Author: Editor

DOZENS of people who joined scattered anti-corruption rallies in the capital Kampala on Tuesday in defiance of an official ban have been charged and held behind bars, their lawyers said. About 60 people, including a prominent TV and radio presenter and three young protest leaders, were hurriedly brought before the courts and remanded in custody on charges including being a “common nuisance”, they said. President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist for almost four decades, had warned at the weekend that the demonstrators were “playing with fire”. Riot police were out in force…

MANCHESTER United had a helping hand from legendary defender Rio Ferdinand in persuading highly rated Leny Yoro to join them. Centre-back Yoro was coveted by many of Europe’s top clubs, including Real Madrid, this summer. In the end, he plumped for United, signing a five-year contract after agreeing a £52m move from French club Lille. Ferdinand sent Yoro a social media message welcoming him to Old Trafford and, speaking to in-house club media, 18-year-old Yoro explained the former England star had already adopted a more direct approach. “Two weeks ago, he called me,” said Yoro. “We spoke for 10 minutes…

DEMOCRATIC politicians and commentators in the United States have heaped praise on President Joe Biden since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday. Representative Maxine Waters, for instance, called Biden a “kind and decent man”. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, extolled his “vision, values and leadership”. But while political leaders showered Biden with compliments, bombs continued to rain down on Gaza, killing dozens and sparking another wave of mass displacement in Khan Younis. For many Palestinian rights advocates, the carnage and abuses in Gaza will define Biden’s place in the history books, as the US remains…

DEMOCRATIC Party donors have poured a record amount into US Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign in the 24 hours since Joe Biden stepped down from the White House race and endorsed his erstwhile running mate. “Team Harris raised $81 million in its first 24 hours, adding to the existing near quarter-of-a-billion dollar war chest already amassed this election cycle,” her campaign said in a statement Monday. It claimed the haul was the “largest 24-hour raise in presidential history.” Harris, 59, swiftly secured the backing of a flood of Democrats after receiving Biden’s endorsement on Sunday — including from California Governor…

OPPOSITION leader Bobi Wine said heavily armed security forces were besieging his party headquarters on Monday and had arrested several leaders, on the eve of a planned anti-corruption march that has been banned by the authorities. The action comes two days after President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly four decades, warned that Ugandans planning to take to the streets on Tuesday were “playing with fire”. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, told AFP that the headquarters of his National Unity Platform (NUP) in Kavule, a suburb of the Ugandan capital Kampala,…

TANZANIA’s information minister Nape Nnauye has been removed from his post following an outcry over comments he made suggesting that elections could be rigged. Mr Nnauye was filmed at a rally on 15 July, saying that he would help a fellow ruling party MP win in the 2025 election. He added that “election results are not necessarily those in the [ballot box], rather they depend on the person counting and making announcements”. Following a public backlash after a video of his controversial remarks went viral, Mr Nnauye said he had made them in jest. President Samia Suluhu Hassan sacked him…

RAFAEL Nadal reached his first final on Saturday since winning the 2022 French Open, defeating Croatian qualifier Duje Ajdukovic in a three-set tussle in Bastad ahead of the Paris Olympics. A day after his four-hour quarter-final victory, the 22-time Grand Slam champion was again tested by Ajdukovic, the world number 130 who had won just two tour-level matches before this week. The Spaniard rebounded from dropping the opening set to prevail 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, returning to the final of a tournament he won as a teenager on his last appearance in 2005. “It was a very tough match. It was…

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to deliver a landmark speech to the US Congress this week as he fights off intense pressure to cut a Gaza war ceasefire deal with Hamas. On Wednesday, Israel’s longest-serving premier will become the first foreign leader to address a joint meeting of the two chambers four times – pulling ahead of Britain’s Winston Churchill on three. But analysts say the Gaza war since the October 7 Hamas attacks has created worrying tensions between Israel and the United States, its main military and diplomatic backer. Netanyahu’s office announced that he would meet US President…

FORMER president Bill Clinton and ex-secretary of state Hillary Clinton praised Joe Biden’s decision to abandon his White House reelection bid Sunday, and threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to take up the baton. Lauding Biden’s “extraordinary career of service,” the Clintons said in a joint statement that they were “honored” to join him in endorsing Harris as the Democratic nominee “and will do whatever we can to support her.” “Nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term. He has promised to be a dictator on day one,”…

UGANDA’s President Yoweri Museveni has warned protesters that they will be “playing with fire” if they press ahead with plans to stage an anti-corruption march to parliament on Tuesday. Young Ugandans have been organising the march on social media to demand an end to corruption in government. They have been partly inspired by their counterparts in neighbouring Kenya, who organised mass demonstrations that forced President William Ruto to drop plans to increase taxes. The protests have since morphed into calls for his resignation. In a televised address, Mr Museveni warned the Ugandan organisers that their planned protest would not be…

SUDAN’s de facto leader has received an Iranian ambassador and sent his own to Tehran, cementing a rapprochement after an eight-year rupture. Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Sunday received Hassan Shah Hosseini, the new Iranian ambassador, in Port Sudan and sent Abdelaziz Hassan Saleh as the African country’s ambassador to Tehran. Sudan and Iran agreed last October to resume diplomatic relations, as the army-aligned government scrambled for allies during its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Sudanese government has been loyal to the army in its 15-month fight against the RSF. The Red Sea city…

PRESIDENT Joe Biden of the United States has withdrawn from the November 5 election, citing the interest of the nation as the reason. In a post on X, on Sunday, Biden said he would remain as President and Commander-in-Chief until his term ends in January 2025. “Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.” “Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided…

FRENCH authorities have recalled Olympics-branded water bottles for children containing excessive levels of endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A, a week ahead of the Paris Games’ opening. The reusable bottles made by the Vilac company have “levels of Bisphenol A not in line with regulations” on products designed for contact with foods, government website Rappel Conso (Consumer Recall) said Friday. The white-coloured flasks with beige, blue or red tops are branded with the Olympic rings, the Paris 2024 mascot or the Olympic flame. People who have bought them should return them to the place of purchase, authorities said. The bottles were sold…

THE Israeli military has continued its relentless bombardment of Gaza with strikes hitting the southern, central and northern parts of the territory. The Palestinian Civil Defence said on Saturday that its crews retrieved the bodies of 12 people who were killed in separate Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The Israeli army had bombed a residential tower in the area. The Civil Defence also documented the killing of six Palestinians in the neighbouring Bureij camp, while 10 others were killed in Gaza City and other areas north of the territory. Israel also bombed a commercial building…

DONALD Trump is set to hold a triumphant first campaign rally Saturday since surviving an assassination attempt, in startling contrast to President Joe Biden, who remains hunkered at home with Covid, resisting unprecedented Democratic pressure to step aside. As Trump prepared to descend on battleground Michigan to stump with his vice presidential running mate J.D. Vance for the first time, Biden loyalists continued to defend the embattled president. “I’m all in,” Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow said in a call Saturday with reporters ahead of the Republicans’ rally in her state. She predicted that Trump and Vance would “try to rewrite…

MOROCCAN opposition figure and former minister Mohamed Ziane has been sentenced to five years in prison while serving a three-year term in another case, his lawyer said on Saturday. The former Rabat bar association president was convicted on charges of “embezzlement and squandering of public funds,” the lawyer Ali Reda Ziane, who is also his son, told AFP. The charges relate to funds the Moroccan Liberal Party (PML), of which Mohamed Ziane was the founder and chief, received in a 2015 electoral campaign. “This is a form of life sentence for an 81-year-old man, while legally nothing has been proven,”…

KENYA’s embattled president has announced a plan to form a new “broad-based government” following weeks of deadly anti-government protests sparked by an unpopular tax bill. However, six of the 11 ministers President William Ruto proposed in Friday’s address were from the cabinet he sacked just last week. When dismissing that cabinet, Mr Ruto had said the move came after “reflection and listening to Kenyans”. On Friday, he said the “crisis” Kenya was experiencing was lesser than the “opportunity” before the country. The demonstrations, in which more than 40 people died, began as a response to the tax rises. However, after…

THE reinstated deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, on Friday accused his principal, Godwin Obaseki, of denying him entry into the state. Over the past few months, Shaibu and Obaseki have been at loggerheads over issues regarding the governorship election in the state. The 54-year-old, stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, two days after Federal High Court in Abuja ordered his reinstatement as deputy governor. “Yesterday, I got intel that the governor has told his men that they must not allow me into town. I am a free-born of Edo State, nobody can stop me…

ATALANTA have set a €70m price tag on Nigerian forward Ademola Lookman, PUNCH Sports Extra reports. The Bergamo-based club are willing to let the forward depart this summer, but only if their financial demands are met. The asking price is similar to the fee they received from Manchester United for Rasmus Hojlund in 2024. Lookman, who joined Atalanta from RB Leipzig for €10 million in 2022, was instrumental in securing back-to-back European qualifications for the club. His standout performance came in the UEFA Europa League final, where he netted a historic hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen, becoming the first player to…

THE International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”. Nawaf Salam, president of the ICJ in The Hague, read out the nonbinding advisory opinion issued by the 15-judge panel on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory on Friday. The judges pointed to a wide list of policies – including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies…