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Tom Bowker's personal channel. Find me on Twitter @TomBowk, and on Mastodon at https://mastodon.cloud/@TomBowk
🗳 The Constitutional Council has given victory to opposition party Renamo in four towns and cities in the local elections held last month, overturning the victory given to ruling party Frelimo in those places. Its ruling follows widespread reports and evidence of fraud and wrongdoing, in favour of Frelimo, in the counting of votes.
In its announcement of the final results of the local elections, the council, which is the court with the ultimate authority to rule on election disputes, today said that Renamo won in Chiure, Quelimane, Alto Molócue and Vilanculos.
However, the council upheld the victory of Frelimo in the capital city Maputo and in Matola, Mozambique's largest city, although parallel vote counts indicated that Renamo got more votes in both cities. It also upheld Frelimo's victory in the city of Nampula. Frelimo was declared the winner in all other municipalities, giving it victory in 56 out of 65 municipalities contested.
Elections will be repeated in Marromeu and partially in Gurué, Nacala-Porto and Milange.
Council president Lúcia da Luz Ribeiro admitted that there had been illegalities in the election, but said that they did not substantially influence the overall results. Some of the opposition's complaints were rejected because they were illegitimate and out of time, and others constituted electoral offences, which are dealt with by the prosecutor's office, and not electoral irregularities.
Nice to see my homeland is popular in my current home town.
Since returning to Europe, post-Brexit, I've struggled with conceptualising how significant or important or 'big' the UK is. My first, Brexit-hating idea was that we Brits had had a massively inflated idea of our importance, that we were basically the same as the Netherlands, just on an island, and having once been more successful empire-builders.
I'm coming to understand that the UK is actually a big centre of gravity, in or out of the EU; it's a massive shame that we left, and we are hugely diminished, but still a major power, at least culturally.
This sold out show doesn't prove anything of course. Just made me start thinking about this again.
BBC News - Wagner boss Prigozhin killed in plane crash in Russia
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66599733
Slovakia joins Poland and Hungary in halting Ukraine grain imports
EU and Kyiv condemn unilateral bans that aim to protect local farmers amid glut and price crash
Now that's philanthropy! https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-oct-27-me-donor27-story.html
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Experimenting with live broadcast from this open mic event at The Hague Central Library
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https://open.substack.com/pub/derailleur/p/kids-these-days?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android
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All Protocol Observed.
Welcome to Issue 111 of The Continent.
In our first edition of 2023, we’ve got a brilliant essay from author Howard French on the Barbados sugar plantation that became a template for slavery on an industrial scale – and how this laid the foundations for the British Empire. As Barbados seeks reparations from Western countries, there are plenty of lessons for African countries who were similarly devastated by slavery.
Also: The big stories we’re watching this year; why African passports are the worst; and the masterful mosaics that have transformed inner-city Johannesburg.
As always, we ask that you only share this publication with those who appreciate quality African journalism. Missed a few issues? Download them here.
Until Saturday
The team at The Continent
🎉 Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the FT’s Person of the Year as he has come to embody the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people in their fight against Russian aggression. ‘I am more responsible than I am brave… and I hate to let people down,’ Ukraine’s president told the FT. Free to read. https://on.ft.com/3iESCMD
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G7 countries and Australia to cap price of seaborne Russian oil
Critics including Ukraine say cap of $60 per barrel is below market value and will not hurt Russia’s war coffers
Witnesses recount detentions, torture, disappearances in occupied Kherson
KHERSON, Ukraine — Few people paid attention to the drab concrete building, tucked away on a quiet residential street, that had long housed unruly youths behind a high wall and a spool of barbed wire. But after Russian soldiers swept into Kherson in early March, the anonymous building quickly became infamous.
Black sedans with tinted windows and missing license plates arrived at all hours, disgorging Ukrainian detainees with bags over their heads. Screams began to escape the three-story structure, piercing the once-calm neighborhood, residents said.
Sometimes, the gates would open, and a detainee would be dumped on the street, physically and mentally broken. Other captives were sent to a larger prison, or never seen again. “If there is a hell on Earth, it was here,” said Serhiy, 48, who lives across the street and whom The Washington Post is only identifying by first name to protect him from retribution.
Read the full story here.
You've just got to love the glib headline here eh?
Thanks for the advice, WB!
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/10/04/to-avert-a-lost-decade-africa-must-urgently-achieve-stability-increase-growth-and-create-jobs
Impactful and moving picture on the top of this NYT obit of Prigozhin.
/channel/nytimes/2677
Here are some of the stories we're covering from around the world:
Americans Tried to Save Elephants in Zambia. Were They the Good Guys?
A visit to a remote conservation park reveals the long-term impact on villagers of a crusade by the novelist Delia Owens and her husband to protect animals from poachers.
Eton College Wrestles With Change in a More Modern Britain
The youngest headmaster in the history of the English boarding school that has educated the British elite for centuries tries to navigate a tightrope between tradition and evolution.
Israeli Court Acquits Police Officer Who Killed Autistic Palestinian Man
An Israeli court on Thursday acquitted a police officer charged with manslaughter in the killing of an unarmed Palestinian man with autism in Jerusalem, a case that drew Palestinian outrage and focused attention on the treatment of Palestinians by Israeli police.
@nytimes
A British Reporter Had a Big #MeToo Scoop. Her Editor Killed It.
➖ @nytimes_world ➖
Exclusive: Russians boasted that just 1% of fake social profiles are caught, leak shows
The Russian government has become far more successful at manipulating social media and search engine rankings than previously known, boosting lies about Ukraine’s military and the side effects of vaccines with hundreds of thousands of fake online accounts, according to documents recently leaked on the chat app Discord.
The Russian operators of those accounts boast that they are detected by social networks only about 1 percent of the time, one document says.
That claim, described here for the first time, drew alarm from former government officials and experts inside and outside social media companies contacted for this article.
Read the full story here.
You might think that talking on the phone while cycling carrying a huge sack of something, is irresponsible. I say it's evidence of successful transport infrastructure in #Quelimane
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AllexandreMZ (Twitter)
“Aí está! #Azagaia tornou-se se no grande herói das novas gerações de moçambicanos. Qualquer retaliação governamental contra este professor é travar o vento com as mãos, é reproduzir novos azagaias, dando razão ao jovem combatente, precocemente levado pela morte” @MarceloMosse https://t.co/oBmQfNW84Y
Azagaia é capaz de tudo, menos de morrer…
Circula, desde ontem, mais uma mentira da verdade: dizem que o Azagaia morreu. E desde quando a morte é capaz de se aproximar a um Azagaia e dizer: “eu sou a morte, venho buscar-te para irmos ao céu”. Claro que Azagaia, se a morte tivesse essa coragem, perguntava logo com o microfone manejado: “e o povo já está no poder?”. E a morte, envergonhada, diria: “está certo, volto para fazer a minha parte quando o povo estiver no poder”.
Azagaia é capaz de tudo, menos de morrer. Se fosse capaz de morrer, teria morrido milhares de vezes quando assistiu ao seu povo sendo distribuído biberões de gás lacrimogéneo nas ruas e pequenos brinquedos de cápsulas de balas. Teria morrido de desgosto quando o povo, sentado à mesa chupando a sujidade das unhas, soube que tinha três refeições pela televisão.
Azagaia não morreu quando o custo de vida subiu, não morreu quando os senhores deputados aprovaram regalias de pobreza ao povo, não morreu quando os políticos apontaram-no o paiol inteiro de Malhazine e não morreu ontem, porque ele é capaz de tudo menos de morrer.
Azagaia é a vala que drena as nossas dores que o município não consegue construir, é o imposto da cidadania que o Estado não nos consegue dar, é o camião que colecta o lixo das nossas ilusões e esperanças enquanto o Estado cobra-nos a taxa de lixo. Azagaia é o buraco da estrada da nossa democracia que nem com o alcatrão de voto conseguimos tapar.
Não nos venham aqui com mais mentiras da verdade; Azagaia está vivo, Azagaia está na ponta da capulana da mamana que é enxotada como um cão pela polícia municipal, está no preço do chapa que amantiza às escondidas com o preço das portagens, Azagaia está nas notas do estudante sem padrinhos faz a universidade para ter um diploma e enfeitar a parede cheia de fissuras do quarto.
Claro que amanhã, veremos o Azagaia nas ruas farejando com o seu microfone o cheiro dos corruptos e levantando o punho fechado, porque um homem de punho levantado não cabe em nenhum caixão e é capaz de tudo, menos de morrer.
Sérgio Raimundo - Militar
We cycling fans are lucky Kate Wagner has decided to write about our sport. Excellent piece on today's race.
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Wagner Group Chief Accuses Russian Military Command of Treason
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group accused the country’s defense minister and its highest-ranking general of treason on Tuesday, intensifying the most high-profile dispute in the Russian forces since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Read more
@nytimes
Germany announces it will supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine
Olaf Scholz confirms decision after weeks of pressure, with Berlin providing 14 tanks from military stocks
‘Wiped out’: War in Ukraine has decimated a once feared Russian brigade
HELSINKI — Nuclear-armed submarines slip in and out of the frigid waters along the coast of Russia’s Kola Peninsula at the northern edge of Europe. Missiles capable of destroying cities are stored by the dozens in bunkers burrowed into the inland hills.
Since the Cold War, this Arctic arsenal has been protected by a combat unit considered one of Russia’s most formidable — the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade — until it sent its best fighters and weapons to Ukraine this year and was effectively destroyed.
The 200th was among the first units to plunge into Ukraine on Feb. 24, as part of a fearsome assault on the city of Kharkiv. By May, the unit was staggering back across the Russian border desperate to regroup, according to internal brigade documents reviewed by The Post and to previously undisclosed details provided by Ukrainian and Western military and intelligence officials.
Read the full story here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/opinion/twitter-yoel-roth-elon-musk.html
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Erdoğan confident Russia-Ukraine grain deal will continue
Turkish president raises hopes over pact to allow exports via Black Sea, bringing relief to world’s poorest countries