#AngolaElections2022 gunshots fired and protesters angry on Luanda streets following claims of “fraudulent” presidential elections

 MPLA won the August 24 general elections with 51.7 percent of the votes - UNITA with 44.5 and 90 elected deputies

The National Electoral Commission (CNE) released the "definitive" provisional electoral results of the August 24 general elections announcing a victory by an absolute majority for the MPLA, which reaches 51.7 percent and elects 124 deputies. UNITA is second with 44.5 percent and 90 elected deputies.

CASA-CE, until now the 3rd largest parliamentary group in the National Assembly, does not elect any deputies.

Eyewitness

Luanda protest against MPLA

Scene 1

Scene 2

The minutes in Lisbon were not published

MPLA delegates fled with the minutes of the general scrutiny of votes in Portugal.

Angolan voters were beaten by the Portuguese police.

Victims demand democracy in Angola.

Scene 3

#AngolaElections2022 conflict sparks on Luanda streets with protests about “controversial” election results and the “early” announcement of a win for MPLA

Mass Manifestation

Citizens singing that the MPLA has fallen.

UNITA parallel map

UNITA challenges the national electoral commission to present true data based on the summary minutes

UNITA presented, this Thursday, 25th, its version of the results of its parallel counts of the summary minutes, made at its scrutiny centre, which gives greater advantage to its 'party' in relation to the MPLA in the provinces of Luanda, Cabinda and Zaire.

Police show revolt against the MPLA

80.000 Policemen put on the streets by Angolan Government during Election Day

MPLA voters celebrating

Source: https://angola-online.net/amp/news/12205

Boris Johnson makes surprise visit to Ukraine

 The outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made a surprise visit to Ukrainian capital Kyiv to mark the country’s independence day.

Mr Johnson was making his third visit to Ukraine since Russia invaded six months ago.

During the trip he vowed that Ukraine “can and will win this war” against a “barbaric and illegal invader”.

The prime minister also announced a further £54m military support package for Ukraine.

This includes 2,000 drones and loitering munitions which Downing Street said would help Ukraine “to better track and target invading Russian forces”.

It is likely to be Mr Johnson’s final visit to the country as UK prime minister, as he is due to leave office on 6 September.

Mr Johnson said the UK military aid would “give the brave and resilient Ukrainian Armed Forces another boost in capability, allowing them to continue to push back Russian forces and fight for their freedom”.

Speaking in Kyiv, he warned that British households would “have to endure the cost-of-living crisis” in order to counter Russia’s “inevitable manipulation of energy prices”.

“While people are paying energy bills, people in Ukraine are paying with blood.”

On the visit he was presented with the Order of Liberty – Ukraine’s highest award that can be given to foreign nationals.

And, appearing with Mr Johnson in Ukraine’s capital, Mr Zelensky unveiled a plaque for the UK prime minister on the “alley of bravery” outside the Ukrainian parliament.

In a Facebook post, Mr Zelensky said he was “glad to welcome” Mr Johnson who he described as “a great friend of Ukraine”.

He thanked the UK prime minister for “the uncompromising support of our country from the first days of full-scale Russian aggression, for the steadfast defence of Ukraine’s interests in the international arena!

“Our country is lucky to have such a friend!”

There are three main things Boris Johnson wants his legacy to be – getting Brexit done, the Covid vaccine roll out, and the UK’s support for Ukraine.

I once asked a close ally of his whether they thought, when he resigned, he’d stir up trouble on the backbenches for the next prime minister.

They argued he only would if he felt his successor “went soft” on the UK’s response to the Ukraine war.

Boris Johnson also said in a BBC Radio 4 interview that the only thing that would make him consider resigning would be if were asked to give up support for Ukraine.

Clearly, that turned out not to be the case.

It’s unlikely anyone would have pushed him to give up his support – given it was one of the few things to actually unite the Conservative Party towards the end of his tenure.

Both candidates to be the next PM have pledged to continue the UK’s aid, but Boris Johnson did have a close relationship with President Zelensky that may be harder to emulate.

When the Ukraine war was in its early weeks, and there were scenes of terror on our screens every evening, those who witnessed calls between them remarked on the fact they were still exchanging jokes and references to Shakespeare plays they enjoyed.

Other world leaders have also paid tribute to Ukraine as the country marks 31 years since it gained independence from Russia.

US President Joe Biden said Ukrainians have “inspired the world with their extraordinary courage and dedication to freedom”.

Mr Biden also confirmed $3bn (£2.5bn) of fresh US military support for Ukraine – the biggest American package yet – which will help Ukraine to acquire weaponry and equipment.

Mr Zelensky said he was grateful to the US for their “unwavering support”.

The Ukrainian president has vowed to “liberate” all of his country’s territories occupied by Russia without “any concession or compromise”.

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Student loan forgiveness: Biden cancels $10,000 in student debt for millions

 US President Joe Biden will cancel up to $10,000 (£8,474) in federal student loans for millions of Americans who earn less than $125,000 each year.

Mr Biden will also forgive $20,000 of debt for students on Pell Grants, which applies to those in greatest financial need.

The president will provide the details of his plan at 14:15 EST (18:15 GMT).

An estimated 43 million Americans owe a combined total of $1.6tn in federal student debt.

Nearly one-fifth owe less than $10,000.

“My administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023,” Mr Biden said on Twitter.

The temporary student loan pause, first put in place in March 2020, will also be extended a final time until 31 December of this year.

The announcement follows more than a year of intense internal White House debate and mounting pressure from progressive Democrats. Top Democrats Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are among those who had pushed Mr Biden to use his executive power to wipe out borrower debts.

Wednesday’s plan falls short of the $50,000 per borrower plan that Mr Schumer and Ms Warren had asked for.

A one-time cancellation of $10,000 for each borrower earning a maximum of $125,000 will cost the federal government around$300bn, according to an estimate from the Penn Wharton budget model at the University of Pennsylvania.

Republicans and some moderate Democrats have said debt cancellation will add to inflation by giving Americans more money to spend. And others say that blanket debt forgiveness is unfair to those who have already paid off students loans.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, quickly criticised the plan on Twitter: “Who will have to pay for Biden’s debt transfer scam? Hard-working Americans who already paid off their debts or never took on student loan debt in the first place,” he wrote.

Some Democratic lawmakers have pushed back, saying that cancelling student loans helps address economic racial disparities.

Black students are more likely to borrow federal student loans and at higher amounts than other Americans. Four years after earning bachelor’s degrees, black borrowers owe nearly $25,000 more than their white peers on average, according to a Brookings Institution study.

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Eurotunnel Le Shuttle: Passengers stuck for hours inside Channel Tunnel

 Dozens of people were left stranded for hours inside the Channel Tunnel after a train from Calais to Folkestone appeared to have broken down.

Footage emerged showing Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passengers being evacuated through an emergency service tunnel after having to abandon their vehicles.

They were eventually transferred to a replacement train and taken to the Folkestone terminal in Kent.

A Eurotunnel spokesman said services were now back to normal.

Le Shuttle said Tuesday night’s incident began when the train’s alarms went off and this needed to be investigated.

A spokesman said such incidents were unusual but not exceptional – far more common on trains carrying lorries than those with private cars.

“The Shuttle was brought to a controlled stop and inspected. As a precautionary measure, for their safety and comfort, we transferred the passengers on-board to another shuttle, via the service tunnel [which is there for exactly that purpose],” the spokesman said.

“We brought them to the passenger terminal building, where food and drinks were available.”

He added the original train was then “slowly brought out” of the tunnel and the passengers had their vehicles returned to them in Folkestone.

Sarah Fellows, 37, from Birmingham, told the PA news agency she found the service tunnel “terrifying”.

She added: “It was like a disaster movie. You were just walking into the abyss not knowing what was happening. We all had to stay under the sea in this big queue.

“There was a woman crying in the tunnel, another woman having a panic attack who was travelling alone.”

One passenger said “several people were freaking out about being down in the service tunnel”

Another passenger, who did not want to be named, said: “Several people were freaking out about being down in the service tunnel, it’s a bit of a weird place… We were stuck down there for at least five hours.”

Mike Harrison, from Cranbrook in Kent, told BBC News it took about six hours to travel from Calais to Folkestone.

He said staff spent over an hour trying to find the fault on the train after it had broken down initially before they got it moving again only for it to “conk out” after five minutes.

Passengers had to walk 10 to 15 minutes to another train, he said.

“Things were getting a bit fractious, a bit stressed. A few people were having minor panic attacks,” he said.

But the freight train used to take passengers to the terminal was also hit by problems with Mr Harrison saying it did not have enough traction.

“By the third time we were all just thinking ‘what is going on’,” he said.

Rachel Thynne told BBC Radio Kent it was “getting hotter and hotter” while staff tried to identify the problem.

All those on board the train were transferred “in line with safety procedures and as a comfort measure”, Le Shuttle said.

A passenger contacted the BBC before 17:45 BST saying they were on the train which had stopped.

They complained of poor communication and said the public address system did not work properly.

One evacuated passenger shared a photo from inside the train they were transferred to

Four additional trains were laid on overnight from Calais to Folkestone to deal with the backlog from the incident.

The service transports passengers and their vehicles between Folkestone and Calais.

At 23.5 miles (37.9km), it has the longest underwater section of any tunnel in the world.

Le Shuttle said all passengers would be contacted individually to arrange compensation.

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South Africans in nationwide strike in protest against cost of living

 People across South Africa are taking part in a nationwide strike in protest against the rising cost of living.

Singing songs from the country’s liberation struggle, thousands marched towards the president’s office, demanding reductions in prices.

Inflation has hit nearly 8% – the highest in 13 years – and around a third of South Africans are unemployed.

This is the most unequal country in the world, according to the World Bank, and many are finding things tough.

Thousands of protesters have been marching, chanting and holding signs echoing familiar complaints from workers around the world: “Say no to high inflation” and “Stop the steep increase in the price of petrol”.

The country’s two largest union groupings, who called the strike, urged the government to intervene to cap fuel prices, reduce interest rates and introduce a universal basic income of roughly $90 (£75) a month.

Around 5,000 people took part in the rally in Pretoria.

“Don’t moan; Mobilise or starve,” was the message to those wondering whether to take part in the strike on a poster from the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu).

Its head Zwinzilima Vavi questioned how President Cyril Ramaphosa could give himself and ministers a 3% pay rise but refuse their demands.

At the front of the march in Pretoria, one woman who didn’t give her name told the BBC why she was on strike: “We’re tired. The cost of living is too high now – we can’t afford anything any more. It’s school fees , it’s transport, it’s rent, it’s everything.”

“We can’t any more and we’ve been without a [pay] increase for four years now, and things are getting hectic now. The government must intervene and do something now,” she added.

The nationwide strike comes as South Africa grapples with the economic impact of global events such Covid and the war in Ukraine.

Under the gaze of Pretoria’s Union buildings – the office of President Ramaphosa – I spoke to a group of women who said the cost of living crisis had driven them to desperate measures to try and make ends meet.

“Sometimes I don’t have money so I have to go and take a loan – from the loan sharks. We don’t manage. That’s why we’re here today – because we’re struggling,” one said.

Another said she spent almost half of her monthly income of $210 on transport. “And food is expensive right now. We can’t buy full groceries- it’s basics only.”

Another woman said: “At the end of the month we’re left with nothing.”

While organisers of Wednesday’s action say they aim to bring the country to an economic halt, they have also acknowledged that numbers on the streets may not match similar shutdowns in previous years.

The government says a “no-work, no-pay” principle will apply – and essential workers cannot take part.

The one voice who’s not been heard from is President Ramaphosa. I ask the group of women at the Union buildings what they would say to him. Their message is simple: “Please help us president, we are struggling. Please.”

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