated, and Israel countered in an unprecedented exchange of strikes on each other’s soil, but international efforts succeeded in containing that cycle before it spun out of control.

The plane caryying Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist holding dual U.S.-Russia citizenship, landed in the U.S. just before midnight to reunite with their families.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed them upon arrival.

This follows a histoic prisoner exchange in post-Soviet history carried out by the United States and Russia on Thursday.

Moscow released journalist Gershkovich, In 2023, he was imprisoned and found guilty in July of spying charges that he and the U.S. government strongly refuted.

His family expressed their eagerness to embrace him and see his courageous smile in person in a statement released by the newspaper.

The editor-in-chief of the paper, Emma Tucker, described it as a “happy day.”

Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive jailed since 2018, also on espionage charges he and Washington have denied. Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military, accusations her family and employer have rejected.

Among those released were Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer sentenced to 25 years on politically motivated treason charges, along with several of Navalny’s associates.

Also freed were Kremlin critics Oleg Orlov, a long-time human rights activist found guilty of discrediting the Russian military, and Ilya Yashin, who was jailed for speaking out against the war in Ukraine.

They were all released as part of a multinational agreement that resulted in the freedom of two dozen individuals.

The deal that secured the freedom of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir was a feat of diplomacy.

All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia – some of whom were unjustly held for years.

All have endured unimaginable suffering.

Today, their agony is over.

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 1, 2024

Biden trumpeted the exchange, by far the largest in a series of swaps with Russia, as a diplomatic feat while welcoming families of the returning Americans to the White House.

“Deals like this one come with tough calls,” Biden said, He added: “There’s nothing that matters more to me than protecting Americans at home and abroad.”

However, the agreement, similar to previous ones, highlighted a fundamental imbalance: The U.S. and its allies surrendered Russian individuals accused or found guilty of severe offenses in return for Russia freeing journalists, dissidents, and other individuals detained by the country’s heavily politicized legal system on what the West views as fabricated charges.

The exchange occurred even though Washington and Moscow’s relationship hit rock bottom following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Backchannel negotiators initially considered a swap involving Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but after his passing in February, they ultimately brokered a 24-person deal that demanded substantial compromises from European allies.

During secret discussions, negotiators considered a swap related to Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, however, following his passing in February, they finalized a complex agreement involving 24 individuals that demanded major compromises from European partners.

This deal led to the release of a Russian killer and the liberation of a group of reporters, alleged spies, dissidents, and more.

When Navalny passed away, there were talks about a potential swap with Krasikov.

However, after that possibility was ruled out, high-ranking U.S. officials, such as national security adviser Jake Sullivan, intensified efforts to persuade Germany to free Krasikov.

Ultimately, some of the individuals Russia set free were either German citizens or held dual German-Russian citizenship.

Russia obtained two supposed sleeper agents who were imprisoned in Slovenia, along with three individuals indicted by U.S. federal authorities.

This group includes Roman Seleznev, a convicted hacker and the son of a Russian politician, and Vadim Konoshchenok, a suspected Russian intelligence agent accused of supplying American electronics and ammunition to the Russian military.

Norway repatriated an academic suspected of espionage for Russia, while Poland returned a man it had detained on espionage allegations.

“Today illustrates the importance of having allies in the world,” Biden stated.