Author: Salako Temitope

Kenya Airways, on Friday, accused the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of harassment over the continued detention of two of the airline’s staff for alleged customs violations despite a court ordering their release. Officers from Congo’s military intelligence detained the pair on April 19 for allegedly failing to complete customs documentation related to valuable cargo that was meant to be transported a week earlier, the airline said in a statement. The airline workers have been granted only one short visit by Kenya’s embassy staff, Kenya’s national carrier said. Congo’s government spokesperson and foreign affairs ministry did not…

A police crackdown that aims to clear a poor suburb of petty crime and street vendors before the Paris 2024 Olympics is putting pressure on an overcrowded prison operating at almost double its capacity. Villepinte is a grey, concrete detention centre in the suburb of Seine-Saint Denis. It lies 2.5 km from the Paris Arena Nord, set to host boxing and fencing competitions during the Games beginning on July 26. It is among the most crowded prisons in France. Opened in 1991, Villepinte takes prisoners from the busy Bobigny courthouse nearby for pre-trial detention and short sentences. “The penitentiary authority…

An Ukrainian court ordered Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky to be taken into custody on Friday to face allegations of his alleged involvement in an illegal acquisition of state-owned land worth about $7 million. Solsky denies the allegations, which relate to events in 2017-2021, before he started as agriculture minister in March 2022. The judge set bail at 75.7 million hryvnias ($1.9 million). Solsky tendered his resignation on Thursday but technically remains in his post until parliament considers his request. He is the first known minister under President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to be named a suspect in a corruption case. The judge said…

President Emmanuel Macron called for stronger, more connected European defences on Thursday, saying the continent must not become a vassal of the United States, as he unveiled his vision for a more assertive European Union on the world arena. With only three years left in his second and final term in office, and having lost his legislative majority in 2022, Macron, 46, wants to persuade his opponents that he still has the enthusiasm and creative ideas that propelled him to the president in 2017, and that he has not become a lame duck leader. “There is a risk our Europe…

U.S President, Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law measures to provide aid to Israel, Ukraine And Taiwan, as well as to compel Chinese TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a national ban. Biden’s official approval ends a six-month saga of tense political battles on Capitol Hill that led to a deadlock on the issue of foreign aid. “The path to my desk was a difficult path. It should have been easier and it should’ve gotten there sooner,” Biden said Wednesday after signing the bill. “But in the end we did what America always does, we rose to the…

Venice became the first city in the world to charge a payment for tourists in a bid to alleviate the pressures of mass tourism and make the city more livable for its residents. The pilot program will exact a fee of 5 euros ($5.4) from day-trippers to Venice, one of Italy’s most picturesque and historic cities. The new fee came into force on April 25, a national holiday in Italy. Municipal workers were seen checking the tickets of day-trippers outside the front of the fragile lagoon city’s Santa Lucia railway station. Signs had been erected to warn tourists about the…

Mark Zuckerberg started Meta’s earnings call by talking about artificial intelligence. Then he moved onto the metaverse, touting his company’s headsets, glasses and operating system. He spent almost the entirety of his opening remarks focused on the many ways Meta loses money. Investors weren’t into it. Meta shares tumbled as much as 19% in extended trading on Wednesday, wiping out more than $200 billion in market cap. The drop came despite Meta reporting better-than-expected profit and revenue for the first quarter. Zuckerberg appeared ready for the sell-off. “I think it’s worth calling that out, that we’ve historically seen a lot of volatility in…

This year, Human Rights Watch observed a startling number of civilian deaths on a single day in Burkina Faso. According to their study, the country’s military allegedly perpetrated atrocities against over 220 civilians, including at least 56 children. The events unfolded on February 25th, with the village of Soro bearing witness to the loss of 179 lives, while 44 others perished in the neighbouring village of Nondin. Human Rights Watch has labelled these mass killings as some of the most egregious abuses by the army in nearly ten years. While the report has shed light on these horrific acts, Burkina Faso authorities…

U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Thursday, called on China to provide a level playing field for American businesses as he began a visit aimed at resolving a raft of contentious issues that could jeopardize the newly repaired relationship. Blinken’s trip is the latest high-level contact between the two nations that, along with working groups on issues from global trade to military communication, have tempered the public acrimony that drove relations to historic lows early last year. But Washington and Beijing have been increasingly at odds over how American companies operate in China, Chinese exports and manufacturing capacity, and strains…

Nvidia-backed artificial intelligence firm, Synthesia today, Thursday, unveiled a new wave of AI-generated digital avatars that can convey human emotions using a user’s text inputs. The company said its “Expressive Avatars” can blur the lines between the virtual world and real characters. It aims to eliminate cameras, microphones, actors, lengthy edits and other costs from the professional video production process. Synthesia has a studio in London, where actors read scripts in front of a green screen to train the system. In one demonstration, the company showed three lines of text being inserted into its platform — “I am happy. I…