Da’Vine Joy Randolph burst into tears on Sunday as Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o praised her Oscar-winning turn in The Holdovers.
“Da’Vine, my friend, your performance is tribute to those who have helped others heal in spite of their own pain,” Nyong’o said at the Academy Awards in Hollywood.
“It’s also a tribute to your grandmother, whose glasses you wear in the film. What an honour to see the world through her eyes and yours.”
A relative newcomer and fan favourite, Da’Vine Joy Randolph was named Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars – adding to her clutch of awards this season including a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice award. BBC
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday participated in the African Union (AU) Commission strategic reflection meeting in Addis Ababa, to strengthen implementation of Cessation of Hostilities pact (COHA).
The AU High-Level Panel for the Ethiopian Peace Process also focused on mobilizing support for crucial aspects of the process, such as humanitarian assistance, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), and the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the region.
The strategic reflection meeting on COHA implementation brought together representatives from the Government of Ethiopia, the TPLF, members of the AU High-Level Panel on Ethiopia, as well as partners including IGAD, UN, EU, AfDB, US, and the AU Commission. Capital News
At least nine of the over 200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist organization in Nigeria's volatile northeast region have been freed, officials said on Monday.
The nine people, all women, and girls, were seen at the Ngala IDP camp in northeast Borno, near the border with Cameroon, where they were abducted on Feb. 29, Barkindo Saidu, head of the state Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), said.
"The emergency management agency staff at the IDP camp reported that nine people have returned. They are seen at the IDP camp," Saidu told Anadolu on Monday.
Over 200 women, girls, and boys, who had left their IDPs camp in search of firewood in Ngala, northeast Borno, were kidnapped by militants of Boko Haram, a terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria that is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali.
In recent years, kidnapping and banditry have increased significantly in the western African country. Approximately 430 people, mostly women and schoolchildren, have been kidnapped in the country's northern region in the last two weeks.
Abubakar Boyi Sifawa, a senior researcher on behavioral patterns and security at the Shehu Shagari University of Education in northwest Sokoto State, blamed the country's escalation of kidnapping and banditry on economic hardship, poverty, and a lack of coordination among security agencies.
"According to my findings, unfortunately, many young people are now joining kidnapping gangs and informants due to economic hardship. They are desperate for survival due to poverty, and they resort to violent groups after collecting ransoms," he told Anadolu. By Timothy Olanrewaju, Anadolu Agency
Travellers at a terminal within the Heathrow Airport in London Copied to clipboard
Kenyan care workers are likely to face separation from their families as the United Kingdom (UK) announced that it had banned the migration of care workers’ dependants to the country effective, Monday, March 11.
The UK government announced the policy decision has been informed by its plan to reduce the number of migrants to the country, which the Home Office stated care workers' dependants account a huge percentage of.
In a statement, the UK Home Office stated that this would be part of the biggest-ever cut in migration.
“From today, care workers entering the UK on Health and Care Worker visas can no longer bring dependants," the UK government explained.
JONATHAN BRADY
Further, the Office clarified that in the year ended September 2023, care worker dependants accounted for 120,000 migrations.
James Cleverly, the UK's Home Secretary explained that this migration cut would also include raising the minimum income requirement for families to be granted visas in the UK.
Additionally, the Secretary also noted that in the series of migration cuts they had banned most overseas students from bringing their families to the UK.
“We are delivering on our plan for the biggest-ever cut in migration. Overseas care workers brought an estimated 120,000 dependants to the UK in the year ending Sep 23. Today we've put a stop to this, stated James Cleverly”
The ban was authorised by the UK parliament on February 19, 2024 after being announced in December 2023.
Data shared by Skills for Care, a workforce development and planning body for adult social care in England, showed that there were 1.64 million adult social care jobs(filled posts) in England in 2022/23, across 18,000 organisations.
However, despite the increase in the number of filled posts by March 2023, it was still estimated to be 45,000 below its pre-pandemic peak in 2020/21.
On Sunday the mayor of Jericho revealed a new sign for Aaron Bushnell St in front of a small gathering of people. Bushnell, a serving member of the US Air Force, set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington last month in protest against American support for its ally Israel in the Gaza conflict, saying he could “no longer be complicit in genocide”.
Bushnell “sacrificed everything” for the Palestinians, said Jericho mayor Abdul Karim Sidr.
“We didn’t know him, and he didn’t know us. There were no social, economic or political ties between us. What we share is a love for freedom and a desire to stand against these attacks [on Gaza],” he said.
Amani Rayan, a Jericho city council member, was quoted as saying by the Guardian: “He [Bushnell] sacrificed the most precious thing, whatever your beliefs. This man gave all his privileges for the children of Gaza.
“[Bushnell] wanted to light a strong spark, to reignite our cause,” he added.
Twenty-five-year-old Bushnell of Whitman, Massachusetts, filmed his protest last month and live-streamed it onto the social media platform Twitch. Although Secret Service officials stationed outside the embassy successfully extinguished the fire that engulfed Bushnell, he suffered life-threatening injuries and later died at a local hospital.
He repeatedly shouted “Free Palestine!” as he burned.
The US has provided a range of military and financial support to Israel, its closest ally in the Middle East, since it began a ground offensive into Gaza City in October last year. The assault was triggered by the 7 October attack by Hamas on southern Israel that saw some 1,200 Israelis killed and hundreds of hostages captured, after which Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy the militant group.
Local health officials says more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the four-and-a-half months since Israel’s ground offensive began, with much of the Gaza Strip razed to the ground and hundreds of thousands of people pushed to the brink of starvation. The US has become increasingly critical of its ally as the conflict has dragged on and said it hoped for a new ceasefire by Ramadan, which began on Sunday night with no end to hostilities in sight.
Al Jazeera reported that on Monday Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza continued, resulting in the death of at least 10 in Gaza City and another three casualties in southern Rafah.
During an interview on MSNBC that was aired on Sunday, US president Joe Biden gave his strongest criticism yet of Mr Netanyahu, saying his indifference to “innocent lives” was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel”. He said that a ground invasion of Rafah would cross a red line, yet also stated he would “never leave Israel” behind.
Mr Biden warned Mr Netanyahu “cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after [Hamas]”. By Maroosha Muzaffar, The Independent
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