By Yadnom Awu/ Asaba
Nigeria..
More than 60 Drown, Others Missing In Boat Mishap
More than 60 persons have drowned and many more missing after a boat ferrying them capsized in Niger State.
The incident is the second such development in the state in the past month.
A similar accident had led to the death of scores of traders who were headed for a local produce market.
The latest mishap happened on Wednesday when the boat , which was bound for Dugga, reportedly hit a tree stump and went under.
Emergency Services said that while many persons had been rescued, several others remained missing, feared dead by drowning.
They feared that the death toll could rise as the boat reportedly had more than 100 persons aboard at the time it crashed.
Niger State had recently also experienced intense flooding that killed more than 200 persons.
Portugal
Portugal Mourns After Fatal Funicular Cable Car Accident Kills 17 in Lisbon
Portugal is observing a day of national mourning following a fatal Funicular Cable Car accident that claimed at least 17 lives and wounded 21 more, five of them critically.
The accident happened at about 6 pm local time as tourists boarded to have fun.
Authorities of Lisbon have declared three days of mourning, two days more than declared by the Federal authorities, for the accident which is already under probe.
Locals say that foreign tourists were among the victims.
Emergency workers say they fear that the death toll could rise, given the severity of the injury to some of the victims who are now hospitalized.
The Funicular Cable yin Lisbon, a 19 t century facility, is quite popular with local and foreign tourists.
France
France Hosts Session of Coalition of The Willing
France is today hosting a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris, its capital.
The meeting is to enable the coalition firm up its preparations for the architecture of a security guarantee for Ukraine which is reportedly on the back foot in its war with Russia.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, is hosting the meeting of the coalition which he co- chairs with Sir Keir Starmer, as part of efforts to reassure Ukraine of a potent security architecture after its ongoing war with Russia.
Both Macron and Starmer want Ukraine not to give up its territory , about 20 per cent of which is now in Russian hands, in exchange for peace with its bigger , more powerful neighbour.
On its part, Russia has said that any talks of security guarantees for Ukraine without its critical input and without due deference to its own security interests, was a non- starter.
For today’ s meeting, leaders of sign up states on the coalition are expected to hold a video dialogue .
By the same token, they are expected to have a phone call with the American President, Donald Trump , who is considered critical in any such talks because of his country’ s huge military power and influence.
America is a major funder of European Security.
Trump had given Russian President, Vladimir Viktor Putin, a deadline, which has now run full cycle, to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face stiff sanctions.
Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago and although its dream of easy military victory has proven to be a mirage mainly due to heavy Western military and financial support for Ukraine, it has gained either full or partial control of four regions in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, is already in France for the meeting.
Israel
Again, Israel Rejects New Peace Proposal
Israel has rejected a new proposal for a peace deal between it and the Palestinian group, Hamas.
The proposal had indicated that Hamas would release all of the living hostages in its custody in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli.
There are around 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisoners, many without charges pressed Against them.
Part of the now rejected proposal was also for an end to the war .
It is believed that America put forward the proposal which Hamas had accepted.
However, Israel rejected it on the ground that it failed to meet its conditions for ending the war.
Rather, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has insisted that the war could only end if Hamas surrenders, exits governance in Gaza and completely disarms.
Hamas had rejected earlier calls to disarm in the face of the refusal of Israel to withdraw its troops from the enclave as demanded by it (Hamas)
.
Israel is pressing its controversial war to capture and take over the city of Gaza., despite mounting international and domestic pressure to end the war.
India
Fear of Food Insecurity Mounts as Rains, Slides Pound Punjab
Fear of insecurity is creeping into the national consciousness in India as massive loss of agricultural produce mounts.
The losses have arisen from unusually heavy rains and the associated slides and floods in the food basket region of Punjab.
The rains, a remarkable feature of the annual monsoon season, have triggered slides and floods that have submerged active agricultural holdings.
Thousands of hectares of farms of rice, wheat cotton and other crops have been submerged by the floods which took the farmers unaware as unusually heavy rains fell too early too fast.
In some parts of the region, meteorologists say that a month”s total volume of rain fell in just a few hours , thus making the already saturated soil incapable of absorbing much of the storm water.
India, and its neighbour, Pakistan, have been contending with unusually heavy flooding this monsoon season due to unusually heavy rains and unpredictable weather patterns that experts partially blame on Climate Change.
Indonesia
Anti- Govt Protests Persist
A wave of anti- government protests is subsisting in Indonesia, the single largest Muslim country in the world.
The protests began more than a week ago over what the demonstrators called political corruption, typified by the now rested move by the House of Rriresebtatives to exponentially raise the housing allowance of members to 10 times the country’s current national minimum wage.
On the heels of the onset of the protests, the President of Indonesia, Subianto, and the leadership of the House of Rriresebtatives, formally offered public apologies and vowed the reversal of the policies that demonstrators had said drew their ire.
However, there appears to be no let up in the protests, especially in the capital, Jakarta, and Jaxa , a main agricultural region where local demonstrators ,last week , torched public buildings, after a security van, reportedly inadvertently, ran over a delivery cyclist,killing him instantly.
Students and informal labour groups itching for enhanced rights and pay , have now joined the protests.
