REAL Madrid defender David Alaba on Thursday met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Paris, France. Alaba who plays for Austria has a Nigerian root. The meeting was part of President Tinubu’s engagement with Nigerians in the Diaspora during his visit to France to attend a two-day Global Financing Summit. He received a signed number 4 Real Madrid jersey from Alaba on the sidelines of the engagement. Alaba is the captain of the Austrian football team, but he was born to a Nigerian father. Through several efforts in development, he has expressed interest in reconnecting with his Nigerian roots.
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THE former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, and the immediate past vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, have led electoral observers in the ongoing general elections in Sierra Leone as counting begins for a new president in the country. While Mr Jonathan is leading the West African Elders Forum 2023 Election Mission to Sierra Leone, Mr Osinbajo chairs a 12-person Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) for the country’s elections. The election is considered a straight contest between the president and candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Julius Bio, and Samura Kamara, the flagbearer of the All Peoples Congress (APC). Other presidential candidates…
CARLOS Alcaraz moved to the brink of his first grass court title and reclaiming the world number one ranking from Novak Djokovic after sweeping aside Sebastian Korda 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final at Queen’s Club on Saturday. The Spaniard will face Australia’s Alex de Minaur, who beat second seed Holger Rune 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), in Sunday’s final. Playing in just his third grass court tournament of his career, Alcaraz has adapted quickly to the conditions after a tough first round clash against French lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech. The US Open champion had to recover from a slow start as…
NEWCASTLE United are close to signing Italy midfielder Sandro Tonali from Serie A side AC Milan, according to his agent. The 23-year-old is expected to sign a six-year contract and complete his medical in the coming days. Speaking to Italian media, Tonali’s agent Giuseppe Riso said the transfer could be worth up to 80m euros (£68.5m) including add-ons. He said final details are being agreed by both sides. “When such an important offer is received it is difficult to refuse both for the club and the player,” he said Riso added that personal terms have been agreed between Newcastle and…
GREEKS are voting for the second time in a month with conservative ex-Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hoping to secure a big majority. He convincingly beat his centre-left rival in May but called new elections in a bid to govern Greece alone. Sunday’s vote comes little more than a week after a migrant boat tragedy off the Greek coast in which 500 people are thought to have died. But the disaster has had little effect on the campaign. Mr Mitsotakis’s conservatives won last month’s elections by a 20-point margin over the centre-left Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras, another former prime minister,…
YEVGENY Prigozhin calls it his “March of Justice”. Vladimir Putin says it is a “criminal escapade” and an “armed mutiny”. One senior Russian commander has called it “a coup”. Whatever you call it, the Wagner chief has gone for broke to try to topple Russia’s military leadership. This had been brewing. For months there has been very public infighting between Wagner and Russia’s ministry of defence over how the war in Ukraine has been fought. Wagner had repeatedly accused the ministry of failing to supply the mercenary group with sufficient ammunition (and doing that on purpose.) Prigozhin had been increasingly…
ZIMBABWE’s electoral body has cleared 11 people to contest in presidential elections in August, after many politicians complained of exorbitant application fees. The Zimbabwe electoral commission raised registration costs to $20,000, up from $1,000 in the previous elections. Fees for the MPs’ positions were raised from $50 to $1,000. Opposition parties said the fee had a negative effect on democracy as most people earn less than $300 a month. Zimbabwe will hold presidential, parliamentary and council elections on 23 August. The electoral commission worked late into the night to approve the 11 candidates. They include the two front runners, President…
SIERRA Leoneans are awaiting general election results following a tense campaign marred by violence. There was a high turnout, with voters telling the BBC the process was smooth despite ballots opening hours late in many areas. There had been concern about potential clashes in the run up to the vote. On Wednesday, the main opposition party alleged that one of its supporters was shot dead by police, which the police have denied. Supporters of both main parties have been accused of attacking opponents. Accusations of election irregularities were also being thrown on Saturday, after the leader of the opposition alleged…
THREE of 14 medical students from different medical schools in Nigeria have drowned in waterways in Calabar, Cross River State, while having a boat cruise. It was learnt that divers from the Nigerian Navy were able to rescue 11 of them after the boat capsized Saturday afternoon. The students were said to have converged on Medical School Calabar for the 2023 Nigeria Medical Association Health Week. An official of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Cross River State chapter who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident to our correspondent. He said the three drowned students were from Ahmadu Bello University…
INTER Miami have announced the signing of Barcelona captain Sergio Busquets, reuniting him with former team-mate Lionel Messi. Busquets, 34, announced in May he would be leaving the La Liga champions after 18 years at the club. The midfielder will link up with Argentina forward Messi, 35, who confirmed this month he was moving to Inter Miami from Paris St-Germain. Busquets and Messi spent 13 seasons together at Barca from 2008 to 2021. They were part of a successful team which won three Champions Leagues, eight La Liga titles and six Copa del Reys. It has been reported that, like…
MANCHESTER City attacking midfielder Bernardo Silva is a target for Saudi Pro-League side Al Hilal. Silva’s contract with City runs to 2025 and, while the club are keen for him to sign an extension, he has a number of offers on the table. Paris St-Germain are also interested in the 28-year-old, as are Barcelona, who have been linked with the Portuguese for the past two summers. Barcelona have already agreed to sign his club captain Ilkay Gundogan. However, both clubs could be eclipsed by the salaries on offer in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh-based Al Hilal, who are in the process of…
US intelligence agencies have found no direct evidence that Covid-19 broke out from a Chinese laboratory, a declassified report has said. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said both a natural and laboratory origin remain plausible scenarios. It noted most US intelligence agencies agree the virus was not genetically engineered or “laboratory-adapted”. The origins of the pandemic have been a matter of bitter debate in the US. The lab-leak theory has been strongly rejected by China. The ODNI report was released on Friday night after Congress passed a bill in March giving US intelligence 90 days to…
TITANIC submersible pilot Stockton Rush was “extremely” serious about safety, his former business partner said Friday after mounting criticism following a deadly implosion. “Titanic” movie director James Cameron has accused OceanGate Expeditions of ignoring safety warnings, after Rush and four other people were lost in the disaster while descending to the North Atlantic shipwreck. William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, a voluntary industry body, said OceanGate was “not willing” to undergo a standard certification process for the Titan submersible. But Guillermo Soehnlein, who started OceanGate with Rush in 2009 before leaving the company in 2013, denied his…
THE Sudanese army’s infantry battalions have hardly been present on the streets of Khartoum during the two months-long conflict that has raged in the country, leaving much of the capital under the control of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This is despite the fact that the army is made up of about 200,000 soldiers, roughly twice the size of the RSF. Yet the army is heavily outnumbered on the streets of Khartoum, as well as the two cities across the River Nile – Bahri and Omdurman. RSF fighters were initially moving the three cities in their armed pick-up…
SIERRA Leoneans are voting in a general election following a tense campaign marred by violence. On Wednesday, the main opposition party alleged that one of its supporters was shot dead by police, which the police have denied. Supporters of both main parties have been accused of attacking opponents. This election is taking place against the background of a troubled economy, the rising cost of living, as well as concerns about national unity. The voters are choosing a president, MPs and councillors in the West African country’s fifth election since the civil war ended in 2002. The 11-year conflict cost an…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has set up an inter-agency committee to resolve the lingering row between the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), TheCable understands. According to sources, the committee was set up to resolve NNPC’s failure to remit funds into the FAAC account. “I can comfortably tell you that Mr. President has approved the memo from NNPC Limited to set up a committee to reconcile the crisis between NNPC Limited and FAAC over the failure to remit money into the federation account,” a source said. “So many things have been told to Mr.…
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has accepted “not everything was perfect” for fans after criticism about the Champions League final in Istanbul. There were reports of fans having to walk extended distances along busy roads, queue for hours for transport to and from the stadium and being left without water as Manchester City beat Inter Milan on 10 June. Uefa previously apologised after Liverpool fans were penned in and teargassed before last year’s final in Paris. European football’s governing body had not previously addressed the issues experienced by supporters in Istanbul. However, at the opening of the four-day European Football Fans…
CHELSEA’s owners have agreed a deal to buy a majority stake in French Ligue 1 club Strasbourg. Chairman Todd Boehly has previously said a multi-club model is a good pathway for young players to gain experience. The size of the stake is unknown – however it has been reported the Blues will pay 75m euros (£65m) for close to 100% ownership. Club president Marc Keller said it was an “important day” for Strasbourg. The former West Ham midfielder added that while there was “no financial urgency” to the agreement, the shareholders were aware the club had “reached the ceiling of…
TURKEY has hiked its main interest rate from 8.5% to 15%, reversing one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unorthodox economic policies. The 6.5-point rise was far lower than economists were expecting, but it marked a major shift in policy by his new economic team brought in to tackle rampant inflation. Turkey’s leader has until now insisted on keeping interest rates down. Inflation is almost 40% and Turks are in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis. The head of Turkey’s central bank, Hafize Gaye Erkan, 44, was only recruited from the US this month in the wake of Mr Erdogan’s re-election…
‘TITANIC’ movie director and renowned deep-sea explorer James Cameron said many warnings were ignored about the safety of the tourist submersible that imploded near the famous shipwreck, killing five people. Cameron said the sub had been the source of widespread concern in the close-knit ocean exploration community, and drew parallels to the 1912 ocean liner sinking in which around 1,500 people died. “I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and…