Author: Salako Temitope

Five people have reportedly died while crossing the English Channel, according to French media, hours after the U.K. approved the migrant deportation bill. French News outlet, Voix du Nord newspaper said the bodies were discovered at the Wimereaux beach in northern France on Tuesday. The rescue operation is ongoing and helicopters and boats have been deployed, according to the regional newspaper. About 100 migrants have been rescued and placed aboard a French navy ship. They will be taken to the port of Boulogne, the paper said. This came only hours after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest effort to send some migrants on…

A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday that Russia is ready to retaliate if almost $300 billion of frozen Russian assets are seized by the West and used to assist Ukraine. “The Europeans know that there will be a very tough response on our part, and an adequate response,” Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian upper house of parliament, told state news agency RIA Novosti. Matviyenko, a member of Russia’s Security Council, said in an interview that a draft law on response measures had already been prepared. She did not specify what the retaliatory measures would…

Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA plans to increase digital currency usage in its crude and fuel exports as the U.S. reimpose oil sanctions on the country, three people familiar with the plan said. The U.S. Treasury Department last week gave PDVSA’s customers and providers until May 31 to wind down transactions under a general license it did not renew due to a lack of electoral reforms. The move will make it difficult for the country to increase oil output and exports as companies will have to wait for individual U.S. authorizations to do business with Venezuela. DVSA since last year had been slowly moving…

People in Burundi are struggling to cope with flooding after months of heavy rains, with hundreds of thousands being displaced and many homes and schools damaged. The relentless rain has resulted in the level of water in Lake Tanganyika rising considerably, causing chaos for communities living along its shores. Lake Tanganyika’s rising waters have invaded the port of Bujumbura, Burundi’s economic capital, disrupting business there and elsewhere in the country “The economic impacts are starting to weigh heavily. But why these floods? It must be said that they are associated with the climate changes that are affecting Burundi, like other…

An Amber Alert reports that law enforcement is searching for Elias Huizar, 39, and Roman Huizar, 1. Elias is reportedly driving a silver 2009 Toyota Corolla with Washington plate CBZ4745 and is possibly driving to Mexico, according to reports. Elias was reported to have raided a gun roll at William Wiley Elementary School where he reportedly killed his ex-wife and girlfriend and abducted a one-year-old, according to the Amber Alert from the Washington State Patrol. Huizar is suspected of shooting a woman at William Wiley on Mon., April 22 and killing another at his home, according to the West Richland…

As Ukraine’s efforts to conscript enough men to fight Russia are stymied by public scepticism, defence officials and military units are embarking on a multi-pronged charm offensive to recruit a citizens’ army to resist the invasion. This softer call-up is being conducted on job-search sites and outreach centres, as well as billboards and social media, and offers a wartime novelty: an element of choice. Candidates can select their precise unit and roles suiting their skills, for instance, as well as how long they will serve. On city streets, billboards of Ukrainian soldiers implore citizens to join up and defend their…

The U.S. Senate voted by a wide margin late Tuesday in favor of legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States if its owner, the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, fails to divest the popular short video app over the next nine months to a year. Driven by widespread worries among U.S. lawmakers that China could access Americans’ data or surveil them with the app, the bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday and U.S. President Joe Biden has said he will sign it into law on Wednesday. “For years we’ve allowed the Chinese Communist party…

Tesla has cut prices in a number of its major markets, including China and Germany, following price cuts in the United States, as it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for electric vehicles (EVs), especially against Chinese EVs. The price cuts come after Tesla, led by its billionaire CEO Elon Musk, reported this month that its global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell for the first time in nearly four years. “Tesla prices must change frequently in order to match production with demand,” Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. Tesla, the EV market leader, ignited an EV price war over…

Historic rains in the UAE last week caused record flooding and mayhem at Dubai’s airport, grounding hundreds of flights and leaving thousands of customers stranded. “We know our response has been far from perfect. We acknowledge and understand the frustration of our customers,” Emirates Airline CEO Tim Clark wrote. Social media lit up with angry posts from customers who said they received no help from Emirates staff and were unable to contact anyone at the company. Hundreds of flights were grounded and thousands of customers were stranded as a result. “I would like to offer our most sincere apologies to…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Monday that Russia and the West are on the brink of a potential nuclear confrontation. “Westerners are dangerously balancing on the brink of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences,” the minister said in a video message to the participants of the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference. Lavrov was reported as stating that the support of nuclear powers France, the U.S. and U.K. for Ukraine posed a serious strategic risk for Russia. The comments come after Russia reacted angrily to the U.S. House of Representatives passing a $61 billion foreign…